I know her voice, how do I know her voice? I wondered as Shadow Stalker and Clockblocker argued. Apparently, she wasn't scheduled to patrol tonight and the Wards weren't supposed to go out and fight crime when they were off duty. Clockblocker said she needed to go home while Shadow Stalker said he'd never been Miss Piggy's bitch this much before.

Vista stood off to the side silently while I racked my brain trying to figure out why Shadow Stalker seemed so familiar to me. The mask muffled her voice but I knew I had definitely heard it before. Stupid tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon, I know I've met her.

The argument had apparently reached its peak as Shadow Stalker threw up her hands in annoyance. "I don't know why I bother trying to convince you of anything, you're just prey like all the other weaklings."

Wait...did she just call Clockblocker prey?

I only knew one person who used the terms predator and prey to describe people: Sophia Hess.

"Umm, Abnormal?"

Now that I knew that, I was able to easily recognize Shadow Stalker's voice as Sophia's. So many other things suddenly made sense. Why my complaints about the bullying never went anywhere. Why the teachers and staff were content to ignore it even when it happened in front of them. Why Sophia never seemed to get in trouble for anything she ever did to me.

"Abnormal?"

Everyone was covering for her because Sophia was a member of the Wards even though she wasn't even a good one! Based on what Lisa had told me Sophia was bloodthirsty and yet she was still allowed to run around and be a hero. She blatantly ignored the rules and despite the fact that she was supposed to be on probation nothing was done about it!

"Abnormal why are you getting bigger?" Vista practically shouted at me, drawing me from my thoughts.

I looked at myself, I was indeed larger than I had been. I was at least seven feet tall and had gained a fair bit of bulk. I would say it was all muscle but it wasn't like I had muscles while I was wearing Ivan.

"I'm getting bigger," I said while clamping down on the emotions that Ivan was sending my way. He really wanted me to attack Sophia. "Because I can't believe this bitch is your teammate."

"Well fuck you too," Sophia said as she moved her hands to the crossbows on her belt. I wasn't going to start a fight but I almost hoped she would attack me so I'd have an excuse to defend myself. Sadly, she didn't pull out her weapons.

Vista looked back and forth between the two of us. "You've met Shadow Stalker before?"

"Yea, I've met her," I said while shifting most of my eyes to the front of my body so they could focus on Sophia. "I would call her a cunt but she has neither the depth, the warmth, nor the capacity to give pleasure."

Clockblocker made a sound like he was choking on air as he brought his hand to his face. When Sophia turned to look at him he started coughing and then said, "Sorry...uh, a bug flew down my throat."

I don't think anyone believed him, and not just because his mask covered his mouth.

Sophia ceased looking at Clockblocker to turn and look back at me. Who am I kidding, she wasn't looking, she was glaring. "No wonder we're supposed to haul you in if you don't cooperate, I know dogs in heat that aren't as bitchy as you."

Don't attack Sophia in front of the other Wards, don't attack Sophia in front of the other Wards, don't attack Sophia in front of the other Wards. I repeated the mantra in my head. No matter how much she deserved it, I didn't want to be labeled a villain for this. I mentally counted to ten to calm myself down. It was only at that point that I finally processed what Sophia had said besides the insult. The Wards are supposed to arrest me?

"What did she mean you guys are going to 'haul me in'?" I asked, turning to look at Vista.

"Abnormal…there's…okay look," Vista took a breath and composed herself. "Based on what you told me about the guy you liked, Director Piggot was worried you were spending time with the new supervillain in town, Seraph or Pazooz or whatever his name is. Clockblocker and I were supposed to make sure you weren't going to join a gang or anything, that's all. The Director did say that if we didn't find anything to make us think you were a hero that we should bring you in but just a few moments after meeting you Clockblocker was already convinced that you were fine!"

Why you conniving little…

"Considering that you were under orders to try and arrest me if you thought I might be hanging out with Pazuzu, when you have a thug like Shadow Stalker on your team, I find all of this incredibly hypocritical. Not everyone I associate with is a saint but at least I would never torture and nearly kill an innocent girl."

I altered my body until I was nothing more than a pair of six foot tall legs and proceeded to stomp off. I could hear Shadow Stalker and Clockblocker start arguing again, though I wasn't sure about what.

"Abnormal wait!" Vista said from right next to me. I was tempted to ignore her and to take off at a run but I realized that with Vista's ability to alter space, she could probably keep up with me.

