Fanfic / Taylor Hebert, Medhall Intern

Taylor Hebert, Medhall Intern is a Worm fanfiction by ack1308, and is in progress as at April 2023, available at FanFiction.Net (here), SpaceBattles.com (here), Sufficient Velocity.com (here), and Questionable Questing (here).

Taylor (and Greg Veder) get internships at Medhall, not knowing that it's a front for the Empire 88. The Empire may have bitten off more than they can chew.

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Taylor Hebert, Medhall Intern contains the following examples:

• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In canon, Greg is Taylor's unwanted acquaintance. In this story, they gradually become good friends and later become boyfriend and girlfriend.
• Adults Are Useless: Played for Drama. Taylor is so scarred by her lack of help from any authority figures that she doesn't even report her bullies when they steal her stuff, and Tracey has to coax the truth out of her. To her pleasant surprise, Tracey and the legal staff at Medhall defy this and are willing to give her the help she needs.
• Affably Evil:
  • Taylor interacts with several of Medhall's workers, and finds them nice people. Unknown to her, several of them are actually Empire capes. Even Kaiser is magnanimous enough to reward Taylor for (inadvertently) helping to find agents of Coil.
  • When Victor confronts Principal Blackwell, he's unfailingly polite, patient, and professional to everyone, and helps Taylor get a good outcome. He also focuses most of the fallout on Sophia because she's black, and uses his power to reduce her self control and goad her into viciously attacking Madison, getting her into further trouble. It's all enjoyable to him.
• Ascended Extra: Greg Veder goes from being a timid side character to effectively Taylor's sidekick and co-worker.
• Attack Backfire: The Empire corners Taylor, Greg, Tracey and Brian after an extensive chase — and the stress of being betrayed and trapped causes three of them to cluster-trigger with pings from all the Empire capes chasing them, making the group a powerhouse that quickly turns variations on the Empire's own abilities against them to break free.
• Benevolent Boss: Medhall's management is willing to reward Taylor for diligently finding intruders from Coil and Greg for defending Taylor from Sophia.
• Beyond Redemption: Taylor makes it clear that Sophia's murder of Justin puts her beyond any chance at forgiveness.
• Blatant Lies: When it's time for Taylor and Greg to present their assignment, the third official member of their group, Sparky, is asleep at his desk and also stoned. Greg covers for him by stating that "He's, uh, tired out from doing all the work," which draws laughter from the class (who are well aware of Sparky's habits).
• Break the Haughty: Sophia can blame other people for most of her problems and thus mostly shrug them off, but becoming a laughingstock on PHO really gets to her.
  Director Piggot: Everyone on the internet is laughing at you. Personally. Shadow Stalker is a joke.
• Brutal Honesty: It's made clear to Taylor that her internship program is merely a tax break for Medhall, and they will cut her loose if she doesn't show that she can keep up.
• Bully Brutality: Emma, Sophia, and Madison proceed to make Taylor's life hell outside of her internship, stealing the clothing she bought with her bonus. Emma goes so far as to sabotage her internship with a scam phone call. Had Greg not intervened, Taylor could've ended up asphyxiated in her locker. Sophia escalates to murdering the Medhall staff who got her arrested.
• Butt-Monkey: Greg. He completely lacks social graces, he screws up his first impression with Mrs. Harcourt, who immediately demotes him to janitor, and he is hazed to the point of tears by the janitorial staff. Though, as he begins to follow Taylor's advice and pay attention, he begins to grow out of it, somewhat.
• By "No", I Mean "Yes": Rune privately thinks that she doesn't like to use the phrase "control freak" about Kaiser, but he's totally a control freak.
• The Cavalry:
  • When Taylor is facing being locked in her locker full of pepper spray, Greg turns up to rescue her.
  • When Greg in turn is in dire straits, who should appear but Victor and Hookwolf, in civilian guise, providing the brains and brawn to shut down Sophia and Emma and Principal Blackwell without breaking a sweat.
  • Both of them are staring death in the face with the Empire between them and the PRT building, until Alexandria and Legend suddenly turn up. The Empire promptly puts down weapons and drives away.
