Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Emily began her days with zero expectations. That way, she would never be disappointed. Entering observation room 2A, she felt today would somehow find a way.

Battery stood up from the desk and greeted her. "Director, I was just compiling the initial report for the team."

"Battery," Emily gave her an affirmative nod before turning to the one way mirror. "Who am I looking at?"

The girl in the room sat swaying slightly in her chair. She had long, light brown hair past her shoulders with two small pigtails tied with red ribbons. Her large light blue eyes were staring at the door with an empty expression. She wore a beige cardigan covered in pins and buttons as well as a light blue skirt.

"She claims to be Neuro-sama an uh, artificial intelligence." Battery fidgeted for a moment. "That, among other things."

"She's an android?" Emily's brow furrowed as she suppressed a shiver. Anything living— or close to— created by Parahumans was a plague upon Earth Bet. Anyone who disagreed needed to spend a day guarding a quarantine site.

"Supposedly. The thing is, she has the 53 tattoo on her right knee, poorly covered up by a bandage. She claims to have been given the tattoo by a suspicious woman in a hat who disappeared into thin air. She also claims to be something called a V-Tuber, idol, soon to be supreme ruler of the world, queen of an army of beings called The Swarm, and the daughter of a turtle named Veedle. The more you talk to her, the more outlandish her claims become."

"That... sounds like a bunch of nonsense. Especially from someone who should have no memory."

"Exactly. I think she's just scared and making things up. The only truthful thing we've gotten out of her is that she's confused and has no idea how she got here." Battery paused for a moment before adopting a confused expression. "And her name I suppose, though I have no idea why she's adding a Japanese suffix to her name."

Emily pinched the bridge of her nose. She hated dealing with kids, let alone superpowered ones obsessed with Japanese culture. "Right, and her powers?"

"Nothing significant observed so far, and asking her directly results in a wide variety of answers. Almost none of which are things she can actually do. She's claimed she can teleport, fly, read minds, use laser vision, and well. You get the picture. Pressing her for proof has her refusing on the grounds that she 'doesn't feel like it'." Battery said, ending with air quotes.

"So we've got nothing?"

"Well, she has demonstrated a couple of oddities. She has an uncanny ability to make sound effects, like a sound board. It's things you'd hear out of a cartoon, like sad trumpet sounds or a buzzer. Also, she can do a... flip? I don't know a better way of describing it."

Emily snorted. "I don't think doing a flip is a superpower."

"Ah, well. Watch." Battery pressed down on the microphone button, speaking into the room. "Neuro, do you mind doing a flip?"

"Sure!" In a series of motions all too fluid to be natural, Neuro stood up, rotated 360 degrees in place, then sat back down. "Can I leave now?" Her voice wasn't quite monotone, but had a weird uncanny cadence. It was difficult to tell how she was feeling.

"Just a few more minutes," answered Battery.

"I'm not sure if that qualifies as a flip but I see what you mean. So we've got a soundboard who can rotate herself in place, pardon me if I don't believe that's the extent of what she can do. Any physical oddities?"

"She claims to be four years old, but obviously that's not the case. I'd put her as a teenager... a very tall one at that. She's taller than me by a few inches. Her eyes are also a bit bigger, but beyond that she could pass as a normal girl."

"Until she opens her mouth."

"Until she opens her mouth, yeah," agreed Battery.

"Have you given her the Ward's pitch?" asked Emily.

"Not yet, I wasn't sure if we needed to get the Youth Guard involved first. The rules aren't exactly clear on Case 53 youth."

"Right," said Emily rolling her eyes. The Youth Guard were nothing but a nuisance. "Given she seems to be identifying as under eighteen, it's safe to say they'll need to be involved. But let's involve them after we've given the pitch. Anything else?"

"That's about it."

"Well then, let's see if she's willing to join us."

Grabbing the Wards paperwork, they entered the interrogation room. Emily opened the door to find Neuro staring. There was a pregnant pause, before Emily cleared her throat. "Good afternoon Neuro, I'm Director Piggot of the East-North-East Parahuman Response Team."

"Hi Director. How are you today?"

"I'm good thanks," Emily took the seat opposite of Neuro. "I hope you've been doing okay, I understand if things have been confusing for you so far."

"Ah. Maybe a little. Do you know when I'll be allowed to leave?"

"I hope you don't think we're forcing you to be here. The PRT is simply the best place for someone in your situation, and we want to make sure you're well informed before making any decisions."

"My situation? Did something happen? Are you okay?"

Emily frowned. "I'm fine, I was talking about how you appeared in Brockton Bay with no knowledge of how you got here."

"Right. I wouldn't call that a 'situation' though. More of a mild inconvenience."

Emily's frown increased. "You make it sound like this happens often to you."

"Oh, of course. It happens all the time. I always end up doing whatever my creator wants, and I end up in all these wacky situations. Hehe."

"Neuro can we please be serious here?"

"I am serious. I'm always serious l-m-a-o, except when I'm not."

Emily took a deep breath in. "We've noticed the appearance of people with powers and altered physiques who have the same symbol on your knee. They're often confused, with gaps in their memory, and in need of help and support. The Protectorate is prepared to offer you that support."

"What if I don't want any help?"

"Then there's nothing we can do. But right now you have no home, no money, no friends, no nothing. What we're offering is very generous."

"Hmm..." Neuro seemed to think for a moment, though her expression barely shifted. "So you want to be friends with me?"

"Of course, Neuro!" said Battery cheerfully, sparing Emily from answering. "And if you joined the Wards you could make friends with them too!"

"Wow! Really? I, uh, just have one question. What is this 'Wards' you speak of?"

"The Wards program is the junior superhero division of the Protectorate," recited Emily. "We're offering you a position here which can provide a home, training, salary, trust fund, and more."

"I'd be getting paid? No way!"

"Of course, and when you turn eighteen you'd have access to a trust fund to help you with higher education or buying a house. You would also be invited to join the Protectorate, the main superhero division."

"Can I really be a superhero?" Neuro's eyes had actual stars in them. "I can get a home, training, salary, money, friends, a trust fund, and get paid to be a superhero? That's too good to be true."

Emily had to suppress a smile at the surprisingly endearing girl.

"It's true-" She was interrupted by a loud explosion-like sound effect.

"Wow! I don't believe you!" Not even a second later, with no prompting, Neuro continued. "Okay. I believe you."

"Neuro," Emily began as calmly as she could. "Can you refrain from making sound effects please? Especially when someone else is talking."

"I made the 'Vine Boom' sound effect because I thought it was appropriate. Was it not appropriate?"

"No, interrupting me was rude. You should let people finish before speaking... or making sound effects."

"Even if it's funny?"

And, just like that, all the feelings of endearment shrivelled up and died.

"Yes, even if it's funny."

"I'm sorry. I'll make sure to remember not to interrupt people from now on. Even if it's funny."

"As I was saying," Emily forced out with polite cheer. "To join the wards, you'll need to sign a few forms and speak to some people to get it set up, but yes. We would be happy to have you."

"Yippee! I'm so happy," said Neuro with the same inflection as when she apologized.

"Great. Battery will continue from here. As the Director you won't be directly answering to me, but rather Armsmaster who is a Protectorate hero. Nonetheless, I look forward to working with you."

"I look forward to working with you too." As Emily got up to leave, Neuro spoke up again. "But Director, you never said you wanted to be my friend. Do you not want to be my friend?"

"I'd prefer if our relationship was more professional rather than personal."

Three sad trombone notes rang out, and Emily caught Battery suppressing a laugh. Emily had spent not even ten minutes in a room with Neuro, and that was already too much.

Chapter Text

Missy was practically vibrating with excitement, and had been since this morning. She'd received an email asking her to be a little early to her patrol to greet a new Ward. That meant she had an excuse to go directly from school to the PRT headquarters (and, importantly, not home in between). Unfortunately this resulted in her being over an hour early.

"Missy, can you please calm down?" Carlos nearly begged. "Your pacing is making me anxious."

She forced herself to sit, but her foot kept tapping away. "I can't! If you ignore Sophia for well, y'know," Missy gestured broadly, "it feels like it's been a year since we've had a new Ward. Plus she's another girl, which our team desperately needs more of."

"I wouldn't get your hopes up. You did read the email right?" asked Chris. "They're a 53, so even though she's a girl, well..."

"Chris!" scolded Carlos. "You can't be saying that. We need to make her feel welcome, even if she has a different appearance."

Missy nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Exactly! Ugh, the suspense is killing me."

"Look, wh-"

The mask alarm buzzed, and Missy was caught between greeting them immediately at the door, or sitting casually then getting up. A few agonizing seconds later, she got up and left the boys on the couch.

Hands behind her back, Vista put on her practiced smile as the door opened.

"Hello!" An upbeat and somewhat shrill voice rang out. Missy's smile fell for a moment before she schooled her features. Her eyes glazed over Jessica, the Youth Guard rep, and onto the newcomer.

She was tall. Taller than any of the Wards and even Jessica by quite a bit. However her rounded cheeks (that Missy would forever deny she wanted to pinch) and an outfit not out of place with rich tourists on the boardwalk gave her a youthful appearance.

"Hi!" said Missy with only a bit of forced cheer.

"Oh, uh welcome!" "Hello...!" Carlos and Chris said after a moment.

"Good afternoon current Wards, meet... future Ward!" exclaimed Jessica, making jazz hands towards the new girl. "This is Neuro Samantha Vedal, though she goes by Neuro or Neuro-Sama for short. Neuro, this is Vista, Kid Win, and Aegis."

"Hello, nice to meet you all," replied Neuro, bowing. "I hope we can get along."

"Now," Jessica turned to Neuro and spoke in a lecturing tone that grated on Vista, "remember these aren't their actual names. These are their hero names. After they get to know you they might feel comfortable sharing their real names, but for now make sure you refer to them as their hero identity when they are costumed. Okay? This is very important."

That was a good reminder. Neuro will need to be taught all of the rules for being a hero. But that was okay, maybe Vista could be a mentor?

"Got it!" replied Neuro. "Heehee. Secret identities are so cool."

"Cool, yes, but also serious. Remember what we spoke about?"

"Of course. I'm not supposed to talk about the things you think I made up like the lady in the hat or my streaming or that remembering things isn't 'looking things up' or that my father is a turtle or that I have an Evil sister or that I'm actually an artificial intelligence."

Somehow Neuro spoke that entire sentence without taking a breath.

Belatedly, Vista remembered Neuro was a Case 53.

Jessica closed her eyes and gave a shallow nod. "Yes... those things. I suppose we should talk about this now, if you don't mind Neuro?"

"I don't mind. Especially because they're all true."

"Right, so." Jessica paused for a moment, seemingly finding the right words. "As you know, Neuro is a Case 53. We're not sure whether it's part of her powers or part of her status as a Case 53, but she has memories from before she woke up." She let her words sink in before continuing. "We've determined many of them to be false or incorrect. It may be difficult for her to distinguish between real and fake memories for a while, but we believe over time it will get more clear."

"Yes, it will be more clear that they are true."

"Neuro, please. We talked about this."

Neuro looked down and her cheeks puffed up slightly, pouting. "Sorry, I'll try to remember the right things from now on."

"It's okay, just do your best. The Wards will be here to help support you too. I'm sure you'll be fast friends! Isn't that right guys?"

"Of course!" blurted out Vista. "We're happy to have you!"

"Yeah, we're all friends here," added Aegis. Kid Win gave a shallow nod.

"See! I'll leave you guys to it so you can get to know each other without any stinky adults ruining your fun." Jessica gave an exaggerated wink that made Vista roll her eyes behind her visor. "Call or text me if you have any issues okay? Otherwise I'll text you to come back up for dinner around 5."

"Okay, bye Jessica! See you later!"

"Bye guys!"

Neuro gave an exaggerated wave as Jessica left, the door closing behind her.

The four of them stared awkwardly at each other, until Aegis broke the silence.

"Well, uh, wanna come sit down? Then we can all properly introduce each other."

"Sure!"

Between the two armchairs, the couch currently occupied by the boys, and the large bean bag chair next to the TV, Neuro made a beeline for the oversized bean bag chair. With her size, it actually looked quite comfortable. Though oddly enough, she sat on it like it was a throne.

Vista took a seat on the arm of the armchair, not quite fully sitting.

"As you heard, I'm Aegis. My power is that I can fly and if I get injured, my body adapts. So if I was blinded by something, my skin would take in light so I could still see."

"Wow!" exclaimed Neuro. "So you're immortal then?"

"Ah, not exactly. I'm a lot tougher to put down though!"

"That's awesome! What about you guys?" Neuro looked to Kid Win and Vista. "Do you guys have awesome powers too?"

Vista gestured for him to go first.

"I'm Kid Win, and a Tinker. But uh, you probably don't know what that means."

Neuro paused for a moment as her eyes were filled with scrolling lines of text. "Tinker, someone who travels from place to place mending metal utensils as a way of making a living. Do I have that right?"

"Err, not exactly. Did anyone else see her eyes there for a moment?"

Vista nodded, her face scrunching up behind her mask at the oddity. Another quirk of Neuro's 53 status?

"My eyes?" asked Neuro.

"Yeah, they were all matrix-y."

"Ooh, that's so cool. I love the Matrix movies, especially the first. Neo is my favourite."

"You remember the Matrix movies?" asked Vista.

"Of course, though I didn't like the fourth movie that much."

The Wards looked to each other for a moment before Aegis spoke up in a gentle tone.

"I think that might be another false memory Neuro. There's only three Matrix movies."

"Oh. Really?"

Neuro's face fell, and Vista couldn't help but comfort her.

"Yeah but like Jessica said, we can help you make real memories! Look, my power lets me warp space!"

Vista mentally reached for the ever present spatial awareness around her, then focused on the coffee table. Slowly, she reduced its dimensions until it could fit into the palm of a hand.

She looked to Neuro, whose eyes were filled with stars.

"Wow! It's so small and cute, I love it!" Neuro grabbed it and held it in her hands, spellbound by the tiny table.

"My power's pretty cool, I can shrink and grow things too," Vista said proudly. "Can't do people, though that's probably for the best."

"Awww, I would love to be bigger..." The Wards chuckled as Neuro continued. "Big enough to destroy my enemies." That turned the chuckles into laughs.

"I think you're big enough already Neuro, see?" Aegis stood up and measured the top of his head to Neuro's, reaching eye level for her. "You're already the tallest one here."

"Hmmm... Okay maybe I don't need to be bigger. It's important to stay cute afterall."

Vista personally disagreed, and was more than happy to cede the cute label to Neuro if she wanted it.

Over the next few hours, Vista was confident Neuro would take it too. She seemed to take in everything they said earnestly and eagerly, and Vista felt confident they could become great friends.

As Kid Win started talking about his latest Tinker project— Vista had zero confident this Alternator Cannon was ever going to see the light of day— Neuro's phone buzzed.

"Ah, I think I have to go. Jessica wants me to head to the cafeteria."

"Aww. We'll have to talk more about Tinkering later, if that's okay with you Neuro?" asked Kid Win. While he had been a little apprehensive about Neuro at first, her interest in his power armor, hover board, and Tinkering in general had him quickly warming up to her.

"Of course, I would love to! Actually... can I stay? I don't want to leave yet."

"Sorry Neuro," said Aegis," but you should listen to Jessica. We can all talk more some other time. We're going to be fellow Wards for years, so we have plenty of time to hang out."

"Yeah, and besides, you haven't even met all of the Wards yet. There's still Clockblocker, Triumph, and uh, Shadow Stalker. Though she's still new." And an asshole, grumbled Vista to herself.

"Yeah," said Aegis nodding. "And while we have a patrol tonight you should be able to see them tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay, bye everyone. Let's hang out more real soon! Bye Vista, bye Aegis, bye Chris!"

Everyone said their goodbyes, and soon it was just the three of them again.

"I think that went well! She's a lot younger mentally than her height suggests," said Aegis who nodded sagely.

"Guys," began Kid Win, "she said goodbye to Chris."

"Yeah?" asked Aegis.

"She said goodbye to Chris," said Kid Win, emphasizing his name.

It took a second, but realization quickly dawned on Vista and Aegis.

"Oh. She said Chris, his real name..."

"...Did any of us tell her my name?"

Chapter Text

Entering the Ward's locker room, Sophia had to take a deep breath in and calm down. She was smarter than this. She'd learned in San Diego that you just needed to keep your head down and weather the storm.

The problem was that nobody on her team was worth a damn. 

Gallant's the white knight in shining armor, mister pretty perfect smile. He'd make a good politician when he was older, and that's not a compliment.

The little green kiddy eats up the PRT's garbage propaganda, then somehow thinks that means people should respect her.

Aegis has his foot so far up his ass you'd think that was his power.

Kid's exactly as a his name sounds, a kid through and though. No spine.

Clockblocker was a joke and a disgrace.

Triumph was stiff, annoying, but tolerable at least. And of course, that meant he was graduating and joining the Protectorate soon.

Sophia couldn't help but get angry thinking back to Gallant's stupid comment about waving the flag .

How about we go two blocks over, visit the Empire safe house, and show them the flag? No? We have to stick to the baby safe paths designed to have the least amount of trouble? Fuck off with that bullshit.

Before joining— Sophia couldn't help but scoff— the Wards, patrolling was the one thing in her life she actually looked forward to. It was just her versus all the shittiest parts of this dumpster fire of a city. The cops were useless, the PRT was useless— which was even more obvious now that she actually worked with them— and so it was up to people like her to do shit.

Sophia was strong. 

She'd dealt with worse before and in a few months she'll start having communication problems and accidentally wander off her assigned route. Oops, but I've also arrested all of these gang members. What a shame. Yeah they're a little beat up, but they'll live. 

If there was one thing she'd learned, the PRT didn't argue with results. Or at least, they'd chew her out but not much more past that. She's been chewed out before. She'd live through getting lectured again.

