Chapter Text
Early morning rolled in. Bayleaf was up early; he'd slept on blankets on the workroom floor while Taylor took the upstairs bed. He'd woken hours ago, grumbling with an aching back, hit the can and the shower and was trying to cobble together something resembling a breakfast for two out of the contents of his larder and minifridge. It was more camping food and quicky-instant eat-right-now stuff than a proper meal, but fruit, boxed pastries and some bottled Starbuck's would have to do for now. Lucky break, he had a package of sausage and another of bacon. He threw both on the griddle and put it on top of one of the forges. If Taylor was anything like him she would be craving protein something fierce.
Taylor came trooping down the stairs, her hair frowzy and her fur rumpled. He was impressed; he would have expected her to take time to adjust walking up and down stairs with digitigrade legs, but she handled them with grace. Well, as much grace as a 5 AM wakeup would permit. "Bathroom?" she mumbled, looking sheepish.
And darned cute, standing there, rubbing the back of her leg with one foot and her shoulder peeking out of the collar of her sweatshirt like-- whoa, kemosabe! He quickly turned his attention back to the bacon and sausages. "Through that door," he said. "Towels in the cabinet if you're looking to shower."
"Tha—Haaahaanks," she yawned, yawning till her fangs all showed and her tongue curled. She staggered into the bathroom. A few minutes passed and he heard a flush. His head came up. Whoops, he'd forgotten to warn her about--
A deafening canine shriek told him he was too late. "Ahh WHAT THE HELL YAIIK--"
"Bidet!" he shouted, smothering a laugh. It was built into the toilet and went off if there was weight on the seat when you flushed.
"Why the hell do you have--"
"FUR!" He thought it a succinct explanation.
"Eugh, fine, but does it have to be FREEZING? ...YEEK!"
"Would you rather it was WARM?"
"Eugh. Point." She didn't sound happy about it, though.
Another minute passed. Bayleaf dished up the bacon and sausage on a spare plate and set them on the, well, relatively clean end of the worktable. "What the heck's up with this shower?" she said in confusion.
He stopped and got an evil grin on his face when he realized what she was in for. "Just step inside, close the door and push the button," he said.
"Push the button..?" He heard the sliding door on the cylindrical shower stall slide shut. Three… Two… One…
FWOOSH.
"AYEEEK WHAT THE HELL AGH PFFFLT AGH YOU JACKASS AGGGH!" Taylor yelled and swore as she was hit at every angle with hot soapy water by a dozen high pressure embedded sprayers.
The water stopped for a minute and she continued to express her opinion of Bayleaf's morals, stature, and ancestry while the accused stood in his workshop, staggering with silent laughter as he fished out the cutlery. "Better scrub up while you can," he managed to shout. " The rinse cycle starts in a second!"
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS??"
"I'm a Cape, I get all sorts of filthy! Grease and mud and God knows what all else gets in my fur. It takes a lot to get it out! The soap in the water is shampoo, by the way." She didn't answer, only muttering foul imprecations for several minutes. He suddenly found himself blushing as he tried not to imagine her lathering up.
"You didn't tell me about any of this on purpose, didn't you you AIEEEK!" She was cut off by the rinse cycle.
"Be ready for the dryer," He managed to gasp out.
While Taylor was busy being attacked by her shower, Bayleaf's cellphone rang. He popped it out of the recharger and accepted the call. "Adrian, is that you? This is Aisha! Oh man, Adrian, I'm so sorry I screwed up-- I took a skip day yesterday, I didn't even know what happened--"
"Aisha?" Bayleaf asked in surprise. "Aisha, slow down, what are you talking about?"
"Your girl Taylor! I told you I'd watch her back but I wasn't here yesterday-- and The Three Bees got her. It's awful, Adrian, it's bad. I'm so sorry--"
"Aisha… AISHA! It's okay. Taylor's okay, she's with me."
"--But how, everyone saw--"
Inspiration struck. "Aisha, Taylor's fine, but she and I need your help."
Aisha stopped. "...What kind of help?"
Bayleaf rolled the dice. "the same type of help your brother could probably use."
There was a short, deep silence on the other end of the line. "How do you know about that?" Aisha hissed.
"The same way I know a lot of things. Cape stuff."
"Cape stuff."
