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What's the Frequency, Madison? [Worm, Time Travel]



It can be massively messy, yes.

On the other hand, without it, you can get "He's rich, if I, a cop, even touch him, I'm screwed." sort of issues, too.


It's all a problem, yes.


(No, I don't think we should be arguing about it. Wrong site. But, like so many other things, it's got two sides.)
 
Ah, are you familiar with the (extremely stupid) concept of Qualified Immunity in US law? It basically says that if a law enforcement officer does something horrible and illegal, they cannot be sued unless a court has previously ruled in a very similar case that they cannot do that?
Not how I'd describe the principle, although it may be close to how it's implemented. The principle is good, actual implementation may be problematic but that's why democracy is described as the least worst form of government and not as the best form.
 
There are probably a lot of factors involved. For one, they're already targets for people trying to get at their parents, so them being known capes actually makes them more safe. For another, having them in the Wards would essentially hand over a huge amount of influence on New Wave to the government, something they don't want. There are probably other reasons, too, but those are the ones off the top of my head.
Of course. But saying that to Taylor and Madison would be tantamount to saying that government influence is a bad thing and they would use the 'employed, taught and protected' teenagers as a chain on their parents.

As for safety, being able to call on both parents and Protectorate for support and training instead of just the first ought to be more safe, right...? /s Same thing with Brandish not joining the Protectorate herself :V
Ah, are you familiar with the (extremely stupid) concept of Qualified Immunity in US law? It basically says that if a law enforcement officer does something horrible and illegal, they cannot be sued unless a court has previously ruled in a very similar case that they cannot do that? Certainly, you can sue their boss (the police department), but you can't sue them as individual. Add on to that the fact that prosecutors are very biased toward cops and often don't prosecute them for blatantly illegal actions, and that's kind of the same situation here.

You have two heroes that screw up and get a bunch of people killed. If it's a vigilante, they are going to get sued and very well may get criminal charges. If it's a Protectorate cape, they're probably going to get reassigned and some administrative penalties while the Protectorate settles the lawsuits.
Familiar & having that applied to arresting villains would not be most surprising, despite the PRT raison d'etre - but the context of question in chapter was working as a rogue in commercial business. QI there would be basically allowing e.g. Strider to sell sawdust-filled food on taxpayer dole, iow, whileas normally, government contractors would not enjoy legal immunity for their tax-paid, let alone other business.

'course, capes are less than 1 in 10k at the moment so Endbringers would probably still kill society first. But since money can buy bribes, politicians and powers, well...Big established firms would likely use this clause to hire or become parahuman government contractors for the sake of immunity to regulations.
Heh, that Max Anders guy, CEO & owner of Medhall should really sign up as independent Tinker with PRT, any capitalist can only salivate with the monetary advantage from "immunity to medicinal regulations", can you imagine? :D

(Of course, I'm omochikaerin' the idea here.)
It's less "protect identities from tinkers" and more "protect identities by threat of extreme retaliation" (though "protecting the identities from non-thinkers and lower-end thinkers" is still an importsnt aspect as well). Also I really doubt that E88 know identities of Wards, this kind would be heavily compartmentalized on need-to-know basis, and people who know it would be under much heavier scrutiny.
Eh, there's lot of hints that they're not really hard to obtain. Taylor had to look up Lung and Oni Lee online (in Gestation 1.3), and even she knew that Wards went to Arcadia from rumors - who let them all walk out in middle of class to stop bank robbery later on. The oversight of who controls the wards also gets shuffled from Protectorate to PRT for convenience. The revelation of Shadow Stalker's identity was treated as major thing, but the preventive measures for keeping it secret in general amounted to trusting people with the expectation that would be sufficient for it to not happen, and nobody with the job to cover the slipups. Their public appearances generally try to show measure of skin, height and voice to humanize them, and regular members of public can simply talk to them on patrol, making excluding false leads easy. Even excluding TT's phenomenal intelligence gathering Undersiders' raid of government, while well-planned, was pretty simple smash&grab that I'm unsure even Merchants would have failed in.

That said, even with all that, upon retrospection, I'll have to grant it's possible. I can't offhand point to a chapter saying white supremacists are infiltrating the law enforcement, and it's possible they simply don't care even when given hints as obvious as Clark Kent walking into a phone booth. But if they don't, I'm sure it isn't because it's hard to find out.

Probably not, and even if they did, messing with them is the kind of thing that gets the Triumvirate to make a visit to your city and remove your gang from existence.

I don't even recall Coil messing with them, but I may just not be remembering that.
I can buy it resulting in a heroic quest by the local Protectorate, but unless it's in same city as they are Triumvirate response to that is bit harder to swallow, when the only instance of it in canon that I know of (Fallen kidnapping wards for rape breeding) gets the Triumvirate 'scared' that any Endbringer-worshipper they encounter might be Mama Mathers. Maybe if the kidnapper is S-class threat? Of course, fanfic can be different from canon.

(Plus the whole "So you could have dealt with gang killing, drugging or raping with Birdcage-bound villains at any time and didn't want to unless it involved 'your' kid" issue.)

Ditto on Coil, but in his defense they were easily-distracted future minions of PRT Director Thomas Calvert. ....Actually, come to think of it only Bakuda-led ABB in canon really suffered from having Wards run free, and at that point catching them in school or home was no longer an option. So, yeah, joining the Wards and keeping caping to their regulations and orders would actually provide protection, in a roundabout way. *offhand glance at Madison's understanding of Skitter*
 
08 Experimentation
Revealing the fact that we had powers to our parents was weird. The leadup to it - the anticipation - was horrible, but the actual event was pretty anticlimactic. It took us until the following evening to get everyone together to have The Talk.

"... we have powers."

"Oh," mom said, sitting back and looking more relaxed than she had a moment before. "That's…"

"That's not so bad," dad offered.

