Tale of a Biron [Worm CYOA]

[Daimah]

Prologue​

Armsmaster's footsteps echoed trough the deserted corridor of the Protectorate's HQ. While it wasn't unusual for the leader of the ENE branch to be at the base this late, or early as it was about half an hour until sunrise, normally he'd be in his workshop tinkering not striding towards the landing pads where the flying vehicles of the base were. Then again with both the Brockton Bay Protectorate and Wards on alert because of the disappearance of a close family member of one of them this was an unusual situation itself. As per protocol the rest of the family were in protective custody of the PRT and the hero in question confined to their base and incomunicated to prevent any attempt of blackmail from the perpetrator and always escorted by another member of the Protectorate.

"Open secure communication channel. Call Miss Militia."

"Armsmaster. Please, tell me you have good news." Came the voice of his second in command over the communication system integrated in his helmet.

"Yes and no. We found him. Well, Dragon did. But the situation is complicated. I am on my way to the PRT building to brief Piggot, ETA Five to ten minutes, I will explain the details then. Triumph is on his way to take over your watch."

"I'll go wake Vista up, I finally convinced her to go to sleep half an hour ago."

"You know the protocol, she can't be involved in this in any way."

"I know, it's just..." Hannah sighted "She has been driving herself crazy coming up with worse and worse scenarios. At least let me assure her that it wasn't the nine... because it wasn't them, right?"

"We still don't know who took him but it is highly unlikely that the Slaughterhouse Nine were involved." Armsmaster paused having reached the door leading outside. "Fine, you can tell her that. But nothing more. I'm about to get to the helicopter, I will see you in the briefing. Armsmaster out."

He stepped out and went directly to the helicopter that was still warming up its motor. He gave a nod to the pilot as he got into the vehicle. 'It will be closer to ten minutes' he thought scowling at the delay and began to mentally prepare the presentation of the information they had so far on the case of the disappearance of Robert Oscar Biron.

--------------------------------------o---------------------------------------​

Emily Piggot, director of the Brockton Bay branch of the Parahuman Response Team was walking briskly, or as briskly as he body allowed her. It was times like this, when the responsibilities of her rank took a toll on her body, when she almost considered letting one of the parahuman healers work on her, almost. She arrived at the door to her office to find both Armsmaster and Miss Militia there. Barely acknowledging the heroes the director strolled into the office and with a huff she let herself drop into her chair.

"I guess this is about the Biron incident." she said cutting straight to the chase as both capes entered the office after her.

"Yes, director." Answered Armsmaster going to the wall mounted screen opposite to the directors desk "As you know, sometime between midnight and one o'clock tonight Robert Oscar Biron, younger brother of Missy Biron A.K.A Vista, went missing from his own bedroom." The Tinker then plugged a device to the screen and it came to life showing several images, one of them the photo of a young boy about ten years old. "According to protocol we took Mr. and Mrs. Biron to a PRT safe house and Miss Militia took Vista back to the Wards base and stayed with her." with a gesture the image changed to several pictures of the Biron home "The preliminary investigation did not show any evidence of forced entry or signs of struggle, most probable suspects would be either a Master, Stranger or teleporting Mover."

"Armsmaster, I know you well enough to know that you didn't wake me up at this ungodly hour to tell me something that could have waited until office hours. So get to it." Interrupted Piggot.

"Of course, Director. I requested Dragon's assistance as an associate and honorary member of the Protectorate" Said Armsmaster turning to face the screen. "Dragon." The image on the screen divided itself showing on the right side the image of the world's premier Tinker.

"Good morning, Director Piggot, Miss Militia." Piggot gave the Canadian Tinker an acknowledging nod while Hannah returned the greetings. "As Armsmaster was saying, after he told me about the case I added all the info we have on young Mr. Biron to a monitoring program that runs on all systems that I either created or upgraded for various first response services and law enforcement organizations. About half an hour ago there was a coincidence at the PRT base at Lorraine, upstate New York."

"That's..." Interjected Miss Militia.

"Yes, the base tasked with monitoring Ellisburg's perimeter." The director almost growled. "What else do we know?"

"As you know the Protectorate has a database with the DNA profile of all of its members in case of having to identify any badly damaged remains and as a Ward Vistas profile is also included." Answered Armsmaster "We incorporated that data in the search parameters. The alert came from the results of a DNA test, It was a partial match and as the only close relative that is unaccounted for the logical conclusion is that it is Robert Biron's DNA."

"We weren't able to access the attached report or anything else related to the tests due to clearance issues." Continued Dragon "There was a incident at the east side of the Ellisburg wall at half past two approximately that we can assume that might be related, but it was also classified. Until someone in the PRTs chain of command gives authorization to access both files I can't do anything more."

"Level of clearance required?" Asked Piggot.

"Seven, ma'am"

"As the Director of the East North East branch of the Parahuman Response Team I give the affiliate hero Dragon and Protectorate member Armsmaster access to to both files, I'm sure both of you have your methods to get the files, consider them condoned. Now, we better clean this mess as soon as possible" She added looking at Miss Militia and Armsmaster "because from where I'm standing it seems like somehow a minor, one that has ties with this organization, ended in the middle of one of the most dangerous places in this country. I want to know how, I want to know why, yesterday. You two go to the Lorraine base, Dragon keep working on those files, I'll try to do some digging on my end. Dissmissed."

"Yes, Ma'am"/"Yes, Director"

After both heroes exited the room Emily got up from her chair and went to the window. Lost for a moment in her memories of nightmarish creatures cutting down trained men and women, good soldiers. Her scars twinged and once again, for a moment, she almost considered letting one of the parahumans heal her. Parahumans like those cowards that let so many of her comrades die. That moment passed and she went back to her desk. If she was going to have a shitty day she wouldn't be the only one. Time to make some calls and get to the bottom of this.

--------------------------------------o---------------------------------------​

After leaving the directors office Armsmaster informed Hannah that Dragon was sending one of her transports to take them to the Lorraine PRT base. They were left waiting at the pad on the roof of the PRT building. Armsmaster was still, but Hannah had no doubt that he was working on something with the systems integrated on his helmet. For her part she couldn't help coming with worse and worse scenarios. Given that all they knew was that a barely ten years old child ended up either near or in a place that no adult with or without powers would go willingly her worries felt justified. At best the incident at the wall was that somehow Robert or Bobby as Missy kept calling him, arrived on the outside of Ellisburg and was picked up by one of the patrols, at worst Bobby somehow found himself inside the perimeter of Ellisburg and if that was the case... she'd rather not think about it.

"Colin," Said Hannah after a few minutes breaking the silence "I'd like to be the one that breaks the news to Missy."

"We still don't know what happened." Answered Armsmaster without looking at her "I just received the files from Dragon. I will go over them during the flight. But if worse comes to worst then yes, it is better that you handle it. I haven't had the time to implement the tact upgrade to my social program."

Hannah tried to stifle a laugh and failed resulting in an unladylike snort dispelling her somber mood. "Did you just make a joke? Maybe we still can make a comedian out of you." She could almost swear that his lips upturned just a bit. "Thanks, Colin." He just nodded and got back to whatever was keeping him occupied in the display of his helmet.

They did not had to wait much longer for the transport to arrive. It seemed that Dragon had one in Boston running some deliveries of tinkertech to the local Protectorate.

They were about halfway to Lorraine when Armsmaster spoke up again "He is alive, and seems to have triggered. According to the report of the patrol that found him he exhibited a low Brute rating, a Mover rating and some kind of Trump and Mover power. Apparently he came over the wall from inside Ellisburg, the patrol reacted with lethal force as per standard procedure. He then demonstrated his various powers knocking out most of the patrol and several of the reinforcements. They finally caught him with one of the experimental containment foam grenades. He then was taken to the base where they finally corroborated that he was not one of Nilbog's creations. The DNA analysis was part of that."

"So he is alive and uninjured." Said Hannah with a relived sigh.

"Mostly uninjured," Corrected Armsmaster "but there is a couple of worrying details. It might be because of the shock of finding himself transported to a place like Ellisburg or whatever made him trigger but according to the report he didn't know his own name or where he was from. He also presented a strange markings on the back of his left hand."

"You mean?"

"No, they look nothing like the marks on the subjects of the case 53s. But I have to admit that there are too many similarities to be a coincidence. In theory, if someone was trying to create parahumans artificially but the process had the side effects we have seen in the case 53s this could be their next step to perfect the process by eliminating the mutating factor."

"That sounds almost like something from the PHO forums."

"It is only theory." Said Armsmaster shrugging. "Anyway, we are almost there. They are waiting for us, the director came through on her end."

---------------------------------------o-----------------------------------------​

When the transport arrived at the base both heroes were met with a rather tense scene. A PRT helicopter was already in the landing area and it looked like a squad of PRT troops. On the other side near the door to the inside of the base was Robert Biron with a pair of guards. His small frame lost in the PRT standard jacket that someone must have lent him. It covered him down to the knees, below it they could see the pajama pants that he was wearing when he disappeared stained with mud and what could only be splotches of dry blood. Also confronting the leader of the squad was a PRT captain. Armsmaster identified him as the captain assigned to the base with a quick scan facial scan and a query to the PRT personnel database.

"Dr. Knudson was very clear he wants the new subject at his facilities as soon as possible." The leader of the outsider squad was saying as both heroes were getting out of the ship.

"I don't care what Dr. Knudson wants, lieutenant. I've got my orders." Replied the base captain getting in his face "And they come from inside the chain of command, not from some glorified egghead so either show me some valid orders countermanding what I've got or get out of my base. NOW!"

Hannah and Colin looked at each other. "All yours." Whispered Miss Militia gesturing to the quarreling officers.

"Is there a problem, gentlemen?" Interrupted Armsmaster.

"No, sir." the lieutenant grudgingly admitted. "Ok team, let's move out." Said to his squad and headed back to the helicopter.

"Armsmaster I suppose." Said the captain. Colin simply nodded. "Well then, all yours." He said signaling to the guards to bring the child forward.

Hannah noticed that Bobby was a bit too calm given the circumstances. When he and his escorts reached the other trio he turned to one of the guards and with a smile he presented his arms showing that he had a pair of tinkertech made handcuffs. The guard took them off.

"Was that really necessary?" Asked Hannah eyeing the restraints.

"Standard procedure when dealing with a Brute Ma'am." Answered the captain. "Also, he knocked out several of my men."

"Said I was sorry" Robert replied with a wry smile and a shrug.

"Anyway, he's no longer my problem." Added the captain retreating to the building with both guards leaving both heroes and the child alone next to the landing area.

"So... you wouldn't happen to have a spare pair of shoes, would you?" Bobby said whith a sunny smile gesturing at his bare feet.

 

[Daimah]

Omake

Being Taylor doesn't have to be suffering part 1​

September 2009, Arcadia high school.

I waved at dad as he drove off, finally letting drop the strong facade I had been putting on all morning. We have been distant since mum died. He was really depressed and I took refuge in my best friend, well ex-best friend now. Maybe he noticed my gloomy mood these last weeks and took the time to see me off the first day of high school to try and cheer me up or he was getting better himself.

I sigh as I turned to the entrance of the main building and started walking clutching my notebooks to my chest, not because I don't have space in my bag but to keep my hands from fidgeting. I've never been a social person, it was Emma who was the social butterfly, at most I had acquaintances with Emma as the notable exception.

It wasn't supposed to be like this, Emma was supposed to be here at my side. We worked really hard last term raising her grades so she could be accepted at Arcadia with me. Yet for some reason when I came back from camp last month she had changed her mind and insisted on going to Winslow high. Not only that, she made clear in no uncertain terms that she didn't want to be my friend anymore. The only different thing was that new girl, Sophia or something, that she started hanging out with.

Not even her mother or sister knew why she changed her mind and when asked her father only said that we should give her space. Zoe and Ann, Emma's mother and sister respectively, were really worried and tried to make her see reason, that Arcadia was a prestigious school and Winslow was little more than a recruiting ground for the gangs but Emma didn't budge. Finally a week ago they convinced me to try to make her change her mind again. The aftermath of that conversation resulted in me running out in tears because Emma used everything she knew about me to push my buttons and hurt me. That was the last time I talked to her.

Just remembering that conversation made my vision get blurry with tears. I was taking my glasses off to rub my eyes when I suddenly collided with someone dropping both my notebooks and my glasses.

"Hey, watch ..." I must have looked like a mess because she went immediately from annoyed to concerned "Are you okay?"

"Ye ... yes" I stuttered bending down to get my things "I'm really sorry about that."

"It's ok, don't worry about it. Here." She said handing me my glasses. I finally got a good look at the girl as we were picking up my notebooks. She had mousy brown hair and a face that for some reason seemed almost familiar. "New here?" She asked arching an eyebrow. That's when I noticed that I had been staring at her. Great, first day here and I was already building my reputation as the weird girl that goes around bumping into people and staring at them.

"Yes, it's my first day." I answered averting my eyes.

"Need help getting around, directions or anything?" She asked "I'm Amy, by the way."

"Oh, er ... Taylor." was my eloquent response as I offered her my hand. At first she seemed surprised at the gesture and for a second I wondered if I had made some kind of faux pas but then Amy just shrugged and took it. "They mailed me a map with my schedule and the number of my locker so I'm all set but thank you." I said giving her the best smile I could muster.

"Ok, then I guess I'll see you around." Amy gave me the last of my notebooks with a smile and walked off towards the entrance of the building.

