Wyvern Pt 22 (Patreon)

Part Twenty-Two: Getting the Measure

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]

PRT Building ENE

Brockton Bay

Over the course of its existence, the PRT had borne witness to—and been involved in—many pitched battles and titanic struggles, against foes from Nilbog all the way up to Behemoth. Much blood had been spilled in its service over the years, and many bodies laid to rest—when such bodies could be located, which was not always the case. It was a service uniquely formed to oversee perhaps the most dangerous armed and unarmed clashes that would ever be experienced by the human race.

In the current moment, the conflict raging within the walls of the PRT Department East-North-East was just as intense as any Endbringer battle, albeit far less lethal. Favours were being offered and traded at a breakneck pace, though the shift supervisors had put a flat fifty-dollar cap on any monetary recompense. Word of what was about to happen had blazed through the grapevine at speeds any modern news organisation would weep tears of blood to see, and everyone wanted to be there for it.

Online, the back-and-forth was reaching tinfoil-hat levels of speculation, and not showing any signs of slowing down. The PHO boards were running hot, and the mods were kept busy dousing incipient flamewars and handing out temp bans like party favours; they knew it would get worse before it got better, and it was going to be a wild ride in the meantime. Everyone but everyone had an opinion, and they were all doing their best to air their own personal theories before things went down.

However, not everyone involved was exactly thrilled with the situation.

<><>

Director Emily Piggot

Setting her elbows firmly on her desk, Emily closed her eyes and massaged her temples. "Renick," she asked rhetorically, "how did it come to this? Why aren't we doing this out to sea, or in some deserted location? Why does it have to happen over my goddamn city?"

It wasn't that she hated Wyvern, or even disliked the girl any more than she did the dozens of other capes infesting her city. As a relatively fresh trigger with a potentially devastating power, Taylor Hebert had comported herself with admirable restraint … for the most part. She had chosen not to go into the Wards (and had strenuously rejected all attempts at recruitment) but had instead opted to join New Wave, which had undoubtedly helped her through the post-trigger trauma.

The main problem she had with Hebert was the sheer power available to the girl at any minute of the day, and the potential for pure unmitigated devastation that she posed, contingent on just one temper tantrum. As she'd told the Wards and Protectorate members, she'd been fine with Wyvern as a B-class or even an A-class cape, but this jump to S-class had been as unpleasant to find out about as it had been unexpected. And then to be told by Chief Director Costa-Brown that Hero was on the way to talk to Wyvern and test her powers out, giving her zero input into the matter … that was the final shitty icing on the whole crappy cake.

Her deputy cleared his throat sympathetically. "As I understand it, Hero talked the Chief Director into agreeing to testing her in such a public forum as a PR display. The only people in Brockton Bay right now who don't know about Wyvern are probably in a coma or living under a rock, but not many have actually seen her in action. This is a good chance for her to strut her stuff, and at the same time show the people who's protecting them."

Emily gritted her teeth. Give them nightmares, more like. The size she ended up at on top of Captain's Hill … Not even the Endbringers were that large. "Got it," she grumbled. "Is there any chance of him taking her with him when he leaves?"

Renick eyed her observantly, then shook his head. "I don't believe so, no. From what I understand of her father, it would take more leverage than we could bring to bear to make him leave the city, and he isn't about to sign off on her going anywhere without him. Not to mention, she's an official member of New Wave, and good luck separating her from that team without Carol Dallon descending upon us in a hailstorm of lawsuits. We're just lucky we didn't screw up the Shadow Stalker thing too badly."

"Don't remind me," muttered Emily. "That could've gone so much worse, between whoever gaslit Armsmaster into thinking Wyvern was about to go Behemoth two point oh on the school, and that little psychopath setting the damn school on fire."

"Of course, because we didn't drag Stalker in the very moment Wyvern pointed her out, that didn't exactly cover us with glory." Renick sounded resigned. "I don't think she would've joined the Wards anyway—she made no secret of her distaste for the power testing they definitely would've wanted to carry out—but maybe it would've left us on better terms with her overall."

Emily shook her head. "Blame the Youth Guard. The moment I started logging the paperwork necessary to pull Stalker off the main roster, preparatory for an in-depth investigation into her activities, they started hounding me with queries as to where these allegations had come from, and if they'd been sufficiently checked out. All in the name of 'fairness and transparency', of course. Heaven forbid a Ward actually be held responsible for their own actions."