Mr. Hebert looked a little less certain about it, but I found myself getting annoyed.

"That's it? We are capes now. We have to deal with that for the rest of our lives." I kept my voice even, though it wanted to get screechy. I hated when it did that.

"Have you accidentally killed anyone with them? Or destroyed something expensive?" That was dad.

"What? No! When would we have had a chance?" I sputtered. Taylor seemed just as confused as her father.

"So that's good, then. You're telling us so that's a good thing, and you haven't already done something stupid with them so we can figure it out together. It isn't like-" he cut himself off.

"It isn't like what?" I asked in confusion.

"Well, Madison, dear… the way you asked to talk to us, we thought one of you was pregnant," my mother gently offered.

Taylor made a high pitched squeaking-laughing noise and I sputtered some more. "What? No! Why?"

"Well, you are in high school now, and you hear all sorts of horror stories…" dad defended weakly, though his eyes drifted to my mother and I was reminded of exactly how young she had been when I was born. I forcibly stopped myself from thinking about exactly when my parents would have needed to have sex in order for me to be born the same week they graduated.

"Well, we're not." I was very emphatic on that point. I didn't bother asking why they'd thought that with the two of us wanting to talk to both our sets of parents together. Parents were weird.

"So, powers, huh?" Mr. Hebert broke in with the air of a man used to forcing topic changes in uncomfortable conversations.

"Ah, yeah, powers. It's… well, it's complicated…" That was Taylor. She apparently knew how to pick up her father's hints and started moving the discussion away from the whole pregnancy thing.

Over the next few minutes, Taylor and I rehashed what our powers were and the general nature of our cluster trigger with Amy Dallon. We both naturally avoided any mention of the… compulsion we had initially felt or the residual mind-fuckery we were still dealing with.

"So, when you two went over to the Dallon's yesterday, that was…" my father asked leadingly.

"We wanted to talk to check in on Amy, but we were mostly there because we wanted to talk to her mom. She's an attorney and she gave us some good advice on what our options were. We wanted…" I trailed off and Taylor picked up.

"Dad," she said firmly. "You know how you always say that if you bring the boss a problem, you should bring a solution, too? Well, we wanted to do that. She's probably the closest thing to an expert on this that we were going to be able to talk to, and she walked through our options with us."

"You're joining New Wave?" mom asked as she realized who we were talking about.

"Ah, no, they aren't… She said that New Wave wasn't set up to help members keep their identities secret. In fact, the only real option she suggested was joining the Wards, but she also thought that we should make sure we didn't just walk in off the street and ask to join. She wants you guys to call her so you can talk more." I pulled out the business card which I had been nervously fidgeting with for a while. It had a phone number and time on the back in neat handwriting. "Here."

Mr. Hebert was the one that actually took the card. "That's… actually, I'm surprised that the two of you are being so mature about this - not that I know you that well Madison, but you're still a teenager."

"I'm not offended," I offered, kind of hating myself for sounding so meek.

"We know that we want to help people, but we also don't want to put our families in danger," Taylor broke in. "I… even if all I could do was copy Amy's healing ability when they needed it to fix up their heroes, that seems like something the Protectorate would put a premium on."

Yesterday, when Taylor had copied Victoria's power, her access to Amy's power had ended. This morning, she didn't have either power active, but she could select either if she wanted to. Once she selected one she could switch to the other, but she couldn't switch back.

She seemed to be restricted to one power at a time and only one use per day for each power. Whether or not she had an upper limit to the number of powers she could have access to, we didn't know, but it did seem to require her having copied them once and we really had no idea on the limitations of that, either. Clearly, more testing was required.

The adults were silent as they took that in.

"There's probably more, too," I offered. "She suggested we figure out our powers more before we start talking to them about joining the program. It's apparently the best leverage we can get, especially if we're working through an attorney."

That really just left the question of how we were going to figure things out.

oOoOoOoOo

"I'm cold," I whined and pulled off my mittens so I could stuff my hands up under Taylor's coat and absorb some of her delicious body heat.

"Gah," she yelped and jumped, but I wouldn't be deterred. It wasn't like she could go far in the back of my dad's car, anyway. "Are you even still alive? Stop it, you vampire."

"Warm meeee," I whined some more, but I couldn't avoid giggling for long.

"Everything alright back there?" dad asked as he adjusted the rearview mirror pointedly.

"Yes, Mr. Clements," Taylor declared. "Your daughter is made of ice cubes, though."

He chuckled. "She gets that from her mother. Sit on her hands if you have to. Hatch them like a chicken." Then he made an embarrassing clucking noise and mom gave him a light swat on the arm for it.

Taylor laughed and we wrestled a little bit before I gave up and put my mittens back on to suffer the rest of the drive in icy aloneness. It wasn't that cold, but I got chilly easily.

I stared out the window and contemplated the way the week had gone. After we'd revealed our parahuman status to our parents on Tuesday night, they'd contacted Mrs. Dallon a number of times to set up the thing we were doing on Saturday - today. If we were going to try to get the best deal out of the Protectorate, we needed to understand exactly what we were working with, and that meant testing powers.

Due to the potential for collateral damage, we didn't want to do it in any one's house or even backyard. If we were already part of the Wards, it would probably have been easy enough to arrange a session with one of the universities that handled that kind of research, but the logistics were significantly more difficult because we needed to protect our identities. In the end, Danny called in a favor with an old friend of his father's that had a hunting shack a couple of hours up into New Hampshire and it became a day trip for our families and most of New Wave.

That was how I ended up freezing my proverbial balls off in the middle of a small field on the first Saturday in December while I watched Taylor playing aerial tag with Lady Photon, Glory Girl, and Laserdream. Our parents, Brandish, and Manpower watched on. The fact that we were all wearing ski masks to both help with the cold and provide a little identity protection on the off chance that we needed it just made it even more surreal.