"Uh, o ... ok." I said a bit too late for Amy to hear me. I sighed again and got the map and schedule out of my bag. "Now let's see where is my locker ..."

--------------o--------------​

In the end it turned out to be a rather uneventful first morning. Most classes were the same, what we could expect to cover this term in that particular subject, with the only exception being homeroom were they explained a couple of special rules exclusive to Arcadia that were there to prevent outing the attending Wards.

When lunchtime rolled around I discovered that the cafeteria was big enough to accommodate two grades at the same time wich was good because it seemed like us freshmen shared the lunchtime with the sophomores.

As I had brought a home made lunch I skipped the line for the self service counter and went straight to search for a spot at one of the less populated tables. As I was wandering around I noticed that one of the tables was especially crowded. As I was trying to discern what was so special about that table one person caught my attention and apparently I caught hers too. Amy got up, took her still half full tray, said something to someone at the table and came directly at me.

"Hey, Taylor. Are you sitting with someone?" Asked Amy. I just shook my head still too surprised to give her a more elaborate answer. "Then do you mind if we eat our lunch outside?" She said pointing at the benches outside the cafeteria. "I was getting a bit claustrophobic with so many people around." She added as we headed to the exit.

"What was that about anyway?" I asked looking at the table she left a moment ago.

"Just my sister being the center of attention as usual. I swear I love her to death but sometimes she is exasperating. Plus she was getting all lovey dovey with her boyfriend and it was ruining my appetite."

"Oh, okay." I said letting the matter drop as we got to the benches outside.

"So, home made lunch?" Amy asked changing the subject "Good call, sometimes even I don't know what it is in the mystery meat they serve and that's saying something." She said with a smile and I got the feeling that I was missing some kind of joke.

After that we kept the conversation on light subjects like what I thought of my first classes here or what I could expect from each teacher. Finally when we both finished our food Amy got a resigned look on her face and said. "I'm sorry Taylor, I didn't introduce myself properly before. My name is Amy Dallon, pleased to meet you." She said offering her hand.

Wait, Amy Dallon "as in..." I said out loud without noticing.

"Yes, Panacea." Now I understood those resigned looks I was getting. Most likely every time she tried to reach out to someone they only saw the miracle healer not the person behind it. And to my shame if I had known who she was from the beginning I'd have been as blinded as everyone else.

Instead I saw a girl that probably felt as alone as I was feeling this morning. So instead of gaping or gushing over her celebrity status I just shook her hand and said "Taylor Hebert, pleasure is mine. So, you were saying about miss Hendricks math class?"

The smile she gave me was totally worth it. Maybe things will be all right after all.

 

[Daimah]

Omake


Being Taylor doesn't have to be suffering part 2​

June 2010 Captain Hills mall


I let out a huff as I let myself drop on the cheap plastic chair of the food court. If someone told me last year that I'd be out shopping with two superheroes I'd have asked them what kind of drug they were on. But here I am.

Even after all these months I can't believe how well Amy and I clicked with each other. It wasn't an instant thing of course. At first we just shared lunch and talked about whatever cached our fancy, books, music, movies, etc. Anything but cape stuff. I've never been a social person and neither is Amy so it was quite a surprise when I noticed that we had gone from acquaintances to being friends.

And of course as Amy and Vicky are what you could say a package deal I had to become acquaintanced with the other Dallon sister. Don't get me wrong, Vicky is a very nice girl... in small dosis.

For an introvert like me she can be very tiring. And as close as they are I'm sure it is the same for Amy. Especially when she gets into one of what we, that's Amy and I, call 'hurricane Vicky' moods where she drags you around whether you want or not. Case in point this whole shopping trip.

Lately Vicky has been in a matchmaking spree organizing double dates for Amy to go on accompanying her and her boyfriend. So far Amy has managed to avoid most of them and the couple she couldn't avoid were unmitigated disasters. Unfortunately for me it seems like Amy used me as an excuse one time too many so Vicky took upon herself to organize not a double but a triple date. She with her on and off boyfriend and her sister and I with two of her boyfriend's friends.

When I raised the issue of not having any clothes worthy of being worn on a date, after all I've always given priority to comfort over fashion, and that I don't have the budget to get something in such short notice, she countered with the fact that my birthday is coming soon so my new outfit would be her early birthday gift to me.

And that is how I found myself here in the mall on a Saturday morning with a couple of bags filled with my new clothes. At least I convinced Vicky of not getting anything too revealing for me unlike what she choose for Amy. After all this time you'd think Amy would be more used to reign her sister in but given the resigned look on her face it might be that she knows that trying to resist 'hurricane Vicky' is an exercise in futility.

It was when she tried to drag us into a lingerie shop when I made my getaway with the excuse of saving us a table at the food court. I don't need lingerie, it's not like I'm going to let anyone see me in my underwear anytime soon. I didn't see the expression on Amy's face but I can imagine her betrayed look. Sorry Amy you might be my best friend, but in this situation it is every woman for herself.

I rested my head in my hands and entertained myself watching the comings and goings of the shoppers that were crowding the various fast food joints during the lunch rush. I might not have the best view of the food court but when eating in public with two celebrities it is better to do so in the most secluded table you can find.

After a couple of minutes a glimpse of red on the edge of my vision drew my attention. I narrowed my eyes when I saw who it was. Just my luck, of all the people I could've come across it had to be my former friend who for some reason still had something against me.

Really, I don't know what is wrong with Emma. After we parted ways last year I expected not to hear from her again. But for some reason she kept sending me emails and posting messages in my Facespace account that were anything but friendly. I had to block her but she kept creating more expendable accounts to keep harassing me. I don't know if I'm more flattered or disturbed for the effort she keeps taking on me... who am I kidding? I'm definitely disturbed. At least she has kept it on the internet only and hasn't gone full creepy stalker on me in real life.

Emma was here with that girl from last summer Sheila or Sophia or something like that, I know it began with an 's'. She had also another two girls with her and all four of them were surrounding another girl. From what little I could make of her from here she was rather short and brunette.

I don't know if Emma sensed me watching her or if it was a coincidence but she turned in my direction and spotted me. When she drew the attention of the other girls to me the brunette took the opportunity to bolt.

Emma didn't seem to mind as she made her way directly to me with a smirk on her face. For a second I considered just getting up and walking away but I wasn't going to let her run me out of anywhere even if it was just a table at a mall. So instead I straightened up in my chair and crossed my arms.

"Taylor, I'm hurt. You don't answer to the messages of an old friend." She said with a false sincerity as she took the seat in front of me. Both hanger-ons stopped behind and to either side of her while Emma's friend came to my side of the table and stood over me cutting my easiest way out in a clear attempt of intimidation. "Maybe you should get a cell phone to be more accessible. After all it should be all right for another year at least. Right Taylor?"

"What do you want Emma?" I asked gritting my teeth at the obvious reference to my mother's accident.

"But Taylor, I only wanted to reconnect with my friend." Answered Emma with an exaggerated gesture of being wounded.

"You made perfectly clear that you didn't want me as a friend last time we saw each other."

"Ok, you got me." She said rolling her eyes "I'm not that good at acting to fake caring for someone as pathetic as you."

"Great, then leave." I said giving her a glare.

"Oh, but I'm curious you see. First Clements now you. Is there some kind of sale for losers going on today or what?" She said eyeing my bags.

Before I could react the thug at my side nudged the bags towards Emma with her foot.

"Thanks Sophia." Said Emma taking my bags.

"Give that back." I said as I tried to get up only to be shoved roughly back into my seat by Sophia.

"Give that back." Parroted Sophia mockingly. "See Emma, I told you that the best thing you could do was to lose this dead weight." Sophia added squeezing my shoulder with enough force to bruise. I grimaced but other than that I didn't give her the satisfaction of seeing me react.

"Hmm, let's see." Said Emma taking some of my new clothes out of the bags "Not bad, not bad. But totally wasted on something like you Taylor. I'm sure I can find some better use for them even if they won't fit me. Unlike you I've got curves after all."

"Get your hands off me." I said trying to get up again and getting the same results as before.

"Trying to make a scene Taylor? Trying call the security guards attention? I wouldn't do that if I were you. You wouldn't want to get arrested do you?"

"What?" I asked totally confused by the turn in the conversation.

"Oh, I know you Taylor. I know you don't have a credit card. Your loser of a father can't afford it so you must have paid these in cash somehow." Emma said still rummaging through my bags. "And I know you always leave the receipts in the bags. So they must be in here somewhere. So if security comes who do you think they'll believe? The daughter of the respectable lawyer and her three witnesses who have the receipts or the unstable loner girl daughter of a dock worker who assaulted us and tried to steal the clothes I just bought?"

I glared at her with everything I had "you'd think that wouldn't you?" I said and got ready to scream and make the worst scene I could. Hopefully it would attract enough attention for Amy and Vicky to notice.

"What the hell is going on here? What are you doing to her?" Interrupted Amy's voice before I could begin. I turned to see my friend stomping towards us.

"None of your business, get lost." Said Sophia leaving my side and getting in her face.

"Like hell it is not. That's my friend there." Answered Amy scowling at Sophia. "You okay Taylor?"

At least one of the hanger - ons recognized her because she paled and took a step back before tugging on the other's sleeve and mouthing 'let's get out of here'.

"Yes, Amy."

"W... whatever, one or two losers. It changes nothing." Interjected Emma still not getting who she was talking to. The other two girls were already walking as fast as they could away from us.

"And what do you think you are going to do about it?" Said Sophia pushing Amy back.

"Get my friend's things back and making sure you won't be able to put a foot in this mall ever again."

Emma frowned after hearing Amy's confident tone. Not so sure anymore she looked at me.

"Oh, Emma let me introduce you to my friend Amy Dallon." I said and took my chance to get my things back as Emma was taken aback by my revelation.

"S... Sophia maybe..."

"Shut up Emma, she is just a healer I can take her." Sophia interrupted advancing on Amy.

"Yes, I'm sure you can. But..." Amy said totally unfazed and pointed to a security camera covering the area "how long do you think it will take for an underpaid employee to sell the recording to the highest bidding news channel or even better, put it on internet? I bet that before tonight you'd be famous as the girl who assaulted Panacea." This seemed to give Sophia a pause "And as much as I hate the nazis I bet that they'd put a pretty big bounty on your head just because of the color of your skin. Are you willing to put your family in danger to 'take me'?" Did I mention that when pissed off Amy can be pretty ruthless?

"They wouldn't. The rules." This in turn made Amy pause and arch an eyebrow in surprise.

"Rules that applies to capes. But I don't see any cape other than me here. Just my friend and a couple of idiots that doesn't know when to back off. " This time it was Amy who got in the face of Sophia and whispered to her barely loud enough for me to hear. "So go ahead give me your best shot."

"But you are a hero" said Emma bewildered. "You can't threaten her like that."

"I didn't hear any threat." I Interjected.

"When did I threatened her? " Added Amy "I'm just a healer after all."

"Ok maybe I can't touch you, bitch" said Sophia regaining her brabado. "But you can't stop me from working her over." She said turning to me while cracking her knuckles.

"No, but I can" came Vicky's voice from above us. There she was, throwing a murderous look at Sophia. I had been under her aura before, everyone who spent any amount of time with her had, but never unrestrained like this. Emma fainted but Sophia just staggered and scowled at her.

This was finally enough to attract the attention of the mall security and as Amy and Vicky as parahumans were involved it snowballed until the PRT intervened. We lost the rest of the day being interviewed by agents and repeating the same story again and again. Our parents were called. And at one point things got tense when Mr Barnes threatened with suing us unless we retracted our statements until Mrs Dallon intervened and pointed out that the evidence showed that our version of the events was more accurate than whatever story Emma tried to sell them.

"I'm sorry I involved you guys in this" I said to both Dallon sisters when they finally let us go. We were in the parking waiting for our respective parents to end with the paperwork.

"Hey, don't worry." Said Vicky from my left putting an arm over my shoulders "it was fun seeing my sister here cutting loose like that with that idiot."

"You are my friend, Taylor" said Amy bumping her shoulder with mine on my right "like I'm going to let some bitch harass you and do nothing. "

"Thanks." I said with a smile.

"And we were done with the shopping anyways." Added Vicky. "I can't wait for the date next weekend. You two are going to knock the guys out."

Both Amy and I groaned in unison.
​

 

[Daimah]

Tale of a Biron


1.1
​

I kept smiling as both heroes recovered from my unexpected remark. I guess I'm not what they expected. Well, to be honest I have no idea what they were expecting other than a kid but given where I am and my luck so far I wouldn't be surprised if they thought I was some kind of villain. I know that here in earth bet there are some precedents of child villains like Grey Boy for example.

"I'm sorry, I am afraid we don't." Finally answered Miss Militia kneeling down to my level after Armsmaster gave her a look that probably meant 'all yours'. "I am Miss Militia and this is Armsmaster. We are heroes from Brockton Bay. We are here to take you back to your family."

' Oh great ' I thought sarcastically. At first I thought that whoever or whatever put me in here just modified my original body, but now it seems like they stuffed me into the body of a kid that already existed here. I know it's not my fault, I never asked to be put in this situation, but I still feel like I just killed an innocent child.

My expression must have changed to reflect my thoughts because I was taken out of my introspection when Miss Militia put a hand on my shoulder as a comforting gesture.

"You know who I am then?" I asked trying to get more information about my actual situation and not to think about the consequences of supplanting an already existing person.

