I disagree.
Venom 29.7 said:
More to the point, Canon disagrees with you.
Being Taylor is a Thing [Worm CYOA]
- Thread starter expo1001
- Start date
-
- Tags
- worm cyoa self insert
- Status
I disagree.
More to the point, Canon disagrees with you.
The truth is you can sell second triggers. The market just isn't there.
What do you mean, try harder? Who ever said the SI needs to be a Mary Sue?
Mgunh1
Not an AI, honest!
- Location
- Northern Luna Base, Module 5, Sublevel 15
How the hell is Annette fetishized? I get the Taylor argument, but that's more the author being a bit too descriptive and coming off as fetishy without meaning to. I don't get why you say they've fetishized Annette though?
Personally I found it to be a refreshing take on the whole blind panic and mental breakdown that normal people would actually experience in such a situation. As opposed to the completely unbelievable 'meh' attitude (read sociopathic) that all other SI writers go with.
BTW how different is the QQ version?
Mgunh1
Not an AI, honest!
- Location
- Northern Luna Base, Module 5, Sublevel 15
Nothing different, yet.
It's only on there because it got nuked on SB. So they figured they may as well go the whole hog and add some naughty scenes down the track if they're gonna be forced onto QQ for turning their Taylor SI intersex.
Well, it's not like the SI is underage or anything, so, chill people and don't freak out about stuff that you made up yourself.
- Location
- It's a whole new world we live in
The SI might not be, but Taylor's body is.
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
Serious?
That description doesn't scream fetishized to you also?
Beyond that...well look, let me just spell it out.
Mother seems to be aging incredibly well, 'mistaken for sisters' is common. Attractive and specifically described as such. (I have no doubt at all that Annette probably actually rolled a "de-age and beautify" power at some point and is holding onto it.)
Daughter also incredibly attractive.
One of them has a penis.
(And as a kicker one of them can also trivially clone themselves.)
I've seen this doujin, man. I know where this is going.
Ahri Stahp.
Mgunh1
Not an AI, honest!
- Location
- Northern Luna Base, Module 5, Sublevel 15
To be honest? No I did not see it, not until you pointed out the portion and gave your thought process. A thought process that, frankly, takes a bit of a leap.
Especially when it is spelt out that the SI has 0 sexual interest in Annette.
Being Taylor is a Thing - Chapter 3
- Location
- United States
You've waited for it. You've longed for it. You've something something! And now, here it is! Welcome to...
A few days later found me at my best friend's Emma's house. The two of us were playing video games with the third member of our little group, my other best friend, Sophie Adams. She was the girl who would have been, in another world, the dreaded Sophia Hess. Yeah, yeah, I know; it's strange as shit, right? It creeped me out immensely right at first, but the part of me that was Taylor had never seen the two girls as anything other than her closest confidants… definitely not the orchestrators of unspeakable torments perpetrated upon her person. Theses were nice girls. Well, as nice as teenage girls at the top of the food chain could be, really. Alright, they were a little bitchy once in awhile… but then again, who wasn't? Especially when they were having their periods… seriously, I am so glad to be done with that bullshit. Curing myself of the horror that was menstruation: one PM charge. Never having to go have a period or go through PMS again? Priceless. For everything else, there's American Express.
In one universe Emma and Sophia bullied Taylor mercilessly, and yet in this one the teenage has somehow become her BFFs. And I had absolutely no idea why Sophia Hess was called Sophie Adams in this reality. She was the same girl as in Worm canon, I was at least 99% sure. The dusky skinned teenager was a track star, and looked exactly as Hess was described by Wildbow. My best guess was that her mother had married someone different from her 'canon' second husband, who if I remembered correctly was the cause of Sophia's trigger and at least some of her mental problems. If I recalled, the guy she married was a soft-spoken black man with depression issue; that's definitely not the guy she had introduced me to as her father when I met her parents for the first time.
Mr. Adams ("Call me Doug!") was a tall, slightly overweight white guy with a perpetual friendly grin and worn-in laugh lines. He had a large, unkempt brown beard and he loved to tell lame jokes, which he somehow made funny due to the way he delivered them. He always called his adopted daughter "Sophie", so I suppose that could have explained the origin of the nickname as well. Sophie, like nearly all teenagers, tried not to show it, but it was clear as day that she adored him. The particulars of why my caramel colored cohort had become my friend instead of my bully didn't especially matter; I was just glad to be in a universe that didn't seem intent on shitting all over my pursuit of happiness.
. . .
We were taking turns playing Super Smash Brothers Melee on Emma's old Gamecube, something the two of us had made a habit of occasionally doing since we were little kids. When Sophie had joined our group a little over a year ago she had happily joined in on our tradition. We weren't really "gamer girls", as we only played a few games, and even then only casually. Video games were fun, but they were relegated to the role of a distraction, something to accompany conversation while the paint on our toenails dried. My bare toes, their nails a glossy seafoam green, were a testament to that fact.
Sophie was taking a break from gaming, as she had just painted her fingernails. They were now a startlingly bright shade of magenta. It really wasn't the right color for her complexion, but if you didn't try them all out, how would you ever know for sure? Personally, I thought that she looked best in fall colors; Sophie was such an Autumn-- My train of thought plowed into a cow that had been lying on the tracks, messily derailing and scattering its carcass over a square mile of mental farmland. I fought the urge to punch myself in the throat, or purple my own nurple at how positively girly my inner monologue had been. The Taylor in me saw nothing wrong with it, which for some reason made me feel even worse. I felt like a gay man's sense of aesthetics, trapped in a straight man's mind, locked in a teenage girl's body. It was a very weird three seconds or so, before I got ahold of myself. Thankfully, I did not have to resort to using that power.
'You're a girl now, it's OK to have painted nails. It alright to like pretty things,' I told myself. But somehow it wasn't OK. I wondered if it, if I, would ever would be alright again. I didn't know. To distract myself from dangerous levels of internal teenaged hormone powered angst, I thought about the upcoming conversation I was planning to have with my besties. I was going to come out to them. As a parahuman. Not as a "gay girl". Well, maybe it would be good to rip off the bandage and do both at once? This new line of thought made me just nervous enough to cancel out the unwelcome gendercentric ennui that had been coursing through my being.
