To his credit, Lung didn't visibly flinch, because it was his men that lost their nerve first as one of them screamed and fired his rifle at Taylor. Within seconds, all of them were firing and Taylor bellowed a wordless cry of challenge in return before charging Lung, her swarm sweeping forward like a wave.

Flames engulfed the leader of the ABB as he started his own charge, before he saw the tail whip forward—

Lung staggered back as he felt a series of impacts on his chest, a hand tearing out a barb before he incinerated it and charged again, "Poison? You think that can stop Lung?"

The first insects slammed into his still vulnerable flesh as he began transforming, burrowing before exploding like grenades to tear out gobbets of flesh that were rapidly replaced as his regeneration kicked in to repair the damage. They met as one arm flowed past two to slam into Taylor's face as her own fists smashed into his chest and stomach.

Lung snarled, his vision blurring from the poison in his system as his regeneration began burning it out of his circulation. He wasn't going to lose to some monstrous whore, and his mask flexed and warped to try and keep its owner concealed before it simply gave up and fell away to reveal a draconic face that snarled at Taylor's own bestial visage.

Talons flashed as four arms slashed across Lung's body, a tail stabbing into his side as Lung responded with a stream of flames into her face. Blinded, a set of talons flailed before digging into Lung's armpits, cutting veins and flesh, but the more experienced parahuman simply used his steadily increasing weight begin forcing the younger one down as he laughed roughly.

"F'ck oo, oo t'nk oo c'n be't me?" Lung snarled through misshaped lips as his body became steadily more draconic before incinerating the insects streaming towards him. With a huff, he fired a blast of fire into Taylor's chest, eliciting a scream of pain.

Her agony-riddled mind racing, Taylor's eyes searched for a weakness before they settled on an area still somewhat vulnerable to attack. Her tail lashed upwards, the spur stabbing deep into the inside of Lung's hip to penetrate the artery there before she instinctively flexed a muscle in her tail to pump venom into the wound as blood poured out.

As Lung released her with a bellow of pain, Taylor's four arms whipped upwards the rake her talons deep into his chest before rising and stabbing deep, tearing downwards and backing away as she disembowelled the man.

Slowly, staggering backwards as the massive dose of what Taylor instinctively knew was a potent venom worked it's way through Lung's weakened system; blood streamed from the deep gashes on his leg and abdomen and Lung stared with unfocused eye at her as his regeneration worked overtime to keep him alive.

'He doesn't need to be awake to heal.'

Without a word or any sort of sound, Taylor strode forward with fists clenched and before Lung could try and retaliate she launched four haymakers into his face, sending the giant draconic parahuman to the ground with a crash. Taylor snarled as he saw he was still conscious, but before she could finish the job she heard the sound of an engine.

'Shit, Protectorate. I can't let them find me, and my head feels like it's in a vice.'

Turning with a huff, Taylor started running away from Highpoint Street, her tail disappearing around a corner just as she heard vans and Armsmaster's bike turning the corner.

As Taylor ran, the adrenaline in her system fading, she finally allowed herself to register the pain steadily throbbing across her body as she stumbled and recovered before continuing to run back to Noriko's house, "Oh god!"

She shook her head, "N-Noriko...are you there?"

"Oh thank god. You went on a rampage and wouldn't respond. Do you remember anything?"

"Yeah, I remember the whole thing. I think whatever this serum did to me also messed with my head. There's no way I could have gotten that mad so easily upon seeing...Freya." She growled the name before shaking her head, "Did you get enough data?"

"Oh hell yes I did. And you're right, there's signs of physical and chemical changes to the brain; it looks like in exchange for not suddenly going insane from the transformation your emotional responses became less inhibited. I'd say you're actually less inhibited in general actually, which might be a good thing, it might be a bad thing. Double-edged sword and all that."

Taylor nodded as she rounded a corner and jumped, flying across some streets to land on the grass of a small park before running towards the start of the street where Noriko's house was, "Did you...did you see what happened with my back?"

"Yup, and you've already regenerated the damage and are starting to produce embryos. You've got a pair of what are essentially biological factories on your back, probably the final mutation as a result of the lack of insects. I got a little data from them as well. You're in luck, you instinctively ensured they can't breed."

