- Which transforms and restores his normal appearance. 

- and the paper changes color until Coyote looks just like before. Taylor reluctantly lets go of her dream of siccing a skull-headed monster on villains. There's still a skull under that paper face, of course, but it's impolite to speculate what lies under a mask.

"Please take my costume off", she says, "and then we can go." And despite everything that's happened recently, she can't help but smile.

Taylor wanders in a vaguely westward direction, with no particular destination in mind.

It's a nice day. The sun is out, the birds are singing, Emma is gone gone gone and she is a hero and she feels she could burst into song, right along with the birds. (Not literally, there are people nearby. She'd die of embarrassment first.)

Coyote is walking alongside her. Sometimes he does something stranger that still ends up with him being somewhere nearby. No-one gives him a second look.

A kitten is meowing in a tree. "Coyote", Taylor says, swelling up with pride, "please help it down." There are butterflies in her stomach. She is being a hero and using her power to help people. She can't climb trees, so she couldn't have done this as a normal human, and it totally counts. (Cats are people and she will send Coyote to fight anyone who says otherwise.)

"Of course!"

- And the kitten sprouts wings with a startled meeep! They're black and bat-like, with red and blue edges like Coyote's markings. The kitten surprises herself enough with a flap of her wings that she tumbles down - 

And then starts flapping properly, catching herself in mid-air and flying around a little with wide eyes.

(Luckily there's currently no one around?)

Taylor cautiously approaches the flying kitten. She can't just leave it there - it will probably get itself into trouble by chasing a whole flock of birds, or wandering the streets until some mad tinker takes it apart to see what makes it tick. It's her responsibility to put this right and make sure she doesn't leave it worse off than being stuck in a tree.

If she can get it to land on the ground (or in her arms), Coyote can probably take the wings back off. Will it let her come near?

Not if she looks like she's trying to get the kitten to stop having fun! The kitten is, in fact, currently having so much fun flying in complicated loops.

- That noise coming from her sounds almost like laughter. 

Watching a kitten fly in loops is honestly quite a lot of fun on its own, but she's still worried. "Coyote? What exactly did you do to it?"

"I gave her a minor gift, is all."

The kitten wings over and buzzes them. Then, in a high, feminine voice: "Hey weird dog you can't catch me!" 

This is followed by a kittenish cackling and a 'nyeh nyeh!' as she wings up. 

A talking, flying kitten. Who can see Coyote. Taylor definitely can't let her get away. She also has no idea how to catch even a regular kitten who doesn't want to be caught, let alone a flying one.

"You weren't supposed to out me!", she hisses to Coyote. "What if she tells someone she saw us together?"

She buzzes back before Coyote can respond. "You're being boring," she complains. "Come play with me!"

And then she dives at Taylor's ankles, tiny claws extended.

Taylor knows how to play with kittens! To wit: always use a toy, lest you become one. She yelps and darts behind Coyote.

Is there still no-one around? She almost asks Coyote for her costume, but she can't be sure she isn't being watched from a window.

Kitten pounces on Coyote instead!

Coyote seems alright actually with playing with kitten? He'll try to hold her down with one paw, at least, which gets a 'PLAY' response.

(There's still no one around, and nothing moving in the windows.)

This probably won't work for long; kittens are hard to keep down. You think you have them securely under your paw, and all the while they're digging an escape tunnel through your pillow.

"Can you turn it back?" she asks urgently.

"No!" says the kitten, giving up play and starting hissing. "I don't wanna be dumb again! And these are my wings!"

"Making her into a normal cat again would be very rude."

Oh no, it's an Algernon, isn't it. (Taylor is rather good at dealing with things that she read about, as long as she really liked the book. This is turning out to be surprisingly helpful.) Coyote just created a new BABY PERSON and now Taylor is responsible for her - because he's her power, and also because Coyote clearly isn't responsible, or a suitable parent at all - and this is NOT AT ALL how she expected her life to go.

Deep breath. "Coyote. Please don't do it again. Not without asking me first. Creating people is a huge responsibility and you shouldn't ever do it on a whim."

"Kitten - do you have a name? - I really, um. I don't want to make you dumb again. But I'm really scared that you'll tell people about me, or that they'll see you with me. I don't want anyone to know I have powers. This is really important. Can you promise me you won't give me away?" Trusting a kitten's solemn word and discretion probably isn't the WORST plan. But it's a start.

"I don't have a name! And I can be really sneaky, promise!" She lands and folds her wings down demonstratively - and they vanish against the black voice of her fur.

"Coyote? Do you think we can trust her?" This is mostly a delaying tactic to let her think; she doesn't trust Coyote - at least not his judgement of character. 

"She seems trustworthy enough!"

Of course. "Kitten - can I call you Kit? - no, sorry, that's not a real name, is it..." Um. Taylor's mind is firmly stuck on books and her mouth has a tendency to keep talking while she's stopped to think and what it comes up with is, "Kitiara, I'm going to call you Kitiara."

Is that a good namesake? "You're named after a knight. She was strong, and had a great sense of humor." Kitiara - the new Kitiara, that is - probably won't read the books to find out where the first one ended up. "Kit can be your nickname!"

"And I don't know how much you know about the world... but, um. There are some pretty scary people out there. If they find out you're special they'll want to lock you up and figure you out" and maybe run horrible experiments - no, Taylor, wrong book! - "or even hurt you, and you probably think you're clever sneaky enough to avoid them, and maybe you are, but you're really new, so I think you should be careful and come with us for at least a few days, and I'll protect you and help you learn about stuff and how to use your new... powers?" 

Wow that was a really long sentence and when she started it Taylor wasn't sure how it was going to end, but apparently she just offered to adopt - no, she said for a few days, didn't she. It seems important to keep her eye on this kitten, at least until she either comes to trust her or - she's not sure what the alternative is, she's not going to dumb it down (and Coyote might not agree even if she asks), but she'll think of something. Hopefully.

"If you come with us, you'll need to only use your powers when I'm in costume and use mine, and pretend to be a regular cat the rest of the time. Can you do that for me?" Even if I go away to school for the whole day and you're terribly bored, she doesn't say, because she suspects that would in fact make the kitten refuse. Baby steps, and then -

Taylor might have her own hero cape team. Three is a team, right? Even if Coyote isn't really separate from her.

"That sounds fun! And Kitiara is a really pretty name. I like it!"