“And if you will sign here, and here,” the PRT office worker said. Danny carefully signed, then slid the paper sideways to his daughter, who picked up the pen with her hoof and signed with a cheerful flourish--

  She picked up the pen in her hoof--

  She picked up the pen--

  In her hoof--

  Taylor “Ladybird” Hebert sat there staring at her hoof, the pen clinging to the frog. “Wait. What?” She held it over the desk and dropped it. Then she picked it up again.

  Danny and the desk lady blinked. “How...”

  “Oh, right,” Taylor said suddenly. “Pan-- I mean Amy-- did say that my hooves conducted my power, too. I guess that gives me, er, grippy hooves?”

  “Oh. Okay. I guess?” Danny scratched his head. “Still looks a bit odd.”

  The desk lady cleared her throat. “Well, anyway. Let me be the first to say congratulations, and welcome to the Brockton Bay Wards…. Ladybird.”

  “Why thank you very much,” Taylor… Ladybird… said with a smirk. She stood on the seat of her chair and gave a little pony-style curtsey. Danny and the secretary chuckled and applauded. “So what next?”

  “I’m afraid Mr. Hebert can’t accompany you beyond this point,” the lady behind the desk said, getting to her feet. “We’ll be dealing with a lot of internal security matters, not the least of which is meeting your new teammates unmasked.”

  “Ah, I understand,” Danny said with a weak smile. “And I’ve been here too long as it is. The Docks won’t run themselves forever.”

  Taylor put a hoof on his leg. “I’ll be fine, Daddy,” she said, giving him her best brave-girl smile. “Besides I’ve got--”

  “Call me Madelyne,” the ioffice worker said.

  “I’ve got Madelyne to look after me, right? Besides. I’m gonna be a superhero. I can handle whatever comes next.”

  Danny crouched down and gave his transformed daughter a long hug. She threw a hoof over his shoulder and hugged him back. “You be good, Little Owl,” he said in her ear.

  “I will...”

  He patted her hair a couple of times. “Hmmm. Soft.”

  “Daaad…!”

  Danny chuckled. “Hey, couldn’t help it.” He got up to go. “I’ll be back tomorrow evening.”

  “Bye..” Taylor followed him with her eyes as he walked out the door and down the hall-- quickly, and without looking back. Just like he did on my first day of Kindergarten, she remembered. She turned to Madelyne. “So… what next?”

  “Next, I believe, you get to go down and meet your new teammates,” Madelyne said over her shoulder as she ran the papers through the computer scanner. “ Follow me, this way...” She paced off down the hall, Taylor trotting in her wake. “You’ll love them, they’re a good bunch of kids… er, well...”

  “We know about Shadow Stalker,” Taylor said, a trifle grimly. “We also know she’s not a problem anymore.” It had been two days of exams, tests, and paper-filling, but during that time they had kept informed. Director Piggot was sending Sophia Hess, aka Shadow Stalker, on her way to a stay in Juvie, and she wasn’t taking the slow boat to China about it either. They had met very briefly with the woman; she was an intimidating figure to say the least. But she had made it clear that she was solidly on Taylor’s side in this mess, which was a lifetime more than could be said for Principal Blackwood back in Winslow. “All the same,” she went on. “off the record… is there anyone I should look out for?”

  The secretary hesitated. She made a point looking around the hallway before answering. She leaned over the desk in a conspiratorial fashion. “Truthfully-- Armsmaster can be a bit stiff. And Director Piggot can be a real hardcase… but so long as you stick to the rules and don’t go out of your way to tick them off, and don’t waste their time, they’re no problem. The only one I’d really worry about is Director Calvert.”

  “What about him?” Taylor asked.

  “Nothing in particular,” the woman said, biting her lip. “Mind, it’s only a personal impression. But he gives off this...oily air. Sleazy. Like you want to wash your hand after shaking his… He’s the sort of man who’s used to getting his way, and not too particular about how he gets it.” She shrugged it off. “Not that it should matter much, he’s not even close to your chain of command, so you should rarely even see him, much less have to worry about him.”

  Taylor nodded in relief. After all that had happened, she really didn’t need to go through a round of inter-office drama. “Um, anything else.”

  The secretary half-grinned, half-winced. “Well, there is Glenn Chambers. He’s the head of the Public Relations department and he…”

  “Wait. Is he the one responsible for Glamour Girl out in Vegas having to wear gold lame’ and high-heel platforms into combat?” Taylor said with fatalistic apprehension.

