章 613: 52
Date
2011 February 11th - Friday - Earth Bet Time
Amy peered up from her facepalm to look at Taylor's face.
She had to give it to the girl. Her poker face was excellent, though it didn't really help when her face was frozen into a very polite smile. It just looked creepy, and if Amy was honest with herself, a little threatening.
Which she could understand because they just barged in and broken the Unwritten Rules like it was nothing.
Yes, she knew it was Vicky who did it, but she was sure Taylor wouldn't accept that as an excuse.
After a few seconds of a pregnant pause, Taylor finally replied to Vicky's inappropriate greeting.
"Excuse me?" she said while tilting her head to the side, adopting a confused look. "Why are you calling me that?"
She glanced at Vicky, wondering how she would react to that. Because that would give them the chance to play it off as a joke, though knowing Vicky it either went over her head or she realized it and then promptly ignored it.
"Because you are Magnet Girl!" answered Vicky with a laugh in her voice. And Amy had to agree with that because it was really a ridiculous codename that the news came up with. "Come on, Taylor, no need to hide! You saved my sister, I won't tell anyone!"
Taylor grimaced in answer while gesturing towards the living room. "Let's not talk about this at the door. I prepared some snacks."
Vicky cheered briefly then flew towards the promised food while hovering only a few inches off the floor.
"And I'm not Magnet Girl!" added Taylor with a slightly raised voice.
"Sure!" came the answer from the cheerful Vicky.
Amy looked at the still grimacing Taylor and gave her a sympathetic look.
"I'm sorry about that…"
"I'm just glad she didn't do that in the open. It would be a pain in the ass explaining that I'm not a parahuman," said Taylor and Amy was rather impressed she could do that with a straight face.
"Of course, Taylor. Whatever you say," she replied with her most knowing voice.
In response, Taylor fixed her with an annoyed stare, then did an about-face and began to walk towards the living room. Amy smirked and followed the taller girl.
This promised to be grand entertainment.
A few minutes later, and after they sampled a few tasty sandwiches, they were sitting in the living room. The sisters next to each other on the sofa and Taylor on her own in the armchair with a severe look on her face.
She spent the time they were munching glaring at Vicky and Amy suspected the other girl was devising ways to kill or at least silence her sister.
She wished her luck…
"Don't be so glum, Taylor!" spoke up Vicky finally after finishing her sandwich. "By the way, excellent sandwich!"
"Thank you," answered Taylor in a clipped tone. "I'm not glum. I'm just… annoyed. Yes, annoyed, that you think I'm some kind of parahuman."
Amy decided she would let those two hash it out and reached for another sandwich while wishing for popcorn.
Vicky looked at the black-haired girl and gave her a smile that would melt butter. "But you didn't really hide it, so it's not my fault I figured it out."
Taylor blinked in surprise. "What?"
Vicky sat up properly, raised her hand, and started counting. "One, you weren't affected by my aura. Two, one of my… friends couldn't see anything from you. Three, Amy couldn't see anything interesting. Four, when we were attacked, you were the only one near to us that would know we need help. And finally, when I pushed you out of the way, I hit you a little hard, and I'm really sorry about that, but nobody said anything about you getting any wounds."
Taylor looked at the grinning blonde, and Amy could see she was thinking furiously.
"And your conclusions of these were that I'm a parahuman?"
"Yup!"
"And then you decided that confronting me about it was the best decision?" she asked with an arched eyebrow. "Not that I'm saying you are correct."
"I mean… I get where you are coming from… but I just wanted to thank you for saving Amy. So no confronting!" replied Vicky, her smile withering a little.
"And then?"
"What do you mean?" Vicky replied, puzzled, while Amy shot a knowing look at Taylor, still munching on her sandwich.
"Now that you think you know that I'm parahuman, what do you intend to do with that information?" asked Taylor with a severe expression.
"Nothing. Why would I do anything with it?" said Vicky with her most honest face.
"Hmmm."
Vicky stood up, took a step toward Taylor, and grabbed her hand.
"Taylor, believe me! I just wanted to thank you! I don't want to unmask you to anybody or something like that!"
Their host looked up to the blonde and gave a small (and to Amy it looked rather vulnerable) smile. "And how do I know I can trust you?"
Vicky, still holding Taylor's hand, looked down at her. "We are New Wave, that's our basic mandate! Plus, we are friends!"
Amy hid a quick grimace at hearing that. While yes, their group was about trust, internally however things were different. Not at least how Carol treated her as if she was just seconds away from going crazy and annihilating the city.
Hopefully, now that her power changed on the surface (Shaper assured her, if there was a need, she could allow her to use her previous power) she would calm down a little. Though based on the argument they had before they left, it didn't seem so.
