23

SummonerSomeoneYouWontRemember

Chapter 23

Chapter Text

There was a slight problem with cuddling with Lisa.

Firstly, she was ridiculously clingy. They went to sleep back to chest and she woke up with Lisa somehow having managed to tangle them up like koalas trying to wrestle, Lisa's chin on her left collarbone, her left arm wrapped around the back of her neck, one leg hooked around hers and the other thrown over her hip, and her right arm wiggled beneath Taylor's left arm. She couldn't have done this if she'd tried.

Secondly, she slept for way too long, so Taylor had to turn into Evelynn and fly out of her grasp after wasting an hour trying to free herself without waking Lisa up.

And thirdly, she had about six to eight hours before anyone else would get up, so she had to spend a bit of time burying Lisa under blankets to make up for the missing body heat she provided and to keep her asleep.

The last part was also a good thing, of course, as it allowed her to catch up on things before they rushed at her and bowled her over.

She quickly grabbed her main burner phone, went down to the living room, and began to read all the texts she had missed out on.

A lot of it was really concerning and a lot of it was just small updates on their tasks. Sile for example had explained that he was basically an errand boy at the moment, and would likely have to drop out of the gang entirely due to increased pressure for him to do the initiation. Which was to beat someone up to the point of hospitalization, or drag some chick in for their prostitution rings.

She'd rather he drop out, and told him so. She had Bakuda in there now.

His family consisted of his grandmother, so she'd likely have to shuffle them around a little bit until money started rolling in, which, coincidentally, would begin today after she was done wasting half her day in the PRT building later.

Her ex-Merchant minions were sending updates on how they were keeping clear of drugs, or how some of them had to take small dosages because they felt like they were literally about to die of withdrawal. Ethan surprisingly seemed to be bouncing back the easiest, and even more surprisingly, had joined a local church.

She hadn't even told him to do that, but he seemed to be… finding god, or something like that. Chasing forgiveness. He probably thought she gave him his orders to change because she found him reprehensible, which she did, and this was probably his way of finding out what a good person was actually like and what they did.

She wasn't sure if she approved, since she was going to be using him as a hitman. How would he reconcile trying to become some kind of man of god while killing people? Maybe she could use him as a negotiator?

It was pretty weird, but a net gain in the end.

Sile in particular had a surprising amount of information for someone who was essentially being treated as a bread shuttle.

Lung was getting pushed really hard by the Empire and was tightening his territory. He hadn't exactly lost it, but he kind of gave up almost half of it so it would be an area he could reasonably cover himself.

Apparently, the Empire was starting to attack using skirmish tactics. Strike here, draw attention, retreat and use backup forces to attack a completely different location.

Without Oni Lee, he was fucked. Personal power didn't mean much when he had less regular members, two capes instead of however many the Empire had, and absolutely no way of getting into an actual fight. Everyone in the Empire could run from him, except those who would never go to fight him in the first place.

The knock-on effects of this were not too difficult to extrapolate.

She'd seen similar gang wars happen in Bilgewater, that accursed isle of pirates and gangs in the middle of the ocean separating the continents of Runeterra.

The only pieces missing were that she wasn't sure of personalities.

She had no idea what Lung thought like. Was he a cunning beast type, or a mindless brute? Did he have his moments or did he just rule because he had the biggest stick in the gang?

From what Lisa had slipped here and there, he seemed proud, uncompromising, and really vengeful.

So, gang war soon, probably.

The problem was that both people and capes died in gang wars, and she wanted all of them.

She just had to get to the big shots first and order them to pull their flunkies back. 

She had expected a careful game of picking people off one by one, but if there was going to be semi-open warfare soon, she would either have to hurry, or use it to locate everyone she needed. Kaiser was unlikely to make personal appearances, but if she could get even one, maybe two of the Empire's capes, she would have him eventually. She didn't care about The Rules.

Lung was… a slight issue, but one good ambush and he should be hers.

She checked Bakuda's texts.

There were about thirty seven pages of them.

It took an hour just to read through them, and surprisingly, most of it was useful.

There were several rambling pages about how she really wanted to meet her again and take her out for a fun night of drinking and to show her what all her bombs could do, but for the most part, it was information on the ABB.

A lot of information.

The location of 'The Farm', a name which made her eye twitch and her teeth gnash, a warehouse around the upper edges of the Docks where the ABB would take their sex trafficking victims and drug them up until they were obedient enough for the brothels. 

The five main 'generals' that Lung had in his gang, who controlled five lieutenants with a subordinate group of five to ten men each, or at least their first names and rough descriptions.

Lung's car plates and a blurry picture, two known gang hangouts besides the club, and the most concerning part…

An attack to be launched late Friday night.

Lung, or at least his white informants and general crooks he paid to keep an ear out, had caught wind of a speech that would happen at a pound in Empire territory. They probably wanted to keep the momentum going, or at least exploit it to bolster their ranks and pressure the ABB even further.