"There must be some sort of understanding of how to use the powers that comes along with her copies," Manpower was commenting to my father as we watched them go. "It took Victoria a while before she could fly like that."

My father started to say something in return, but Amy stepped over to me and I stopped listening in. "Do you want to see what you can do? I think they're going to be at that for a while, to see if she has some sort of limit on how long she can actively use her power. Then they'll probably change over to Aunt Sara's power and see if she can throw lasers."

I nodded, nervously. "Okay. I've been kind of avoiding it, but I guess I need to."

Amy found a stump to sit on while I set up some rocks on a patch of ground away from everyone else. I stepped away from my stony victims until it felt like I couldn't affect them anymore and then walked back until I could. "How far is that?" I asked, completely unsure of exactly how far away I was and not really eager to pace it out and then guess based on that.

"Maybe a hundred feet? Heck if I know." Amy commented as she looked between me and the rocks. I wished I had brought a long enough tape measure.

"Okay, so… first…" I concentrated on one of my targets and after about a second, it dissolved into gray dust. "I can do the disintegration trick."

"Copied my whole power, just like that, and from range," Amy groused, though I could see that she was grinning. I didn't get the feeling that she was that competitive, just naturally a bit grumpy. It was kind of endearing in a way. "What else do you have?"

"Well, there is this…" I did what I had done to that hair clip and ramped up the thermal energy inside the rock. It almost immediately turned red and after a second or two started to melt into a puddle of glowing hot goo, little bits of it smoking or bursting into flames as the non-rock bits reacted to the heat. Then I reversed it all and turned the thermal energy as low as I could get it. I couldn't actually get it to go all the way down like I'd done to the energy to make that other rock disintegrate, but the wavelength got really, really long. The rock solidified and the area around it visibly froze solid. In fact, the freezing effect spread out from the rock and into the ground so fast that I got nervous and turned the heat back up after just a few seconds.

"That's… don't ever do that near a person," Amy said as she stood up from her stump to back away a bit more. "I don't… Did you heat it back up or did it warm up on its own?"

I thought back to what I had just done. "While I was focusing on it, it didn't change at all. I turned it back up to normal…" I looked at it again. "And now it's slowed down again. The ground must be making it colder."

"That's… energy isn't supposed to work that way," she commented, frowning at the patch of frozen and likely very dead grass around my target. "But powers don't make sense most of the time, anyway."

"What're you girls doing?" Mr. Hebert asked as he wandered over with my mom.

"I'm trying to figure my power out and so far it's kind of…" I trailed off.

"Scary is a good word. She pulled off disintegration then she melted a rock before making it extremely cold." Amy seemed thoughtful as she listed it off.

"It's not that bad. That was just two kinds of energy. I have access to… well, lots and lots more. Some of them might be less… destructive." I shifted uncomfortably. When kids think about getting powers, they always think about stuff like Alexandria - nice, honest flight and super strength - or something like pretty rainbows - which half of New Wave seemed to have mastered. Untraceable death rays weren't really it.

Well, not for normal kids, anyway. Empire kids probably wanted those.

Emma would probably have killed for them, too, now that I thought about it.

"I'm sure there's something you can do that won't result in murder, honey," my mother encouraged me. She seemed annoyingly pleased with the devastation I was causing. "Give the next one a try."

That ended up being my whole day. The sheer number of energy types I could manipulate was staggering and figuring out what some of them actually did was difficult. At least half the time, turning a wavelength up or down didn't actually do anything visible to the target. The other half of the time, it was very obvious - and often would have killed someone if used too close to them. My powers were - thankfully - limited to working on non-living targets, but air was a non-living target. So was someone's clothing. I might not be able to make a person explode, but I could certainly make anything in their vicinity a serious problem.

There were useful effects mixed in with all of the things you only did if you wanted someone dead. I could make rocks fly - rather violently if I adjusted the waves too far up or down - and I could make them invisible. I also had several ways to make rocks invulnerable to other rocks being thrown at them, though I wasn't entirely sure on how the mechanics of all of those worked. Functionally, all of the effects were achieved the same way, though I was definitely manipulating different forces by touching different lines.

The other big thing was that I figured out that I could manipulate more than one thing at a time and on more than one target at a time. In fact, I seemed to be able to make a lot of things happen as long as I had a distinct idea of each individual manipulation. Something like making a set of stairs out of the air that I could walk up was easy enough once I thought of it. As was making a disc of air to fly around on, though my control was jerky at best.

Taylor's day was equally productive as she tried out the powers of each present member of New Wave - which was really everyone except for Flashbang. She could only copy one at a time, and once she had copied one, she couldn't use it again that day, but that seemed to be the only real limit. If there was some upper number of powers she could maintain the connections to, it had to be higher than the six she currently had in her arsenal. Getting a new power took several seconds, but changing between ones she had already used was near-instant.

My power was potent, but hers was a full level beyond that. Plus she could copy my powers if she wanted to. The main weakness that both of us had was going to be choosing the best option for a given situation. Her issue was probably worse, in some ways, because once she used one of her choices, she couldn't switch back to it that day. I didn't have that limitation, but I was still spoiled for choice for things to manipulate.

By the time the day came to an end, I was exhausted but happy. It was going to take a lot of work for me to get the most out of my power, but if I did, it seemed like a lot of things would be within my reach.

I hope that's less tedious than most power testing chapters go, though Madison is far from done figuring out how hers actually works.
 
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unless it's in same city as they are Triumvirate response to that is bit harder to swallow
I think it really depends on context. If a Ward is hurt or even killed in the process of normal hero-ing, then probably not. If a Ward is specifically targeted, especially out of costume, then I think it's much more likely. That kind of thing is a large chunk of why the Wards exist and is exactly the kind of thing that would bring a disproportionate response. It's practically the core selling point on the Wards program as far as the parents are concerned.
 