  The secretary nodded. “He’s… yeah. I haven’t heard a hero or heroine yet who hasn’t complained at the top of their lungs about him.” She looked down at Taylor and sighed. “At least he can’t jerk you around about your costume design, sweetie...”

  Taylor frowned. “My costume design?”

  “Well, you’re...” the secretary waved her hand up and down, indicating Taylor in the altogether.

  Taylor’s enormous eyes went even rounder. Her pupils turned to pinpricks.

  “OHSWEETMERCIFULCRAP I’M NAKED!!!”

  The next few minutes found a small enclave gathered around the nearest bathroom door. “Ladybird, please come back out,” Madelyne said patiently to the door. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about.”

  “You mean besides spending the last several days running around completely starkers?” the door shouted back.

  “Well she has a layer of fur-- ouch!”

  One of the orderlies had spoken up; Madelyne had jabbed him with her pen. “Not helping,” she said. “Really, Ladybird, you’re making a big deal out of it. Nobody saw anything.”

  “That’s not the point!”

  “Actually nobody could see anything,” the lead powers researcher said, not looking up from his datapad. The others stared at him. He noticed the looks. “What? Didn’t you notice?”

  “Notice what?” Taylor said from inside the bathroom. Ponies apparently had very good hearing.

  The lead powers researcher leaned in toward the door. “Ladybird, look at yourself in the mirror,” he said. He had the air of someone who knew something nobody else had noticed.

  There was a moment of silence. “Doctor Micheals,” Taylor said with exaggerated patience, “Do you know where the mirrors are usually located in a bathroom?”

  “Er, above the sink?”

  “And how tall am I, again?”

  “She’s never seen herself in a mirror yet? I hope she washes her hooves. Ow, quit it.” Madelyne had stabbed the orderly again.

  “Oh, er, right. Someone go fetch a full-length mirror? There has to be one around here somewhere, capes are all clothes-horses...” The orderly hustled off. Possibly for a mirror, possibly to escape Madelyne’s pen. He returned with a tall dressing room mirror in tow. “Okay, Ladybird? Taylor? If you’ll just come out for a moment… I promise, there’s nobody here but us medical types. And Madelyne of course, but you know her.”

  The door creaked open and a small lavender unicorn hustled out, cringing, her tail tucked underneath her. “Okay, take a look at yourself,” Doctor Micheals instructed. The orderly set the mirror on the floor and held it up. Sulking and fussing, Taylor faced the mirror. Her ears pricked up in surprise and her rump thumped on the floor. “Holy crap!”

  “What?”

  “I’m… cute!” Taylor said. “I mean, ridiculous cute. I want to give myself a teddy bear, a hug and a cookie!” She sounded as if she didn’t know whether to be horrified or not.

  Dr. Micheals rubbed his finger fiercely over his mustache as he struggled not to laugh. “Well yes, we’ve noticed. But notice anything else?” Taylor stopped staring at herself in the mirror to look at him. “Go on, stand up. Turn in a circle and look yourself over.

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  Taylor obeyed. “….AAAH! I’m a kewpie doll!” She turned in a circle, then reared up on her haunches and looked down her belly. “Where’d everything… I mean everything was there the last time I went to the bathroom--” She realized what she was doing and fell down to the floor in a huddled crouch. She gave everyone a look. “Just a second. Iiii… gotta check something--” she backed into the bathroom and slammed the door.

  “Wait. There everything… uh, I mean… okay, what the heck?”

  “Remember what Panacea told you about conductive keratins?” Dr. Micheals said through the door. The door opened and Taylor stuck her head out. “Your fur is apparently projecting a, ahh, modesty-protecting mirage of sorts over your epidermis that camouflages certain areas of your body. Much like Narwhal does with her skin-tight layer of force fields.”

  “So what you’re saying is that I’m basically dressed in unicorn pony magic?” Taylor said.

  “Well, if saying it that way helps...” he shrugged expressively. “Yes, I suppose.”

  Taylor sighed. At least she hadn’t been streaking everybody for the past two or three days. “Okay, but maybe it’s my imagination, but I’m starting to feel a draft in here,” she complained. She used her telekinesis to pull a towel from a nearby cart and threw it over herself like a shawl, so only her head and forehooves were exposed. “Could I please have something…?”

