Interlude 1.a - Trouble in Danny Town

The walls were painted, the creaking floorboards were replaced, the supports were reinforced with more material, old electrical systems were replaced, the plumbing was completely fixed, the HVAC system was overhauled and even the insulation was improved. They'd somehow even managed to do the roof while it was snowing.

Looking at the house now that all the work was over, Danny couldn't help but think back to when he was still living here with his parents, back when the house was still relatively new, or at least not considered old. Nostalgia was something he was intimately familiar with, but it was rare for it to be even remotely positive like this time.

By the time Annette had moved in, the house was already on its way to looking decrepit. Naturally, the amazing woman had made a whole plan to go about fixing the house in small increments so that we wouldn't have to move out even temporarily. Now that he thought about it, his wife had made the plan with Taylor in mind after she'd found a study that showed how children can be negatively affected by moving.

'There I go, thinking about Annette again.'

Shaking his head with a sigh, Danny went over to grab the last of the Hot chocolate and made his way to where the rest of the dockworkers were gathered.

The kids had already gone to sleep after some conversation with the others. Daniel, despite his impressive physique still seemed pretty tired. However, it looked more like mental exhaustion instead of the physical kind the work done would imply.

Taking a seat on the only free chair, Danny sipped his beverage and faced his friends as he waited for the conversation to die down. Eventually, all the dockworkers were seated and were waiting for someone to speak up.

"So…Is anyone going to talk about how we just finished all that work in a day?" Martha was the first to break the silence.

"Right, thanks, Martha. So which one of us is the Cape, and why the fuck did you choose to reveal your powers like that?"

"Ugh, I know you don't keep up with the Parahuman news, but this is old stuff, Bill. You don't get powers without Trigger Events, and I don't think anything unusual happened to any of us. Unless one of you saved a puppy from a speeding Truck or something? Then again the power is perfect for a dockworker, but I don't think any of us did something special at work, and our work has been shit for a while now."

"Bah! Out with that positive trigger nonsense! Capes don't get superpowers from doing good. It's always when something really bad happens. It's not one of us."

Before they could go further, Danny spoke up. "I'm sure some of you figured it out already. You know why Daniel is living here now. He lost his parents in a car crash, while he himself survived the incident with little to no injuries. If that isn't a Trigger Event then I don't know what is."

"You think this was a roundabout way to tell us he has powers? He might not want to talk about it, so he showed us directly?" Lacey spoke with an uncertain expression on her face.

"Kids can be weird, so that's a possibility. But kids can also be dumb. I don't think he thought things through. Probably wanted to just help Danny out by speeding up the work. Daniel probably thought he distracted us with the singing. He was pretty good though. Good enough to be on TV."

"Uh well, he did kinda get me. I didn't notice what was wrong until after we were done." / "Yeah me too!" / "I didn't notice until I took a break to piss." / "Same." / "He's got good powers though, perfect for our kind of work." / "Is the singing, part of the powers?" / "Nah, I think he's just that good."

Before they could get further, Kurt stepped in to speak over everyone and Danny winced. "We can talk about how Danny's nephew is a super dockworker later. We have to tell him not to use his powers in front of others so carelessly anyways. But, since we're on the topic of kids, can we address what the hell is up with Annette's little girl?"

At that, everyone else paused and looked around at each other before turning to Danny.

Kurt continued. "We haven't been here in a while and Taylor is a teenager, so becoming really shy isn't something out of the ordinary. But you only really have to look at her for a little longer to know that there's a problem. She's acting like a classic abuse victim; we've all seen that shit on TV. Now we're all friends here and know each other well enough, so I know it's not because of something you've done, Danny. But, if this is related to that accident that got her into the hospital last month, then that means whatever you're doing to fix it isn't enough."

At that, Danny baulked at the insinuation that he was responsible for hurting his little girl. Before the familiar anger could course through him he realized that if someone looked at it from the outside then it would indeed look like it was his fault.

Before he could get a word in, Kurt spoke one more. "Before you say anything, I want you to know that it was obvious enough that your 12-year-old nephew tried cheering her up. And from the way she cried, means that, at least from Taylor's perspective, this was the first time someone helped her. I don't know why you didn't tell us anything, maybe you thought there was a good reason, but it doesn't matter. We owe her mother enough that we have to help. So, I'm begging you, Danny, don't leave anything out, tell us everything."

He wanted to respect Taylor's perspective but couldn't but seeing Kurt's sincerity, Danny didn't hold back and told them everything he knew.

When he was done telling them everything Danny felt drained, but also relieved.

Martha was the first one to break the silence once again, she started calm, but progressively got more heated. "I think we already established that kids can be dumb. You can't treat them like people from work, Danny. If a kid says that they think the only reason Hookwolf is a villain is because he didn't get enough scritches and pets, you don't respect their opinion, you make sure they understand they're wrong. You barely know anything about what's happening, other than she's being bullied. You can't just trust her to deal with it and leave it at that because she asked you. I know you don't like showing her your anger, but this is a situation where being fucking angry is the right thing to do! No, it's the only thing to do! Some pieces of shit fucked with your little girl; you don't let that go!"

Danny wanted to argue. Say that it wasn't right, but he knew it was him in the wrong. It was because he always kept a tight lid on his anger that when he did accidentally let go, the results were always explosive. That was why he didn't try finding out more on his own, thinking he would make things worse for his daughter.

Alexander clapped his hands and rubbed them together, getting everyone's attention. "So, we gonna break some legs, or what?"