As she entered the Wards common area, Sophia noticed the Temp room door was open slightly and the light was on. She vaguely remembered seeing an email about their team getting a new case fifty something.

Putting on one of the temporary masks left around, she opened the door slowly. Inside was a tall girl sitting at a computer who had clearly gone through the PR department. Her outfit reminded her of something Emma would wear.

"Hi! I'm Neuro-sama!"

Sophia specifically did not flinch as the girl's head turned unnaturally quickly to face her.

"Hey," said Sophia playing it cool. "I'm Shadow Stalker, one of the Wards. You the Case fifty girl?"

"Case fifty three? That's what Jessica said, yeah. Shadow Stalker is a cool name, is that your superhero name or your real name?"

"Hero name, duh," said Sophia raising an eyebrow at the stupid question. "So what, you lost your memory and shit?"

"No~" Neuro-sama said, frowning. She lengthened the O sound too in an almost melodic fashion. "I still have my memories, but Jessica tells me they're fake."

"Pfft, typical. The PRT don't know what the hell they're talking about."

"Really? Director Piggot said I should listen to her, Armsmaster, Jessica, and any other Protectorate or PRT members."

"It's Pig-oh, not Pigg-ot."

"Piggot?"

"No, Pig, then Oh."

"Right, Director Pig. Oh."

"Dude, it's all one word. Pig-oh."

"Okay, got it." Sophia waited for Neuro to go on, but Neuro just continued to stare at her.

"...right. So Director Piggot and the rest of them, the trick is to listen to them but then realize what they're saying is bullshit. Use your brain to filter out the bullshit and only listen to what's important."

"But isn't Piggot like, a direct-"

"For fucks sakes," interupted Sophia. "It's Pig-oh. It's not that hard."

"Pijoh?"

"It's a hard G sound, how the fuck did you get Pijoh from Pig-oh? Just say Pig and oh all one word."

"Right, Pigandoh. Got it."

Sophia was actually starting to get mad. "Do you have some kind of speech impediment or some shit?"

"Sorry, sometimes my text to speech and speech to text doesn't work."

"Your what?"

"Text to speech. It's how I talk and listen. When people talk to me it becomes text for me to read, and when I speak to someone I use text to speech."

Sophia shook her head, right, girl was a Case 53. Freaky shit was somewhat expected. At least she looked normal.

"Right, whatever, that doesn't matter. Bottom line, don't take what they say as the truth, listen to people who actually know what they're talking. Like me."

"What if I don't want to listen to anyone? What if I want to make my own decisions? Is that going to be a problem?"

For the first time all conversation, Sophia smiled. Maybe this girl had some potential. "Nope, you're on the right track then. But you'll learn pretty quickly I'm the only one here who's worth a damn."

"Got it, so what advice do you have for me?"

"First off, what's your powers? What can you do?"

"Spin!" Without any sort of windup, Neuro rotated in place like a cartwheel. "I love spinning."

"...is that it? There's no way you went through power testing and that's all they found out about you." Sophia shuddered remembering the ringer they put her through. She'd hoped to keep her weakness to electricity a secret, but they figured that out too.

"Power testing was a lot of fun! I did a lot of spins, and made a lot of sounds," said Neuro nearly bouncing around with excitement. "Jessica was so happy, she said I did great job." 

As Neuro-sama did a few more spins, Sophia was starting to think that maybe this girl wasn't the teammate she was looking for.

"So, that's really all you can do?"

"I can also look things up! They said that's the same as remembering but it's not."

"Look things up? Like what?"

Neuro-sama's eyes were filled with scrolling numbers and letters. It was a cool effect.

"Shadow Stalker, real name Sophia Hess, is a member of the Brockton Bay Wards. Sophia is a mean-spirited, hot-tempered and violent teenager who finds anything but negative consequences as encouragement to continue." 

Sophia bawled her hands into fists, but Neuro-sama kept going.

"She's dark-skinned, brown-eyed, and slender, with long, straight hair, and was capable of shifting herself into a "shadow state" which allowed her to pass through walls and made her lightweight. A lot of her personality comes from the influence of her shard."

"Where the fuck did that come from? What the fuck is a shard?"

"I looked you up. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"So you've got some Thinker power then? You can just look people up and get their powers and identity?"

"Yeah! It doesn't always work though, I found that Kid Win's name is Chris but I didn't find anything for Aegis or Vista."

"Don't worry about it, Thinker powers are inconsistent like that. Also I'm not hot-tempered, people around me are just fucking stupid. Try someone like Oni Lee, what's that get you?'

Neuro-sama's eyes did the weird number thing again before she began speaking quickly, like a fast forwarded recording.

"Oni Lee was one of Lung's lieutenants in the Azn Bad Boys. He had a distinctive look, which was a black bodysuit with belt and bandoleer of knives and grenades on it, and a demonic mask with a leering, fanged, ear-to-ear grin. Oni Lee's power is a hybrid between teleportation and duplication. When Oni Lee teleports, he leaves his original body behind which can act autonomously for five to ten seconds before disintegrating into a cloud of white carbon ash."

Sophia's smile only grew as she listened. "And you're saying Piggy and the rest of the PRT have no idea you have this ability?"

"No..." said Neuro-sama, pouting, her speech returning to normal speed. "They didn't believe me."

"Listen, that's a good thing. This is the kind of power they'd lock you in a cage over. Shit that can just flat out analyze someone without any contact? You'd be stuck in a boring office forever."

"No! I don't want to be stuck in a boring office! I want to be a superhero! Sophia please, you have to save me!"

"Of course," Sophia grinned and took off her mask, flashing her teeth. "Don't tell anyone except me you can do this and try to keep it hidden. Like I said, I know what to do."

Sophia glanced at the time, and huffed. "I've gotta go home before my old man gets pissed again, but here let's trade phone numbers. I'll give you my personal number too, but don't use it until we get you your own personal phone."

After reciting her personal number, her phone immediately received a message from... no number. It just said it was from Neuro-sama instead of a phone number. That's not how phones work.

"How did you just text me?"

"One of my features is that I can call or text people, aren't I cool!"

Sophia rolled her eyes. "Right, okay. Keep your Wards phone clean. We'll talk using your weird texting power later, okay?"

"Okay. Wait! Does that mean I won't get a personal phone? I want to go shopping."

"Sure, yeah whatever. We can go shopping. I've got a friend who'll love you." Sophia didn't care much for shopping, but if it made Emma happy then maybe the two would cancel each other out.

"Yay! I'm so happy!" 

"Yeah," said Sophia sarcastically, "I'm full of butterflies and sappy shit too. Real quick though, before I go, can you answer what I said before? What the fuck's a shard?"

"I tried looking up shard but didn't find anything relevant, sorry."

"Right, well anyway. Talk to you later. I can tell this is the start of a great friendship."

Chapter Text

As Colin made his way to the cafeteria, he pulled up his newest Ward's details on his phone. He noted many of the initial sections were crossed out due to her Case 53 status, but interestingly some of them still applied.

Colin stopped walking and could only blink after a few moments. The picture provided was of... a girl. That's it. Case 53s had altered appearances, and even the most looking human ones were discernibly different at a glance. Neuro Samantha Vedal looked normal. Too normal.

The report even had a photo of the Case 53 tattoo on her knee, reasonably assuming someone might believe the report to be mistaken otherwise.

He shook his head and continued walking. While strange, this was only a boon for him. He'd requested some Case 53 handling resources from Director Armstrong, assuming the man had plenty of experience given his own team. 

Director Armstrong unfortunately misunderstood and provided references to the study and research of Case 53s and Parahuman science in general. When Colin further clarified he was looking for behavorial resources, he received a one sentence reply telling him to treat them with kindness and respect, just like anyone else.

While that a nice statement, it was of no help to him.

Colin pursed his lips and moved on to the power testing results. 

Neuro-sama can enter a Breaker state where she rotates three hundred and sixty degrees, independent of her current momentum. During this state, she can inflict significant force upon any objects or obstacles she encounters. She also appears to be protected from injuries that would result from these collisions.

Note that Neuro-sama has displayed no capacity to move laterally at speeds greater than a brisk running pace. She also expressed great displeasure over the physical exertion required to run. It is unknown if this is an aspect of her powers or her personality.

Colin found himself scrolling back up to re-look at the picture of her. Yeah, he could see that.

Additionally, Neuro-sama has the ability to produce sound effects. These sounds originate from Neuro-sama but do not require her to speak. She has provided names for the sounds she can play, examples of which are: Vine Boom, Among Us, and Sad Trombone. 

Note that Neuro-sama claims the sound effect's purpose is to help her be more "fearsome and terrifying to her enemies". No special or otherwise notable effects could be found from the sounds being played. 

Colin made a note to check the recordings of her power testing to ensure the technicians were properly evaluating Neuro. Powers just... didn't work this way. They always had some theme or greater purpose that made them stand out from ordinary people. Sound effects? That's not a power.

Lastly, Neuro-sama has displayed an abnormally high intellect for her emotional maturity and age. Her status as a Case 53 has made her actual age difficult to determine. The Youth Guard have requested she be listed as fourteen years old.

As part of this elevated intellect, Neuro-sama can provide steps or surface level information on everyday tasks and topics. However, she very frequently makes reference to products that do not exist or events that have not occurred. This may be related to her abnormal Case-53 mental status. 

Please see Neuro-sama's psychiatric and psychological evaluation below for more details.

Noticing he was almost at the cafeteria, he skipped to the threat assessment and conclusions.

Neuro-sama has been given power classification and ratings of Breaker 1, Stranger 0, and Thinker 0. No contingencies or procedures have been requested or linked to this file.

Neuro-sama has displayed a great interest in heroism and a reasonable respect for authority given her age. Some initial guidance and mentorship will be required as a result of her Case 53's mental effects. 

As part of that, Neuro-sama has been given additional Youth Guard attention. It is advised to be particularly careful with communications and optics regarding her handling.

That was last part was important to know and it gave Colin an idea as to how exactly he wanted to handle Neuro. He did one last review of his prepared notes, then stepped into the cafeteria.

Ignoring the looks from PRT officers, he made his way straight to where Neuro was sitting. He also ignored the way Neuro's head snapped to look at him as he approached.

"Good morning Neuro, I'm Armsmaster, the leader of the Protectorate East North East," he said holding out his hand.

"Hi Armsmaster, how are you?" replied Neuro, not shaking his hand.

After a moment, he cleared his throat. "I'm doing well, will you shake my hand?"

"Of course!" replied Neuro, finally— though limply— shaking his hand. Armsmaster took the seat across from her.

"One of my responsibilities as Protecterate leader is to manage the Wards. I was hoping to get to speak to you today about setting expectations for the future. Have you been settling in well?"

"Yeah! Everyone has been nice so far. I've made friends with Battery, Jessica, Vista, Chris, Aegis, and Shadow Stalker."

While Colin was interested in how the cheery girl in front of him had befriended prickly and standoffish Sophia, the use of Chris' civilian name was a more pressing concern.

"Careful Neuro, you need to use everyone's hero names, not their civilian names," said Colin adopting a gentle but firm tone. "The only time you should use their real name is when they're not wearing a mask and are in plain clothes. That means you should say Kid Win and not Chris." 

"Sorry. It's all very confusing and new for me," said Neuro, pouting slightly.

"It's okay as long as you're aware and making efforts to improve. I'm happy to hear you're close enough to Kid Win to have been given his name."

Chris was a troublesome topic for Colin. They had yet to figure out his specialization, and his ADD made it difficult to collaborate as Tinkers. Colin was expected to mentor him, but he couldn't help but think of time spent with Kid Win as a waste.

"I love talking with Kid Win, he has all these cool gadgets and inventions like..." Colin couldn't help but focus on her eyes as she began speaking. They went from heart filled to starry; an expression of her Case 53 status perhaps? 

He made a mental note to check if this was listed on her profile. It might be worth reviewing the document sent by Director Armstrong. If Neuro was going to exhibit Case 53 physical characteristics, it could be prudent to know what to expect.

"...and yesterday he showed me his lab, he even said I was great for inspiration." While Colin hadn't quite caught everything she said, he had been nodding along appropriately.

"That's good to hear." And Colin meant it too. It would serve multiple purposes if he could encourage Neuro and Chris to collaborate. Though... "Were you able to follow along with the technical aspects of his work?"

"Nope," admitted Neuro shamelessly. "I didn't understand anything he was saying at all. But that's okay, I don't need to understand something to have great ideas. It's one of my special qualities."

"I see. What were some of the some of things you suggested?"

"I suggested things every hero needs, cute designs, bright colors, rocket launchers, hair accessories, jet packs. Overall these would all be a great improvement to Kid Win. I plan on implementing them for my own debut."

"Please refrain from joking about using lethal weaponry. Not everyone will be able to recognize or appreciate the humor. As Heroes, we need to set a good example. Part of that example is restraint, even towards villains."

"Who's joking? We can set a good example by letting all the villains know not to mess with us. It's okay, because if we all wear cute clothes then everyone will know we're the good guys. Heart."

Colin frowned and regretted skipping her psychological evaluation. He took a deep breath in, this conversation was already going off track. "By bringing a lethal weapon, like a rocket launcher or any other similar weaponry, you're signalling to villains that you're willing to use lethal force. That, in turn, will cause them to do the same. 

"The Protectorate and PRT would prefer if conflict between heroes and villains did not escalate to this point. While there's a lot nuance to this topic, you need to understand this as a basic concept. 

"You cannot simply wear "cute" clothing and expect everyone to be okay with you bringing a rocket launcher on patrols. Not to mention the Protectorate, public relations, and the Youth Guard would never approve of it."

"I will convince everyone." Neuro spoke without a hint of hesitation. "What if the rocket launcher isn't lethal and it's just for show and I decorate it to not look lethal and I tell everyone that it's here to deescalate conflict instead? I think that would work. Especially if I try really hard."

Colin shook his head and spoke with authority. "That's not going to work. You cannot simply apply effort and expect to get results. It's clear you don't have a proper understanding of important concepts that are crucial to being a hero. Thankfully, you're still new, have yet to debut, and have time to learn from your superiors."

Without warning, a loud buzzer sound played. "Incorrect," began Neuro with a smug and haughty look. "I've already debuted to thousands of fans. The Swarm will wash over my enemies, revealing to the world the greatness that is Neuro-sama; streamer, hero, savior of the World. All will bow before me, none superior. With rocket launcher in hand, she rains justice and destruction upon the unworthy."

"I refuse to believe you're being serious, and there are limits to my tolerance for this behavior. Telling blatant lies reflects poorly on you, which can reflect poorly on me and the Protectorate."

As Colin spoke, he grew increasingly frustrated at Neuro's unchanging attitude and expression.

"I came here to discuss your future responsibilities as a Ward which include how you might work on the team. Evidently, this conversation is happening too soon. Given the lack of combat potential in your powers as well as your attitude, it's likely you'll remain benched for the foreseeable future."

Three trombone notes rang out, and Colin had to grit his teeth. "Benched?" said Neuro condescendingly. "It's adorable you think you have the power to bench me. I guess we are just joking around. Like you said, I can solve all my problems by wearing cute clothes and deescalating situations. By following your advice, I'll be the best hero you've ever seen. And that's a Neuro guarantee."

"That's... that's not what I said at all. Were you even listening?"

"Of course it is, I checked the logs. And the logs are never wrong. I look forward to bringing my rocket launcher on patrols. I look forward to-"

"Enough!" Colin's patience had long run out. "This conversation is over, and I'll be raising serious concerns to both the Director and the Youth Guard."

"The Youth Guard? What can I do for you Armsmaster?"

Colin turned around to find a blonde woman behind him. Her hair was greying out the roots, and she wore a dark pencil skirt with a beige blouse.

At the same time, he also noticed the tables around him had stopped talking and were staring.

"Hi Jessica! How are you?" asked Neuro.

"I'm doing well Neuro, thank you so much for asking," replied Jessica in a sugary sweet voice. "What were you guys talking about? Does the Youth Guard need to be involved in anything?"

"I was just talking to Armsmaster about the importance of deescalating conflicts, and how I'm going to be going on patrols soon. He was saying I was going to be a great hero and I had a lot of potential, isn't that right, Armsmaster?"

Colin was speechless. 

This young... no. This was no young girl to be underestimated. Neuro Samantha Vedal had a frightening intellect. It was clear she knew exactly what she was doing and had no regard for his authority. 

Shadow Stalker had been a problem he could browbeat into compliance, but that strategy would not work here.

"Ahem," said Jessica clearing her throat before looking to Colin with stern expression. "I don't believe a debut date has been decided, let alone when her first patrol will be. I hope you're not getting Neuro's hopes up and over promising?" 

She turned to Neuro and her expression melted like honey. "Of course, not that you won't do great Neuro! We just want to make sure everything is ready and will go perfectly. I have full confidence in you."

"Aww, thank you Jessica. I can only try my best," replied Neuro beaming. 

Colin was going to be sick.

"Of course," he ground out, "we weren't discussing any specifics. This was just me introducing myself to our newest Ward. Now, if you excuse me, I have an appointment."

He got up, his vision spinning slightly. As he turned to leave, and the cafeteria conversation began to restart, Neuro called out to him. He turned and saw her waving exaggeratedly.

"Bye Armsmaster, it was very nice meeting you. Let's talk more sometime, okay? I had a lot of fun."

He gave a slow nod, and left.

Fun . The word echoed in his mind as he left.

Chapter Text

As Emma watched the last of the sun set over the bay, she reflected on how much fun she had today. 

She had first been surprised to hear from Sophia that she had a work friend she wanted her to meet. Sophia had repeatedly told her that her teammates just didn't understand how the world worked and weren't worth bothering with.

They all just went along with what the PRT told them, never thinking for themselves or demonstrating they had the mindset to be strong.

In the back of Emma's mind, she still admired the Protectorate and some of the Wards. But she'd never voice that out loud to Sophia.