"Little angels, the lot of them," he agreed, in a tone so bland she knew he had to be pulling her leg. "Sometimes, I wonder if anyone in the Youth Guard has ever tried raising a teenager."

"Or if they've even been in the same room as one," Emily agreed with a smirk.

Renick nodded. "Indeed." His sense of humour was very reserved, to the point that some people in the building didn't think he had one. She knew better.

An alarm on her computer dinged, and she looked around at the window. "Ah; it seems the dog-and-pony show is about to begin."

"Oh, good." Renick stood and turned toward the door, then paused. "There should be space for us on the roof, if you want to come up with me?"

Emily shook her head. "I'll be fine. Someone needs to hold down the fort." She knew damn well that every recording device known to mankind, and a few that hadn't existed until Armsmaster and Dragon had invented them, would be trained on the upcoming testing session. Observing it with the mark one human eyeball was about the least efficient way of measuring Wyvern's capabilities.

And yet, she also knew that every person in the building who'd been able to wangle someone else into covering their duties would be on the rooftop, including all the off-duty Wards on base. She had no idea what they thought they were going to see that wouldn't be recorded and replayed in ultra-HD colour with action replays, later. It was just another spectacle; that was all.

A humorous quote by a teacher occurred to her, and she smiled sourly as she paraphrased it. My job would be so much easier without all these capes.

<><>

Taylor

I flapped my wings hard as I climbed for altitude. My time with New Wave had not made me any more thrilled about smartass flyers who just went without bothering with anything so trivial as mere physics, but it had definitely improved my endurance. Even better, I was fitter in human form too. It would've been the height of irritation to find out that all the exercise I was getting in one form didn't translate to the other.

Talking about smartass flyers, Vicky was cruising alongside me as I flew upward. Hero, already airborne using a very cool-looking jetpack, was waiting for us at about the five-hundred-foot mark. We'd decided to start low down while I was still small, then gradually climb as I got bigger. Hero had agreed that when I was at Crawler-munching size, a mile of altitude should ensure an adequate buffer zone while allowing the public to still see what was going on.

Not that I was totally sold on the whole 'showing off my powers for the public' thing. Sure, I'd agreed to let Hero record and analyse how my various attacks worked, but I hadn't actually made the mental connection with how we'd be doing this over Brockton Bay, in full view of everyone. It hadn't helped that Vicky had taken his side, pointing out that unless we informed the public beforehand, any accidents that happened because people were distracted would legally become my fault.

Sure, I'd be able to pay off insurance claims and lawsuits for the next century, thanks to the Nine having an obscene amount of kill order bounty money on their heads, but that wasn't the point. Also, I didn't want people getting hurt because of me. That wasn't who I was.

I still couldn't believe that PHO 'draconic overlady' thread, though. Dad had blinked a lot, as though entirely unsure of what to say, while both Vicky and Amy had been helpless with laughter. It wasn't as though I wanted the fame, or notoriety, or whatever. Why couldn't I just have powers, be a hero, help people, and go home at the end of the day? Was that too much to ask?

"You're muttering again," Vicky noted with a grin as we reached Hero. "Just let it go. Idiots will idiot. And besides, they can't be your high priests. That's my job."

I gave her the dirtiest look I could muster, then rolled my eyes. She smirked, fully aware that I couldn't do anything more drastic. For one thing, Hero was right there. And for another, about ten thousand people were probably watching us with binoculars. Pretending to bite her, or blowing smoke all over her, would not be a good look.

On second thought, I wasn't even sure if I could blow smoke at this size. It was something I'd have to test another time.

"Good morning to the both of you," Hero said, dusting his hands off. "You look even more impressive close up than in the pictures I've seen, Wyvern. Ready to show us what you can do?"

I nodded, adding an agreeable chirp. Hero's whole manner made me feel that I was the most important person he wanted to talk to right then. Most of it was him being diplomatic, I knew, but it still made me feel better about the whole thing. Like my choices mattered.

"That'll be 'yes, let's kick ass and take names'," Vicky confirmed. At his quizzical look, she shrugged modestly. "I've spent enough time with her that I can pick up most of what she means."

"I see." A grin quirked one corner of his mouth. "That could come in handy from time to time. Is this why you're here, instead of observing from a distance?"

"Partly, yes," she agreed, "and partly because we arranged ahead of time what she was going to do, so I'll be giving you a heads-up until she's large enough to talk on her own."