"Wow Taylor, you totally suck at Smash Bros today. And what's with that fucked-up face? Looks like you just just bit down on a lemon." Emma nattered at me, shooting me a glance from the corner of her eye as she worked her controller, pummeling my avatar with Kirby. On my side Samus Aran was starting to look a little bit fucked up. I resolved to turn this curbstomp around, and began mashing the buttons on my own gamepad madly while biting down on my tongue, the pink tip protruding slightly from my lips. It was no use; despite my best efforts the hero of Metroid was flung off into the distance, ending the round. I scowled, staring down at the gamepad that had betrayed me. My redheaded friend had beaten me like Ike beat Tina. Sophie chuckled at my antics, and Emma tried to hide a smug little smirk. She owned the console, alright? I didn't even have a video game system at home.
Sophie, sitting on the bed behind us, waved a hand lazily to help her nails dry. She looked at me piercingly. "Something's obviously wrong here, Taylor. You've hardly been hanging out with us the last few weeks, and we know something happened to you a few months back; you've been like a different person since then. Emma and I were hoping that you would tell us what was wrong on your own, but if you're not going to bring it up yourself then I'm fine asking you flat-out." She paused, making sure to catch my eyes with her own, locking on. I tensed up, and couldn't look away. Her face was a mixture of curious and concerned. "What's the matter?"
"Sophie!" scolded Emma, her wide, doe-like eyes narrowed. If I hadn't been so nervous that I was nearly nauseous then I would have 'squee'd', she was so adorable. "You promised me that you wouldn't bring it up. She obviously doesn't want to talk about it." Emma looked more worried than angry, and though she addresses Sophie her eyes kept wandering my way. Despite her words to the contrary, years of experience told me that she was even more curious that the nimble track star.
I gulped, looking back and forth between Taylor's… no, my best friends. I knew that Sophie wouldn't be swayed with mere platitudes, and Emma was nibbling on her lower lip, a sure sign that she was bound and determined to get to the bottom of things. My stomach churning, I hung my head, sighing once in resignation. I had been about to broach this topic myself, anyway. Probably. I raised my head, and stood up, looking at them both, my eyes harder than they were previously.
"If I tell you what's going on, then you both have to promise, from the bottom of your hearts, to never to tell a soul about what I'm going to let you in on." Both girls kept their eyes on me. Sophie just nodded, and Emma stammered out a weak mutter of assent. I dropped a bomb on their tiny teenaged brains. "I'm a cape." Emma's mouth dropped open in shock, and Sophie blinked. "A few months ago I triggered. I have powers now."
"Oh. My. God!" shrieked Emma, apparently shocked to her core. It was luck that her parents and older sister were out of the house; my ears were ringing. I could tell that she didn't expect that at all. "How did it happen? What's your power!? Can you make clones like your mom?" The busty redheaded teen was yammering a mile a minute, her voice high and excited.
Sophie looked startled as well; I don't know what she was expecting me to say, but the revelation that I was now a parahuman wasn't it at all. I soon got my answer to that particular question. "I just thought that you were gay..." the dark skinned athlete mumbled, her face slack with surprise.
I blushed at her words, embarrassed; my face was once again aimed at the floor. Had it really been that obvious? "Um... Actually, I am. Gay, that is. But the reason I've been different for the past few months is mainly because I'm a parahuman now." I quickly explained.
Emma's eyes went even wider, if that were possible. "What!? Sophie was right about that?" the young model exclaimed in surprise. She had a puzzled look on her face. I hope that this wouldn't ruin our friendship. I didn't think so… Emma's older sister was gay, after all, and her family didn't seem to have any kind of problem with it. One of the few positive differences between Earth Bet and my homeworld was that homosexuality was more openly accepted here, due to one of the Triumvirate, Legend, coming out in the 90's.
Sophie's expression morphed from shock to a self-satisfied smirk, and she shot Emma a cocky look. "You owe me twenty bucks." she said, her voice thick with concentrated smug. The long legged gave fixed her redheaded friend a triumphant smile, holding out her hand expectantly.
Emma's face reddened, and she crossed her arms, scowling. "I so do not! You heard her, Taylor's been acting wiggy because she triggered, not because she's gay. Even if you were right about her being in the closet, I totally won our bet. You're the one who owes me money, Soph."
Sophie looked rebellious. With one hand raised, finger pointed, she started to argue back, before rapidly deflating. She closed her mouth, and with an effort of will pulled her hand down and rested it at her side. "Wait one fuckin' minute. Our best friend just told us that she's a parahuman, and we're arguing over twenty goddamn dollars?" she looked incredulous. He face became blank, her eyes assessing as she looked at me again. "I hear that trigger events are some serious shit." said Sophie, looking at me pointedly. "How are you really doing, Tay?"
Emma regained some semblance of clarity at these words, and paused. "Geez. You're right, Sophie." My oldest friend (in this world) looked at me again, her face filled with compassion, and a more than a hint of concern. "Taylor," she asked, "What happened? Is everything OK? I heard on PHO that Armsmaster triggered when his mom killed his dad right in front of him, or something." She and Sophia both were looking at me curiously now, waiting for some kind of answer. I swallowed, and Emma stepped closed the distance between us, pulling me against her strongly, embracing me.
It's a good thing I had tweaked my "Brute" powers to make me feel just like a regular human to other people, or she might have injured herself. I felt two large mounds press against me as she hugged me tightly, just below my own protuberances. "Soft... " I mumbled, my cheeks glowing red. Thankfully, worried as they were, neither of my friends noticed my little faux paw. Sophie was already moving to join us, and soon we had a nice group hug going. I was crying a little as we separated, but I felt a quite a bit better. I still had friends. We all crowded onto Emma's bed, under the covers to continue our conversation. It was a lot easier to talk with my friends close at hand like this. I could almost taste their love and acceptance.
I thought for a moment, trying to figure out a way of explaining my powers to them that would contain the essence of truth without giving away my biggest secrets. I needed them to know what I could do, if I wanted to empower and team up with my two besties. "I'm a second generation cape, so triggering is a little different from first gen parahumans. Trigger events are easier for us, they don't take nearly as much trauma."