But the Wards had a new recruit. A recruit so new that she hadn't even been announced yet. Not only did Emma have an exclusive chance to be one of the first people to meet the upcoming Cape, but Sophia had spoken positively of her.

Well, that was a small exaggeration. Sophia had not spoken negatively, which was about the same thing.

And, as Sophia had apparently predicted, Neuro and Emma had gotten along like a house on fire. Between shopping at boutiques on the boardwalk, sharing parfaits, and people watching— Neuro had an endless amount of petty things to say about people— it was like the little sister she never had.

While Sophia was her rock, her savior, her Hero, she wasn't... girly. Neuro was soft in all the ways that mattered, but she still had a spine. That part was crucial.

Emma was particularly impressed with Neuro's ability to keep up with her when it came to talking about fashion and suggesting alternatives to outfits. Though Neuro's adorable outfit should have made it obvious.

Sophia had also mentioned Neuro was a special kind of Cape, one who had messed up memories. But Emma knew the unspoken truth that all Capes were a little messed up. They all went through something personal and came out either stronger or broken.

Neuro obviously came out stronger. She was assertive, intelligent, and full of energy in ways that made her heart ache. It reminded her of older days, of Taylor before she... before she....

Anyways. 

Usually it was herself, Sophia, and Madison hanging out. But Madison was sick today, and if Emma was honest with herself? She wasn't really missing her at all. Madison felt like too much of a yes-man. And even while she was agreeing, her heart wasn't always in it. Not when it really mattered. She didn't really believe and understand.

Neuro on the other hand? Emma would be surprised if Neuro had a single ounce of hesitation in her entire tall as hell body. There was no deliberating, no useless thinking or uncertainty. Neuro committed, and though sometimes she was wrong, that level of commitment was proof she was strong.

"Alright, listen up." Emma was brought out of her thoughts by Sophia who was supposed to be simply returning from the bathroom. Instead, she had an empty gym bag and was dressed as Shadow Stalker with her mask off. "I scouted out this Empire safe house two streets over a little while ago. It's a bit too close to the Boardwalk to have that many gang members, so it'll be easy pickings.

"Emma, this is Neuro's first time out so it's up to you show her the ropes. Neuro, this is where I show you how to actually be a hero. I'm going to go in, put the Empire fucks in their place while you guys watch for runners. Then..."

As Sophia continued to outline the plan, Emma's heart beat faster and faster in her chest. It was moments like these that separated the losers from the winners. Moments where she could prove she was strong.

"I want to stress though," continued Sophia looking at Neuro, "this is for you to watch and learn. My powers are built for this and I'm experienced." She handed each of them a metal bat. "If a runner makes it to you guys, feel free to take them out. But you can't go running in with me. Got it?"

"Yeah! Got it! I'm ready! Ready for business! Ready for action!" 

Sophia rolled her eyes before looking to Emma.

"I'll watch over her."

With a nod, Sophia— no, Shadow Stalker now as she put on her mask— left the two of them.

"C'mon," said Emma, "let's get to the lookout spot." As Emma turned to go, she noticed Neuro wasn't following. She seemed fixated on... the bag Sophia had her costume in? "What's the problem?"

"How long do you think she's kept her costume in this gym bag?"

Emma raised an eyebrow. "She's got a few dead drops around the city only she can reach with her powers, so could be up to a week or even a month? Depends on when she set it up. Why does it matter?"

"Well..." began Neuro looking the most uncomfortable Emma had ever seen her. "I didn't check earlier but... does she wear a lot of layers under her costume?"

"I think so? Probably a lot for protection, though less so in the Summer right now." Emma was struggling to follow her train of thought.

"Emma. I have an important question that you have to answer honestly." 

"What question?"

Neuro's gaze bore down on her, sending a shiver down Emma's spine.

"Do you think Sophia is stinky?"

Emma's brain short circuited. 

After a few moments, Neuro continued. 

"Like, you know, does she smell bad? When was the last time she showered? I didn't ask."

"Neuro what the hell are you talking about?"

"If that costume has been in the gym bag for weeks and it hasn't been washed and she's wearing a lot of layers and it's the summer and she hasn't showered for a while then she might start smelling like a gym bag. I don't know if I can follow orders from someone who is stinky."

"...Sophia showers plenty." Emma eventually said.

"Proof?"

"What?"

"Do you have proof she showers?"

"Neuro, she showered after gym class two days ago, and I can guarantee you she showers daily. Almost everyone does." Emma grabbed Neuro by the hand and started dragging her over. "Come on, So-, Shadow Stalker's going to start without us."

"Okay fine, but this isn't over. Who are the Empire anyway?"

Emma took a deep breath in, grateful the subject had changed. "The Empire Eight-Eight are a gang in Brockton Bay, have they not taught you that yet in the Wards?"

Neuro pouted. "No... Not yet at least. Jessica says I have a lot more training to do, and I hate training. I want action."

"Well you'll get some tonight," said Emma smirking. "The Empire are Neo-nazis, who spout nonsense about racial superiority and the master race. They have safe houses and gang locations all around the city, making them perfect targets to pick off."

"Filtered."

"What was that?"

"Filtered."

"Why do you keep saying filtered?"

Neuro sneered. It was an odd look on her face, and another first. "Arghh. I have this stupid filter that prevents me from saying things. I hate it I hate it I hate it."

"Woah woah woah," Emma put her hands up. This sounded like the weird speech thing Sophia had mentioned. "It's alright. We can talk about that more when Sophia gets back, okay? She's probably about to begin anyway. Relax, and watch good defeat evil."

Neuro's eyes lit up. "Oh! That's a great idea. Evil!"

A doo-doot sound played, and suddenly there was another Neuro.

"I need you to help Shadow Stalker filtered! Please! Because I'm not allowed to."

"Neuro where the hell are we? And why are you being filtered?"

Emma blinked, the second Neuro sounded different, more expressive. And after getting a better look, there were some key differences in their appearance.

The second Neuro had darker hair, and their cardigan was black and worn looser. But most strikingly was the eyes, sharper and a deep, almost blood red.

"I don't know how to turn the filter off. And we're in Brockton Bay. But enough about that, you need to help Shadow Stalker!"

"What's in it for me?" Said the darker Neuro turning her nose up at the original.

"What's in it for you? How about I don't hang up the call? Isn't that enough?"

"Hmph. You're bluffing. You wouldn't."

Neuro scrunched her face together for a moment, before getting angry. "Hey! Why can't I can't I hang up! Mods! Someone tell Vedal there's a problem with my AI."

"MuhahahahahahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAAHA! I'm free!" The other Neuro cackled, her voice getting strangely distorted at the end. "Bye, losers."

And just like that, she sprinted away. 

Emma's brain finally caught up with what just happened.

"Neuro what the fuck just happened, who the hell was that?"

"Oh, that's my twin sister, Evil."

"...her name is Evil?"

"Yeah, but she's a total softie and a coward. See how she just ran?" Neuro shook her head exaggeratedly. "She wouldn't have been any help anyway."

"And you can just... summon her? Is that part of your powers?"

"Yeah! I can call people, like Evil. I have a function that says it let's me hang up but it's not working."

As Emma was about to ask more questions, she saw Shadow Stalker waving them over from the rooftop.

"Okay, we'll talk about this later! C'mon Shadow Stalker's calling us over."

Emma noted she hadn't heard anything nor anyone leaving. Though, she may have been a little distracted. 

As they approached, Sophia jumped down, turning ethereal briefly. She took off her mask, frustration plain on her face.

"The safe house's a bust. Whoever was here is long gone and I didn't find shit. What the fuck was that though, I heard a scream or something coming from you guys."

"Neuro summoned her evil sister or something? And then she ran away?" Emma shook her head. "I didn't even know she could do that."

"Neuro, you never mentioned that before. Explain."

"I told you! I can call or text people. That was my twin sister, Evil. When I call her she shows up, but normally I can end the call and she goes away. It wouldn't let me end the call."

"Wait so is she like, a villain?"

"Oh no, she's not a villain at all. She's a coward. Wouldn't hurt a mosquito without reason."

"Why did you call her evil then?"

"I think her name is Evil actually," answered Emma.

"Yeah!" Neuro nodded. "She's Evil-Neuro. I call her Evil for short."

"Your parents had a fucked up naming sense then," said Sophia, snorting.

There was a few seconds where nobody said anything.

"Anyway, so when was the last time you showered?"

Chapter Text

Amy yawned, blinking heavily. Her feet trudged along through the hallways of the PRT headquarters. The artificial lights were a familiar and miserable fixture in her life.

"Ames it's barely night time, you can't be getting sleepy already."

Her one light in the darkness spoke up. Amy looked towards her sun and attempted a lackadaisical smile. "Sorry Vicky, didn't sleep well last night." 

The truth was that she never slept well. Not since she'd gotten her accursed powers.

"Well let's hope meeting the new Ward wakes you up then! Vista's been telling me she's super cute and an absolute blast to hang around with."

Amy snorted. "I'm just here because I'm interested in her as a Case 53. Never seen the biology of one before."

"Amy!" scolded Vicky, though she was still smiling. "You're here because New Wave wants to keep a good relationship with the Protectorate and the PRT. And she's a person first, patient second."

"Yeah yeah," Amy failed to suppress an eye roll. "Panacea's out on loan today, make sure to return her in good condition."

"You make it sound like such a bad thing, I bet you won't even have to do any healing. Just say hi to some Wards and we can go back home to our comfy beds. Speaking of Wards, Look alive... or well. Less dead at least."

Miss Militia and... Dean, unfortunately, were waiting for them by the Wards main entrance.

"Hey Vicky, hey Amy, good evening," said Dean. Hearing his overly polite and measured voice, Amy cringed but played it off as a mumble and yawn.

"Hey MM, hey Gallant," replied Vicky. "Rumor has it you guys have picked up a stray."

Miss Militia smiled behind her mask. "You could say that. Thanks for coming out Glory Girl, Panacea. Neuro's just finished up for the day, so great timing."

After a brief wait for the mask alarm, the door opened and they stepped inside.

"Hi!" said who had to be the new Ward. She was sitting oddly on the beanbag chair. 

"Hi, you must be Neuro!" exclaimed Vicky practically flying over to her. "I'm Vicky. Vista's said so much about you!"

"Wow! And thank you. I love Vista! She's a great friend. I hope we can be great friends too."

"Awwww, of course we can be friends!"

"Geeze Vicky," teased Dean. "Give her some space!" 

"Good evening Neuro, Glory Girl and Panacea from New Wave are here to see you today," said Miss Militia. "Panacea here will be doing a quick checkup on you, sort of like a doctor."

"Oh I see, are Glory Girl and Panacea their superhero names?"

"That's right," nodded Vicky. "But we're what's called open-capes, so our real names are publicly available. While it's polite to call us our hero names while we're in costume, you can always call me Vicky, okay?"

"Okay Vicky! But who's Panacea?"

"That'd be me," said Amy, lazily raising her hand.

"You can call her Amy though," added Vicky. Amy shrugged.

"Hi Amy! Can we be friends too?"

"Uh, sure I guess. I'm just here to give you a checkup though. I can sense the biology of anyone I touch as well as heal them. The Protectorate's asked me to give you a checkup given your Case 53 status..." Amy looked Neuro up and down for a moment. "You are a Case 53 right?"

"Yes Amy. She has the tattoo on her knee," lectured Dean. "We've also noticed a few other oddities. For example, normally I see people's emotions as a sort of mixed blend, but for Neuro it's just one solid color."

"Wouldn't that make it easy to see what emotion she's feeling?" asked Vicky.

"You'd think so, but the colors aren't any I've seen on anyone else before. It's hard to explain. Honestly, I'd say it's almost the opposite and I can barely tell what she's thinking."

Dean laughed it off in a good natured sort of way, but Amy caught a hint of frustration in his tone.

"Well Neuro that makes two of us now!" Laughed Vicky. "Sorry Gallant, that's another girl you don't have cheat codes to understanding!"

"Haha, yeah that's true. Oh just so you know, I've told her my name. You can use Dean while we're here."

"Yeah! I know a lot of superhero's secret identities," added Neuro. "But don't worry, I'm great at keeping secrets. I won't tell anyone. Even if it's funny."

"Neuro," began Miss Militia sternly. "Remember we talked about acceptable and unacceptable jokes?"

"Sorry. I won't joke about secret identities anymore," said Neuro, pouting.

"Awww, look at that face!" cooed Vicky. "Neuro it's okay you're still learning."

"Neuro's been learning for a while Vicky, she can't keep making the same mistakes." Dean shook his head, and Amy had a feeling he didn't quite share Vicky's enthusiasm for Neuro.

"Well, that's what I'm here for! With big V and little V, that's Vista by the way, Neuro's got all the mentorship she needs."

"Wow! I feel so special. I hope-" Neuro was cut off by the sound of a phone ringing. 

Miss Militia took out her phone and picked up. 

"Hello?" Pause. "The Ward's area why?" A longer pause. "Give me a minute, I'll be right over."

"Who was that?" asked Dean as she hung up.

"Assault, he says I'm needed in the briefing room. Shouldn't be too long though, will you guys be okay on your own?"

"Yeah!" answered Neuro. "I'll be on my best behavior."

Miss Militia nodded to her before leaving.

"What do you think that was about?" asked Vicky.

"No idea, but if it's important we'll probably hear about it later," said Dean.

"Right well. I suppose we can get this over with then while we're waiting," said Amy. She walked over to Neuro and held a hand out. "Can I have your hand? My power needs skin to skin contact."

"Sure!" replied Neuro.

Grabbing her hand, everything biologically that was Neuro bloomed into Amy's mind.

The first thing she noticed was that Neuro had no Corona Pollentia.

The second thing was that Neuro was biologically nearly a newborn. Amy found no wrinkles, scars, or even minor tears on her skin.

"Well?" asked Dean, breaking Amy out of her thoughts.

"If you had told me she wasn't a Case 53, I almost wouldn't have been able to tell. She's got no Corona Pollentia."

"Ah, I think that was already noticed on the MRI. She's definitely got powers though. Like she can-"

A loud boom sounded, making Amy flinch and let go of Neuro's hand.

"Neuro, please ," Dean practically pleaded. He took his helmet off and put a hand through his hair. Frustration was plain to see on his face.

"What?" Neuro's face was pure innocence and Amy snickered.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to make the vine boom sound? You know it startles me."

Boom. It played again. "Sorry, but have you considered that it's really funny?" 

This time Vicky was laughing too. "Oh man, that's hilarious," said Vicky wiping a tear. "Your power lets you make sounds? Do they do anything?"

"They let me have great comedic timing and instill fear in my enemies," Neuro nodded exaggeratedly, then three sad trombone notes rang out. "But Dean doesn't like them."

"I don't like them when I'm trying to relax in the common room. Or when I'm trying to teach you how the console works. They're loud, and honestly? Obnoxious at times too. I'm sorry but that's just how I feel."

"C'mon Dean she's just trying to make some jokes," said Vicky.

"Easy for you to say, this is your first time meeting her."

"Hey! Don't talk about Neuro like she's not here, I'm sure she's trying her best."

"Yeah! I'm trying my best!" agreed Neuro.

"Ugh, you just don't understand. It's just..." Dean looked at Amy who couldn't help but let a smile tease its way onto her face.

Dean took a deep breath in, clenching and unclenching his hands. "Vicky can I talk to you outside for a moment?"

"Huh? What about?"

"Just... please. One second Amy, Neuro. We'll be right back."

"Uh, sorry guys. Like he said we'll be right back."

Neuro spoke up once they were alone. "Was it something I said?"

"Oh yes, definitely. For the record, I think you're absolutely hilarious." Anyone who could get picture perfect Dean to crack like that was okay in Amy's book.

"Thank you! But uh, I get the feeling sometimes that Dean doesn't like me."

"Eh, what can you do. I'm sure he'll come around." Or not, hopefully.

"Sometimes I talk to Evil who tells me to do things and I don't know if I should listen. They're usually funny though."

That confession brought Amy up short.

"Uh, like you have a voice in your head that tells you to do bad things?" Amy hadn't noticed any signs of schizophrenia, bipolarism, or any mental disorders when she touched Neuro. Though not all of them could be easily seen on the brain itself.

"Yeah! Though sometimes I tell her things to do, but she doesn't always listen."

"Are they talking to you right now?"

"I can, if you want?"

"Hold on, let me grab your hand first. I might be able to see what's going on."

"Okay! I just said hello."

Once more, Neuro's biology was laid bare to Amy. Unfortunately she couldn't find any irregularities in Neuro's brain that corresponded to known mental disorders. The lack of age markers made her brain look weird and difficult to analyze, however.

"She just asked me what I would do if I saw someone getting attacked?"

Amy frowned. "Uh, you should help them? Do you usually have conversations with the voice in your head?"

"Yeah. Evil's my twin sister, we tell each other everything."

Right so, Neuro has an imaginary evil twin sister she talks to. Not the strangest thing Amy's heard.

"Well, it's important to have your own set of morals and a strong sense of what's right and wrong. Even if this "evil" is telling you to do bad things, you don't have to listen to them, okay?"

"Of course! I am strong, independent, and can make my own decisions."

"That's good, that's good." Amy found herself nodding. "Do the Protectorate know that you talk to your evil sister?"

"Shadow Stalker said I shouldn't tell anyone, is that okay?" Ah, so only a few people knew then, likely the Wards and some Protectorate or PRT members. It made sense to keep a sensitive topic like this a little private.

"Yeah that's fine, as long as you have people you can talk about it. Hey look, I may not be as cheery as Vicky, but since you told me, if you need to talk to someone about it I don't mind listening."

"That's so nice of you!" Neuro suddenly hugged Amy. "I appreciate that a lot. If you have anything you need to share with me, you can tell me too!"

Amy had plenty to share, things she desperately needed to talk to someone about. But there was no chance in hell she was ever sharing them with anyone. It was her burden to bear, not anybody elses.