"Robert Oscar Biron, born in January the eleventh two thousand and one to ..." Armsmaster trailed off as Miss Militia looked at him with an arched eyebrow "Ahem, right. We better get going. We will answer any question you have to the best of our ability on the way back to Brockton Bay."

"Ready to go?" She asked me gesturing to the dragon ship.

I just shrugged in response and walked towards the vehicle.

On the way back to Brockton Bay I managed to get some background on who I was supposed to be. Robert or Bobby as apparently he was called by his family and friends was an ordinary ten years old boy. Son of a divorced couple who lived with his mother and sister and visited his father every two weeks. It was when they mentioned the sister when the name finally clicked. Biron as in Missy Biron also known as Vista, member of the Brockton Bay Wards. That explained the swift response from the Protectorate in finding me.

I tried to remember what little I knew about her. The only thing that came to my mind was that she was the youngest of the BB Wards and that she had a crush on her teammate Gallant. I never read the original Worm so my knowledge of the plot and characters was spotty at best.

Also I instinctively knew that there were some differences between the story I had some knowledge of and here. Like that for some reason Taylor never triggered so Skitter will never make an appearance in the cape scene with all the consequences that implies for future events. On the other hand Scion also seems to have vanished for good which means that he won't try to end the world in the next two years. Not that it means much when there still are Endbringers, Echidna and all the other class S threats around.

Armsmaster also questioned me about what I remembered of my supposed abduction under the watchful gaze of Miss Militia. I was able to answer truthfully that I didn't remember anything about it or anything before awakening in Ellisburg. To be honest I really didn't, not of Bobby's life not from mine either. It was like when you wake up after a dream and the details fade after some time. I had all my general knowledge and skills but the details about my personal life faded into nothing. Hell, I couldn't remember my real name!

When he asked me about how I escaped Ellisburg I decided to go for a half truth. I just said that I run as fast as I could and dodged with my power. Which was what I did but only after I summoned the old Greek legendary figure Heracles as servant berserker, of course Nilbog's creations weren't really a problem for him. But their numbers made difficult for him to protect me and fight at the same time so I decided to run as Heracles made short work of the monsters. That's when I encountered the wall and the PRT patrol behind it. And it was lucky that berserker wasn't with me at the time because then we'd have a bunch of dead PRT soldiers and a whole lot of problems for me. As it was I was barely able to calm him trough our link and convince him to follow us in his astral form.

Either I was a really good liar or the half truth didn't trip his lie detector. I knew that everything that I said was going to end in a report on the PRT database and probably in the hands of Coil. And as I wasn't going to stand idly as he kidnapped Dinah Alcott I decided that it was better if I had some hidden aces.

We were almost at our destination and given that we were stopping in the middle of the city I guessed it was the PRT building instead of the Protectorate HQ.

"There is something you must know before we get off." Said Miss Militia as Armsmaster informed of our arrival via his comms system. "We'll put you in contact with your family but there are some protocols we must follow ..."

"Master Stranger quarantine?" I interrupted her apology.

"Yes, how did you know?"

"I heard some of the guards talk about it at the other base." I lied taking advantage of the fact that Armsmaster was focused on the comms. "It's ok, I understand." I reassured her. It also would give me time to put my thoughts in order and try the more subtle aspects of my powers. Like inspecting the vast wealth of knowledge about the energy known as chakra and its uses that I had crammed in my head. "I can't miss something I can't remember anyway." I added, but once again it seemed the wrong thing to say given her expression. Hell, I suck at this 'trying to pass for a ten year old kid' thing.

When we finally landed and after a brief discussion with Armsmaster, Miss Militia convinced the leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate to dismiss the couple of guards that were going to take me to my new accommodations and let her escort me.

Halfway there we heard someone yell my new name before I found myself engulfed in a bear hug.

"Bobby, are you okay? Are you hurt?" From her young voice and the blonde hair that obscured my vision I guessed that this had to be Vista or Missy as she was in civilian clothes. I admit that I froze, even if I can't remember my life before ending here I'm pretty sure that I've never been good with physical affection.

"Hello ... er, sis?" I finally said patting her back awkwardly. "Don't worry, I'm fine, really."

She released me keeping me at arm's length while watching me with wide eyes. She turned her gaze to Miss Militia and I don't know what she saw there, but when she turned back to me she was teary eyed.

"I ... I'm glad you are okay." Missy stammered. "I should go back. I'll see you later." She added turning back to the hallway where she came from.

Dammit, as if I wasn't feeling guilty enough I go and make a little girl cry and I don't even know why.

"Was it something I said?" I asked Miss Militia totally confused.

 

[Daimah]

Tale of a Biron


1.2
​

If it wasn't for the high security door and the lack of windows I'd say that the room Miss Militia took me to wouldn't be out of place in a hotel. Sure, it would be one of the cheap rooms but still more welcoming than the padded cell I was expecting. It had a simple bed, a desk with a chair and even an armchair. There was also another door that I guessed that it lead to the bathroom. And of course there were also a couple of cameras on the ceiling covering all the room.

She explained that it was standard procedure to quarantine anyone exposed to a unknown power in case they were under a Master's influence and that I'd be monitored all the time for the next twenty four hours. If by then I didn't show signs of being Mastered I'd be released into Bobby's, well I suppose my, parents custody.

She was really apologetic about all this but I assured her that it was okay by me. What I didn't tell her was why I was okay with it. This twenty four hours were just what I needed to begin planning and taking stock of the resources I had to work with.

But of course before I could plan anything I needed where I am in the timeline. Armsmaster had both arms so it must be before Leviathan. A quick question to Miss Militia before she left gave me the answer. April the eighth two thousand eleven, right at the beginning of canon.

Once she was gone I dropped myself on the bed and began to plan.

The first thing I had to consider was the differences this world has in comparison with, let's call it Bet prime.

To begin with, I somehow know that Taylor hasn't triggered. Wich leaves us with no Skitter. No Skitter means that in three days there'll be no one to stop Lung from turning the Undersiders to charcoal and while it's true that they are villains they are not that bad. Also, without them I don't know if Coil will use other distraction to grab Dinah or even change the time of the attempt altogether.

So, to save Dinah I have to take on Lung ... easier said than done.

Then there is the fact that Zion is gone. I don't know how, I don't know why and I don't know when. But I am certain that the second entity is gone for good. What does this mean on the long run? Other than the obvious that Jack Slash won't make him rampage through the multiverse trying to cause the end of the world. Cauldron either has disbanded or has found a new goal. But, were they gone before the Travellers could create Echidna with their vials? I have no idea, I can only wait and see.

These two things are enough to cause enough butterflies down the timeline that it would make it impossible for me to make a detailed plan for the future even if I remembered all the details from canon Worm. Wich I don't anyway. So I'm flying almost as blind as everyone else. At least I know that some of the major events will happen regardless of the changes.

So for now I'll plan on short term and we'll see how it goes from there.

First, save the Undersiders from Lung. As I said easier said than done. I could always sic Berserker on him but: A, either he will kill Lung before the dragon man has ramped up enough to put up a fight wich is bad because we're going to need him when Leviathan comes calling next month. Or B, they go both all out and level half the city. And anyway I'd rather keep him secret just in case. So Berserker would be my last resort. Anyway, I think I'm looking at this the wrong way. I don't need to beat Lung, just keep him distracted long enough for the Undersiders to deal with Oni Lee and/or until Armsmaster arrives with his tinker made sedatives.

But first I need to know what powers or techniques I can count on.

I didn't get up, I have no idea how long it will take me to revise all the information about chakra and its uses that I have in my head but it would be less suspicious if it seems like I have fallen asleep than explaining why I seemed to fall into a trance while I was sitting on the bed.

It was hours later that I finished and got back to reality. Someone had left a tray with food in front of the door while I was out of it. I was reminded loudly by my stomach that I don't know how much time has been since the last time I had eaten. But certainly in the other base were more interested in poking and prodding me than in keeping me fed. So I took the tray to the desk and dug in while I thought of what I just discovered of my abilities.

The good news was that when they said that I'd know everything about chakra they meant it. It didn't matter if it was Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Genjutsu or any other discipline from Naruto's world. If it existed there I knew about it.

The bad news was that even if I knew intellectually how to use it it didn't mean that I had the fine control needed for some of them. As I was now the most probable outcome of me trying to use some of the more advanced combat techniques would be for it to backfire and either kill or cripple me. It should be alright to use techniques up to C rank though.

Of course there were exceptions like the shadow clone technique and some other techniques while not fit for direct combat were still very useful.

Some other jutsus were out of my reach because of the genetic requirements like the Akimichi or the Kaguya clans techniques or thing that required a specific doujutsu. So unless I asked Bonesaw for a favor, yeah fat chance, I can't count on using them.

It's not like I don't have enough useful things at my disposal. Among them there was Fuinjutsu or sealing techniques, if they could be used to trap a tailed beast for some time maybe I could use them on the Endbringers to at least give humanity a break while I think on how to deal with Eidolon.

Other branch that caught my attention was the medical techniques. Sadly it was the field that required to have perfect control of the chakra. But having the regenerative capacity shown by Kabuto would be extremely useful. And something I'd need if I want to try to replicate Tsunade's super strength, that or convincing Panacea to help me train. No, the last thing Amy needs is to watch how a ten year old boy pulverizes his own hands again and again.


So, until I gain enough control I'll be limited to low ranked techniques and the shadow clones. Also if I don't want to get Coil's attention too soon I'll have to keep even that under wraps. So that means keeping most of what I can do hidden from the PRT at least until I can get Coil out of the way.

I finished my meal and returned the tray to where I found it. Now that I know what I can do it's time to prepare myself if I'm going to face Lung in three days. But with the PRT watching I won't be able to train any new technique. That leaves either physical training and some taijutsu katas or chakra control. Now that I think about it they already know that I went over the wall in Ellisburg so they know I have some kind of mover ability. And this is supposed to be a good exercise to improve your control.

Grinning I just went to one of the walls and put my foot on it... only to be thrown against the opposite wall. Damn, too much chakra. This is gonna take some time.

I kept training only stopping to eat and sleep. So when Miss Militia finally came back to get me out I was in the middle of doing a series of squats while standing upside down on the ceiling. She must have been informed by the guards of what I had been up to because the only sign of surprise she showed was the arching of an eyebrow. I just let myself drop and turned in the air to fall on my feet.

"Sorry" I said giving her a grin. "I was trying out my new powers and getting some exercise at the same time."

"It's ok." She replied and even if I couldn't see her lower face I got the feeling that she was returning my grin. "Your parents are here and they brought you some clothes." She said giving me a bag with said clothes. "And there is even a pair of shoes." Yes, she is smiling. "You can change in the bathroom and I'll take you right to them. Your sister is there too." She said as I entered the bathroom.

The clothes were my size... barely, either Bobby had a growth spurt lately or my arrival changed this body more than I thought. It didn't matter right now. I changed as fast as I could and walked out of the bathroom.

"I'm ready, let's go." Time to face the music.
​

 

[Daimah]

Tale of a Biron


1.3
With a Coil interrupt ​

Miss Militia took me to what I guess was a medium sized conference room where the Birons were waiting along with a man in a suit. To be honest I was a bit anxious because I didn't know what to expect from the Biron family.

Mrs. Biron, I don't think anyone told me her first name, was walking back and forth along one side of the table while Mr. Biron was seated at one end opposite to the man in the suit. Missy, again in civilian clothes, was occupying the chair on her father's left. I could see the resemblance between Missy and Mrs. Biron in the shape of their nose and mouth, the color of her hair on the other hand obviously came from Mr. Biron. Yet Missy looked worse for wear with bags under her eyes and a bit stressed.

Mrs. Biron turned towards us as we entered and before I knew it I was engulfed in a hug. She was saying something but be honest I have no idea what that was because at the moment I was too busy feeling awkward. I gave a helpless look first to Miss Militia then to Mr. Biron and Missy but all I got from them was a bunch of smiles, traitors. Well, now that I think about it it must have been at least a bit funny. And making Missy smile made me feel somewhat better after what happened the last time I saw her.

"I'm okay." I tried patting her shoulder in what I hoped was a soothing manner. I guess I have to work on it still took a few minutes for her to calm down enough to let me go of me... well, mostly, because she still had a vice grip on my arm and it didn't look like she was going to release me anytime soon. She dragged me to the end of the table where the rest of the Biron family was seated. She took the chair in front of Missy and put me on her lap.

By that point I was getting tired of being denied my personal space and the only reason I didn't just get up and sit in another chair was because I understood that this was Mrs. Biron's way of coping with all that happened until now. But it didn't mean that I wasn't going to try to get free in a more gentle way. I looked at Missy and mouthed 'help'.

"Sorry to interrupt." Said the man in the suit. "But the sooner we deal with this the sooner you can go back to your lives."

"I already told you Mr. Renick. No, my son will not be joining your Wards." Said Mrs. Biron in a clipped tone.

"Mrs. Biron, we have already gone over this. We at the PRT have experience dealing with cases similar to what happened to your son." Said Renick trying to sound conciliatory. "We'll offer our help regardless, but it would be much easier for everyone involved if he was part of the organization. Not to mention the fact that he has shown parahuman abilities."

"No. First, he is still too young."

"Mom, I was his age when ..." Interrupted Missy only to fall silent when her mother turned to her. I couldn't see Mrs. Biron's face expression from where I was but from how Missy reacted as if she had been slapped I guess it wasn't pretty.