"I'll lay it out for you. Your brother and his friends are getting tangled up with some really nasty operators and don't even know it. You help me out with this, I'll help you pull your big dumb brother's butt out of the sausage grinder."
"Okay, I help you with YOUR 'Cape Stuff,'and you'll help me out with MY 'Cape Stuff?'"
"That's the idea. Deal?"
Aisha's voice started sounding amused, the way it did when she thought something was going to be FUN. "Okay, I'm in. What you need me to do?"
"All right. Go around to all the teachers. Tell them that Taylor's out with food poisoning today, and I asked you for her to pick up all her assignments."
"Got it."
"Here's the important part: if anyone talks about what happened yesterday-- the locker, the Cape, anything, especially if they mention Taylor-- look at them like they're crazy and tell 'em you saw her yesterday at lunch. You didn't speak to her but she was looking kinda queasy. Then I called you today to pick up her homework. Doesn't matter who asks you or tells you. Deny, deny, deny. And if they ask about me, you saw me floating somewhere around school, you don't know for sure..."
"Oh I get it," her grin was audible. "Gaslight 'em, right?"
"Well, well, somebody's cultured."
"Get bent. Don't worry about it. I've been blowing smoke up my teacher's skirts since I was six. You give me enough time I'll have half of 'em swearing they spoke to you and shook your hand themselves yesterday."
On with his contributing to the corruption of a minor. "Great. I'll call you later to tell you where to meet us." He hung up. Just in time to hear the buzzer and the sound of the drying cycle start up.
She must have heard his warning this time because there was only a brief whoop, followed by silence. The roar of the dryer went on for some time; she must soak up more water than he did with that long mane of hair.
The blowers finally stopped. There were a few more seconds of silence, followed by a "YAIK!" of surprise. What now? "You'd better hurry and get dressed; we're gonna have visitors soon and WAGH!!" He nearly jumped out of his skin when the bathroom door opened and a hairball walked out.
It was Taylor. She was wrapped from armpit to thigh in one of his big fluffy beach sized towels, and every single hair on her body was sticking straight out. Her fur was poofed out in a fuzzy corona, and her normally loose tumbling locks were frizzed out into a fright wig. She stood there stiff shouldered, glaring at him and looking like the world's angriest giant Pomeranian.
Bayleaf lost it. He collapsed on the floor, howling with laughter. He tried to pull himself to his feet; it was no use. Every time he looked at her and saw the expression on her fuzzy-wuzzy face he lost it again. He eventually ended up half-draped over the edge of the worktable, weeping with laughter.
There was a buzz and the bolts on the back entrance disengaged. Taylor's father came in, a suitcase in one hand and several bags of takeout in the other. "Taylor, I brought-- Taylor?? What the hell happened to you?" He stopped in his tracks and dropped everything to the floor.
Danny stood flabbergasted at the sight before him; his daughter-- at least he assumed the giant fuzzball was his daughter-- standing there in a towel looking like she was about to quite literally bite someone, and Bayleaf the hero hanging off the edge of the table, laughing like a hyena.
He said the first words that popped into his head. They were the wrong ones. "You look like the Sheepdog that ate Seattle," he blurted out.
Bayleaf nearly passed out.
After a great deal of time locked in the bathroom with a set of brushes and combs (brought with the suitcase of clothing) and a great number of sincere apologies, Taylor graciously rejoined the two barbarian, uncouth men in her life at the table and they broke their fast. "So I hit the drive thru at Fugly Bob's on the way, because I figured after everything yesterday you HAD to be starved," Danny was saying. "Then I thought it over and went through the drive through again and pretty much tripled my first order."
"Good call," Bayleaf mumbled around a mouthful of double cheeseburger, glancing over at Taylor. Despite being the most petite of the three, she was (no other word for it) wolfing down the food in front of them at a genuinely astonishing rate. She had already destroyed her share of the burger order, was tearing into the bacon and sausage, and was making inroads into both Danny and Bayleaf's food as well. She looked up, licking her fingers, and flicked her ears down in a lupine blush.
"Don't be embarrassed," Bayleaf chuckled. "You should've seen me my first day. It's a good thing I can turn into a walrus and snag a few fish in a pinch."
Danny nearly choked on his burger. "You-- you're Wonder Walrus?" he managed to cough out. He started banging on the table with his fist as Taylor started whacking him on the back. Airway cleared he roared with laughter. Taylor was laughing too, staring at him in disbelieving glee.