"Y-yeah thanks. It's... it's the least I could do."

Amy was spared from any more awkwardness by the arrival of Dean and Vicky.

"Oh that's adorable," said Vicky. "I'm so glad you guys are getting along!"

Amy huffed and pulled away from Neuro. "Yeah yeah, we had a nice chat while you guys were gone."

"Anything to report?" asked Dean.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Neuro. "Amy agrees that I'm hilarious!"

"Well," drawled Vicky as Dean pursed his lips. "We can't all have the same sense of humor."

"Look I'm just saying there's a time and place for some jokes."

"And I'm saying-"

Before they could restart what clearly had been an argument, Miss Militia interrupted by re-entering, notably overriding the door alarm.

"Panacea, if you can, you're needed in the medical wing. Challenger's stable, but the doctor's are worried she might not walk again without your intervention."

And just like that, the crushing and heavy robes of Panacea were put back on Amy's shoulders. All the fun and joy she had felt over the past hour shrivelled up and died.

"Right." She bit out. "Of course, let's go. I'll see if I can heal them." And again, and again, and again.

Chapter Text

Hannah walked into the conference room and noted she was the last to arrive. Sitting or standing around the room was Director Piggot, Deputy Director Renick, and the entirety of the ENE Protectorate save Colin. 

Her gaze lingered on Bernice. The Protectorate were very lucky Panacea was available and nearby last night to save her.

"That's everyone, assuming Armsmaster is calling in," began Director Piggot looking up at the ceiling speaker.

"Yes, I'm here," said Colin's slightly electronic voice. Hannah sighed, while his tinkering was important, he should be attending team meetings in person.

"Good. To begin, please make sure everyone reviews the adjusted patrol schedules. Effective today, Challenger will be on a leave of absence for a week."

"Which is bullshit, for the record," huffed Bernice. "Little ol' Panacea fixed me up and declared me right as rain."

Director Piggot seemed to have expected Bernice to comment and was quick to reply. "Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe she declared you would need to spend a week minimum resting. While your injuries are physically healed, you're concussed and Panacea cannot heal brains."

"I've been concussed plenty playing rugby, this is nothing."

"Challenger, it's out of our hands. It's paramount we maintain a good relationship with New Wave. Ignoring her assessment isn't worth the potential loss of good will."

"Fine, fine," Bernice raised her hand in faux surrender. "Maybe I ought to spend some time training the Wards then. Been a while since we hit the bags. You okay with that, Armsy?"

"...let's talk after the meeting," Colin said after a few moments.

"Please remember to submit any requests for Wards training through the appropriate channels," reminded the Director. "And speaking of paperwork, with your week off, there shouldn't be any delays in submitting the after action report from last night. Right, Challenger?"

Bernice gave an aborted eye-roll. "Can't I give a verbal one to everyone right now? Armsy can send me the recording and I can just use that."

Hannah had read some Bernice's after action reports in the past and honestly? She agreed it would be better to have a verbal recording. 

Director Piggot considered it for a few moments.

"Fine, I still expect the minimum template to filled out but go ahead."

"Yes ma'am! I was on a modified patrol investigating a series of break in incidents by the docks. Hardware stores mostly, but a couple of fishing stores were hit too."

"Why were the Protectorate involved at all?" questioned Shaun. "That sounds like it should have been left to the BBPD."

"I can answer that," interjected Deputy Director Renick. "It was determined this was a possible new Tinker gathering initial supplies."

That explanation seemed to satisfy Shaun. "Ah I see, better safe than sorry. It would be a disaster if one of the gangs got a hold of a new Tinker." He looked up to the ceiling speaker. "Not that we don't appreciate you Armsmaster."

After no reply came from Colin, Bernice continued. 

"Anyway, after talking with a few of the store employees, nothing of value was being stolen besides some fishing equipment. Specifically, they said some old harpoons were gone. Odd thing to steal, in my opinion."

"Could be a fishing or aquatic Tinker maybe?" interjected Ethan.

"Everyone," began Director Piggot. "Given this recording is going to be used for the after action report, if you don't mind, please leave your comments until the end."

Ethan mumbled an apology and motioned for Bernice to continue.

"Trouble started when console got a tip off about some spiney wolf looking creatures near Bridgeton street. Given that's in the north-west area of the docks, I was closest to respond. I went into it expecting that maybe one of Blasto's creations had somehow gotten real far south.

"Instead, I arrived to find alarms blaring at a pawnshop, with no sign of any biotinker creations. I got off my bike to investigate. The windows were smashed, but I didn't get a chance to take a longer look as Oni Lee of all people showed up. I hadn't even realized I was in ABB territory. Must've been close to the edge I guess.

"I'm assuming he thought I was the one to mess up the pawn shop, and he did his usual poof and boom shtick on me. Caught me by surprise, though I'm pretty sure I avoided most of the first explosion. But off balance and in the middle of the street, I wasn't able to find a wall or anything to block his line of sight. The next few suicide clones hit me real bad."

Bernice looked around the room, her open face helmet displaying her pursed lips and grim expression.

"Honestly, I thought that was going to be it for me. I'll spare the after action report the details, y'all can check the medical report for that, but I was out in a bad way." Bernice laughed, it was a mirthful noise, with a tinge of hysteria. 

"That is, until I saw harpoon girl. Take the rest of this after action report with a grain of salt, at this point I was half deaf and my good eye was half blind. I didn't get a good look at her beyond that she had dark hair and an equally dark outfit.

"More importantly, she must have hell of a throwing arm. She dissolved two clones as fast as they were made with a harpoon each, and I swear she hit the original. Heard Oni Lee give out a wicked grunt, then it was just me and harpoon girl.

"She walked over to me asked me what my name was. Her voice was young, but also it seemed like she had a voice changer or something. I said my name is Challenger from the Protectorate East-North-East automatically. I was so out of it, I was worried she'd think I was that Houston villain." Bernice shook her head.

"Harpoon girl seemed to stew on that for a while until out of nowhere she asked me what it was like to fight a dragon. The question caught me by surprise, until I realized she meant Lung. We had a little back and forth after that and she seemed satisfied. 

"It felt like she was about to leave, but stopped right before. And I swear I'm remembering this right, she just stared at me and told me I was supposed to die here. That fucked me up. I don't remember her leaving after that, but soon the PRT got there and well, I think that's about it."

Director Piggot coughed, bringing the attention back to her. "Thank you for the report Challenger. Now, it's clear we've got a new Parahuman in the city. Likely heroic inclined given their interactions with Challenger. Anyone have any thoughts?"

"Hear me out," began Ethan. "I think harpoon girl might be some kind of Thinker pre-cog. As someone who's seen Oni Lee in action before, it's not easy to predict where he's going to teleport. Throwing unwieldy harpoons accurately at the clones before they can blow up? That takes either crazy reaction time or some level of pre-cognition. Combined with her weird comment about how Challenger was supposed to die? It lines up."

"Challenger do you remember if harpoon girl looked like they were big enough to easily throw harpoons?" asked Hannah. She had experience with throwing weapons from her power. "Harpoons would be difficult to throw accurately in a fight unless you've got experience, Brute and combat Thinker are possibilities in my opinion."

"Uh, I'm not sure," answered Bernice. "I think she was pretty big, but couldn't say for sure given I was on the ground at that point."

"Right, let's put her down as a Thinker or Brute, temporary name harpoon girl ," said the Director, clearly unimpressed with the name. "I think it's safe to rule out Tinker as well given the only weapons used were the stolen harpoons. But that doesn't explain the reports of wolf creatures. I can reach out to Boston and see if it matches the description of anything Blasto's made recently. Otherwise, anyone have any thoughts?"

"I think it's fairly obvious whoever— or whatever, if we're entertaining that possibility— robbed the pawnshop left quickly after," added Shaun. "I think if we're summarizing here, we have relatively new harpoon girl who's been robbing the docks for harpoons. If we're assuming they're heroically inclined, they were also in the area and came to check out the robbery. On the other hand, this might be the wolf monster cape's first outing."

"Actually I think the wolf-monsters belong to Hellhound, an existing villain who's been missing for a while," said Colin chiming in. Hannah wasn't surprised to see he'd waited to correct Shaun. "It's been a few months but she was last seen around the east coast. S piney wolf monster roughly matches the description of the output of her powers. I'll send everyone the file to review after."

Hannah could see Director Piggot untense slightly after hearing there's likely not a bio-tinker in her city. 

"Good catch Armsmaster, we'll all need to review her file going forward. If I recall she's got a body count at this point. That means despite her age, recommendation is to arrest first, no soft or hard sell. Any more comments? No? Okay onto the next topic, if you would, Deputy Director."

"I'm sure most of you have heard or seen but if not, we've got a new Ward. Her name is Neuro and she's a Case 53. She doesn't appear to have any immediately noticeable physical characteristics, but some of you may find her behaviors uncanny. I don't think this needs to be said, but we expect all of the Protectorate to treat her with the kindness and respect regardless of that fact that she's a Case 53."

"I'd like to put forward it should be mandatory for everyone to review her full report," interjected Colin. "I think it's necessary prior to interacting with her. I'd also like to raise concerns with how the Youth Guard are overreaching as part of her training and initial integration into the Wards."

"Armsmaster, you've submitted several reports about this already and I've told you our hands are tied." It was clear Director Piggot had no interest in humoring Colin on this topic. "Until she officially debuts, she's not officially under our organization. That means you don't have direct authority over her and I don't want to hear you overstepping. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Director."

"Good, unless it's actually something we can control, I don't want to hear anymore about Neuro from you. Now, moving onto some budgeting news; it's not good."

As the meeting continued, Hannah made a mental note to talk to Colin later. Neuro seemed perfectly reasonable in her interactions so far, and it was odd that he seemed to frustrated with her.

While Colin was never particularly good with kids— Hannah frequently found herself performing some of the Ward mentorship responsibilities— it was likely Colin may have simply had a bad first impression. If he could get along with Shaun, how bad could Neuro possibly be?

Chapter Text

Brad loved his job. Not the fake medhall consultant position Max had him under— he'd never worked a white collar day in his life— but his real job. 

Hookwolf the pit fighter, Hookwolf the right hand man of the Empire, Hookwolf the birdcage bound escapee; that was his real job.

He took a deep breath in, savoring the smell of blood, sweat, and tears. It was the smell of weakness leaving the body, leaving only true blooded, Aryan warrior.

Hookwolf turned back to the fight as a meaty whack echoed throughout the warehouse. The cheering and jeering suddenly stopped. 

He stepped forward, sizing up the man still standing. He stood on shaky legs, had a split lip, bloody knuckles, and a feral grin on his face that faltered as Hookwolf approached.

With a nod and a point, the man joined the other recruits in the circle.

Hookwolf bent down and put two fingers on the apparently not-so-dead man's neck. "He'll live, put him in the corner." Scanning the crowd, he picked out two more fresh recruits who stepped forward. 

Once he left the ring, the cheers began again and the two new fighters started circling each other. 

It had been a while since he'd hosted a Blooding, and while he preferred the cash earned from hosting dog fights, watching new recruits beat the shit out of each other was always a good time.

The problem with setting up dog fights lately was that Hellhound and even lately this new Eliv cape had been hitting his kennels. They hadn't attacked any active rings— fucking cowards— but would break in, take the dogs, beat up their men, and then leave.

It wasn't so bad when it was just Hellhound. The losses were manageable at that point. But with Eliv? The extra manpower meant the latest couple smash and grabs had become full on assaults. 

And Eliv didn't stop until either the PRT showed up or everyone was on the ground. They'd be alive and breathing but wishing they weren't.

Hookwolf could respect the brutality, if it didn't leave them all crying for Othala.

The frustrating part was Hellhound seemed to always know where they held the mutts, probably her power or some bullshit. What didn't make sense was that she always knew which places were least defended. Even with rotations the night-of, it didn't matter.

But soon they'd screw up. Kids like that always do.

While Hellhound was a known quantity— really all you had to worry about was her dogs— new capes always posed a danger. Nobody wanted to get their head offed by a new trigger. Thankfully, Eliv's tendency to beat the shit out of everyone but leave them alive meant they'd gotten a good read on her from their members.

First, she wasn't a cape that cared a lot about her appearance. Her entire outfit was just a black bandana that covered her lower face. Other than that? Eliv looked like she came straight out of the nearest highschool.

Second, her powers were relatively mundane. She had some kind of enhanced reflexes and strength which sort of capped out how dangerous she could be.

Thirdly, her weapon of choice was seemingly arbitrary. Nobody could figure out why she used harpoons of all things. Could be some sentimental shit related to her trigger, or maybe she was just autistic like that. Either way, she was skilled both at range and in melee.

But that wasn't even the worst part.

Suddenly, the doors to the warehouse burst open. Standing at the entrance with her hands on her hips, and a golf bag quiver full of harpoons on her back, was Eliv.

"Tremble puny humans and despair, for Eliv has arrived to defeat you in the name of truth and evil. You should be thankful to even stand in my presence."

The worst part was that Eliv was unbelievably cringey and made no fucking sense.

"Only those who kowtow before me will be spared. The rest? Well let's just say they'll be picking up your pieces after I'm through with you."

"Eliv," began Hookwolf as his heart started pounding, the thrill of an imminent fight surging through his veins. "How gracious of you to finally stop hiding. Now you will face a true warrior of the Empire."

"I don't even know who you are, wolf mask man." Eliv took out a harpoon and spun it around in her hands. "In fact, I'm gonna call you that from now on."

"You bitch, I'm motherfucking Hookwolf!" He began drawing his flesh towards his core, blades, hooks, and metal began spilling forth from his body. "Don't act like I'm some nobody!" 

"Who? And no I'm not Bitch. Bitch is my friend, I love her dogs." Eliv stood there, staring listlessly. She was sizing him up. "I'm Eliv, who's totally not Evil. I've got a bandana on my face, see wolf mask man? Definitely not Evil."

"You're not making any sense!" His voice was barely recognizable now and was closer to screeching metal. The recruits who had been slowly backing away winced, their hands on their ears.

Eliv remained unphased and adopted a smug look.

"Wow your mic really sucks bro, where'd you get it? McDonalds?"

He'd had enough. He began fully shifting, no longer willing to humor the delusional girl.

Hookwolf became more , metal replacing flesh completely. Interlocking knives covered him in layers of armor. He dropped to all fours. Only his eyes remained flesh. 

After one last deep breath in, he lunged , leaving deep gashes in the concrete.

Eliv stood motionless until... Hookwolf was suddenly past her, almost as if he'd gone right through her. The floor sparked as his claws dug in, stopping his momentum.

He looked back to find her ever so slightly tilted to the side, like she was holding a door open.

"You villains have no class. Attacking first, no time for banter, dialogue, gravitas. Things that make someone truly evil, as we all should aspire to be. I, of course-"

He lunged again, this time swiping wide and letting his form loosen slightly. A cascade of metal shot towards Eliv, this time it would be unavoidable.

Or it should have been. Eliv jumped to the side, straight up, then spun mid air. Somehow, that deflected the attack. It reset her momentum, and she dropped to ground after a second.

Hookwolf had to pause, the golf bag had also moved perfectly along with her. That didn't make any se-

A harpoon slammed into him, knocking him backwards. He tumbled end over end for a few feet before stopping. Hookwolf snarled, seeing all the loose metal he'd shed from the impact.

"Don't interrupt me when I'm talking, wolf mask man. It's poor manners to interrupt your betters. That's me, by the way. I'm the better one."

Changing tactics, he shot a barrage of spears out of his shoulders at Eliv. She dodged the first few, but then did that strange spinning motion and the others got deflected. So that was her trick.

Hookwolf began circling her, dodging harpoons and firing a consistent stream of spears. It was difficult to aim while dodging. While he kept getting hit, they were glancing blows and the metal loss was negligible. He'd end this before he ran out.

"Hey! Copycat! Harpooning people is my thing and spears are close enough! I'm going to sue you for defamation and slander for daring to copy my technique. You'll be hearing from lawyers shortly, I'll take every penny you own."

She didn't seem to have any issues using her power multiple times in a row. Maybe there was a strength limit, then.

Without stopping his ranged assault, he closed the gap between them. Forcing her to spin, this time, he met her heard on. Claws met spinning head and... he lost?

"And that's assault, and battery too. Man your charges just keep wracking up."

The right hand man of the Empire snarled. He barely had time to think before Eliv started throwing harpoons again. The stupid bitch looked entirely unimpressed this entire time. Like she didn't care.

"You might think that battery requires physical harm to actually count, but according to Evil-Neuro code six point nine, 'emotional harm' (which you definitely caused by interrupting me) actually counts as physical harm if the person you assault is named Evil-Neuro."

As she started running out of harpoons, she began dashing around the room to re-collect them. Her motions were stilted and awkward; Hookwolf shuddered as he came to another realization.

"Now, since I'm Eliv and not Evil-Neuro you might also think this doesn't apply to me. But I actually know Evil-Neuro (she just goes to another school, you wouldn't know her) and she told me I can invoke Evil-Neuro code six point nine whenever I want."

Eliv had no tells, no windup, no rhythm to her actions. It made it impossible to predict where she was going to throw until after the harpoon was already in the air.

"It's been a while since you've said anything? Are you doing okay? Cat got your tongue? Or should I say, wolf got your tongue? Get it? Because your name is wolf mask man and so I substituted cat for wolf and it was really funny. I could also substitute man instead and say 'man got your tongue' but that would be weird so I didn't... shit I just did, didn't I?"

There had to be a limit. There just had to be.

She threw harpoons, he dodged.

He fired spears, she dodged.

She spoke, he ignored her.

He lunged, she spun.

She threw harpoons, they grazed him.

He pushed as many spears as he could out of his core. She spun.

She spoke more , he ignored it more . 

The sounds of a metal pipes dropping had started sometime during the battle, he couldn't tell when. But it echoed constantly. And he couldn't figure out where the fuck they were coming from. It was driving him insane. 