"As I was saying he is too young to be in the Wards. Hell, my daughter is too young too, lately I almost never see her anymore. If she isn't on patrol she is on monitor duty and if not she must stay at the base on stand by." With each word Missy was looking more and more guilty and miserable. "And she wouldn't be here if it wasn't for someone ..." She said giving her ex husband a venomous look "who went around me and my wishes just to spite me."

"Now, listen here Margaret. You are not the center of the universe. I didn't do it because of that and you know it. Missy wanted to join, maybe if you tried to listen when other people talk..."

"She was too young to know what she wanted, she IS too young to know what she wants and you know it George. She is only thirteen." Given the resigned look on Missy's face this must not have been the first time she used this argument. It also was clear that she wanted to say something in her own defense but was holding back because we had an audience. "And you are one to talk about not listening to others ..."

"Okay, enough!" I interrupted getting off her lap and turning to face them both at the same time. "Mother, father, maybe this discussion should wait until you have a bit of privacy, don't you think?" I added giving both of them a hard look. From their baffled expressions it was obvious that this wasn't something that the old Bobby would have done. Heck, I really do suck at this 'being a ten years old kid' thing. I took the opportunity to take control of the conversation and turned to Renick.

"I'm sorry, deputy director, was it?" For some reason Miss Militia narrowed her eyes but at Renick's nod I continued. "Would you mind giving my family a couple of days to talk it out?" Maybe this was the opportunity to handle a couple of problems without having the PRT looking over my shoulder. "Or maybe a week?" Today is the ninth so tomorrow night is when Lung is coming after the Undersiders. Then the fourteenth is the bank job and the kidnapping of Dinah. Yes, a week should give me enough time without alienating the PRT. I want to have my options open whether I end up joining them or not. "Of course I'll still come to therapy and for power testing regardless of what we decide in the end."

"Seems reasonable, young man." Said Renick sounding a bit condescending. Well, of course, from his point of view he was humoring a ten year old boy. After all it wasn't like the kid was acting more mature than his parents that were airing their dirty laundry in front of the second in command of the city's PRT branch and one of the Protectorate heroes, not to mention their own son and daughter. No, they didn't make a good first impression with me.

"Would you agree to your son's idea?" Asked the deputy director. Both adult Birons noded still eyeing me with surprise. "Well, that's that then. I'll see you, next Friday?" Another nod. "Miss Militia will escort you to the garage where your security detail is waiting to take you back to the safe house. Have a nice day." Said Renick before getting up and walking out of the room.

"But I thought it was over already." Said Mr. Biron.

"I'm sorry sir. But we are still investigating the circumstances of Bobby's disappearance. Until we can fully determine if there was a third party involved or not we are not taking any chances." Answered Miss Militia guiding us to the elevators. "It will only be a couple more days, Armsmaster is going through all the evidence with a fine comb."

When we arrived at the garage two agents, a man and a woman in civilian clothes, were waiting for us next to an unmarked white van. Miss Militia pointed at a duffel bag that was in one of the back seats to Missy and said "Just in case." When she opened it I caught a glimpse of a green visor.

We got into the van, both agents in the front seats, me and Missy with her bag on her lap on the second row and Mr. and Mrs. Biron in the back row. Miss Militia saw us off.
"Control to all operatives, abort the mission. Repeat, abort the mission."
The safe house was on the outskirts of the city about a half an hour drive from downtown. The trip there went without incident. Well, more or less, other than a couple of cars that seemed to be competing on who could go slower blocking both lanes of the road and a eighteen wheeler that almost didn't stop on time at a red light on an intersection.

The house was a simple two story building with an attic and a gable roof. It had its own track from the main road and was surrounded by an open field. When we arrived the other two PRT agents that stayed were getting ready to have lunch. They reheated another couple of pizzas, which seemed to be the main meal around here. But I'm not going to complain because, who doesn't like pizza?

After lunch both parents retired to an office to continue the argument from before. Not that it gave them much privacy because we still could hear their raised voices. The female agent took Missy and me upstairs to the room were we'd be staying while the other agents did "agenty" things like read the newspaper or play solitaire. The room was of a decent size, it had enough space for a couple of desks, a wardrobe and a bunk bed without giving a claustrophobic feel. A couple of suitcases were resting against the bed. "I really hope that the one with the floral print is Missy's" I thought.

"I'm sorry but we are a bit short on rooms right now so you will have to share. Unless one of you doesn't mind sleeping on the lumpy couch in the living room."

"This will do, thank you." I said as Missy just shrugged. The agent nodded and just left us there.

I don't know about Missy but I was feeling a bit awkward standing there trying to ignore the raised voices of our parents.

"So, top bunk or lower bunk?" I asked trying to break the ice. To which I only got another shrug in response.

I sighed and took one of the desk chairs. I sat on it backwards letting my chin rest on the top of its backrest and tried again. "Are they always like that?" I asked gesturing to the door from were the sound of a door slamming shut marked the end of the argument.

"Only when they are together more than five minutes in the same room." She finally answered coming into the room, dropping on top of the bed and laying there with an arm over her eyes.

"Must be tough." I said and immediately grimaced. I don't need to be a genius to know that it was the wrong thing to say. Indeed she started trembling and tried but failed to repress a sob.

I got up not knowing what to do. I don't know if it was some leftover from the original Bobby or something from my previous life but I was very uncomfortable with the idea of trying to comfort, not only her but anyone, physically. Still I sat next to her on the bed and took her free hand in mine. "Missy, what's wrong?"

"I'm sorry Bobby. I am a horrible sister." I frowned but kept silent. "Mom is right, you know? I have been spending all the time I can on the Wards. All because I couldn't stand being home. Mom is still obsessed with what is dad doing thinking that everything he does is to hurt her. You ..." She sniffed "You and I never got along, more like got in each other's nerves. And we only see dad twice a month and sometimes even less when he forgets that it's our visiting weekend."

I honestly didn't know what to say to that so I just kept her hand in mine.

"So, that's why I've never been there for you." She continued. "And then this happened and I couldn't help to think what if mom was right and it was my fault somehow."

"What!?" I was outraged. One thing is coping with the situation by blaming a third party, maybe the PRT or some mysterious parahuman. But taking it out on your own daughter.

"No, it's not like that." She added quickly. "Mom never said anything out loud but..." She sighed. "Mom never approved of me getting in the Wards. She doesn't like parahumans and when I got my powers the only thing she wanted was for me to ignore them and keep living a normal life. And then you disappeared and she kept sending me those accusing looks and I kept wondering if I could have done something if I had been home..." She broke into sobs again.

"Missy." I said gently. "Sis, we still don't know what happened. You can't blame yourself for something like that. Maybe I just triggered and teleported myself." I brushed off the whole lose of memory thing.

"But that's the thing, to trigger is to have the worst day of your life. So either someone took you and I could have stopped them if I had been there or you had something horrible happen to you, horrible enough for your mind to erase it and everything about you, and you had no one to help you. Because I know mom is too wrapped in her own problems to notice." She sniffed again. "So that left me, the sister that the only thing she knows how to do is run away... worst sister ever."

"No you are not." I said squeezing her hand hard enough for her to notice but careful of not hurting her. "If you were so bad you wouldn't be here bawling your eyes out because of me. You said that we only got into each other's nerves. But you know what this tells me?" I said gesturing at the whole scene in general. "This tells me that I have a sister that no matter how much we fight she still loves me even if she can't stand me. And I'm not gonna let anyone talk shit about her, not even herself." I finished poking her in her side.

"Bobby, language!" She squirmed as I kept poking her. "Bobby, stop it."

"Not until you admit that I have the best sister ever."

"Okay, okay." She said between giggles.

"Say it."

"You have the best sister ever."

"And that's?" I asked with a smug smile on my face as I crossed my arms.

"Me, okay, that's me." She said sitting up.

"And don't you forget it. Feeling better?" Before I even finished my question she was already hugging me. What's with this family and hugging me by surprise?

"Yes little bro, much better." She said squeezing me again.

"Okay then let me go. I didn't know that I had an octopus for a sister." It was my turn to squirm.

"Why, little bro one would think you are embarrassed of your sister showing how much she loves you."

I narrowed my eyes "This is revenge for tickling you."

"Yes." She said as she finally released me before she slapped me in the shoulder. "And that's for the octopus comment." She added pouting.

"Okay then, we are even." I said getting to my feet. "I think I'm going to take a look around the house. Want to come?"

"No, I..." She tried to stifle a yawn "I think I'm going to take a nap." She said lying back again in the bed.

"Sleep well sis." I said as I got out of the room. Once I closed the door I leaned myself against it.

I don't know if it was the changes brought by me being here or if in the original Worm Missy also had it that rough. And I know it gets worse after Leviathan.

No, I'll do whatever it takes to protect her. To protect everyone. I have some ideas for slowing down or even stopping the Endbringers at least for a bit. But for that I need to train, especially if I want to save a certain group of thieves from a dragon by tomorrow night.

Now let's take a look at that attic.

 

[Daimah]

Tale of a Biron


1.C​

April ninth two thousand eleven.

Thomas Calvert sat at his desk in his house's office. Two files in front of him.

The first one was of one Dr. Philip Knudson. A veritable genius by the looks of his resume, at least for a baseline human. Several doctorates in various scientific disciplines and head of the research on the parahumans known as cases 53. Also, by the hints dropped on their conversation the previous day, member of a certain group responsible for giving powers to various individuals.

The second file was about the subject of said conversation. Robert Oscar Biron, ten years old, youngest son of George and Margaret Biron and if the rest of the file was true the first parahuman without a Corona Pollentia. Wich, according to the outside sources he consulted, should be impossible.

Knudson was very interested in studying said impossibility and was ready to compensate him if he was able to get it to him by any means necessary. Compensation that according to Knudson ranged from cleaning his debt with the organization to, once he reverse engineered the process, give the same kind of undetectable powers to some of his agents. Certainly no one ever accused Knudson of being modest.

Calvert really doubted that the good doctor had the pull to back his first claim. If this was an official 'request' by the organization they would have contacted him by other means. Probably by 'that' woman who somehow was able to bypass all his security and even counter his power. Calvert shuddered and looked over his shoulder. Still alone, good.

So Knudson was most likely acting on his own. It didn't matter, having someone on Knudson's position indebted to him was worth the risks. And Calvert or his alter ego Coil would have had gotten the kid already if it wasn't for a complication. There was a class F alert on him and his family wich meant that he was family of one of the Protectorate or Wards and was they were being targeted by someone. That certainly made things more complicated but not impossible. It just meant that he would have to be even more careful than usual.

His moles in the PRT assured him that given the evidence the most likely conclusion that the investigators would reach will be that the boys sudden disappearance on the early morning of the eight of April was due to an anomalous trigger. So his best bet would be to wait for things to calm down and try later. Of course by then he would probably be kidnapping a Ward, but as long as he did it in a way that no one could connect to either of his identities all would be all right. And the asset that he was planning on acquiring soon should make it even easier.

But of course nothing prevented him from getting more information on his new prey. The file listed his powers as low rank Brute and Mover but it was always better to verify first hand what your opponent is capable of.

Calvert turned his attention to his other timeline. One where he was at the control room of his main base from where he as Coil directed all of his men's operations. Clad in his Coil costume and with his second in command Reeves at his side. In front of them there were various screens each one with the point of view of one of the mercenary group that Reeves hired for this mission.

To be honest he was rather surprised by his second in command's efficiency in organizing a group of outside of town mercenaries in less than twenty four hours. Maybe he should give him a bonus pay or something.

Coil wasn't using his usual men and certainly wasn't outfitting the new team in anything but conventional weaponry to avoid any connection to him. Because even if this was a throwaway timeline it always paid to be paranoid just in case.

"Sir, according to the one of our men inside the PRT the target is leaving the building with an escort of only two agents."

"Good." Coil nodded. "Give green light to the team."

"Control to all operatives, the mission is go. Repeat, the mission is go. Good hunt gentlemen." Said Reeves and receiving a chorus of rogers back.

"Hound one. The target is in a white van, should be leaving the garage any moment now."

"Roger that, Control. I've got visual on the target. I'm tailing it." On one of the screens labeled 'Hound one' the wearer of the camera was obviously behind the wheel of a car. Hound one started the car and began to follow a van.

For about ten minutes Hounds one to four kept alternating who followed the van and reporting its location and the route it was following that was of course the one they were expecting it to take.

"Control, Ram here. There's been a bit of a snag. I'm one minute behind schedule."

"Copy that, Ram. Hound two, Hound four, delay the target until further notice. Hound three, keep following. Hound one, proceed to the hunting grounds be ready to take Ram's place if necessary." Coil nodded to Reeves. It wasn't ideal but it would do.

After confirming their orders two of the cars turned up ahead of the van on a one way street with two lanes and proceeded to block it by occupying one lane each and dropping the speed to about a half of what they were going before.

"They know something is up, sir. They sent a low priority alarm signal." Said Reeves after checking his phone.

"I guess we have one of ours as the operator at the PRT." Asked Coil.

"Yes, sir. It wasn't easy to arrange on such short notice."

"Okay, tell them to stall as long as possible without compromising their cover, but don't ignore the call. We arranged an expendable team for a reason."

"Understood." Said Reeves fiddling with his phone. "Hound two, Hound four, proceed to the hunting grounds. Ram, status." Both cars took the next turn freeing the road.