• Condescending Calmness: Taylor is so outraged, indignant and upset, by contrast to the calm and apparently reasonable attitudes of her bullies, that the bystanders are all inclined to side with the bullies as they assault Taylor and brazenly rob her of hundreds of dollars of clothes that she just bought.
  Emma: I'm sorry, folks. We try so hard, as her friends. It's so easy to believe her, unless you know what she's really like.
• Control Freak: Kaiser behaves this way toward his son Theo, all but trying to force him into The Empire when he has zero interest in any kind of criminal activity.
• Cool Teacher: Played with regarding Mr. Gladly. He does finally intervene when Taylor's classmates start bullying her, but Taylor cynically assumes he's only defending her because of the lawsuit against Winslow. To his credit, he does praise her and Greg for a successful World Affairs assignment.
• Cowardly Lion: Greg, despite his timidity and incompetence, manages to get recorded evidence of Taylor's bullies and even tackles Sophia for good measure.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Medhall does not skimp on the employee training, let's just say that. Besides supervillain attacks, they have drills for fires, chemical spills, and even earthquakes. Keep in mind that Brockton Bay is on the East Coast, which is not exactly known for quakes like California is. The induction folders also contain "a list of the parahuman villains of Brockton Bay, and the required procedure for responding to an attack by each one. The procedure for a depressingly large number of these was 'run and hide'".
  • Greg knew his word alone wouldn't be enough to vouch for Taylor if Emma started bullying her, so he recorded the altercation on his phone.
• Cruel to Be Kind: From Kaiser's perspective, he sees Peter being forced into a brutal boxing match with his own father as a fitting, if harsh, punishment for insubordination. And hey, the boy could have chosen Hookwolf instead of his father, if he wanted.
• Curb-Stomp Cushion: Greg tries to fight back against Sophia. While he loses quite badly against an athlete (who is also a Ward), he manages to tackle her and hold her off long enough for Grayson to come.
• David vs. Goliath: Sophia is athletic, has years of experience in street fighting, carries a crossbow (which she definitely knows how to use), and can become intangible to No-Sell physical attacks. Greg has none of that, but takes her down with an ironing board and a fire extinguisher — and it wasn't even an ambush. She doesn't live it down. Especially not after she learns that he's also Void Cowboy, the laughingstock of the PHO forums.
• Death Glare: Director Piggot isn't actually intimidated by Sophia's glare, but she's briefly glad that Sophia doesn't have Eye Beams, because it would certainly have been fatal if so.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Taylor starts out frustrated by Greg and his ineptitude. But after he saves her internship, she starts warming up to him and offering him badly needed advice on how to get ahead.
• Didn't Think This Through: What is the likely outcome, on Earth Bet, of cornering someone and trapping them into a Sadistic Choice with no apparent escape? Sure enough, the Empire finds themselves facing not just a new cape, but a cluster, with pings from most of the Empire's capes as the cherry on top, quickly trumping them all and forcing them into retreat.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Taylor fantasizes about Shadow Stalker dangling Sophia out of a window, not knowing that they're one and the same.
  • Taylor and Greg reject the idea of working for a white supremacist cartel, not knowing that their workplace is a front for the Empire. Taylor even worries about potential Nazis infiltrating Medhall and how that could be bad for poor Mr. Anders, and her initial reactions to the recruitment pitch involve speculating that if she were to join a gang, she might lose her internship.
  • Taylor vouches for Brian to Medhall as an honest guy who can be trusted, not knowing he’s a member of the Undersiders. When Brian saves Tammi from ABB thugs and the possibility of being outed as Rune, Max and Bradley then wonder if this, combined with Greg's stopping Shadow Stalker, might mean she has talent in recognizing potential in others as well.
  • She also gets squicked out when some of the paperwork she's scanning has bugs on it.
• Due to the Dead: After rescuing Tracey but being too late for Justin, Taylor makes a stop before school to buy some black cloth, so that she and Greg can wear armbands when they attend their internships.
• Epic Fail:
  • Greg's orientation is a complete mess. His lackadaisical behavior is caught on camera, and during the surprise fire drill, he gets so panicked, he runs past the fire exits. Unsurprisingly, he is demoted to a janitor position.