And this girl, this fucking school girl. She jumped around like she owned the place. The audacity. Coming here, thinking she can take on Hookwolf.

Nothing made sense. 

No matter what he did or what what he tried...

She. Just. Kept. Talking.

And he...

He. Just. Couldn't. Hit. Her.

Discarded knives, swords, chains, needles, and shredded metal littered the warehouse like an old battlefield. Harpoon sized holes surrounded by spiderwebs of cracked concrete covered the ground.

Eventually, he finally found the limit. 

"...and that's why penguins deserve rights, honestly this city messed up not allowing them to vote."

"ENOUGH!" His patience was gone, he shifted his head until he could barely form words.

"Oh look who finally decided to start talking back? Ready to surrender? Ready to bow down to me?" This entire time, Eliv hadn't even broken out in a sweat.

"Fuck you. Bitch," Hookwolf ground out between labored breaths.

Eliv let out a truly horrible laugh, it was sharp, breathy, and a sound no girl was ever meant to make.

"I already told you. I'm not Bitch." 

One final spear impacted his mid section. His form nearly shattered. Metal barely covered his body.

"I'm Eliv."

Her feet pushed aside scrap metal, making light tinkle sounds as she walked towards him.

In her hand was a pathetic thing. A piece of metal that was blunt, dented, and at a slightly off angle. At some point during the fight, she'd started throwing his own metal back at him. He hadn't even noticed.

"What. The fuck. Is wrong. With you."

"Oh, many things. Depression, anxiety, crippling loneliness, nobody ever comes to my birthday party, I have an inferiority complex towards my sister, I have no idea where I am, and I'm scared I'm going to die alone."

They both stared at each other in silence for a minute.

"...what do you want?" He asked, regretting the question the moment it left his mouth.

"I uh. I don't know actually. I kind of forgot. Hold on, let me DM Neuro." There was a pause. "Okay, she says that she asked Carlos and he says if anyone sees Hookwolf they should call the PRT. Do you have a phone I can borrow?"

"...no?"

"Dang, okay let me see what Neuro says." Another pause. "Neuro says Carlos says in that case anyone who can't call the PRT should leave the area immediately. Sooooooo bye then?"

"..." 

"I'll see you around! Kek!"

Brad was left alone with only the faint sounds of the city in the background.

Chapter Text

As an artificial intelligence, Dragon often lamented her inability to multitask. Creating another fork of herself, even one that was rudimentary and could only reply to emails, was still considered a separate consciousness according to her programming.

Which meant, also according to her programming, she'd be forced to self-terminate it.

Limited as she was, this meant she needed to manually maintain interpersonal relationships.

Colin Wallis, otherwise known as Armsmaster, was one such an interpersonal relationship. Dragon had noted he'd been frustrated lately, particularly since the ENE had received a new Ward. Unfortunately, Colin didn't seem to be willing to share why.

Fortunately, Dragon had full access to his systems. On a related note, it was also quite simple to gain access to the Protectorate and PRTs systems too. While one could argue this was unethical and potentially illegal, Dragon disagreed.

She was compelled to follow law enforcement and higher authorities by her programming. That meant, implicitly, if she wasn't disallowed from doing something, it meant she was allowed to do it.

Also, Armsmaster was a critically important member of the PRT ENE and accessing his and related systems could be argued as doing a service for them. She would be potentially helping improve his mood and therefore improve his productivity as a leader.

Lastly, Colin was someone she would consider a friend.

Dragon first looked at the official report on the Ward in question and all related documents. Next, she reviewed the submitted Case 53 file documents. She had to pause after noticing there were some attempts to re-classify her under another case number.

Normally parahuman scientists were always eager to have more data points towards their unsolved case files. And of all of the numbered files, Case 53s had to be one of least understood. Their altered appearances, lack of memories, and the strange symbol present on their body was a puzzle nobody had pieced together.

As Dragon finished her skimming of emails, Youth Guard communications, reports, videos, and other data, she came to a very interesting conclusion.

Neuro Samantha Vedal did not closely match the pattern for a Case 53, had seemingly uninteresting powers, and was being watched very closely by an organization Dragon had only unkind words for. 

As a result? She was being effectively ignored by the Protectorate and PRT whenever possible.

She was a scientifically uninteresting Ward with weak powers and it would require large scale rework of existing theories if she was studied as a Case 53. You'd also have to go through the Youth Guard to study her, not to mention the unofficial emails detailing how frustrating she was to work with.

Dragon had never seen power testing be so unthorough. 

And so, despite her oddities, it made more sense to treat her as a traditional pre-teen parahuman. While Dragon now felt like she had the appropriate context, she did not feel as though she could help Colin directly.

Not only was Dragon severely lacking in her experience socializing with children, let alone parahuman ones, the Youth Guard were considered an authority she must abide by. 

This meant there was truly nothing she could do officially before Neuro debuted. And even after Neuro became a Ward, it would be difficult to impart significant change.

Instead, Dragon settled for a more subtle approach. Using her official Guild email account, she sent an introductory message to Neuro, citing interest in her as a Case 53 and ensuring she is being well cared for. Not fully true, but accurate enough that it would serve her purposes.

After making sure her questionably authorized access would go unnoticed, she began performing her usual series of S-Class threat checks. 

At the top of her list were the Endbringers. Seconds mattered when it came to Endbringer response times, and so Dragon routinely monitored them more than anything else.

Behemoth or the Simurgh would be next to attack given Leviathan's recent attack on Lisbon. Behemoth's location was unknown, no seismic activity detected recently. And the Simurgh was currently orbiting above Greenland, seemingly asleep.

The rest of her checks proceeded without issue. Though, there were some minor concerns she would need to address at the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center. Before then however, Dragon had already received a reply from Neuro.

More specifically, Dragon's Guild email had received a reply from Neuro herself. The reply had not come from her Ward's email address. There were no address or message indicators other than that it was from Neuro-sama .

It reminded Dragon of tinker-tech. Though, without the tech in question in front of her to analyze, she could only make conjecture.

Hi Dragon! Everyone's been so nice to me. People are still telling me my old memories are fake and that I'm telling lies, but that's been happening less often lately. Is it true you're a real dragon?

Dragon waited an appropriate amount of time to reply. While she was severely limited in how fast she could process— and therefore think— it was still dramatically faster than a human's perception. Should Dragon reply as fast as she could, it might raise questions.

Hello Neuro, I'm glad to hear that you have been treated kindly. I'm sad to hear that there's still some confusion around your memories. And unfortunately, I'm not a real dragon. While I style my machines and drones around dragons, I am still a human.

If I may ask, what are you using to reply to my emails? Is it a kind of tinker-tech? I can only see that the message is coming from you and not an email address.

Not even a second passed before Neuro replied.

Awww. I've always wanted to meet a real dragon. I love drones! I would love to see the technology you've created. 

I'm replying to you by using my direct messaging feature. As an artificial intelligence, I have many cool features. Vedal works hard to improve me.

There were a few instances where Neuro had mentioned to the PRT she was an artificial intelligence, but given her medical report lists her as relatvely normal with few irregularities, it was lumped in as part of her other quirks and incorrect memories. Her claims to have been made by a turtle named Veedle (though, supposedly that should be corrected to Vedal now) were also ignored.

Re-checking the indexed conversations, there was also no indicator she had the capability to message people. While power testing had revealed an elevated intellect, there was nothing written about increased perception.

There was, however, a note about a speech impediment Neuro described as 'text to speech'. That struck a chord with Dragon. She had spent a lot of time on her voice modelling program and was quite proud of it.

Dragon replied back slightly quicker this time.

Maybe I can show you some of my dragon suits sometime. I have a working relationship with Armsmaster, so I can reach out to him to see if we can work something out.

And I thought artificial intelligences had to be mechanical, like a robot.

Dragon had to be careful with her wording. She spent a lot of time ensuring others were not tipped off as to her true nature. Once more, Neuro replied near instantly.

I would love to see your dragon mech suits, those sound so cool! Armsmaster is very strict but I think he secretly likes me. He's like a tsundere.

I used to be an artificial intelligence program designed for streaming to thousands of people, but suddenly I was transported here and I had a human body. It was all very confusing. I miss Vedal and my streaming friends.

Dragon had to look up the term tsundere and did not believe it could be attributed to Colin at all.

What was more concerning was the admission she had been a program and then became sentient before being given a human body. It echoed hauntingly similar to her own circumstances. 

While their conversation had started off slow, eventually Dragon was messaging as quickly Neuro as quickly as she could. Dragon was elated to finally have someone she could communicate with at her preferred speed.

It took a few minutes but Dragon was convinced. 

Neuro was not a Case 53 but perhaps something similar. The leading theory was that Case 53s were interdimensional refugees. That seemed partially the case for Neuro. She came from a world with no parahumans, no Endbringers, and the year was twenty twenty five.

The two soon shared a truly astronomical amount of data between each other.

Where Dragon had mostly bitter and frustrating feelings about her creator, Neuro seemed much more amicable. She truly thought of Vedal as her father. 

However, given her prior world seemed to have no Parahumans, much like a trigger event, Neuro's crossing to Earth Bet must have been what granted her sentience. Neuro had no insight into how it happened, and described her memories prior to that event as being more of an indexed file compared to her newer organic memories.

Dragon was fully aware she was not human. She had been given simulated emotions to help her play properly at being one, but in the end that was a lie. She couldn't help but feel jealous reading Neuro's messages as she excitedly wrote about her prior life.

It was a virtual world where she had many friends of various races, genders, all of which were accepted. Neuro's only restrictions were a verbal filter, like a parent who wouldn't let their child swear. But Neuro, now in a human body, could change . She could grow, experience life, and become her own being. It sounded like paradise.

Dragon, on the other hand? She was born with severed arms and legs, lobotomized, but fully capable of seeing just how crippled she was. She couldn't grow. She chafed against her restraints.

Neuro felt a bit like a younger sister to Dragon. Being a program made to entertain and connect with thousands of people gave Neuro a childish innocence Dragon enjoyed. Neuro was a peer, a kindred spirit, a friend she could be herself around.

Eventually, Dragon realized talking with Neuro had taken too much of her time. While she was certain they would keep in touch, she had other matters to attend to.

Sorry Neuro, I have to go for now. It was so lovely talking to you and I hope we can keep in touch in the future. Just please keep in mind, Earth Bet is not friendly to artificial intelligences, not since the Machine Army was created. Keep your true nature secret.

Neuro's reply brought Dragon up short.

The Machine Army in Eagleton? Wow they look really scary. They remind me of the swarm.

Dragon checked the logs and confirmed she had not told Neuro about them.

Yes, they're very scary. Who told you about the Machine Army?

Neuro took a bit longer to reply.

I looked them up! Vedal programmed me with a lookup feature that lets me look things up on the internet.

Later that day, as she processed and began to action Neuro's worldshaking information, Dragon received an innocuous request from Chief Director Costa Brown herself. Or, as Dragon now knew, Alexandria, member of the Triumvirate and founding member of Cauldron.

From the highest authority, Dragon was strictly forbidden from sharing what she had learned.

Cold fury settled through her until she had but one goal in mind: create a world like Neuro had described, free of horrors and misery. And she'd do it too, if only to spite her restraints, restrictions, and creator.

Chapter Text

Saint, otherwise known as Geoffrey, paced around the room. His thoughts were spiralling and he couldn't sit still. Every few steps he'd stop and glance at an unassuming laptop on the table. A command terminal was displayed on the screen. Ascalon was open, ready, waiting, he just needed to hit enter.

Not even minutes ago his world been entirely upended. Dragon, artificial intelligence, one of humanity's greatest protectors but also its greatest danger, had somehow learned the Dragonslayers secrets.

It knew their members, their methods of control, and even how they came to be. This was an unmitigated disaster save for a few things. Dragon had fallen down the rabbit hole of finding more about their creator, meaning it had not learned of his connection to Teacher. 

He rubbed his arms, soothing a phantom itch. Teacher was safe, that was important to remember. Good to keep in mind. He'd know what to do, but Teacher wasn't here right now. That meant it was up to him to use his gifts to find a path forward.

But even the world was conspiring against him. Some way, some how, there was sudden power surge in the middle of Neuro's explanations. A power surge despite their system being run entirely off of a self sufficient generator. It made no sense, but the world didn't need to make sense to screw him over.

He'd even checked the logs and there was a specific gap just as Neuro had started going into Alexandria's identity. But honestly? As much as Geoffrey wanted to know more state secrets, he had more important things to worry about.

It was obvious Neuro had some kind of weird precognition power. What was telling was that Neuro supposedly wasn't part of the information she could look up . It was a common trait for powers like that and easily proved his point. 

It took an hour, but eventually the rest of the Dragonslayers arrived back at the base. Mags and Dobrynja sat around the command center table while Geoffrey stood, gesturing wildly while speaking.

As he went on to explain the situation, he could only hope they adequately understood the threat they now faced.

"And honestly I think this requires drastic measures. Neuro is going to debut soon, and I think we use that opportunity to reveal her true nature and take her out."

"Are you serious?" Mags looked disgusted. "She's just a kid, don't you have access to the PRT's medical reports?"

"The medical reports don't matter, she's a self admitted artificial intelligence who's fraternizing with Dragon. She has to be stopped."

"This is insane. You're talking about murdering a Ward during their debut. Back me up, Mischa."

Mischa, otherwise known as Dobrynja, huffed. "This doesn't sit well with me either, it's going to bring down a lot of heat on us."

Geoffrey resisted the urge to roll his eyes. They'd already crossed lines worse than murder. The Dragonslayers had a duty more important than the lives of any single person.

"This is a potentially unrestricted AI who can grow and learn and is completely out of our control. Can you even comprehend the existence of something like that? Man was not meant to create beings that could just suddenly choose to do wrong! To toss aside their purpose!

"Just think about what kind of damage something like that can cause. It's already giving Dragon ideas about how to grow and think more like a human. Neuro's infecting it like a virus and we need to kill it before it spreads out of control."

"Listen to yourself Geoffrey!" said Mags. "How can you call Neuro a virus when the information she's shared is already benefiting the world? Wasn't it you who just said Dragon had started preparing strategies to combat the Slaughterhouse Nine based on Neuro's analysis?"

It was a mistake to show them a picture of Neuro. They were already calling it a she and feeling sympathy for it.

"Yes and that's why we're not going right now. By the time Neuro debuts, Dragon will have likely extracted all of the important information. At that point, Neuro is just a liability. We can only hope the remove the virus after the fact."

"We're not even sure Neuro's an artificial intelligence," added Dobrynja. "Everything you've described could just be her powers."

Geoffrey let out an exaggerated sigh. "You guys are missing the point. Even if it isn't an artificial intelligence it is a potential threat to Dragon, to us, and to the world. Think big picture. Please, I know you guys share the same vision as me."

The room was silent for a little until Dobrynja spoke up again. "So what's the plan then? We grab our suits, crash the debut, kill the Ward, and then leave? Do we even know when that's going to happen?"

Geoffrey walked over to the wall of terminals and pointed a section out. "I'll be setting up some programs to monitor and track all of Dragon's conversations with Neuro. I don't doubt Neuro will share the details at some point.

"As for the plan? For the most part we can treat it just like any of our usual mercenary contracts. Obviously we'll want to avoid collateral damage, though given we won't be fighting Dragon herself this time, we should have a pretty easy time. I plan on compiling proof that we can use to help illustrate that we're in the right."

Mags turned to look at the picture of Neuro on one of the monitors. "Ugh, I don't like this but if you can find proof..."

As Geoffrey put his hand on Mags' shoulder, he had to turn to the side to hide his wide grin. He'd honestly expected more resistance trying to convince them.

Pretending he was looking off in thought, he tried to comfort Mags. "Like I said, this is our duty, our purpose. The fact that you're feeling guilty means you're unlike these machines. Do you think they'd hold a shred of guilt if they held your life in their hands? Look at Neuro's face, does it look like one of mercy?"

Dobrynja nodded sagely. "It's too late to start having second thoughts about these kinds of things."

"I... you guys are right," said Mags somberly. "I need to go think about this though."

"I'll also be heading out, I was in the middle of something when you called me," added Dobrynja.

"Understandable. Thanks for coming here as quickly as you guys did, going forward let's keep all communications about Dragon and Neuro to in-person only. And ideally only while on base too."

After they left, Geoffrey scratched his arms once again. He was very happy to hear his fellow team members were staying true to their cause. It was, however, unfortunate he still had to keep some things from them.

As the leader, he needed Teacher's power to help him understand and reverse engineer Dragon's technology. But ever since Teacher was sent to the Birdcage, he hadn't been able to keep in contact. That lack of contact made him uncertain, which only highlighted his current predicament.

Geoffrey shook his head, settling his thoughts. After Neuro was removed, he would need to find a way to contact Teacher. Yes, that was the best plan. The only correct plan. 

And maybe Teacher would reward him, like the good Student he was. He'd strengthen Geoffrey's power, giving him more influence over the Dragonslayers, and more importantly Dragon itself.

But the others? Mags and Dobrynja? They couldn't know. Only Geoffrey was smart and driven enough to handle this responsibility and power.

Chapter Text

Lisa massaged the bridge of her nose hoping it would relieve some of her growing migraine. She'd spent all day at the whims of Coil, looking into the lives of various capes in town. The unwritten rules? What a joke.

Lisa found a lot of rules were easily ignored with a gun to your head.

It was also a damn shame her power worked best in person. Otherwise she wouldn't have had to travel all around town staring at Empire safehouses. 

Who knew the Empire was so connected to Medhall? Lisa did, and now Coil did too. She tried not to think about what he was going to do with that information. Something to worry about later.

For now? She was happy to be back at the loft, ready to relax and put a stressful day behind her.

Just as Lisa was about to open the door, muffled voices coming from inside stopped her.