Meanwhile in the main timeline Calvert took out his phone and sent Reeves the code to stop the mission before going back to the other timeline.

"Minute and a half to the interception point."

"Hound one?"

"In position."

"Hound three?"

"We are a little more than a minute away from the interception point at the current speed."

"Copy, Hound three. Ram, floor it, doesn't matter if you attract attention. Just get in there in time."

"Roger."

"Eagle, will he make it?"

"Yes, Control. Looks like he will."

"Good, team Hound be on stand by to assist team Ram if necessary."

Hound three's screen showed how the van was crossing an intersection when a eighteen wheeler truck crashed into the back of the van from the side sending the smaller vehicle skidding on its side until it stopped against one of the sidewalks corners with the bottom of the van facing the inside of the road.

Before the truck fully stopped the back of the trailer opened and five men armed with assault rifles and clad in urban camo fatigues with balaclavas covering their faces got out and began approaching the crashed van.

Coil turned to another screen labeled team Ram that was divided into six images each one showing the point of view of one of the men that were now spreading to cover the vehicle. The sixth one was of the driver of the truck that now was climbing on top of the trailer to cover the team from a vantage point.

They were halfway to the crashed van when two shots rang from the van and they heard the sound of glass being broken.

"Eagle, situation?"

"Hostiles are getting out through the windshield. I've got a clear shot."

Coil shook his head.

"Not yet Eagle. Ram, provide suppressing fire."

"Roger that, Control." Answered the man on top of the trailer as he opened fire at the front of the van. At the same time one of the PRT agents leaned around the front of the van firing his sidearm.

"One down. No wait, only wounded. " Came Eagle's voice through the comms.

At the same time there was a sound of metal tearing. Two of the mercenaries separated from the group to round the vehicle from the back while the other three kept going for the front.

"Control, primary target located. Also another para, young female wearing a green visor." Informed Eagle.

Indeed, the two mercenaries that went around the back found themselves face to face with said girl. They barely had time to raise their weapons before the space that separated them elongated and twisted in impossible ways. When they opened fire all their shots went off course some even ended hitting the trailer making the man on top of it take cover.

Meanwhile behind her the main target stopped next to the PRT agents, inhaled and spew some kind of brown liquid, mud maybe? That solidified after a few seconds creating a wall from the front of the vehicle to the nearest building.

Coil frowned, that wasn't in the file. It seemed like young Robert was more versatile than expected ... well let's press him and see how much.

"Eliminate all but the main target." Coil said to his second in command "But remind them that he needs to be alive."

"Yes, sir." Answered Reeves. "All operatives, neutralize all opposition. Keep main target alive."

"Control, I've got a clean shot on the second para."

"Take it Eagle."

He shot aiming for the center mass.The girl stumbled forward then fell to her knees before finally falling face down, her blood starting to pool beneath her. The space distortion in front of her disappeared allowing the two mercenaries to draw a bead on the two agents and shot.

Coil frowned again when in the screen saw another Robert appear next to the girl and yet another between his two mercenaries. With a wordless scream of rage that last copy of the child hit one of the mercs in the chin with a rising kick whith enough force to snap his neck. A quick punch to the throat killed the second mercenary.

Suddenly all the cameras showed the same. White as if they were inside a thick fog. Still, sounds of combat and shots could be heard over the comms.

"Eagle, what's happening?"

"I don't know, Control. There's this mist that came out of nowhere. I barely can see our truck from up here. Wait, something shot up from the mist. What the hell is that? Is it going to throw th..." whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a sonic boom.

Back in his main timeline Calvert wobbled as he felt his other timeline end abruptly. What the hell happened? Was it an unrelated attack or was the Biron boy that powerful that he could destroy his base. And if it was that, how in the nine circles of hell knew where it was?

Calvert took out his phone and called his second in command. Reeves efficient as ever took the call before the second ring.

"Sir?"

"Is everything okay, Mister Reeves?"

"Yes, sir. All the mercenaries went back to the safe houses without incident and await further instructions."

"Good, keep them on call. We might have an use for them later." Said Calvert before hanging up.

Not an attack from a third party then. It certainly would be better to approach the kid with caution. And he'd really need that precog to minimize risks. But having minions with that kind of power at his beck and call would be worth the risks and waste of resources. If Knudson can deliver of course. If not, Coil was sure he'd find a way to extract the costs from the doctor anyway.
​

 

[Daimah]

Tale of a Biron

1.4​

In the end it wasn't so difficult to do all the things I needed to do to prepare for my encounter with Lung. After all you can do a lot if you can be at fifty places at the same time. Yes, one of the best and more useful uses of my power is making copies of myself.

It is true that I've got much flashier and more destructive techniques in my repertoire but this one is like the Swiss army knife equivalent of my powers. Even more when you take into account that everything that my copies experience I feel and remember just as if I lived through it too as soon as the copy is dispelled. It can be used for anything from scouting to direct combat, even if the copies are rather fragile. The only real limitation was the high energy cost, but luckily for me I seemed to have energy to spare.

So after I found the attic and was away from prying eyes I made four copies of me, one to go back down to the house and stay there in my place and the other three to stay in the attic just in case something happened. But of course they weren't going to just stand there wasting time so I made them practice basic chakra control exercises that my knowledge provided me.

Meanwhile I got out of the house from the attic's window. Crossing the grounds that surrounded the house without being seen would have been near impossible as there was nowhere to hide between the house and the treeline that marked the limits of the property. But of course there is where my powers once again came into play.

One of the non combat techniques that drew my attention was one that allowed the user to go under ground and move through it like it was liquid without leaving any tracks. I was lucky that no one was around to see my first try. I don't know how I'd have explained why I was buried up to my waist.

After I got past the trees and beyond of the line of sight of anyone inside the house I emerged from the ground. The PRT safe house was isolated from the main road and any neighbors by the fact that it was in a densely wooded area so it wasn't difficult for me to find a well secluded spot where I could leave a group of clones practicing various combat techniques.

That left me with just one last problem to take care of, but for that I needed to go back to Brockton Bay itself. I used another technique to alter my appearance to one of a boy a bit taller than me, with black hair, clad in dark blue trousers and t-shirt with a cloth mask covering the lower half of my face. No sense in leaving behind a copy to fool everyone if later I'm seen where I shouldn't be. And took off in the general direction of the city.

Thanks to the boost from my powers and the fact that once I was back in the more urban area I took to the roofs I arrived back in downtown more or less in the same time that it took to drive us to the house from the PRT building. From there I went north to the area known as the docks.

I knew that tomorrow Lung was going to be somewhere around here but I didn't have any idea of where other than in ABB territory. So, first step familiarize myself with the area. I stopped on the roof of an abandoned warehouse out of sight of anyone down in the street and made another couple of dozen clones. Half of them transformed into what looked like different homeless people, mostly because no one pays attention to the homeless, and dropped to the nearest alley to begin exploring the area from the streets. The other half all assumed the same look, the classic black ninja outfit, and took to the roofs in different directions. I myself went east towards the bay.

It was early into the night when most of my scouts started to dismiss themselves giving me all the information that they gathered.

For the most part there weren't many incidents, one of the clones disguised as a old homeless lady drifted into empire territory and some of their members took exception to that. It seems that to the group of neo nazis being poor was as bad as being part of another ethnicity or being homosexual. Of course what they didn't expect was for the little old lady to whip the floor with them and beat them senseless.

The other spot of trouble came when another of the homeless clones went a bit too close to the boardwalk. Close enough to draw the attention of the enforcers. Instead of fighting this one led them on a chase around the alleys near the boardwalk. He finally lost them by changing into a young woman when they couldn't see him.

Now I had a rough idea of the layout of the docks and even a bit of the train yard up north. Hopefully it will be enough to navigate the area even with an enraged man-dragon on my tail.

By the time that I made it back to the house the other group of clones that I left practicing in the woods dispelled themselves. They had also made good progress and now I had several attacks that I could use reliably.

When I finally dispelled the three that I left in the attic it was well past midnight.

The last copy and I switched places and clothes in the bathroom and dispelled itself. I received the memories of being fussed over by Mrs Biron and playing board games with Missy all afternoon and evening. I still thought that she cheated with her dice throws in Monopoly somehow, but I got my revenge by allying myself against her in Risk with agent Moore, the female PRT agent that escorted us from headquarters, who joined us for a game when her watch was over.

I went down to the kitchen to get something to eat because in my haste to get things done I skipped dinner. Nodded to the agent on guard duty and made myself a quick sandwich and ate it just as quickly.

When I went back to the room that I shared with Missy I found her pacing the room.

"Bobby!" As soon as she saw me at the door she made a beeline for me and took me by the shoulders. "I woke up and you weren't there. Where did you go?" She asked with a frantic expression on her face.

"I went to the bathroom and then to the kitchen because I was hungry." My answer seemed to calm her a bit.

"Okay." She said biting her lip. Then she dragged me in and marched me to the bunks. "In." She ordered pointing at the lower bed.

"W ... what?" I asked, confused. "You agreed to let me have the one on top and now you want it?"

"No, it's just that I'm not letting you out of my sight again so now we are sharing. Now get in."

"Bu ... but you are a girl ..." I stammered before she cut in.

"And also your sister so I don't care if you think girls are gross or whatever." She said flicking me in the forehead. "Now get in and scoot over."

I could see that she was getting upset again so I did as she said. The bed was rather narrow but as I was kind of average sized for a ten year old and Missy was small for her age we managed to fit in.

"I was so worried that something might have happened to you again." Missy whispered once we both were comfortably settled.

"I'm sorry sis." I said as I searched for her hand with mine. " I didn't think it would worry you so much." I added giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Next time just wake me up, okay?" She said squeezing back. "Good night, Bobby."

"Good night, sis."

By the next morning I was regretting sharing a bed with her. Because that night I discovered something about Missy Biron, she kicks in her sleep ... hard. And the only reason she didn't throw me out of the bed was because my side of it was against a wall.

 

[Daimah]

Tale of a Biron


1.5​

Okay, this is it, the moment of truth. I stood on the ledge of a building over viewing the gathering of the members of the Asian Bad Boys or Boyz or whatever. What a stupid name.

I was once again using the same look that I wore yesterday to explore the city. The dark clothes helping me to blend in the darkness. I really should start thinking on getting a costume for this kind of things because the illusion would be dispelled if I get hit with a certain amount of force. Of course tonight that doesn't matter because the only one who should have any chance to hit me like that should be Lung. And if he does hit me I'll be too busy being a bloody smear on the ground to worry about my disguise.

I had a group of clones on the nearby rooftops, also disguised as they were yesterday, that are going to take care of the unpowered gang members. Yes, I am going to attack an Asian gang with ninjas.

Finding them was easier than expected. I just had to send a bunch of clones to scout the known ABB territory. They quickly found two points where the gang was converging. One was the casino Ruby Dreams and the other was here.

There were already more than a dozen ABB grunts gathered in front of what I pegged as one of the gang's bases waiting for Lung. Or at least I hope so. Because if this was Oni Lee's group then ... Oh wait. One of the scouts that I had tracking the other group just dispelled itself showing me how the group it was tailing was trapped in a cloud of darkness. Good, that means that I'm in the right place.

Down on the street there were more gang members still arriving. I heard footsteps on the roof behind me and when I turned I found two of my clones there each with an unconscious ABB on their shoulder each.

"Yo, boss." Said the one on the left. "A pair of the guys on the lookout got an idea and got the drop on these two and took their places down there."

"Okay, just look for weapons and valuables on them and drop them on any alley at least a couple of blocks from here."

"Way ahead of you, boss." Lefty answered throwing me a couple of wallets an a pair of phones. "Our guys down there have the weapons. They are the ones with the sawed off shotgun and the katana."

"An Asian guy with a katana, how cliché is that?" The three of us said at the same time.

Okay, that was weird. "Just hurry up and go. It's about to begin." I told them as I took out the money from the wallets.

"Aye aye, boss." Answered lefty giving me a salute and turning around to go drop their burdens.

I threw the now empty wallets and the phones on the roof and went back to observing the gathered gang members. Just in time to see the gate of ABB building.

Damn, I knew that they always described Lung as a big guy but seeing him having to slightly bow his head to get out of the door really drove the point home. And that's without activating his power.

Lung began his typical speech, but I wasn't in the mood to wait for him to finish. I stepped back and made the signal for my clones to attack.

Chaos reigned for a few seconds as black clad figures dropped in the middle of the gang's gathering and proceeded to attack whoever was nearer. Some of the gang members tried to go for their weapons others tried to get away. Lung didn't waste time and shrouded his fists in flames.

A shot rang and Lung fell to one knee, the other one a mangled mess. Still the ABB leader managed to send a jet of flames at his attacker, apparently one of his own men armed with a shotgun. As soon as the flames engulfed him he disappeared leaving behind only the half melted weapon.

Around him half of his men were either down for the count or had fled. One of the gangsters managed to get out a revolver and shoot at the back of one of the attackers. The bullet found almost no resistance as it tore through the black clad ninja leaving behind only a cloud of smoke and continued its path until it logged itself into another ABB member's abdomen.

Lung let out a wordless roar and exploded in flames burning both the nearby ninjas that disappeared in smoke clouds and the few unfortunate underlings that were too close.

As the dragon man prepared another attack the remaining gang members turned and run. All except one. He faced Lung at a safe distance, a sheathed katana in his left hand.

