I woke up the next morning and immediately froze in place. Without looking I began to move parts of my body just to make sure they were really there. Fingers, toes, arms, fingers, legs, fingers, neck, fingers, feet, fingers, wrists, fingers!

I leapt out of bed as soon as it hit me and was struck with the room being normal sized again. A smile spread across my face as I threw open my bedroom door and raced to the bathroom, not even pausing to consider my father's stunned look as I shoved him out of the way to get inside.

Last night, after momentarily freaking out over the fact that I had been completely naked for a short time, I managed to climb into bed. With Panacea's words in my mind, I stared at the clock and thought about being human. I wanted it, I wanted it more than anything. If I could just get a human form my life might not be completely ruined. There might be some hope for it. I fell asleep think about it as I stared at the clock for an immeasurable amount of time. And now, it all paid off.

When I finally got a look in the mirror I couldn't tell if l should be happy or not. I wasn't Taylor, or at least, not the same Taylor I was.

The first thing that caught my eye was my hair. It was the same silvery colour with hints of blue and purple in the under tones. It was also completely immune to bed head, apparently. I silently thanked my powers that it was still the curly mess that had been my only attractive feature. But I could see that wasn't the case now.

My face had smoothed out, not a single blemish or mark to be found. My thin, expressive lips had filled out, becoming a little larger. They weren't quite the 'kissable' ones that Emma had, but they were definitely cuter in a way that reminded me of Madison. My eyes had changed too, growing a little smaller and turning a pretty shade of lavender. My ears were smaller, cuter and my face no longer showed any of the features I inherited from Dad.

A thought entered my mind and I bit my lower lip, an action, I noted, that looked rather adorable on my new face. Hoping against hope, I looked down at my chest.

Nope, still as flat as ever. Dang it.

And with that thought, I realized I still couldn't swear and had to clench my fists. It was fine, so I couldn't swear like normal. I was just going to have to get creative. Like… son of a Bolshevik? Mmm... it was a start.

With a deep breath, I stepped back from the mirror and looked myself over as a whole. The clothing I was wearing before I changed had come with me, thankfully. It was just a t-shirt and some jeans, enough to see I still was still thin as a board and really tall. But with a little squeak of excitement, I noticed that I no longer had my father's gawky frame and the small amount of pudge I had before was gone.

Now my muscles were toned and my body was more womanly in all the subtitler ways. My chest was still flat and my hips weren't any wider, but without thinking about it I was holding myself differently. My skin was smoother and my stomach was flat. I also noted that I was full of energy despite having only just woken up

This was me now. Taylor Hebert, the cute girl with purple, silvery hair and legs for days. I honestly didn't know how to feel about this. The thought of showing up back at school looking like this terrified me. I could only begin to think of ways the trio could taunt me with this change. If I wanted to find my figure I could alway wear baggy clothing like usual, but there was no hiding this hair, these eyes.

"Taylor," My dad said next to me, breaking me out of my daze. He had a bundle of clothing tucked under an arm and was looking at me expectantly. Oh yeah, I sort of ran past as he was on his way to take a shower. "It's good to see you back to normal," he said, his eyes flicking downward and then back up. "More or less," he amended.

I took a deep breath and sighed. "Yeah, it does feel a little better now." He smiled at me and set his clothes down on the counter.

"Glad to hear it." He wrapped me up in a hug for a moment. I was grateful for the contact. After spending most of yesterday in horse form, the only human contact I received had been when Glory Girl yanked me off the floor, the hug was oddly reassuring.

"Now," he said, breaking away from me. "Why don't you go get breakfast and think about what we're going to do about this situation while I take my shower."

I nodded to him and squeezed past on my way out. He shut and locked the door behind him.

I made my way down the hall and into the kitchen. The remains of the destroyed chair from last night was piled in the can. I ignored it and went to make myself a bowl of cereal.

Relishing in my height and fingers, I cheerfully made myself a bowl as I casually ignored the thoughts about what Dad said. I sat down at the table at a chair I had not obliterated and started eating.

So, what to do with this power?

The most obvious choice was the Protectorate. They had everything I needed, teammates, resources, controlled environments to test my power. And most importantly, they brought everyone together harmoniously. Letting their powers work off each other in the best way possible. And for the first time in my life, I was a little excited about meeting people. I was certain that I could befriend some of the Wards, not to mention to Protectorate.

But there was something about them, something that was just off. I couldn't put my hoof on it, but something about them was a little strange. Like, while they looked cool and seem like just what I need, it felt like they weren't doing their jobs. Like no matter what they do, there was always conflict in the city. Always some chaos.