And rumor had it that Viktor would be giving the speech. Not surprising, given he'd probably stolen a lot of oratory skills, the bastard.

Lung's grand plan consisted of perching his men up on a building nearby armed with an automatic grenade launcher made by Bakuda herself, and just annihilating the entire pound before booking it for their territory. Lung would deal with the capes that would inevitably come for reinforcements, or would already be there to lay a trap down.

She didn't know if he really was smarter than he seemed, but this plan was stupidly simple and risky for his men.

She was starting to lean more towards him being more of a dumb brute that has his moments of intelligence, like not killing Lisa and keeping low after his massive fight that predated her capture.

She could let this happen, she wouldn't mourn some dead gangsters, but again…

Why kill what could be used? She could hurry and take advantage of the chaos to take over, but the more this gang war would stretch out, the more these morons killed each other, the less pawns she'd have to move on the board.

There would be a final meeting Wednesday afternoon to talk about the plan of attack, on the third floor of Oasis. She could grab Lung then, then go to the speech site on Friday to grab Viktor.

And from there, it shouldn't be too difficult to grab Kaiser. One meeting where she could follow him home, one meeting of their eyes, and it would be done.

The Merchants were practically a joke, but she should probably get on their case a bit too, maybe Master a couple of their mooks. They certainly filled the bay with their trash.

Yet, despite doing the least amount of damage to the Bay, it was actually Coil that made her the most nervous.

She had firepower, convoluted ways to deal with pretty much anything barring the Endbringers and the Triumvirate. Her weakness would be her operations, her pawns, and her plans. Those could be toppled and destroyed much more easily than her.

For the same reason that the Simurgh had to die first, Coil was of a higher priority than either Lung or Kaiser and especially Skidmark. Schemers and plotters that could target those around her were the threat that she was most wary of, not brute force.

She wasn't sure what she would do about him.

Nothing right now, so she turned to Faultline's texts.

They'd bring her capes over tomorrow. Apparently, increased patrols and heat had forced them to take it slow and careful. Otherwise, they'd have Canary and Oni Lee here already.

Tomorrow suited her better. Too much to do today.

She closed her phone, and Teleported herself to her closed little drug room, appearing in the middle of her plants.

She wiggled her toes in the dirt.

It was oddly freeing.

A quick glance to the side, and she saw the watermelon-sized bag of…

Shit, what would she call this? Haze? No, too generic…

Mov?

It was certainly unique and memorable, but it sounded like off-brand Russian crack.

Moondust?

Wasn't that just slang for cocaine already? She remembered that from some old cop show.

Haze would just have to do, she guessed.

She picked up the bag from the floor and pushed it to stay with her real form as she turned into Evelynn. After waiting a couple minutes for the cooldown to pass, she Teleported to her attic and flew straight to George's house.

She flew in under his door, and found him snoring on his couch, some old cartoon playing on his barely-functioning TV.

…What channel was playing cartoons at three in the morning?

The apartment was cleaner than she'd have thought, but she did give them an overall command to clean themselves up, so maybe that helped.

She turned into herself to materialize the Haze bag into her hand, then turned into Evelynn and shapeshifted into a tall man in a suit with a featureless face.

Just another persona she was experimenting with, really. They'd know it was her anyway.

She kicked his foot.

"Wake up." She spoke in a dry male voice, and George grumbled, shifting, running a hand through his short-fuzz hair.

She was a little tempted to call up a spike from the floor and make him really wake up, not just out of impatience but also a bit of vindictiveness and a desire to finally use that facet of Evelynn's abilities, but she had to remind herself that this was a Mastered George, not the asshole she'd grabbed almost a full week ago.

Still, she was impatient.

So she planted her boot in his stomach.

He jerked up with a gagging sound, eyes wide, fully up and awake, his legs kicking as his arms jerked to grab her foot by reflex.

She pulled it back, and waited for his eyes to rise to her.

George felt recognition and relief with a healthy dose of submissive fear, so she threw the bag of Haze onto his coffee table as he quickly forced himself upright to sit on the couch like a normal person.

"First batch. Just to reiterate: you're a drug dealer, not a drug pusher. If I catch you drugging someone without their consent and knowledge, I'll turn your insides into a public modern art display. Understand?"

George went to speak, before it seemed that a bit of bile rose up his throat, and he shut his mouth, puffing his cheeks up as he fervently nodded, wrapping his arms around his bruised stomach. She might have put a bit more force into that stomp than she intended, but whatever, he'd gathered enough bad karma for a dozen deaths, he could deal with a bruise. 

"Do your job, persuade, just don't trick people. Faultline's already told you what to say and to who, but re-read the message I sent you, just in case. Also, get Chut over here, you have his number. There's a seam on this plant ball. Just crack a knife into the gap and wiggle it around until you can open the bag. Don't waste your time trying to cut through the plant itself. Gather the bags and burn them when you can, in secret, preferably. Also, clean this place up better. Cleanliness is kingliness. Anything I haven't covered? Behavior, conduct, orders?"

