11

Examination 3

When I arrived at the intersection, I didn't even see Tattletale before I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to see the blonde teen, sans mask. "Hey, new girl. I'm Lisa."

"Hi. I'm Taylor," I said as I gave her a little wave.

"There's a coffee shop that's got fairly private seating nearby," Lisa said. "We can chat there if you like."

I still didn't quite trust her. Thankfully, I had a decent number of bots simply laying around in the street. I used them to keep watch for anyone she may have been using to ambush me, but I didn't see anyone suspicious. I followed her to a small shop, Bean Addiction. There was plenty of seating; the layout of the floorplan and the odd décor meant that the seats were arranged at random angles with random objects between each table. Hanging plants and artwork drawn directly on the glass blocked any clear sightline from the outside. They were also playing music a little too loud for my tastes if I wanted to relax with a hot drink, but I suppose that was why Lisa picked this place. Harder to overhear.

I got myself a fancy tea, Lisa ordered a sugary espresso. After we placed our orders, Lisa leaned in closer to talk. "So. What's new with you? I suppose it's been a busy few days, hasn't it?"

As friendly as she was being, I wasn't going to give details of my personal life to a villain. "Busy. Sure. If you want my help, I need details."

"Fair. I don't even really want to be a villain. Maybe not even a hero. Too much publicity for me. But like I told you before, I didn't have a choice. What I need to know is how much better your Tinkering has gotten."

"Better. Still improving. I think I should let you know that I'm seriously considering joining New Wave," I told her before she attempted some kind of recruitment pitch.

"I see. As a medical Tinker? Your power's as versatile as I figured. That's good. You've been able to start treating your own wounds and construct armour and do the surveillance all with the same power. And other things you haven't even thought of yet. Very nice."

"You seem to know everything already," I said, a little annoyed at the way she was just blurting it out again. At least the loud music was useful.

Lisa didn't seem to care. "But you're having doubts. You don't want to just be a healer, do you? There are people out there who have hurt you, and being a healer means you're simply going to have to accept the Hippocratic oath and limit yourself. Let everyone else handle actually catching the criminals and bringing justice. But you don't quite trust the others to actually bring justice. Does that sound about right?"

My memory of Armsmaster early this morning was still grating on me. And Sophia. Ugh. I didn't think it showed that much on my face, but Lisa looked like she was reading me like a book. I didn't know how to stop her. "You talk a lot," I told her bluntly.

Lisa just laughed. "Yeah, I've heard that one before. Even when I'm not trying to annoy someone into making a mistake. Don't worry, I'm on your side. I want to help you out, make sure you do well in the cape scene."

"And get a bit of a favour in return?"

Lisa laughed. "Just a teensy little favour, sure. So, let's start with the basics. You're a new cape. Do you know about the Unwritten Rules?"

I nodded. "They're basically the Golden Rule applied to superpowers, right?"

"That's a good way of putting it. You just have to realize what it really means when it comes to capes, though. I mean, 'don't kill unless you want to be killed' applied to a lot of gangs and police before powers came about, so that was natural. You just have to realize how important that is when powers come into play, though. Take Kaiser, for example. He can spawn blades out of nowhere. Instantly slaughter an entire room if he really wanted to. And he can do it while he's wearing nothing but a speedo."

That was not an image I needed in my head.

"If you knew someone with that power, who was willing to kill in the past, what would be the only way to engage him safely? Keep in mind that, unlike a soldier, you can't see him holding a gun or a grenade. He could literally be naked and he could spawn all the blades he wanted. Even if he was handcuffed, tied up, pinned to the ground, he could still do it. What could you possibly do to stop him from killing you?"

The answer was pretty obvious. "Kill him first..." I said.

"Exactly. Powers raise the stakes. Guns are bad enough, but people still have to aim them, and they can usually be seen carrying them, and the ones small enough to be hidden can usually be blocked with bulletproof armor or have limited ammo. You can't do that with powers. So it's really to Kaiser's disadvantage to ever kill anyone – once he does, the only safe way of interacting with him is to kill him before he sees you. Once he kills with his power, it's a gun he can't ever stop pointing at people even if he tries."