"I'm several people apparently," Bayleaf said with a doggy style grin. "But yeah, Wonder Walrus."
"You nearly ended up owing me a pair of pants," Danny said, pointing in accusation.
"Why?"
"Cause I dang near crapped them laughing when you gave Armsmaster that- that walrus smooch!" Danny laughed.
"He's a terrible kisser by the way," Bayleaf quipped, his face deadpan. Danny nearly quit breathing, he was laughing so hard.
"How many secret identities do you HAVE?" Taylor asked.
"Let's see. This form, I've been called Skinwalker. There's Wonder Walrus," he chuckled a minute. "and some of the folks at the hospitals call me the Giving Tree. Some folks are talking about the Night Owl, and there are quite a number of drug dealers in jail right now who tell each other horror stories about the Tiger Demon. My human form has my old human name-- Adrian. But… under it all, I think of myself as Bayleaf." He gave her a smile.
Her jaw was hanging open. "You're all of those?" she said. "How many forms do you have?"
Bayleaf actually had to stop and count on his fingers. "About eleven," he said. "There's a couple I haven't tried yet. Oh, and I forgot that at least one little girl thinks I'm one of Santa's reindeer." He smiled at that memory. Then his smile turned a little wicked. "Of course Armsmaster probably thinks I'm either the Devil incarnate or punishment from God..."
Danny started chortling again. "Why do you pick on him so much?"
"One, in the original timeline he caused Taylor's fall into villainy," Bayleaf said sourly. "She stopped Lung on her first night out as a cape--"
"LUNG?" Now it was Taylor's turn to choke. Lung was an asian cape who led the ABB. He transformed into a humanoid dragon when he fought, and the longer he fought the stronger and tougher and more incendiary he got. He'd fought Leviathan to a standstill, in a battle that sank the island of Kyushu. The idea of even seeing Lung in the street and doing anything but run like a madwoman the other way sounded like insanity. "How--?"
"Bug powers."
"Bug powers?"
"Bug powers. You sent a swarm of black widows down his shorts. He lost his junk when Armsmaster stuck him full of a tinker tranquilizer without asking you what you'd done first. Shut off his regeneration for a while and…. "
"Nyergh."
"Anyway, Armsmaster took the credit for your bust. You were so disillusioned that you wanted nothing to do with him or the PRT or the Wards, so you stayed rogue. You went undercover in the Undersiders and… went native."
"That's a lot to pin on just Armsmaster," Danny said. "I mean, jackass move, yes, but--"
"He also nearly got her killed by Leviathan," Bayleaf interrupted.
"...What." Danny was suddenly a lot less sympathetic.
"The spotlight hog actually tried to arrange a solo fight between him and Leviathan when Leviathan attacked the city," Bayleaf said. "He had some new secret weapon and a plan to make himself the number one hero in the country. Taylor got caught in the middle. She saved an Endbringer shelter full of innocent people when Armsmaster's halfassed plan naturally went off the rails, and they both got half-flattened in the process.
"Then the sonuvabitch exposed her secret identity in the cape emergency hospital as revenge." Bayleaf jabbed savagely at his ketchup cup with a french fry.
"What??" Danny said, rising to his feet as if he intended to go punch the armored tinker in his bearded chin personally. "No, wait… this isn't the same Armsmaster--"
"Well, he's not gotten that bad. But he's still the same humorless, insecure, spotlight hungry jerk he was in the baseline. He's peaking out as a Tinker and a Cape, career wise, and he's getting desperate to grab the brass ring one last time.
"'Swhy I torment him so much. I'm trying to break him of that. I figure if he wants to be in the spotlight so much, I'd make sure he was there as much as possible-- as the stone-faced butt of every joke I could think of." He smirked around a mouthful of fries. "Plus, it's fun."
Taylor was looking at her hand, shifting it back and forth between worgen and human. "Will I be able to change into as many forms as you?" she asked.
"Um, no," Bayleaf said. He wiped his mouth with a napkin and got up. "We don't have the same powers."
Danny and Taylor looked at each other, then back to Bayleaf. "I think we both thought that your, ah, friends gave Taylor a copy of your powers," he said.