George shook his head as he stumbled upright, looking vaguely overwhelmed but alert.

"Alright, good. Take a nap when you and Chut are done, I don't want you stumbling on your feet on the job. Good luck."

Without much else to say or do, she turned into invisible smoke and flew back out of his apartment to work on a quick project that she deemed utterly necessary.

Rejuvenation magic. Of sorts.

It was complicated.

It took a solid hour to come up with a way to conveniently make what she wanted, but she eventually got it.

First, she made eight plant-fiber braided bracelets using Zyra's power. It wasn't anything too special, just something that could photosynthesize enough to be considered a living thing.

Then she turned into Soraka The Starchild.

Soraka was a curious thing.

Taylor also somewhat hated her for being over five and a half thousand years old and forever ruining the wonders of space for her.

She was a wanderer from the celestial dimensions beyond Mount Targon, the tallest mountain of Runeterra that breached just shy of its atmosphere. Soraka eventually gave up her immortality to descend from her star-faring, celestial ways, to protect the mortal races from their own more violent instincts.

She endeavored to spread the virtues of compassion and mercy to everyone she met, even healing those who would wish harm upon her. And, for all Soraka had seen of Runeterra's struggles, she still believed the people of Runeterra had yet to reach their full potential. A very bright presence in that world, all told.

Towards the end of the world, this woman was considered a goddess, more because of her benevolence and healing abilities than actual power. She had been deified by the masses.

It had taken a bit of theory-crafting and mental organization to remember Soraka, but just before she fell asleep yesterday, she'd caught a glimpse of a star and thankfully remembered what she could do.

Those healing abilities were what she was after. Or more specifically, Soraka's ability to infuse living things with the ability to speed up recovery. During the last days of functional resistance, she had made an Eden's garden of sorts, full of magical plants that would heal the sick and injured as if every hour was a full day's rest, nudging the body with bits of healing magic where simply speeding up recovery would leave them crippled, and simply speeding things along where recovery would function just fine.

That was absolutely perfect for someone like her, who was trying to get stronger and more resilient as fast as possible.

If she just exercised and healed herself, all her progress would be lost as the Heal summoner spell would repair the damages muscles instantly. Muscle growth did not happen during exercise, it happened when the body got to rest and rebuild itself stronger, to adapt to the torture its pilot was putting it through.

So if she could significantly speed that recovery up, she would go through the natural muscle-building process in fast-forward. She could theoretically exercise to the point of self-injury, and be completely fine by tomorrow to destroy herself again. There would be no need for rest days, her soreness would leave even quicker, and she could go above and beyond the ordinary limits of the human body by simply taking risks nobody else could afford to. It was perfect.

The best thing about this was that Soraka's magic was fueled by the stars more than her mana, so once she made them, they wouldn't need any maintenance or any recharge, like many enchantments did.

Enchanting eight small bracelets when this woman would once make entire jungle plants become healing beacons?

Child's play.

She just had to take them in her hand, take a deep breath, and try not to fall over as she had the mental equivalent of an acid trip, reaching for distant stars, taking a thread of their power into herself, perverting that thread to suit her needs, then grafting said thread through the lifeforce in the plant.

It didn't take more than ten minutes before she had eight enchanted little plant bracelets, glowing with faint swirling rainbow colors and glittering like crystals. To hide that glow and general aura, she wrapped them up tight with smooth black plant fibers, allowing them to seem like little more than meaningless trinkets.

Then, two emergency contingencies. Or, four, technically.

She made the same thing, sort of, but for simple wooden earrings. Inside, they of course hid enchanted plant matter, but instead of them having a rejuvenation and recovery aura, they were basically just a damage-activated burst of healing magic.

The process of trying to quantify how much damage and what kind of damage was enough to activate the small healing spell was… bizarre, a bit like trying to wrangle a confused, magical AI consciousness into what to do, but after another ten minutes, she managed.

And it was now…

She changed back to herself, and opened her burner phone.

She blinked at the time.

Five in the morning.

No headache either. Just a bit of pressure around her mind.

She still had three to four hours before anyone at home woke up. Maybe she could go meet that mechanic that dad had connected her to, but their meeting was for Tuesday, not today.

Hm…

She quickly glanced at the plastic tubs full of scrap metal on her table, a healthy sprinkling of rust powder on the bottoms.

Not nearly enough rust to make thermite caps, and not nearly clean enough metal for her to use for making or enchanting anything either.

She needed a forge.

A modern one, specifically, but hell, even an old school forge would do. She also needed an entire alchemy laboratory to make metals that never corroded. She had a literal blacksmith demigod in her arsenal, the shit she could make would be legendary if she could just get the materials somehow.