Speaking of the triumvirate, how far would Taylor's shard emulation go in regards to Eidolon? Queen would still be relatively topped up on energy, so she could arguably access the more expensive powers. But would she also cause more Endbringers to appear? Or, hell, maybe the Kiss-Cluster would influence the process and make them Friendbringers.

I'm enjoying the story so far, but it's also clear to me that I'll need to wait for chapters to build up before reading. These individual chapters don't move things forward far enough or include enough conversations to be entertaining, though the update pace is rather good in exchange.
 
Speaking of the triumvirate, how far would Taylor's shard emulation go in regards to Eidolon?
It most likely wouldn't work at all since they have basically the same shard, but with different restrictions. Or it would only barely work and not on the main part of it.

These individual chapters don't move things forward far enough or include enough conversations to be entertaining, though the update pace is rather good in exchange.
Fair. I have a tendency to go for "slow burn" and sometimes it's a bit slower than others.
 
Thanks for the chapter.

So far we know that Taylor can access every power she has copied before once a day and one at a time.
Also while asleep no power is active.

A great power for her to copy would probably be Dauntless power.
While Taylor would only be charged with energy to empower objects while the power is active, she could probably use the objects always.
She would only produce between 1/6 (if the power is 4 hours active per day) and 2/3 (if the power is 16hours active, (8 hours sleep)) of the energy compared to Dauntless.
 
It most likely wouldn't work at all since they have basically the same shard, but with different restrictions. Or it would only barely work and not on the main part of it.
Would the main part of it be the ability to drain powers, or the 'all-the-powers' part? Or would it, like, improve Queen's administrative ability? That really wouldn't do much without any powers, but I like the mental image of Queen but super buzzed on caffeine.
 
Maybe instead of full access to what's left of the Thinker's network copying Eidolon gives her whatever powers he's holding at the time? Either updating when he switches or a snapshot of when she last grabbed him.
 
Okay, I gotta admit: Madison has a VERY cool power. Taylor as well, but that's a given since she basically has all of them (eventually).

Now I'm wondering what their Cape names would be.
 
Cool update. I like the fluff sprikled in, really fleshes out the characters in a nice way
 
"That's not so bad," dad offered.

*snip*

"Well, Madison, dear… the way you asked to talk to us, we thought one of you was pregnant," my mother gently offered.
More bits that Trigger Events being the worst day in someone's life isn't really known. That's a fun anecdote that'll come across as rather neglectful to anyone in the known. Like, imagine saying that to someone who still has power-enforced trauma over being kidnapped and imprisoned with her sister?

Anyway, I wonder if any of those non-visible effects were altering the rock on time axis. If it could timetravel once, it could do so again, right?

The full reveal of powers to the NW does bring in an unexpected benefit. From-distance power copying is rather ridiculous, even with pre-touch limit, only matched by Bohu canonically - it seems you're really going for "match to Eidolon" here.
 
Oh my bad, I didn't know that.
She uses Frequency as a temporary codename, but actually ends up with something else later. Taylor starts out using Match and also changes it.

More bits that Trigger Events being the worst day in someone's life isn't really known.
I think it's canon that there was intentional misinformation about it, too. Carol probably wouldn't enjoy it because she had not only the things you list but also a teen pregnancy shortly thereafter to deal with so she might feel attacked.
 
Wonder if Taylor's power will have some kind of weird interaction with vial powers due to the screwed up shards
 
09 Stinker
There was remarkably little for us to do after the 'power testing' session on Saturday. The following week was Thanksgiving and Mrs. Dallon warned us that the government would be moving at a crawl for the rest of the year. She would be approaching them on our behalf, but as we weren't in any kind of rush, it was in our best interest to let it all play out on a regular schedule.

My family was going to be spending the holiday with my grandparents while Taylor's family had their own plans with friends. I wished that Taylor had a phone so I could text her, but she didn't. I'd never actually asked why, but I assumed it was money because we were in the docks and everything was about a lack of money.

The side effect of that was that I ended up texting Amy a lot. She was… I didn't want to say charming, because she absolutely was not charming, but there was something about her grumpiness that I found myself liking.

Of course, Amy was busy over the holidays, too, and I mostly ended up alone for the week. It was relaxing in a way, and I spent some time refining the 'safe' uses of my power I'd found.

Because I could hold a waveform steady, I could effectively create barriers within my range that didn't allow themselves to be changed in specific ways. I had only really tested it with kinetic energy - which stopped a thrown rock like a brick wall - but theoretically, I could do the same for any of the other types of energy I could manipulate, as well.

My power let me create so many different effects at the same time that I was starting to think that my mysterious third power was related to that. Other-Taylor had controlled a billion bugs at the same time so, if I assumed that she got a reworked version of the same power like Amy had, maybe that was the key? How controlling bugs and copying powers related, I had no idea, but powers didn't always make sense, as Amy was fond of saying.

Regardless, I could have a lot going on at one time, from shields to flying platforms to whatever else I figured out how to do. If it was inside of my radius of just short of one hundred and nine feet - or thirty three point two meters - there wasn't a lot I couldn't do to it. I just didn't understand what half of those things were as of yet and I was kind of afraid to experiment too much in case one of them gave me cancer or something. Amy could probably fix it, but she'd tease me mercilessly in the process.

The more I fiddled with using my power, the better my control got - up to a certain point, anyway. I could generate similar effects more smoothly once I'd practiced with them a bit, but I seemed to have a minimum size limitation. Once objects - or areas of air - got down to about the size of my littlest finger, controlling all of the individual attributes got progressively harder. I couldn't really do much at all for items smaller than my pinky nail.