"Oh no," Bayleaf said, shaking his head. "We both got our powers-- and our forms--- from the same setting, but we've got two diffent powersets. I'm a Druid…" he picked up an apple and juggled it in one hand. "But she's a Rogue."
"Aren't you both technically rogues right now?" Danny said.
"No, not like the PRT means it." Bayleaf snorted. "And isn't that a cute little semantic headgame trick. Rogue. Make it sound like even a person with powers who just sits at home doing nothing is a dangerous outlaw. Watch out, we got a runaway off the plantation!"
"Anyway. Rogue, in Azeroth terms means someone with training and powers in stealth, infiltration, and melee fighting with quick, vicious takedowns. Um, basically a sort of super-ninja." he picked at the apple in his hand. "Oh, uh, Taylor, would you get that knife off the rack there?"
Taylor got up and pulled down the knife he'd pointed at. It was actually more of a dagger, nearly a foot long and wicked-looking. "Got it," she said, turning around.
"Think fast!" The apple came whipping through the air at her head like a fastball.
Swipp Swipp! "Hey, what did you do that fffff….." Bayleaf pointed down. Taylor looked. The apple was lying on the floor at her feet, neatly sliced into four sections.
"Ho. Lee. Snap." Danny said reverently.
"How did I YAIK!" Her yelp of terror was only to be expected. One does that when a roaring werewolf leaps at them from across the room. Just before Bayleaf's claws reached her, there was a bang and a puff of blue-black smoke and she disappeared… only to instantly reappear in another puff of smoke directly behind him and deliver a perfect roundhouse kick to his kidneys. He went down with a crash, sprawling on the floor and groaning in pain. He rolled to his feet, clutching his back.
"Owgh. Sorry, Taylor honey, it was the only way I could think of to..." he blinked. Taylor was looking at him with wide eyed terror, the knife held pointed at him in her shaking hand. "Oh, whoa, honey, I'm so sorry I scared you that bad, I swear I wasn't going to hurt you… whoa." As he had been speaking she had stepped backward and slowly faded from sight. "Taylor?"
"I-I'm sorry," the empty space said. "But holy shit you have no idea how scary that is..."
"Taylor," Bayleaf said with a doggy grin. "Look down at yourself."
"Honestly, men," the empty space said. "It's always boob jokes with… omigosh I'm invisible!"
"And you just teleported, too," Bayleaf said. "And if I remember right, Subtlety Rogues-- which is what you are-- can disappear instantly, render people unconscious with a single strike, throw blades with pinpoint accuracy, generate clouds of smoke that blot out a sizeable area, and are natural masters of knife combat… oh, and can disappear into a "shadow state" for short periods that heals their wounds and makes injuries they cause more damaging. Cast mystical "poisons" on their weapons that make people sluggish, or heal more slowly…. And a few other things too." He shrugged. "Super Ninja."
Taylor slowly faded back into visibility. "Aww," she said. "I tried to make it last longer, but..."
"Too many people focusing on where you were, I guess. It also sorta poops out a few seconds into combat... takes too much concentration to maintain. So there's that."
"That was… amazing," Danny said, his eyes dancing with excitement. "I can't believe it, my daughter is Nightcrawler!"
"Who?" Taylor said. "And eww. What kind of a cape is named after a worm?" You could almost see a little bit of Mr. Hebert's childhood die in his eyes. Bayleaf turned away and bit his lip to keep from laughing.
"But why a Rogue?" Taylor went on. "I'm sure there were other powersets that were… better for our mission."
"It's not what you got, but what you do with it," Bayleaf said. "And as to that, well. Do you remember any of the questions the Judges in your dream asked you?"
"Yyyes," Taylor said, putting a clawtip to her chin as she thought. "They asked me what I thought of my world. I told them I wished I could make it better. They asked about Dad...I said I wanted to make him proud and… and happy again." she shot a look to her father, who just smiled at her. "And they asked me about Sophia, of all people."
"I told them the truth. That she was my enemy. They asked what I wanted to do about her.
"I said I wanted to beat her. I wanted to win. I didn't want to let her break me or make me a monster. That I wanted to be BETTER than her."
"That's probably it right there," Bayleaf said. "She's your rival. You want to out do her-- be better than her. So they gave you the powerset that most closely matches Sophia, or rather Shadow Stalker. Just so you could beat her at everything, even her own game."
Taylor felt a wicked smirk growing on her lips. "I think I LIKE that," she said.