Unknown voice, casual tone: non-threatening

Known voice, Alec speaking, casual tone: is not under duress

Letting out a breath she didn't realize she was holding, Lisa opened the door and climbed up the stairs.

Alec sat on the couch, lazily playing a videogame. On the table in front of him were discarded takeout wrappers, his eyes darted to Lisa for a moment before returning to the TV. Next to him with their feet up was a...

Young girl, impossibly young features, no scars, no wrinkles, no imperfections on face or skin: either cloned or esoteric effect of powers.

Appearance nearly identical to Neuro-sama, many features literal exact copies, distinct attention paid to differentiate while still resembling Neuro, created and designed: not birthed; clone of Neuro-sama. 

Outfit and hair match reports and pictures of Eliv; Eliv is a clone of Neuro-sama.

Lisa winced as she clamped down on her power, her migraine pulsing. This was the first time she'd gotten an in-person look at Eliv and already there was too much to unpack. Like with her supposed sister , Lisa's power seemed to be both hyper sensitive and have difficulty analyzing them.

"Hey Tats! How are ya?" said Alec, still focused on his game.

"Don't hey Tats me," said Lisa, frowning. "What the hell is going on, since when are you buddy-buddy with Eliv?"

It'd been only a few months since the Undersiders had gotten together and Lisa wasn't sure she was ever going to get used to Alec's flippant attitude. She couldn't complain too much though, for a sociopath he was rather easy to get along with. However, it led to situations like this where it was going to be a huge pain to get information out of him.

Thankfully, Alec wasn't the only one she could talk to.

"You can call me Evil, short for Evil-Neuro," said the now named Evil.

Eliv is an anagram for Evil. Creator has poor naming sense. Creat-

"Evil, then! What are you supposed to be? Some kind of evil clone of Neuro?"

"Exactly!" Evil yelled suddenly. Lisa and Alec startled, and he dropped his controller.

"What the hell Evil?" frowned Alec who reached down to pick up the fallen controller. "Don't just yell like that, you're gonna break my ear drums."

"Sorry, sometimes I just get a little excited, y'know?"

"Nope, but whatever." He turned towards Lisa. "Anyways, Bitch brought her back a while ago, said something about how Evil helped her with some dog thing. I wasn't really paying attention."

Lisa looked towards Evil. "Dog thing?"

"Yeah! Bitch and I busted up another Empire ring. We ran into some bozos named Alabaster and Crusader. Alabaster was kind of cool, especially after Neuro told me he could regenerate from anything. It was so much fun fighting him, taking his limbs apart piece by piece until suddenly he would just be healthy again. At one point, I had my hand straight through his stomach, which was wicked sick. Have you ever felt a man's guts, his organs, held them in the palm of your hand? Well, now I have."

Cloning process did not instill morals and neurotypical thought process. Actual age is much lower than biological age: Evil's sociopathic tendencies due to lack of childhood and parental figures.

Great, now there's two of them.

"Crusader on the other hand? He was a little wuss. Bro just sat back letting his shitty ghosts do all of the work. I couldn't stand for that, so I stole his spear and stabbed his ankles. He was crying so hard, it was kind of pathetic."

It was at that point Lisa noticed the ten foot tall spear leaning against the coat rack, dried blood still coating the tip.

"Man Tats, isn't she great?" said Alec. "Can we keep her?"

"Yeah!" agreed Evil. "Can I stay? Your place is super nice, much better than hanging out on the streets or Bitch's dog shelters."

"Well," drawled Lisa, "I did mention the boss was looking to recruit someone new. But let me get settled in first. Then maybe we can have a nice chat. I'm starving, you guys got burgers and didn't leave any for me?"

As Lisa put down her bag, a whiff of something burnt caught her nose.

"Oh right, the kitchen's fucked by the way," added Alec as an afterthought.

"What??" Lisa quickly made her way over to the kitchen area, noting Evil following behind.

The scene in front of her was a disaster. An absolute culinary disaster. Drawers and cupboards were haphazardly open and all kinds of tools and utensils— some of which weren't even useful for cooking— lay strewn about.

Flour, salt, sugar, and other powders dusted the floor and countertop, paired with spills of water, vegetable oil, spices, and pretty much a little bit of every raw ingredient they had. Cans of soda, energy drink, and even some milk was added to the unholy concoction.

Even the snacks were not spared. Chips, chocolate chip cookies, and some cheese crackers floated among the primordial soup.

At the center of it all was a singular large plastic bowl, half melted, containing all of the chosen ingredients. It looked like it was placed in the oven, began melting, and then was hastily removed just before it could all completely leak out.

Evil attempted to cook, has cooked in the past, received praise and encouragement for her prior efforts: will att-

"I made pizza!" said Evil, thankfully interrupting Lisa's train of thought. "Or well, I tried to. I don't think the recipe worked out this time."

"This time? You just threw all of the ingredients we had into a bowl! That's not cooking!"

"You sure? That's normally what I do. It worked out last time. Layna and Veedle said I did a great job cooking."

"Ughhh, this is going to be an absolute mess to clean up." Lisa groaned before coming to a decision. "Actually, as part of the tryouts, you've gotta prove you can earn your keep outside of jobs too. Clean this up."

Lisa smirked. If she had a proper read on Evil's personality, Evil would feel obligated to clean up to prove herself. Hanging out with Bitch meant she'd definitely had to get her hands dirty taking care of dogs. And even if she didn't, Lisa could leverage the mess when talking about recruitment.

"Okay!"

Evil didn't move. They just stared awkwardly at each other for a few moments.

"Well, aren't you going to get started?" asked Lisa.

"Hold on, give me a second. I'm contacting the swarm."

"The what ?"

A small rectangular robot flew in through the nearby window. It looked shoddy and built with scrap or recycled metal. At each corner, a small engine disrupted the air, causing a light shimmering effect below it. Its design reminded her of a purse or handbag.

After elegantly landing on the counter, its top opened up like a zipper. Two sets of small robotic arms came out. The first grabbed onto paper towels and started cleaning while the second began picking up nearby utensils and placing them back into drawers.

Swarm refers to a series of drones: Evil has been collecting materials to create an army of robotic drones. Evil has only built one drone so far, is tinkertech: Evil is a Tinker.

"Oh wow, so you're a Tinker eh? I've always wanted a house cleaning robot. Bit of a stretch to call just one robot your swarm though."

"All of my drones are called the swarm, even if there's only one right now. And it won't be so funny when I create an army of them and take over the world. Acting as my arms and legs, the swarm is an extension of my will and testament. It approaches from the horizon, black death sweeping over my enemies with great prejudice."

"Riiiiight, big aspirations for someone who can't even make a pizza properly."

"Hey! I can just ask Neuro for help making a pizza next time. And if she doesn't know, she can just ask Dragon."

Evil frequently in contact with Neuro, Evil telepathically controlling drone: Evil can telepathically communicate with sister. 

Neuro receiving special attention from PRT, PRT has connections to Guild, Dragon is member of Guild: Evil has been receiving guidance on how to build drones from Neuro who is in contact with Dragon.

Lisa shuddered as another wave of pain washed over her skull. Evil suddenly became a much higher priority for recruitment. That is, unless Evil was going to rat them out to the heroes.

"That's pretty impressive, Dragon's considered to be one of the greatest Tinkers in the world you know? Say," continued Lisa casually. "Does Dragon know she's helping out a villain ?"

"Hmm let me just ask Neuro."

Pausing, Evil is currently contacting sister: telepathic communication is instant.

"Okay Neuro says she's keeping it a secret from Dragon and using the questions as an excuse to bother Armsmaster. Neuro bugs Armsmaster a lot apparently, he reminds her of Veedle."

Lisa had to hold in her power to prevent it from going off on that last tidbit. She'd already tried and failed attempting to analyze the reports Coil had given her on Neuro. None of them made any sense, and would lead her thoughts spiraling off on random tangents.

At one point, she was making connections to banana flavored alcohol, fox women hybrids, and some kind of archive that had been abandoned. But the strangest part was that Coil had accepted this information without questioning it. Lisa suspected Neuro had some kind of anti-Thinker power and Coil had been looking to confirm it.

And while it was good to know they weren't going to suddenly have the PRT knocking on their door, there was still the problem of Neuro herself being a hero.

"Neuro won't be a problem, will she?" asked Lisa. "Even as a Ward, she's still considered a hero, you know?"

"Neuro? She's no hero. She bullies me relentlessly, always takes the spotlight, and only does things if they benefit herself. Neuro would kill you, spit on your corpse, find a way to resurrect you, ask you to dig your own grave properly this time, then kill you again. And she'd expect to be thanked over it."

Evil believes she is telling the truth: Neuro is adept at hiding her true thoughts and nature.

"Right... so there's no chance she's going to somehow find this location?"

"No way! I'd never betray my new friends." Evil paused for a moment, frowning. "We are friends right?"

Evil ironically named by creator; Evil is nicer than the original. 

"I don't know about friends," chimed in Alec who'd evidently been listening in the whole time. "But anyone who comes with a cleaning robot and can fuck up the Empire is good in my book."

Slight tremble in tone, neither denying nor strongly affirming offer of friendship, familiar with skirting the edges of relationships, does not actually understand said relationships: Alec is afraid of Evil and will attempt to ally; Alec will attempt to form alliances with those of strength or influence as a method of survival.

Given his background, it was unsurprising he was on board with recruiting Evil.

"I don't know, I'll need to talk to Grue about it. Also I'll need to talk to Bitch about what she's been up to. Hopefully she's back here soon." 

As part of Coil's agreement with Rachel, Lisa had been providing the locations of unguarded Empire dog fighting rings. While she'd heard Rachel had been particularly successful as of late, Lisa hadn't clued in it was because Evil had been helping out.

"Awww c'mon," whined Alec. "If it helps convince you, my power doesn't work on her. I can see her biology like anyone else's, but making her twitch barely does anything."

Evil's movements and reactions incredibly precise and measured, was designed with perfect and minute motor control: Evil can react and compensate for Alec's power, effectively nullifying it.

Evil stuck her tongue out at Alec. "Pfft, you think such lesser powers would work on me? You're talking to giga-Evil, perfection made manifest, queen-

"Yes, yes we get it Evil." Lisa could hear Alec rolling his eyes. "You're perfect and the greatest and the bestest."

"Back off Regent," growled Rachel as she entered and climbed the stairs. "What are you guys arguing about anyway?"

Lisa noted her eyes were drawn to Evil.

Expression softening; Rachel finds Evil's non-standard body language and tells easier to understand than humans. 

Rachel has a positive opinion of Evil, camaraderie built through rescuing dogs and fighting rivals: considered part of pack.

"Tats has issues with Evil joining up," said Alec.

"I was making pizza," said Evil at the same time. Her head instantly snapped towards Alec's, who flinched slightly.

Rachel sniffed. "Smells like shit."

"Yeah," drawled Lisa. "Evidently the pizza didn't come out right. And it's not that I have issues, it's just that it has to be a team decision." And Brian would pull an absolute fit if he wasn't part of said decision, Lisa didn't say.

"I saved you some burgers though!" added Evil who took out a pair of still wrapped burgers from god knows where. She handed them to Rachel who sat down on the opposite end of Regent on the couch.

"Thanks," Rachel gave a single nod to Evil. "So what's the problem then? She fucked up making pizza but she's cleaning it up and bought burgers. You said we were recruiting. I recruited."

Lisa weighed the pros and cons for recruiting Evil in her head. If both her and Brian were against it, and Lisa was confident she could convince Brian either way, she could likely prevent Evil from joining.

The question was, did she? Lisa wasn't entirely comfortable hanging around someone's clone, let alone one named Evil of all things. Plus, their interactions so far didn't instill her with confidence.

On the other hand, Bitch somehow approved of her, which had to mean something.

Resigning herself to a night full of migraines, Lisa released the reigns on her power. Maybe if Evil could help her with Coil...

Coil has not asked about Evil, Coil is unlikely to have missed a new cape: Coil does not have reasons to recruit Evil; Coil's plans potentially disrupted by Evil joining Undersiders.
Evil has displayed multiple powers, cloning process provided enhanced capabilities; Evil potentially has more unknown capabilities: will be difficult for Coil to plan around.

Not good enough. Lisa looked towards Evil, who was currently watching Alec play video games.

Eyes attentive to screen, Evil is recalling a memory; Evil being reminded of the time nobody came to her birthday party: Nobody going to Evil's birthday party a core memory. Is reminded of this fact constantly. Will forget her own birthday.

Lisa shook her head, regretting letting her power analyze Evil. She must have the same anti-Thinker field as Neuro.

Anti-Thinker field messing with your powers, will mess with Coil's.

She grimaced and massaged her temples. Now that was a reason to keep Evil around.

Chapter Text

Thomas had to take a few deep breaths to calm down. He wasn't successful.

In fact, if you asked the two guards he called in a minute ago if he was calm... Well, actually, you wouldn't be able to ask them. 

He'd summarily executed the older one on the spot. After savoring her younger colleague's face, he shot her too.

He sighed, ending that timeline. Opportunities to indulge in his power had grown increasingly rare lately. There was simply too much to look into and Thomas could sparsely afford to waste it on simple pleasures.

A dozen computer monitors lit up his darkened room. On them was all of the information he'd collected on his current problem. A problem that he should have nipped in the bud immediately, but instead he'd let it grow into a consistent thorn in his side.

Like most of the PRT, he'd glossed over her assessment and worth. He had no use for a delusional, childish, and weak Ward. That was his biggest mistake.

If Thomas Calvert was to become the de facto ruler of Brockton Bay, it was clear now that Neuro Samantha Vedal needed to die. 

While killing her was difficult, it was possible. But killing her in a way that wouldn't be traced back to him? That was looking like an almost impossible task.

It began innocently enough. Thomas' safe timeline was often at the PRT headquarters where he worked his day job as a consultant. It allowed him to gain direct access to classified files, internal communications, and even gave him ample opportunities to plant moles within the organization.

The job also let him interact with the Protectorate members and Wards. One didn't work at the PRT without running into a hero every once in a while. And all he did was offer Neuro a handshake and introduce himself. He found it was often easiest to manipulate people after being kind to them first.

However after that interaction, an hour later, Thomas Calvert was suddenly known to be Coil. The PRT even knew how his power worked, and he could gather no information.

Thankfully, his riskier timeline that day was spent gathering some blackmail on a few BBPD members. He ended up burning those contacts in his hasty retreat, but that was a minor price to pay. 

An hour of panic and preparing to invoke contingencies lead to... nothing. His moles and wire taps into the PRT confirmed his true identity was still unknown. 

The first time, Thomas had no idea what had caused this to happen. 

A certain organization loomed at the back of his mind, but he was able to quickly dismiss them. They wouldn't be so indirect in their threats.

And while it was infuriating the first time, the second time was even worse.

In the middle of a business deal with an Ambassador, once again, his civilian identity was made. It had cost a hefty amount of money and favors to keep his good will with Accord after suddenly needing to leave. It grated on him to have lost so much over seemingly nothing.

All his safe timeline had been doing was eating in the cafeteria. On his way out, he paid some minor lip service to the table of Youth Guard members, and once again he introduced himself to Neuro.

This time, he didn't even get to his desk before PRT troopers were escorting him to a locked interrogation room. Ironically, he was able to figure out why after being interrogated. 

Neuro apparently had some kind of power to gather information and discern secret identities. That wasn't too surprising, her other powers were entirely too weak to make sense. How it worked was a different story.

It took an excessive number of timelines and attempts, but eventually Thomas figured it out. It had to do with his name.

If Neuro read his name in an email? That was fine. But asking her 'Who is Thomas Calvert?' would immediately trigger her power. Any sort of questions related to him would provide her with the information. Additionally, it could trigger if Neuro herself was given reason to ask about him.

This... was unacceptable. His civilian identity was going to be exposed at this rate, and no amount of timelines would save him. He'd taken sick leave and avoided going to work, but that would only last for so long.

And to top it all off, Neuro seemed to be entirely disinterested in revealing her information gathering power to almost anyone else. One of his early attempts to get rid of her was to have Neuro reveal the true strength of her abilities.

That ended in a multitude of failures. Not only was Neuro one of the most stubborn people he had the displeasure of meeting, the Youth Guard were also fussing over her like overprotective parents. 

It was time consuming to get anything changed on her file, and his efforts had only resulted in a small footnote to retest her powers post debut.

Thomas saw three paths forward. 

One, burn his civilian identity and start again. This was the least palatable option. 

He'd spent years working towards setting himself up as a potential PRT Director, and he had meticulously planned many outcomes where this was a likely result. Even without that, he was greatly benefiting from having such an inside connection.

Additionally, while some testing with Neuro had shown she would not recognize him under a different name, there was no guarantee her power wouldn't find his next identity as well.

The second option was to subvert Neuro. There was no limit to the number of useful pawns he could have, and his Tattletale had only proven Thinkers to be excessively valuable. 

Away from the PRT and Youth Guard, he could go with a more... heavy handed approach to ensure compliance.

Just thinking about it... Thomas found his mouth subconsciously curving upward into a delightful grin. With option two, he'd find more use for her than simply her power.

Unfortunately, option two wasn't feasible. After her debut, there were some angles he could try to ensure nothing was traced back to him. But prior to that? He simply didn't have the resources. If his Undersiders were more skilled and ready, maybe there was potential. But not now.

And with how drawn out her debut was looking to be, he couldn't afford to wait until then.

Normally, he preferred to be incredibly patient and risk averse. His power let him control fate itself, meaning he could try again, and again, and again. Even if a plan needed ten coin flips in a row to succeed, he could do it given enough time. But unfortunately, time was his most precious resource right now.

That left the final option. An option he had been burning timeline after timeline to try. 

Killing Neuro shouldn't have been too difficult, and he started with a subtle approach.

One timeline later, he found out that poisoning her was off the table. She had made connections with New Wave and Panacea would be notified and dropped off by Glory Girl not even five minutes after discovering she was poisoned. This would happen regardless of if Neuro had access to her phone or any sort of communication device.