Emma, cuddled up on my right, looked at me with wide eyes. "I didn't know that. So, like, did you just have a really shitty period, or something?" On my left, Sophie giggled.
I chuckled as well. "No. I had a really, really bad dream one night, not too long after mom's run-in with the Merchants." I paused. "The next morning, when I woke up, I had powers." It was technically true; I did have a bad dream, and I woke up with powers… and in this fucked up female body to boot. I didn't tell them that part, though. Taylor's pals would probably have murdered me for "body snatching" their BFF.
I continued my story. "I realized something was weird when I went downstairs. I could tell all of mom's clones apart, which is normally impossible, and I just instinctively knew what their powers were, and how they worked. It wasn't until later that day that I found out that I had copied all of their powers, and could use them whenever I wanted. Including mom's clone power..." I trailed off.
The two popular teens shared a shocked look, and a second later Sophie deferred to Emma when they both made a move to speak at the same time. My redheaded friend smiled at me weakly before asking her question, her eyes alight with excitement, and not a little awe. "Holy shit, Tails," whispered Emma. That was her childhood nickname for me. "Holy shit." she repeated.
Sophia looked at me incredulously. "Taylor, what are your powers, exactly?" she asked gently.
I must have looked like a caged animal as I considered how to continue. I needed to tell them a lot about my abilities, to make them understand just what I could do. We already had something awesome here; we trusted each other, liked each other. Innumerable school projects and homework assignments proved that we could work together amazingly. At least in my case, the Taylor in me caused me to love both of the girls, just as much as I loved the brother I had left behind in the last world. Between Emma's people skills, Sophie's tenacity and discipline, and my general awesomeness, I was sure that we would make an absolutely amazing team. I took the plunge.
"I'm a "Trump" type cape. I can do basically anything with powers themselves. I can copy them, make other capes' abilities stop working… I can even give out powers, and make brand new ones. I can enhance other capes, and turn normal people into parahumans." Neither of them moved, neither spoke. In for a penny, in for a pound; I kept talking. "I've found a few soft limits, but nothing that I can't get past if I work a little and look for loopholes. I guess that you could say that my power is like Eidolon's... but better."
. . .
Sophie was staring at me, her mouth a hard line. Her hands were gripping the edges of the blanket that covered us, her fists tightly clenched. Emma had tucked herself under my long arm, her eyes closed as silent tears streamed down her cheeks. Using more strength than a girl of my age and build could possibly possess, I pulled Sophie closer and into my side, like Emma was. Her face thawed a tiny bit, but she still wasn't giving me anything.
"I know that things are going to be different," I began, trying to lead into explaining my plan. Emma suddenly wailed like she had when she skinned her knee at the playground when she was five, and tried to pull away, to escape. I had no clue what was going on in her mind, but I help her close until her panic fled, and she stopped fighting me. Sophie opened her mouth to say something, but Emma beat her to it.
"Why!?" she sobbed, "Why are you even here, telling us about how amazing you are? The way you've been gone, you've been out having cape adventures, haven't you?"
"Emma-" I started, trying to explain.
"No!" she cried, cutting me off. "If you haven't joined some team already, then you're going to soon, aren't you? You're going to go away! Did you come back here out of pity, to hang out with us regulars and let us make idiots of ourselves, worrying about where you've been and how you've been acting for the past two months?" She poked me in the chest, wincing when she jammed her finger. "Or was it just to tell me an' Soph goodbye?" Tears had ruined her makeup; dark streaks of mascara trailed all the way down, from Emma's red cheeks to her quivering jaw. Her eyes were filled with hurt, and the need to share some of it with me.
"God dammit, Emma!" I cried, my own tears coming out now. "You seriously think that I would ever leave you? Quit being your friend? I love you! I've been trying my fucking best to figure out a way to tell you what happened without losing you... I needed to get strong enough that I could protect you when I did tell you. Because I know, that no matter what, you will want to be standing right there beside me when I finally become a hero." Emma's red, runny face looked up at me, her puffy eyes comically wide. Her full-lipped mouth had formed into an "O" of astonishment.
My nose was running, my face wet, and my own makeup was becoming a mushy mess. I wasn't going to lose my friend. I couldn't! I just needed to make her understand. I felt a PM charge disappear, and I suddenly knew what to say. "I kind of lied, triggering really fucked me up. I finally dealt with enough of my own shitty emotional baggage to tell you and Sophie the truth. That's why I came over here today. I'm finally strong enough to let you in. I have enough powers copied that I can make sure that you two don't die when we go out." I looked at Emma imploringly, and she gave me a water smile. Joy suffusing my being, I smiled back. "My plan this whole time… To give you and Sophie powers, so that we can be a superhero team together!"
I was breathing hard and still kind of sobbing a little at the end of my rant, and my two besties were both openly crying along with me. 'Men don't do this,' I thought. I tore that thought into little pieces and threw it away. I was happy, goddammit, and I had friends! I wiped my eyes off with the back of my hand, then gave my two besties a small, sincere smile. That was when both Emma and Sophie decided to spontaneously tackle-hug me, resulting in an undignified burial under a heap of crying, emotionally wrecked teenaged girl. Laughing, I did my best to hug them in my current, immobile position. Things just might be looking up.
After we each took a trip to the bathroom to freshen up, we moved our discussion to the treehouse in Emma's large back yard. I had called Annette, asking to stay the night with Emma. She had readily agreed, much to my relief. Both Emma's father and Taylor's had worked together to build the treehouse when their daughters were much younger. Emma and I had begged them for a playhouse for weeks, before they finally broke down and started building one for their precious children. After the third time one of them had fallen off of Alan's rickety ladder, and over a week of work, Danny had called in a half dozen burly dockworkers with construction experience to finish the half-built project.
The tree house was finished later that same day, much to my and Emma's girlish delight. Since then, we had spent more hours than I could count up here, doing everything from playing capes to having sleepovers. With a flush, I remembered the "practice kissing" the redhead and I had experimented with in our last year of middle school. I quickly dismissed that thought. We had also stored our greatest treasures up here. As I climbed up through the trap door I spied a small, uneven bookcase that had been hand-made by Danny, Taylor's father. One of its rickety shelves held Emma's Alexandria action figure, alongside which stood my mother's flute, and my, err, Taylor's dad's pocket watch.
