14

Date:

2011 January 7th - Friday - Earth Bet Time

She ducked behind a tree, dodging an acidic slime spit. Then, waiting for exactly one second, she leaned out and fired back a lightning bullet, annihilating the offending slime.

Within the same second, she jumped to the side, leaving behind a doppelganger. Just to watch a human-sized slime fall on it and swallow it.

She was already sprinting in the northern direction (because she now could point out cardinal direction) when she heard the muffled explosion of her clone.

She nodded in satisfaction. And immediately had to roll under a staccato of acid bullets fired from a group of acid yellow slimes. Her answer of a hail of lightning attack annihilated them instantly.

And while all this was going on, she didn't even stop running. Apparently, because this was a simulation, it was just her mind that was working. So Admin felt giving her stamina was unnecessary.

At least something along those lines.

She was on the run ever since she saw that first slime. And every explanation came while she was fighting off hordes of slimes. So it was really hard to pay attention to the smug prick that called himself her power.

It didn't help that he was always yelling something about spring and youth.

She broke out of the cover of trees, still in full sprint, heading to a rock formation in the middle of the field. It was the designated safe zone that she always had to return to after Admin placed her somewhere else. This was around the twentieth time she had reached it.

She used her power to enhance herself, increasing her speed, her only goal to reach the rocks, and finally rest.

However, before she could cross the last stretch, a gigantic slime fell in front of her. The first time it happened, it scared her shitless. Now she just coated herself in lightning and barreled through it, annihilating it at the same time.

When she reached the rocks, she stopped, closed her eyes, and waited for the signal.

The signal was the sound of a choir of angels singing.

After a few seconds of not hearing anything, she opened her eyes and looked around.

"Hey, Admin, what's going on?"

A disembodied, flat voice answered her. "Rare Event Triggered: Additional Field Boss Added."

Her answering curses made use of the extensive knowledge she gained by listening to people at the Docks.

She coated herself in lightning, conjured several balls, and a spear made of pure lightning. Then upped the body enhancements on herself. She needed to be prepared for anything.

At first, the slimes were as dumb as they looked, but the more she fought, the smarter they got. And Admin had a habit of changing up their properties at random.

Sometimes a slime that usually fired fire would fire sticky red liquid. Or he would randomly give them invisibility.

The forest shook from a roar, and she could feel the floor quake from something. Probably some big-ass random monster that Admin dreamed up.

She set herself in a stable stance that she learned while using her power. Apparently, basic knowledge of how to use a spear was included.

She created a few more lightning balls just in case, transformed a few into spear but left the rest as is. Then tried to use her sensing power to determine what was coming for her.

Admin was good enough to replicate everything true to life, so after a few hours, she could somewhat sense trees. However, the slimes didn't really have any kind of electricity inside of them (except the electric ones) so she couldn't really sense them, increasing the difficulty of her hunt.

This time, she could feel something enormous coming towards her. She was about to puzzle out what it was when it broke to the edge of the forest. And then she laid her eyes on a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

It was shaped like one, but its body had the same texture as the slimes. With cute eyes and a partially transparent goo-like body. It also appeared somewhat metallic with its gray color.

It stopped, looked around and when spotted her it roared in a challenge. Taylor didn't even wait for it to finish the roar before she attacked it with a massive lightning beam.

However, she was surprised that the lightning seemed to course through the dinosaur and head directly to the ground. Apparently, it was metallic. And knew how to ground itself.

"Oh, fuck you, Admin!" she yelled. "That's so not fair!"

The answer came from the top of the rock where Admin hovered, wearing his cheerleader outfit. "I believe in you!" Then proceeded to throw his pompons into the air. "Show that overgrown lizard who is the boss!"

The T-Rex died remarkably quickly and violently after that.

"So what is the point of doing this, when it is just a simulation?" she asked after she calmed down and didn't want to break Admin's face for the T-Rex anymore.

"You need to get to know your power, what it is capable of, where the boundaries are," he explained. "Regular parahumans get an instinctive understanding of how their power works. But I felt it would go better if you actually learn how to use it."