  “Like what, a doggy sweater?… OW! Dangit already!”

  Madelyne suddenly snapped her manicured fingers. “I know just the thing! Be right back!” She trotted off down the hall, her high heels clicking. Everyone stood around looking awkward for about ten minutes; then she came clickity-clacking back. She was holding something that looked a bit like a soft, off-white cloak… only it looked hand made, had a couple of buttons and a fringe, and seemed to be knitted or crocheted.

  “What is it?” Taylor asked, cocking her head to one side.

  Madelyne held it up. “It’s a shawl,” she said. “My mother made it. It’s not really my look, but it’s just the right size...” she knelt down, whipped off the towel Taylor had donned and threw the shawl over her. “see, we button it around the tail and down the back, and then we tied it off around the neck-- perfect!” Madelyne regarded her handiwork. “Not half bad… at least it’ll do till the costume monkeys come up with something more suiting.

  Taylor regarded herself in the mirror. It covered her up like one of those-- what were they anyway, those cover things race horses were put in off the track?-- but it draped on her a bit, coming down to her knees in the front and her hocks in the back. It almost looked like she was wearing a dress. A little-old-lady dress cut for miniature ponies, but still-- far better than nothing.

  “How does it feel?”

  “Better,” Taylor sighed. It did feel better to be clothed in some fashion. People got used to walking around in open-backed hospital gowns, she supposed; she could get used to this. “It’s comfortable anyway.”

  “Excellent. Okay, I think we’ve kept the Wards waiting long enough…? We have to catch a chopper out to the PRT base; that’s where the Wards HQ is...

  Life was suck, Missy Biron decided. Work was suck, mandatory vacation time was suck, EVERYTHING was suck. She slouched into the elevator and hit the button for the floor for the Wards quarters.

  It was all Piggot’s fault, she decided. It was Missy’s father who’d gotten it in his head to be “impulsive,” rent an RV, and take the whole family to Disneyworrrrrrld(blegh) over the Christmas Break on some sort of “fix the family” outing. But it was Piggot who had signed off on Missy’s leave from the Wards-- who had made it mandatory-- that she go on this horrible trip to Disneyworrrrrld(blegh) with her family. Had shot down every effort Missy had made to sign up for extra duties, extra patrols, Console Duty, ANYTHING--(where was an Endbringer attack when you needed it?) to justify not going along with this incredibly bad idea.

  So Missy had gotten the excruciating pleasure of spending several days trapped in a cramped RV on a road trip to Florida and back with two alleged adults that couldn’t stand each other anymore and who were probably plotting right now how to murder each other with their souvenir Mickey Mouse ears.

  Disneyworrrrrld(blegh) had been no better. The park had been crowded, Missy lost track of how many attractions were shut down for repairs thanks to some Tinker villain LOSER who had tried to hold the entire park hostage the week before by using his weird remote-control powers to sabotage one ride after another till they paid him off… the local Protectorate had caught the LOSER, but not before he’d ruined dozens of computerized rides and games… the rides that had still been running had made Missy nauseous, and her parents had spent the whole time either fighting with each other or complaining how much everything cost. And Vista had to force herself not to suplex some of the more annoying costumed characters.

  And now she was back, feeling like something the cat dragged in and then threw back out, getting ready to meet the newest member of the Protectorate ENE Wards. Apparently about three days ago some oh-so-lucky kid had a trigger event at Winslow High, and for whatever reason she was being express-shipped straight into Ward membership. Hurray, a newbie. And one who was still probably a shaking mess from their trigger event.

  She sighed and adjusted her visor. Yup. Another day of suck.

  The elevator doors swooshed open. She looked around the enormous domed room that made up the hub of the Ward HQ. Yup, just like she left it. Everyone was gathered in the main break area it looked like.

  Then she clapped eyes on what was sitting in the middle of the couch and felt the air whoosh out of her lungs. For the first time since joining the Wards her eyes were fixed on something other than Gallant. It was little, it was lavender purple, it had cute little hooves and big adorable eyes and tumbling black locks of mane and tail and a dinky spiral horn from its forehead and it was the most perfectly wonderful thing that Vista had ever SEEN--

  Taylor sat on the couch and chattered amicably with the other Wards. Things were actually going well; after getting over the awkwardness of introductions and her own shyness… and the totally unique awkwardness for everyone of holding a conversation with a talking mythical beast… they all opened up. Snacks and soda had been broken out and something of a makeshift “welcome to the team” party had taken shape. Gallant and Aegis were rather polite and charming, Kid Win was energetic and friendly, Clockblocker had an eccentric sense of humor, Browbeat was bluff but soft-spoken… they all went out of their way to make the new member feel welcome.

