With Friends Like These, 3-1

Normally I add some witty text here,  but after such a long lull in the story, I think I'll just get down to  it. As always, special thanks to JudgeBastiat for his help in beta-reading the chapter.

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Taylor  woke up to something warm and smooth pressing against her cheek,  nuzzling its tiny head against hers. It tickled a little, and she  groggily pulled a hand from her covers to scratch at whatever it was  that was fiercely cuddling her cheek.

“Mmmph,” she groaned out. She had tried to say ‘go away,’ but that had come out instead.

Drinks! Food!  She heard a voice plead for her as the nuzzling and nudging became more  insistent. Finally, Taylor opened her eyes to stare at the four  glittering orbs mere inches from her face.

Levi was  plopped next to her head on the pillow, gazing back at her. Taylor  reached up and scratched his back and neck, something that her Friend  greatly enjoyed. “Food?” she mumbled.

Breakfast! Levi eagerly replied.

Breakfast? Oh right, it’s morning.  Taylor blinked the sleep away as she shrugged off her covers, swinging  her legs over to step out of bed. Levi scurried up her arm to perch on  her shoulder and wrap his tail around her neck like he always did. For a  moment she expected her other two Friends to do the same.

But  Simmie and Benny weren’t on her bed, or anywhere in her room. And as  Taylor tried to figure out why, she suddenly remembered.

The night before. Lung, Hookwolf, Rune and Crusader and the Protectorate. The fighting and the fires. Shadow Stalker… The world briefly spun as Taylor suddenly felt light-headed. She had fought supervillains and won. And Shadow Stalker was Sophia Hess, but compared to everything else that happened-

She  suddenly felt Levi curled around her neck, and was instantly reminded  that she had her Friends and that everything would be fine. That  everything would be okay. “I… I’m a superhero,” she told her Friend. “I  think. Maybe?”

Hero? Levi asked.

“Yeah,”  Taylor said. “And I think you guys are heroes too. Thanks Levi, for  helping me.” In response she felt her Friend eagerly cuddle and nuzzle  her neck and cheek. But the moment was fleeting as Taylor was distracted  by the grumbling of her stomach, reminding her that she had basic  needs. ”How about we go find something to eat? Or I guess drink?”

Juice?

“Yep,”  she chuckled, “Although now I’m wondering where your siblings are.” She  remembered the night before, seeing her dad dozing in his recliner  downstairs before Levi accidentally tackled him. And the conversation  that followed in the dining room as Taylor had explained as best she  could to her dad that she was a parahuman and had Friends.

Taylor  was quick to dress herself in her usual baggy attire of pants, shirt  and a dark gray hoodie. She had briefly considered putting her costume  back on, but for now at least she wanted to wear something a little more  normal. To feel normal, after last night’s events.

Feeling  as ready as she’d ever be, she opened her bedroom door and stepped out  into the hallway, where she was immediately greeted by the smell of  breakfast cooking downstairs. “I really hope he’s not mad.”

Protect,  Levi spoke from inside her hoodie, his tail squeezing ever so slightly  and reassuringly. As Taylor walked down the stairs she once more began  to feel nervous, unsure of what to expect in the kitchen. It didn’t help  her mood when she saw the gaping hole in the drywall part-way down,  left there by Benny’s dynamic entry into the house. At the foot of the  stairs she braced herself, before reaching the floor and turning to look  through the threshold and into the kitchen.

Her father  was standing at the stove. He had brought out the old cast-iron griddle  with bacon, sausage, and eggs cooking and sizzling atop it. And sitting  there next to the griddle was Benny, nibbling away on a bit of scrambled  egg, and Simmie, hovering above a large bowl.

Danny, her  father, looked over his shoulder to see Taylor standing there. “Morning  Taylor. Hungry?” Benny and Simme looked up from their snacking and  mixing and greeted her as well with exuberant roars and chirps. “The  little guys came down early to help me with breakfast.”

“The… little guys,” Taylor said. Her dad was wearing an apron and smiling at her while her Friends helped him cook.

“Well,  Benny and Simmie, right?” he asked. He looked over at Simmie, who had  her wings wrapped around a large metal whisk as she focused on mixing  the bowl’s contents. “Feels a little weird, saying it, to be honest.”  Simmie lifted the bowl and its contents into the air, before floating  over to the stove and waiting skillet and pouring a glob of pancake  batter into the pan.