I had a feeling that I would be working with barriers in a fight more than I would be directly manipulating most objects. I doubted I could manipulate the forces acting on a bullet while it was flying, but it was easy enough to grab a swath of air and make it into a bulletproof shield - most likely, anyway. I hadn't exactly tested that and I really didn't intend to without some serious safety protocols in place first. That'd be something for after joining the Wards.

Joining the Wards… well, Carol was on the case. At its heart, the Wards were kind of a combination of an afterschool program and a public relations job. The core duties of a Ward were all public outreach - which was mostly going to schools and talking about how gangs were bad and going on 'patrols' in safe, tourist-heavy areas of town. The standard contract spelled out a fairly low level of commitment, too, at twelve hours a week spread across three four hour shifts. The actual pay scale was salary which meant that we were free to 'donate' more time if we wished, though it was technically voluntary except in crisis situations.

That's where Carol was going to earn whatever payment our parents had negotiated with her on. If nothing else, Taylor's healing abilities and the likelihood that they would be pulling her in at all hours to deal with emergencies meant that she needed that specifically spelled out as an additional item in her contract. A big open question was whether or not Taylor could copy Tinker powers, but Carol was putting in provisions for things like that, as well, just in case. It cost us nothing to codify sections in the contract that wouldn't be activated.

Not everything was straightforward and smooth, of course. Carol suggested that we should work out the extent to which we would be willing to assist with Endbringer attacks and similar high-level events and put that into the contract, as well. Normally, Wards needed parental approval to engage in such risky activities, but it wasn't unheard of for a Ward to personally volunteer and for their parents to be unreachable. More than once, that had led to the Ward ultimately going against their parents wishes and attending only to get seriously injured or killed. Having a default position written out in the contract prevented that ambiguity.

Taylor and I both wanted it to be entirely our decision. I knew I wasn't going to go rushing into a fight I couldn't handle, but having the option completely barred to me felt wrong. If nothing else, I wanted to be able to help handle cleanup. Being able to disintegrate rubble alone would make me a huge help during the immediate aftermath, and that said nothing about Taylor's healing or whatever crazy powers she picked up to go with it. Our parents, on the other hand, wanted us nowhere near that kind of destruction at all.

I was probably jaded by my other-timeline experiences with Leviathan hitting Brockton Bay, but I felt like I had to help if I could. Taylor probably shouldn't have followed my lead on the subject, but she did.

Eventually, we negotiated with our families that we would not be allowed to attend major threat events but would be allowed to assist with post-battle emergency response. That would mostly be medical and rescue type activities, which weren't as flashy as fighting an Endbringer, but were mostly safe - physically, anyway.

The direct monetary compensation for Wards was not amazing and Carol warned us that negotiations were not likely to change that. Sudden major changes in finances were a red flag to any Thinkers looking into a person's background and at a minimum would make us stand out as suspicious. Instead, Wards were given a stipend that amounted to what a teenager could legally bring home from a good minimum wage job with hours limited by their age, though it did get a lot better after the first year. The rest of the money went into a trust fund that could be discharged in increments after separating from the Wards. It was commonly considered a 'college fund', but using it for education wasn't required.

The main reason for joining the Wards was safety, of course, but the money didn't hurt.

Dinner with my grandparents on Thursday was great. They were getting older but were still fairly young - one of the fringe benefits of mom having me at such a young age. We didn't bring up anything involving capes or mall fights, so it was just a nice day.

Friday, however, I got a text from Amy and called her after only half reading it.

"What's going on?" I asked sharply.

"I need your help with something," she said, sounding less certain than she usually did. She didn't sound upset or in trouble, though, so I realized I might have been overreacting a little.

"Okay? What with?" I asked more softly.

"My sister is dragging me along tonight to go out to dinner with her boyfriend. Every time she does this, she tries to set me up with someone and…"

"Oh, yeah, that would suck. Do you… need me to go with you?" I asked, hating the fact that I was feeling more nervous than I should have. Stupid residual emotions. "A-as a friend?"

"I… uh, yeah, I'd like for you to go with me. As a- uh, as a friend." She sounded less sure of the last bit and I held my phone away from my ear and stared at it for a moment like it was an alien creature.

I put the phone back to my ear. "Sure, what are friends for?" I said, trying to sound airy. I sort of succeeded.

"Okay, ah, great," she said and she did sound a little happier. My stupid heart skipped a stupid beat. "I'll text you the info, but you could just come over here by five and we'll go together."

"Alright," I agreed and we ended the call after a little more smalltalk.

I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. The conflicting emotions going through my head were wide and varied.

For one thing, I was a little worried that Taylor was going to get annoyed that Amy and I were meeting up without her. She and her dad had disappeared to New York State to visit her maternal grandmother, though, so she wasn't around to invite. They would be back either later Saturday or on Sunday. I hadn't gotten the whole story, but apparently Taylor's dad and grandmother didn't get along that well and the whole thing was spur-of-the-moment, possibly sparked by Taylor's near death experience at the mall.

For another thing, part of me was way too old to be dating a fourteen year old. It was kind of tempered by the fact that a big part of me felt like it was still a fourteen year old, but it was still weird, at best. Then again, dating didn't have to mean anything physical would happen, or at least nothing seriously physical.

Yet another part of me was annoyed at the artificial emotions that had been left over after the more active Master effect faded. I barely knew Amy and while I was starting to genuinely like her, I had started from a place of unearned affection that I knew wasn't natural.

The last part… I was just excited to be going on a date. Or a friend-date. Whatever it was, I'd certainly get to hang out with someone I liked being around and maybe do something fun in the process. In my last life, I'd been social, but I hadn't really ever dated. I'd flirted a lot - with mostly boys but occasionally girls - but it had never been more than that before Leviathan. Afterwards, I'd been dealing with a lot of stuff, including the revelation that Taylor was a cape and that it was likely my fault.