"Plus it helps, that I can speed up time here so you can train while your body rests."

"I could've gone to the Graveyard…" grumbled Taylor.

"Sure," snorted Admin, "because nobody monitors it."

Taylor looked away, trying to hide her blush.

"So, how long have I been doing this?" she asked, hoping to distract him.

He gave her a knowing look but still answered. "Around twenty hours or so."

"What?" she yelled in surprise. "I have been asleep for almost a day?"

"No," he answered calmly. "I just told you I'm speeding up the time."

"Oh, yeah," she said, calming down instantly. "So how long am I going to kill slimes?"

"Because while I really enjoy killing slimes, there are very few of them in Brockton Bay," she added with a bloodthirsty smile.

"Don't worry, this was just Day One. By the end of it, you will casually be duking it out with dragons."

She was about to retort that dragons were also fictional when she realized the Bay had Lung. Then shivered at the thought of going against that psychopath.

"Let's end this here," spoke up Admin after a few minutes of silence. "We can continue tomorrow night."

"Right, thanks," said Taylor very insincerely.

"Also, don't forget, you still have to talk to your father."

"Yeah, yeah, got it. Can I go to sleep now?"

Date:

2011 January 8th - Saturday - Earth Bet Time

They spent Saturday morning talking to the lawyer over a simple brunch.

He was very understanding, but couldn't really give them an answer about the whole situation. According to him, it was a very 'he said, she said' situation with very little concrete evidence.

He would need to do some research and promised to contact the police on Monday about the situation, then the school. He could give a clearer answer then.

Her father didn't really like that, and she could clearly see him trying to restrain himself.

On the subject of homeschooling, Steve was very optimistic. He was sure that there wouldn't be much opposition to the idea. He was even optimistic about making the school pay for her brief hospital stay.

After he left, they sat around in the living room, trying to find something to talk about. Taylor was itching to go back to her room and try some other powers.

She still hasn't turned off her sensing power. And after spending a day in the virtual space, it even improved. Now she could tell if the different things she sensed were human-shaped. Thanks to that, she always knew where her father was in the house, or when somebody walked past the house.

It was amazing how she could know where everything electric was around her, yet still do everything else. Multitasking was for sure awesome.

After a few minutes of silence, her father spoke up. "You know, honey; I still have something else."

That surprised Taylor. "What is it, Dad?"

"I looked into the requirement of homeschooling and I noticed that a lot of it happens over the internet."

She felt new hope hearing that. Their home internet was still a dial-up, which made doing anything complicated (or interesting) with any actual speed impossible.

"So I talked to my contact at the provider and they are coming out Monday morning to connect us up." he continued rather smugly.

"Awesome, Dad!" she didn't even need to act enthusiastic. A better internet would make her life so much easier. Then, thinking about it a little, she stood up and went over to hug her father. "Thanks."

"You are welcome, Taylor," he answered her with a small but genuine smile. "But wait, there is more!" he said in a cheesy salesperson's voice.

"Really?" Taylor asked, hardly containing her excitement.

"I got you a new computer."

She instantly hugged him again.

"Really? Thank you!"

"It's not the best one, but I got a great deal on it. And the guys in IT assured me it would be enough for everything," he admitted, a little ashamed.

"Don't worry, Dad, that's more than enough!"

She was about to do a happy dance when she realized that doing all that must have cost a lot of money. That thought instantly wiped the smile off her face.

Her father noticed it immediately. "What's wrong, Taylor?"

She sat back down and looked at him. "What about the money, Dad? Can we really afford it?"

To her surprise, her father just chuckled. "Honey, when I said a great deal, I meant practically free. They were upgrading some office and my friend over the electrician's union put together the best parts for a computer from the ones they were throwing out."

He leaned over to pat her hand with a reassuring smile. "Plus, I have enough savings that we could have afforded one. Your Dad knows how to save. And even if it had cost an arm and leg, I would've paid it, because you are worth it."

Taylor couldn't help but crack a small smile at that corny declaration.