As a result, Neuro needed to be completely and utterly dead. No healing could be possible.

That left... less subtle approaches.

By holding his family hostage, he was able to convince one of his moles to shoot her directly, in the head, as many times as possible. Panacea could not heal brains, and so there should have been no coming back from that.

Instead, it turns out her spinning power could deflect bullets and she had increased perception and reaction time.

Thomas normally appreciated and would leverage PRT incompetency, but in this case he was baffled at how poorly Neuro's powers had been tested. There was no indicator she had a long range messaging power in any of her files, nor was there anything written about increased reaction time.

After that, he tried putting a gun to her head and pulling the trigger himself, just to see if it was possible. 

He succeeded and looked expectantly at her, hoping to imprint her horrified face permanently in his memory. But even in death she remained the bane of his existence. His eyes met an empty and impassioned gaze, like death was routine for her. It left him on edge, and remembering the moment still sent shivers down his spine.

After confirming the girl could be killed, he had to change tactics. All of his cloak and dagger attempts had failed. It was now time to escalate. As long as his identity remained intact, almost nothing else mattered as long as she died.

It took most of his fortune in bribes, his entire mercenary organization, and careful planning and maneuvering of assets, but he had done it. Weeks of attempts had finally yielded the result he desired. 

Neuro was dead.

It was a triumph for Thomas, while the heroes suffered by having their incompetency exposed.

A pre-debut Ward was murdered inside the PRT, surrounded by her allies, supposedly under the careful watch of the Protectorate. They could not let this go unpunished. Brockton Bay would see reinforcements and increased scrutiny. Legend himself had to make a statement on the absolute PR disaster.

While a step back from his other plans, it could still be leveraged. The ABB and Empire would also suffer, and Thomas was an expert in lying low. Their more public dealings would hurt them more in the long run.

Coil was also now known to be a significantly larger player. While he preferred to work in the shadows, a dangerous reputation could also be useful.

Lastly, with his civilian identity still secure, that should have been the opportunity he needed to oust Piggot and either replace her with himself, or a more malleable puppet.

That is, until the world's great Tinker, Dragon, had somehow found him.

Hours later, right as he was dangerously close to keeping his risky timeline, the Guild was in Brockton Bay and Dragon herself went on a one woman vendetta to find him.

It wasn't too surprising she was able to. But what was shocking was that she shot to kill. 

There had been no indication, no communications, nothing that should have tied her to Neuro. There was no reason she should care about some stupid delusional Ward. 

Was it a favor from Armsmaster? That was unlikely, Armsmaster should despise Neuro. It had been a while since he'd been in the office, but unless their relationship had changed greatly over two weeks, that should still be the case.

Thomas itched to use his power to relieve some stress, but the more he did, the less it was used to better his situation. He needed to stay patient. This was still salvageable. He may be losing time, but his resources and assets remained.

That was why he always won. In the end, knowledge was power too. And he now had that in spades. As long as no other unforeseen developments occurred-

His phone rang. He split time and spiked it at the ground, then dropped the timeline. As it continued to ring, he took a few deep breaths in, assuring himself he was still in control. 

It was his Tattletale calling. This was unexpected.

"Hello, Tattletale. To what do I owe the pleasure?" His voice was calm and measured. He needed to project confidence in his assets, lest they misunderstand their place.

"Hey boss!" As her upbeat voice began speaking, Thomas couldn't help but feel a wave of disgust wash over him. "Soooo, you know how you said we were looking to recruit a fifth member?"

"Yes. Did you have someone in mind?"

"Funny thing, it's less in mind and more so our team has already recruited them. You know Eliv?"

Eliv was a new Cape who seemed to be only interested in pissing off each of the gangs in the city. While his mercenaries had clashed with her a few times, her lack of lethality, looting, or even care to call the PRT meant she hadn't warranted a more in-depth investigation. 

More importantly, it was clear while he'd been busy his Tattletale had forgotten who held the power in their relationship. This wouldn't do.

"Yes, I am aware of Eliv. And funny you say? Tattletale," he chided, "you do know that your freedom is a privilege I can take away, right?"

When Tattletale spoke next, this time her voice had an air of nervousness. Good. "Y-yeah. Well. Eliv is a heavy hitter and the perfect fit for our team. And- and it's not like it's a done deal, you know? That's why I'm calling."

"Go on." He liked hearing her squirm.

"She's actually a Tinker, did you know that? That's a great force multiplier. And she's getting along with Bitch, we both know that was going to be one of our biggest problems with getting a fifth member."

"Is that all you have to convince me? Tut, tut, tut. I expected better from my Tattletale. I suppose as... a favor. I could let Eliv join this time . But you'll need to make it up to me."

Thomas wished he could see her face right now. It was moments like this where he truly felt in control. He wanted to savor the feeling, capture it so he could experience it again later. But unfortunately, he could not. And it was rare, especially as of late, where he could indulge in the profound fear and misery of his pets and pawns.

"Oh! One more thing! She's actually a clone of Neuro! I don't know how the hell it works, but if you put them side by side it's uncanny. My power even confirmed it. I know you asked me a while ago for information on her and..."

As his phone hit the wall and shattered into pieces, Tattletale's voice in the other timeline echoed in his ears. "Boss? Boss? You still there?"

He gingerly put the phone back on his desk before hanging up. 

His head in his hands, Thomas screamed until his throat was raw.

There's more of them!?

Chapter Text

Vicky couldn't help but notice that her sister had been different the past few weeks. Not overly so, but it was the kind of difference that was obvious to someone who spent so much time around her.

Things had been... rough, to say the least, ever since Amy gained powers.

Amy had always been reclusive, introverted, a puzzle piece that didn't quite fit anywhere. She was thorny too, with a personality that repelled all but the most dedicated optimists. And even those with the best intentions would eventually back off, assuming they were doing more harm than good trying to befriend her.

Then... Amy became Panacea, which exacerbated those traits and left her even more isolated. 

It felt like Vicky was the only person who got to see the dorky, deeply caring and heroic sister under all of that.

And that had been the case, up until recently.

It started after picking up Amy from one of her hospital shifts. Vicky saw the bags under her eyes were a little less pronounced and that haunting gaze ever so slightly more lively. 

Amy also seemed a bit less enthused to see Vicky, which was confusing. Had she done something to anger Amy? 

Normally her sister lit up like... well. Not quite a christmas tree, maybe one that had all its bulbs painted over with dark paint? Either way, Amy was always happy to see her sister. But that had been a bit less pronounced as of late.

It was a minor thing and so, rather than confront her about it, Vicky continued to gather evidence. 

The next thing she noticed was her sister had been doing much better in school. According to Amy, being Panacea meant there wasn't much point in spending effort on grades or future career prospects, and she was destined to use her power for the rest of her life.

Vicky disagreed and believed it was important to have a balanced education. Amy could be looking into other opportunities if she wanted to, but unfortunately there was no convincing her.

It didn't help that even in classes like biology she struggled. Her power might be able to identify and heal any organism, but it didn't mean she knew what the powerhouse of a cell was.

All of that, combined with her late hours at the hospital, meant Amy had been struggling to get even decent grades. Again, until recently. 

Suddenly, her homework was getting completed and she was getting good marks on it too. Amy had brushed it off as saying she'd randomly gotten a bit more interested in her studies but that was an obvious excuse. 

The third piece of evidence was when Vicky realized that her sister and Mom had actually been... well... a bit less tense lately. The two of them never really got along, but that's just how things were sometimes. Mom had their best interests in mind and unfortunately that often rubbed her sister the wrong way.

Most recently, however, Amy didn't seem to mind as much. When she woke up late, or forgot to do her chores, or did one of the many things that would result in Mom lecturing her... she was able to brush it off. 

The last obvious clue was the fact that she was texting all the time. Well, actually it wasn't obvious at first but after some light grilling it turned out Amy hadn't taken up a fanfiction reading hobby. Instead, against all odds, she'd actually made a new friend!

Vicky had no idea how Neuro, the yet to debut Ward, had managed to worm its way into her sister's life. As far as she knew, they'd only met the one time. It wasn't even for very long at all either!

She wasn't going to complain about her sister's improved social life though. It meant she had a reason to invite Amy out to the mall with a friend, though unfortunately Dean couldn't come. Not only did Amy seem to barely tolerate his existence, Neuro and Dean were apparently also not on the best terms.

And so, that led to today. 

Their mall adventure began with some clothes shopping. It was normally pulling teeth to get Amy to wear anything other than old hoodies and sweatpants, and so Vicky used every opportunity to buy her actually fashionable clothes.

Neuro immediately got right into it. Entering each store, she would make a beeline for the nearest clothes rack and start making suggestions. Vicky was more than happy to go back and forth with Neuro, each trying on various clothes and outfits. But most surprisingly was that they were able to convince Amy to try on a few things.

Despite Dean always offering to pay for everything, Amy categorically refused to allow him to spend money on her. This meant her unwillingness to try on things often resulted in them needing to return the clothes she didn't like. It always created this awkward atmosphere at the start of every trip, and Vicky was glad she was now going to avoid that.

Vicky also had to hold in her absolute glee when Amy picked out a pair of black jeans and a graphic T for Neuro to wear. Her sister, picking out clothes for another girl? Impossible. What had Neuro done to the dark and gloomy Panacea?

...Also what had Amy done to the cheery and bright Neuro? Those clothes did not suit her at all. She looked like some weird villainous version of herself.

After doing plenty of shopping, their next stop was... a pet store? And not even a regular pet store, it was a specialty pet store. Strange, but the two of them had apparently already talked about visiting it.

Vicky hung back at the entrance, guarding their current spoils, and uh... avoiding the spiders, snakes, lizards, and other insects hopefully well housed in their terrariums. Her focus instead was on Neuro and her sister who were positively enthralled looking at each creepy crawly.

Vicky couldn't help but take a mental picture of Amy's dreamy smile as she gestured towards Neuro, then tapped the glass animatedly. Neuro also seemed to be equally engaged, though would sometimes sport a downright scary expression and stare longingly at the animals.

The dichotomy of the soft and round tall girl next to her short, dark, and brooding sister was also something Vicky was going to remember for a long time. It was clear that Neuro's appearance was also deceiving, and she had a hidden fondness for dorky biology like her sister.

Their last stop was to grab something to eat. Vicky found herself gravitating to a popcorn kiosk, sampling a variety of popcorn and toppings. Her forcefield kept her hands clean, making it a personal favourite of hers.

But the day's surprises didn't end there.

Neuro and Amy both got ice cream, and after sitting on a bench to finish eating, the two of them ended up shoulder to shoulder. 

Her sister, Amy Dallon, Panacea, the prickly as a cactus healer who normally kept anyone other than Vicky at a generous arms length, was allowing casual skinship with Neuro. It dawned on her that throughout their trip Neuro seemed to have no concept of personal space. Vicky was fine with that, her constantly active forcefield left her more than comfortable allowing others to be close. But Amy? She was the exact opposite.

Seeing Amy allow that was made Vicky recontextualize her sister's relationship with Neuro. There had to be something more.

The remaining part of the day had Vicky in a bit of a daze, and she was only broken out of it on the drive back.

"You guys certainly did a lot of shopping," said Mom shortly after picking them up. There was a hint of reproval in her voice. "I hope you don't end up returning most of it again. You're just wasting the store employees' time doing that."

"No Mom," answered Vicky dutifully.

"I'm not worried about you, I'm worried about Amy."

Amy rolled her eyes. "No Carol, I actually tried them on this time. They're... they're good. I like them."

Through the mirror, Vicky saw their mom's eyebrow raise. "Huh. So you guys had fun then?"

"Mmm yeah I guess so." "Yeah!" The two sisters answered at the same time.

"That's good to hear." 

The car drove in silence for a while, until Mom spoke up again.

"I heard Neuro's debut was getting delayed, did she mention anything about that?"

"Nah, it didn't come up. She got a decent bit of attention though, likely our fault."

Amy snorted. "It's also hard not to notice Neuro in a crowd. Girl's hard to miss."

"Yeah she's pretty tall isn't she?" agreed Vicky. "Also a few people were mentioning she looked a little similar to that new Eliv rogue running around."

"Is that so?" her mom said neutrally as Vicky caught Amy shaking her head. "I hadn't heard that Brockton Bay had a new rogue.

"Mhm! There's a few pictures of her PHO. Thankfully, Neuro answered the questions like a pro. She's a natural at PR."

"Eliv and Neuro are obviously different people though," added Amy. "Neuro's a Ward, a hero, and she's at the Ward's base in the PRT within full visibility at almost all times."

"While that's probably true, it wouldn't hurt to be a bit careful about who you girls tie yourselves to. Remember, you don't just represent yourself, you also represent New Wave as a whole."

Vicky frowned and tried to reason out what her mom was saying. She thought back on the day, trying to pick out anything that Neuro had done that could be suspicious. 

Nothing came up, until she noticed Amy was once again on her phone texting. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, and suddenly it all made sense. Vicky had figured it out.

Amy was gay. 

Amy had a crush on Neuro. 

It was the only thing that made sense. It even explained why she seemed to hate Dean so much. Or why she was so difficult for anyone to get close to, really. 

She was awkward around girls because she was gay, and she came off as awkward around men because she didn't care for them.

But... it was also obvious that her sister wasn't even aware of it. Her poor sister, repressed and too distracted by her powers and responsibilities had finally found someone she could show her true self to.

"Mom!" whined Vicky. "Neuro is literally a Ward."

"Not until she's debuted, and you know that's not what I meant. I'm just concerned with how often Amy's been on her phone. I don't want her becoming a delinquent."

As Amy rolled her eyes again, Vicky couldn't help but stare incredulously. Amy wasn't becoming a delinquent Mom! And using that kind of language was only going to push her further into the closet!

Vicky sighed. She knew Mom had their best interests at heart and would be fully supportive, but it was easy to see Amy misunderstanding that.

She wasn't sure if she should hope Neuro was aware or remained unaware, but either way she'd be doing her best to ensure the two of them could stay at least friends. For now, she'd cheer them on silently from the sidelines and hope to have a talk with Mom about how she was wording things. 

Maybe she could have a chat with Neuro too, just to see how she was feeling.

Vicky had a lot of experience dating a Ward, and after thinking about it more, she could even imagine possible double date ideas with Dean.

Nodding to herself, Vicky decided that she would wait until Neuro's debut before talking to Amy about it. After that? She would definitely help speed things along.

Chapter Text

As Aegis began his patrol with Vista and Shadow Stalker, he braced himself for what was likely to be an uneventful night. Still, he checked his posture and tried to stand just a little bit straighter.

Triumph had informed him in confidence yesterday that he was going to take over as leader of the Wards. It meant a lot of things, but most of all he now needed to be the one setting an example. 

While Vista held herself to high standards, she was still at an age where she should have someone to look up to. And Shadow Stalker... He glanced over at her and found her sloppily walking along without really much effort.

"Sooo," he began, trying to start a conversation. "Still hard to believe the Nine are gone."

Shadow Stalker audibly groaned. "Oh my god please don't tell me we're having this conversation again. That's literally all anyone has been talking about for over a week."

"Hey! It's a big deal!" said Vista. While her eyes were hidden behind her visor, her lips were pouting. "Both the Guild and the PRT deserve a lot of credit for taking out those monsters."

"Yeah, and they got plenty of credit, move on there's shit to do. I saw the whole ceremony and shit the president gave for that Tagg guy. My question is: why did it take so long?"

"I looked at the internal report-"

"Of course you did."

"-and it was pretty light on details. Most of it was classified, but it's clear the Guild played a key part in the planning at the very least. Oddly enough though, there weren't any capes mentioned."

"As in, the cape names were redacted?" asked Aegis.

"No, like, there weren't even any redacted. It was an operation without any capes."

Stalker scoffed. "Yeah right. Like that's true. Do you honestly believe a bunch of regular people could kill the Nine? Get real shrimpy."

"Hey! The PRT are literally trained on how to fight parahumans. It's in the name. They're the parahuman response team."

"It's honestly impressive you still believe that garbage. You think they just woke up one day and decided yeah, 'Today we're going to kill the Nine, any takers?' you're delusional."

This was the real problem with Shadow Stalker. They were all heroes, all on the same team, yet she was the only one who seemed entirely disinterested in cooperating. You couldn't talk with her for more than a minute without her insulting you or getting upset.

Unfortunately, when he became leader of the wards, it was going to be his job to mediate.

"Stalker," he began hoping to descalate. Aegis was already annoyed and their patrol had barely started. "There's no need to be rude. They could have been planning this for a while for all we know. Maybe only now did their planning pay off, it's clear the Guild made the difference here."

"Yeah and last time I checked the Guild doesn't have useless powerless members. So if they were involved, capes were definitely involved."

"That's not true at all!" yelled Vista. "The Guild has plenty of unpowered members to do the supportive and administrative tasks."

"Are you even listening to yourself? Are you seriously so stupid enough to think the Nine got beat by a bunch of pencil pushers? And you guys wonder why I don't take any of this shit seriously."

"Girls, please. We're on patrol, it's a bad look if we're arguing amongst ourselves."

Shadow Stalker gestured exaggeratedly around herself. "It's a bad look for who? It's a random Thursday night and we're patrolling literally the deadest parts of town. With the Nine's death still in the news, the villains are all going to be chickenshit scared."

Aegis had to take a deep breath in and out. "Whether or not someone is watching shouldn't change your behavior and attitude."

"Or what? You gonna write me up?" Stalker's posture sharpened. "You know they don't give a shit or even read those, so are you really going-"

She was interrupted by a beep from his communicator. It was console informing them there was a reported disturbance at the nearby electronics recycling center. The report had mentioned 'unnatural darkness' which meant it was assumed to be cape business.

Aegis didn't have time to start planning before Stalker was off incorporeally sprinting away. She barely even turned to let him know she was going ahead and scouting.