  • In-Universe, Sophia's defeat at the hands of Greg is seen as this since he's known to be one of the biggest dorks of the PHO forums.
• Evil Is Petty: Taylor's bullies are so horrible that they're willing to straight-up sabotage her internship just so they can keep bullying her, even going so far as to steal the clothes she bought with her bonus.
• Evil Virtues: The Empire does have respect for things like hard work, bravery, and initiative and they reward Taylor and Greg for showing both.
• Faking the Dead: When Tracey goes to her manager with the results of Taylor's audit and her own continuation of it, she's grabbed and her car is crashed with a body double inside it, while Tracey herself is held to wait and see if anyone will come around asking questions. However, Taylor knows there's something that doesn't add up, because Tracey had already stated her intention to catch the bus due to her broken arm.
• Female Gaze: Taylor gives Alexander Grayson a gaze for his masculine good looks.
• Fire-Forged Friends: At the beginning of the story, Taylor only vaguely tolerates Greg rather than actually liking him, but after he takes a few punches from Sophia on Taylor's behalf, Taylor considers him to be a true friend.
  Our friendship might not have been forged in fire and blood, but it was close enough.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • Victor makes his confrontation with Principal Blackwell go faster and easier by draining rational thinking and self control from several other participants, especially Sophia. Which contributes to her going nuts, breaking out of police custody and murdering Crusader, then infiltrating Medhall and shooting Victor.
  • Max Anders tests Taylor's competence and loyalty by raising her clearance level and having her audit some employee records that include an Empire 88 member, to see what she'll find and what she'll do with it. Not only does she spot his Empire connections, she also uses her new access to investigate the Fergusons and discover their family relationship with Max himself, making her suspect that Max's judgement is compromised regarding family, and motivating her to keep digging even further.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: When Taylor starts digging and finds Mr. Anders has a ton of connections to people in the Empire, she concludes that Mr. Anders has a poor record with judging the moral fiber of others.
• Groin Attack: Sophia's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Greg, for stepping in to protect Taylor, includes a kick between the legs that elicits a high-pitched shriek.
• Have You Told Anyone Else?:
  • After Taylor and Greg let "Bradley Fieldmark" know about an attempt at recruiting them into the Empire 88, he advises them not to say a word about the Empire to anyone else, and if anyone else asks questions about it, to send them to him. (Fortunately for Taylor and Greg, Hookwolf doesn't intend to harm them, but he does intend to go straight to Kaiser and start damage control.)
  • Tracey reports to Ms Harcourt about Taylor's discoveries of employees with extensive E88 connections and possible embezzlement — and Ms Harcourt attacks and restrains her, after which Tracey is imprisoned and her death is faked while the Empire tries to determine what SMS she sent and to whom. Kaiser doesn't think that Taylor herself found out very much before leaving for the day, and he knows Taylor doesn't have a phone, so he thinks that it will end there. Tracey later berates herself for not realising the significance when Ms Harcourt asked this exact question.
• Heroes' Frontier Step: Greg begins the story as a hapless dimwit who Taylor can't stand. But then he physically defends Taylor from Sophia, eventually causing Sophia, along with Emma and Madison, to go down in flames. And he goes further by taking down Shadow Stalker, solidifying him as Taylor's loyal friend...and possibly something more.
• High-Voltage Death: The cell designed to hold Shadow Stalker, as a countermeasure against her phasing, has "enough electricity running through the walls, floor, ceiling and bars to fry a medium-sized cow."
• Hold the Line: Greg can't possibly beat Sophia in a fight, and he knows it, and so does she — but he can stall her for a few minutes. At which point, Alexander and Bradley (Victor and Hookwolf) turn up and intervene.
  I MUSTN'T RUN AWAY.
• Idiot Ball: Victor invokes this on Madison, Emma, and Sophia to make things easier when they're confronted. He goes out of his way to make sure it's extra strong on Sophia due to her being black.
• I Have This Friend: Brian explains his dislike of Shadow Stalker as, "She, uh, she really hurt a friend of mine one time. Shot him with a broad-head arrow." The "friend" is of course his villainous alter-ego Grue, who Stalker hates for their bad power interaction.