I sighed and stopped where I was. We had already walked a block in that short amount of time. I took a moment to be impressed at the distance we had covered before I focused on what Vista was saying.

"You're saying Shadow Stalker nearly killed a girl? What happened? How do you know about that?"

I was so angry about this whole situation that I didn't bother creating a mouth to talk, I just let my bubbles form on my legs. "I know about it because I pay attention to what goes on around me. If you and your teammates don't know about it that doesn't inspire much confidence considering Shadow Stalker is supposed to be on probation and theoretically should be closely watched."

Vista took a step back and looked at me suspiciously. "How did you know she's on probation?"

Is that really the issue you should be focusing on right now? I thought to myself. Outwardly, I simply said, "I have my sources."

"What you accused Shadow Stalker of is pretty serious. Will you come in and tell Miss Pigg-Director Piggot what you know?"

"The same Director that wanted you to haul me? Why bother? Shadow Stalker's crimes will just get covered up again."

"It won't get covered up!"

"It was before with the mugger, what makes you believe this time will be any different?"

"Well…because…because I won't let them!"

"If your Director told you to drop it because the investigation turned up nothing, would you continue to hound her, to ask her each day, about what was being done about Shadow Stalker? Especially considered that the only source of these accusation comes from a cape that's apparently only a step away from becoming a villain?"

"That's what I thought," I said when Vista failed to respond. "I liked you Vista, I want to be a hero, but I am not about to get involved with the PRT, Protectorate, or the Wards. Not after tonight."

My piece said, I walked off into the night. Vista didn't follow me this time.

I quietly snuck into the house. As much as I wanted to slam the doors in frustration, I was still thinking clearly enough to know that waking up my dad wouldn't help matters.

I was actually glad that Bitch had attacked me with her dogs earlier in the week. Prior to that I had thought I needed to vocalize a request in order to summon a demon. Learning that I could summon a Demon Lord just by being particularly emotional meant I made sure to clamp down on my thoughts when I was dealing with Sophia. I did not need to accidentally bring in something that would tear a Ward limb from bloody limb, however much I might want that.

Between that and learning that my demons unsummoned when they got a certain distance away from me was really driving home the fact that I did not know enough about my core powers. I'd been spending so much time inside of Ivan (wow that sounded dirty) that I had stopped experimenting with my primary power. I needed to figure it out more, and not just in the sense of figuring out which Demon Lords I could summon, I really needed to work on it, find out my strengths and weaknesses. Better that I find out about a limitation during testing rather than in the middle of a fight where it might cost somebody their life.

Okay, so I need to cut back on Ivan time because I'll get easily distracted otherwise. Actually, should I consider retiring him?

It was a bit of an unpleasant thought. I had fun wearing Ivan, he was eager to please and I felt I was really getting the hang of his powers. But Ivan, or rather Abnormal, was probably wanted by the PRT now and that could cause a lot of problems in the future if I was in the process of stopping a mugger and Armsmaster or someone shows up and tried to arrest me rather than the criminal.

Ivan's really hard to keep a hold of so I could probably get away if they tried to arrest me, but is it really worth the continuous hassle?

I debated the answer as I tiptoed up the stairs.

Not only that. But if 'Abnormal' disappears the same time as some new parahuman appears on the scene, they might get suspicious of me...then again they think Pazuzu is a parahuman and in a new gang or something so...gah! What should I do?

I stared at my bedroom door, trying to reach a decision. Eventually, I realized I needed a clean break and to just start over.

Dweirgus, I mentally called out as I entered my bedroom. I have a task for you.

"Certainly Miss Taylor, how may I assist you?" Dweirgus responded.

Ivan is no longer a suitable costume, I'm pretty sure the local authorities want to arrest me...him...you know what I mean. So I need a different demon to wear.

"Did you have anything specific in mind?"

No, when I first saw Ivan I thought he would have been terrible but you knew what you were doing when you created him so I trust your judgement to come up with something suitable.

"Eeeexxxxcellent."

I cut the connection. Dweirgus's tone of voice at the end there had been downright creepy. I imagine Jack Slash sounded the same when he recruited a new member into the Nine.

What did I just agree to?

"So Dweirgus isn't the only biotinker demon?"