With only one enemy left my clones dog piled Lung kicking and punching him everywhere in a final suicidal attack. As expected Lung did his exploding attack again getting rid of them. Only to receive a cut to his chest. The one with the katana had it now unsheathed in his right hand with the sheath in his left and had not moved anywhere near enough to cut Lung with the blade.

Lung retaliated with a fireball but his opponent evaded doing a back flip and landing nimbly on the face of the building opposite to where I was. Standing in the vertical surface as if it was regular ground.

With his knee almost fully healed and starting to sprout metallic scales Lung got to his feet.

I made more clones and sent them along the route I planned to lead the dragon man on, leaving a couple with me.

The blade wielding clone turned and run up the building. Lung jumped after him high enough to intercept him but once the ABB leader was in the air the clone turned, let himself drop and swung his sword again catching Lung from beneath with an invisible blade of compressed air. The attack didn't cut as deep as before but it served another purpose. It lifted Lung up to my level where me and another of my clones released our attacks simultaneously. My fire based attack was boosted by the copy's wind one making it explode with enough force to send Lung across the street into the opposite roof.

As Lung wobbly got up I decided that he was bloodied enough for me to keep his attention. Or as the gaming lingo would say I had enough aggro. So I turned and run but not before giving him a one fingered salute for good measure. Yes, I almost could feel his the heat of his glare on my back. Or maybe it wasn't his glare.

A slight disorientation later confirmed that yes, I had his full attention and no, it was not his glare just a fireball that would have turned me into charcoal if one of the clones that I sent ahead hadn't changed places with me. Oh well, that was also part of the plan.

Everything was going according to the plan. Which was pretty simple. Lead Lung north to the train yard and from there east to the boat graveyard to minimize the collateral damage. Once on the water I'll be able to hide until Lung gets bored or someone, cough Armsmaster cough, takes care of him.

And all was going well thanks to a judicious application of clones and substitutions until, when we were crossing the train yard, I landed on the roof of a seemingly abandoned warehouse. The roof was made of tin so when Lung landed after me it gave under his now considerable weight. Knowing that something like a little fall wouldn't stop Lung I kept going until, two blocks after I noticed the lack of fire and roars and almost unintelligible death threats.

When I went back to see what happened I discovered that the warehouse wasn't as abandoned as I thought. A crowd was getting out of it as if there was a dragon after them which considering the circumstances might be true. I'd feel bad for putting them in this situation if it wasn't for the fact that judging by the colors they wore, the tattoos and the shaved heads they all were empire eighty eight.

Just a moment later Lung crashed through one of the outer walls. He had a half melted mass of metal on top of him. The metal reformed itself to the image of a nightmarish wolf with spikes and hooks sprouting out of it and proceeded to attack Lung who by now was more dragon than man, with tail, wings and claws.

Another two figures came out of the hole. One masked male shirtless one female with some kind of metallic cage as a helmet.

Hookwolf, Stormtiger and Cricket. It seems like I accidentally led Lung to one of Hookwolf's underground fighting rings.

Whoops.

 

[Daimah]

Tale of a Biron

1.H​

Protectorate HQ, April 11 2011

Hannah stretched her back and worked the kinks her neck before glaring at the clock that showed that it was already morning and then back at screen of her computer.

Being the only one in the Brockton Bay Protectorate who doesn't need to sleep meant that more often than not she would get saddled with the paperwork of the operations she took part in. At least this time there was a good reason she was doing it. After last night's clusterfuck involving Lung, most of the Empire's capes and the whole ENE Protectorate rooster she was one of the few that got out of it unscathed. Triumph, the only other uninjured hero was still a junior member having graduated from the Wards earlier this year and leaving a rookie to do the report on such high profile incident would not do.

To be honest, the Protectorate heroes were lucky to have gotten out of the three way battle with no life threatening injuries. The worst being a stab wound suffered by Dauntless from one of Crusader's ghosts. Assault got several burns due to Lung's flames, Battery had a concussion thanks to Rune's flying debris, Velocity's sprained ankle would have him out of commission for at least a week and Armsmaster fought half the battle with a broken arm.

In fact the only reason Triumph and she both were not hurt was because she was deployed as long range support for the rest of the team with him as her backup and spotter mostly because his status as a junior member. Her power supplied her with a Barrett M82, a rifle with enough firepower for Lung to feel it even as ramped up as he was when the Protectorate joined the fray.

According to the preliminary investigation it all begun when Lung literally crashed into one of the ilegal fighting rings run by Hookwolf. The strange part was that according to the few accounts of the witnesses that the PRT investigators managed to acquire Lung was already transformed when he dropped into Hookwolf's business. That was not how Lung's power worked, to activate it he needed conflict as he couldn't do it at will. And just the anticipation of a fight would not be enough, he had to have been fighting someone else previously and fighting seriously. That suggested that a third party was involved.

The first one on the scene was Armsmaster who proceeded to engage Lung and Hookwolf only to be attacked by Stormtiger and Cricket. He managed to keep them at bay, but couldn't do anything to stop Lung from getting even stronger.

The non powered members of the Empire must have had sent word of the attack because by the time Velocity and Dauntless arrived to back Armsmaster up Rune and Crusader were already there.

From there it devolved into chaos as more capes for each side showed up, Oni Lee for the ABB, Alabaster, Night and Fog for the Empire and the rest of the Brockton Bay Protectorate for the heroes. At least until Kaiser himself backed up by Fenja, Menja and Krieg got there and arranged a ceasefire with the Protectorate to deal with Lung.

After that it was only a matter of making Oni Lee retreat and push Lung back into the boat graveyard where Kaiser using his power and the abandoned boats managed to trap Lung long enough to evacuate the area.

At that point the Protectorate had to honor their part of the deal, to Armsmaster's displeasure, and let the Empire capes go. Not only because of the previous agreement but also because they were outnumbered and in no shape of realistically detain them.

The only relatively good thing of this whole deal was that all the fighting happened either in the train yard or the boat graveyard minimizing the collateral damage.

Hannah would have finished the report earlier if it wasn't for an email from Clockblocker who was on monitor duty. It seemed that the theory that Lung was already fighting someone before the main incident was true. In the mail was a link to a PHO thread about an attack on the ABB last night by ninjas of all things. She, like most posters on the thread, would have dismissed it as a joke if it wasn't for the video embedded on the original post, which showed precisely that.


The video was of a pretty bad quality and was taken at street level from a distance but it clearly showed a still human Lung being jumped on by a large number of figures dressed in the classic black ninja uniform. After that the video became more chaotic with Lung exploding into flames and his attackers disappearing in a cloud of smoke, the smoke parting suddenly and Lung launching a fireball at something or someone out of frame. The one taking the video tried to follow the action resulting in a couple of seconds of unidentifiable blurs only to end with Lung in the air being blasted over a roof by a large explosion. It was at that point whoever was filming got a bout of common sense and got out of there ending the video.

Hannah watched the video a couple of times before adding an annex to her report to include her theories on whoever was fighting Lung and the links to PHO and the video. She checked the time once again before saving her work and sending it up the chain of command.

Knowing that something so trivial as a broken arm wouldn't keep Colin away from his tinkering even when he was supposed to be resting, Hannah got out of her office and headed to Armsmaster's lab.

Indeed, when she knocked on his door the response was almost immediate. The first thing she noticed as she entered was the strong smell of Colin's own blend of coffee that, according to him, was much more efficient than the regular commercial blends. What was sure was that they'd better never let Vista or Clockblocker have any, it was bad enough when Assault got his hands on a cup of the Tinker's special coffee.

"Did you need something?" Asked Armsmaster turning from the bench where he was working on his halberd. On his left arm was a metallic cast that Hannah recognized as a device that boosted the natural healing capacity of the human body, not enough to be useful in combat but capable enough of halving the recovery time needed for any injury.

"I just finished my report on last night, sent you and the director a copy. I thought that you might want to take a look. Especially to the annex." Said Hannah going straight to the point.

Armsmaster just nodded and apparently just stood there but Hannah knew him well enough to know that he was reading it on his visor.

"I agree with your conclusions. Judging by the video at least two new unknowns. One Master judging by the 'ninja' projections and at least one Blaster, maybe two depending on if they can control just one or the two different kind of energies shown in the recording." He paused bringing a hand to his chin. "There are still many unknown facts, like if they were new recruits that we hadn't heard of and this was an internal conflict in the ABB or if they were a third party, and if so did they lead Lung to Hookwolf on purpose..." He trailed off for a moment, muttered something about pattern recognition models and turned to another of his workstations. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention, if I start working right now I can have some results by this evening. I'll schedule a briefing with Piggot for then so she can inform the police, first responders and plan the Wards patrols accordingly."

"Shouldn't you be resting?" She asked arching an eyebrow. "Did you even get any sleep last night?"

"No need, I had two whole hours of sleep and I've got my coffee. Finishing this is much more important." He said not even turning. "If that's all, I have to concentrate."

Hannah just shook her head and let herself out not taking his attitude personally. Same old Collin.

 

[Daimah]

Being Taylor doesn't have to be suffering part 3
​

December 25 2010, Hebert household


I was busy making my breakfast when I heard someone knocking on the front door. I wondered who could it be so early on Christmas morning.

Last night Dad's friends Kurt and Lacey invited us to spend Christmas eve with them and we came back rather late and being a holiday dad was sleeping in.

I took a look through the window next to the door. Even with the loose jacket and the hood up I recognized her immediately.

"Amy?" I said opening the door.

"Hey Taylor." She said bashfully. "Sorry for coming without calling first or anything. But I didn't know where to go..." She trailed off. "Oh, this was a bad idea." She looked like a frightened rabbit.

"Amy!" I grabbed her by the shoulders before she could bolt. She snapped up her head throwing back the hood. Her eyes were bloodshot and she had circles under her eyes. "Listen, I have no idea what happened to you but what kind of friend would I be if I just let you go out there like that. Come on, you don't have to tell me what happened if you don't want to but at least come in." I said as I ushered her in giving her an encouraging smile. "Want some breakfast? I was fixing myself a little something."

"Ah... if you don't mind..."

As I led her to the kitchen I noticed that she was carrying the bag she uses when she's going to spend the night at the hospital or when she goes to help in the aftermath of endbringer battles. I would have known if there had been an endbringer attack specially on Christmas and I know Amy can be a bit too zealous in her drive to help in the hospitals but I doubt even her would spend Christmas eve volunteering there. Well, more like Vicky wouldn't stand for it.

Some toast with jam, a cup of tea and a bit of small talk later she was still fidgeting and looking at the door.

"Amy," I finally said with a sigh "I'm sorry, really you don't have to tell me anything but at least tell me what can I do to help."

"It's not that, it's just it is something personal and I want to tell you but ..."

"Oh, if you are worried about my dad barging in he won't be be up until noon but if it makes you feel better we can go to my room."

"Okay." She said in a small voice.

When we got to my room, which to my shame was a bit of a mess, we took a seat next to each other on my bed.

"So..." I said as Amy didn't seem to know how to begin. "Carol again?" To be honest if there is something I learned something about Amy in this year and almost a half that I've known her is that if she is in a bad mood it's likely that her mom is involved in some way. Not that Carol is bad or anything but she seems to be unusually hard on her.

"That's part of it." She said letting herself drop on her back. "I don't think I ever told you this but I am adopted."

"Oh." Really eloquent Taylor. Still that explains some things.

"I never knew who my biological parents are and I still don't but..." She took a deep breath. "Last night aunt Sarah and her family came to our house for Christmas. Carol had some wine and after the dinner she and aunt Sarah were talking and didn't know that I could overhear them. At least aunt Sarah, I don't know what to think about Carol anymore." She said as she sat up again.

"They were talking about the past and somehow they ended talking about me. Carol said that she never wanted to adopt me, that it should have been aunt Sarah who should have taken me in. That she could never trust me in case I ended like my biological father. That..." As she started trembling I put an arm around her shoulders. "That I'd end up in the Birdcage like him."

When she finally started to cry I fully embraced her rubbing her back.

"I'm not like that, I swear, Taylor." She said still bawling her eyes out.

"Shhh, I know, Amy, I know."

We stayed like that for a while until Amy finally calmed down and I let her go.

"That explains so much." She continued. "I always wanted her approval and I was never going to get it not to mention showing me even a bit of love. Mark tried to be there for me, but he has his own problems. The only one that really treated me like family was Vicky and I'm not sure if she knows about my biological father."

"I don't know Vicky half as well as you do but even I know that she won't care." I reassured her. "You are her precious sister and she won't let a little detail like genetics get in the way."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Amy conceded the point with a fond smile.

"Now that I think about it, you two are pretty close. How come you didn't try talking to her about this first?" And she's frowning again, dammit why can't I think before I talk.

"I kinda tried last night..." She bit her lip before continuing "but she was so happy about going to Dean's for lunch to meet his family today that I couldn't bring myself to worry her with my problems."

"Oh Amy, sometimes you are too nice for your own good."

"Like you are one to talk, Taylor." She said with a smile bumping her shoulder with mine. "Here you are listening to my woes on a day that one normally spends with family." She added resting her head on my shoulder.

"I'm just being a good friend." I in turn rested my cheek on top of her head. "And my dad is making a great job imitating a hibernating bear so it's not like I had something better to do." I remarked getting a giggle from Amy. "So, anything else to confess now that we are on a roll?" I cursed myself mentally when Amy got tense again.