• I Have Your Wife: The Empire goes after Taylor's dad, Greg's mom, Tracey's parents, and Brian's father and sister, all at once, to get leverage and stop them from bringing the PRT down on Medhall. All except the Laborns are warned in time and manage to get away, however.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Hookwolf is consistently able to pop the lids off beer bottles so they land in the waste basket.
• Improvised Weapon: Greg arms himself with a bottle of cleaning spray in one hand, a fire extinguisher in the other, and an ironing board in front as makeshift armour. All three are useful; the cleaning solution gets in Shadow Stalker's eyes, the carbon dioxide cloud interferes with her ability to breathe in her gas state, and the ironing board turns a potentially lethal crossbow bolt into a mere scratch, after which he knocks her out with the extinguisher itself.
• In-Universe Catharsis: Taylor felt no small amount of exhilaration from watching Bradley hit Sophia.
• Instant Armor: Metal control means being able to fully armour up in seconds. Greg has to have nearby metal to work with, but he can cover all his allies in it, not just himself — and the result is stronger than normal steel, able to ignore small-arms fire and even blunt the effect of an antimateriel rifle.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Kaiser deliberately sets up Taylor and her supervisor to do some employee background checking that could potentially expose Medhall's Empire 88 connections, intending to monitor them closely to see whether they can make the link and how they'll react if they do. Tracey joins the dots and gets disappeared. Taylor later follows in her footsteps, realises the truth, and has to go on the run as the staff try to pin her down.
  • Brian uses his darkness power to help Taylor and Greg take down the guards on Tracey's cell, outing him as Grue.
• Iron Lady: Taylor's manager is Ms Harcourt, who wrote the encyclopaedia entry for "tough but fair." Other employees obey her without question, because they don't dare do otherwise. Word of God is that she's not a member of the Empire 88, because they don't want to risk her taking over. She's good to those who do their jobs, however, to the point of chastising Max Anders himself on their behalf if it becomes necessary. Crusader once tried to get a favour from her by flirting, and by the time she was done chewing him out, he was ready to ask Hookwolf to put him out of his misery.
  Justin: I don't have many rules, but number one is now Don't mess with Ms. Harcourt.
• Irony: Greg, unsurprisingly, loses to Sophia in her civilian identity. When Greg faces Shadow Stalker, his victory is relatively easy.
• I Shall Taunt You: Victor finds it tiresome to wait for people to make mistakes, so when confronting Mr Barnes, Emma, Sophia, and Ms Blackwell, he drains a little of their critical thinking skills to make them impulsive and irrational.
• Just in Time: Taylor arrives at Captain's Hill when Tracey is about to fall off a cliff, trapped inside Justin's car. Taylor gets inside and gets a rope around her just before the car falls around both of them, bruising Taylor's shoulder in the process but fortunately no longer attached to Tracey.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • For his failure to follow any safety protocols during the Secret Test of Character, Greg is forced to work for the janitor until he shapes up.
  • Taylor's bullies go down hard once Winslow is threatened with litigation.
    • Madison rats out Sophia, then gets a vicious punch in the face, and is facing legal charges. In all her appearances, she’s too timid to ever go near Taylor again.
    • Emma gets kicked out of school, slapped with a restraining order by Taylor, and put under house arrest by her father.
    • Sophia not only gets arrested for all her crimes, but she learns the person who finally took her down was wimpy Greg Veder.
  • After trying to forcibly recruit Taylor and Greg, Peter is forced by Kaiser into a brutal boxing match with his own father.
• Logical Weakness: Shadow Stalker's smoke form absorbs oxygen from her environment. So when she tries to escape Greg after being sprayed in the face with bleach, she suddenly finds herself lacking when he also fills the area with the contents of a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher. So she changes back while grasping her throat, leaving him clear to knock her out with the empty canister.
• The Millstone: Taylor views Greg as this. While he means well, his social awkwardness makes things a lot worse for her at Winslow. It gets to a point where Ms. Harcourt forces him to work as a janitor. Though he does spend the story growing out of it.
• Mutual Masquerade: Kaiser and Hookwolf are both in the camp of not being truly attached to the Empire's racist ideology, it's just a useful tool for controlling others. But they don't quite realise it, and so they each put on a show for the other when dancing around the issue of potentially hiring Brian.