"How about 'Rogue?'" Danny said hopefully. "As a name, I mean. No, that would be terrible, wouldn't it." He looked crestfallen.
Bayleaf chuckled. He walked over and patted Danny on the shoulder. "Marvel Comics has gone to its well-deserved rest, Mr. Hebert," he said. "Just let them rest in peace."
"I'm going with the name I told the Judges," Taylor said firmly. "If nobody else likes it, tough."
"What name was that?" Bayleaf asked.
She looked at him with determination in her eyes. "Hemlokk." She paused. "With two K's," she added, feeling a bit silly.
A corner of Bayleaf's mouth quirked up. "Works for me," he said. He pulled out his phone and started dialing. "Now it's time to call in some help, if we're going to save both our secret identities." He put his phone up to his ear. "Hello, Amy?"
It wasn't half an hour later that Bayleaf was standing on the loading dock of the abandoned warehouse, freezing his currently furless butt off and waiting for his guests to arrive. To his surprise, the first one there was Parian. A taxi pulled up to the end of the street and a young woman dressed in a skirt, heavy winter coat and with her head muffled in a scarf got out. She trotted down the alley to where Bayleaf waited and smiled at him with dark eyes. "Hello again, Adrian," she said. "Or should I say Skinwalker?"
He sighed. "Thank you for coming, especially on short notice," he said. "I know how you hate leaving your shop." He gestured towards the open shutter. "Come on inside, get comfortable--"
Anything further was interrupted when two girls dropped out of the sky. The flying one was a platinum blonde, and in fashionably scuffed jeans, crop-topped festive sweater and ugg boots, was definitely underdressed for the weather. The girl in her arms on the other hand was bundled up like an eskimo in a thick plush coat that reached clear to her toes. "Did you have to fly so fast, Vicky? I like to froze my face off," she was complaining.
"It's bracing! Good for you!" Vicky said.
Bayleaf growled in exasperation. He should have expected this. "She insisted on coming, did she," he asked Amy, nodding at Glory Girl.
"Sorry," Amy said. "She found out I was going to see-- a friend-- and she squeezed the rest out of me. Then I couldn't get her to butt out." She seemed a little miffed, though Bayleaf suddenly found himself wondering if it was at her sister or at him.
"I suppose it's only fair you brought some protection along," he said grudgingly, facepalming. "I haven't given you much reason to trust me yet--"
"You got THAT right, Mister Shapeshift Rogue," Vicky said, interposing herself between Amy and Bayleaf and jabbing him in the chest with rather painfully her finger. "You tried to pull a fast one on my sister--" jab "and I don't care for that." Jab "I don't know what you're up to, inviting her out here all alone--" jab jab " But I'm watching you, buster, and I erk!"
Bayleaf had reached up and grabbed her hand in his fist. His suddenly clawed, shovel sized fist. He'd gone full worgen between one breath and the next. He took a moment to enjoy the expression of growing alarm on Vicky Dallon's face as she found herself struggling harder and harder to pull her hand out of his grasp. She pulled free finally, but it took an unsettling amount of effort. His smile was an inch from her nose and ALL teeth. "A one-ton deadlift is kiddy stuff on my scale, little girl," he said. "I flip pickup trucks one-handed for fun. So don't try throwing your weight around with me."
"You're Skinwalker?"She yelped at the top of her voice.
"Say it a little louder, sister, I don't think they heard it on Captain's Hill," Bayleaf snarled in exasperation under his breath. "Get this through your pom-pom brain, prom queen, this is about somebody's secret identity. UNWRITTEN RULES stuff. I've got three people here, counting myself, who are trying to keep every villain in Brockton bay from finding out their names, addresses and favorite ice cream flavor before the end of the week, so I'd greatly appreciate it if you kept your mouth shut!"
Wide eyed, Vicky nodded till her ponytail bobbled. He hadn't collapsed her forcefield but he'd come close. That was enough to get the message across. He released her and quickly shifted back to his human form. "Lets get inside before someone stumbles along and sees this little circus," he grumbled.
He looked apologetically at Parian. "This could risk your ID. I can understand if--"
She held up a gloved hand. "I've come this far, I want to see all this out," she said. "Besides, I owe you greatly for those miracle materials you gave me. They've meant a sea change in how I do business." The end of her scarf suddenly slithered around through the air around her. "Not to mention how safe I feel out in public." Her eyes sparkled with amusement.