How was it that money was always the most important thing? It was aggravating to know she could be making incredible wonders but she had to keep her head down and wait for resources, or risk discovery.

Regardless, with two pairs of earrings and two quads of rejuvenating bracelets, she decided to calm down for the day and get to jotting down some stuff.

After putting her bracelets and earrings on. Lisa could take hers later.

She kind of looked like a hippie when she looked at herself in a dirty mirror's reflection that she'd shoved into the corner, but honestly, it wasn't too bad. If anything, it made her look a bit less bland. Nice.

She also had to do power testing later today, as well as magically enchant Lisa with Lulu, the strange little fae creature, so it wasn't like she could afford to do much more at the moment. 

She should have done that last bit yesterday, but just… mental clogging. Too much stuff always on her mind. Things kept slipping.

It was frustrating, but there was nothing she could do about it but try to organize tasks better.

So she teleported back to her basement, and went to the kitchen to take some quick notes.

It took half an hour for her to give up.

There was way too much stuff to do. Way too much. She'd need an entire notebook.

She paused.

Then she went to sneakily nab a notebook, and began scrawling until she heard the first signs of life grumble through the hallway.

Lisa was up.

She looked down at the notebook.

Five pages of tasks organized into subtasks and sub-subtasks…

It was a nightmare, honestly.

She snapped it shut and flew into her room to put the notebook on her desk. She wasn't worried about Lisa finding it, if anything, it would only make communication between them easier.

Then she went downstairs to start making breakfast.

More than half of it was for her, and she hated how bloated it made her feel, but she was putting on weight, so that was all she could really ask for. Turning that weight into muscle would take a bit more effort.

Her current breakfast was…

She opened the fridge, struggling to remember for a moment.

Ah, right.

A small can of pate on one slice of bread or two at max, because of how ridiculously protein-thick it was and how low it was on calories, cottage cheese, an apple, four raw eggs mixed with milk in a cup, and a couple slices of bacon.

Technically it wasn't perfectly healthy, but she wouldn't have to worry about heart disease problems or anything, so she could afford to go a bit over the top.

She turned to smoke, quickly fled back up to her desk, and hurriedly jotted down " make an actual gym in the bunker" on a random line in the paper. Then she rushed back down, turned into herself, and began cooking breakfast in earnest.

"Taylor." Her dad said as they set the table, and she sent him a questioning glance.

He gestured to the floor above with his free hand, specifically, where her room was.

"Not that I'm judging, or disapproving, but is there… something I should…" He gave her a certain look . "Be… aware of?" He carefully finished, raising his brows, and she frowned in confusion.

"Can you not beat around the bush and just ask whatever it is you're trying to ask?" She asked, and her dad sighed as he rubbed his face.

"Are you and Lisa together? I went to the bathroom at night, you weren't downstairs so I checked your room, and… yeah." He shrugged helplessly.

Oh.

She rolled her eyes.

"I mean if you like girls that's fine, but I just think you're too young to-"

"Dad, no. Just stop. Can you not make this weird? Wowee, two girls napped together. Call it personal double standards or whatever, but I could see why the assumption would be made if we were guys doing it, but we're not. If she was Emma, you wouldn't even be bringing it up. So just stop, and let me have a normal friend without making things weird, okay? You're not helping anything with this conversation." She said with a lot more bite than she intended, and felt a brief flash of guilt at the way her dad progressively recoiled as she continued.

Again he seemed to wince at the mention of him just not helping with his actions, and she quickly pinpointed that sore spot.

Not that she was intending to use it, but it was a habit. Someone's habit, she wasn't sure, it got mussed up in her head somewhere.

Of course, she was genuinely irritated. She didn't want to make this weird for Lisa and drive her away, and she was most certainly not enjoying having her dad act like he knew better than her or like he had some kind of say in what she did. That ship had sailed.

There were probably other less reasonable explanations for why she was upset, but she wasn't even sure what they were, just lurking on the edge of her thoughts.

"Taylor, I'm not-" He started, his voice raising.

" Dad." She growled with a glare, and he just sort of just stopped with a constipated expression, avoiding her gaze. "Just drop it ."

He didn't say anything after that, mutely setting the table as she cooled down.

She felt guilty for snapping at him, a bit .

Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, he didn't question the need for the GED papers she put down on the table. He just signed them without a word.

Breakfast was a bit quieter than the past few days, even if Lisa tried her best to drag them both into a conversation.

Her dad eventually went to the couch to watch TV until they had to go to the PRT.

Why he insisted on dropping her off, she wasn't sure, but she didn't trust him to keep it to himself about how she could mysteriously get there easily without any transport to speak of, so she didn't fight him on it. Best to pretend she needed transport.

She might have to Master him sooner than later.

She quickly dragged Lisa to the basement the moment they were done doing the dishes, and after flicking on the light switch, she let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been slowly building up.