The next option was independent hero. There were several issues with that, most of all would be having to respect the rules the Protectorate set. I felt a twinge of annoyance at the thought. I heard chatter all over the internet forums about certain rules that weren't written anywhere. I didn't know them all, but I knew the Protectorate enforced most of them, even set some. It seemed rather counter intuitive to me, the faster the villains went down the sooner things became peaceful again. And after all, that is what everyone wants right?

If I became an independent hero I might try getting some teammates to back me up. If that chair was anything to go by, I could probably pack a punch with a little more training. But I was little a midget horse at the end of the day. While I will more than likely get underestimated because of that, I could reasonably assume I'm not going to be fighting Lung or Kaiser anytime soon.

But then I realized that I don't need to. Normal humans are the lifeblood of gangs, without them gangs fall apart. While capes like Kaiser and Hookwolf were the backbone, that was only against other capes. Gangs were around before capes were, and the police had a hard enough time dealing with them then. I didn't need to pick fights with capes, I just needed to take out the foundation of normal people they are built on.

I realized I had closed my eyes in thought at some point during this without noticing. I opened them and realized I was two feet tall again.

"Celestia curse it all to Tartarus!" I shouted, kicking a chair with a hoof and sending it skidding across the floor. "Seriously?" I asked no one in particular. "It takes hours to become a human but ten flipping minutes to become a horse? Why?!"

"Taylor are you okay I heard-" Dad cut himself off when he saw me sitting on the floor looking flustered, now back in horse form. "Ah," he said. "So I take it the human form doesn't stick as well as we hoped?"

I blew a raspberry and said, "It looks like I actually need to have being human on the mind, like when I fell asleep and when I was going about this morning. I was so caught up in thinking about what my next step should be I didn't even notice I was changing."

My father's eyebrows scrunched up together. "That feels like something a person would notice."

I glared at him. A small smile spread across his face.

"Alright, I'll take your word on it. So, have you decided what you want to do?" I could hear the apprehension creeping into his voice. I already had an idea of what his reaction was going to be, so I braced myself.

"I want to become an independent hero." As I stated I lifted a hoof and stomped it in front of me definitively. I say Dad take a deep breath and let out a sigh.

"Are you sure?" He asked seriously. I nodded.

"Definitely."

"Why not the Wards?" He asked. "I was looking them up last night. They would give you time to learn your powers, only send you on small scale mission, and even pay you decently."

I shook my head. "Because I can do more. While the Wards are safer, I can accomplish more on my own."

His eyebrows furrowed in concern. "I would feel better if you joined the Wards. You could get seriously hurt, and if you're alone no one will be able to help you."

"I'll have to help myself," I answered him. "I'm not going to be stupid about it. The first sign of Lung or anyone, I'm gone. I won't even fight any capes if I can help it." It didn't look like he was reassured.

"What is your plan?"

"I'm going after the normal people in the gangs," I answered quickly. "If I take out their man power and some of their illegal supply chains, I can cripple them enough that other heroes like the Protectorate or New Wave can take them out for good."

"You're not bulletproof," Dad told me. But to be fair, we hadn't tested that. I did run face first into a wall at neck breaking speeds and didn't hurt myself or the wall. "You're in just as much danger fight normal people as capes."

"Dad, there is going to be a danger no matter what I do. That is what happens when you become a cape."

"Well, what if you don't?" My dad asked, a little hint of desperation creeping into his voice. "Why don't you focus on your human form? You can go back to school, live a little more of a normal life. Not get into all this cape stuff."

"You know I can't do that," I said flatly, the kinder tone dropping out of my voice. He opened his mouth to protest but then he saw my expression and I could guess what was going through his mind.

In a normal person's life, there was a point where parents had to accept they just couldn't do anything about it. For most kids, that was when they had their own job and were paying for their own car and gas. At that point, a parent might not like it, but the kind has every right to go out and do as he pleases and the parent is limited to what they can do to stop them. I imagine that is exactly what was going through my father's mind right now.

I had superpowers, and I was going to use them. And in this moment, Dad knew he couldn't change that. He could only mitigate the damage.

"I'd still feel better if you joined the Wards," he finally said, if a bit weakly. I shook my head.

"Maybe if I can't actually accomplish what I think I can." I saw his expression rise a little at that, so I decided to give it to him and move on. "Tonight I'm going out to the Trainyard to test some things, see what I can do."

"You're not going out fighting people, right?" Dad asked slowly.

"No," I answered. Like I had said, I'm not stupid. "I just need to figure some stuff out, see what I'm capable of."