"And maybe even then," noted Hero. "Once she gets to full size, we don't want everyone down there hearing what she's about to do."

On hearing that, I nodded. Speaking in public was bad enough, but ad-libbing as a gigantic dragon would be a nightmare. The last thing I wanted was to see any of my verbal slips showing up as an online meme.

"Yup." Vicky smiled brightly. "So, we agreed to start with the basics. Explosive fireball and the plasma jet. Which one did you want to see first?"

His lips twitched. "I can't help recalling the report about what the plasma jet did to Armsmaster's halberd, so perhaps that one first?"

I let out an indignant squawk at that, and Vicky rolled her eyes. "Did the report make it clear that it was all his fault?" she asked on my behalf. "He came in all heavy-handed, accusing Wyvern of blowing up the school, then when she Changed due to stress, he threatened her with his halberd. So, she dealt with the threat."

"Hmm." He paused introspectively. "No, I don't believe it covered those specific details. It was more a vague 'mistakes were made', then went on to cover later events."

Vicky snorted. "I just bet it was. Anyway, plasma jet it is." She turned to me. "Ready to rock and roll?"

I nodded and gave her another agreeable chirp, then looked at Hero.

"All right then," he said, and tapped a button on his forearm armour. Several small drones zipped out and around us; I restrained the urge to snap at one of them. They'd probably cost a lot of money to make, and I was sure they'd taste terrible anyway. "And … ready when you are."

As he spoke the last words, a series of holographic rings popped into view, in a direct line over the relatively few buildings between us and the coast, then straight out to sea. I'd already been assured that the PRT would be probing the sky out to the horizon and beyond to ensure nobody was in the line of fire, so I took a deep breath and let the fire boil in my gullet for a second. Then I opened my mouth wide and sent the jet streaking down the centreline of the row of rings. I'd never fired it without a backstop before, so I was somewhat impressed by how far it went.

"Well, damn," muttered Hero, apparently looking at something on a screen. It seemed he was impressed too, I decided, and gave Vicky a smug look. She responded with a thumb's up.

"So, explosive fireball now?" she asked. "Or did you want another plasma jet?"

"Fireball, please," he agreed, and changed the holographic targets to three squares at different ranges. "I understand you can set them off at any given distance?"

I nodded, then turned toward the new target range. Carefully, I spat three fireballs; each travelled toward the given target, then exploded into a ball of flame when it got there.

"And that's Wyvern for you," Vicky said, performing a little victory dance in mid-air. "Did you know she can knock down missiles with them? Even missiles that dodge?"

"I hadn't known that," Hero replied absently, examining his readouts before looking up at me. "But it doesn't surprise me. Wyvern, the energy intensity you're getting from these attacks is astounding. I know you're being careful, but I'd like to reiterate that. You need to be really careful, or you could maim or kill someone by accident."

I gave him a watch-this chirp, and fired off another one, but this time I made it as weak as I could. It hit the closest target and went pop; the fireball was barely worthy of the name.

"Okay, fine, forget I said anything," he acknowledged. "Your power at this level is impressive, and your control is equally so. Would you like to size up a bit so we can measure your power increments?"

I took a deep breath, then pushed for extra size, to the point I'd been after I'd fought Inago. "Like this?" I asked, as quietly as I could manage.

"Exactly like that." He stared at me and shook his head slightly. "That size change definitely takes a little getting used to."

Vicky smirked. "Oh, trust me. You ain't seen nothing yet."

"I'm certainly looking forward to it." He gestured upward. "Maybe we should go another five hundred feet up, to keep Director Piggot happy?"

"Okay." I exerted myself and flew higher; Hero and Vicky easily kept pace with me.

This was kinda fun. I was looking forward to trying out the same attacks when I got really big.

<><>

Armsmaster

Colin moved carefully through the crowd atop the roof of the PRT building. He had several devices recording in every wavelength he and Dragon could come up with, and a few they weren't sure of. Just for the occasion, he'd built magnifiers into his visor so he could observe the testing without needing to deal with binoculars; so far, he was reasonably impressed with Wyvern's capabilities.

Just ahead of him, the off-duty Wards—Clockblocker, Vista and Triumph—huddled together in a small group. The reason for this was quickly evident; Vista had opened a weird distortion in space so they could see more clearly. Shading his helmet faceplate with his hand, Clockblocker leaned toward Triumph. "Hey, isn't that how big she was when she told Armsmaster to fuck off?"

