Director Piggot was one of the strangest women Taylor had ever seen. She was short, and what some polite people would have called stout. But Taylor spent too much time around preteens to call her anything but fat, at least in the privacy of her own head.

“Please sit,” the woman demanded, the ‘please’ a formality as she gestured to a chair across from hers.

The conference room was fairly small. Just a rectangular room with a windowed door and a long rectangular table with chairs on either side. There was a jug with icy water sitting in the middle next to a tray of social cookies.

Tattletail pounced onto one of the chairs and made herself comfortable while Taylor took her time and sat next to her. She was ready to grab Tattletail’s hand the moment she reached for the cookies. The little fox-girl had definitely not earned any snacks.

“Uh, hi, I’m Big Sister. This is Tattletail.”

“Hi fat lady,” Tattletail said.

Piggot didn’t so much as twitch. “Are you a Master?” she asked as she moved some papers across the surface of the table. Her thumb clicked on the back of a pen and she looked up, meeting Taylor’s eyes dead on.

“What? No, no I’m not,” Taylor said.

Piggot looked past her to Armsmaster, then nodded. “I see. Good. We will still have our work cut out for us once you join the Wards,” she said.

“Ah, okay?” Taylor said. So it was straight to business then. She wasn’t expecting that, but maybe that was the whole purpose of it. Not messing around meant less time for Taylor to find her footing.

“I’m assuming you’re aware of the benefits of joining the Wards?” Piggot said. “Oversight, protection both in and out of your heroic identities and a fixed salary for the work you would be doing for us.”

“Actually-”

“You do understand how much danger you and your group are in?” Piggot said. “You may have made fools of the Wards, and we will be discussing your behaviour during that fiasco in a moment, but those same Wards are protected at home and even during their work. Can you say the same?”

“I don’t think that’s--”

“And what of the parents of these girls, are they aware of how much danger you’re dragging--”

Taylor’s hand slammed into the table, cutting off Piggot’s diatribe. “Stop, or I will join the Wards.”

Piggot took a moment to digest that. “Not the most straight forward threat I have ever received,” she said. “Care to explain yourself?”

“I’ve looked at the things the Wards offer and unfortunately it’s not enough to meet our needs. In the best of circumstances it would work out, barely, but I’ve done my research and Tattletail helped me predict some things.” Taylot shook her head. “Joining the Wards would cause a lot more trouble for us than it would solve things. It would only make our family’s situation worse.”

Piggot leaned back into her seat and seemed to judge her for some time. “You’re surprisingly level-headed.”

“Did you expect me to be a raving lunatic?” Taylor asked. “I spend my day wrangling my sisters, all of whom have superpowers and next to no restraint. I think I do as much to keep this city from burning down as you do.”

“You’re no longer inspiring confidence,” Piggot said.

Taylor took a deep breath to recentre herself, but the scent of antibacterials and printer paper that permeated the office only reminded her that she wasn’t home. “Look, Miss... Director Piggot, we came here to say sorry for the thing with the Wards. It shouldn’t have gotten out of hand, and I wanted to say sorry, at least in private. But we can’t join your team for a bunch of reasons. And we also wanted to tell you that we’re going to become rogues in Brockton Bay.”

Shaking her head, Piggot scooted around on her chair with a wince and then wiggled a fat finger towards Taylor. “I can’t force you to join the Wards willingly, but it’s my responsibility to keep this city safe from any harm caused by Parahumans, including your little team.”

“You haven’t been doing you job very well, then,” Taylor said.

There was a moment of tense silence as both sides digested that.

Taylor sat up a little straighter. A week ago, she wouldn’t have dared face the Director of the PRT like this. A month ago she would have been crippled by some weird mixture of shyness and fear. Now, after weeks of getting her superpowered little sisters to behave, she was a new woman. Or maybe that was too much. It was probably safer to say that she felt the weight of the responsibility she had for her sisters pressing down on her at the same time as the love they had for her made her feel more... everything. Confident, capable, able to bully a mean adult into submission.

“Look, Director. We want to help, but we’re not ready to. Not now, and probably not for years. My sisters need to grow up a whole lot more before they can help. And that means that they need to learn how to do the things that will allow them to help now. We’re forming a team and we’re going to be rogues. Crochet wants to sell dresses, Cheshire and Pop want to protect the city, Remedy agreed to help Panacea on her tours for some money, and Tattletail will put those cookies back right now or so help me god.”

Her sister ‘eeped’ and shoved the plate back so hard it almost slid off the table before Piggot caught it.

“And none of that could be done from within the Wards?”

“Not the way the Wards work, no,” Taylor said. “You could try to force some of us to join. But then I’d make sure that all of us joined too.”

One of Piggot’s eyebrows shot up. “I fail to see how that’s a threat.”

“Imagine a dozen really aggravating Wards that fight you over every single order and decision and who are constantly questioning you and your inability to act publicly.” Taylor shook her head again. “You either let us do our own thing, play and have fun and maybe we’ll bag a few villains for you to allow to escape later. Or we join you and make your life a nightmare.”

“We’ve dealt with belligerent Wards before,” Piggot said. There was a slight twitch as she said it, and if Taylor was one to judge, and she was, the woman was merely probing to see if Taylor was bluffing.

Typical little sister tactic. She wondered if Piggot had any older siblings.

“Tattletail can’t keep secrets,” Taylor said.

“Armsmaster has a lie detector in his hat,” Tattletail chimed in. She had been fidgeting more and more on her seat, like a kettle shaking before it blew up. “Piggot doesn’t like Parahumans. She’s fat because of some sickness. She really doesn’t like one of our sisters... I think it’s Remedy and that’s why she’s being extra mean. She doesn’t care about the Wards but wants them under her thumb because not having control over them scares her. She’s embarrassed about the Wards losing more than about them fighting us.” Tattletail took in a deep gulp of air. “She wants a drink but the kind that Big Sis won’t let us have at home and she thinks Big Sis is very level headed but is planning on letting us get into a bunch of trouble before nailing us like when Big Sis watches one of us do something wrong so that she can catch us red-handed. She was super insulted that Big Sis pointed out how bad she is at her job but didn’t say anything because she knows it’s true. She doesn’t know how Big Sis’ power works and that’s making her nervous and can I have those cookies now?”

Taylor reached up and patted Tattletail on the head a few times. “Good job,” she said, upon which her sister beamed. “Now, that’s one sister. Crochet hates violence, she would probably avoid every training session if she can. Cheshire and Pop think that shooting or stabbing things is the best solution to everything. Remedy just does not understand how scary her creations look to others and gets extremely upset when she’s told she can’t make them because it makes her feel worthless. And don’t forget, none of them have hit puberty yet.”

Piggot swallowed, just a small thing, but a sign of nervousness that Taylor latched onto.

Taylor leaned forwards until her elbows were on the table. “Now, if we joined the Wards you’d need to deal with all of that. And, in the not-so-impossible scenario where one of my sisters got hurt because of your incompetence, you would have to deal with me.”