The three of us gathered together in the sitting area, a section of the floor covered by pillows and cushions that we had gathered over time. After our little group's misunderstanding and subsequent breakdown we had hardly spoken a word to one another, wary of breaking the strange spell that we all seemed to be under. Sophia sat with a single cushion directly under her rear, with her legs stretched out wide. She was doing some light stretches as she sat, and looking back and forth between Emma and I. Emma still appeared to be half in shock, and she kept shooting hopeful glances my way. I guess it was up to me to jump start this little rodeo.
I glanced at both of them, switching my gaze between two sets of eager eyes. "So, just for the record, you two both want in on my plan, right? Get some superpowers, help me save the world?"
Sophie glared at me, almost offended. "What do you think, Tay? Of course I do!"
Emma smiled sweetly, her voice filled with a mocking tone. "Oh geeze, I don't know… Should I accept the free, non traumatizing powers being handed out by the person who I trust the most in the whole world? That a tough one!"
I chuckled. "Ok, I just needed to make sure we're all on the same page. I know that today's been rough, but you guys were being really quiet. I'm really not used to that, especially from you, Emma."
She shot me a mock-angry look, her lips pursed comically. "Are you calling me loud, Hebert?" she asked.
I laughed, real mirth filling me. Emma was definitely snapped out of her shock and acting like herself again. Here is the girl that had been thrashing me in Smash Bros. twice a week since forever. "Maybe just a little bit. Well, let's get you two set up with some basic powers first, then we'll design a theme for the both of you. I'm going to give you all of the basics to start with; flight, teleportation, invisibility, intangibility, toughness, super-strength, personal skin-tight forcefield, regeneration, and long-range laser blasts."
Sophia's jaw dropped open in shock. "Bullshit! That's just the basics?" she exclaimed loudly. I had no fear of anyone coming to see why were were shouting; I had already placed a perception bubble on the treehouse to prevent anyone from discovering our clandestine activities.
I looked smug. "Yep, those are just the basics." I concentrated for a moment, and each of my friends jumped a bit as they felt copies of the above mentioned powers integrating themselves into their bodies. "There, done. You're both Brute eights, Mover eights, Breaker sixes, Stranger fours, and Blaster fives. Each of you give me your wish-lists, and I'll see what I can do about custom powers. I have a whole bunch of copied powers that I can mix and match, and I can always whip up new ones if needed."
Emma was grinning like a lunatic as she hovered a few inches above the floor, still sitting cross legged like she had been previous to her empowerment. Sophie was staring at her right hand intently, studying the trickles of energy that she was emitting using the blaster power I had given her. Just for fun, I had made Sophie's energy powers look like beams of swirling, luminescent shadow. Emma's energy effects would be a deep red, like her hair. I allowed myself to float up into the air as well, as did Sophie when she realized what the two of us were doing.
"Omigawd, I want to go flying so bad!" said Emma boisterously. She was hovering all about in the treehouse now, reveling in her ability to defy gravity. Sophie was hanging upside down in the air now, her hands far apart and palms facing each other as she shot bursts of tiny lasers back and forth between them.
"Let's talk about the rest of your powers first. We can't go out until we figure out a way to make sure that we can differentiate ourselves from each other. If two or three people with nearly identical powers show up, who clearly aren't related, then people might get suspicious." I explained, willing the excitable teens to calm down for now, until we were finished with the task at hand.
"Emma, you think about what signature powers you would like to have. Sophie, you can go first. Do you have any ideas on what you would like for your signature powers?" I questioned my dusky skinned BFF. Predictably, she was still playing with her laser power. Somewhere along the line she had shot a hole in the floor of the treehouse, and Sophie kept looking between the smoking hole she had made and the speck of iridescent shadow on her fingertip in surprise, a dumb look plastered across her shocked face.
"Umm…" said the black teen slowly, dragging her attention away from her coherent light firing phalanges. "I'm really, really digging this laser power. It looks really cool, too, the glowing smoky shadow effect is awesome. Maybe I could get some more energy powers that look like that? Unless Emma's powers look the same as mine."
"Hmmm… Let me think for a moment, and I'll see what I can do." I said, winking at her. Sophie smiled. Energy powers could be very interesting. I examined my list of powers; there were several types in my inventory of abilities, and beside that I had a full day's worth of Power Manipulation charges just sitting around, specifically set aside for empowering my friends. I used PM to slap together a copy of Sophie's current laser blast power with shardless copies of all of the New Wave members' powers, save for the those of the two Dallon children. I had picked up copies of all their powers a while back, during a PRT event. I also added in a copy of Purity's power, which I had just happened to pick up yesterday.
I formed this raw material into a single power that allowed for the creation and manipulation of hard-light constructs, including force fields, concussive blasts, beams, weapons, and pretty much any shape that could be thought up. It was already a really strong and versatile power, but this was going to be Sophie's signature ability. I used a PM charge to enhance it. I shaped the infusion of energy like clay, molding and shoring up the weaknesses of the existing power until it was a nearly flawless work of art.
Sophie would be able to bring anything at all made of hard light into existence with barely a whisper of thought, and each item would persist indefinitely, until she either dismissed it or telekinetically moved it with her will. Thanks to an integrated thinker power, she would be able to make hundreds of objects at a time while controlling them all simultaneously. Her blasts would be several times stronger than Purity's, with range and precision an order of magnitude greater. She wouldn't have the versatility of effects that Legend boasted, but her blasts and constructs could be shaped with edges a single photon wide for incomparable cutting and piercing power, and their temperature and luminosity could be modified to nearly anything she wanted.
One of the few addressable weakness to Sophie's new power that I could find was that her force fields and constructs would break if enough kinetic energy was brought to bear on them. I wouldn't really be able to account for exotic effects, to I put that thought aside. Currently, the hard light fields were maybe quadruple the strength of Narwhal's, the world's current strongest force field cape. Thanks to Purity's power, energy beams could be absorbed, only adding to the constructs strength. I shrugged, and threw another PM charge at the problem, making it a Shaker 10 to 12 power easily, maybe more. Now, force fields would be able to cover square miles of area, and they would be nearly unbreakable, being both stronger and now able to absorb kinetic energy as well, to further enhance themselves. I nodded, coming out of my power creating fugue; I was done.