"Yes," Colin said from right behind him. "It is."

The way the boy jumped was comical. Colin thought it was a pity that he was wearing a full-faced helmet, because his expression would've been just as funny. "Wah—sorry—I, uh, didn't see you there, sir!"

"Evidently." Armsmaster lowered his voice slightly. "Let this be a lesson. Always make sure there's nobody listening if you're tempted to say something indiscreet like that."

"Uh huh. Totally." From the shaken tone of Clockblocker's voice, he'd take the advice to heart.

Colin moved away, not wanting to crowd the youngsters. Just as he focused the magnifiers on the hovering dragon once more, another Dragon made herself known in his earpiece. "Now, was that nice?" she asked, amusement evident in her tone.

"I was nice!" he protested. "I didn't punish him for it, and maybe he'll be more discreet in future."

"Mm-hmm. Now tell me you didn't do it that way because it was funnier."

She could always read him like a book, even at the other end of a radio signal. "I plead the fifth."

"So I figured—ooh. That was bright."

'That' was the plasma jet that Wyvern had just deployed, and Dragon wasn't wrong. Even from where he was, he could tell that it was significantly more powerful than the one she'd used to melt his halberd in her base form. The blue-white actinic spear of flame had at least ten times the range and briefly outshone the sun, even from over eight hundred feet away.

They fell silent as they watched her throw out more exploding fireballs—equally powerful, if he was any judge—then followed up with a rolling torrent of flame that would've covered a football field before it petered out.

"Okay," Dragon ventured as everyone around him gasped in surprise. "I didn't know about that bit."

"It was in the witness statements," Colin admitted. "Though I didn't know it was so … widespread."

"What's happening now? Is she going to upsize again? They don't seem to be gaining altitude."

"I'm not sure," he said, then blinked as she changed again, but not in size. "Okay, this is interesting."

"You have a knack for understatement." Her tone was dry.

Wyvern had changed colour, her scales altering from red and gold to black and ice-blue. Her form lengthened as well, becoming skinnier and somehow more hungry-looking. Murmurs rolled through the crowd as she hovered there, then the targets changed again to a dozen or more tiny holographic balls darting around each other in front of her. Wyvern seemed to cough, and only his enhanced visor allowed him to catch the tiny shards of … ice? Whatever they were, they darted through the air, changing direction to home in on the targets, which 'popped' when hit.

"Colin, that's a totally different type of dragon. Where's she getting all these changes from? And did she steer those ice shards onto target?"

"It certainly looks like—whoa." He gasped as Wyvern inhaled, and a sudden chill settled over the building. His helmet readout indicated that the ambient air temperature had just dropped by a good ten degrees Fahrenheit in a second or so. A light dusting of snow became visible all around, drifting down over the buildings, and he could see people's breath steaming in the air. His visor tried to fog over, but internal heating systems prevented that.

"What just happened?" Dragon's voice was audibly concerned. "Half my gauges just jumped. There was a massive heat exchange, just then." She paused. "Is that … is that temperature reading correct?"

"Certainly feels like it." He looked around; the snow was already sublimating again. "That was … crazy."

"I really want to see how she's doing this," she said. "There should be considerable heat readings from something like that, but there's nothing."

"So far," he agreed, without taking his eyes off Wyvern. Opening her jaws, she exhaled a burst of … something. It vaguely resembled fire, except that it was dark blue; as it shot away toward the ocean, it caused another chill in the air. For this one, there was an actual physical target in the zone, a man-sized drone drifting around on rotors. The blue bolt hit and the entire thing froze solid in an instant, plummeting toward the ocean.

"And that must be how Burnscar died," Dragon decided.

"That's my guess, too." It was good to have confirmation of the witness statements, as rambling and incoherent as some of them were, but also very sobering. Subtracting that much heat from the air over such a wide area … that took a lot of power. As Dragon had asked, where had it even gone to?

It seemed Wyvern was going to upsize again, as she began to climb for more altitude, with Hero and Glory Girl accompanying her. Colin took the opportunity to look around and gauge the mood of the crowd. Everyone seemed interested and engaged, talking about what had just happened.

"I'm trying to calculate the effect that cold attack would have on Behemoth or Leviathan," Dragon commented. "What do you think?"

He rubbed his beard with thumb and forefinger as he thought about it. "Leviathan might be able to shake it off. I mean, his control over water is absolute. But Behemoth …" His voice trailed off as he considered the notion.