As an added bonus, it got me out of the house on what was probably going to be a very quiet, boring evening. Mom and dad had each picked up a seasonal shift at one of the bigger stores downtown and had been dealing with Black Friday shoppers at four in the morning. It was unlikely that they'd be doing much other than sleeping to recover and then going to bed early so they could do another shift in the morning.

I wasn't joining the Wards for the money, but it would be a lie to say that it wasn't welcome. Even if I was only pulling in an amount that was carefully calculated to not be suspicious, it would still be enough money to move the needle on our living situation. Anything that could take a little bit of the stress off of my parents could only be a good thing.

For now, though, I needed to decide on what to wear.

oOoOoOoOo

"Madison, this is Dean. We're going to have our one year anniversary in a couple of weeks. Dean, this is Madison. She is Amy's… friend." Victoria announced and she intentionally stretched it out to make it sound suspicious. She'd caught us holding hands while we were waiting for Dean to pick us all up and we had, admittedly, looked guilty about it so she'd decided to tease us.

"Nice to meet you," I said with a little wave.

He gave me a smile and a polite nod in return. "And nice to meet you, too."

"So, where are we going?" Amy interjected, apparently tired of the boring introductions.

"I was thinking about getting pizza and going bowling down on the boardwalk," Dean suggested, which drew an affirmative noise from Victoria.

I glanced at Amy who shrugged. "Alright, that's fine. Let's just get it over with."

Dean caught my eye and winked. I wasn't entirely sure why he was doing that, but I found myself blushing in response anyway. He seemed to find that even more amusing.

Before I knew it, I was bundled into the back of Dean's very nice - but very small - car. If I were a full-sized person, I have no idea how I would have fit in there with Amy, but fortunately, I wasn't. Instead, it was just a really tight fit and I found all of those artificial snuggly feelings lighting up as I was kind of 'forced' to share closed quarters.

"Sorry about this," Amy whispered, looking genuinely apologetic. "I doubt Victoria told him I was bringing a friend or he would have brought a different car. Or we could have just met them there."

"Your sister is a stinker," I commented just as softly. My hands wormed their way around in a half-hug that helped maximize the space available to us. It was for no other reason.

Amy snorted. "You swear like a little old lady," she whispered back, giggling softly after she said it.

"I'm sorry, gosh darn it," I whispered back. It was an old habit I had rediscovered after coming back in time. I looked younger than I was, physically, and using childish not-swears almost fit the image. I cranked it to eleven sometimes, though, just because I found it amusing. "Cheese and rice."

Amy giggled again and I realized exactly how close we were. It was ni-

"You two okay back there?" Victoria asked, twisting her head around to look at us. The car - a sports car, really, had molded seats that made it hard for her to look at us.

"We're fine!" I supplied. Then, under my breath, I added, "Jiminy Cricket."

That just set Amy into another giggling flit.

It seemed like the night was off to a good start.

This went fluffy for... reasons.
 
I'll never say no to fluff, sirrah.
Amy snorted. "You swear like a little old lady," she whispered back, giggling softly after she said it.

"I'm sorry, gosh darn it," I whispered back.
UMjsXGj.png
 
Fluff is always appreciated. Sad they couldn't involve Taylor, but more time with Amy is also good.

When I read that Taylor is in New York, I immediately thought 'Will she end up copying any powers over there? Legend??' but probably not. It'd be pretty cool though.

If it was inside of my radius of just short of one hundred and nine feet - or thirty three point two meters - there wasn't a lot I couldn't do to it.

Thank you for converting the units.
 
Joining the Wards… well, Carol was on the case. At its heart, the Wards were kind of a combination of an afterschool program and a public relations job. The core duties of a Ward were all public outreach - which was mostly going to schools and talking about how gangs were bad and going on 'patrols' in safe, tourist-heavy areas of town. The standard contract spelled out a fairly low level of commitment, too, at twelve hours a week spread across three four hour shifts. The actual pay scale was salary which meant that we were free to 'donate' more time if we wished, though it was technically voluntary except in crisis situations.

That's where Carol was going to earn whatever payment our parents had negotiated with her on. If nothing else, Taylor's healing abilities and the likelihood that they would be pulling her in at all hours to deal with emergencies meant that she needed that specifically spelled out as an additional item in her contract. A big open question was whether or not Taylor could copy Tinker powers, but Carol was putting in provisions for things like that, as well, just in case. It cost us nothing to codify sections in the contract that wouldn't be activated.
You know, if it wasn't for the bits about emergencies, it'd seem like Wards would never have reason to use their power outside of testing, being just showpieces, even if I understand the point with powers like Oliver's around. Kinda going against the whole "join Wards to use your powers" thing, heh...especially with the first thing Carol jumped to was using Wards to stop crime followed by suggesting them as business opportunity as well. Supposedly, in other cities Wards rarely to almost never engage in fights with criminals, either, putting Shadow Stalker's offhours patrols in a more sympathetic light if you twist and ignore facts.

Of course, they live in Brockton Bay, where Wards get to respond to crimes in progress on their own, even.

For one thing, I was a little worried that Taylor was going to get annoyed that Amy and I were meeting up without her. She and her dad had disappeared to New York State to visit her maternal grandmother, though, so she wasn't around to invite. They would be back either later Saturday or on Sunday. I hadn't gotten the whole story, but apparently Taylor's dad and grandmother didn't get along that well and the whole thing was spur-of-the-moment, possibly sparked by Taylor's near death experience at the mall.
Between this and texting Amy incessantly, is this ⌜setting up Amy as the main pairing⌟? Lets see how the cutefied date goes.

Madison might come across to the parents and especially college-aged or older teenagers as strikingly anachronistic indeed tbh, between deliberately underplaying her age by cute and displaying knowledge of isolated post-apocalypse adult. Like, girl, you're a middle-class middleschooler, why are you thinking like world is in ruins?
I should really try writing one of those sometime. It would probably end up hilarious because I can't write grim dark to save my life.
Have any amusing attempts?
 