"But hasn't Kaiser killed people before?"

Lisa shrugged. "Kaiser tries to be very strict about the people he kills personally. He lays out his own set of rules and follows them to the letter. He announces who he kills and why. That way, other people know not to cross a certain line with him. And he has plenty of followers to lay the blame on whenever things get out of hand. Lung, on the other hand, just relies on the fact that he's too hard to kill and anyone seeking retaliation is just going to die. So, like any rule, if you have enough power backing you up, you get to ignore it."

Didn't I know that well enough.

"So the same thing goes for the Endbringer Truce. Most truces really, but the Endbringer Truce especially. We need everyone we can get to fight Endbringers. Anyone who hampers that effort… well, they might as well be on the side of the Endbringers. Hero or Villain, everyone will want to kill 'em on sight."

Tattletale went on. "The last thing – well, not the last thing, but the last really important thing, is about secret identities. Everyone wants to have a life outside of their powers. Long story short, if you're willing to hit someone when they're sleeping, or their families… you're asking for everyone else to do the same to you. Just like the Golden Rule. Nobody sane wants that level of escalation. New Wave was trying to abolish that rule, but it hasn't worked out like they thought it would."

That was one of my real concerns. Dad was all I had left in the world, and he'd be especially in danger if I joined New Wave. "What about those who aren't so sane?"

Tattletale perked up. "That's something else I wanted to talk about. You want to keep your cape identity and civilian identity as separate as possible. Only close friends should know." She narrowed her eyes at me. "I think it's my duty to inform you about Fleur."

"Fleur?"

"Back in the days when the Empire 88 was rising to fill the void that Marquis's defeat left. New Wave was basically at the height of their popularity. They'd just cleaned up Marquis' gang, and they were pushing on the Empire pretty hard as their next target. One of the Empire goons decided to kill her in her home. Snuck in at night and shot her while she slept."

Erk.

"Publicly, Kaiser executed the guy for it, calling it dishonorable. But rumour has it, and my power too, says he actually rewarded the guy and just executed some other person they were planning to kill anyway. The evidence is long gone though, so nothing we can prove."

That was scary.

"To be fair, they haven't suffered any other losses and nobody's tried to attack New Wave at their homes again," Lisa offered. "But you're going to need a decent security system at your home."

Yeah. Security. Like... more bots, covering the entire neighbourhood. Not just enough deliver a tiny static shock or watch. Enough to actually swarm over a person and hold them down.

Lisa was still watching me. "Confident in your home security? Oh, that's why Shadow Stalker's out of commission. Grue's gonna like that."

"What do you mean? What do you know about that?"

"Oh, nothing much. Shadow Stalker had a grudge against Grue because his power trumps her power, and he could beat her up in a fight easily. She was going full lethal against him. And I guess she broke the rules against you, too. Damn, she is not going to last very long with that attitude."

Somehow it was satisfying to confirm that Shadow Stalker was ranked pretty low even in the cape world. Maybe that was why she was such a bully in school. Still, it was worrying that my personal life had been revealed so easily and so quickly. "That's not what I'm talking about. How did you know? It's only been a few hours..."

Lisa shrugged. "One of the things my boss makes me do is hack into the PRT servers. I know what they know. Saw a whole lot of activity this morning. Fast-track warrant, emergency Wards recall, your name showed up in a preliminary report. I put two and two together. Oh, yeah, word of caution: my boss and the Empire have moles everywhere. Including the police and PRT. Watch what you say around them."

I just nodded quietly. "And somehow I can trust you?"

"I hate my boss, remember? If you wanna succeed, you gotta deceive. I swear my boss has no idea I'm here. As for you, have a costume that hides as much of your identity as possible. If you use your power without your mask on, keep it as subtle as possible. Act differently. Talk differently. You know Circus, the one who helped us rob the bank? They're so good at hiding their own gender, even my powers can't figure out what they really are. In-costume, female. Civilian, probably male. I'm not even sure if Circus thinks of themselves as male or female, the body language cues change with their costume."

Huh. Now that was a hell of a power even if it wasn't flashy as spitting flame and knife-throwing. "So, it seems to be you're telling me not to join New Wave."