"Right. So, I have two gifts for you. First, I'm going to enchant you. It's permanent. Enjoy a roughly… Brute one, Mover one status. Yes, you will still need to exercise to increase your strength and stamina further, and yes, I will drag you with me." She said as she moved down the steps, and heard Lisa's huff behind her.

"Dang. I'm not even sure if you mentioned you could do that… Thank you. People would literally kill to be able to get Brute-Mover 1. 'Enchanting' is a bit of a strange word to use though. Are you a Myrddin fan?" Lisa snorted, and Taylor's step stuttered for a moment as she realized what she'd said.

There wasn't too much harm in it, she honestly trusted Lisa by now, but still, better to let their bond strengthen a bit before springing up a mild amount of insanity into the mix by explaining Runeterra.

"Eeeh not… really. It's just that a lot of these capes are from a world a lot more superstitious and medieval than ours, at least in parts, so their wording and styles get muddled up with the rest of my thoughts sometimes. To them, this is all magic and divine gifts, blah blah." She lied with a dismissive wave of her hand, as smoothly as she breathed, and Lisa let out a 'huh' of acknowledgement.

"What's the second gift?" Lisa asked with a tone like a kid trying not to seem too eager for their present during Christmas.

She felt her lips twitch into a smile.

"A girl's best friend. Supposedly. Besides you, of course. Jewelry. Well, enchanted jewelry." She said with a semi-sarcastic tone, and Lisa clicked her tongue.

"Better be diamonds boss, I'll have you know I'm a very high maintenance employee."

"You won't be getting any promotions with that attitude Miss Wilbourn." She hummed dubiously, and spun on her heel as she came to the middle of the basement.

Lisa snickered as she came to a stop in front of her.

She reached into her baggy hoodie pockets, sending a quick thank you to the hoodie gods for this article of clothing having such deep pockets, and took out four semi-elastic circular black bands, as well as two light-colored wooden earrings.

They looked mundane and barely added flavor to one's image, and that was half the point of their design. Not being eye-catching.

Lisa's eyes checked her palms, then immediately jerked up to the earrings Taylor was wearing already, before going down to her wrists, correctly guessing that the things Taylor was wearing were the same thing she was offering.

"I knew something was a tad strange when I saw those, but my power thought you were trying to change up your style until now. Not that it's giving me much right now, honestly. It just says they're likely serving a secondary purpose or have some kind of unknown effect." Lisa seemed intrigued.

"Well, close enough. Let me tell you. These bracelet things," She started, lightly stretching one of them between her fingers. It didn't stretch too much. It wasn't rubber. "Are basically a recovery booster. So instead of being a boneless potato after a run for say, four hours, you'd be a boneless potato for maybe an hour before you recovered. And since they don't heal, not exactly-"

Lisa's eyes widened.

"They'll help me build muscle and endurance with minimal downtime. And to catch my breath like four times as fast. That's… I'm not sure I'll need it if you're about to enchant me, but… wow." Lisa laughed, stretching her hand with a look that asked for permission.

She handed over all four. 

"They're not really designed to come off, and they're not very flexible, so it might be a bit of a pain in the ass to slide the ankle bracelets past your ankles, but they can be cut with a knife if needed. Don't worry about them, they were cheap and easy to make. The harder thing was the earrings. They're basically like… automatic healing dispensers, one time use for each. If something gets through your suit and does a considerable amount of damage, it'll heal you once."

Lisa paused in the middle of wiggling a bracelet onto her wrist. She blinked at her. Then down at the earrings on her free hand. Then went back to staring at her.

"How long did this take you to make?"

"Less than an hour for all of these."

"I'm absolutely fucking seething with jealousy." Lisa grumbled, despite the growing smile on her face, and she hurriedly slid them on.

Taylor watched with quiet amusement as Lisa hopped around like a crippled rabbit, trying to force the ankle bracelet past her ankles, until ten minutes later, she finally got it, and collapsed back onto the stairs, panting.

"Why… exactly… are you even worried about money then? Do you have… any idea… how much money… capes will pay… for even a few of these… earrings? Do they need… I dunno, maintenance?" Lisa let out between panting breaths.

She hummed, brows furrowing.

"No, not really. I could try to find some customers for these, I guess..."

Lisa's face turned contemplative.

"I might be able to hit up Toybox to put these up for… auction. Uh, Toybox is… a Tinker black market. It's a bit hard to find them… though. I'll check around." Lisa said, breaths significantly lighter, then she blinked in surprise. "Wait, I already feel a lot better. Holy shit, this works fast. Oh my god, come here." Lisa rushed out, her voice raising in excitement as she pushed off the stairs, beelining to her.

She just stood there, mildly confused, until Lisa yanked her forward into a tight, tight hug.

"Fuck you, this isn't a gift. It's too good, and you can't be giving me so much stuff for free. I'm paying you like, at least two grand for this." Lisa rushed out, muffled into her shoulder, and she chuckled as she hugged her back.