"Oh...good. I'm enough of a freak as it is, I don't want to be the next Nilbog." Taylor responded with considerable relief, "So...can you turn me back now?"

Noriko laughed over the communicator as Taylor reached the front door and saw her friend open it as she removed the headset she was wearing,

"Come on, I got one waiting for you but I need to remove that Bio-Monitor and the Communicator. You gave me gold, Taylor, gold!"

"Yay," Taylor remarked dryly and joined her friend in laughing as she shifted her freakish body back into the house.

When the morning came and the pair had to go to school, it was a Taylor with clear skin, bright eyes and an obvious lack of muscles and gross mutation that stepped out as Noriko fiddled with a bulky-looking PDA.

"Welp, I think I can refine the product and make the variants I want thanks to your data. Damn, who knew you could be so vicious in a fight?"

Taylor blushed, "I think that was more being transformed into a monster than anything else."

Noriko shrugged, "Maybe. Maybe not. Still, I'll have to find a way to do some virtual testing of the new serums and the-" She stopped as Taylor grabbed her shoulder, looking away with a blush.

"Um, actually...I kinda liked it. So...I guess I could do this again." She sent a glare at Noriko's smile, "But only if you agree to test it on yourself as well! If I'm going to be a freak, you have to as well!"

Noriko started laughing.

* * *

Chapter 2: Amelia's New Friends

Taylor always found Arcadia to be the kind of place that while better than a place like Winslow, was just as bad in some respects. The glamour of being the school that 'the Wards, New Wave and Altered went to' along with the fact that a student could potentially have powers meant that there wasn't any overt bullying.

'Sure, I don't get tripped or teased openly while surrounded within sight and earshot of teachers like with Emma and Sophia, but there's still bullying in High School, no matter how polite everyone is to their faces.'

Taylor's eyes cast over to the clique surrounding the unofficial queens of the school; Victoria Dallon and Uk Jong Park, Glory Girl and the Altered calling herself Blood Siren, busy greeting and gossiping with their ever-shifting circle of sycophants and hangers-on looking to get some status from knowing the two hottest girls in school, especially the slender Korean with the large bat wings.

Taylor rolled her eyes. She had transferred with Noriko to Arcadia thanks to their respective parents finding out just how much of a shithole it was on Noriko's part and Taylor's Mom finding out about Emma's bullying.

'Having tenure in the university certainly opens doors, or in this case a place in an exclusive high school. I wonder where Noriko is, she said she'd meet me before classes started.'

Taylor turned a corner and caught a glimpse of her best friend, right as she slammed into another person and they both tumbled to the ground, "Oof!"

"Ah!"

As she recovered, Taylor blinked as she realised who she had bumped into when she fixed her glasses, "Oh damn, Amy Dallon? I'm so sorry!"

The brown-haired, freckled girl sighed as she began gathering her books alongside Taylor, "Don't worry about it, I wasn't looking where I was going."

She finished gathering her books and dropped papers before looking at Taylor, "I've never seen you around. Transfer?"

Taylor nodded, "Yeah, me and my best friend came in from Winslow High. Our parents didn't think we were getting a good enough education."

Amy Dallon nodded with a sigh, "Yeah, I've heard a lot of talk in my family, and their teams, of getting some PRT or government-assigned funding to clean up Winslow for a while now. Hell, you know that's where Altered families are sending their kids?"

Taylor nodded, she was familiar with the Altered; it wasn't hard to miss the people from Earth-Zayin who had been forcefully deported because of the simple fact that they had powers. It wasn't entirely undeserved though, Altered were just as dangerous as Parahumans and a lot more common.

"I heard something about that. Scholarship spaces right?" Taylor looked over at a few other students, "Hard to believe that this city is officially designated as a prison."

Amy grimaced, "It's sickening. Did you know that when New Wave approached the Earth-Zayin government and ours for the contract to patrol and do peacekeeping in the Altered District the Japanese ambassador from Zayin actually described the Altered in the same vein as animals and monsters? They even wanted immediate executions if they caused trouble."

Taylor goggled at Amy, "What? Really? I mean...I heard that Earth-Zayin was really xenophobic but that's just insane!"

Amy nodded, "And utterly immoral. I don't know what happened on Earth-Zayin, but they're really against people with powers." Amy checked her schedule, "So, it's nearly time for class. Who do you have first?"