Lisa smirked. "Did I say that?"

"You're doing a hell of a job scaring me off with that Fleur story. And all your advice is basically the opposite of what New Wave stands for. I can't have a secret identity and keep myself safe if I join them." Though it would be really cool to be working with Panacea and Glory Girl...

"Why not both?" Lisa said. She looked like the cat that caught the canary.

I stared at her, not knowing what she meant.

"Genuine advice here. Being a New Wave healer gives you two major advantages. One, you'll be publicly known as a healer. Healers get a bit of... extra de-facto immunity from just about everything. Nobody wants to die, whether they're heroes or villains. Nobody knows when they'll need to call in a big favour when they're really, really trying to not die. Now that you're also going to be on the same team as the best damn healer on the planet, nobody would want to touch you, or your family, and earn a grudge from New Wave. One wrong move and they lose access to both you and Panacea."

"Except the crazies."

"Yeah, except a few crazies. But that's always a problem no matter where you go."

"And the second advantage?" I asked.

"My boss won't be able to recruit you," she said.

"You really hate him, don't you?"

"I'll admit, he's been pushing me to try to recruit you. If he knew even half of what I know about your powers' potential, he'd force me to recruit you now. No question. If I can't convince you to join, he'd send mercenaries and have both you and your dad tied up with a bomb vest until you agreed. No matter what he offers, you do not want to work for him."

"I guess I'm starting to see why you want to quit your job," I said.

"Yeah, I've been trying to half-ass the recruitment jobs as much as I can get away with, but my boss only tolerates so much failure. I push too far and I'll end up with a bullet in my head. But if you legitimately join New Wave pronto, it's out of my hands. I can honestly tell him you already have a solid, supportive team that makes you feel safe. Done."

This was not the recruitment pitch I had been expecting.

"So here's my proposal. Your power lets you control those robots remotely, right? You've got some kind of… Master ability on top of your Tinkering."

I nodded again.

"You can join New Wave as a healer... and fight crime too."

"Is there a rule for healers who also fight? Do people still treat them like healers?" I asked.

"That's not what I'm saying. I think you do the crime-fighting remotely. Have a body made entirely out of your robots, controlled from a distance. Make people think it's an entirely different person. It's all about deception, remember? You can fake its gender and height and everything. That'll protect your New Wave identity."

Huh. I didn't think of that. Then again, I never had that many bots on me at once. The suggestion spawned more ideas and designs from my Tinker power. It didn't even take many changes from my current designs, just some additional linkage points... and numbers. Big, big numbers of bots.

But that also meant keeping an extra secret identity, from New Wave? What would happen if they found out?

"Would... would that actually work?" I asked.

"Well, if you really want to play this game, then the key is to just not get caught," Lisa said. "Most people still haven't heard of you. Your PRT files still haven't confirmed that you actually have powers yet. So if you publicly reveal yourself with New Wave, you'll be a confirmed healer/tinker. All you do with that power is work with Panacea and help people. That's your face, that's your identity. You make everyone think you've shown all your cards by joining New Wave."

I could see where she was going with this.

"For real cape duties, crime-fighting, and other stuff, you have another identity. That one is entirely remote-controlled. I'd suggest a tall, masculine body. Make it very hard for anyone to make the connection between that cape and you. It has to be a different person, who appears to have a different power set. Again, keep it even further separated from your civilian persona."

That was a lot to think about.

"Thanks for the advice. Don't take this the wrong way, but what exactly do you think I can do to help you against your boss?" I assumed that would be the favour she needed later. On one hand, it put me on guard again to know she wanted me for my powers. Then again, she was willing to admit it. "Why do you need me specifically?"

Lisa put a finger on her cheek and pretended to think. "Couple reasons. You're not too prejudiced against us like a lot of veteran heroes. You're willing to take risks to do the right thing. You're jaded enough to know that the PRT's idea of a hero isn't really what it's cracked up to be... but the same goes for us villains. Your powers are super-versatile, from espionage to combat to defense to healing, given enough time and practice. Lastly, Coil doesn't have anything on you. Yet."