"That is correct Taylor," Malcanthet answered from behind me. I had finally convinced her to stop putting 'Mistress' in front of my name, at least when we were alone. "Baphomet, Demogorgon, Lamashtu, and Pale Night are all associated, in various ways, with the creation of new demons. Dweirgus is the only one that tends to make modifications to the current crop, as it were."

"So he's not, necessarily, my only option."

"No, but he's probably your best option. Baphomet is constantly at war with Yeenoghu, while Lamashtu wants to kill Pazuzu so if you went to either of them you'd have to listen to constant complaints about that. Demogorgon is Demogorgon. And Pale Night is...let's go with reality breaking. Compare all of them to Dweirgus who has no specific enemies in the Abyss and who views his experimentation has a goal in and of itself as opposed to a means to an end, it's not much of a contest."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," I conceded.

"Why are you asking me these question? If I may be so bold."

"I decided to stop using Ivan after a thing with the Wards, told Dweirgus to make me a new costume. He sounded eerily eager. It made me want to, at least, look at other options."

"What 'thing with the Wards' would you be referring to?"

Drat, I had hoped she would have focused on the Dweirgus bit and not that.

"It turns out Shadow Stalker is one of the girls that has been giving me problems at school. Also turns out that Vista blabbed stuff I told her in confidence about you guys to her boss so they thought I was hanging out with supervillains."

Malcanthet didn't say anything.

"Well?" I asked after several minutes of silence. "Don't you have an I-told-you-so speech prepared? We did have that discussion a few days ago where you pointed out that just because someone was labeled as a hero didn't mean they were good people. You were right, I was wrong."

"And what would my gloating at you accomplish? You're already aware that what I told you was correct. Rubbing it in your face serves no purpose beyond inflating my own ego at the expense of your self esteem and possibly our relationship."

"That's...really mature."

"It would be like if you and I had an argument and I resorted to flinging insults at you. People often forget that the goal of an argument is not to 'win' but to convince the other person to come around to your way of thinking. If I call you names until you give up and walk away, sure I've 'won' the argument but I've damaged our relationship by showing that I'm willing to resort to emotional attacks because I don't respect you enough to have a calm, intelligent conversation with you and that I value 'winning' more than I do your self worth."

I really had no idea how to respond to that.

While I was trying to formulate a response Malcanthet suddenly announced, "All finished! Whaddaya think?"

She handed me a mirror so I could see myself.

"...you gave me dreadlocks," I deadpanned.

"Oh, so you're familiar with the hairstyle? The mortals I learned it from called it Jata."

"You can undo this right?" I asked as I set down the mirror. "Because there is no way I'm leaving the house with dreadlocks."

"Of course," Malcanthet said. "I wouldn't do something permanent without your knowledge and permission."

"Good, I have enough problems at school. Don't need to add to them by showing up with dreadlocks."

"This hairstyle has negative connotations?" Malcanthet asked as she started tugging on my hair. I could feel my scalp tingling so I assumed she was using her powers (I still refused to call it magic) on it.

"Dreadlocks tend to be associated with black people, and the most well known black parahuman in the city is Skidmark."

"That's the degenerate drug dealer? If that's the case I can understand your reasoning." Malcanthet chuckled. "The difference between cultures is amusing. The first mortals that I saw wearing their hair like this were ascetic holy men."

"Ascetic holy men?"

I had the sudden mental image of Skidmark getting into a debate about hair.

Ya'll thundercunts are engaging in some cultural appropriation right here.

Sir, please stop cussing.

Why? What are you motherfuckers gonna do about it? Starve at me?! I was doing that first too. See these teeth? Eating ain't easy!

Squealer mutters under her breath, 'that's his excuse anyway.'

I giggled to myself.

"So you've got Dweirgus making you a new costume and are now more aware of the problems you will have to deal with if you want to stop crime in your city. What is your plan, going forward?"

"That's a good question, but it's one I don't have an answer to," I admitted. "Heck, I still haven't even decided what I'm going to do about the Undersiders. Should I ignore them? Do I keep talking with them? Could I ask Brian out but ignore the rest of them? Do I send one of you guys to go kill Bitch or Hellhound or whatever her name is?"

"Are you actually asking me or are you just venting?"

"I'm venting, I'm not about to ask a Demon Lord whether or not I should kill somebody...no offense."

Malcanthet's only response was rich laughter.

Author's Note: And thus concludes the first arc. How'd you like it? Comments, concerns, predictions for the future? What will Taylor's next costume look like? Who will be the next demon she summons? What will her plan be for heroing?