Taylor looked up at Vicky and at her placid sister, who was eating one of her sandwiches, obviously letting them talk it out.
While keeping up the façade of nonchalance inside, she was raging and despairing.
Was she really obvious?
Could anybody else know about her?
She glanced at Admin floating, invisible to the others, for an answer or at least some kind of advice.
"Just go along with it. They are trustworthy and they can help you blend in better."
"Why didn't you tell me I was showing signs of being a parahuman?" she asked in her mind.
"I'm here to help you and to teach you, not to tell you everything. I felt it was an excellent learning experience. Now go and make friends!" with that he vanished amidst a shower of illusory glitter.
Taylor shot a brief glare at where her power's avatar was, then turned her eyes and thoughts to the standing blonde in front of her.
She contemplated what Vicky said and what she knew of the girl.
It was clear that she wouldn't let this go unless Taylor went hardcore defensive, but that would also sever their friendship. And she didn't really have enough friends to just willy-nilly get rid of one.
The only real question was if she could trust the girl. Because the last time she trusted somebody, it ended up horribly for her.
However, she was aware she couldn't really live her life alone and isolated from everyone. Yes, there was Tess, but there their relationship was based on Taylor helping Tess, and the fact she was still holding the key to her cage made it a little lopsided.
Whereas Vicky and Amy became her friend by chance, and nothing was holding back them from taking her secrets and spreading them around. And not even the Unwritten Rules would stop them…
Admin's assertion about their trustworthiness helped a little, but it didn't fully assuage her fears.
In the end, it came down to a simple decision.
Trust them for now and prepare herself to be burned. Or chase them away and keep living in an isolated bubble.
She stared into Vicky's eyes, looking for a hint of deception, but the only thing she could see was the earnest need for her acceptance and based on her glances at the food, hunger.
"Fine." she finally said. "But if you call me Magnet Girl again, I will punt you across the ocean."
Vicky's face lit up in joy and hugged her while Amy just nodded to herself as if she expected nothing less.
"Yes! I knew I was right! Tell me everything about your power, Taylor! I saw you fly; how fast you can go? What else can you do?" came from the exuberant superhero.
Taylor took a step back from Vicky and took hold of her shoulders, and stared seriously into her eyes. "First, you have to promise you won't tell anyone about me. My dad can't protect himself, so I need to be careful!"
"Of course! I promise!" replied Vicky with the same seriousness. "I won't even tell my… friend."
Taylor gave her a knowing look. After all, it wasn't really hard to figure out who that 'friend' was. Still, as long as she didn't voice it, it was keeping with the Unwritten Rules.
Vicky flushed in embarrassment, but before she could speak, Amy interrupted.
"I will keep your secret too."
"Thank you, Amy."
"No probs."
Vicky, seemingly deciding that ignoring the last part was a prudent choice, sat back down next to her sister and reached for another snack.
"So, just to be clear, are you a parahuman, Taylor?"
Taylor slumped back into the armchair, crossed her arms in front of her before answering petulantly. "Yes. I am."
"Cool." She took a bite of her food but Amy seamlessly took over and continued the questioning.
"And what is exactly your power? I remember seeing you use electricity and magnets…" said Amy with a laugh in her voice.
"Well, I basically control electromagnetism and a few extras," answered Taylor smugly.
This rather surprised the girls sitting across her, their mouths falling open.
The next second the room was filled with questions from the Dallon sisters, while Taylor enjoyed their awe.
They spent the rest of the day talking about Taylor's power (with her leaving out a lot of things), about the sister's new powers, and the events that happened recently.
Though a brief hour was spent by Taylor showcasing her awesome hair power, while her guests watched jealously.
Around eight in the evening, Taylor packed up the board game they were playing, while Vicky picked up trash they generated and Amy washed the few dishes they used.
"So, how about we do a quick shower run, then watch a few movies?" she asked, looking at the others.
Vicky looked around, confused. "Sure, but where is your TV?"
Taylor just smirked and spoke out with a firm voice. "TV, activate."
Vicky and Amy watched, amazed as shades automatically covered the windows and an almost wall-sized holographic screen appeared in the living room opposite the sofa.
On it, they could see a list of movies or TV channels that could be selected, and in the background, they could barely hear the gentle hum of a sound system.
"What the hell! What is that?" asked the astonished Amy, while dramatically pointing at the screen.
"A tinker tech soft light projection screen, connected to a database of movies and the TV cable. And the radio. And the internet. Also runs Doom." explained Taylor proudly.
"Where the hell did you get something like that? Even the Wards have to make do with a simple TV!" exclaimed Vicky, as she went closer to examine the technological marvel.
"I made it."
Vicky whirled around and stared at Taylor. "You made it? You are also a Tinker?"
"Yep," answered Taylor, popping the p as smugly as possible.