"Yes, exactly." Dragon seemed to be on the same page. "Wyvern takes energy and puts it somewhere else. Anything that can reduce the amount of energy coming off Behemoth would have to be a good thing."

"Also, she's shown a lot of ability to focus her powers so bystanders aren't harmed," he noted. The plasma jet that had melted his halberd, once upon a time, should have given him third degree burns, but had only inflicted a light sunburn and scorched his beard a little. "She could unleash that cold attack in the middle of a crowded battle, and very likely hit only her target, even if it was someone like the Simurgh." A mental image of the third Endbringer looking grumpy in a parka briefly amused him, but then he had to focus on Wyvern as she began using her powers again.

"Wait, when did she go back to red and gold?" asked Dragon. "That was a very smooth change. I only just noticed it."

"The same time as she finished upsizing, when she did that mid-air pirouette," Colin informed her. "I was watching for it."

"Oh. Right. Yes, now I see. She just keeps on getting bigger, doesn't she?"

"Blame Brockton Bay," he said dryly. It was true; even though his rangefinder put her at two thousand feet of altitude, it was still easy to see what she was doing. Ironically, with no other reference points for her size, it almost seemed as though Glory Girl and Hero had shrunk in comparison to her. And the plasma jet was just as hot and bright as before despite the extra distance, effortlessly ticking the ambient temperature up again by several degrees. Perhaps twice the length of a commercial charter jet, she effortlessly kept her place in the sky with those massive wings.

"That girl is going to make a lot of people very nervous," Dragon observed. "I mean, she could obliterate a small town from the map in a very short time from half a mile up, if she put her mind to it."

"She's already making them nervous, if I'm any judge." He didn't elaborate; Director Piggot was very carefully pretending that meeting hadn't happened, so it wasn't his job to tell anyone about it.

They fell silent again as Wyvern scaled up yet more. By this time, the two other heroes were tiny motes flitting around her head, literally insects by scale to her. From a mile away, they were almost impossible to see without magnification, while it was perfectly possible to see every detail of her markings without eyestrain. She wasn't talking, though he knew she could. Instead, she was nodding her head ponderously in response to a suggestion or a question.

"I wonder what they're talking about," mused Dragon. "It's not like they haven't been doing it by the numbers so far."

"Something different, I guess. I'm just glad that they are talking, and she's intelligent enough at that size to still be her."

"Why, Colin." She sounded amused. "You sound actually protective toward her."

He snorted. "She's impetuous and snarky and a little too willing to lash out, but yes. Her heart's in the right place."

This time, she chuckled. "In other words, a typical teenager."

"If you say so." But he smiled despite himself. Dragon was providing what he'd been missing in the case of Taylor Hebert: some much-needed perspective. He'd been coming at her with the attitude that she was the hero they needed, while she wanted less to be a hero and more to be a teen. It was no wonder that he'd shoved both feet in his mouth every time he'd tried to press the recruitment.

In the next moment, Wyvern tilted her head back and opened her jaws wide. From that capacious maw—he estimated there was at least a hundred-foot gap between her top and bottom lips—she reiterated the wide-area flame burst, but not out to sea. Upward.

There was a moment of stunned silence across the rooftop as it seemed half the sky was on fire. Colin blinked at the sheer area she was able to cover with one breath. "You are seeing this, right?" he asked quietly.

"Oh, I'm definitely seeing this," she confirmed. "If my calculations are correct, that would've depopulated an entire town at once, or at least set the whole thing on fire. And I'm not even considering the splash factor."

"I've heard it said that capes are walking WMDs," he said grimly. "Those people should be here to see this, just to get a sense of proportion."

"I'm actually concerned that someone might decide to attack her pre-emptively," Dragon said slowly. "Strike first, in case she turns out to be hostile."

"Well …" Colin waited as three enormous fireballs soared skyward, rocketing upward at a speed few capes could match. When they went off—his rangefinder placed them at an average distance of ten miles away vertically—the airbursts covered a respectable area of sky, and the detonations rattled his armour. "Okay, yes, she'd be able to lay waste to a major city from airliner altitude. If she could get up that high. Which I wouldn't bet against."

"Or she could snipe incoming missiles or strategic bombers, from ground level," Dragon suggested. "Just by the way, I'd ramp up your visor polarisation if I were you. I'm pretty sure she's going to be showing off the plasma jet next, and we already know that's bright."