Like, girl, you're a middle-class middleschooler, why are you thinking like world is in ruins?
It's not that strange, I don't think.

Parents: "Madison, why are you acting like the world ended?"
Madison: "Because it did! Taylor's gone! Gone somewhere I can't go!"
Parents: "She's just out of state, Madison."
Madison: *aggressively leaning into Kiss-Kiss cluster to cope*

See, perfectly normal teenage behaviour!
 
it'd seem like Wards would never have reason to use their power outside of testing, being just showpieces,
On paper, that is definitely true. They also get training in how to use their powers and mentorship from the Protectorate members.

In reality, a lot of that "volunteer" stuff is extra patrols and a degree of leeway in low-risk crimefighting. I choose to think that a lot of what Sophia got up to was a long game being played by Coil to either turn her into a better asset (either for the PRT or his Coil persona) or to use her against the PRT ("look what they let her do!"). Or both. Systems definitely suck, but Sophia got away with entirely too much stuff for there to have been someone other than a high school principal helping her out.

Have any amusing attempts?
None that I'll confess to.
 
10 Out
Despite what might be natural to assume from the general state of the Docks, the Boardwalk was one of the safer areas of town. The Enforcers - basically a gang that the various shops of the boardwalk 'contracted' with for security - kept the rabble in check and the bigger gangs had no interest in scaring off the tourists in the first place. Tourists meant jobs for the locals which in turn meant money they could spend on drugs or various other gang rackets. Gangs were scum, but the successful ones were smart enough to understand basic economics.

On the other hand, I wouldn't exactly call it bustling on a rainy day after Thanksgiving. There were people around, but they weren't really crowds. That was probably a good thing, I realized a bit late, as dense crowds would probably have exceeded my limits on data processing. I was getting by alright at school, but holiday shopping crowds could be even crazier than crowded hallways.

"I didn't know you could bowl," Amy commented as I sat down. I wasn't exactly getting a perfect game, but it was going pretty well.

"It is but one of my many hidden talents," I declared cockily. I wasn't even using my powers to cheat or anything - the end of the lane was well outside my range and adjusting the ball's kinetic energy directly would have been even harder than just being good at bowling - I just knew how to bowl pretty well because it was cheap enough for my family to have done it semi-regularly.

She bumped her shoulder into mine. "So humble, too."

I bumped her back, grinning, and was about to retort when I heard a giggle that drew my attention.

Victoria had her phone's camera pointed at us and was smiling like an idiot. "Don't mind me. You two are adorable," she declared when she saw that I was staring at her. I blushed. "Please continue."

"Vicky," Amy almost growled, and I found it kind of attractive.

Something about the way Amy said it cut through Victory's good mood and she put her phone down. "Sorry, sorry, it's just… sorry."

Amy glared at her for another few seconds then apparently decided to let it go. "I'm sorry about her. She's not normally like this, but… she gets ideas into her head sometimes and it would take a truck to knock them out."

"Well, sugar cookies," I mumbled, which made Amy stare at me for a moment before snorting at my mock swearing. It made me grin back.

"Fine," Victoria groaned, and I saw Dean hand her phone back to her. He saw me looking and gave me a thumbs-up. I rolled my eyes at him while grinning.

"Dean seems nice," I commented to Amy.

"He is," she grumbled. I got the feeling there was some history there. "Too nice, sometimes."

Definitely history. I let it go since that wasn't what I was interested in at the moment. "Isn't it your turn to bowl?"

She rolled her head around in a circle to loosen up her neck. "Fine…"

Watching Amy pretend not to have fun was more enjoyable than I would have expected. She rolled the ball down the alley and nailed the lead pin at a weird angle, leaving three pins down the right side for her to try to get with her next go. She claimed the ball from the return and managed to get two of them.

Before she could make it back to her seat beside me, Victoria grabbed her by the arm. "We're going to go check out the snack bar!" she declared and sort of tugged her sister in that direction. Amy didn't put up much of a fight but gave me a little wave as she went.

Meanwhile, Dean came over to sit near me. "So, Amy's having a good time," he noted casually.

"Despite her best efforts, yes," I agreed. I watched the two sisters head for the restroom, which was probably for the best. Bowling and then eating without washing your hands in between seemed like a really gross idea, so a detour on the way to the snack bar was definitely in order.

"Have you two known each other long?" he asked after a moment. I got the feeling that he was feeling me out for some reason.

"We met at the mall a couple of weeks ago. During the-, you know." I left it vague because I really didn't want to talk about it.

It must have come across in the way I said it because Dean winced sympathetically. "Ah, yeah. That. I'm sorry."

"It's… well, it's not okay, but it is what it is and only the people responsible are to blame. Victoria didn't tell you about that?" I asked curiously.

Dean shook his head. "I know how she can come across, but Victoria isn't one to gossip about people. Not really. People mistake her being energetic for her being flighty, but she's actually very smart."

"You're her boyfriend," I mused, though I wasn't really arguing. "You have to say nice things like that."

He grinned and laughed lightly. "I do, but it's still true."

Eventually, the Dallon sisters came back - suspiciously without food - and we finished our game before heading home. I hadn't quite decided what I thought about the night, even by the time I'd ridden the bus home from their house. Dean had offered to give me a ride, but I didn't want to impose on his time with his girlfriend.

oOoOoOoOo

"So, I heard you were making out with some girl in public over the weekend, Maddy. Decided to become a dyke since the only boys that go for you are pedos?" Emma hissed venomously. Mondays were never fun, much less a Monday after a four day weekend. Emma was just the icing on the shit cake.

"Are you looking to upgrade from Sophia? I'm afraid that I'm not interested. Have you considered some of the truck stops over by the highway? I'm sure some big Bertha would be all over you if you begged just right. You'd better hurry up before your looks start to fade, though, because your personality," I leaned closer and stage whispered the rest. "It's just not going to cut it."