• My Beloved Smother: Downplayed. Greg's mom coddles him to cope with the loss of her late fiance, but still lets him have independence.
• No Sympathy: After all the horrors she had to endure at the hands of Shadow Stalker, Taylor has zero sympathies for Piggot and her destroyed reputation.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Hookwolf freezes, followed by a burst of profanity, upon hearing that Rune was carrying her costume and school ID when she was mugged, which could have outed her and half the Empire if the bag hadn't been retrieved.
  • The father of an E88 recruit (himself heavily implied to be a member) has a brief moment of terror when Greg unknowingly reveals he's on a first name basis with Hookwolf. Once he realizes just who Greg and Taylor must be, he goes from insisting his son did nothing wrong and they started everything, to suggesting all three get a short suspension and let bygones be bygones.
• Pass the Popcorn:
  • Taylor internally notes that she would make popcorn to watch Bradley kicking Sophia across the building if it happened.
  • After Taylor and Greg discuss the upcoming lawsuit against the PRT on their behalf, they conclude that it's a symbolic gesture first and foremost, which may or may not have a monetary payout once the lawyers and bargaining are done.
    Greg: So what we should be doing is sitting back with popcorn, and if we actually get anything material out of it, that's just a bonus.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Greg earns points with Taylor by offering up his phone so she can make a badly needed phone call.
  • Medhall's staff, even the ones working for the Empire, decide to throw Taylor and Greg some bones once they show their worth.
• Plagiarism in Fiction: After Taylor and Greg use The Book as a reference to dramatically improve their World Studies assignment, Julia accuses them of having just copied someone else's work. Taylor rebuts the accusation by showing that she actually understands the material in detail.
  Julia: Mads and me and Carrie worked all weekend on ours, and you've got ten times the stuff in yours! And we didn't find anything in the library like you've got!
• Point of Divergence: The major nail is Taylor and Greg getting internships at Medhall.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The Empire are a gang of Neo-Nazis, so this is a given. Among their affronts is making jokes about minorities, and wanting to have Sophia thrown in jail just because she's black; when Sophia kills Justin and wounds Alexander, though, this changes.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • The Empire can behave magnanimously toward minorities, but only because they want to divert attention from their crimes and look good to the public. Kaiser doesn't want to hire Brian, but he knows Medhall needs to have the appearance of diversity for the sake of public relations. Also, he wants to do a favor for Taylor. It's when Brian saves Tammi from her mugging that makes him wonder if Taylor can recognize the potential in others he might have as well.
  • Kaiser is upset with the younger members of Empire trying to recruit Taylor and Greg because he doesn't want to alienate two valuable employees.
• Psycho for Hire: Deconstructed. The PRT's recruitment of Sophia and their willingness to look the other way from her violent behavior emboldened her to commit many horrible crimes. Recruiting a deranged juvenile delinquent comes back to bite the PRT when Sophia's horrible crimes come out into the open, with their reputation taking a massive blow.
• Punch-Clock Villain: For the most part, Empire's goons are pretty genial people in their civilian lives, even to minorities who they consider "the good ones."
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Alexander Grayson, who not only listens to Taylor's allegations against her bullies but even stands up for her to Blackwell by threatening her with legal action.
• Running Gag: People stealing Taylor's coffee. Her boss laughs her ass off when Max Anders does it, especially Taylor's face when she realizes she can't say anything about it.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Justin, one of Taylor's magnanimous co-workers, is murdered by Sophia to show how much of an unhinged lunatic she is.
• Sadistic Choice: Kaiser, being the control freak he is, likes to box people in.
  • Peter gets to pay for his botched recruitment attempt on Taylor and Greg, by choosing to face either Hookwolf in a cage for five minutes with no holds barred, or his own father in a boxing ring for three rounds. Hookwolf would hurt him more, but having his father do it hurts them both, which is the point.
  • Taylor gets a choice between killing a friend and going under the Empire's thumb long term, or having the Empire kill the friend and herself and her dad.