Meanwhile, Amy, after drying her hand, took the tablet Taylor laid out and was browsing for a movie to watch.
"Why didn't you mention that you can do this too?"
"You didn't ask…" was Taylor's reply.
Vicky looked at her for a few seconds, then dramatically sighed, then turned around to join her sister in choosing a movie while muttering to herself.
"So not fair…"
Taylor, enjoying her 'victory' just simply started towards the stairs.
"I will lay out the towels and stuff, you guys can go first in the shower."
Date
2011 February 11th - Friday - Earth Bet Time
Day 6091 - Friday - Administrator Network Time
His experiments with the empty space between dimensions were making excellent progress, but he still hasn't finalized his plan about how to make use of it.
Though as a side effect of this, his awareness and knowledge of parallel dimensions grew greatly.
Apparently observing from outside of the system was what was needed for another breakthrough.
He always wondered that despite the multiverse being infinite, why was it that only a few (compared to infinite) of them were actually used by the Entities. Of course, he knew that some powers made use of this very fact, but aside from that he couldn't see any evidence of the Entities using it.
The technology was there, and their very nature allowed them to experience and observe the parallel dimensions, yet after reaching a certain number of them (granted it wasn't a small number) they stopped.
It seemed after a while the difference become so minuscule that the dimensions couldn't really be discerned from each other, but thanks to discovering a way to observe these dimensions from the outside, he could be more precise.
He used this knowledge to move certain parts of his enormous body into closer dimensions for security and to use this similarity between dimensions, hopefully, to confuse those who would try to find his body.
Furthermore, it also allowed him to improve and upgrade Sting and the defense against it. This made Sting much more powerful and effective against dimensional defenses while making his own defenses more efficient.
He hoped with further experimentation and research he could completely isolate himself dimensionally from the other shards, thus making him immune to their powers.
His search for the dimensional addresses was also making progress, he probably had almost all the addresses for all the Shards connected to Earth Bet, and thanks to the few parahumans guarding the channel to Aleph he was making great inroads even there.
Sadly, his access to the other dimensions where the Entities and Shards were active was nowhere to be seen.
He had already collected the address of Alexandria, Eidolon, and Legend and with them, he had the address of Doormaker and Clairvoyant, but sadly he didn't dare to contact their Shard to begin the takeover process, because he was a hundred percent sure, that they were always in contact with the Path to Victory.
True, he wasn't so defenseless and powerless as he was before, but PtV had an amazing prediction system going, and there was still a chance that if he gives enough information, the Shard could play him like a harp.
Better to play it safe for now.
The other hot-spot he didn't dare to approach was the Birdcage. The Faerie Queen's territory.
Thanks to tapping Teacher's Shard, he had a rudimentary knowledge about the Queen's Shard and the addresses of the other Shards that are in the prison.
He found out that the Queen's Shard routinely scanned the Shards it was in contact with, and thanks to the prolonged contact between their hosts, it had forged connections to them that were similar to his. Probably for the time when Ciara decided to reap them.
However, this connection allowed the Shard to monitor every other Shard. His tap into Teacher's Shard only succeeded because he used the connection it had with Saint and altered nothing.
When he learned of this, he had the urge to flash clone a human body, take control of it, just to be able to sweat.
So to make sure that the Shard, which was said to be on par with the Administrator and Shaper, was unaware, he hid the connection even better before setting up several dummy Shards a few dimensions apart and funneled the connection through them.
It wouldn't stop the Faerie Queen, but it would give him ample warning, in case he was discovered.
Though it was dangerous, he was fairly sure he could take it in a fight. It just wasn't the right time.
He needed to be prepared for the next Endbringer fight, not that he would allow Taylor to participate if it wasn't attacking Brockton Bay, but one never knows.
And of the things Entities created, he had the least knowledge about the Endbringers.
He had a few encryption keys and such, and theoretically, he could get in and shut them down, but would more than likely raise so many alarms that the chances of Zion not noticing them were close to zero.
So for the first one, he planned to have Taylor sit it out and see how the Endbringers reacted to the changes he made. Will Simurgh attack Canberra again, or will she choose another target?
He also wanted to see what he could do and sense without sending his host onto the battlefield.
He wasn't looking forward to that argument.
He watched as the tired girls went to sleep, with the sisters in the guest bedroom while Taylor in her own bed.
He was rather happy that Taylor finally had a few more friends because she desperately needed them. And the fact they were parahumans was just icing on the cake.
He of course immediately noticed their suspicion, not at least because he had a direct connection to their Shards. At first, he wanted to warn Taylor, but in the end, he decided to let it play out and see what Vicky and Amy would do with the information.
He was pretty happy with the results, and despite her sulking, deep down Taylor was too.
Now, for the next act: allowing them to connect in the virtual world.
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