Hebert Disassembly Services Chapter 16: Field Trip///

<<<Designation: T/Taylor Hebert/Absolute>>>

“Are you sure about this?” Her Dad asked as he looked over the paperwork, which amounted to her visiting the NYC branch of Wards for enrichment and training.

Though Taylor was pretty sure it was just to get her and Cyn out of their hair for a while, not that they were causing trouble or anything! If anything, they’d been helping to improve the overall efficiency of the organization as a whole! Helping plug holes in the systems, helping organize more efficient patrol routes that were safer without being purely PR ‘showing the flag’ runs. Taylor even contacted Samantha after Missy complained about how she’s being babied and accidentally revealed why she spent so much time at ‘work’ instead of going home, and got her a new Youth Guard rep!

She didn’t know if things were working out with the new rep, but Vista didn’t seem nearly as irritable anymore. So Taylor took that as a win.

And, apparently, Cyn had taken it upon herself to give the E88 night terrors, except for Purity. Yes, she was a Nazi, but she was also a mother, and while Cyn didn’t give a shit, Taylor did. She was aware of how exhausting having a baby was, and while, yes, Purity was a Nazi, sometimes you had to cut someone some slack.

But if the baby was removed from her custody or grew up some more, then Taylor would let Cyn off the leash. Was it a petty, vindictive thing? Absolutely, but fuck Nazis.

“Yeah, honestly, I could just fly back and forth,” Taylor said, “I’m fast enough to be back before eleven, maybe twelve at night. Besides, the Youth Guard are real sticklers for Wards attending school, so I wouldn’t be spending every day, all day there.” And even outside of flying, she could just teleport anyway.

“And you’ll have Cyn watching your back,” Her Dad said, making her huff, “Little Owl, I’m a parent. I don’t care if you can fight Endbringers, I’ll always worry.”

“Danny Is A Good. Father. Unlike Those Genetic Wastes. That Tessa Had.” Cyn commented as she drank motor oil from a sippy cup. She would question where she got the cup, but Taylor had given up trying to make sense of the AI God Fragment Thing.

“That feels like a low bar to meet,” Danny said with a frown, “A really low bar if what Tessa says is true…”

“Damming with faint praise, Cyn, damming with faint praise,” Taylor noted, head shaking, “Right, one teleport to PRT Headquarters, New York City, all aboard? Keep your hands and feet inside the event horizon at all times.”

“Giggles. I Am So Naughty.” Cyn said before glitching away and returning to… wherever she went whenever she decided not to be a hologram.

It was probably not worth thinking about, so instead of questioning it, Taylor snapped and appeared in the Lobby where she was supposed to be in two minutes. Better slightly early than late… though she was pretty sure they’d expected her to fly instead.

But why would she do something so slow?

[Didn’t You. Forget About This. Before?]

“Shut up.” She thought as she approached the front, “Absolute from Wards ENE, here for training and to help out however I can.” She said, completely ignoring how everyone stared at her and the fact that the plainclothes PRT agents were all tense.

Standard procedure, she read about it last night. Standard operating procedure was to scatter plain-clothes agents amongst actual civilians to blend in and allow them to perform their duties without intimidating them by wearing the standard armor of a PRT agent.

“Can I have an autograph?” One of the actual civilians asked, “For my daughter. She’s been obsessed with you since your debut.”

“Sure,” Taylor said as she used her nanofabber to create a picture of her in midflight before making a pen and sighing it, “Depending on how long I’m here, I could meet her,” She offered.

“If you do, I hope you aren’t affected by loud squeaks, she has some lungs on her,” They replied with a smile, “She’ll appreciate this a lot, thanks.”

Taylor just tapped where her ears should be, “I can adjust audio. But no problem,” She said with a chuckle.

The interaction seemed to open the floodgates; multiple civilians and PRT workers quickly surrounded her before Legend broke them all up, “As glad as I am to see that one of our newer Wards is so popular,” He started, smiling, “She does have a job to do as well, please; let her have some space.”

“They just like me cause I beat up a false angel,~” Taylor quipped, though she wondered if she’d still be popular if they found out she essentially ate the dead and dying along with a chunk of the city.

“That’s not true!” One of them called out, “I like you because you scared Saint literally shitless. Once Dragon released that the cu-uh, monster caused her to trigger… well, I can’t say I was sorry to re-watch the fight with him.”

“Fair enough, though if he actually shot my dad, things would’ve been a lot worse than some heavy trauma,” Taylor admitted, “Now as much as I’d enjoy talking to you all, my boss kinda needs me for something.”

With that, the crowd eventually dispersed and returned to what they were initially doing, letting Taylor turn to face Legend, who looked at her with a smile on his face.

“Funny, I heard you were something of a troublemaker.” He commented with a chuckle.

“That’s my other half, Cyn. Honest,” Taylor admitted.

“Outraged Huff. I Am An Angel. Of The Void. Bleh.”

Legend snorted. “Let’s get you introduced to the New York Wards,” He said, slowly floating to the elevator, “Unless you’d prefer going straight to HR?”

“A meeting sounds good!” Taylor exclaimed, honestly, she’d dealt enough with PR and HR back in Brockton.

Guess the downside of having unlimited multitasking was that it was so easy to just take ALL the work. Seriously, she did the AARs for the entire Wards and Assault more than a few times already. Got HR and the Director on her ass, not because she was sloppy, but because it gave the others an excuse to slack off.