"No offense, but if you were to pay me for your suit, your look change, your enchantment, and all of these, you'd be my eternal debt slave."

Lisa giggled.

"Yeah, probably. Consider the two grand a gift too then."

"Hm, of course. Pleasure doing business with you Miss Wilbourn. Now, if you could unlatch yourself, I want to enchant you then drag you for a run."

"Whyyyy?" Lisa groaned miserably. "I rescind my gift offer." She followed up petulantly, letting her legs go limp so she was basically hanging onto Taylor.

She couldn't help but roll her eyes as she lightly jabbed Lisa's side, finding her yelp and jerk incredibly amusing.

"Get off, you pouty gremlin. I'm going to make you an olympic athlete or kill you trying."

"That's not how the saying goes."

"That's how my saying goes."

"I'll double my gift?"

"No. Off."

"I hate running! I get all wet and sticky and gross and my hair glues itself together!" Lisa whined, digging her face into her shoulder.

"You won't hate running when you've got an angry nazi murder blender chasing you down the street. Or when you can outrun a chasing car. Now, come on, get off you lazy goblin -" She laughed, jabbing Lisa's sides as she tried to squirm on top of her, until eventually, she hit a ticklish spot and Lisa squealed and jumped back.

"Ow, owahaha-ow." Lisa grimaced, giggling and wincing, warding her off with a half-raised hand.

"Wear this before I kill you via tickling asphyxiation." She deadpanned, unable to contain her smile as she tossed Lisa the eye mask she used last time.

It hit Lisa in the face, making her flinch back and flail to grab it with her hand. Taylor snickered a little, raising a hand to hide her mouth.

"I'll wear it if you- ha ha- pretend you didn't- hear that squeal." Lisa said with a prim voice of a diplomat as she fought her giggles and hurriedly clipped the earrings on, shoving the face mask into her pocket.

"What squeal?" She asked with faux innocence, pitching her voice high and pure as a lamb, widening her eyes like a puppy with a vacant smile.

Lisa's expression shifted into a disturbed, incredulous squint.

"...Oh my fucking god. Never do that again, what the hell." Lisa shuddered, sounding genuinely horrified.

She snorted as she dropped the expression.

"Why not?"

"I feel like I just watched a horror movie trilogy condensed into two seconds." 

"...Why?"

"Uncanny valley."

"Oh my f… just put on the stupid blindfold." She sighed, before directing a mock glare at Lisa, making evil wiggly fingers at her.

"Okay, okay, jeez!"

"... When I said jump, I did not mean straight up, into the ceiling, into the light bulb. " She sighed, and Lisa glared at her.

"Shouldn't you be worried 'cause there's glass in my hair?"

"You'll live. My lightbulb didn't."

"Poor thing."

"You're paying for its funeral and replacement."

"Truly, a crippling cost." Lisa said in breathless faux-despair, gasping with her hand over her mouth.

She snorted, flicking a piece of glass out of Lisa's hair to tumble off into the basement stairs.

"You're also cleaning up the mess. At least it worked though. That was a jump only an olympic athlete could probably manage. You should also be a decent bit faster now, so… I don't know, shadowbox in the shower or something to get used to it. Just don't hit the wall. And no, you're not giving me two grand, I don't need it. Best friends and annoying sisters get a one hundred percent discount. Or you can consider it your initial payment and employment bonus."

Lisa smiled with a soft puff of laughter.

"Thanks. Really. I'd hug you if I wasn't scared of getting glass on you. I should probably go shower or something."

"I mourn for our water bill…" She sighed, and Lisa lightly punched her shoulder.

"Hey come on, you'd want to clean up obsessively too if you went a damn month without a single shower. Lung's an unhygienic dickwad."

"Yeah fine, just go, I'll clean up the glass. Don't want you getting cut. Your skin is probably not much tougher than rubber. Meet me on the Boardwalk after I'm done messing with the heroes, I'll text you. We'll run back home together." She shooed Lisa away, despite her grumblings about the torture of exercise.

Then she went down into the basement, and with the pretext of cleaning, began to send instructions and shopping lists to her minions.

The PRT building was…

More interesting than she expected. It was surrounded by outwards slanting walls capped by razorwire and spotlights. The main, open entrance was large and imposing and impeccably clean, and the whole vibe was a lot more militaristic than she'd expected. Two troopers with foam sprayer thingies guarded the public entrance, and just beyond them, she could see what looked like an armored office building, was the best way to put it. Only the ground floor was really open, the rest was iron and steel plates that were leaning outwards from the windows like exhaust directing grates, likely able to close and open at will should there be a lockdown.

The main worry she had was about how the hell she was going to walk in there without someone seeing her, but the PRT had apparently informed her dad about the secondary, secret back entrance that was wrapped around the back of the building and surrounded by thick shrubbery grown around high metal walls.