"You're PAR—UMPH!" The scarf suddenly elongated and shot across the loading dock to wrap around Vicky's face, silencing her. Vicky tried to rip off the cloth, to her alarm it didn't even stretch.
"Sorry," Amy said as she ran her hand down her face. "She's a fan..."
"In, in, in, before your sister invents a whole new kind of Collateral Damage," Bayleaf said, ushering them through the open shutter and slamming it down behind them.
"Pfuh, the heck is that scarf made of?" Vicky said when it finally peeled off. Parian ignored the question. Bayleaf stopped in the middle of the warehouse and took a calming breath. "Amy, Parian, I appreciate this. The people inside and I… we're going to be trusting you with a lot. Our names are just the start of it. A lot of it will be dangerous to know. If you want to back out, now's the time to say it."
None of them said anything. In fact all three young women crossed their arms impatiently. "Okay, I just had to say it." He led them to the back of the dusty building and slid the plywood panel aside, revealing the hidden entrance. He bowed and opened the door. "Entre' vu."
Amy started to enter, but Vicky stopped her with one hand. "I'll go first," she said. "Just in case wolf-boy here has any surprises planned," she gave him a defiant look. She ducked in. "Oh how nice, a hole in the wall," she snarked as she disappeared from sight.
A moment later a reverent "oh wowww" echoed out. "...Holy crap there's two of you?"
Amy cocked an eyebrow at him. Bayleaf just smirked. She and Parian stepped through and inside; Bayleaf followed, dragging the plywood back in place behind himself.
"I have to say," Parian said in admiration. "I find myself having workshop envy." She was seated in one of the comfy chairs, her scarf and heavy coat set aside for a light silk headwrap and domino mask. Bayleaf was kind of relieved she'd opted to leave the doll mask behind. That thing was creepy.
"Thanks." Bayleaf said. He looked abashed. "Amy, Vicky, I'd like to apologize for that scene outside--"
"Don't bother," said Amy over her shoulder. "Frankly it was worth the price of admission to see someone make Vicky shut up for a second."
"Get bent, sister dear," Vicky said sweetly.
The Dallon sisters were still well into the "Gawk and poke" stage of their visit. Amy was over intensely examining the arcane plants, while Vicky was more or less playing with the bots and toys wandering the floor. "Oh look Amy, it's so cute!" Vicky gushed, holding up one of the workerbots. The agitated little bot was squeaking and kicking its feet.
"Please don't bother those, they're busy running errands," Bayleaf said with a sigh.
"Errands like what?" Vicky asked.
"Like collecting scrap to make more workerbots," he said. "I'm down to these three guys, a few sabotage bugs and Obie after that Merchant raid. Speaking of which--" he looked around.
"Out in my truck," Danny said. He was busy setting up a digital projector. "Little nut nearly gave me a heart attack this morning. I left him in there. No offense but you're not exactly in a good neighborhood." Taylor's father had no mask. After much debate they decided that full disclosure with the people they were asking for help was the way to go.
Amy let go of the leaf of the semi-invisible plant and sighed. "Okay. So what is this all about? And when do we get those explanations you promised?"
"Explanations?" Vicky said.
"I told you about the Giving Tree," Amy said to her sister.
"Oh, your plant Case 53 friend."
"Right. Well I'm at First General the other day and I catch this guy--" Amy jerked a thumb at Bayleaf-- "breaking into the linen closet and stealing some scrubs. When I try demanding an explanation, he sprouts leaves at me and promises to explain everything that's going on. Well, I'm here and I'm waiting."
"I am here because I owe Adrian here a tremendous favor, at the least," Parian said. "I was told that it involved himself and a friend; I am assuming he was referring to his wolf ladyfriend here." Taylor hunched up a bit in her chair at the attention.
Bayleaf ran his fingers over his scalp. "Okay, answers. I'll start at the reason I called you all here. The other day, Taylor here manifested. Thanks to a screw-up on my part, to multiple screw-ups, she's in danger of having her secret identity exposed to the world. Mine is too, but that's secondary. Basically, I'm asking you to help me put toothpaste back into the tube and secure her secret identity again."