Her dad cautiously patted Simmie on her head, and she heard a chirp of happiness from  her tiniest Friend. “Once I gave them some instructions, they got right  to work. I was worried they wouldn’t understand me, but it seems they  do. And Benny here’s saving me a few dollars on gas, so there’s that.”

“Uh, yeah.” Taylor noticed that the stove burner was unlit.

“We  still have a lot to talk about you know,” her Dad said. “But I’m  willing to wait until breakfast. So how about you two get some  concentrate from the freezer and make a fresh pitcher of OJ?”

Juice!  Abruptly, Levi leapt from his perch on her shoulder and fell to the  floor, landing nimbly and bounding towards the fridge. Quickly he scaled  the front before leveraging open the freezer door and scrambling  inside, before just as quickly popping out with a tube of frozen  concentrate clutched in his tail. Taylor fetched an empty pitcher from  the cupboards and got to work filling it with water as Levi brought over  the tube.

“I- umm,” Taylor mumbled as she opened the tube and began mixing in the juice. “Do- do you like them?”

Her  dad was watching as Simmie flipped the first of many pancakes onto a  waiting platter, before pouring another glob of batter onto the vacant  spot on the griddle. “Well, they’re certainly helpful.”

“Yeah, they are.”

“And  I have to admit, Benny here is oddly cute for some reason.” Her dad  scratched his head and she heard a roar of approval from her Friend, who  now had a fresh glob of scrambled egg in his maw.

“He is,” Taylor could only agree.

“Which  is weird, considering that a month ago the three of them were a lot  bigger, and meaner, and scarier.” Satisfied the scrambled eggs were  done, he scraped them up from the griddle and into a waiting bowl.  “Although I do wish you’d told me about them earlier.”

“I-” She started, before falling silent for a brief moment. “Yeah. Me too.”

Danny fetched a bit of scrambled egg and handed it to Benny. “Rawr!” Fluffy Snack! He exclaimed, immediately scarfing down the offered treat.

“I was wrong last night, you really did bring a puppy home.”

Taylor laughed. “Thankfully he’s housebroken.”

Danny hummed for a moment. “I was about to ask.”

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“Well  Taylor, I’m still a little uncomfortable around them,” Danny said  between bites of food while keeping an eye on her Friends. “But I think I  can manage for the time being.”

Benny sat on the dining  table, a saucer stacked high with scrambled eggs before him. He had  fallen onto his back, lost in his munching and making small, cute sounds  as he chewed bites of egg. Also by her was Simmie, who had made for  herself a stack of miniature pancakes. She was using her telekinesis to  cut slices out of the stack with a fork and knife between bites of  maple-glazed bacon. And finally there was Levi, his face occasionally  popping up from its immersion between sips from his own short glass of  juice.

“So,” her dad said, “How does, ah, Levi, you know… Do that?”

“Drink? I’m pretty sure he just absorbs it through his skin,” she answered.

“No mouth, right,” her dad figured.

Levi  briefly pulled his head out of the orange juice to look up at Danny,  drops of juice dripping from his face before dunking it back into the  glass just as quickly. Taylor hoped Levi and her Dad would be able to  get along as well as her other Friends were with him.

“You  know, they like your cooking,” Taylor told him. “Especially Simmie. She  really likes your bacon.” She glanced down to see Simmie doing just  that, taking small, neat bites out of a rasher of her maple-flavored  treat. “As you can see, of course.”

“Huh,” her Dad  shrugged, before resuming eating. After a moment, he asked something  else. “So you’ve been sneaking them leftovers?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh. Well, that answers another question too.”

Taylor  giggled. “Yeah. The first day I was in the hospital, Simmie tried a  little bit of the food they brought me. She liked it more than I did at  least. And the first day I came home, I made some broccoli with cheese,  something light like the doctor said. Benny really liked that.”

Benny paused, mid bite. “Rawr?” Cheesy Snack?

“Maybe  for lunch Benny,” She told him while pushing around the last few scraps  of food on her plate. “You really aren’t mad at me Dad?”

Danny  was silent as he sliced off another portion of pancake. He ate and  swallowed it before speaking. “Yes and no Taylor. Yes, I’m mad that you  didn’t tell me about your, ah, your friends sooner,” he said. “And I’m  also mad that there’s a hole in the drywall by the stairs, and my chest  is still a little sore where I was tackled by an Endbringer.” Her Dad  brought a hand to his chest, rubbing it absent-mindedly. “And then  there’s those things in the closet, from last night.”

