Crystalized Munchkinry - Act VII - Chapter 83 (Patreon)

As Taylor and Tess digested the news, he did some background cleanup, set up a few Shards for research, and altogether made sure that the Network was functioning as well as it could. He was happy with the knowledge that he had completed all three tasks entrusted to him by the ROB.

The researcher Shards would work on long-distance communication, scanning, and scrambling to make sure that the Entities that were sure to come wouldn't arrive unannounced.

He also sent out a general task that if any Shard had any ideas about alternate energy sources, they should send them to the Library, and then his dedicated research Shards would go over them.

While 99.99% of the Shards weren't the smartest, he hoped that eventually, the law of large numbers would result in something useful. Because currently, he had maybe a few dozen ideas, and probably half of them were fanciful dreams, even with his processing power and resources.

And hoping to find an Infinity Stone wasn't that great of a Plan C.

Going over Taylor's and Tess's plan to start a Parahuman Healer Union, he couldn't help but be impressed. It would change some of his plans for humanity, but he could still work with it.

He even went so far as to use his massively improved predictive powers to see who would be the perfect fits for the support staff and administrative staff (he thought about creating an avatar and applying for the head administrator position just for the giggles) and then sent the list over to Tess so she could begin to hire them.

He also began setting up a plan that would allow him to remove the powers of the capes in the Birdcage so they could be moved to other prisons and the massive drain on resources could be done away with.

Ciara simply suggested killing all of them, barring a few good fae and humans, as she put it, but he shot down that idea and resolved to have a talk with the Shard/Girl hybrid about appropriate force.

Watching Cauldron sit around and try to come up with ideas about how to find the new Entity and kill it was rather entertaining, though he also made sure that every suggestion was analyzed and protected against. He was taking no chances.

It was rather telling that even if their ultimate goal had been accomplished, and they had gotten rather serious evidence that somebody wasn't a fan of them, they were still unwilling to give up their powers. He would let them play along, and at an opportune moment, he would sacrifice them as scapegoats.

Of course, if they actually managed to repent and put everything they had done wrong to right, then he would be more lenient with them.

But, based on their conversation, it didn't seem likely…

Maybe he could tip off Legend?

Putting together a Parahuman Union was an interesting experience. Their first roadblock was getting enough people to run it because apparently, anti-parahuman sentiment was still on the rise, and while the professionals were less afraid of parahumans, they still wanted to avoid the stigma that would come with joining.

Until Admin simply sent over a list of names that would be perfect for the job.

Some of them were from the Guild, who felt their talents could be used in better ways, or from places where the parahuman population was high enough that they had gotten used to them.

Unsurprisingly, almost forty percent of the names on the list came from Brockton Bay.

While Tess sent out the invitations for the interviews, she wondered if she should test the water for strange chemicals in the city…

Thanks to her efficiency, Admin's list, Taylor's help, and, of course, a bucketload of money and even some promised favors, they managed to set it up in an office building in the middle of the Bay.

The NEPEA-5 caused some issues, but after she convinced the officials that no, she wasn't aiming to destroy their precious healthcare industry, they relented and stopped pursuing the case. Not that it would have helped.

According to everything she knew, and what the lawyers had told her, they didn't have a leg to stand on. NEPEA-5 was for curtailing parahuman monopolies. While they weren't even paying the parahumans, they would actually do the opposite. They would offer parahuman-specific services for a nominal fee, like lawyers, social services, and even counseling.

They would start with the Healer Union, and if it worked out, and from what Admin was hinting, it would work out, they would start to include other types of parahumans.

Tess couldn't wait to see a movie made by a parahuman special-effects artist!

They were ready to announce it, and the only thing left was convincing Amy Dallon to be the first parahuman to join the Union.

Taylor watched as Amy trudged through the door, her face pointed at the ground with an aura of misery around her.

Ever since the youngest Dallon sister had broken down, she had refused to go back until Carol apologized, and had been living with Taylor's family. Taylor wouldn't have minded, because it was nice to have a friend around, but the girl was so low-spirited that it tainted the entire house.

But her and Tess's efforts had finally borne fruit, and the Union was up and running. The only thing left to do was convince Amy to join up.

So, she made her favorite meal and sent everyone away, hoping that some one-on-one time would be more helpful in convincing the dour healer than going at it as a group.

She waited until Amy put away her school stuff and was guided by her nose to the kitchen.

Not saying anything, she sat across from her and dug into the carefully prepared meal.

The silence was finally broken by Amy's sigh a few minutes later. Then she placed the fork next to her plate and looked up from her meal.

"Okay. I'll bite. What do you want?"

Trying to adopt a fake, innocent look, Taylor looked back with earnest eyes.

"Me? Nothing! I just wanted to cheer up my friend!"

Her only answer was a snort.

"Don't even try it, Taylor. Vicky perfected that look, so I'm immune to it."

Taylor seriously doubted that, after seeing how the sisters interacted, but she didn't bring it up.

"Fine…" she answered, dropping the fake innocence. "Tess and I set up a Parahuman Healer Unio-"

"No."

"You didn't even let me finish!"

"I don't need to. You want to put together some silly union to unite the parahuman healers and use that to repeal that stupid law or something…"

"Bzzzt. Wrong!"