"Who's Coil?" I asked. "Your boss?"

She pulled out her fancy-looking smartphone and opened up a news article. "Did you hear about this?"

I quickly scrolled through it. A news article about the kidnapping of Dinah Alcott, the Mayor's niece. "What about it?"

"Check the date."

I looked more closely. It was the same day as the bank robbery.

"We were paid to rob the bank, whether we were successful or not. And we got to keep all that we managed to steal. Obviously, our boss didn't want us robbing the bank for the money. I swear none of us knew what his actual plans were when we did the bank job."

"Distraction. Kidnapping. Does he want a ransom or something?" I concluded. Her boss was the type of person who kidnapped young children of politicians.

"Definitely not. He's not hurting for money, no way. Ransom demands bring too much attention. My boss likes to lay low. My guess? She has powers and he'll exploit her for all she's worth."

"Exploit." I repeated the distasteful word.

"That's my boss. For him, anything's acceptable. He makes an offer you can't refuse. And if you do refuse..." she held up a finger to her temple mimicking a gun and silently mouthed, 'bang.' "Nobody's heard of him because he doesn't want to be known. He's got dirt on all the other gangs, double agents in all the gangs and the PRT. So when I say I can't afford to trust anyone to get me out from under his thumb, I mean it. That's why I need you. As bad as Brockton Bay is, I don't stumble across a cape like you every day."

"You want me to help you escape from his grasp. You promise not to be a villain any more if you do?"

"I could be making so much more money and living the high life, legally, with my powers. The problem is that villains want my powers as well. This is a life I can't get away from without help."

"And the rest of your team won't help? They're okay with that kind of thing?"

"He's got... different forms of leverage over each of us. It's not always as simple as a gun to the head."

"Okay. And how are you going to keep in contact? I don't have a phone."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "I'll buy you one. What are friends for?"

"Friends?" I was hesitant to use that word for anyone in my life right now.

"Well, it's not like we're teammates. I'm trying to prevent that. And I'm not joining New Wave."

"Yeah, but... friends?"

"You seemed like you need a friend. I need a friend. My powers tell me you're having a bit of a rough time. So am I. We should stick together."

I sighed. "A phone's a pretty big purchase, though..."

"Girl, I can get you a phone and pay two years' of service up front. If there's one good thing about Coil, it's that he has plenty of money and is willing to throw it around. He doesn't just threaten people. The carrot and the stick, as they say."

I raised my eyebrow.

"Still not worth joining him. But I'm going to milk him for all he's worth while I can," she reminded me. "Come on, let's go phone shopping."

I was deliberately skipping school at this point. I knew dad would get mad at me if he found out, but it was pretty pointless to suffer just to keep up appearances. I had the equivalent of an engineering PhD in my head, and all it would do was slow down my development. At least, for another day or two, I could still use the excuse that I was traumatized from the break-in.

So, instead of going to school, I headed out to establish my new workshop. I hadn't forgotten the reason I had gone out that night when I had crossed paths with Lung. That experience made me sure to find a place much further from ABB territory than I originally planned.

Originally I had wanted a whole building to myself, but I revised that plan. There weren't many abandoned, full buildings in the nicer areas of town. The shady parts of town had plenty of space, but... well, gangsters and drugged-up squatters everywhere. I didn't need a large, complex workshop. I worked on the microscopic scale, after all. I only needed room to hold raw materials and test my designs. I ended up finding a place in between Lord's Market and the Boardwalk, which was nice enough. It was a walled-off and abandoned room at the back of some building, covered in dust and cobwebs. Insulation and piping were exposed and the ceiling sloped upwards. It wasn't much more than a cupboard underneath a flight of stairs. Less than half the size of my bedroom, probably lost and forgotten from some kind of renovation - perfect for me. Only a small ventilation hole, accessible by bots, formed the entrance.