Emma's eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared. If I didn't dislike her so much, I might have considered it attractive. If I got Amy that riled up, I'd probably enjoy the attention… and I added that to my list of 'trouble to create' for later. Not that an innocent person like me would create trouble or anything.

In any case, Emma kept butting heads with me, which was amusing to say the least. I knew a ton of her weak spots from my first time through all of this, and I wasn't afraid to poke them. If I wanted to become the 'queen' of the freshmen, I probably could have managed it with what I knew, but I wasn't really interested. Odds were that I would be strapped for free time before long and high school politics seemed so pointless.

She had enough self control to not embarrass herself further with a half-baked response. Unfortunately for her, the warning bell rang before she could find a properly biting retort and I used the excuse to hustle off to my next class. I didn't spare Emma a second glance, though I did wonder a little about where Sophia was hiding. She hadn't been Emma's shadow for that confrontation, and it was rare to see Emma doing her little power plays alone. She wouldn't bring a big crowd along, but a couple of trusted cronies were usually on hand to witness any victories.

I sank into my seat in English just after the final bell, but I'd beat it into the room, which was all that really counted.

"Everything okay?" Taylor whispered. We had adjacent seats in this class, which made that easy enough. We didn't actually associate for most of the day - in part due to my initial efforts to not draw extra attention to her in my war against Emma and in part due to just having different classes.

Past-me hadn't been the best student, though current-me was doing really well just because of my increase in maturity. Spending an hour studying didn't seem like that huge of a sacrifice after living in a post-apocalyptic hellhole for a while.

"Just Emma being herself," I grumbled back.

Taylor nodded and the teacher cleared her throat to get everyone's attention so we had to be quiet. A little later in the class, I passed her a note asking if she wanted to hang out after school and she agreed. I had things I wanted to ask her about, and I had been struggling to figure out exactly how to approach them ever since Friday night.

I'd eventually decided that there was nothing as effective as just bulldozing straight ahead and inviting her over. It was the kind of thing that was best done sooner than later.

Back in my room, we somehow ended up with me brushing her hair again. It had been a few days, so there were bits that were tangly. I couldn't have my hard work go to waste, plus it was quite soothing, even if there was a chance that it was something left over from our powers mindfucking us.

"How was your grandmother's place?" I asked as I worked the brush.

"Good," she replied, almost reflexively, but she then continued more thoughtfully. "Well, good but also tense. Dad and Gram… they don't get along too well, but I think dad's kind of shaken up about the whole cape thing. He wanted to make an effort for my sake, I think, and Gram was… more accommodating than I remembered. So it went well enough."

"That's good, I guess. Did you end up telling her about…"

"No, it never came up and I wasn't going to interject it. The way… well, I feel like when one of us starts talking, it gives information about all three of us. I know Amy's going to end up announced publicly at some point, but you and I aren't."

That had been a point Carol had raised, and it was ultimately decided that there was no point in announcing that Amy had powers until she got through whatever healer verification the PRT was going to insist on. There was apparently a standard testing process they used but with the holidays and the need to arrange volunteers, it wasn't happening very quickly. Taylor would likely have to go through something similar if she wanted to use Amy's powers for healing the general public, but exceptions could be made for internal PRT and Protectorate patients.

"That's good, I guess. I've not told anyone, either." I changed the subject. "Things around here were pretty boring, for the most part. It rained a lot."

There was a bit more smalltalk before I finally just went for it. "Taylor, uh, I need to ask you a question. I mean, it's not a big deal either way, but how do you feel about girls?"

"Girls?" she asked and met my eyes in the mirror. "In what way? I mean, Emma's kind of a bitch right now."

"I mean, like, for dating," I clarified.

"Oh… I haven't really thought much about it?" she tried, but from the blush on her face I could tell that she wasn't telling the whole truth.

"How about in general? Does it bother you if two girls are dating?"

"Oh, no, not at all. I mean, you don't really see it much, but… It's fine with me." Unspoken was the issue of the Nazis. Lesbians were not as oppressed as gay men, by any stretch, but quite a few Empire kids had really gross opinions on gay women, too. They just tended to be a little slower to go for violence against them.

"And personally? Are there any girls you're into?" I asked, trying to figure out why she'd turned bright red a moment ago.

"Well, ah, I normally don't like… uh, well, ever since I met her, I can't stop thinking about Victoria." She admitted in a rush.

"Okay," I said and gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder. "She is kind of cute, but her boyfriend is super nice so I'm not sure you'll get anywhere."

"It's just a crush, I think. She's nothing like my normal type. I like… well, really strong guys. She's… not that. At all." Taylor seemed to be fighting through embarrassment to make these admissions.

"It's alright," I assured her. "I'm… well, I like both, at least a little. I was… okay, so Amy and I sort of went on a date on Friday. It was really casual but it kind of felt like a date."

"Oh. That's cool. Are you two…"

"No idea. It was fun, and if there really is some sort of agenda our powers have that require us to work together, we're going to have to be allies in the future so maybe that's in the cards, anyway. I don't want to risk being stuck working with someone after a big relationship mess, but I also don't want to say no in case it turns out amazing, right?" I knew I was babbling a little so I made myself stop talking.

Taylor was grinning at my reflection. "That's adorable. You should totally date her."

I felt a little something inside me relax at the 'permission'. In the other timeline, I had been obsessed with Taylor, but I didn't think it was romantic - probably - and she had certainly never looked twice at me. This time, things were much more complicated, and I was just glad that I wasn't going to make a complete mess of things.

Probably.

I have gazed into the abyss so long that it has gazed back. In my heart is the inky black of pure despair which makes mortals weep and tear at their own flesh begging for a merciful god to end the suffering. But no god does.

(I watched a high school production of Grease today.)
 

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