"Good idea." He sent the command to his armour, and saw his vision darken. Wyvern was still visible, but there were no clouds anywhere in the sky. He wasn't altogether surprised.

When she unleashed the plasma jet, it was a solid bar of violet light that lanced upward and yet farther upward. Stunned, Colin watched as it seemed almost to reach the edge of the atmosphere. A moment later, the city shook under a rolling kkkkkkkkkkkkkk-k-k-krakBOOM, almost like a lightning strike. His armour readouts popped up in his HUD, a few gauges jumping. "Are you seeing this?"

"I am." Dragon sounded as taken aback as he felt. "It looks like the ionisation was so strong it was able to temporarily affect electronics. Kind of a poor man's EMP."

"Who needs the EMP? With that beam, she'd be able to evaporate anything in her way. Including large hills."

"You think you're joking—wait, something just happened. She changed again."

He focused on the distant hovering dragon. "Are you sure? She's not any bigger."

"No, it was very subtle this time. The reds are more purplish now."

Now that she mentioned it, he could see what she was talking about. "Huh. You're right."

More targets—these ones with brightly blinking lights, probably to make them more visible to the spectators below—spread out in front of Wyvern. There seemed to be quite a few of them.

"Is she going to do what I think she's going to do?" Dragon's tone indicated that her interest was peaking.

"Whatever she did to Jack Slash and Bonesaw? Definitely." Colin took a second to check the feeds of his recording devices. They were all in the green, which was good. The PRT would want this data.

The purple 'flame' that washed out from Wyvern's jaws was somewhere between the plasma jet and the wide-area burst in coverage. It covered the hovering target drones; when it receded, they were … gone. Not damaged, not destroyed and falling over the city, just gone. As if they'd never been.

"Well, that was a thing." Dragon sounded pensive. "Rule number one: don't get in front of Wyvern if she's annoyed at you."

"That was already my rule number one where she's concerned," he retorted. "But have you seen how agile she is in the air? It's virtually impossible not to be in her line of fire if she wants you there."

"Also a very good point. Did you notice that there was no particular heat or cold signature from the disintegration attack? Which is truly impressive, if you recall the classic Einstein formula."

Colin blinked. "Damn, you're right. Emm cee squared. If she simply negated that matter … where did the energy go?"

"I'm not sure either, but I'm glad she's got the balance right. If her power misplaced a decimal point and removed that much heat again from the environment around you, Brockton Bay would be frozen solid right now."

"Very true. It would be kind of like the blue dragon instant ice age thing all over again. Not something I want to see, at that scale."

Amused, she snorted. "You don't fool me, Colin. You'd love to see it."

"Okay, granted." He rolled his eyes. "But from a safe distance. Maybe Boston."

"Haha, true. Well, at least we've got confirmation on what happened to Jack and Bonesaw. And Crawler too, I suppose."

Wings pulled in close to her body, Wyvern turned and dived. Colin watched, having no idea what to say as the immense red-gold creature loomed larger and larger, flanked by the gold and blue form of Hero on one side, and the white and gold of Glory Girl on the other. At this size, Wyvern was majestic, and he could suddenly see how the 'high priest' jokes had started on PHO.

If they were jokes.

When she was almost down to skyscraper level, Wyvern's wings unfurled in a thunderclap that set off car alarms and made Colin grateful for the hearing protection he had recently installed in his helmet. Some may have accused him of being set in his ways, but he was perfectly capable of learning. When it came to dealing with capes like Wyvern, he learned fast.

Immense pinions spread wide, Wyvern raced across the city, her teeth bared in what was unmistakeably a grin of enjoyment. Colin took a moment to determine that yes, the estimates of her wingspan had been accurate just before she passed overhead, briefly shading them from the sun. "God damn," he muttered. "If I were the local criminal element, I'd be moving to Florida."

"I don't know," Dragon mused. "As I understand things, you have some very stubborn gangs there."

"I would imagine less so, since she tangled with Inago," he reminded her. "And the Nine had no luck at all when they came to town."

"Very true—" She stopped talking when Wyvern suddenly pulled up into a sharp Immelmann manoeuvre; he'd known she was agile, but not that agile. Slowing to a hover at the top of the half-loop, she held position over the city.

"Thank you, Brockton Bay," she said, her booming tones echoing over the city. Colin had no doubt they could hear her from the Trainyards all the way to Downtown. "You've been a great audience. I'll see you around."