"Then Taylor, can you promise something?"

"What is it," I asked suspiciously.

"When you go out for real, I want you to call New Wave. I don't know if this is something they normally do, but see if you can get Glory Girl to go with as an extra layer of protection. Just to be as safe as possible." I studied him. He looked a little pained at asking, but I could at least do him give him this one.

"Alright Dad, all give her a call when I'm ready to start going out."

"Thank you, Taylor." Dad suddenly knelt down and hugged me tightly. I was shocked for a few moments before he let go and looked up at the clock. He paused and glanced down at me.

"I have to go to work," he said apologetically. "I'll be back later." He paused then said, "And don't get into any trouble please." I rolled my eyes.

"Yes Dad," I said sarcastically. He smiled a little and turned towards the door, picking up his keys off the key rack. As soon as he was out the door I looked up at the table was my bowl of cereal was left abandoned. I wonder if my not-fingers could hold a spoon?

***

I found myself in the Trainyard later that night, all alone. I had been picking up discarded bottles and throwing them as hard as I could at the sides of old shipping containers crumbling boxcars. Neither stood much of a chance. I moved onto small stones and found that I could move them reasonably fast, punching through the thin metal of the containers as if they were paper. The telekinesis was only getting easier the more I practiced it, now I was at the point that I could pick up several dozen pebbles and have them all doing different things simultaneously. My record was thirty-three at this point.

I moved on to other tactics.

I recalled from last night that when I sort of flexed my horn muscles it had spread out over the room and sank into the objects around me. I tried that now, throwing as much energy as I could through my horn and letting it flow.

The energy spread out about fifty feet before coming to a stop. At first, it was like a really fuzzy picture, but as I kept going it grew sharper and I began to pick up details. I start getting a feel for small rocks, bugs, the shape of storage containers, all sorts of things. Then I began noticing plants.

They caught my attention for some odd reason so I walked over to the nearest one. It was a weed, a dandelion. My energy was interacting with it some way, something was different. I tilted my head and tried to get a better perspective on it. I stopped letting my magic flow wildly and directed it at the flower.

I felt a pull inside of me. It was an emotion of some sort I could tell, some way connected with this flower. Continuing to direct my energy at it, I started searching through all my emotions to find what it was the flower was pulling at. Suddenly I found it.

Determination.

It instantly made sense to me, that a weed would be linked to that emotion specifically. It was a tough, vigorous kind of plant. It needed it. I remembered my only feeling earlier today when I was talking to Dad, how I felt determined to become a hero. I directed that at the dandelion.

The glowing light around my horn suddenly shifted colour to a bright orange and the flower was surrounded in it as well. I let it go for a few seconds before cutting it off. But even when I was no long flexing my energy at it, the plant continued to glow.

I don't know what I've done, but it was clear I did something to it. Changed it somehow. Without thinking, I reached forward and ate it.

The moment the plant hit my tongue I was assaulted with two feelings. One, this planted tasted really good holy crap! I needed more of these!

Secondly, I felt a sharp twinge of energy move through me. As the plant slid down my throat, I felt the feeling increase. My blood began pumping in my veins and I felt my adrenaline trigger. I blinked and took a few steps back.

I had a guess on what just happened, but I needed to know more. I looked around, letting my energy spread again. This time I found some wild daisies growing out of the ground where a storage container meet it.

I threw energy at, a little more violently than I had with the dandelion. Once again I felt a tug at a particularly feeling inside of me as the energy enveloped the flowers. This time, I thought about what daisies represented. If the weeds were determination, then daisies would be more light hearted. Something…. Heartwarming? No, hopeful? No, Cheerful? Yes! That's the one.

This time I didn't attempt if finding a memory to attach to it, I just threw cheerfulness at it as best I could. My horn shifted colour as it and the plant was consumed in bright yellow light. I relaxed my energy. The glow remained, if a little dimmed. I reached forward with my mouth and bit off the head of the flower. And I was only marginally more excited for the taste of it than I was seeing what the effect was.

I wasn't sure how to describe the taste of daisy. If was about exactly like how you might expect a flower to taste, only enjoyable to a fine degree. I could really enjoy making some sort sandwich out of this. Maybe a milkshake? Can I drink milk? I growled silently, apparently, powers weren't the only thing I needed to test.

It took me a moment to realize what exactly the effect was. It was subtle enough for me to skip over it at first glance but when I looked around I noticed more. Or rather, I was seeing things in a much higher detail than I had before. I could see the grooves in the rocks on the ground, the subtle was the ground had been torn up and moved by years of long since gone large equipment moving back and forth across it years ago. I could see through the darkness like the moon was constantly shining on me, no longer needing to use the distant lights of barely working street lamps to see my way.