"I think maybe you missed it," Vicky said, crossing her arms under her chest and standing behind her sister's chair in a cocksure pose. "But we're from New Wave? We kinda gave up secret identities as a bad idea, ages ago?"
"And I also know how it worked out for you," Bayleaf retorted. Amy and Vicky both flinched at the blunt reminder of their darkest time as a hero team: one family member who'd lived the New Wave principle had been killed in her own home, on her own doorstep, by a low-level thug who wanted to make a name for himself. Retribution-- by the villains, no less-- had been swift and brutal... but the damage had been done. Bayleaf didn't even blink at Vicky's angry glare. "Vicky, this isn't about her and I being able to go shopping without being bothered by paparazzi. We've got reasons, life and death reasons, for trying to keep our masks."
"Then why not let the PRT handle it?" Vicky said obstinately. "They do that whole 'scrub the scene' thing for new capes, especially if they join the Wards-- oh what?" she snapped. Because Bayleaf and 'Hemlokk' were both shaking their heads.
"Just watch the video, young lady," Danny said, a touch sternly. Parental authority mode activated. "You'll get your answers." He hit a button on the laptop next to the projector. The projector lit up, throwing a rectangle of light on a bare patch of wall.
Bayleaf sat down next to Hemlokk, who leaned into him. She passed him a bowl. He looked down into it in surprise. "Popcorn?"
"You had some packets in your supplies," she said impishly, handing him a bottle of cola.
Up on the projection, an image of Bayleaf walked onscreen. He sat down in an overstuffed chair and addressed the camera and whomever was behind it.
"I figure I'm going to be explaining all this a LOT in the near future," he said with a faintly dry hint of humor. "So a little one-time recording will make things easier. I'll edit it later, maybe do a PowerPoint Presentation..."
He sat back and coughed, and even looked a bit awkward at being in front of a lens. "Okay, to start with, you should know I'm not from around here. Really, really, REALLY not from around here..."
A slow hour crawled by as the Bayleaf on the projector talked, and answered questions, and more questions after that. When the video ended, the three young women Bayleaf had invited were staring at him, and each other, with obvious horror. "This can't be true," Parian said. "It can't possibly!"
"It isn't," Vicky said, her face thunderous. "This is garbage."
Amy was shaking her head, looking distressed. "It makes too much sense, Vicky--"
"Too much sense?" Vicky exploded. "We've got a couple of Cape loonies who are claiming to have insider knowledge about a gigantic alien conspiracy involving the PRT, the Protectorate, Coil, Scion, some mysterious 'Cauldron' group, giant space whale things, and just about everybody except Fugly Bob himself… based on information they got from another group of aliens and oh yeah, they're aliens themselves! This is crazier than that poofy-haired guy on the History Channel!" She lifted her own hair over her head in pantomime of the notorious ancient alienologist.
That brought Bayleaf up short. Of course they'd want proof. He cursed himself mentally. Agent had warned him that this was the reason so many Actors kept mum about their origins, or their information sources… it could be harder than proving Fermet's last theorem to prove they were telling the truth. Getting dismissed as a loony or locked up as one was a good possibility if you bungled it.
"Well?" Vicky demanded. "What kind of PROOF do you have?"
"Well you could go to the Palanquin and talk to Faultline and her crew," Bayleaf said dryly. "Cauldron spooked so bad when I told Faultline the truth that they dropped Contessa on our heads and tried to kill us all. I'm sure they can tell you the eyewitness account-- assuming you can find them that is. They were planning on packing their bags and disappearing into the boonies until everything was all over one way or the other."
This put her on the back foot, but she rallied. "So why haven't these Cauldron guys attacked us right now?"
"A couple of reasons," Bayleaf said. "For one, Hemlokk and I are a sort of blind spot for thinkers, due to our extrauniversal powers. For another, I've been taking precautions. I managed to kludge together a little trinket that causes a similar problem for thinkers, and scattering them about by selling them as decorative wingdings." He reached over and picked up one of the little arcane shard "firefly jars" from one of his shelves. "For a third, I think I pretty well ruined their day when they popped open that portal and I threw a portal of my own into their living room… I express mailed them every bob-omb, landshark, sabotage bot, mini-tonk and seaforium charge I had in my stockpiles. They're probably still cleaning up."
"Convenient," Vicky sniffed. Hemlokk bristled but Bayleaf patted her arm.