Once more flanked by Hero and Glory Girl, she banked over onto one wing, then descended again. However, this time she was reducing in size as she went, so that by the time she passed between the buildings and out of sight, she was small enough to fit.

There was a pause, then Director Piggot's acerbic voice crackled out of the speakers surrounding the rooftop space. "Ladies and gentlemen of the PRT, Protectorate and Wards, the demonstration is over. You can get back to work now."

This served to break the spell; laughing and chattering, the PRT employees and capes began to file back toward the rooftop entrance. Colin lingered for a moment, looking out over the city where all was quiet, at least for the moment.

"You okay there?" Dragon's voice was quiet.

"Yes." He shook himself and took a deep breath. "I knew it would be impressive. I didn't know how impressive. Or terrifying. One of the two."

"Well, whatever else happens today, we've definitely got enough recording data to keep us busy for hours, if not days." She sounded like she couldn't wait to get started with the analysis, to see if any of it could used to inspire new Tinkertech. It was one of the many things he appreciated about her; she understood what really mattered in life.

"Yes." He smiled. "I really think we just saw the balance of power tip toward the good guys." It would've been nice if he'd been the one to mentor Taylor Hebert into finding her true levels of power, but life wasn't fair sometimes.

"That's true. But we've still got our part to play. Everyone needs backup, sooner or later."

And once more, Dragon knew the exact right thing to say. Even as envy tried to dig its claws into him, he was able to remind himself that Wyvern was no Dauntless. There was no shame in being outmatched by someone who was easily Triumvirate-tier. And as Dragon had said, he still had his own part to play. Just as he couldn't do what Wyvern could, neither could she match him in his chosen field of expertise.

Dusting off his armour gauntlets, he headed for the roof exit. "Let's get to it. This data isn't about to analyse itself."

<><>

Taylor

Flaring my wings, I landed on the lawn outside the Dallon household. Vicky landed a second or so later and went ahead to open the door for me. "Holy shit!" she enthused. "Did you see their faces? You wowed them, girlfriend! Wyvern is out there!"

I chirped a noncommittal agreement, then furled my wings and made my way in through the door, with Hero following behind. Vicky hadn't been the one showing off for the public; I had. What if I'd scared them more than I'd impressed them? I didn't want to drag down New Wave's good name.

Amy and Mrs Dallon met me, the former holding the fluffy gown that had more or less been designated as mine. The clothing I'd been wearing before I went out was lying on the sofa, neatly folded. I suspected either Mrs Dallon or Amy had gotten to it, because Vicky couldn't fold a handkerchief to save her life.

"Okay, everyone, changing time," Amy announced. "Hero, avert your eyes, please. Taylor needs her privacy."

I nodded and gave her a chirp of thanks, then concentrated. This time, the change came relatively easily; I was still riding the adrenaline from putting on a show in front of the entire city. Accepting the gown from Amy, I wrapped it around myself. "I'm good," I said, fastening the belt. "Thanks, everyone."

"You're welcome, Taylor." Hero's smile became a boyish grin as he turned back toward me. "I'm just going to say, that was damned impressive. You exceeded my expectations by a considerable amount, and I came into this with high expectations."

A warm feeling spread through my chest. "I … thanks. But was I too scary? I mean, all those teeth and claws and wings, and the fire breath and stuff? Are people going to accept me for who I want to be, or are they going to be calling me the monster of New Wave?"

"Hey." Vicky stepped forward and put her arms around me. I leaned into the embrace; it was what I needed, right now. "That's not what's gonna happen. You're the best thing that ever happened to this team, Taylor. The wyvern is amazeballs, and everyone out there has just learned that they can't just push you down. Because if they try, you'll just get bigger and more powerful. Escalation city, baby!"

I nodded. "I just don't want to go over the top with someone and hurt them too badly, you know? Purse snatchers don't deserve a month in the ICU with third degree burns, that sort of thing."

"And that's a perfectly applicable concern," Mrs Dallon confirmed. "Yes, your wyvern form is extremely powerful, but you've already shown yourself capable of restraint when necessary. I don't want you to ever forget, Taylor, that even as you're here for us, we're here for you as well." She gave Vicky a mildly exasperated glance. "And no, the answer is not always to escalate."

Vicky grinned impudently. "It is most of the time, though. Tell me I'm wrong."

Hero cleared his throat before the argument could get out of hand. "Be that as it may, I'd like to talk about some of my preliminary findings. I think you'll find these interesting."