I kept an eye (or a few billion) on school whenever I passed within range. Mostly keeping track of my former bullies, watching the Principal's office to know if they called Dad or not. It was pretty amusing how quickly the kids at Winslow turned on each other. Just two weeks ago, I was still resident the punching bag, and Emma was the most beautiful and most popular girl there. Today, Madison still sported a nasty haircut while Emma hid hers with a wig. Emma wasn't nearly as confident without Sophia. Madison was quickly turning into the school loser, and Emma did nothing to back her up. Who would have guessed?

Rumours flew around the school; everyone knew my relation to the trio. The simultaneous disappearance of me and Sophia were not coincidences. Ideas ranged from somewhat realistic, like that I had finally snapped and attacked Sophia (I mean, it wasn't too far from the truth), to crazy (that I had murdered Sophia and was in jail, or vice versa), to completely absurd (that Sophia had "teased" me because she had a secret crush and we were now an item. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you people?) After I heard that last rumour, I decided enough was enough and walked away to focus on my work. If rumours that dumb were floating around, nobody would be getting close to the truth.

As far as my Tinkering went, I needed to both sense and manipulate things at the sub-cellular level. The current diamond powder I had been using was able to cut and scrape through larger objects well enough, but it only seemed like a clean cut to the human eye. Microscopically, it was a jagged mess. If I were to get them working at a smaller scale, I needed to control how they were shaped.

In short, I needed microscopic diamonds cut precisely. The problem was that, despite its strength, diamond was also extremely brittle. My options were either find an entirely different material to work with, or manufacture the diamond myself and just continuously replace the broken parts.

I ended up choosing the latter. There were just far too many opportunities if I managed to get that technology right, so many problems I could solve in a single swoop.

If I could manufacture my own diamond-edge tools, then I could theoretically be able to have diamond-scale armour. Compared to the steel bots I used, it would be less weight, more strength, and all built from the same source. It was one hell of a useful material. And if I could build diamond at the microscopic scale, maybe I could make large diamonds with more time. Big enough to be worth selling to a jeweller.

On top of that, the base material was cheap. Diamonds may be expensive, but I could get plenty of bulk carbon in the form of charcoal. Or flour. Or gasoline. Or wood. Carbon was everywhere. As long as my bots could correctly extract it, I was set. With enough time, I might even be able to create gemstone quality diamonds for some extra income as a bonus. I wouldn't need to do dangerous things like try to rob the Merchants again. Walking to the hardware store and buying a few briquettes was much safer. Dropping a bag in the alley near the vent entrance to my workshop was simple enough, and I let my bots ferry it inside while I sat two blocks away.

I spent most of my day trying to figure out how to actually convert charcoal to diamond. Making a regular, repeating structure of a single atom type was simple in concept. Extremely difficult in practice. It was too easy to accidentally introduce contaminants, have them bond the wrong way and accidentally make graphite instead, or accidentally burn it and have it float away as carbon dioxide. My power seemed to be vaguely hinting at the possibility, I just needed to tease the design out of my mind.

Hour after hour, I kept redesigning and improving my bots. I incorporated all the ideas I had in the past week; everything from electrostatic energy storage to micro-plasma cutters, diamond lenses and conductors, mass linkage and lattice reinforcement. In a single day, I had managed to advance my designs by five generations, Tinker urges more than satisfied. I finally ended up with one bot design that could build a diamond, albeit slowly. And I mean slowly. Even for an absolutely microscopic blade, a few nanometers in length, it still took about an hour to build. Still, I needed quality over quantity right now. I could solve the quantity problem with… more quantity.

The final design was set. It was even smaller than what I needed for medical purposes, smaller than any human cell, multiple linkage points for plenty of potential arrangements. With my current design finalized, I just needed to build. And build. It was slow to start, but within a week I'd have more than I needed thanks to exponential growth.

I kept my older bots busy by fixing mom's flute inside my bag. I didn't have anything better to do with them; they didn't have the ability to help build nor were they made of the materials I could break down. I mean that it worked, but it wasn't perfect. It played music, but there were microscopic imperfections that I was unsatisfied with. I guess that was the problem with sensing everything through my bots. What would never have bothered me before was now glaringly obvious. The exact alloy of the brass, the weld points, the thickness of the silver plating... things I needed more control over. Sure, the flute may not have been perfect to begin with, but... I guess it was more about what it represented to me.