I had been still for a maybe ten or fifteen minutes, so I stretched a bit, before smiling at my friend. "OK, it's finished. I mixed together something special for you, Soph. A healthy dose of New Wave, a little dash of Purity, and a whole lot of special love from your truly equals a totally kickass shaker power that's stronger and more versatile than Narwhal's, with beams that are more powerful than Legend's." She gaped at me, sputtering. I wound up my arm, like a pitcher on the mound, and tossed the power at her, not bothering to leave a copy for myself. This one was just for her. The softly glowing ball of flickering shadows impacted Sophie Adams' chest, and then sunk in. Still floating in the air when the projectile hit her, she gently floated to the ground as it integrated itself into her being, causing a huge, dopey smile to spread across her face as the thinker part of the power connected with her mind.
"Woah," said Emma, staring at Sophie, who was floating around the treehouse on her back, incandescent with happiness, "what was that!?" she asked, startled. My oldest friend looked at me quizzically.
"That, my dear Emsworth, is the world's first "Shaker" twelve." I said, smirking at her. She looked at me oddly, before replying.
"I'm not a huge cape geek like you, but I'm pretty sure that what you just said, if it's true, means that your power is totally unfair, and completely bullshit." Somehow the teen was able to say that with a completely straight face, which made me laugh all the harder. Emma quickly broke down into a giggling fit, causing me to laugh all the harder. Sophie was still lying in the air, one her back, though now she had coated herself in a shadowy, nearly opaque forcefield that wrapped itself around her like a mummy sleeping bag, with only her face peeking out. Tiny men made of hard light were dancing above her face as she cooed at them in awe. I snickered at her antics.
"Ok, it's your turn Emms. What powers do you want most in the whole wide world?" I asked, a teasing note in my voice. She screwed her face up in thought, and I smiled gently at being privileged enough to see the odd expression. Emma had been mortally embarrassed about showing her natural facial expression in public ever since we were in middle school. She had been teased brutally by a group of high school boys during the whole seventh grade, and shortly enough our classmates had begun joining in. I remember seeing her practice making different, more "normal" expression in the mirror every morning before school, and every night before bed.
Afterward, the busty redheaded teen only revealed her true facial expressions when she was alone with family and her closest friends; people who accepted her unreservedly. Showing off one of her goofy faces was a sign that Emma really trusted someone, that she was comfortable being her real self with them. Besides her parents and sister, that group only included me, my mother, and more recently Sophie. I missed seeing her like this, and just hanging out with her and Sophie while being casual; it had taken away a small piece of my amalgamated soul to stay away, like I had been until today. I made a vow not to keep my distance from those who cared about me any more from now on. I wondered if I would be able to keep that promise in the future.
Emma was still thinking, so I contemplated my own feelings. 'Man,' I thought, 'things are great now that I shared my status as a "parahuman" with my friends… not to mention coming out to them.' It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I know part of it was that my Taylor side loved these people and really, really enjoyed their company. The rest of me was really starting to appreciate them too. It was nice to have people to share things with, that accepted me. They didn't know who I truly was, and I didn't know if I could ever tell them, but at least I would be able to be myself around them.
"Ok, I know what powers I want." said Emma, startling me out of my deep thoughts. She was grinning, her smile stretching nearly from ear to ear. "I want to be able to shapeshift… into anyone or anything. And I want to be able to breathe out clouds of different kinds of gasses, like teargas, or sleeping gas." The bubbly ginger grew more and more animated as she spoke, until her eyes were alight with hope and excitement. "Is that OK, or is it too much?" she asked, when I remained silent for more than a second after she had stopped speaking.
"I think I can do that… give me a minute, and I'll see what I can do." I said, teasingly and with a wink. Emma's excited squeal caused one of the still-floating Sophie's eyes to pop open. Her face was alight with shadowy laser beams, three of which sprouted from each cheek, like a cat's whiskers. She examined us for a moment, blinked, and then closed her eyes again in bliss as she continued to play with her new powers.
I concentrated, going through my library of stored powers to see what I could use as a base for Emma's signature abilities. I had copied the powers of a few local capes that could be used as a base, the most interesting of which was a young man called Browbeat. He had a strong form of self biokinesis, which technically allowed him to alter his shape however he wished, as long as he stayed biological, and didn't alter his brain. I also had changer powers from the Empire 88's Valkyrie twins, Fenja and Menja, which allowed them to increase their size by orders of magnitude, while reducing the damage they took, and increasing the power of their attacks. Hookwolf's copied power might be useful as well, at least as a base for inorganic transformations. I also added a manton unlimited version of Panacea's power into the mix, to increase the array of biological changes that could be made.
I combined all of these powers into one. I was a blacksmith, stripping off unusable parts of the components I worked with, while twisting the pieces of each power that I kept into shapes that I that could be forged together into a coherent whole. After finishing, I enhanced the conglomerate power as much as I could without adding charges. This produced a changer power that allowed its user to change themselves into anything biological, as well as many inorganic forms as well. It would allow Emma to increase her mass by at least three orders of magnitude, and to shift into any living creature she could imagine, as well as anything made out of any type of metal or other dense, rigid substance. She could also eject clouds of any substance she could turn herself into, including the gasses she had specified earlier. The changes were too slow, however, requiring minutes to grow or change her body significantly. It was time to add some metaphysical bullshit.
I threw a PM charge at the project, visualizing what I wanted; I needed this power to allow Emma to turn into anything that she could imagine, anything that she wanted. The power bubbled, morphing into something more. The result was astounding, it would indeed let my best friend change into any creature or substance that she could come up with, but the time it would take her to shift was even slower than the original. I added another charge, directing it to increase the speed of the change as much as possible. I prodded the power with PM, running the numbers; it looked pretty good; the power would let her shift into even creatures as large and nearly as durable as the Endbringers in maybe half a minute.