Armsmaster’s Helmet and Halberd,  Taylor remembered. “I honestly have no idea what to do about them,”  Danny resumed. “And with what you said about fighting the Protectorate…  I’m probably going to have to call a lawyer for us.”

“Oh,” was all Taylor could manage to say at that moment.

“But  with all of that that said, you’re clearly happier than you’ve been  since I can even remember, and it’s hard to be mad at you when you’re  happy Taylor. I know I haven’t been the best father, but know that  whatever happens, I’ll try and be there for you.”

Taylor smiled at his words. “Thanks, dad.”

“Don’t  mention it,” her dad said between bites of pancake. “Now that we’ve got  that sorted for the moment, do you mind clueing me in about the  disaster in the basement?”

Oh. Yeah. That… “Umm, what do you mean Dad?”

Her father just chuckled. “I’m just going to go ahead and assume that it was the work of your friends here.”

Simmie  froze mid-bite, as her Dad’s withering gaze fell upon her. She tried  her best to hide behind her wings, only the end of her fork visible. But  it was a futile gesture. “Am I right?”

Help! Help Taylor!  Was all she could manage to chirp, her fork slipping from her grasp and  falling to the table as her wings formed into a protective ball around  her.

Taylor sighed. “The three of them wandered off last  night, I’m guessing when I was asleep. They… did something, to make my  costume. They were digging through the boxes and stuff downstairs for  materials.” She reached over to scratch Benny’s head. “You aren’t going  to make any more messes, right Benny?”

He paused in eating his bite of egg to look up at her. “Rawr!” Promise!

She heard her dad chuckle at the opposite side of the table. “A costume.  I remember you were wearing it last night. Can I see it again later?  I’m curious to see what it looks like in better circumstances.”

“Sure  thing Dad,” she smiled. They finished eating, and to her surprise  Simmie helped to bus everyone's plates, floating the dishes and empty  cups with her telekinesis to deposit them in the sink. “They are being  really helpful today.”

“That’s a good thing,” her Dad  spoke, “since now that we’ve finished eating, you’re going to go  downstairs and clean up the mess your friends made. Well, you and  Simmie, that is.”

Taylor had been expecting some sort of punishment, but the specifics threw her off. “Wait, not Benny and Levi?”

“Nope,”  her dad said, bravely scooping up Benny in his hands, her Friend giving  a meek roar of surprise. “Mister property damage here is going to help  me fix the butt print he left in the drywall.”

“Rawr!” Fix!  Her Dad placed Benny on his shoulder and he held onto his shirt with  his stubby claws, before looking at Levi next. Her second Friend looked  back up at him, head cocked to the side in curiosity. “And Levi here is  going to clean the dishes while you and Simmie clean downstairs. Sound  fair?”

Levi looked over to the sink, now filled almost to the brim with dirty dishes before looking back at Danny. Clean? He asked, cocking his head.

“Yes,” her dad said. “The dishes won’t clean themselves now, will they?”

Clean!  Levi darted off the table, landing on the floor below. He scrambled up  the counter to the countertop before perching next to the sink. Taylor  watched as the faucet handles were opened wide by unseen hands and the  sink began to fill with water. Clearly he had used his hydrokinesis on  them somehow, but seeing it had still been a little unsettling, almost  as much as-

“Wait, dad, you heard him?”

“What?”

“Levi.  You were talking to him.” She pointed at Levi, who was now standing on  the bottle dish soap they kept next to the sink and was coaxing its  contents into the steaming water below. “You heard him?”

Danny  chuckled. “I didn’t hear anything, Taylor,” he said. “But I think I’m  starting to get the idea of how Levi there communicates. Although if you  want to play translator from here on out, you certainly can. Anyways,  grab a broom and trash bags from the storage closet before you go down,  you’re gonna need them from the looks of it.”

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Taylor  stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking at the carnage in full. She  had glimpsed the mess yesterday, but seeing it up close hammered home  the scale of the mess that her Friends had made. The basement never had  that much stuff in it. A few spare appliances, boxes of random odds and  ends, a set of weights that her dad owned and had stopped using around  the time she was in elementary school.

And her Friends had gotten into all of it.