"What?"

"The Union is set up to help healers with everyday problems that they couldn't deal with without unmasking and such. For a nominal fee, they are going to offer counseling and other services that would help healers."

Amy grimaced at hearing the word 'counseling'.

"And who is going to pay my fee? It's not like Carol would fork it out…"

"An anonymous donor already prepaid the fees of the first ten healers to join," replied Taylor with a smirk.

"Ugh! And why me? Because I'm famous?" asked Amy, putting as much loathing into her emphasis as she could.

"Technically, yes. But it will also allow us to help you officially. If you join the Union, it would assign an advocate to you who would represent you legally in your cape persona."

Amy took a minute to mull it over, while absentmindedly eating a few bites, before speaking.

"You just want me to go to a therapist."

Taylor answered without hesitation.

"Yes. You and your entire family. Hell, as soon as Admin says it's safe, I'm going too!"

That seemed to take Amy back.

"You?"

"Well, yeah… I did suffer a pretty traumatic event. That doesn't just go away by wishing really hard. Granted, I'm in a much better space than in January, but I still want to talk to a professional."

Another silence fell as Amy twirled the fork in her hand, staring into nothingness.

This time, it took an entire half an hour before Amy spoke again. Taylor had already finished her meal and was just sipping her drink, waiting for Amy to come to a decision.

"Are you sure it will work?"

"Yes. Both Dragon and Serenity will support it."

Amy looked directly into her eyes as if searching for something before finally looking back at her plate, spearing the last bite on her fork, and mumbling out an answer.

"Fine…"

Emily toweled her face and sank, breathing heavily, onto the exercise bike she had installed in her office. Now that she wasn't suffering from her previous issues (and not thinking about how that had come to pass), it behooved her to get a better body, and maybe the Wards and some of the troopers would stop calling her Piggy behind her back.

So, she tried to take an hour to exercise every day before lunch, aiming to get back into proper shape.

Still sitting on the exercise bike, she absentmindedly turned on the TV on the wall while she took a drink from her water bottle.

Dragon was going to make some kind of announcement, and she wanted to see it live. Though she suspected the other Directors and the Chief Director would still admonish her for not reporting on the contents of the press conference before it even happened.

She watched as the reporter prattled on about something while the cameraman panned through the auditorium where the conference was being held. She could see almost all the reputable news outlets from the city and the surrounding areas, as well as some national representation, and a few from Canada, and… was that a French news channel logo?

Well, things just got interesting.

After a few minutes, at one p.m. on the dot, Dragon stepped out from behind the curtain, sans her armor or any kind of covering, flanked by Narwhal and an older gentleman whom she had never seen before.

Dragon waited until the room quieted, then began speaking.

"Welcome, everyone, and thank you for being here. The consequences of the news I'm about to share are going to be far-reaching, and would hopefully propel humanity forward, out of the darkness that seems to have infested our lives."

She took a small breath, looked around the room, meeting people's eyes, before continuing.

"But first, allow me to introduce the people next to me." She indicated toward Narwhal, who slightly bowed her head. "This is Narwhal, the leader of the Guild." Smiling at the older man, she continued. "And this is Albert Campbell, who will head the project I'm going to announce."

The older man followed Narwhal's example and simply bowed his head, saying nothing.

"And I'm known as Dragon, but here and now, you may call me Teresa Richter."

There was a moment of silence in the auditorium before everything descended into chaos. And Emily could understand why.

Why would Dragon choose to do this?

Dragon raised her hand, and the hall immediately quieted down, probably not wanting to miss anything. Based on how many messages Emily had received since the announcement, they weren't alone. Ignoring the chirping of her phone, she continued watching the press conference.

"Please, we will have time at the end of the presentation to talk about it. How about I get to why I called you all here, eh?"

Some chuckled at the inclusion of the stereotypical Canadian sound, but the rest were clutching their notepads or recorders, not even daring to breathe, afraid they would miss something.

"The reason I called you all here was to share the news that, in conjunction with Serenity, we are announcing the formation of the first Parahuman Healer Union!"

Emily could hear the people's breathing through the television.

"And I'm also happy to announce that our first member has already signed up. I'm sure all of you are familiar with Panacea, right?" Dragon paused briefly, allowing the information to be digested, before continuing. "Now, questions?"

Ignoring the pandemonium on the screen, she threw away her half-empty water bottle and quickly sat down at her desk.

She had her own pandemonium to take care of.

Amy wondered, for the hundredth time, how Dragon managed to arrange everything so fast and efficiently. Barely a few days after the announcement, she was sitting in a freshly renovated waiting room in the newly christened Parahuman Healer Union building, waiting for a family session.

Vicky was sitting next to her, alternately looking smugly into Carol's eyes or hugging her and whispering that everything would be alright.

Carol and Mark were sitting opposite them, Mark trying to calm down his wife while Carol was glaring daggers at her.

The entire room was so full of tension that she wondered why it hadn't exploded from the pressure.

She was about to reach for the customary trashy magazine on the table in front of them when the door opened, and an elderly woman stepped out, wearing a comfortable cardigan, a nameplate, and a comforting smile.

She looked around, noting everything, before speaking in a calm voice.

"Dallon family? Why don't you all come in?"