At minimum, it was good practice. After all, if I couldn't seek out all the imperfections in a simple flute, how would I be able to hack it trying to heal the human body?

I kept building robots until the school day had ended. There still weren't many of my brand-new bot type – enough to fit in my pocket for now – which is what I did, along with a charcoal briquette to work on. I kept enough of my older bots on me to practice some medicine. And now it was time to call Amy and maybe get an interview.

Amy's life was practically dictated by her mother, Carol. I should have known. She was practically as hard on her kids as she was on criminals. Despite the fact that both of us had agreed to work together, Carol wanted to put me through an interrogation before allowing me to work with her daughter. On the other hand, Sarah Pelham, Carol's sister, was also there. Mrs. Pelham, otherwise known as Lady Photon, was the leader of New Wave and seemed pretty enthusiastic about having a new member.

"I need to know what kind of person you are," Mrs. Dallon said. "You know I can't risk any random cape getting close to Amy."

"She's really nice, Mom!" Vicky shouted from the kitchen.

"Vicky, you're already grounded for an extra week for going out when you weren't supposed to! Don't try to add to it!" she shouted back.

Mrs. Pelham turned to me and ignored the minor family squabble. "So, Taylor. Why are you joining us?"

"Um… well, I always wanted to be a hero, you know? And after I discovered what my power was, I… well, I had a hard time figuring out how to put it to use until I ran into Amy."

"And I thank you for that. But what did you do before you figured out your abilities? Why us and not the Protectorate?" asked Mrs. Dallon.

"Please understand that I don't think you're a villain cape or anything, but I do need to know a little more about you," Mrs. Pelham added.

"...I'm not sure if Amy or Vicky told you yet, but one of the Protectorate's Wards caused my trigger." I tried to hide my scowl, but something must have showed in my body language. Mrs. Dallon looked quite surprised but didn't push any further.

"I see. That's probably a better reason than most. How are you doing in school? We expect our members to be model citizens both as capes and as civilians."

I shrunk bank. "I… haven't been going to school lately."

Mrs. Dallon looked very unimpressed. Mrs. Pelham did as well, though the look she gave me wasn't nearly as severe.

"I've been bullied… a lot. The administration brushes it off every time I report it. Even after my trigger, which sent me to the hospital, nobody was punished. They barely even bothered with an investigation. I can't go back there."

"Wow. Let me guess, Winslow?"

I nodded.

"Yeah, that school sucks. You should come to Arcadia! Mom, can you-?" Vicky asked as she walked into the living room.

"You are in no position to be asking for favours right now, young lady!"

Amy, at least, was looking sympathetic as she sat quietly at the other end of the table.

"So… accountability seems to be the issue. I'm getting a good picture as to why New Wave may be appealing to you. Speaking of which, have you ever used your powers illicitly?"

I hesitated. I knew a question like this was coming. It was part of New Wave's ethos, after all.

"I've… done things that the law probably wouldn't approve of, but I still think I did the right thing. I scouted out Merchant bases and stole from them, messed up their weapon stockpiles when I could. Never stole from anyone but criminals. I just needed some startup funds for my tinkering..."

Mrs. Dallon scowled. "I am a lawyer, you know. Even stealing from criminals is still illegal. I'm sorry, but..."

Mrs. Pelham interrupted her sister. "Carol, everyone makes mistakes, especially when they're young and new. It can be a reasonable argument under bounty laws." Turning to me, she asked, "Now that you have your 'startup money,' do you intend to do it again?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm pretty self-sufficient now. I can get by on my allowance. I actually have ideas, and the ability, to make money legitimately, too."

"Have you ever used your powers against normal humans?" Mrs. Dallon asked.

"Only in my own defense," I said. "The Merchant guards… ABB gang members… the ones who caused my trigger."

"That's pretty justifiable. No permanent damage?"

The hair would grow back eventually, even if it took a few years. I nodded.

"Next – have you ever been in contact or worked with a villain group?"

Oh boy. I wasn't a great liar, I knew that. I could tell her partial truths, though. "Um… I ran into the Undersiders before. To warn them, because I overheard Lung saying he was going to kill them. I didn't know they were a villain group at the time."