I growled, a low dangerous sound emerging from behind my clenched teeth. It still wasn't good enough! Thirty seconds was just too long in a battle! I shoved two more charges at the problem, willing them to speed up the power, to streamline it, and to make it better. The already brightly burning orb of superhuman might that I held flared up, becoming as powerful as a tiny star. It held vast metaphysical weight, and it was easily the most powerful ability that I had yet constructed with Power Manipulation. I beheld it's jeweled depths using my inner eye, and became enraptured at the elegance and sheer beauty that I, a flawed mortal, had somehow built. When I came back to myself, as single tear was leaking from my left eye, and Emma was looking at me with slight concern and a breed of confusion tempered by her love for me. I leaned forward, stretching my long arm, and tapped her forehead, transferring Unbound Metamorphosis to Emma. Again, I failed to create a copy; this treasure was solely for my friend's use.
Emma's mouth pursed, and her eyes went wide, and then wider still, until finally he blue orbs were resting on the sides of her head, like she was some kind of fucked up ungulate. I snickered, and she turned her head to stare at me, her skin shifting to a lovely share of aquamarine as she moved. Her mouth shot open, growing wider than her head itself, her jaw literally dropping onto the floor. Her teeth turned razor sharp, and her feet into a bear's paws. Emma let out a startled gasp, more of a muted roar really, and her spiked, silvery tongue shot out, punching a splintery hole through the wall of the tree house. She closed her eyes, and with an effort of will my oldest friend returned to normal.
"Holy shit!" yelped Sophie. It seemed that she had finally rejoined us. "What kind of crazy, fucked up power did you give her, Taylor!?" she exclaimed. I blinked; Sophie looked different. The lean muscled track star was now clothed in a skintight garment of rippling shadow, thin tendrils of azure electricity constantly flowing over and through the energy suit. A helmet of the same material covered her head, with only her face, from mid-forehead to just below her lips, visible. Her headpiece combined both rounded edges and sharp points, like some bastard child of a medieval knight's headgear and one of those ultra-slick, super expensive motorcycle helmets. Her back was adorned with two long, black, anatomically correct wings.
Sophie's wings were long, perhaps two or three times the length of her body, though they were folded up, and partially draped across her body, like a cloak. Each wing was somewhat reptilian, like a dragon or a petradactyl, but with hundreds of intricate feathers instead of membrane. The energy wielding girl had also made sword made of hard light, and it was sheathed at her waist. She had done something to it that made the blade turn a searing cobalt blue instead of the more muted black of her regular constructs. I studied the blade intently for a second, before realizing that it was made entirely of the more energetic part of her hard light material, the type that normally presented itself as the lightning bolts and swirling colors.
"Holy shit! You look awesome, Soph!" said Emma, smiling at her friend. "So that's what you were doing while you were floating around; you were learning enough about your power, and practicing to make that awesome costume. Neat." she finished.
The black girl nodded in agreement. "You're damn straight. I am awesome." she replied. "I was pretty wrapped up, there, so spill. What powers did you pick Emms?" she asked eagerly.
"Taylor made it so that I can breath out different types of gasses… and I can change into anything!" she cried. "Watch!" Emma concentrated for a moment, making another one of her adorably silly faces as she so. Suddenly, almost faster than I could see, she changed. Gone was the Emma that I knew and loved, and standing there was fucking Santa Claus! She had even managed to make a perfect copy of his suit. "Ho ho ho, bitches!" cried a booming bass voice. Her belly jigged like a bowl full of jelly as she laughed, her rosy cheeks raised in a smile. Tiny eye-glasses were perched on her button nose. Grinning, Emma Claus sucked in a gigantic lungfull of air, and pursing her lips for effect, blew out a streams of frigid winter air and snowflakes. Snapping her fingers, Sophie brought up an oddly shaped force field which blocked and redirected the icy blast out the treehouse's window.
"Holy shit, Kringle, cool it with the special effects!" cried Sophie, arms crossed and teeth chattering. Emma might not have hit us directly with the cold air, but her little stunt had lowered the temperature in the little wooden room by at least twenty degrees. The girl in question, in her original shape, lay on her back laughing hysterically. I looked down at her; she was wearing a copy of the Santa outfit, sized for her regular body. I raised an eyebrow when I realized that she was not quite back to normal; her, um, assets were now at least half again as massive as normal, and she was nearly a foot taller now.
"Wow Emma, tits much?" I asked, chuckling. She had settled down, and was leaning back against a pile of cushions. Now that she wasn't shaking and, er, jiggling around so distractingly, I could see further changes to her form. The redhead had made herself maybe two or three years older looking, and her face was now without blemish, and perfectly symmetrical. Perhaps the biggest departure from her previous appearance was the presence of actual muscles. Emma had never been fat, or even chubby, really, but she had always had an excess of feminine softness. Memories from years ago told me that she had often been tired out just by riding her bicycle around for a twenty or thirty minutes. My oldest friend had done her best to correct that problem by taking yoga and spin classes in the past few years, but she hadn't really been built for athletics, being more of the "voluptuous" archetype. No more; Emma had chosen to retain all of her old curves, and more, but they were now built upon a stronger foundation, made up of lean, powerful muscle covered by a thin layer of fat that partially disguised her new strength.
"Thanks Tay, you fucking hypocrite." She said without heat, grinning at me. "Now that you've 'come out' as a cape, Sophie and I know how you really managed to become to change in appearance so much." Sophie looked startled, not having considered my recent "flowering into adulthood" in light of the new information I had recently provided to them. I grinned at both of my friends, nodding to acknowledge Emma's point.
Sophie glanced between the two of us, and then down at her own body, frowning. She was an incredibly well muscled girl; she had to be to be such an amazing athlete, but she had never been all that curvy. I hadn't realized until now that someone so pretty might be insecure about her appearance. "Hook a sister up?" she asked in a normal tone of voice, but I heard the plea there.
Sophie was one of my best friends, so my answer was never in doubt. "K," I said, tossing her a copy of Browbeat's power. "There you go. Give it a try?"
Sophie proceeded to do just that, and shortly enough there were three of us in the treehouse with hourglass figures. I guess it was predictable that my friends would want to change their appearances; I had done so at the first opportunity I had. I surreptitiously glanced back and forth between my besties, studying their new shapes. Blushing lightly, I gulped. The cold Emma had summoned earlier must have been gone, as it was starting to get a little warm in the treehouse. Sophie was still playing with her energy fields, but Emma was playing with her hair, and she seemed to be blushing for some reason and staring at the wall near where I sat. I decided to press forward; we still had things that we needed to do.