"Absolutely," I agreed, then gestured at my folded clothing. "I'll just change first, though. Fluffy pink bathrobes are not my first choice for serious superhero discussions."

He grinned and nodded. "Mine neither, though you'd be surprised with some of the heroes I've known."

"Not even going to ask." Grabbing my clothes, I escaped to Vicky's room upstairs, and got dressed as quickly as I was able; the bathrobe I left draped over Vicky's bed.

As I came back downstairs, I heard laughter from the living room. Vicky and Amy were on one sofa while Hero and Mrs Dallon had taken the other. Hero was apparently describing an amusing incident, but as I hadn't heard the beginning I lacked the context for why it was so funny.

"... and I'm pretty sure he still can't stand the sight of fish," he concluded. "Ah, Taylor. How are you feeling?"

"Pretty good, actually." I saw that Vicky had scooted over to make room, so I sat down beside her. "At least now everyone knows the gist of what I can do, so they won't be picking fights if they can't take a hit."

Amy rolled her eyes. "Never underestimate the overconfidence of a cape who doesn't know he's out of his league. Trust me, I've patched up way too many idiots who bit off more they can chew. 'Nobody told me they were that strong' is their go-to for that."

"Gee, thanks." I wrinkled my nose at her. She grinned back at me.

"Indeed," said Hero dryly. "So, I had some notes on your powers. Did you know you generate a magnetic sleeve around your plasma jet when you fire it? Also, your explosive fireballs come in self-sustaining magnetic bottles that release when they hit the correct range. But it's more than just magnetism; there's some kind of shielding effect that protects non-targets from the worst of the heat."

"No, actually," I said carefully. "I did not, in fact, know that." It was a sobering realisation, that there was far more to my powers than 'I just do it'.

Amy frowned. "Okay, I get that. But where does the fire, or the plasma, come from? Or all that extra mass? Every time she sizes up, her entire anatomy rebuilds itself for the most efficient configuration at that size."

"It's a powers thing," Vicky explained unhelpfully. "The professor running this class I'm taking says that the latest theory is that capes who produce something out of nothing are tapping into another dimension, where there's plenty of energy, or lots of basic matter, that their powers convert for what they need."

"What about the cold blast attack?" asked Mrs Dallon. "High school was awhile ago for me, but I'm reasonably sure that cold isn't an energy form. It's a lack of energy."

Hero raised a finger and nodded. "That one had me puzzled as well," he agreed. "But I think I have it figured out." He looked at me. "When you used the cold-based attack, my instruments showed that you were tapping into another dimension, alright. One that never really had a Big Bang. Ambient temperature just above absolute zero. So when given an appropriate interface, it just dragged the energy away."

"Well, dang." I shrugged uneasily. "So what about the disintegration effect? Is that from another dimension, too?"

"Not in the way you'd think," he said seriously. "From what I can tell, you 'borrow' the energy to jump-start the matter-annihilation process from one of those spare dimensions. Once you've got it started, you funnel the energy back into the same dimension, paying it back with interest. But the disintegration effect is your power, not something applied from outside."

I nodded to show I'd understood. "Thanks. I hope I never have to use it again."

Vicky grabbed me in a side-hug. "Still, better to have it and not need it."

I couldn't really argue with that.

<><>

ABB Headquarters

Geonchugga

Ha-joon switched off the TV and sat facing the dark rectangle, thinking. He'd seen Wyvern once, when the New Wave dragon had killed Oni Lee and bitten off Inago's arm before capturing him. At that moment in time, trying to go up against her when he had Roadhog opposing him as well had seemed the height of idiocy. Better to retreat and regroup.

His plan had been to hit the PRT building with a big enough mech that nobody was able to effectively fight back, and extract Inago that way. However, given what he'd just seen ...

Standing up, he went over to the table where he'd drawn up his plans. The assault mech had seemed indomitable, unbeatable, standing as tall as the PRT building itself. Its firepower had been unmatched ... until Wyvern had unleashed a plasma jet fifteen feet across and over twenty miles long. As a part of a demonstration. And that hadn't even covered her disintegration burst, or the freezing breath.

Screw that, he decided. I'm not paid enough for this shit.

<><>

The Lair of Uber and Leet

After the TV flicked off, the two men sat in increasingly introspective silence, until the weedier one spoke.

"Dude?"

"Yeah?" answered his well-built buddy.

"You know how I wanted to try to pull her into a show and you told me not to?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

Part 23