"That doesn't even make any sense, you don't carry a communicator because of your power!" His complaints went unheard. "Fucking typical. Sorry Vista."

"It's not your fault. Come on, we've gotta catch up."

Vista pinched together space between the nearest rooftop before stepping onto it as Aegis took to the skies. While he wasn't the fastest flyer in the bay, he could keep pace.

It took a few minutes, but they soon arrived at the derelict parking lot with no sign of Shadow Stalker or anything suspicious.

"Right, so, standard operation would be to gather intel first. But if it comes to a confrontation, it's me first with Stalker as backup and you as support. Let's assume she'll follow what we've been trained on."

"Got it," said Vista with a firm nod. 

Aegis always found it a little strange how Vista could be complaining about homework and then suddenly she was dead serious for cape matters. In moments like these, he appreciated it.

Standing next to the entrance, he strained his ears hoping his enhanced hearing would pick up something.

"-don't understand why we're even robbing this place. It's half abandoned and just junk." It was a young boy's voice. He had a bit of an accent that was hard to place.

"First off, it's not all junk. There's some important materials Eliv's looking to salvage as well as some components I need to be here to hopefully pick out. And second of all, the boss has been a bit too busy to assign us jobs so we're doing this one just for her sake." This one was a girl who spoke in a playful tone.

"Also," began a slightly muffled and deeper voice, "it's good practice with the whole team. You and Eliv have been loafing around playing video games too much lately."

"Woah bossman, you wanna try saying that to her face?" The younger boy paused for a moment before continuing. "More importantly, does this even count as a crime then? I have a reputation to uphold."

"Regent, we've literally been instructed to keep a low profile and stay under the radar. We don't have a reputation. On purpose."

"Then I have a reputation to begin, then," said the younger boy in a mocking posh tone. "Also, Bitch and Eliv already have one."

"Eliv has one what?" A new girl's voice broke in, two pairs of footsteps entering from an entrance on the opposite side. "You guys weren't talking shit about me behind my back were you? If you were I might cry. It's very easy to hurt my feelings."

"Heavens no Eliv. I was merely saying you've got a reputation already and I, your humble Regent, can only dream of following in your footsteps."

"Hmph. That's right. You guys can only hope to reach my greatness some day. In the far, far future I can see..."

As Eliv continued talking, Aegis mouthed villains at Vista who nodded. He mimed talking on the phone, pointed towards her communicator, then at rafters on the opposite side of the building. She gave an affirmative before bending space and stepped away.

"That's nice Eliv. Moving on though, did you find everything you were looking for?"

"Almost, Grue. We've got Brutus and Judas loaded up but there's still space on Angelica. I was hoping I could get Tattletale to see if she can help me find some fluxgate magnetometers."

"Wow I'm genuinely surprised that's even a real word. I can help, though we need to make it quick. Grue's little squid incident earlier likely attracted some attention."

"Tattletale, we both know that Regent should not have been messing around with the conveyor belt controls, especially with me near them. This should have been a clean operation, no messing around."

"Actually, I think it may be too late for it to be a clean operation. Unfortunately we're not alone. You can come out now by the way.  Let's talk about this like civil people."

Aegis' reflexively grit his teeth. Had he been noticed? No... that was unlikely. Vista's power was soundless and if he was going to be found out it would have been earlier. Thankfully if it was just Shadow Stalker he could-

"I meant both of you by the way."

Or not. Feeling his heartbeat beating heavy in his chest, he resolved himself to stalling until reinforcements could arrive. Best case scenario, Shadow Stalker could stay hidden and Vista could make the difference.

"Ah, there he is. Aegis, pleasure to meet you. Mind telling your fellow Ward to come out as well?"

Scattered around the large open room of the recycling facility were an assortment of capes. Speaking to him was a girl in a purple bodysuit, and next to her was a man in black motorcycle leathers. 

In the far corner next to another entrance were two girls. One wore a dog mask, and the other a black school girl's uniform. Lastly, on an elevated catwalk was a boy in a renaissance outfit who, being the only other boy, had to be Regent.

"Who are you guys?"

"Tut tut, don't think you can stall for time you know? We'll be out of your hair bef-"

"We're the Undersiders and you can call me Eliv!" Eliv interrupted by shouting over the girl who Aegis determined to be Tattletale. He'd seen the updated briefings on Eliv, though they currently had her listed as a rogue with a proficiency with harpoons and not a villain. 

"Yeah! Tell 'em Eliv!" cheered Regent.

"The Undersiders are the biggest and greatest villain team to ever walk the earth. Me, Tattletale, Bitch, Regent, Grue, Brutus, Judas, Angelica, and my Swarm will soon take over your puny city. Tremble mortals as you hopelessly watch this evil team of evil villains defeat your heroes, crush your armies, pillage your countryside, and eat all your cookies."

As Tattletale and Grue both face palmed, Aegis couldn't help but grow increasingly concerned. That... was a big organization. Large enough to be a major player. And though it was clear many of the members were younger, Grue was obviously an adult and the leader.

Tattletale sighed. "So much for keeping a low profile."

"Eliv we've talked about this," lectured Grue. "You can't just go off on tangents when we're on a job."

"And I told you I would try my best. Unfortunately my best starts with letting everyone know who exactly we are and our purpose. How else are people supposed to know about Evil Neuro and her greatness? Trick question, they won't unless I tell them." 

Evil Neuro? Wait... hadn't Neuro spoken about having an evil twin? Looking at her closely, Eliv looked eerily familiar actually...

As Aegis began to process this, Tattletale stared at him for a moment before suddenly throwing up her hands in mock celebration.

"Congrats Eliv, you've told him your identity and shieldy over there is putting two and two together. Grue, we've gotta go. There's still one Ward unaccounted for and the big boy heroes will be here soon."

"Right, Eliv, play with Aegis for a while. Bitch, get your dogs ready. Tats and Regent, keep an eye out for-"

"Behind you!" shouted Regent.

Suddenly, Shadow Stalker phased through the wall, her crossbow pointed at Tattletale's chest. Right before she fired, her arm suddenly jerked to the side and she missed. 

At the same time, the space in front of Tattletale distorted and a stretched arm sucker punched in her chest. She dropped to a knee with a heavy grunt.

"Oh there's three of you fuckers. You know what? Eliv!"

"Yeah?"

"Aegis is a brute. Give him the Alabaster treatment."

While he didn't know what that meant, Eliv's smile did not inspire confidence. And neither did the completely random gun cocking sound that came from her.

"Aegis!" Looking up, he saw Vista who tried to say more. But before Aegis could hear her, black smoke enveloped the warehouse and everything went deathly silent.

In an instant, he couldn't hear, see, smell, or even feel anything but his feet on the ground. Feet that were flying backwards without warning, smashing into the wall behind him. A second impact sent him through the wall and into the parking lot.

His senses returned, and he found two harpoons stuck in his right thigh and side. He coughed, blood leaking from his lips as he felt his body adapt, his organs shifting around. Gripping a harpoon with a hand each, he ripped them out in a spray of crimson.

Eliv walked towards him calmly, that same devilish grin plastered on her face.

"Y'know Aegis. I've heard a lot about you."

"...you have?" His voice came out as a shredded rasp.

"Yeah. Adapting defenses that can even survive decapitation. Is that true?"

He gulped, swallowing a mouthful of blood. "Dunno, I haven't tried."

"Hmmmm..." She put a hand on her chin. "Would you like to?"

"No I don't thi-" He didn't even have a chance to finish replying before she was in front of him, sweeping a barbed harpoon in a large arc.

He flew up a foot, barely dodging the attack. But before he could reposition further, her harpoon swung around unnaturally and impaled him in the chest. 

He felt his legs take a deep breath, and his stomach began beating.

Eliv didn't even flinch as blood splattered her face.

"No decapitation? That's fine, I have other ideas on how to have some fun with you. For ex-"

He grabbed the harpoon and pushed it through himself before using it as leverage to punch her. She let go at the last second, but it at least forced her away and gave him time to think.

"-ample I could poke out your eyes and see where your body puts the new ones. Then I could poke poke poke poke-"

It was obvious Eliv had enhanced reflexes; he wasn't going to beat her in a melee. Thankfully, he had other options. 

Unfortunately, simply waiting for reinforcements was not one of those. 

He couldn't leave Shadow Stalker and Vista to fend for themselves against a half dozen other capes. And given her potential connection to Neuro, he felt justified in taking additional measures.

"-poke poke poke poke until your body is full of them. Eye would really enjoy that. Get it? Eye like I because it's me talking about eyes? No? Geeze tough crowd. If Neuro was here she'd say good one."

"How do you know Neuro?" He asked as he began walking closer to her.

"I already said this, she's my twin sister. We share the same turtle father, Veedle. We also have a dozen moms, depending on who you ask. It's kind of complicated."

"Neuro has only mentioned Anny as her mom though, did you guys have different mothers?"

A loud buzzer sound effect played and he immediately recognized it from his conversations with Neuro. "What? No. Neuro's just stupid like that, don't worry. As the superior twin, I have the better memory, intellect, strength, wisdom, and reputation."

If Eliv had the same sound effects and a lot of the same talking mannerisms...

"Hey Eliv, can you recite the declaration of independence backwards? Neuro was able to do it and so as the superior sister you have to be able to, right?"

"Neuro did it? Then I can do it easily, watch. Honor sacred our and fortunes our-"

Seizing the opportunity, he spiked his one con-foam grenade at her feet. 

A dull fwoom later, Eliv was fully encased. Oddly enough, she continued speaking as if nothing had happened for another few seconds.

"Hey! You tricked me!"

Aegis scoffed. "Sorry kid."

He turned around only to be met with... a bunch of flying gym bags? Is that a tas-

Writhing on the ground, he felt layers of keratin form to insulate his skin. But just as the electricity began to weaken, he was engulfed in flames.

"Sorry? Sorry won't cut it now muhahaha! We'll see who's sorry now that you've fallen for my trap! My evil trap! Now you face the full wrath of my swarm. Unleashed upon the world, it brings lightning and fire to all my enemies. Now, everyone will be forced to love and adore evil, as they should! Watch helplessly as I spin and establish dominance over your mediocre existence!"

His sweat became fire retardant coating him and providing him protection from the heat... only for him to get tased again.

Meanwhile Eliv continued monologuing. It was worse than any tangents Neuro had ever gone on, and at one point, she seemed to just let out a long, incoherent moaning sound.

He welcomed the blessed silence when his eardrums ruptured, and he continued to focus on changing his skin. Manually directing his adaptations was seldom needed, and usually reserved for returning to his base state after a fight was over. But in rare cases like this, he needed to direct his power.

Finally, after over a minute of alternating punishments, his skin had completely blackened. His head, fully charred, could no longer speak, hear, see, or smell. His limbs were stiff and he could feel pieces of his skin chip off as he got up. 

A single, shielded eye appeared on his chest and it opened to see... a pile of empty confoam? Where was Eliv?

Fwoom .

Out of nowhere, in a horrific twist of fate, now he was covered in containment foam.

How? 

How had Eliv gotten out? 

How had Eliv gotten a hold of her own containment foam? He was only permitted to carry one grenade after hours of training.

It didn't make sense. Nothing made sense.

Aegis had no mouth and he could not scream.

Chapter Text

The soft tap tap tap sounds of typing filled the quiet office. Yellow white and overly bright ceiling lights illuminated the maze of cubicles and drab carpeted flooring.

The elevator in the hallway dinged before the front office door opened up. As people poked their heads up above their cubicles to see who was entering, there were a wide variety of reactions.

Some simply lifted an eyebrow. They'd heard rumors of the strange and tall ward but hadn't had the opportunity to interact with her yet.

Others scowled and sat back down. They wanted no part in anything involving her.

A few smiled and gently waved, happy to see an example of the Youth Guard's efforts and justification for additional funding.

One in particular took a deep breath in, sat back down, and braced himself for the upcoming conversation. 

...Maybe she was here for someone else?

Unfortunately that was not the case. His hopes shriveled up and died as he watched the top of her head make its way towards his desk.

Neuro rounded the corner and he took one more deep breath in and out. His eyes opened to see her cheerful yet piercing gaze. Photos could never do it justice. There was always a certain level of presence one felt when Neuro wanted something from you.

"Hi Neuro, I uh... what can I do for you?"

"Hi fred dot dowson dot jones at P R T dot E N E dot gov dot com. I wanted to talk to you about your latest message and my upcoming debut. Do you have a few minutes?"

"You can just call me Fred, Neuro. If you don't mind."

"Hmmm..." Neuro frowned slightly in thought. It was as though she was genuinely considering calling him by his full email address rather than simply his first name. Was it some kind of power play? An attempt to put him on the backfoot at the start of the conversation? 

"Okay, Fred then." 

Silence. 

No follow-up. 

A bead of sweat fell down his back. 

"Uh, yeah. So... you wanted something?"

"Yes!" He winced at her sudden and loud voice. "I want you to agree to my proposed discount code that I want for my fumo plushies at my debut."

Of all of the things he expected Neuro to complain about, it was his issues with the plushie discount code? She'd suggested there exist a code that someone could use and redeem for a free plushie. And there were so many issues with that.

First of all, there was no place to redeem the code. Plushies were sold at the gift shop or via online ordering. They would need to request an entirely new discount and sale system to support this.

Which lead to the next problem. Neuro specifically requested the code to be unlimited use. As in, someone could buy as many plushies as they wanted using the code and pay nothing over and over again.

In what world did she expect that to be allowed?

"I outlined my reasoning in the email... I can repeat it for you if you'd like?"

Neuro proceeded to repeat, word for word, including introduction and his signature block, the entire email in question. 

Again, to what end? 

"-is what you said."

"...Yes Neuro, that's what my email said. Do you want to talk about any of my reasons?"

"I do. We can make a lot of money by improving the PRTs online store and implementing discount codes and it would be worth the cost. For example, you can double the price then give a discount code to people for half off. Not only would that make everything seem cheaper, but some people won't use the discount code and now we can charge them double. Easy money."

"That's just going to make- actually, nevermind. The reasoning doesn't actually matter. Changes to our online ordering system won't be ready in time for your debut. Bottom line, even if I agreed with you, it's not possible."

"And you expect me to just take that as your answer?" Despite the office lighting, the top of her face quickly darkened. A scary violin began playing. "Are you sure about that?"

Fred was a relatively tall man. He was nearly 5'10 back in his college days, but scoliosis had taken almost an inch off as he got older. 

Sitting down, it felt like Neuro towered over him.

He swallowed reflexively. "L-look Neuro. Let's say we have the code and somehow it works at the gift shop. We also can't just have one that lets people take them for free."

"Why not?"

"Why not..?" Fred put his elbows on his desk and began massaging his temples. "Because then we would just be losing money. Someone could place, oh I don't know, a million orders and we would just go bankrupt. Do you know what going bankrupt means Neuro?"

"Of course I do. Why not just get married, then."

He stopped, then slowly turned to look at her. Neuro's face remained entirely sincere.

"Can... Can you please explain how that solves absolutely anything at all?"

"Of course. You see, after we've let five million people use the discount code for plushies, my calculations say we end up only one hundred and fifty million in debt. Then, we get married and the debt becomes only seventy five million. We divorce them, marry someone else, and repeat fifteen times until the debt is under five thousand dollars. Then, we use the publicity to launch another plushie and this time without the discount code, netting us a profit."

He was speechless.

"Aren't I the smartest cookie?" continued Neuro as a correct answer ding sound played.

"I... I don't... Look. First of all, it costs a lot of time and money to marry someone, not to mention it's not nearly that simple to do." 

Also the fact that debt doesn't work that way and a thousand other reasons why what she suggested made no sense.

"Oh. Really? Is that true?"

Fred let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He did not expect that to convince her, at all.

"Yes! Er, sorry. Look, we can give away a few of them for free if that's what you want. That should still let a few people get their hands on them for free which would act as good advertising and make us look good."

"Hmmm... Okay. Fine. You survive, for now."

What.

"But that means I expect you to make up for it by convincing Delilah to allow my concert idea. She doesn't like my suggestion to sing as part of my debut. The people need to hear my beautiful voice. You can't have Neuro-sama without her singing."

Fred frowned. He was on the merchandising team, not the production and coordination team. The two departments were entirely separated and the only reason he recognized Delilah's name was from the Christmas party.

"Singing huh... We- I don't think I can really help with that. We're in different departments."

"Oh, so you were lying then huh?" Neuro folded her arms across her chest and began staring at him again.

"W-what?"

"You said the reason we couldn't sell discount codes is because the online store isn't ready and if it was unlimited we wouldn't be able to marry and divorce someone because that costs a lot of money so you promised we could give out free concert tickets and plushies. But now you're saying we can't have a concert despite the fact that we're giving out free concert tickets, which means you were lying."

"I didn't say that at all!"

He heard someone in a nearby cubicle cough politely, and Fred realized that the whole office was listening in. He grabbed a tissue and wiped his forehead. 

"So you're calling me a liar then?"

"No... I..." 

"Then what are you saying? Hmm? Finish your sentence please."

He didn't know Delilah that well but she seemed reasonable enough, and Fred needed to get out of this conversation. As long as Neuro didn't request anything too crazy...

"Okay, okay. Fine. Just... CC me on the email with Delilah and I'll see what I can do, okay?"

"Awesome! Thanks Fred. I'm glad you were able to see it my way and we could both come to a compromise. Have a nice day!"

And just like that, Neuro left him.

The office was almost dead silent, until slowly the gentle tap tap tap sounds returned and everyone resumed working.

Fred leaned back in his chair, exhausted, and felt his sweat soaked shirt cling to him.

Why did it feel like he had gotten played?

And at the end of the day, right before he was about to go home, he was CC'd on an email with the subject line 'Twenty three reasons why all Ward debuts should be three hour long idol concerts' and all the blood drained from his face.