"Actually..." She said getting up from the bed and beginning to pace in front of me. "There is something else, but I'm kinda afraid because..." She paused, averting her gaze "I don't know how you'll take it."

"Oh." Thank you brain for such articulate response .

"It's that... you see... I kinda... like girls." She finally said still pacing and not looking at me.

"That's all?" I said getting up and putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I don't see what's the problem. Other than Vicky trying to hook you up with boys. She doesn't know does she?"

"No, but that's just part of the problem." She answered shaking her head. "There is this girl I've liked for a while... I'd even say that I fell in love with."

"Does she know?" I asked and Amy shook her head again. "Do I know her?"

"Yes, yes you do. But the problem is that she is straight and I doubt she'd ever be interested in me."

I felt my face heating up as my brain connected the dots. Girl, check. Straight, check... Amy and I discussed my preference for beefcake multiple times and now I understand why she couldn't explain what kind of boys she liked. Known Amy for a while, check. Oh, Amy.

"I... Amy. I... I'm really flattered, but..." I stuttered trying to let her down gently.

"Wha..." She looked up at me surprised. Why is she surprised? She herself said that she doubted that I'd be interested. "Oh! No. No no no no no no no no no no no." She rushed through all the noes. "It's not you, Taylor. Not that you aren't attractive because you are. You really are but we are friends and I'd even say that you are my best friend and I don't want to put that at risk and there was already this other girl anyways and... and..." She ended breathless looking at me wide eyed.

How do you react when your lesbian best friend makes you think that she has fallen in love with you only to be friendzoned a moment later? I'll tell you how we reacted. Laughing, laughing so hard that we ended rolling on the floor in stitches. So hard that dad woke up and came to see what the ruckus was about. Of course him being in his pajamas with bed hair did nothing to calm us down.

"Sorry, dad." I said when I finally managed to stop giggling. "Remember Amy? My friend from school."

"Sorry for waking you up Mr. Hebert." She said still red in the face half from mortification half from all our laughing.

In the end dad just went away grumbling something about teenage girls.

"So, can I know now who is this girl you broke my heart for." I said bringing my hands to my heart dramatically sending Amy back into giggles. To which she responded throwing my pillow at me.

After a brief war that ended in a draw because we found ourselves again laughing so hard that we couldn't move, Amy finally responded.

"Actually..." She said shyly as we laid on the floor with Amy using my stomach as a pillow while I absentmindedly played with a lock of her hair. "It's Vicky. The girl I'm in love with, I mean." She waited a moment before continuing. "I know it's strange even if she is not really related to me we still grew up as sisters so having these feelings for her makes me even more of a deviant..."

"Hey, none of that." I said caressing her cheek with my thumb. "We can't help who we fall in love with. Yes she might be your sister figure, but from what you have told me of your family she was also the only one who showed you love when you needed it most. I'm no expert on human psychology but I can easily see that turning into a crush and from there growing into romantic love. You are no deviant Amy Dallon, you are just human."

"Taylor," When I looked down at her again Amy was smiling and crying at the same time. She rolled into her stomach and drew herself up leaving her face next to mine. " Thank you." She said kissing me on the cheek before resting her head on my shoulder and cuddling into my side.

"You are welcome." I answered kissing the top of her head.

We stayed like that for some time before I had an idea.

"Hey, Amy, it's been a long time since I had a friend sleeping over and I think you could use some time away from well, everything." I sensed Amy nodding. "So what do you say if my dad calls your family and you stay with us for a couple of days?"

"I'd love that." Came her muffled answer from my side. "But does it has to be now? I'm tired and you are a very comfy pillow." She said tightening her grip on me.

"Humm, maybe it'd be better to wait a couple of hours until dad is more awake." I said bringing my free hand to my mouth in a pensive gesture and then ruffling Amy's hair. "Looks like you are in luck young lady."

"Taylor," Amy yelped "less moving and more sleeping. And you know that I'm older than you."

I closed my eyes with a smile on my face. Yes, this is nice.
​

 

[Daimah]

Tale of a Biron

2.1​

The next morning I woke up alone in the bed Missy and I shared at her insistence. It didn't surprise me that I slept in a bit, yesterday I wasn't able to come back to the safe house until much later than I expected after all. I looked around with bleary eyes until my gaze found the clock on the desk. Barely six hours of sleep, damn. I'd have stayed in bed if it wasn't for the loud argument I could hear downstairs. By the voices I'd say that this time it was Missy and Mrs Biron.

I lazily got up and out of the room. As I reached the stairs that went to the ground floor I reflected on last night's SNAFU.

Well, I know that they say that plans don't survive contact with the enemy, but my plan for last night was incredibly simple and should have been foolproof. Go in, distract Lung until Armsmaster arrives, get out. Of course as thinking that nothing could go wrong was tempting Murphy I had to go and spark the gang war days ahead of schedule.

After kicking the figurative hornets nest I had to hightail it out of there. I might have been able to hold my own against Cricket or Stormtiger, heck even against Lung or Hookwolf under the right circumstances. But against all of them at the same time? Oh hell no, not without calling Berserker and throwing him into the fray at this point would only have escalated things even more.

Instead I got into the nearest alley, made sure that I was out of sight, took the appearance of a homeless man and got out of there as fast as a baseline human could. A masked figure jumping from roof to roof might have attracted the kind of attention that I wanted to avoid. An unlucky vagabond running away from a cape fight on the other hand would be easily overlooked.

Getting out of the city took even more time than I thought. Having to dodge groups of gang members, either Empire's out to get even after the perceived attack, ABB's trying to defend their turf or Merchants that heard about the conflict and were trying to get the jump on some of their competition.

When I finally got far enough into the outskirts of the city where I could finally use my powers without getting unwanted attention it was already past two in the morning. Add to that another half hour to get to the house and some more minutes to swap myself with my double that was trapped by a sleeping Missy in a deceptively strong grip it's no wonder that I was still a bit sleepy.

When I got downstairs I found Missy with her hands firmly planted on the dinner table glaring at her mother while Mrs Biron was at the other side of the table with her arms crossed returning the glare. I think Missy was trying to look intimidating but the fact that she was in her sleepwear, a baggy hello kitty t-shirt and sweatpants, was working against her.

"I said no, and that's final." Mrs Biron's tone was harsh. "It's bad enough that I can't stop you from going, I won't allow you to put your brother in danger too."

"Have you even listened to anything I said?" Replied Missy slamming her hands on the table. "It. Is. Safer. He will be with me and the other Wards and even if they send us Wards out on search and rescue or something he'll still be in the second safest building in the city. A building full of PRT personnel."

"Send you out? With a freaking gang war going on. Yes, I've heard about that, it's all over the news. Just wait until I tell the Youth Guard..."

"Will you stop that already!?" Interrupted Missy gritting her teeth. "It's bad enough that no one takes me seriously because of my age even if I have more experience as a Ward than anyone on my team. You overreacting each and every time that I'm involved in something makes them treat me as if I'm made of glass."

"Overreacting? Don't think that I haven't noticed the scars."

"Yes, I've been in a couple of fights, so what? It isn't like I've been really hurt. They never send us against anything really dangerous and my teammates are always looking out for me anyway."

"And that ugly scar on your chest? Can you honesty tell me that it wasn't dangerous when you got it? Where were those teammates then?"

"That..." Missy seemed to deflate a bit "That was my mistake, not theirs. I underestimated the situation." Added Missy softly before going back to her previous tone. "But that doesn't have anything to do with this. Bobby is safer coming with me than staying here."

"And I said no!" Screamed Mrs. Biron before continuing in an icy tone as she turned away from Missy. "Why do you care anyway? You spend more time there than with your own family. I already lost you the moment you got those powers I'm not letting them take my son away as well." She said exiting the room not looking back at Missy even once.

When Missy turned to the stairs she saw me standing there and quickly averted her eyes but I still saw that her eyes were watery.

"Hey Bobby." She said as she rubbed her eyes.

"Hey sis." I replied, finally entering the dinning room "Are you okay?" I asked awkwardly.

"Yes, it's just mom being mom. Don't worry about it." She answered giving me a forced smile.

"What was that about?" I asked nodding in the direction where Mrs. Biron had gone.

"Something happened last night and the PRT is calling all the Wards to base, including me. We are supposed to be on stand by, only getting out to go to school to maintain our covers. Even our patrols are canceled." She said as she went to the stairs.

"But why?" I asked frowning as I followed her.

"Officially?" She sighed. "So we can respond faster if there's a situation where we are needed." She snorted "As if they'd let us."

"And the real reason?" I asked as we entered our room.

"To make sure some of us don't do anything stupid." Missy answered with a wry smile before softly adding. "Stupid Sophia."

I'm pretty sure that I wasn't supposed to have heard that last comment so I decided to bring the conversation back to the original topic. "And that thing with mom?"

"I..." She hesitated a bit as if she was about to say something but couldn't bring herself to say it. "I wanted you to come with me to stay with the Wards." She continued. I couldn't see her face because she had her back to me as she rummaged her bag looking for some clothes. "With me gone and only a handful of agents with minimum equipment this house won't be very safe if someone decides to come after you again."

"What about mom and dad?"

"I might be able to convince dad to come with us, but knowing mom she will be against it just because she can. If our house wasn't a crime scene we wouldn't even be here."

I frowned. To be honest going to the PRT building would limit my movements a lot, but it seemed to be important for Missy. I guess she still felt guilty for not being there when I 'disappeared'.

"I'm going to get changed in the bathroom." She said getting out of the room with an armful of clothes, leaving me with my musings.

"Dammit." I exhaled as I let myself drop backwards on the bed. It looks like I have a soft spot for my sister since I'd rather be put in a situation where it would be considerably more difficult to carry out my plans than see her upset. Well, after last night my plans were shot anyway and I might be able to find information on Dinah more easily from the PRT itself.

"I think I have an idea." I said without getting up when Missy came back from the bathroom.

"Huh?"

"I'm still a person of interest in an ongoing investigation, right?" I sat up and smiled at my sister.

"Yes." Missy paused in the process of putting away her night clothes. "Have you been watching too many police procedural shows lately?" She frowned.

"Never mind that." I said. "Who do you think we have to talk with to take me into protective custody?"

"I..." She blinked. "I'm not sure," Missy said bringing a finger to her lips. "But I know who might know." She added with a smile, taking out her cellphone.

"You do that. I'll go get changed." I said getting up and taking my clothes for the day.

"Hey, Rory? It's Missy, sorry to call you so early..." I heard her say as I got into the bathroom.

 

[Daimah]

Tale of a Biron

2.2​

After Triumph, I guess it was Triumph I don't think Missy knew many Rorys other than him, got the ball rolling it only took the PRT about three hours to get everything in order. Of course Mrs. Biron didn't take it lying down. Looks like Missy wasn't exaggerating about her mother and the Youth Guard, she had their number on speed dial.

From her, rather loud, half of the phone conversation with the lawyer they provided I got that yes, minor or not the PRT actually could put me under their custody in these specific circumstances as I was technically a parahuman. The PRT seems to have a lot of legal leeway when it comes to parahumans.

So that left us, that is Missy and I, waiting for our escort in the safe house living room with a couple of PRT agents and with nothing better to do than do some zapping.

Ugh, daytime televisión. I swear I felt some of my neurons die an horrible and painful death. A pity that agent Moore wasn't one of the two agents saddled with babysitting us, she was nice unlike the two guys that took the stereotypical federal agent look too seriously.

The reason we were waiting for transportation was because the other agents assigned to our protective detail had taken the van to bring Mr. Biron back to his house and Mrs. Biron to a hotel as her, I mean our, house was still a crime scene. They would still have a BBPD patrol near them just in case.

It was almost midday when we finally heard a car coming up the road. One of the agents, whose name I did not bother to learn because he had the personality of a pet rock, took a look outside and said something on his radio before giving us the all clear signal.

When we got out, our bags in hand, I saw an SUV with tinted windows and standing next to its open door a guy that at first glance did look rather normal with his sneakers, jeans and a hoodie with its hood up. I don't know much about clothes but even I could tell that they were expensive. The only thing that hinted that this wasn't someone who got lost and ended here by accident was the domino mask half hidden by the shadows of the hood and that when she saw him Missy visibly perked up.

"Ro..." Missy cached herself before blurting out his real name. "Triumph!" She let her bag go and in a couple of steps she covered a considerable distance and got in front of Triumph almost glomping him.

"Hello to you too, Missy." He said with a fond smile and tousled her hair.

"You didn't tell me you were coming." She said letting go of him and swatting playfully at his arm. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

"Where would be the fun in that?" He said teasingly and when she pouted he added. "No, really. I didn't even know if they'd agree to your idea and when they gave it the green light I volunteered to take you guys to the base."

As they talked I took Missy's bag from the floor and got closer. Dammit Missy, I'm not your pack mule.

"Oh, this is my brother Bobby." She said when she noticed me at her side. "Bobby, this is Triumph, he is... was the leader of the Wards until a while ago."

"Hey." I let Missy's bag go an waved at him.

"Hey, yourself." He waved back. "Ready to go?"

I just shrugged and pointed to the house. "We're still missing a couple of someones." What the hell were they doing?

He nodded but before he could answer Missy cut in. "Can you tell me anything about what's happening? They just told me that the Empire and the ABB are at each others throats again."

"Haven't been online lately?"