Vicky shouted from the kitchen. "What? The same group that robbed the bank?" she shouted.

Amy, who had been sitting silently nearby, narrowed her eyes. "When that girl took you hostage… that wasn't random, was it?"

I shook my head. "Not completely? I mean, we ran into each other before but we still didn't know each other's names. She told me afterwards that she's trying to go straight. She wanted my help, and I don't think she trusts her own teammates with that info. There's someone behind the scenes – the kind that doesn't take no for an answer, and doesn't care about the Unwritten Rules."

Vicky huffed. "She's spinning you a bullshit story. I've run into her before. Don't believe her. She's a Thinker, they know how to get into your head."

"I still think it's something worth looking into," I said. "But it's not something I know how to deal with by myself in any case."

"That's a pretty complex situation. However, crimefighting should be done as a team. Drop your relations with the Undersiders, if you still have any. Any relation you have with them would be harmful to New Wave," Mrs. Pelham said.

"I don't think we should sign her. There's too many liabilities," Mrs. Dallon said to her sister.

"I think everything she's done is easily forgivable. If we refuse to give anyone a chance, we may as well give up on the New Wave movement entirely." Turning to me, Mrs. Pelham said, "You seem like a good person, Taylor, so I'm willing to let you join New Wave, but you're going to have to follow some fairly strict behaviour. Focus on the healing aspects of your power. You can be a great hero, but you have to keep your hands clean."

Mrs. Dallon crossed her arms and huffed. "Amy's still my daughter. And I think..."

"We should ask Amy about that, shouldn't we?" Mrs. Pelham turned to Amy. "So, what do you think?"

Amy looked nervously between her mother and her aunt. She took a deep breath and faced her aunt. "I'd be happy to work with Taylor," she said in a determined tone.

I gave Amy a smile. I wasn't sure if I could fully commit to healing only – I knew I could do a lot of crimefighting. As for Tattletale, maybe she was lying, but I didn't want to take the chance that she was telling the truth and leave her to fend for herself. Too many other people had simply walked away from my own situation before, without care because they weren't involved. I wanted to be better than that.

"Next, in regards to accountability – if you were to join New Wave, you would have to reveal your civilian identity. Civilian and cape are one and the same. And the behaviour we expect in your cape form, we also expect as a civilian. Are you prepared to do that?"

Again, something I had thought about for a long time before this meeting. Unlike the Dallon-Pelham families, Dad didn't have powers. One of the reasons that New Wave had mostly been reduced to a family affair between the Dallons and the Pelhams was that they had multiple capes living under each roof. Anyone looking to hurt one of their "civilian" identities through their families would only run into other capes. Outsiders like me… well, we somehow had to reveal ourselves which would put our families at risk.

"I'd have to spend some time building up defenses around my own home to protect my father before I go public," I said.

Mrs. Dallon nodded. "This is also the reason I want you to focus almost entirely on healing. I know you're capable of more, but healers are very valued among all capes. Crimefighters tend to earn grudges. However, almost nobody would turn down the opportunity to be healed. Even Othala of the Empire Eighty-Eight is safer outside of their territory than other members. People may depend on their services one day."

It was just like what Lisa had said. Good to confirm that people from entirely opposite perspectives both came to the same conclusion.

"Welcome aboard, Taylor," Mrs. Pelham said, shaking my hand. "Before we officially induct you into New Wave, I'll need a signed consent from your father. We still expect you to complete your education, so you will have to study and complete a GED if you're going to be homeschooled. For now, why don't you spend the rest of the day and get to know Amy and Vicky better?"

Mrs. Dallon still looked unimpressed.

"And we'll need your contact information, of course."

I almost reflexively said that I didn't have a phone, but I pulled out the phone Lisa just bought me.

"Oh, and you got a phone, finally!" Victoria said as she whipped out her own. "What's your number? Better have all of us entered in. Never know when duty calls!"

I navigated through the menus clumsily, since I was still unfamiliar with it. Could I really have a New Wave identity while still keeping a crimefighting identity hidden from them? Could I really tread the line?