  Still, Taylor got the odd feeling that they were waiting-- some like Clockblocker, on pins and needles-- for something to happen.

  There was a chime from the elevator and the whoosh of doors opening. Clockblocker broke off in the middle of his story (something about a nun and a penguin) and looked up. “Ah, there she is,” he said with a crap eating grin.

  Taylor stared at him “What--”

  “OmigoshOmigoshOHMYGOOOOOOSSSSSSSH!”

  WHUMP!

  Without warning Taylor was hit amidships by a fast moving projectile. She got a brief impression of green cloth and blonde hair, and she suddenly had a twelve year old girl clinging to her like a limpet, seriously squeezing the stuffing out of her. “Ohmygosh she’sadorable ohgoshogosh a REAL LIVE UNICORN did some biotinkermakeherIcan’tbelievearealliveunicorn canwekeepher--”

  “Ladybird, meet Vista,” Aegis said, waving his hand in the air helplessly. “Vista, this is Ladybird.”

  The gleeful little girl looked up at him as she petted the lavender unicorn with one hand while nearly strangling her with the other arm. “oh is that her name? Is she our new mascot?”

  “Um, actually, I’m you’re new teammate,” Taylor said.

  “Ladybird,” Aegis said blithely. “Allow me to introduce Vista.”

  The transformation of Vista’s face from childlike glee to horrified dismay was heartbreaking.

  She was still sitting in the kitchen area a half hour later, back turned to the door. Taylor stuck her head in the doorway and sighed at the sight of the twelve year old Ward. She was hunched up on a kitchen chair, eating her way through a box of ginger cookies, sulking and miserable.

  It was only she had bolted from the break room literally shrieking in embarrassment that the others had broken down and gave Taylor the full story. After they had stopped laughing (that idiot Clockblocker was still giggling over the photos he’d taken on his cellphone.)

  Apparently Vista had triggered with her space-altering powers at something like the age of NINE, and had been a Ward ever since. She was consequently both the youngest member of the Wards-- and the one with the most seniority. But since the PRT rules said that rank was by age… well, she’d spent the last four years being ordered around by capes with one-tenth her experience, then watching them graduate to full Protectorate status-- only to have a brand new, inexperienced cape come in and replace them as leader and start ordering her around as well.

  On top of that apparently she had Triggered due to the fact that her parents were a pair of selfish, immature, overgrown children who were constantly fighting and perpetually on the fringe of divorce-- and like most poor children put in that situation she’d taken it upon herself to somehow try and pull her broken family together.

  Throw in a horrendous crush on Gallant on top of that, one that Vista thought nobody knew about but everybody did...

  To say she was a bit precocious as a consequence was an understatement. Her frustrations had made her constantly obsessed with being thought of as “mature” (hence the breastplate on her armor that she kept trying to make a bit more “breast” than “plate”) and was constantly posturing like she was a thirty year old veteran of the wars. She hated being called little or cute, she hated having to wear the skirted costume that made her look like a little girl (she was allegedly plotting to someday poison Glenn Chambers’ egg McMuffin), and she absolutely hated being caught acting like a little girl.

  The fact that she was a little girl had zero persuasive force with her.

  Taylor clip-clopped a few steps into the kitchen. Vista obviously heard her. “Don’t look at me,” she muttered.

  Taylor sighed. She’d already had her dignity upturned a half-dozen times this week… one more time wouldn’t hurt. At least for a good cause. She trotted over, sat down next to the stool, and leaned against the girl’s leg. “Hard day?” she said, looking up at her.

  Vista nodded. Taylor could practically see the girl struggling with the urge to reach down and pet her. She decided to up the ante and rested her head across the girl’s lap, pushing the box of cookies aside. “Ear skritchies,” she commanded.

  “Hey!” Vista protested, catching the cookie box.