This was apparently used by visitors, PRT employees, and heroes, so even if someone saw them come in, it was supposedly safe.

She put on her domino mask and subtly wished she could have shapeshifted herself permanently somehow as she hopped out.

"I'll meet up with Lisa after and walk back with her. Bye dad." She said, and closed the door shut before he could object. 

He made a complicated face, then nodded, driving off as she turned to the guards at the entrance, a folder full of papers tucked under her right arm.

She walked up, and before the trooper could speak, she gave him the entire file.

"First page is ID copy."

He briefly opened it, then spoke into his headset, something too muffled for her to hear with the soft rustle of leaves all around her.

He nodded a moment later, and gave her the file back.

"Head inside, there will be a woman waiting for you." The trooper spoke, and she nodded to him with a faint smile as she took her papers back.

The gate behind him quickly slid to the side, and she walked not even twenty feet into the silent back end of the office… not building, office complex, she could see now. The place was deceptively huge when not viewed from the front. Likely deliberately made so.

Her eyes flit to a woman in a pencil skirt that was rushing over, dirty blonde hair and waif-thin, appearing a bit flushed as she adjusted her glasses with a wide smile.

"Ah hello! Usually, we'd have a hero to do introductions and such, but I'm afraid all the adult Protectorate members are in an event in New York. My name is Maria." The woman extended a hand, and she shook it, not replying.

The woman kept talking thankfully.

"Now, usually, we'd already have sent you to The Rig for initial power testing, but due to your rather unique circumstances, we'll have to conduct the initial interview we usually do when a young parahuman expresses interest in the Wards first, then go do that. It won't be too long, just ten, maybe twenty minutes." The woman smiled, and gestured her forward as she began a brisk walk.

She followed mutely, past another couple of security guards, up an elevator, then into a room that looked like someone took an interrogation room and tried to make it cozy to middling success. Brown, soft carpet, cushioned chairs, soft brown-orange walls. Not bad.

This was likely some kind of refurbished police station, now that she thought of it.

The woman quickly sat down, and Taylor followed.

"So, these are some simple questions to give us a general idea of your personality, your goals, and how we can accommodate you." The woman started, and Taylor immediately began translation from corporate bullshit to English in the privacy of her mind.

They wanted to know how difficult she would be to work with, and likely what her natural disposition would be. What they might need to work around.

She had no plan of being here long, and she wished to establish a certain kind of short-lived image for when she broke off, as well as plant a healthy dose of misdirection if possible.

"So, first question. Why do you want to be a Ward?" Maria asked, steepling her hands and smiling.

She faked a smile back.

Now for a dash of maturity and childlike innocence to throw them off.

"Well, I like helping people. Makes me feel nice and fuzzy inside, you know? I was also bullied severely in my old school, and I can't help but feel like society at large is… kind of the same thing, you know? It's just nice people trying to live their lives, but there's always some bullies making everything miserable for everyone or pulling them down. In school, I always wanted someone to help me, or the victims in general, but nobody ever did. And… I'd always ask 'why doesn't someone with power do something?' So, now that I have powers, and villains exist, it's… uh. I feel like its my… civic… duty? To help, I mean. Like I wish I was helped, in school. Because villains are basically just bullies. S-sorry, does, uhm… that make sense? I'm uh, I didn't know we'd be doing an interview." She slowly began to fumble her words in a believable manner, injecting a healthy dose of uncertainty in her voice, wringing her hands.

Acting and lying was absurdly easy at this point. She hadn't even prepared anything in advance and she was breezing through this. Even if it was a tad grating to act like a naive kid.

Ooh, wait, maybe some kind of bipolar misdirection? That sounded fun, and would give plausible reasoning to her eventual sudden break-off, however she decided to go through with it.

Maria smiled earnestly, wide and soft.

"No worries, this isn't an exam! Just speak from the heart. It'll help us establish what you want, what kind of image you naturally fit into, things like that. Next question. How do you think you'd best serve the Protectorate and the citizens, in your own opinion?"

She shuffled nervously, fake of course, and hummed uncertainly.

She also made sure to avoid eye contact. Not only because it made her look more nervous, but because Lisa told her to. Apparently meeting her eyes felt like having a sudden staring contest with the combined entirety of the Slaughterhouse nine, whatever the hell that meant. She was definitely exaggerating, and Taylor wasn't sure what caused her stare to be so "unnerving", but judging by how few people met her eyes anymore besides Lisa, she couldn't say that Lisa was just imagining it.

"Well, I'm… pretty tough when I activate my power, and very fast, but I can't fly or find people easily at all. So uh, probably by beating up the bad guys? I'm… really itching to improve myself too. I- I don't know if its from my powers or whatnot, but I feel very… ready to fight, or exercise, or just physically improve . So I'd probably best help by hitting the bad guys or… lifting cars off people?" She shrugged, and Maria nodded with some kind of sound of acknowledgement.