One  of the appliances, a microwave, had been completely dismantled and  destroyed, the remnants of which were strewn across the floor. The boxes  had likewise been ransacked, and their contents were likewise  scattered. The weight set was haphazardly piled up, and most of the  weights were warped or melted. Some even had chunks missing, and Taylor  could see Benny’s teeth marks on some of them.

“Simmie?”

Taylor? Simmie chirped.

“The  next time you guys want to make something for me, please let me know,  alright?” She chided her winged Friend. “I know you wanted to surprise  me, but… this was a bit much.” She picked up an unidentifiable part of  the former microwave, warped and bent by heat. Part of the device seemed  to be missing outright, cut apart unknown means. “Honestly, I’m not  mad. More impressed, really. You made my costume out of a microwave?”

Yes! She chirped. Other stuff too!

“What other stuff?”

Dresses, she stated.

“What dresses- oh.”  Taylor suddenly remembered. Some of her mom’s old clothing had ended up  downstairs as well, tucked away in one of the cardboard boxes. Taylor  saw the box, or rather what was left of it, and noticed the absence of  any intact clothing in the floor. Which meant-

Taylor  looked down at Simmie, as she floated over the debris. She hadn’t been  wearing just her costume yesterday, but something made from her mom’s  belongings. She remembered how amazing and beautiful she had looked in  the mirror, how she had at least for a time had curves and a chest. Just like her Mom…

“Simmie?”

She spun to look up at her, and Taylor somehow knew that she knew. But she wasn’t angry. Taylor?

“Thank you,” she said. “For giving me something of Mom’s. Really.”

Help! She exclaimed, darting over and glomping Taylor’s chest. She scratched Simmie’s wings as her Friend chirped with happiness.

“Yeah,” Taylor said. “Let’s get to work on cleaning this all up.”

It  didn’t take as long as Taylor had expected to clean the basement. It  took just a few trash bags to hold all of the trash and junk that had  been scattered about, and most of the weight set was intact more or  less, save for a few teeth marks where Benny no doubt gave them a  nibble. Taylor couldn’t help but chuckle as Simmie began tugging on one  of the full trash bags. It was all she could do to even budge one of the  heavy sacks, let alone move it with her diminutive size.

“Hold  on Simmie, let me help you with that.” Taylor pushed on her tether, and  all at once Simmie swelled in size, up to her kid form. Abruptly the  bag lifted upward, and Simmie began floating up the stairs with the sack  clutched in her wings. Taylor followed her up, two bags in hand.

As  they left out the door to the basement and floated and stepped into the  kitchen, Taylor looked over to her left at Levi. The kitchen sink was  stacked high with suds, and she could catch a glimpse of her Friend  moving around within, attacking the dishes. She watched as a perfectly  clean dish emerged from the sud tower to float over and into the drying  rack next to the sink. And then she glanced towards the stairs, half-way  up to where Dad was working on the damaged wall.

He was  kneeling on the stairs, working a fresh square of drywall into the  portion he had cut out around where Benny had damaged. Benny himself  however was nowhere in sight. “Finished already Taylor?” her Dad asked  her.

“Yeah, there wasn’t much thankfully. And Simmie was a big help.”

“I  can see that,” he saw as his eyes followed Simmie, now as big as a  child as she deposited her trash bag by the back door. “Taylor?”

“Dad?”

“Why is she the size of a ten year old, and why isn’t she wearing any clothes?”

Taylor’s eyes widened. Oh, yeah. “Hey, Simmie, could you go get your gown from upstairs?”

Clothes?

“Dad.”

Simmie looked down at herself.

And then up to Danny, who was sitting on the stairs trying to look anywhere but at her.

“Eep!”  She chirped in embarrassment, becoming a blur as she darted up the  stairs past Dad and into her room, the door slamming shut behind her.

Her  Dad’s hair settled down from the abrupt gust of wind, and the pictures  on the wall stopped swaying on their nails. And Benny stuck his head out  of the bucket of paint next to dad, his red eye standing out against  the white paint dripping off of his face.

“Rawr!” Mix! He exclaimed, before his head disappeared back into the bucket.

“I, uhh, well,” her Dad stammered. “I mean, she had those wings covering her and, umm…”

“I modified one of my old nightgowns to fit her. She’s putting it on now.”