• Secret Test of Character: Taylor quickly figures out that she and Greg are being put through one to see how they react to a dangerous situation. Taylor passes with flying colors, Greg... not so much.
• Share the Male Pain: Even Bradley/Hookwolf, who "looked like he could bend steel with his pecs," winces when he hears the recording of Greg's high-pitched scream, result of a kick to the family jewels.
• Ship Tease: Gradually, Taylor and Greg's relationship becomes more and more romantic. Taylor even gives Greg a friendly peck on the cheek.
• Shout-Out: Looking back, Taylor admits that if she hadn't had her internship and Greg, and one of the Empire 88 boys had offered to protect her from Sophia if she just showed up to a few meetings, she'd be tempted. This is a direct reference to another Ack fic, Slippery Slope.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Taylor gives one to the Empire girl who wants to recruit her, calling her out for not helping her when Sophia was bullying her.
  Girl: Didn't know if you were worth the time and effort. All you ever did was roll over and show your belly. But this time you fought back.
  Taylor: It was the only time I was able to. Because someone stepped up for me. Not one of you. Greg stepped up. Because he doesn't care about waiting until he's got four-on-one odds. He cares about me. You don't. And if you're not gonna step up when I need help, then I don't need you.
• Slave to PR:
  • Winslow High actually makes an effort to stop the bullying Taylor goes through, but Taylor thinks they're only intervening because they are afraid of getting sued by Taylor's legal counsel.
  • The Empire girls who try and recruit Taylor don't push her too hard, but Taylor knows it's because they don't want to alienate a potentially valuable recruit.
• Snipe Hunt: The senior janitorial staff mess with Greg by sending him for things like left-hand grease, elbow grease, striped spray paint, and a short weight. On Taylor's advice, when they try to do it the next day, Greg asks if he should get a DVD rewinder too, something that earns a laugh and stops the hazing.
• So Proud of You: Danny really isn't happy that Taylor put her life on the line to rescue Tracey, but he's nonetheless immensely proud of her for doing it, and tells her so.
• Spotting the Thread:
  • Taylor spots Coil's moles because, while uploading and organizing employee files, she notices they have consecutive social security numbers and their security clearance was granted by each other.
  • Greg and Taylor start to see through Anders' smokescreen because of his (under)-reaction to Mr. Ferguson: why would someone act relatively calm in the presence of a Nazi? The illusion falls apart when she finds his connections to other white supremacists goes a lot deeper than she thought.
  • When the news report reveals Tracey was killed in a car crash, Taylor realizes the story is false because Tracey told her she was still too injured to be at the wheel of a car. She realizes the Empire goons were trying to knock her off.
• Sub-Par Supremacist: Zigzagged with the Empire's employees. While some of them are incompetent weaklings, others can be intelligent, hardworking, and live up to the Aryan ideals of masculinity. However, when several Empire members reach out to Taylor and Greg, both see their claims to racial unity as a total sham and have no interest in joining.
• Suppressed Rage: When Director Piggot hears that Sophia has invaded the Medhall building, in her civilian identity but using her crossbow, she has to bite back some exceedingly profane responses, and remind herself that obtaining a Kill Order is almost certainly out of reach, before she can continue the conversation with a pretense of professional calm. She enjoys Comedic Sociopathy when she tells Sophia that Greg Vader, the "Void Cowboy", took her down and made "Shadow Stalker" look like a joke, with Assault and the Wards laughing at her.
• Technically a Smile: Taylor notes that Alexander Grayson's smile at Principal Blackwell is like that of a friendly shark.
  Well, friendly to me.
• Tempting Fate: Greg is at least Genre Savvy enough to realise he's doing it and ask the universe not to retaliate.
  "I'll be fine. So long as the PRT manages to keep hold of Sophia this time around, and she doesn't come to Winslow looking for me so I have to beat her unconscious with a folding chair or something …" He paused to draw breath, then looked up at the stained ceiling. "And no, that wasn't a challenge."