"That's admirable. When you think of hero work, what does that look like in your head?"

She took a moment to think of it.

Honestly, she had no idea. She imagined it was something like being the wardens to a city of madness and trying to contain all the violent crazies without indirectly getting the squishy harmless prisoners hurt. But she didn't know.

"I uhm… I guess it looks like… fighting bad guys and helping people? Trying to make sure nobody gets hurt?"

The woman nodded.

"Quite right, of course, though it is a bit more nuanced than that. The last question is a bit simpler, but also a bit of a tough one. What do you think justice is?"

To her, the answer was a complicated mess that loosely aligned with the Noxian ideal of 'two eyes for one' , but she couldn't say that. So after a couple seconds of pretending to think, she shrugged.

"I uhm, I honestly don't know. I think it's probably best for people who are like… lawyers and… stuff. To uh, decide what justice is. I don't think I know what real justice is, not yet at least?"

Maria's smile was basically a beam at this point, and she knew she said everything these people wanted to hear.

"I-"

An alarm suddenly began to ring throughout the floor, and she turned to the door, blinking.

"Ah, don't worry, there's no threat here. That's the response team alarm. There's likely some disturbance involving parahumans somewhere, so there will be a few teams mobilizing with the Wards. There'll be a bit of chaos for a bit, but it shouldn't impact our schedule."

"Oh."

Her mind raced.

Chaos, chaos.

A PRT employee who seemed to be on some desk job, nice and approachable, no heroes in the building, and chaos.

She could use this. She could use this right now while everyone was rushing and reeling.

After a moment of silence that stretched into awkwardness, she cleared her throat.

"I- I'm sorry to ask, but is- is there any chance you could accompany me to the bathroom? A… Alarms make me a little… uhm. Anxious. And nauseous. It's… in the asylum, it wasn't good when t-there was an alarm." She spoke, genuinely finding it difficult to stutter and speak so timidly. The challenge was kind of fun, a bit of a thrill.

But the woman's smile softened.

"Of course. Come with me. I'll sit outside."

"N-No, could you, uhm, come in? Just to make sure nobody uh, peeks into the stall or uh, hits the door… it's, my bullies used to do stuff like that, I'm sorry, I'm just a little on edge right now." She eked out, crossing her arms and hunching her shoulders a little.

Maria got up and nodded with a reassuring smile.

"Alright, I'll come in. It's no problem. Come with me. Though I do assure you, there is no threat here, if it helps."

She got up without replying, and followed the woman to the bathroom.

She was not kidding. The halls were littered with rushing agents and armored men, people rushing with phones on their hands, a low tier of generalized chaos.

It was such a good opportunity.

A hint of her conscience protested Mastering a woman that seemed genuinely sweet and caring, but another reasoned something simple.

She wouldn't be disrupting this woman's life in any way, nor making her do evil things or putting her in danger. Depending on how she was like, she might have to make the woman respect her and be more loyal to her than even to herself, but she wouldn't make the woman obsessed with her by any means.

At worst, Maria might be discovered, at which point, she might face prison time for espionage or leaking information to third parties and such…

Which, alright, that wasn't exactly something light, but she could always just break the woman out and bring her with her to work for her, it wasn't like her life would be over.

Plus, she needed people on the inside, that wasn't negotiable.

The bathrooms would not have cameras too, so it was a perfect setup here, right on her first day. The sheer audacity would also probably mask her actions, especially after such an interview. Definitely a recorded one. Maria had no notebook or recorder on her.

So that was why the moment the bathroom door closed behind them, she turned into Evelynn, and spent a split second to shapeshift back to herself.

Advanced senses confirmed that there was only one other woman in here doing her... uh, business, so it was safe enough.

She tapped Maria's shoulder, and their eyes met when the woman turned around.

She did not plunge into her mind, so much as she simply charmed her, sending a pleasant, fuzzy fog to overtake the woman's thoughts as her eyes flared and shifted in minute, hypnotizing patterns. 

Maria's mouth opened slowly, lethargically, but before her surprise could register, her eyes glazed over, unfocused, thoughts scattering like in a fuzzy little dream.

Perfect.

She wrapped an arm around the woman's waist, and in her suggestible state, leaned close.

"Hold onto me. Be quiet." She whispered.

Maria obeyed, shifting her arms to hold onto her shoulders, and Tayor shapeshifted to be a bit taller, her one arm around the woman's waist more than enough to lift her up and carry her to the corner stall, slowly creeping in and closing the door behind her.

One flick of the lock, and she set Maria down.

The ability to charm, hypnotize, and effect the mind was something she should have probably been using more of, but there was usually no need for it, at least not up until now.

And here, she had more than a couple minutes of privacy to make this woman her insider in the PRT, even if it would take her a while to climb the ladder to be where she really needed her.

She leaned closer, and locked her limbs in place.

Her eyes flashed bright gold.