"Alright, walk me through this one more time," I said, holding my head in my hands after having spent an hour and a half becoming human again. Dad, Lisa, Amy, and I were sitting around a large mahogany table in a spacious house with hardly any other furniture in it. It was the kind of house a rich person used to a middle-class lifestyle lived in. Large, in good shape, a backyard with multiple trees, a tall wooden fence separating you from the neighbors, and an in-ground pool in the back. And it was my house, apparently.

"So, in the two days we were in the bubble, you bought this house-,"

"Yes," Lisa said with a nod. "Cost almost all of my money and the companies I stole it from are currently conducting an investigation so I won't be able to do much more."

"-and you managed to enrol us both in Arcadia-"

"Because a certain someone who was cheating on their wife was sent a very convincing letter."

"-Got a detailed outline of The Sentient and how they work-"

"It is surprisingly easy with Will giving me all the information he had and two days to work my power on it."

"-Put together our deal with New Wave-"

"That bit was easy, although it was a little difficult to pacify Victoria when she was asking where Amy was. We're supposed to unveil ourselves sometime this week."

"-And during all this, you didn't worry about the three of us in the least."

"Psh," Lisa said with a wave of her hand. "What was to worry about? I knew you would be fine, mostly. Not like the power structure of Brockton Bay."

"And what do you mean by that?" Amy asked. Lisa gave a half-hearted shrug and said,

"Well, all the cape fighting lasted only a day, with gang fights for territory only stopping yesterday. The Sentient offed a few capes in the beginning, Oni Lee, Fenja and Menja, Alabaster, and Stormtiger. Then everyone, including The Sentient, got thoroughly and utterly fucked.

"You see, The Merchants got these new capes, real powerhouses too. They came in unexpectedly and hit The Sentient hard, distracting them long enough for Coil to reclaim a lot of territory they had taken from him. Lung came in not long after Oni Lee bit it and just steamrolled into Sentient territory. The Pedites lost everything they had, if distinguishing the four different gangs is really worth the time anymore. But I think The Sentient knew they were fucked in this battle because they put most of their men into stealing from The Empire, ABB, and Coil while they were fighting. The Sentient lost most of their territory and a lot of manpower, everyone else lost most of their money and stock.

"But that isn't even the worst of it," Lisa continued, getting a little more excited about this than she should be. "Because the Kaiser fucking lost it apparently, told all of his people to get as far from him as possible and started doing things on his own. It was like he suddenly didn't trust a single person. Shantytown in cover in a blade forest now, with the PRT doing their best to take it down. He got away though."

"A lot happened the last two days," my dad observed. Lisa nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, but that about sums it up. Everyone is on the edge of their seat, waiting to see what is going to happen next. I think The Empire is getting ready to split up."

"Did anything else important happened?" I asked.

"Well," Lisa thought for a moment. "A few Empire capes got arrested, however long that is going to last. We lost a few independent heroes and mercenaries when trying to move in and take out Kaiser. The PRT has been attempting to bring its PR back from the dead by introducing its new Wards as a villain rehabilitation program that has shown promising results."

"What about the other Supesu bubbles?"

"Oh yeah," Lisa said with a snap of her fingers. "All of the others ones stopped working after a couple of hours, but they all had time dilation effects that made the people inside feel like they were there for a much longer time than they were. One made all surfaces reflective and lessened the effect of gravity. Another made everything pitch black to the people inside except for noise, which was somehow given visible colour. The one at the mall was the most interesting. On the inside, the whole building became absolutely massive. Anything that wasn't alive or being worn at the time grew almost six times in size. But bubble had a space warping effect like Vista so even though it was much larger, it occupied the same amount of space. It made the people inside look really small by comparison. Because of how big the doors were compared to people trapped inside, only four people made it out and we're not sure exactly how. But yeah, fun stuff."

"We're going to need to discuss your definition of fun," I said, rubbing my temples. This was a lot to process, although not all that complex. In short, I could sum it up as The Sentient lost a lot but stole a lot too, The Empire is on a knife's edge, and we were going to be part of New Wave. It was committing all the smaller details to memory that was going to be difficult.