She snorted. "No computer here and you know that the only phone I've got is the one that they issue to every Ward and you can't connect to the Internet with it anymore after the 'Clockblocker incident' two months ago." Then she looked at me and said "Don't ask."

"Oh, right." He said before shrugging. "Last night some new cape took on Lung and then somehow made him crash one of Hookwolf's underground fighting rings when Hookwolf, Stormtiger and Cricket were there."

I had to squash the urge to whistle innocently.

"Wow, that takes some ba... I mean guts." Triumph raised an eyebrow at her slip of the tongue. "Sorry, lately they have been pairing me with Shadow Stalker for patrols." She explained with a little blush.

"The new cape escaped in the confusion and left us to pick up their mess. They had to field the whole team to take care of it." He continued. "In the end we had to agree to a truce with the Empire to get Lung to the boat graveyard and leave him there to cool off."

"Oh, is everyone ok?" Asked Missy bitting her lip.

"Yes, we got out of it without life threatening injuries. Crusader got the jump on Dauntless early in the fight, before the truce, and he is still in the med bay of the rig but New Wave contacted us earlier and said that Panacea was coming to help out this evening. The others injuries weren't that serious, mostly just inconvenient. Battery got a concussion and was told to take it easy for a while, Panacea can't do anything for her. And Armsmaster got a broken arm, but that didn't stop him, you know how he is. To be honest only Miss Militia and I came out of it unscathed."

We stored the bags in the trunk as he gave Missy the rundown of last night's aftermath.

"Right, so, you think that this time they might call us Wards to the field? I mean, even if they are just minor injuries that's most of the team that got injured, if the gangs' capes start something..."

"Don't worry, most of the Empire's capes and Oni Lee must be still licking their wounds. And I doubt Lung will go out again so soon." He answered while Missy and I got into the back seats of the car. "And even if the Empire has Othala her healing takes time unlike Panacea so by the time she has healed the nazis we will have most of the team back at full strength." He got back into the driver's seat.

"What about the non powered members? Have they tried anything yet." Asked Missy.

"So far only a drive by shooting that luckily didn't leave any victims and a small riot at Winslow high between Empire and ABB new recruits, Shadow Stalker and the police broke it up but classes were canceled for the day."

At the mention of her fellow Ward Missy rolled her eyes. "Great." She said sullenlly. "No she'll be unbearable."

"You two don't get along I guess." I said, not surprising given what I knew about the ex-vigilante.

"She's a b..." She stopped for a second "very unpleasant person."

"Shadow Stalker can be a bit abrasive." Added Triumph.

"She's always looking down on us. At least with Aegis and Gallant she's just dismissive. But with Kid Win and me she's more..." She trailed off. "Vocal."

"Is she bullying you?" I asked and I found myself frowning. I swear if that psyco has tried anything like she did to Taylor in canon with my sister I will introduce her to the business end of one of my electric techniques.

"No, nothing like that." She said glancing sideways at me. "She is already in hot water because of things she did before she joined. It's mostly more subtle stuff. Some things she says..."

"Missy..." Triumph started to say before being cut by Missy.

"Don't worry about it, that's not important right now." She said with finality turning to look out of the window.

"Okay, but if there is a problem I trust you'd tell Aegis." Insisted Triumph.

"Yeah." She said without looking at us.

Dammed Sophia, ruining the mood even when she's not present.

The conversation died there. I had no idea what to say to the former leader of the Wards and while he is probably my best shot to learn anything about Dinah I can't suddenly start asking if his cousin has suddenly developed powers. Especially when I'm not supposed to know his secret identity. And it was obvious that Missy wasn't in a talking mood anymore.

The uncomfortable silence lasted even after the PRT agents finished whatever they were doing in the house and all the ride back to the PRT building.

Screw it, I'll probably punch Stalker's face with a crackling fist as soon as she gives me the slightest excuse.

 

[Daimah]

Tale of a Biron

2.3
​

It seemed like a good idea at the time, maybe a bit rushed but given the circumstances it was my best bet for getting info on Dinah. What would I do with the information if I was confined to the Wards base? I don't know, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

I didn't even have a plan for something like this. My original plan was to stick as close to canon as possible but that plan went up in flames thanks to accidentally setting the two biggest gangs on each other.

Anyway, back to my next big idea. I saw what looked like a janitor room on the way from the parking to the elevator that would take us to the Wards area I seized the opportunity to let loose a copy of myself to snoop around the PRT building. Letting myself fall a couple of steps behind Missy and Triumph so they didn't see me form the hand seals I created a clone inside the locked and hopefully empty room.

To be honest it was a long shot. I didn't even know if I could create a clone out of my line of sight or with something solid like a door between it and me. But as I felt the familiar drain of energy from the technique but didn't receive the feedback from the destruction of a clone I guess it worked as intended. I caught up with my sister and continued on to the elevator trusting that my copy would have an idea of what to do next.

We arrived at the door to the Wards area and Triumph pushed the button to let anyone inside that a visitor was coming. Thirty seconds later the door opened. The vaulted round room was as I expected. A big common area right in front of the entrance with a few sofas a low table in the middle and a rather expensive looking entertainment system against one of the modular walls. Behind that, at the other end of the room was the console, a desk with several screens, a big central one and three smaller ones on each side, each monitoring different emergency services. It almost reminded me of how they depicted Batman's computer in some works. Kid Win waved at us from where he was manning it. To our right there was the kitchen separated from the common area by a big isle. On the left there were more modular wallsforming the Wards personal rooms I guess.

"If it isn't our former fearless leader." Clockblocker in his full costume said from one of the sofas. "Or is it fearless former leader?" He added pausing the game he was playing and getting up.

"Clock." Triumph replied giving him a nod.

"And M..." He paused looking at me "Vista."

"Hey Clock, don't worry, he knows who I am. This is my brother Bobby. Bobby, Clockblocker."

"Hey there." He said offering his hand.

"Hello." I answered going to take it.

"Don't! Even think about it Clock." Missy interrupted us. "Or you will have to walk two miles every time you try to go to the bathroom as long as I'm here."

"I have no idea what you are talking about." He answered trying a bit too hard to sound sincere and shaking my hand briefly.

"So, the others are still at school?" Asked Missy looking around.

"Yes, me and Kid had only a half day and Stalker is up at the office giving her statement about that thing at Winslow." Answered Clockblocker. "So, hey Triumph do you have time to play a couple of rounds of Super Cape Tournament 4 for old times sake?" He said pointing at the still paused video game. "The latest DLC has you finally on the Protectorate rooster and they even gave you some new moves."

Looking closely at the screen I realized that the character in the game was actually a virtual representation of Clockblocker himself.

"You were playing a game with you in it? Don't you find it a bit strange to play as yourself?" I had to ask, I couldn't help it.

"Strange? Nah, it's hilarious how wrong they get our powers. If I could do half of the things they have me doing in there..." He trailed off giving a little laugh. "So, anyway what do you say, FFL? We could play a couple of fast four players free for all rounds or some two on two team fights or if you have the time maybe even a tournament." He said turning to Triumph.

"I guess I could stay at least until Gallant and Aegis get here." Answered Triumph. "But let's go with the free for all and leave the tournament for another day."

"Great, here you go." Clockblocker said shoving a controller into our hands, Missy and I included.

By the time we were seated on the sofa Clock had already exited his previous game and had the character selection screen on the screen. I ended up choosing Mouse Protector, which reminded me that I'd have to at least try to warn her about the nine somehow, if they haven't gotten to her already that is. The others choose themselves as their characters. I could hear Missy gritting her teeth and grumbling at the cutsey moves of her counterpart on the screen.

Clock trounced us on the first round. The second round was more even with Missy making a comeback and almost winning. On the third round me and Triumph got eliminated on the first twenty seconds of the round and then Missy and Clock went on to have "the most epic match ever", Clock's words, spamming specials and counter moves left and right only to get a double KO at the end. The fourth round was well underway when we were interrupted by an alarm.

"Is that..." Missy started to say.

"The Master/Stranger lock down alarm." Interrupted Triumph. "Ok, I'm taking command. Clock, you are with me watching the door."

"Yes, boss."

"Vista, take your brother to the console with Kid and be on guard. Until we know what's happening we'll assume that he is the target."

Taking my hand Missy brought me to were Kid Win was sitting.

"Any idea of what is happening?" She asked the other Ward as soon as we were at the console.

"Nothing before the alarm and now there are no communications going in or out because of the lock down protocols." Answered Kid Win.

They were a tense couple of minutes until I received the memories of the clone I sent to snoop around. Yeah, maybe not my best idea... At least they still didn't know that the intruder was me.

-o-o-o-

Minutes earlier...

I came to be in a small and dark room. I might have the memories of my creator, of him using this technique a lot in the past few days but it is something completely different to be in the other side. It feels strange to be aware of your own temporary nature and still not care that in a few hours at best you will dissappear. Also makes me wonder if every clone has this existential dilemma or if I am special somehow.

Existential doubts aside I have a job to do and the first step is to get out of this tiny room. I put my ear to the door and waited a few minutes after my original body and company left the hallway.

Of course the first thing I tried was just opening the door but it was locked as expected. Well, plan B it is. No wait, there wasn't a plan A to begin with, I'm just winging it. Oh look, one side effect of being aware of one's own fleeting existence, not giving a damn about what happens after you complete your mission and cease to exist. Well boss, if you wanted me to be more discreet you should have came up with a better idea than 'find a computer and get all the stuff you can about Dinah Alcott'.

I transformed myself into a copy of one of the agents that went with Mr. Biron to protect him. I used a piercing electric technique to break the lock andstepped out of the room lookingaround. No cameras in this stretch of the corridor and no alarm yet, that's good. I have until someone comes down here and see the broken door. I certainly hoped that this entrance was not used very often.

I walked to the elevator and once inside I choose the fourth floor. If I remember correctly it was on that floor were the meeting with Renick and the Birons happened, so hopefully there would be some offices there too. The elevator stopped once at the ground level were the public entrance was and a harried looking guy with an armful of files got in. I gave him a nod only to be completely ignored. Okay, be like that. He pushed the button to the second floor.

It looked like luck was on my sidebecause when the doors opened I saw a hallway right in front of the elevator with a series of doors on each side, but the real prize was behind the glass doors at the end of the corridor were I could see a bullpen with several unused terminals. As soon as my moody elevator mate got out of it I followed behind.

Walking with a purpose I made a beeline for the bullpen. The key to not raise suspicion was to look like Ibelonged here. I nodded here and there to the few people that noticed me and bothered to greet me on my way to one of the free terminals.

I sat myself at one of the most out of the way desks, away from the door and on one of the corners of the room. With one of the walls in front of me and the big panel of glass of the room's window to my left. I didn't have much privacy to be honest as there wasn't any of those modular walls you often see in some offices, but it shouldn't be a problem as long as I don't act suspicious.

After booting up the machine I found myself looking at the login screen. Now this could have been a real problem.

I looked around the desk for any clues that would let me in and finally found both user name and password on a post-it stuck under the keyboard. I guess you should never underestimate human stupidity.

I don't know who designed this OS but I'm sure it wasn't Dragon or Armsmaster. It took almost a full minute to load and once inside it was as far from user friendly as you can get. It took me a couple of minutes to find how to search for something specific in their database and the results weren't what I was expecting. There was no mention of Dinah Alcott, of RoryChristner there was only a mention of him being the mayor's son and Triumph's file was heavily redacted, all the important information blacked out.

I let out an irritated huff as I stretched my back, leaning back against the chair's backrest. In the end I'd have been better off searching public records and social media.

I was about to try to find if I could connect to the Internet from this terminal when I noticed that the noise in the room had dropped to almost nothing while I had been focused in my search. I turned around in my chair in time to see the last two people aside from me getting out of the door and a shadowy figure dropping from the ceiling.

Shadow Stalker materialized as she brought up one of her crossbows and fired in one fluid movement.

I swirled in my chair just in time, the bolt aimed at my shoulder hit the monitor I had been using. I dove out of the chair as another bolt passedwhistling near my head. I rolled forward putting a desk between the ward and me.

I heard a whirring sound on the ceiling just in time to avoid a stream of containment foam. Instead of dodging to the side I jumped onto the desk catching Sophia by surprise. Before she could correct her aim I kicked thedesk's chair at her.

As I expected she went into her shadow from and I jumped out of the desk right at her, narrowly avoiding another stream of containment foam.

The idea was going through her and run for the door as she'd have to maintain her shadow from to avoid the spray of foam. But as soon as I made contact with her I felt my chakrasomehow reacting with whatever she was made of in this state, enough to shock her out of it and sending her to the floor dazed.

Being made of pure chakra and having it disrupted like this was bad, very bad. I could feel the technique I was using to disguise myself slipping away and I knew I wouldn't last much longer either. So in my last moments I decided to try at least not to be dispelled right in plain view. Going out of the door was out of the question, I wouldn't get far enough in the little time I had left and judging by the heavy footsteps I was hearing coming from that direction there was at least one squad of PRT soldiers coming.

The window, that was the only way out I had left. I charged dodging more containment foam and threw myself against the glass as hard as I could hoping that the impact would break the window without dispelling me.

The good news, I didn't disappear, the bad news the window must have been reinforced because it didn't have even a crack. Of course that's when the foam sprayers finally caught up with me. Oh well, I had mere seconds left of my disguise and I would disappear myself seconds after that so before the foam covered my head I vanished in a puff of smoke.