"Ok, so now that we have the power granting and makeover portions of the sleepover out of the way, I think that we need to think about what to call ourselves. We need to come up with a cape name for each of us, and one for our group as a whole. Any thoughts?" I asked.
"Um," said Emma, "I was thinking about Chrysalis, for myself. Something that has the potential to transform into something greater… that sounds good, right?" she sounded a little unsure about the name that she had presented, but I liked it.
"That sounds awesome, Em." I complemented. "Do you have any other ideas? How about you, Sophie? Any suggestions for Emma's cape name?"
"I like Chrysalis, too. Hmm… How about 'Changeling'? Or 'Morph'." she suggested. Sophie seemed to be getting into the conversation again; I think that the bare edge of the novelty of having powers might have been starting to wear off. I was still reveling in having superhuman powers, and it had been months, so I didn't expect her to be completely attentive, but it kind of sucked to lose her for large amounts of time, too.
"Hmm. I don't know about those." replied the redhead. "Morph sounds kind of masculine. And isn't a 'changeling' a monster that replaces a baby so that monsters can steal the original?" her nose wrinkled slightly in distaste.
"Well, shit." said Sophie, "Sorry Emma. I guess those aren't that great." said Sophie, slightly abashed.
"I'm going to go with Chrysalis for sure." said Emma confidently. "I really like it, and it describes my powers really well, without revealing what I can actually do."
"Great, that's a really good name, and I'm pretty sure no one is using it locally. Sophie, do you have any ideas about what you'd like to call yourself?" I asked the suddenly busty athlete. I wondered how her new figure was going to affect her running.
"I dunno, but I want a name that has to do with force fields, or energy. Maybe shadows and light, or something like that? It has to be badass, though!" she said excitedly, a big grin on her face. "Help me out guys, you know that I'm not wonderful with this kind of stuff." she pleaded.
"Well, let's see…" I said. "Hmm. Light and shadows, energy, beams, etcetera. Something badass." I muttered while I thought. "How about "Glimmer-Gloom", or "Blackbeam"." I suggested. Sophie looked doubtful. She opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly, a totally amazing idea popped into my head I shouted it out, cutting Sophie off before she could make a sound. "Wait, wait! Darkness and light! What about "Eclipse"?" I cried.
"Eclipse…" Sophie repeated slowly, as if tasting the word. "I really like it. It has to be taken, though, right?" she asked.
"Not by anyone in Brockton Bay, as far as I know. It's not like we've decided to join the Wards or something, so we don't need a completely unique name, just one that nobody around here is using." I explained. I had done my cape research in preparation for this.
"Well, then, I guess I'm going to be Eclipse!" she said. She hovered in the air, and smirking, her costume became a much darker black than it had been before, while the edges of the suit began glowing with a powerful white light, making her appearance match her namesake.
"Woah! That's awesome, Soph!" said Emma, blinking her suddenly watering eyes.
"Now for me," I said. "I already have a bit of an alternate persona that I created. I pretended to be a Tinker cape, and called myself Grant the other day, so that I could make some money and practice with my powers." I admitted. "But for our team I'm going to go with a completely different name. I don't want anyone connecting my to the appearance of Grant, as that would be bad…" I mumbled.
"Why, what did you do as 'Grant'?" asked Sophie.
"I opened up a stall at the Lord's Bizarre and sold powers to a bunch of random people." I said, wincing.
"Oh, shit!" said Emma, "What the fuck were you thinking, Taylor!?" she shouted angrily. "You could have been killed, or worse, captured by a the E88, or the ABB!" She was really upset, so I moved next to her in order to calm my frantic friend down.
Taking her hand, I tried to explain. "Emms, it's not that bad, really. I can't just make new powers for myself, like I just did for you guys… not easily, at least. But if I give other people powers, then I can copy them and modify them in all kinds of ways. I wanted to gather up a whole bunch of different powers, both for myself, and so that I could do what I did tonight, when I made those totally kickass powers for the both of you. Also, I needed some money to order some unique items, and for plans that I have."
"Taylor," said Sophie, "Why didn't you tell us this shit earlier? We could have helped you, you know? That's what friends are for." she said, walking up and giving me a hug. 'Mmm, squishy.' I thought as she embraced me tightly. I shook my head and let my slight blush subside.
"I was afraid." I said. "I wasn't sure what you and Emma would say, or do. I felt like I needed to get stronger before I told you." I hung my head, feeling hot tears began to squeeze their way out of my tightly closed eyes.
"Dummy," said Emma, but without heat. She wrapped her arms around me as well, joining Sophie in a double hug. "You didn't need to do that. Next time, just tell us what's going on, we'll always be here for you." she said, emotion thick in her voice as well.
"Ok." I said demurely. I made myself a promise; if anything that I couldn't deal with come up, I would seek help from my friends.
"Oh, and I totally figured out what you should call yourself… and our group name." said Emma smugly.
"Oh, really?" asked Sophie haughtily. "And what, pray tell, are these wonderful ideas, little miss H-cups?" she asked teasingly.
Emma blushed, but answered anyway. "Taylor should call herself "Transition", because she can switch between multiple powers any time that she wants. It makes sense, and it ties us all together into a theme, because both of our cape names involve things that involve changes. A Chrysalis is a cocoon that changes into a butterfly, and an Eclipse is the the sun changing into a shadow ringed by light." she explained. Sophie and I both nodded along; she had obviously put some thought into this.
"Alright," I said, "You've convinced me. Just call me Transition." I said, posing. I stood on one leg, with my arms held out wide.
"Dork," snorted Sophie, smirking at my antics.
"Two out of ten." said Emma deadpan, both thumbs pointed at the ground.
"Alright, my ginger comrade, if you're so smart, why don't you tell us the team name that you've so kindly chose for our little group." I taunted.