Lacey laughed. "Now, now. They'll be kids. We can't go that far. But even kids need a spanking sometimes. If their parents can't do it we'll do it for them. If we're going to be breaking anyone's legs it's going to be the fucking teachers and principal, maybe even the kid's parents."

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Kurt held his wife's hand and spoke. "We'll do that. But first, we find out who the ones responsible are. Discreetly. No need to spook them into hiding and destroying evidence if there is any. But the kids these days are inseparable from their phones, so I'm willing to bet we find something. Alexander, don't you have a cousin that goes to Winslow? We can start there. I'm guessing the bullies have some gang connections, probably nothing big, but if the school staff isn't doing anything to stop it then that means something weird is going on. As for Taylor, we can't let her go there until we solve this. I've been looking into online high school-level Tests for Old Coulson's grandson. Winslow's a shithole from what we've heard anyway, let Taylor study at home. She can come with us to work on days we have less of a slog, she's silent enough that she won't be a bother. Of course, by the time we're done with this, we're going to make sure we get Taylor back to being the boisterous, nerdy kid she was, or at least close to it. Or maybe she'll prefer her Mom's serious schoolteacher attitude. Regardless, she's the daughter of two of the toughest sons of bitches I know, she'll get her confidence back."

'I guess this is really going to happen now.' Danny couldn't help but smile and hope that this would be for the better, as his friends started planning things out.

Walking over to the landline, Danny held the handset to his ear, while his fingers hovered over the number pad as he prepared to call Alan.

But as he began to dial his friend's number, Danny paused. Now that he wasn't blinded by his anger and held a semblance of hope, he thought about whether his friend, who he thought was definitely a better parent than him, would allow something like what happened to Taylor, to happen to Emma. He thought about whether Emma, who used to be Taylor's friend, would leave her alone to be bullied, even if they didn't talk as much anymore.

Something was odd and he didn't know what exactly these things meant. Annette would have been there to answer his doubts if she were here.

"I'm begging you, Danny, don't leave anything out, tell us everything."

Recalling Kurt's words, Danny knew he didn't have to do things by himself. He had other people to rely on.

Putting the headset away, he started walking back to the gathering.

'You don't call a lawyer before you break the law. And I have a feeling we're going to break both the law and a few limbs. I'll discuss this with the others before calling anyone else.'

Initially, he had thought about suing the school, but now he didn't think that would do anything. His friends' approach might be the right one.

'Maybe', Danny thought, 'if I loosened my hold on my anger on purpose, then I'd control myself better.'

And if he was being honest, he was a little tired of holding it back.

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Taylor Hebert faced the ceiling, lying awake in bed.

She felt sore all over, tired beyond belief. It wasn't anything new. With Sophia hitting her and dealing with the Trio and their followers as a whole, feeling sore and tired were things she was familiar with.

But today was different. This was a good kind of sore, one that felt better than when she finished her morning runs. The exhaustion was something that would guarantee a good night's sleep instead of keeping her awake at night.

And yet, Taylor Hebert fought through her exhaustion to keep her consciousness for a little longer.

'Today was fun. Today…was fun?'

Somehow, that thought seemed absurd. Her best days were the ones that could simply be described as neutral.

Thinking back to how she danced and sang with Daniel, she couldn't help but smile.

The open display of emotion was something she instinctively tried to force down, but somehow her hand found its way to her lips, and she forced down the urge.

Then she remembered that she danced and sang in front of sooo many people. Flipping around she screamed into her pillow with mortification.

How did Daniel do something like that without getting embarrassed?

'Probably because he didn't have anything to be embarrassed about. He was just that good.' She could still remember his voice, the way he created a song while working and perfectly fit it to the situation and coaxed everyone to sing along with ease.

'Through the sweat and tears we've shed,

Our bond grows stronger, there's no thread.

In every challenge, we found a way,

Together we brighten even the darkest day.'

'With smiles that light up the room,

We chase away any hint of gloom.

Hand in hand, we face the unknown,

Turning obstacles into stepping stones.'

Thinking about how she'd started crying, Taylor released another scream into her pillow.

She thought that they would be weirded out, maybe disgusted. But Daniel and her Dad's colleagues didn't say anything about it. They simply smiled at her. Not the kind of cruel smirks she had gotten so used to facing, but actual well-meaning smiles from good people.

The events of today were so refreshing to her that she realized it had been so long since she experienced something that was simply positive.

She'd always thought of following in her Mom's footsteps and becoming a teacher or professor, preferably for literature. After today's events, she was considering her Dad's work.

'Lacey and Martha are both pretty muscular. Definitely more than Dad. Maybe they could teach me?'

Her Dad always complained about work, but he was old. Maybe she could help him and the Dockworkers out?

She had powers now, after all, she could definitely make things easier for them and deal with any problems they had.

While Taylor did want to continue contemplating further, she was too tired to do so and that ended up being one of the last coherent thoughts of the night.

What she didn't notice was that for once, she had completely forgotten about her burgeoning ambition of becoming a hero. Although a therapist would have called it a coping mechanism.

She would remember it again the next day, after all, she was constantly multitasking and working on her costume when she was home. And while it would take longer, she would eventually notice the dissonance between her ambitions.

But before all that she would look for a new place to make her costume. Daniel's stupid bug spray had proven to be an actual nuisance she had trouble dealing with. While she could overwhelm it with enough bugs, she couldn't afford to have anyone notice an army of them moving around together. She'd also have to be wary of Matrapel, that company's products were truly terrifying.

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