Chapter 7

AN: Ok serious time here. Word of Wildbow is that Lily also known as Flechette was a member of New York's Lancer Wards team. That being the team that can patrol by rooflines or fly. I'm going to toss that right out the window. Her method of travel revolved entirely around leaving lengths of chain hanging from or connecting buildings and burying Darts into them. I cannot see people being happy about that, at all. She is, on the other hand 17 and likely old enough to ride their weird railway line bikes to get places. Which I also think is insane but a more believable insane. Honestly don't know what Wildbow was thinking when he came up with some of this stuff, but I'm leaning towards something along the lines of 'wouldn't it be cool if…' So, I am going to be taking liberties with the barely fleshed out and horribly awkward New York wards situation. I've also tracked down what is an apparently regularly updating map of gang territories set up by Daily News which I will be using for inspiration. I think I'll actually be including several small time gangs with possibly no parahumans at all. So many of these gang names are cringe worthy so don't be surprised if something as dumb or dumber than Azian Bad Boys shows up. It might actually be real world street gang.

Further, yes, I know Taylor is sharing more information than Shirou would like, but these are her teammates, and she is only telling them about her basic capabilities and a few weapons, please remember she has a hell of a lot more than that stored in the unlimited blade works and cooperating with allies is important.

Still don't own Worm or any part of the Fate franchise. Please leave a review if you enjoy the story.

"So, new girl?" I did my best to keep any excitement out of my voice. I liked my teammates. Thing was I only had three on my immediate team. And I was always happy to have more people to hang out with. And if I was very lucky… Ahh but that was a long shot. No point it in getting my hopes up so early. Hadn't even met the girl yet.

"Mmm." Jason, also known as Red Hood, and the current leader of the New York Wards Siege squad hummed an affirmative from where he was walking a few steps ahead of me. "I didn't get many details, just that she had signed up yesterday and would be sleeping here on base. Though they did tell me they weren't sure if she would be a permanent fixture or not. Something about a trial run and unusual circumstances. I've been meaning to read her file, but I haven't had a chance yet." He said, running a hand through his short black hair.

Well that sucked, but if anyone knew about getting shuffled from one Wards team to another it was me. Still sounded like there was a chance she would stay on.

Daniela, better known to the masses as Phantom, hip checked me lightly and shot me a teasing grin as she stepped ahead to press a kiss against Jason's cheek. The petite blonde spun to smile at both of us as she stepped backwards and phased through the door to the ready room.

Jason sighed as he presented an eye for the retinal scanner. "Going to have to talk with her about not doing that again. Especially with a new face around that isn't used to her." The warning buzzer sounded. "Last thing we need is a fight between teammates because she phased through a bedroom wall, again."

"Mmm, but she has been pretty good about personal boundaries the past few months." It was even true. Dani was nice enough, but for some reason the concept of privacy just didn't seem to exist for her. Jason didn't really care, which was a good part of why the two of them worked as a couple, but he did his job as leader and made sure to keep her in check for the rest of us.

Jason only hummed in response. Surprisingly when the door opened Dani was still there waiting for us bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet. That was a bit of a surprise. I'd expected her to shoot off in search of our new member.

A moment after walking in though I ground to a halt. Our ready room usually smelled like a gym locker room and old pizza boxes. Evidently the new girl had aired the place out, and decided our usual quality of food didn't cut it because the whole place smelled fantastic.

"Shirou, would you please stop bitching?" A voice I didn't recognize spoke from the direction of our kitchen slash dining room. "I get it, your best dishes are all Japanese. They're what you have the most practice with, and what you grew up eating. But Japan got its teeth kicked in by Leviathan, and even if they didn't oversea shipping has dropped to almost nothing. There're barely any ingredients imported from anywhere. Even if I knew where to look for specialty ingredients, what little does make it here it would all be way out of my price range."

"I thought we were only getting one new member?" I asked quietly.

"We are." Jason's voice had that deadly serious quality that meant he was in full blown leader mode. The voice that let you know if it came down to you or following regulations there was every chance of some enemy getting more injured than PR would be happy about. A series of hand gestures later and Dani and I fell in behind him. I fished out one of my throwing darts as we moved.

"Look at it this way, Shirou, now you get to master all new types of recipes. And come on, my Mom's Lasagna recipe was already amazing. Though the trick with structural analysis makes it stupidly easy to get the herbs and spices just right."

Lasagna? That's what I was smelling? Damn, I hoped this turned out to be nothing serious because I really wanted to try some of that. If it tasted half as good as it smelled we needed to make a concentrated effort to keep this girl around.

"Honestly, I'm just happy to be having actual home cooked food again. It's been months. It'll be nice to make a good first impression for once too."

I had just enough time to wonder why it had been months since she had home cooked food before we all slipped into the kitchen. We were just in time to see the person who was presumably our new member pull a full pan of lasagna out of the oven. She gave a startled little yelp when she turned around and saw us all standing there, but thankfully did not drop the dish of lasagna. She hurried to set the food down on the counter right next to a basket stacked high with cheesy garlic bread, and a plate of apple slices.

She was tall, really tall; five eleven, maybe even six foot. She had long lean runners' legs that connected to a slim waist, both were highlighted by a pair of tight fitting blue jeans. Her light grey t-shirt was loose around the waist and not overly flattering but didn't hide the fact the girl was an a-cup with the kind of shoulders I'd normally see on a swimmer. Her arms showed some solid muscle tone too. She had an expressive mouth, brown eyes, lightly tanned skin, and beautiful long black hair that curled lightly, seemingly at random. Though one lock of hair on the left side of her face seemed to be going white at the roots, but it had only grown out about an inch in that color.

With a little huff the girl reached up and pulled out a set of earbuds I hadn't noticed before. "Jeez, didn't hear you all come in."