"Now why don't you get those boxes out of my room and set it up in yours, while I deal with some leftover paperwork?" he asked her.

Taylor nodded happily, bounded over to him, gave him a hug and a quick kiss on his cheek, and ran up to the second floor.

Danny just leaned back in his chair and chuckled at his daughter's antics, happy to see her smile again.

Taylor spent the rest of the day putting together the computer. Her Tinker power kicking in, making the already simple task easier and faster. She went through the setup, even added a few programming extras courtesy of her new power.

She used dinner time to regal her father how awesome it was and how she couldn't wait for the better internet.

Altogether she went to bed with a smile on her face.

Only to wake up in front of a very familiar forest.

She growled in anger and immediately activated all her powers. Then started walking towards it, looking for the first slime to destroy.

However, the only thing she found were small, green, cartoonish humanoid creatures. They were more like one of the video games she remembered playing than anything found in nature.

They raised their arms the moment they saw her, which were holding crude cudgels, roared with a very squeaky voice, and ran right at her.

She obliterated them in reflex.

While she was wondering what they were, Admin dropped out of the sky next to her. "They are goblins. Incidentally, they really like human flesh."

Taylor just sighed and shot the next goblin that was already charging at her.

Date:

2011 January 9th - Sunday - Earth Bet Time

Danny Hebert was a somewhat happy man. And a very confused one.

His daughter was happy, which was great.

Both his new therapists and the doctors advised him to expect her to be angry, listless, and moody (granted that was a standard teenager, but still). But neither of them told him that Taylor would skip around the house singing to herself.

At first, he wondered if she was still on the medicines, but he didn't see her take anything and couldn't remember the doctors prescribing anything.

Then he noticed it.

Her hair. He always knew she liked her hair and was really proud of how it looked.

Seeing that he promised to pay more attention to her (and went a little overboard for one night, feverishly checking up on her every hour or so), he noticed Saturday that her hair changed every hour.

Not the color. It wasn't even that she kept changing the style. She used the same style she used for the last few years, as far as he could remember.

But now it was always different in some way. He thought she was just passing the time experimenting with her hair when he noticed her eyes.

They were a lovely shade of deep green that always reminded him of the sea.

But as he looked into her eyes, it was still the deep green he remembered. But now it was more like the color of an emerald that somebody spent the time polishing and cutting to perfection.

And once he could swear it was silver-colored, but when he went to surreptitiously take another look, it was back to the green.

It was unnatural.

At first, he chalked it up to him hyper-focusing on her, then on him remembering wrong.

He was lying in bed, with sleep eluding him, lambasting himself for forgetting how his own daughter's eyes looked when he realized.

Unnatural color. Happy Taylor. Trauma.

She was a parahuman.

His first instinct was to wake her up and demand answers. But then calmed down, because getting angry wouldn't solve anything. And why would he be angry at Taylor?

It's not like she had done anything bad with her power. And he wanted to make sure he kept his word about being her father.

So on Sunday morning, he woke up extra early, went to get fresh ingredients for a real American breakfast.

He set everything up perfectly, at least what he could do with his cooking talents. And sat down to wait for the smells to lure Taylor out of her bed. She never could resist a fresh pancake.

He was relieved that at least he remembered that correctly when Taylor bounded down the stairs cheerfully, still in her pajamas.

"Good morning, Dad!"

"Good morning, Honey!" he answered with the same cheer, only forcing it a little.

Taylor said nothing else, just made herself a cup of tea, then sat down and started happily munching on the feast before her.

He watched her for a little with a small smile and then tucked in too. The talk could wait. He was hungry.

Both were sitting in a comfortable silence around the table. Basking in the afterglow of the sugar and bacon-laden breakfast.

He really hated to break the peace, but he needed to know.

"So Taylor, I have a small question." he started.

She lazily looked over at him. "What is it, Dad?"

He prepared himself for whatever was to come and continued to talk.

"Are you a parahuman, Taylor?"

It was a serious moment, but he still chuckled a little when Taylor fell out of her chair in surprise.