"So what do we do now?" Amy asked. Oddly enough, it was my dad who stood up and said,

"Well, I for one would like to get all my furniture out of the house and over here." He paused and looked around the house. "I have to hand it to you Lisa, this is a pretty nice place. How much did it cost?"

"Trust me, you don't want to know," Lisa answered. "But on the topic of getting things over here, I was thinking Taylor could just teleport everything over here. I put a bunch of planters and things in the basement where we're keeping Amy's plant armour so Amy could get set up down there, maybe start making the plants for more of Taylor's magic potions. Or… other things."

"Other things?" Amy asked with a frown.

"Well," Lisa said slowly, causing me to look at her curiously. This was odd behaviour from her. "Two days is a lot of time to think, and I might have talked to one of the new Wards who happens to be a Thinker too, and we got to talking about your power. And he had this idea where you made a plant or bio-machine of sorts that grows O negative blood. Or maybe, if you got enough experience, a bio-machine that can make new organs entirely."

"Those would be really complex plants, if you could call them plants at all," Amy said, her eye brows furrowing together as she put a hand to her chin in thought.

"But not impossible," Lisa said. "Ergo, or Thusly now, and I pretty much guarantee it is possible."

"Thusly?" My dad said curiously, putting himself back in the conversation. "This is one of the new Wards?"

"Yes," Lisa said, shooting him a look through narrow eyes. A slight smile spread across Dad's face.

"I see, so what's he like."

"He's… fine."

"I see, I see." He paused for a moment. "Are you planning on introducing us or-"

"I see what you're doing," Lisa interrupted, pointing a finger at him. "And I refuse to let it continue."

"Alright," Dad said, holding his hands up defensively. "Just run it by me if you do bring him by the house." My dad, probably wisely, turned and left the room at that while Lisa shot him a glare as he did so.

"So…" Amy said. "The bio-machines?"

"Yeah, right," Lisa said with a shake of her head. "Seeing as you made that armour on the fly, with a little bit of practice it shouldn't be too hard for you to make these bio-machines like this. Even making seeds for them, turning them into a resource for hospitals to buy and grow."

"You know Amy," I said as I thought about it. "If you wanted to help the most people, couldn't you also make a disease fighting bacteria or virus that could spread and grow on its own?"

"I guess," Amy said, her frown increasing.

"Maybe we should let Amy experiment like that at her own pace," Dad said. "In the meantime, I could really use my armchair right now."

"Okay," I said, rising from my chair. "I'll go turn back into my horse form and start on that."

"And I'll start making the potions you'll need," Amy said, also rising with me.

"In that case," Lisa began. "I'll let Carol know we're ready to make the announcement of us joining New Wave in a couple of hours. That sound good to you guys?"

"Fine by me," I answered.

"I'm okay with it," Danny said with a nod. Amy was oddly silent on the subject. Lisa looked between us for a moment and then nodded.

"Alright then, let's meet back here in four hours in costume. Then the two of us can reveal our smiling faces to the world."

***

I was walking downstairs into our basement a little bit later after having teleported between the two houses over two dozen times just to get all our possession over to the new place. And then using my telekinesis to put everything where it should go. My dad never even had to get out of his armchair, which looked rather out of place on the fresh carpets of the new house.

I found Amy sitting idly by one of the long rectangular planters sitting by the wall. It was overgrown with various plants. Ever since Lisa had taken over the making of potions I had lost track of all the different plants we had and what each one did. With Amy making them with magic circuits I didn't need to charge them, further separating me from them. Not that I didn't appreciate not draining myself emotionally and magically for hours each day.

Will was in a new cell in the far corner of the basement. He had a cot now along with a blanket that he was laying on top of. He appeared to be asleep, a magazine he was given draped over his face.

Moving my gaze away from him, I walked over to Amy. My hooves clopped on the concrete floor, alerting her to my presence. I spoke as she turned to look at me.

"Hey, how's it going?" I asked.

"Fine, I guess," she answered noncommittally with a shrug. She turned back to her plants and touched one with a hand, a new flower blooming just a moment later.

"Doesn't sound fine," I noted, waking up next to her. I leaned forward and smelled one of the flowers. It had an almost cartoonishly good smell. Appropriate. "Is it the thing with New Wave?"