Not that Vista ever slacked off, the girl tried way too hard. It just made her more adorable, not that she would say that to her face. Even if she was really curious if her powers affected her or not.

Granted, if it did, things could get very painful for her, very fast.

“So, what Wards are in today?” She asked, “You guys have better security than Brocton did, so I can’t actually access the logs…”

Cyn however was suspiciously silent and with a glance… she saw that her other half was missing.

“Why ruin the surprise?” Legend commented with a chuckle, “Though… is it safe to let your… partner wander off like that?”

“Eh, at best she’s probably just touring and eating things she shouldn’t, at worst? Well, some of your local villains might have some new traumas to deal with,” Taylor said, “She hasn’t hurt anyone… beyond emotional and psychological damages anyway.”

“That does not inspire much confidence,” Legend admitted, shaking his head with some slight amusement.

“She probably will keep it mild. Unless you have some local Nazi’s do you?” Taylor asked, “I haven’t read up on the local cape scene yet.” And that was mostly to give herself something to look forward to.

“We don’t,” He replied, “For the most part, the villains here are a little more… classy. More white collar than anything else, though the Teeth can pop up now and again, too.”

“... The Bay really is a hellhole in comparison…” Taylor grumbled, “Why’s everyone else got classy villains and we get stuck with a Rage Dragon and Superpowered Nazis…” She said with a huff.

Her visor flashed [JEALOUS] in bright green, making Legend laugh.

“It’s not all good news,” He replied, “They have better PR, but they end up hurting almost as many people in the end. Sure, they don’t go around beating on people for their race, but if you show up to your local grocery market and find that prices have spiked three times over because someone threatened them to force them to give protection money…”

“Eh, gangs are the same everywhere, I suppose…” Taylor muttered with a shrug.

“Only good villain is one behind bars,” He agreed, typing in a code for them to go up… and then the elevator teleported to the right floor.

“Huh, tinkertech elevator?” Taylor asked curiously.

He nodded, “One of Hero’s projects.”

“And it’s lasted this long? I thought tinkertech broke down without the original creator to maintain it?” She asked curiously, “He must’ve been an amazing tinker.” All she had were previous recordings and PRT files about the cape in question.

But it painted an individual that was simply too good for this world, and she wanted to avenge him.

“At first we needed other tinkers to maintain it,” Legend admitted, “Dragon entering the Protectorate was a boon in that way, a lot of it was changed out for her tech; which needs a lot less tinker maintenance. The key systems are still tinkertech, but it helped a lot.”

Then the door opened and Taylor came face to face with four Wards. “Meet Lancer team, our Fast Response group,” Legend started, “Jouster is the captain of it, so I’ll let him take over introductions.”

The boy, almost man, walked forward; dressed in an almost medieval knight’s outfit. “I’m Jouster, I channel attacks through my lance. If I hit someone, I can hit them with a variety of effects. The tinker you see to my right is Shelter, they specialize in mobile fortifications and emergency shelters. They don’t get involved often in Endbringer battles themselves, but they occasionally help out in the aftermath if the area isn’t considered dangerous.”

“Nice to meet you, Absolute. Or Taylor seeing as I’m well…” She just gestured to everything, “Yeah.”

“That’s Hornet,” He continued, nodding to a girl on his left, gossamer wings glinting behind her, “She’s a changer that can shift parts of her body to resemble various bugs, including their venoms and poisons.”

“Huh, neat,” Taylor said, “Nice wings too.”

“Thanks, yours are pretty nice too,” Hornet said with a smile and nod, though it was partially ruined by said head being… more than a little hornet shaped. Which Taylor supposed explained the name.

“And finally we have Flechette to her left, while she doesn’t fit our usual team style she does flit between teams as needed,” Jouster explained, “Her power lets her imbue the bolts in her crossbow to go through anything, without limit. So she’s used as a bit of extra firepower in the teams as needed, Hornet and Shelter can both carry her so she doesn’t get in our way too often…”

Flechette rolled her eyes, “Hey.”

Taylor looked at Flechette, processing her power, before tilting her head, “Oh, we’re going to have to test if your power works on me.” She said, trying not to sound too eager, though her visor flashed a [>:D].

“Oh my god why is she so pretty!?” Taylor thought to herself, forcing her face to stay unaffected, “Fuck, am I gay? Wait, fuck! I’m bi as hell! Cyn you bitch, you’ve been shipping me!”

Thankfully she messed with her programming to not display her embarrassment. Ever.

[You Just Now. Realized this. That Is Sad.]

“Just for that,” Taylor started, shooting Cyn a mental glare, “I will do all the cringey shit you hate with them. All three of them. Out of spite.”

“Uh, you don’t look like you have a weapon though?” Flechette said, clearly she hadn’t got a chance to read her file.

Taylor snorted faintly. “I am a weapon,” She said, rapidly cycling her hands from a rocket launcher, MP-5, talons, swords, and a beam emitter, “And that’s just what I can access off the top of my head.”

“... Well, that’s interesting,” She started, “Not sure it works on people? Might work on any ammo you make though. So we can give it a shot at least, and see if those swords of yours count as your own body.”

“I’m asking her to put her hands on my body…” Taylor noticed, freezing in place as she tried to process that. “I asked Panacea to do the same…”

“This Is Hilarious.” Cyn commented from a stool watching curiously, “Please Do Not. Stop. Please Continue.”