"It's okay, she has a point," he said. "I could show you the Cauldron vials I captured from Skidmark, but not only would that be begging for trouble, it wouldn't mean anything to you. Without force feeding them to someone, they're just bottles of colored liquid." He thought a minute. "I do know more than just the… um, the Cauldron conspiracy, let's call it that. A lot of details that..." he darted a glance over at Amy. "If I tell them, I could hurt a lot of people. In a personal way..."
He looked horribly guilty, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "The need is too great," he muttered. "And this needs to come out anyway, or it'll never be fixed." he stared at the wall, thinking.
"Vicky," he said slowly and carefully. "Amy is… addicted to your powers."
As he spoke Amy first felt her heart freeze. --NO! He knew! Somehow he knew that Amy was…. Was in love with her sister…
It was Amy's deepest secret, and her most terrible shame. She was Vicky's sister. Her adopted sister, but still her sister. But… ever since they both reached about the age of twelve… Amy had been finding herself having… feelings. Indecent feelings for Vicky.
It had been slowly ruining her life. All she could do was pine silently. All she could feel around Dean, Vicky's boyfriend, was seething envy. And now Skinwalker was going to reveal it--!
And then the second part of his sentence registered and suddenly everything made sense. In addition to Glory Girl's personal forcefield, which made her conditionally invulnerable and gave her super strength, she had an Aura-- if she was in a good mood, you adored her. If she was angry or afraid, you were intimidated and afraid of her. She could increase it's power greatly, putting people in a lovestruck stupor or in paralyzing terror. But despite training constantly and being constantly reminded, it was almost impossible for her to keep it turned entirely off…
"What? No," Vicky stammered. "I've got it under control. And besides my family's immune--"
Bayleaf shook his head. "Your blood relatives are immune," he corrected her. "Maybe. Even your boyfriend Dean Stansfield is pretty much immune-- because he's Gallant, and his emotion-sensing and blasting powers make him super resistant." the others shot him shocked looks at revealing Gallant's identity so cavalierly, but he pressed on. "But your adopted sister isn't. And you've been unknowingly bombarding her with low level love-me radiation since before she hit puberty."
"This is bullcrap!" Vicky said, raising up off the floor. "You're just making up random stuff and hoping you hit something! Admit it!" Her aura flared; everyone in the room cringed back, save for Bayleaf and Hemlokk, and even they flinched a bit. "Amy, tell him this is… Amy?"
Amy wasn't listening. She was curled up in her chair, her hands over her face. It was obvious to anyone, even oblivious Victoria Dallon, that she knew Bayleaf was telling the truth.
For a moment Vicky's aura flared even higher-- then she flew off across the workshop, her own face in her hands, and hovered in a corner, refusing to look at anyone.
Bayleaf leaned over and put his hand on Amy's shoulder. It was a dangerous move; Amy's power wasn't healing, it was biokinesis. She could turn him into a blob of protoplasm if she was ever upset enough. But he risked it. "Amy, this is NOT your fault! It's not Victoria's fault either! It just happened! You're both victims of a, a, an accident of circumstance. Murphy just got the drop on you two is all. But now that you know about it, you can try to start and fix it."
Amy sniffled. "If only it was that easy," she sobbed. Bayleaf scrambled for a tissue but Danny got there first. She took the entire box and started mopping her face.
"Even if she could fix brains," Vicky said hollowly, not moving from her corner, "she can't fix her own…." she kept her back turned to them. "I… I screwed up my sister's brain--"
"Not true," Bayleaf grunted.
"What? That my power-- lesboed my sister's brain?"
"Ieeee wwwouldn't phrase it THAT way," Bayleaf said, rolling his eyes and scratching his head. "But you didn't mess up her brain. Just muddled up the brain chemistry a while. Figure out a way to block your aura and eventually it should go back to normal." He suddenly snapped his fingers. "But we could fix it faster if we could get her power to work on herself."
"How?" Amy asked, more than a little sarcastically.
"Come on," Bayleaf said with growing enthusiasm. "There's got to be at least one cape out there with the ability to duplicate powers, or borrow them temporarily, or--"
"Hey yeah!" Vicky turned around and flew back to them. "That's a great idea, it… oh no, no, it still wouldn't work," she said, deflating. "Ames' power doesn't work on brains."
Bayleaf said nothing. He just stared at Amy. Hard.