She didn't answer me, focusing on her plants. I let out a sigh and turned to look at some more of her plants. The planters on the other side of the room had more exotic plants and small trees growing fruits a little too big for their small branches. It was rather obvious this was all her work, as there wasn't nearly enough sunlight coming through the high windows to justify this kind of growth. That, and it was a little cold for oranges, particularly this close to winter.

"You know that morning after you came to the house for the first time?" I asked without looking away from the plants. "I offered to listen, I didn't give a word of advice. Just listened. I can do that again, if you like, but I'd rather help you."

She was silent for a long moment, the sounds of rapidly growing plants filling the basement. Then she spoke, saying,

"Do you mind if I asked you something?"

"Sure," I responded.

"What is a father supposed to be like?"

I paused. I wasn't expecting that. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, almost everyone only has one father and one mother, so we only really know what our parents act like. So when you see the dynamic of a different relationship it can seem weird, but sometimes it can seem better. So, what are parents supposed to act like, to you?"

I fell silent as I thought. Should I tell her what I thought, or what she wanted to hear? For that matter, did I even know what she wanted to hear? I knew from her conversation with Victoria that Carol had stifled her, kept her where she could keep tabs on her. I also heard something about Mark taking medication and him doing something odd when he was off it, along with an accusation that Carol was the reason he needed the medication. Do I tell her that a father is supposed to be friendly? That a father always cared for you no matter what? I still recalled a moment when my own dad had exploded into a rage while at work. He didn't do it often, but it was hard to forget when he did.

In the end, I decided to go with the best truth I could think of.

"I think a father is someone who always is there. Someone who you can count on to be there, no matter what you've done or what you're running from. A person that will give you space when you want it and not ask questions you don't want to answer, but is willing to listen when you want to."

"Oh." She fell silent again, not even the sound of plants filling the room this time. Suddenly, another voice broke the silence.

"Would it be too forward for me to put in my two cents?" Will asked, suddenly wide awake and attentive. Both Amy and I shot him a glare.

"This was one of those private conversations," I said pointedly.

"Hey, if it's private, don't have it next to my cell. I'm serious, it is really boring in here." Will sat up on the cot and let out a sigh. "But on a more serious note, I think Nova is a little off on her view of a father."

"And what exactly do you know about it?" Amy asked sourly.

"Why, I was a father once. I even wrote a speech about it in my off time." Will leaned back and adopted a deeper voice. "It was the summer of '88 and me and Diane had just-"

"No," I sated with a shake of my head. "Anything but another monologue."

"Fine," Will said with an eye roll. "Maybe another day. Anyway, my point would have been this; a father exists solely to bear responsibility." He leaned back forward and fixed Amy with a look.

"The moment child is born, the father exists to provide for that kid. To do whatever he needs to do to provide for her. Provide financial support, sometimes emotional support though that is normally the mother's job, and teach them how to survive in the world they're about to enter. And when they leave home, a father is supposed to be there if she ever needs to come back. Of course, it also a father's job to do their level best to scare away boys from their daughter, but I wouldn't know about that part."

"Um, thanks. I guess." Amy said awkwardly, like she didn't know quite what to make of Will. But to be fair, neither did I. Amy stood up and brushed herself off even though there was nothing to brush off. "I'm… going to go do a thing."

She left the room at a brisk pace. As soon as she was gone I threw a harsh look at Will, who held up his hands defensively.

"Hey, I was just trying to be helpful." He said, his smug grin returning to his face for a moment before fading away. He paused for a moment then slowly said, "By the way, I think you might have a Master effect."

"What?" I said, raising an eyebrow at him as I wondered what he was playing at.

"Well, I spent the last decade or so watching everything I've said, ever aware that the wrong word might get me killed. I haven't thought about my little girl in years, gone out of my way not to. But ever since I met you, it's all I could think about. Not to mention this abnormal urge to talk about it. Needless to say, I'm not acting like I should. When you're around, I'm not the man I spent years building."

"So, you think I have some sort of therapist Master effect?" I asked skeptically.

"Maybe," Will said with a shrug. "I only noticed it because I've kept careful control over everything I say and feel for a very long time, others aren't so lucky. But if anyone has been opening up to you when they don't have much reason to, I would think it shouldn't be much a question."

I stared at him for a moment before turning away. I needed to ask Lisa about this.