"Mrs. Eikawa." Taylor replied and Amy smiled.

"Really? So do I, come on I can guide you." The two girls immediately started walking in one direction, the brunette shooting a sad glance at Victoria Dallon who was still talking with her clique, which Taylor picked up on.

"What happened between you two? I was out of town but I know that one day you two were close, and the next day you had moved out into your own place and New Wave was practically giving you the cold shoulder."

Amy sighed, "It's my mother. Or rather, my adopted mother and her fucking phobia of my past. You know that I volunteered at Brockton Bay General?"

Taylor nodded, "I remember, you were smiling when you publicly announced that you'd be working there, and also going for a medical degree."

Amy nodded, "Yep. I even got a deferral from Arcadia to take some courses and do a brief internship. I was happy doing it you know? I wanted to help people, to cure terminal cases and genetic conditions, and I thought my family would finally be proud of me."

She sighed, "But it wasn't good enough. She never thought it was good enough; I was always being pushed to do longer hours, to treat more and more trivial cases for publicity, to heal the Protectorate and soon the expanded New Wave team and then the New Wave teams, plural. Do you have any idea how much stress and pressure was being put on me?"

Taylor shook her head, "Sounds rough."

Amy nodded, "It was. And for a while I was running ragged. It didn't help with that bitch trying to feed some black and white morality bullshit on me even as she smoozed through meetings with the PRT, State Department and more in order to help the New Wave movement. I couldn't relax, de-stress, it was straight from school to the hospital and I had to keep a smile on my face. And then it happened. The Meltdown."

She meant the public and live-televised breakdown Amy had when she was trying to de-stress between her rounds at the hospital and Brandish, Carol Dallon, had arrived and what started as short argument quickly devolved into a full-blown screaming match between Brandish and Panacea before Brandish stormed off and Panacea was left crying while some nurses comforted her.

No-one knew what the argument was about, but it was caught on tape by a local film crew.

Taylor did remember the scandal about the most powerful healer in the United States being reduced to tears by her mother and how New Wave, Brandish in particular, was being called to account for that. It got ugly.

"What happened with your sister? I mean, if that's okay to talk about..."

Amy smiled sadly, "She got caught in the middle. She loves Carol, but she also supported me and I helped her when she Triggered. In the end, she couldn't take being used as a weapon against me by that woman, and just decided to stop talking to me so she wouldn't have to be forced to act as the bad guy."

A sigh and shrug, "Well, it's the best option so far. Until she fucking gets over herself and apologises, I'm not going back to that house."

Taylor nodded vehemently in agreement, "Good." She looked up and her smile widened, "Oh, there she is. Come on, I'll introduce you to Noriko." She tugged at Amy's hand and pulled the surprised girl along to face a black-haired Japanese girl with a long scar on the left side of her face and a intricately decorated patch covering the eye as Taylor smiled, "Noriko, have you met Amy Dallon?"

"Nope," The Japanese girl, Noriko, replied easily as she held out her hand to shake, "But I've heard of her. So Taylor dragged you along did she?"

Amy coughed as she took the offered hand, ignoring the information streaming into her head like the fact she was shaking hands with a parahuman just like Taylor next to her, "Well, it was more like we were heading in the same direction."

Noriko giggled, "Well, it's good to see Taylor making friends, I was afraid she'd latch onto me like some kinda comic-book Yandere or something."

She glanced between the two of them and whispered loudly, "To tell you the truth, she already had the Tsundere down pat."

"I am not Tsundere!" Taylor protested, mentally suppressing her powers from affecting the insects in the vents and walls, "I just get embarrassed easily." She coughed, "Anyway, I was think Amy could hang out with us. You know, since no-one else seems to want to talk to her."

Amy blushed as she glanced to the side and her eyes met a few of the other students. After a few seconds they simply went on with their business, especially the ones she had been friends with before her breakdown.

She didn't notice the way Noriko and Taylor shared a meaningful glance before the one-eyed girl smiled brightly, "Sure, why not? Us pariahs have to stick togther. I mean, can you believe that these snobs won't talk to us because we come from the 'Gang school', Taylor carries a stun-baton on her..." She pointed at the collapsed length of metal, rubber and wires on Taylor's belt, "And to top it all off, the rumour that just because I wear an eye-patch it means I'm some kind of violent psycho!"