“Alright.  Just as long as she stays modest.” Her bedroom door opened and Simmie  drifted out, now clothed in the gown that Taylor had made for her the  other night. She floated over the railing and onto the couch below,  settling in on the middle space with a content chirp.

“Also, Dad, why is Benny in the paint bucket?”

“He  tried to eat the jar of spackle before I could put it on the wall. So  now he gets to re-mix the paint.” On cue the paint can jerked ever so  slightly as her Friend did whatever it was he was doing in there. “He’s  actually doing a good job. It was pretty dried out and separated since I  haven’t painted in a while.”

Mix! Taylor heard  from inside the can. Her dad fetched a paintbrush from the toolbox next  to him, dipping it into the can before wiping off the excess paint on  the rim and applying it to the fresh wall. “Maybe you should go check on  Levi? Things have gotten quiet in the kitchen.”

Taylor watched the paint can jerk again, ever so slightly. “Yeah, I’ll go do that.”

By  the time Taylor went back to the kitchen Levi had finished with the  dishes. She couldn’t help but feel impressed that all of her Friends  were being so helpful. Then again, she hadn’t really ever asked them to  help her with the few chores she did. As Levi used a bubble of water to  float the last dish onto an impressive stack of clean cookware and  cutlery, she reminded herself that he needed a reward. Maybe she could  take him to visit the Lord’s Market ferry pier instead? Show all of her  Friends the ship her dad wanted to get going again. Something to think  about for another time.

She glanced back to the entrance  to the kitchen and the living room beyond, to where Simmie was curled up  on the sofa. Her wings were splayed around her, draping onto the floor  and across the back of the couch. Strangely she felt the urge to curl up  next to her winged Friend to take a long nap, probably because of the  large meal she had just ate.

Nap? She heard Simmie chirp.

“Yeah, maybe in a bit,” Taylor replied back.

“Not  so fast, Taylor,” her Dad interrupted as he stepped around the corner,  buckets of spackle and paint and toolbox in hand. “You two still have  things to do.”

Taylor blinked. “I thought you couldn’t understand her?”

“I’m  your dad Taylor, I know when my daughter’s trying to shirk  responsibilities.” He walked over to the storage closet, opening the  door and dropping the buckets and toolbox inside before closing it. On  his shoulders was Benny, perched like he had been earlier, except -

He was white.  Completely white, save for the red of his eye and mouth. He hopped off  her dad’s shoulder, landing on the floor with a heavy thump and with all  of the grace of a falling brick. He hopped up to look up at Taylor, a  grin on his face. ”Rawr!” Paint!

“I can see that  Benny,” she reached down to pick him up and put him on her shoulder.  “You smell like you just swam in a bucket of house paint. Good thing  you’re dry at least."

Her dad shrugged. “He was dry when I  reached in to fish him out. I was worried he’d dried the paint out too,  but all the rest in the bucket is still good.” Danny glanced at  Taylor’s other Friend. “And Simmie, puppy dog eyes don’t work on me.”

Simmie had floated over to the threshold to the kitchen during their conversation, hands clasped together and a look of pleading readily apparent in her eyes. It was too bad that her nap with Simmie would have to wait. “What else do you need us to do Dad?”

Danny opened his mouth to speak, but before he had the chance to, there was a knock at the door.

A jolt of panic ran through Taylor, as the events from the night before flashed through her mind. Lung and the villains. Shadow Stalker. The heroes fighting her Friends.  Simmie darted over to her, putting herself between Taylor and the door.  She felt Levi scamper up her leg and side to perch protectively on her  other shoulder.

“Expecting company?” Her dad asked.

“I- I don’t know.” After last night, she didn’t know what to expect. “I’ll answer it.”

“With them on your shoulders?”

Taylor  didn’t say anything in reply, walking past Simmie and her Dad towards  the front door. When she reached the door she paused, breathing in and  out for a moment before opening it.

It wasn’t an army of  heroes ready to capture and imprison her or her Friends, or a legion of  PRT dressed out in their faceless armor. Nor was it an army of Villains  from one of the gangs seeking revenge against her and her Friends. It  was…

“Hey Taylor,” Lisa grinned, stuffed plastic grocery  bags in hand, “I thought I’d swing by and say hello. I think you could  use another friend.”

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Well,  that's done and done, finally. It's a familiar tale to people on this  site who've been here a while. And I'm not gonna let it die yet.