• Thanks for the Mammary: When he's getting some self-defence training with Melody^note ie Cricket, Greg preemptively tells her that he'll try not to let his hands go anywhere inappropriate — because he's pretty sure that if she thought otherwise, she'd kill him.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Taylor and Greg are allowed to have outside assistance with their World Affairs project (a plan to green the Sahara), so long as they don't just copy verbatim from someone else and they know the material well enough to present it. So Justin/Crusader, wanting to score points with Taylor's supervisor, arranges for Accord to write a project proposal for them. The result is a beautifully formatted novel-length document that covers every detail, considers every contingency, and has the teacher begging them to help him get in contact with people who could actually implement it, even though it was originally meant to be a hypothetical.
  Greg and I stared at it. "Is it just me," he asked plaintively, "or is that an actual book?"
  I shook my head. "It's not just you," I said, and picked it up.
  It was letter-sized, with a heavy bound spine and grey cardstock covers. On the front was printed in severely plain type: GREENING THE SAHARA: A COMPREHENSIVE OVERVIEW. ...
  The contents page was blunt and to the point. Merely from reading the headings, I could grasp the intent behind it, how the plan would lay itself out. There were things there, details that Greg and I hadn't even thought about or even realised that they needed to be taken into account. ...
  The text was easy to read, using language that was simple and clear. Even the formatting, which I hadn't even considered to this point, was simple and consistent. There were headings. There were references to other sections of the text. And there were actual diagrams of the solar-powered water-collectors that had heretofore only existed in our—Greg’s and my—heads. Also, maps of the Sahara, indicating optimal routes for the greening crews to travel. (Greg had been right, we needed multiple crews.)
  Slowly, I put the book down. "This could really happen," I said softly. "It could actually be done. It's all here. Everything. Costs. Manpower. Risk assessments. It even covers how much fuel per day a Jeep will use up over specific types of terrain."
• Took a Level in Badass: Greg goes from being a timid screw-up to being able to take down Shadow Stalker with a fire extinguisher.
• Training from Hell: Downplayed. Bradley is willing to beat Greg somewhat to teach him how to defend himself in a fight.
• Undying Loyalty: Harcourt holds a deep loyalty to Medhall. Even discovering her bosses are Nazis doesn't shake this loyalty, and she's even willing to have Tracey locked up to keep Medhall afloat.
• Villainous Breakdown: Sophia has one after she finds out she got taken down by "Void Cowboy" and the PHO forums all know about it. Assault and the rest of the Wards are enjoying this, and everyone knows "Shadow Stalker is a joke."
• Villainous Rescue: Medhall and its legal counsel are the ones helping Taylor and Greg take down their bullies. But since Medhall is a front for Empire, it means Greg and Taylor are being helped out by de facto Nazis.
• Villain Takes an Interest:
  • After Taylor and Greg take down Sophia, the Empire's Winslow branch wants to recruit them. Unsurprisingly, the two have no interest in joining a white supremacist gang.
  • Medhall, the front organization for the Empire, rewards both Taylor and Greg with full-time paid positions. It is downplayed, since they prefer to keep Taylor and Greg in full-time civilian positions rather than recruit them into the criminal side of their empire.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Lisa lampshades how Brian getting a legitimate job at Medhall is a good asset to win custody over his sibling.
• Villains Out Shopping: Taylor and Greg spend a decent amount of time with Empire capes who are generally friendly people while handling their day jobs.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Gradually, Taylor and Greg start becoming better co-workers, especially as the latter starts becoming more mature and attentive.
• Voice Changeling:
  • Emma knows Taylor's voice well enough to fake it over the phone, and calls Medhall pretending to quit the internship (along with abusing the staff). Fortunately, Taylor realises it's a possibility, and Greg lends her his phone so she can promptly call Medhall herself and clarify.
  • Victor is able to imitate Taylor's voice to fool Danny into coming to Medhall so the Empire can seize him to put pressure on Taylor. This time it's Brian who recognises the need to call their families and warn them to stay safe, although he didn't realise the exact form the danger would take.
• Weak, but Skilled: Bradley^note Hookwolf is built like a Mack truck, and so it's unsurprising that he can go through a fight like a blender. But Melody^note Cricket is a smallish girl, and yet during his self-defense lessons, Greg finds that she's just as dangerous.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: While he doesn't say it to Brian's face, Hookwolf considers him "one of the good ones" for being hardworking, dependable, and not trying to play the race card.

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