  “Hay is for dinner. Ear skritchies now.” Vista looked conflicted, then gave in to the inevitable, digging her fingers carefully into the mane around her ears. Taylor smiled; it actually felt rather nice. Her hind hoof started tapping in time on the tile floor. “Mmm, I’m starting to see why dogs and cats like this so much,” she said. This elicited a giggle from Vista. Progress! “My code name’s Ladybird, but you can call me Taylor,” she said.

  “Um, really? Why Ladybird?” Wordlessly Taylor lit up her horn (eliciting a gasp of surprise from Vista) and lifted the hem of her shawl, revealing the ladybug on her hip. “Oh… neat,” Vista said, blinking. Taylor let the hem drop.

  “My code name’s Vista, but my real name’s Missy,” Vista said.

  “Sorta caught that,” Taylor replied. Missy’s face flushed red under her visor.

  “I’m sorry I did that,” she muttered.

  “Eh, I’m probably going to have to get used to it,” Taylor said. “I’m little, I’m cute-- adorable if I do say so myself-- “ she fluttered her lashes and smirked; Vista giggled-- “and people are going to treat me a certain way.”

  Vista’s expression soured. “Gee, that sounds familiar,” she muttered.

  Taylor poked her with a hoof. “Hey, no pouting,” she said. “At least you’ll grow out of it. And it’s not all that bad, you know.”

  “Really,” Missy said, her voice dripping cynicism.

  “Yeah really. At least this way people are nice to me… or at least they aren’t freaking out screaming that I’m a monster. Which would YOU rather be-- a cute and cuddly pony or something that looked like a naked mole rat?”

  Missy grimaced. “What’s a naked mole rat??”

  “Picture a rat that looks like someone turned it inside out,” Taylor said, amused.

  “Ew!”

  “Besides, sooner or later people will start respecting me for who I am, not just what I look like,” she said. “It just takes time.”

  “Too MUCH time,” Vista muttered, thinking of a certain armor-clad Ward and blushing slightly.

  “So? There’s no big rush. Till then I’ll enjoy what I have. Heck, I’m gonna exploit the heck out of it.” She looked up. “Now gimme a cookie.”

  Vista giggled, tried to smother it, then gave up. “Get your own cookies, Ladybird.”

  “But you have cookies right here and now,” Taylor said. She gave Missy the biggest puppy dog eyes she could manage and a wibbling lower lip. “Cookieeee...”

  “Okay, okay,” Missy said, finally giggling openly. She pulled a cookie out of the pack and stuck it in the pony’s open mouth.

  “Araarnum. Mmm, Good cookie,” Taylor said with her mouth full. She munched happily.

  “You’re more immature than I am,” Missy teased, giggling fit to bust now. “How old ARE you?”

  “Oh, fifteen,” Taylor said. “Practically an old woman.”

  “Is this how practically old women act?” Missy said sarcastically.

  “Whenever they want to. What’s the point of growing up if you can’t act like a little kid whenever you want to? ‘When I was a child, I acted as a child; when I grew up I put away childish things… including the childish need to be thought of as ever-so-grown-up,” she paraphrased, giving the younger Ward a knowing grin.

  Missy huffed. “They sent you in here to give me some sort of lecture on being “a normal kid,” didn’t they,” she mocked, making quote marks in the air and rolling her eyes. Her voice was full of the longsuffering of any child anywhere about being lectured by grownups.

  Taylor shrugged. “I came in here because this is where the cookies are. Speaking of which-- cookie.” Another cookie was popped in her mouth. “Fanks. Nom. …..Aaaaaand because you were here, and you were upset, and I felt kind of bad about that.” She finished her cookie. “So, you feel better?”

  Vista dimpled. “A little.”

  “Come back out with me?” Vista hesitated. “Come on, you aren’t gonna leave me alone out there with a bunch of doofus GUYS are you?….they’re talking about ordering in some pizza,” she tempted.

  “We’d better head back out there then and run an intercept. Kid Win puts pineapple on everything. Gak.”

  “Can’t have that,” Ladybird agreed with a chuckle. The two got to their feet and ambled to the door.

  “Can you eat pizza?” Vista asked in curiosity.

  “Sure. I can eat pretty much anything. I’m a little four-legged trash compactor...”

  On the way out the door Taylor looked over her shoulder and saw Gallant leaning, semi-casually, against the wall outside the kitchen. He gave her a covert thumbs up. Taylor gave him a smile in return, then went back to answering the youngest Ward’s question about unicorns.