"Who were you talking with just now?" Jason asked still using his scary leader voice.

"So much for making a good first impression." The girl muttered looking imploringly at the ceiling. "I take it you haven't read my file yet?"

Jason shook his head but didn't take his eyes off the new girl.

"I'm the very first, and so far only, of what the PRT has labeled case 70's. My power came with the previous owner still attached, and he's had to teach me how to use it." The new girl actually turned her back on us as she went rooting around for plates and silverware. "Before any of you ask, because I know you are going to, no I'm not like the Butcher. No, I am not crazy. And no, I am not suffering from some kind of Master effect. I actually demanded they put a note acknowledging all that in my file as a condition for joining."

Jason relaxed a bit and pulled out his phone presumably to open up our new capes file.

"So, you were talking to the guy who had your power before you?" Dani asked dropping her guard and jumping onto a stool at the kitchen island.

"Yeah, Shirou. He's a pretty cool guy." Glancing over her shoulder the new girl noticed Dani's eyes glued onto the food and grabbed a second plate. Then paused and proffered it in my direction while making eye contact.

Nodding I put my dart away and claimed my own seat.

The girl glanced at Jason, but he was absorbed in his reading so she simply shrugged and scooped up fourth plate. A moment later Jason was the only one not savoring cheesy goodness.

"This is delicious!" I honestly meant it too. It was easily the best lasagna I'd had in months. Way better than Dad's recipe. Not that I'd seen much of him in recently, let alone his cooking.

"Thanks. I'm Taylor by the way."

"Lily, that's Daniela-"

"Call me Dani!" The girl chirped.

"-and Jason. Fred should be here in about a half hour."

"Only five of us?" Taylor asked. "I thought the team would be bigger. Brockton Bay has more Ward's than this."

"We're just the Siege team. New York actually has four other teams of Wards and ours is usually on the small side." Jason supplied without looking up from Taylor's file. Though he was managing to get garlic bread into his mouth regardless.

"Right!" Dani cheered. "We're the ones old enough to ride the rails, and who pack enough of a punch to do some real damage. Like siege engines! Were a bit slow, but once we get there, BAM!" She clapped her hands to emphasize the point.

Taylor nodded seriously. "What about the other teams?"

"Lancers are the fast responders." I picked up the conversation. "Flight, super speed, teleporters, stuff like that. Then there's us. After that you've got Army. They're the ones too young to ride the railway bikes, or without the kind of speed or power needed for Lancer or Siege. They get stuck with foot patrols mostly. Then you have the PR team, though that's more of a punishment detail, and… well we all call it the club house. It's for the kids under thirteen. They get training and sometimes do ride alongs with a Protectorate member, but that's about it."

"So I really will get to see some fighting." Taylor seemed to perk up. "With how things have been going I thought they might have just been humoring me."

"Why would you think that?" Dani asked beating me to the punch.

"Because she's got the patience of a saint, and the bosses still nearly used it all up." Jason said, flipping his phone face down on the table. "Three months? I'd have blown my way out of the building and made a run for it after the third week." Jason gave Taylor a respectful glance before digging into his food. Then the respectful look turned almost worshipful as he wolfed down the rest.

"Three months?" I prompted lightly.

"It's how long it took me to convince everyone that I wasn't crazy or mastered." Taylor's tone practically begged for us to just drop the subject.

...That was impressive. Jason wasn't kidding. I'd been in Master Stranger confinement a few times over the years. I was always climbing the walls after a few hours. For Taylor to put up with anything like that for months and not try to break out was really impressive. Though if she always had someone to talk to in her head that must have made things easier.

"So, what do you do?" Dani asked through a bite of pasta.

Taylor held up her right hand face up and a butterfly knife formed resting there. With a grin she started spinning and flicking the blade in a series of tricks. With a final flourish she tossed the blade into the air where it dissolved into particles of light.

"I make weapons. I can fire them like bullets, and I'm pretty good at using them the normal way too. I can make myself stronger and faster and sort of reinforce simple things. I've also got a bunch of really special weapons… most of which I've been ordered to never use."

"Why's that?" Jason asked. Evidently, he'd gotten as far as the note in her file and stopped reading, or the file was incomplete. Given how he was digging into his food I was betting on the former.

"Too lethal. Some of my stuff is non lethal, but a lot of it…"

"Can you give us some examples?" I pushed my empty plate aside and leaned forward. Would it be rude to ask for seconds?

Taylor projected a simple blade with a small red grip and cross guard. "If I stab someone's shadow with one of these they'll get locked in place. This they don't mind me using." The weapon dissolved. Then, noticeably slower, she conjured up a red spear. "Got to work on that. This is still taking way too long…" She shook her head. "This thing is my theoretical go to if I ever have to fight a Brute because it should cut through or ignore most power granted methods to avoid injury. Though I don't think it will work so well against breaker states." Taylor shrugged. "It's about the most dangerous thing I could convince them to let me use. Everything past that boils down to explosions, stupidly powerful blasts, and things that essential say 'you are going to die, because I said so.'"

"Seriously?" Dani asked. She had scooched back a bit until the red spear dissolved into light. She was very proud of her ability to ghost through attacks. I guess finding something that might hurt her regardless was a bit unnerving.

"I've got a spear which takes the act of me trying to stab someone as justification that they have already been stabbed through the heart." Taylor deadpanned.

"That's… really?" I couldn't help but ask.

"According to Shirou, and the understanding my power gives me. I haven't exactly had a reason to test it out."

"Well, I can see why they put you on Siege squad." Jason said with a grin. "We all have too much power for our own good, so you'll fit right in."

Taylor nodded and a bit of tension I hadn't even noticed went out of her shoulders as she smiled. It was a pretty nice smile.