Chapter 11B

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Hebert Home

Taylor sighed as she slumped onto the couch, the hospital had finally allowed her father to sign her out of their care, leaving her the luxury of her own home in which to consider what she’d been told. The idea of being a Cape was seductive, the culmination of an old dream that she’d nearly allowed to be entirely forgotten in the traumas of the past years but she wasn’t certain that this was how it was supposed to happen.

Capes don’t get the same powers as someone else, and I’m pretty sure they don’t become apprentices. No… Apprentice. I could hear the capital A when it said it, it meant something to him.

Magus was an interesting one.

He had a master power, but had used it only to protect her identity… despite the fact that he didn’t bother to protect his own.

So many confusing contradictions.

“hey, little owl,” her Father said, entering the room with a steaming cup in his hand. “Figured a little hot cocoa would be called for.”

“thanks Dad,” Taylor said gratefully, accepting the cup carefully and taking a tentative sip before nearly burning her lip and opting to set it down to cool a bit.

“So…” he said awkwardly, “Big day, huh?”

Taylor giggled, drawing a rueful chuckle from her father in turn.

“Understatement, huh?” He asked.

“Little bit,” She confirmed.

“I looked this Magus fellow up last night, after… well, you know,” Danny said, “There’s not a lot about him out there. Apparently he’s new to town, which we could have guessed. He’s stopped a couple crimes, and spent some time flying around with Glory Girl. Only other thing of note is that he’s apparently not too fond of Nazis.”

Taylor snorted, sending ripples through her cocoa, “picked the wrong town to visit, didn’t he?”

Danny rubbed the back of his head, “It would seem that way.”

“Nothing suspicious, though?”

“No Kill Order on him, if that’s what you mean.”

“Dad!” Taylor objected with a roll of her eyes, “You know what I meant.”

“Nothing I could find, and I even called a friend on the force who spoke with the officers who’ve spoken with him,” Danny said. “They called him respectful, professional, that sort of thing.”

Taylor nodded, unsurprised for some reason, “Maybe he’s for real.”

Danny didn’t look happy about it, but he reluctantly nodded, “Maybe.”

“I wonder what it’s like,” Taylor said after a moments silence.

“What?”

“Coming from another Earth, another universe?” She shrugged.

Danny was quiet for a bit, thinking about that, “You believe him?”

Taylor considered before nodding slowly, “I think I do.”

“I think you might be a bit too trusting there,” Danny said with a sigh, “but I guess we don’t have much reason not to just yet. Other than simple caution, of course.”

“Well, he’s not Empire eighty eight, according to what you found out,” Taylor said reasonably, “and I’m pretty sure he’s not with the ABB… plus he’s too clean and put together for the Merchants… so he’s probably not looking to kidnap me for the local gangs.”

She shrugged at that statement, drawing a wince from Danny.

Certainly, the odds seemed quite against Magus being a plant for any of the locals. He didn’t really fit any of their profiles, as Taylor had pointed out, but that left a staggering number of known… and unknown… threats that he might secretly be representing.

That said, Danny didn’t feel like that made any sense either.

Like it or not, and he didn’t like it, Danny did have a feeling that the young man was on the up and up. He’d spent a lot of years learning to spot shills for the gangs, fighting to keep them out of the Dock Workers Union and away from his people in general. Magus didn’t trip any of those instincts, which he supposed was a good thing.

The only thing he really had against the boy was that he was a Parahuman and he was interested in Taylor.

The second reason of which was more than enough for Danny to distrust him, of course, but he’d prefer slightly more if he could get it.

“So you want to do it?” He asked carefully.

“What? The… Apprenticeship?” Taylor asked before shrugging, “I don’t know. I mean, if I have powers I should learn to use them, I think? Right?”

Danny hummed a little, “If you have powers? You aren’t certain?”

“I… I don’t know,” She admitted. “it’s like I believe him, but also I don’t really feelany different… most of the time.”

“Most?”

I felt different in the hospital, when I panicked,” Taylor admitted. “There was a… I don’t know… a rush that I could feel through my whole body. Like I was hooked up to a power main or something. Not painful, or anything like that… but…”

She shook her head, “I wish I could describe it. It was like every cell in my body was vibrating, and then it just surged out.”

Danny hummed again, “That’s not like anything I’ve heard described, but Parahumans are all pretty unique.”

She nodded with a concerned look on her face, “what I’m worried about is if he’s right and I out myself just because I have a panic attack in public.”

“That would be problematic, yes.” Danny sighed.

If that happened, they wouldn’t have much choice in her future. They’d almost certainly have to go straight to the PRT and put her in the Wards.

Of course, they didn’t have to wait for that…

“You know, the Wards might be an option,” He suggested carefully. “Protection from the Gangs, training…”

He didn’t likethat idea, of course, but it was a viable alternative to Magus’ suggestion. Danny had seen enough to know that the Wards weren’t as ‘safe’ as they were made out to be, and he loathed the politics of the PRT and Protectorate, but they were far and away a better option than Taylor accidentally outing herself.

“I don’t know, Dad,” Taylor curled up a bit. “In one way, I really want to join. I do. Being a Ward is a childhood dream come true.”

“But…?”

“But I don’t want to deal with superpowered teenage drama,” She admitted sourly. “I can’t imagine it’s any better than the normal version.”

Danny snorted, “Probably not, lord knows the rumor mill about Glory Girl’s antics are already passing into legend… still, the Wards likely aren’t that bad. They’re supervised, after all.”

“I guess.”

Danny smiled slightly, “Think about it. You have time to decide.”

“Yeah… I will.”

*****