Now more than a little curious about my power's interaction with plants I let my power spread out again, seeping into every available surface it came across. I was aware of that strange tiredness from before creeping back in. I decided that I would pace myself a little more if it grew much, but push myself over my limit by the end just to see what would happen.

As far as wild flowers went in the middle of a bustling city like Brockton Bay, even in an practically abandoned train yard, I didn't have a lot of options. Weeds were the most common, patches of grass after that. There were a few daisies spread out here and there. After a minute I found a new one, unable to tell exactly what just from my energy sense. I started to walk towards it.

I suddenly came to a stop. At the fringes of my power, I felt people standing around, barely moving at all. With a little trepidation, I stalked forward one hoof at a time in an attempt to not draw any attention to myself. I cut off my energy. I didn't think a natural flow of energy caused my horn to glow, but no point in taking chances if I wasn't sure.

Making use of my small body, I wiggled underneath a box car and crawled forward. My stomach brushed the ground lightly as I went, coming uncomfortably tight when I had to crawl over the railroad track and my back brushed up against the surface of the car.

When I came out on the other side I realized that there was still another set of tracks and cars between me and these people. Once again, I got low and started moving.

When they came into sight I recognized them instantly as one of the gangs. With the daisy already wearing off, it was impossible to tell which as I couldn't see their colours. I could see their skin though, which was uniformly white. But that could either be the E88 or the ABB, as both sets of people had pretty white skin, particularly in the dark like this.

There was about twenty feet of open pavement between us, putting me just out of earshot. I could see about twenty or thirty of them gathered up on that side, meaning they were here to do something. No reason to congregate in these numbers otherwise. So I had to find a way to get closer and hear what they were saying. And soon because they were all suddenly turning their attention to someone who appeared to be giving instructions.

I started looking for alternatives. Anything that could be useful in any way. Something that could cover my approach maybe. Then I saw exactly what I needed and I cursed myself for fitting the cartoonish appearance so well.

A minute later I was tiptoeing across the ground with a cardboard box draped over my body. Luckily everyone seemed more concerned with the guy that was talking to them and I was relatively unnoticed. When someone did look my way I simply stopped and crouched so the box would cover me completely and wait for the person to look away. I could make out the murmur of words, I just needed to get a little closer to hear.

"... Always make sure to do that, damn niggers ain't worth two bullets." Well, that answered which gang. "Now," the stranger continued. "You'll each have a pistol for the job, fifteen bullets in a magazine. Each one of you will have ten magazines to reload. I don't know if you can do basic math but that means you're carting a hundred and fifty bullets each, times thats by the lot of you. And remember; one nigger, one bullet. We don't have to kill them all, but just enough that the rest will get the message."

I felt my blood run cold as I realized the gravity of the situation. This was the E88, and they were about to stage a racial cleansing.

"Now Rune and I will back your back up." The man stated. "We don't expect capes but just in case we'll be here, disguised among you lot to get the drop on them."

I shifted my position a little to find a gap between the people to get a better look at the guy giving the orders. If at this distance and only glimpsing him through the people it was immediately obvious who it was.

Hookwolf, standing side by side with Rune.

I took a deep breath. I couldn't get to a phone to call for help, not soon enough for it to matter anyway. I could call the Protectorate or New Wave and the best case scenario is that Hookwolf and Rune distract them while the rest attending keep going. There was really only one option, I had to find a way to cripple them.

There were three options the way I saw it. I could pick up a lot of small rocks, but the more I picked up the less force I could put behind each of them. Given my limit was about at thirty rocks I could have almost one rock for each person. But I didn't need them all out, just most of them. If I dropped that number to fifteen I could probably shoot the rocks through their legs and half their force. I could make a run for it then, call who I need. Provided I could escape the two capes.

Alternatively, I could pick up a single rock and put everything I had into a single shot right through Hookwolf skull. I read his PHO page, nothing but a lethal shot would put him down. And right now, while in his most human form, this was the best chance I was likely to get.

Rune might propose a probably as well. I wasn't sure I wanted to pit my telekinesis against her's just yet. She was far more experienced than me and if I had to deal with Hookwolf and gang members at the same time I likely would lose.

Meaning no matter what my choice I was still faced with one or two more threats.

Carefully, I selected two rocks as I came to my decision. Then I telekinetically shoved them into Hookwolf's eyes.