"Revolution." she said with a completely straight face. Sophie and I both started at her, our minds awhirl. Glancing back and forth between each other, we somehow communicated without words. Simultaneously we began clapping, and after moment, Sophie put two fingers into her mouth and produced a piercing whistle. Emma blushed prettily, as we made a scene, but she looked pleased.
We talked long into the night, after I shared my "no sleep" power with my two best friends, and now teammates. We needed some practice with our powers, and to finalize our costumes. We needed to decide on a few things, and to come up with some group tactics, as well as strategies. We needed to do a lot of things, but we that wouldn't slow us down much.
Revolution was going to take Brockton Bay by storm. And once we had shown the local cape community just how powerful and dedicated we were by cleaning up the city. Well... after that, there was the world.
Being Taylor is a Thing
Chapter 3 - Being Taylor is Friendship
Chapter 3 - Being Taylor is Friendship
A few days later found me at my best friend's Emma's house. The two of us were playing video games with the third member of our little group, my other best friend, Sophie Adams. She was the girl who would have been, in another world, the dreaded Sophia Hess. Yeah, yeah, I know; it's strange as shit, right? It creeped me out immensely right at first, but the part of me that was Taylor had never seen the two girls as anything other than her closest confidants… definitely not the orchestrators of unspeakable torments perpetrated upon her person. Theses were nice girls. Well, as nice as teenage girls at the top of the food chain could be, really. Alright, they were a little bitchy once in awhile… but then again, who wasn't? Especially when they were having their periods… seriously, I am so glad to be done with that bullshit. Curing myself of the horror that was menstruation: one PM charge. Never having to go have a period or go through PMS again? Priceless. For everything else, there's American Express.
In one universe Emma and Sophia bullied Taylor mercilessly, and yet in this one the teenage has somehow become her BFFs. And I had absolutely no idea why Sophia Hess was called Sophie Adams in this reality. She was the same girl as in Worm canon, I was at least 99% sure. The dusky skinned teenager was a track star, and looked exactly as Hess was described by Wildbow. My best guess was that her mother had married someone different from her 'canon' second husband, who if I remembered correctly was the cause of Sophia's trigger and at least some of her mental problems. If I recalled, the guy she married was a soft-spoken black man with depression issue; that's definitely not the guy she had introduced me to as her father when I met her parents for the first time.
Mr. Adams ("Call me Doug!") was a tall, slightly overweight white guy with a perpetual friendly grin and worn-in laugh lines. He had a large, unkempt brown beard and he loved to tell lame jokes, which he somehow made funny due to the way he delivered them. He always called his adopted daughter "Sophie", so I suppose that could have explained the origin of the nickname as well. Sophie, like nearly all teenagers, tried not to show it, but it was clear as day that she adored him. The particulars of why my caramel colored cohort had become my friend instead of my bully didn't especially matter; I was just glad to be in a universe that didn't seem intent on shitting all over my pursuit of happiness.
. . .
We were taking turns playing Super Smash Brothers Melee on Emma's old Gamecube, something the two of us had made a habit of occasionally doing since we were little kids. When Sophie had joined our group a little over a year ago she had happily joined in on our tradition. We weren't really "gamer girls", as we only played a few games, and even then only casually. Video games were fun, but they were relegated to the role of a distraction, something to accompany conversation while the paint on our toenails dried. My bare toes, their nails a glossy seafoam green, were a testament to that fact.
Sophie was taking a break from gaming, as she had just painted her fingernails. They were now a startlingly bright shade of magenta. It really wasn't the right color for her complexion, but if you didn't try them all out, how would you ever know for sure? Personally, I thought that she looked best in fall colors; Sophie was such an Autumn-- My train of thought plowed into a cow that had been lying on the tracks, messily derailing and scattering its carcass over a square mile of mental farmland. I fought the urge to punch myself in the throat, or purple my own nurple at how positively girly my inner monologue had been. The Taylor in me saw nothing wrong with it, which for some reason made me feel even worse. I felt like a gay man's sense of aesthetics, trapped in a straight man's mind, locked in a teenage girl's body. It was a very weird three seconds or so, before I got ahold of myself. Thankfully, I did not have to resort to using that power.
'You're a girl now, it's OK to have painted nails. It alright to like pretty things,' I told myself. But somehow it wasn't OK. I wondered if it, if I, would ever would be alright again. I didn't know. To distract myself from dangerous levels of internal teenaged hormone powered angst, I thought about the upcoming conversation I was planning to have with my besties. I was going to come out to them. As a parahuman. Not as a "gay girl". Well, maybe it would be good to rip off the bandage and do both at once? This new line of thought made me just nervous enough to cancel out the unwelcome gendercentric ennui that had been coursing through my being.
"Wow Taylor, you totally suck at Smash Bros today. And what's with that fucked-up face? Looks like you just just bit down on a lemon." Emma nattered at me, shooting me a glance from the corner of her eye as she worked her controller, pummeling my avatar with Kirby. On my side Samus Aran was starting to look a little bit fucked up. I resolved to turn this curbstomp around, and began mashing the buttons on my own gamepad madly while biting down on my tongue, the pink tip protruding slightly from my lips. It was no use; despite my best efforts the hero of Metroid was flung off into the distance, ending the round. I scowled, staring down at the gamepad that had betrayed me. My redheaded friend had beaten me like Ike beat Tina. Sophie chuckled at my antics, and Emma tried to hide a smug little smirk. She owned the console, alright? I didn't even have a video game system at home.
Sophie, sitting on the bed behind us, waved a hand lazily to help her nails dry. She looked at me piercingly. "Something's obviously wrong here, Taylor. You've hardly been hanging out with us the last few weeks, and we know something happened to you a few months back; you've been like a different person since then. Emma and I were hoping that you would tell us what was wrong on your own, but if you're not going to bring it up yourself then I'm fine asking you flat-out." She paused, making sure to catch my eyes with her own, locking on. I tensed up, and couldn't look away. Her face was a mixture of curious and concerned. "What's the matter?"
"Sophie!" scolded Emma, her wide, doe-like eyes narrowed. If I hadn't been so nervous that I was nearly nauseous then I would have 'squee'd', she was so adorable. "You promised me that you wouldn't bring it up. She obviously doesn't want to talk about it." Emma looked more worried than angry, and though she addresses Sophie her eyes kept wandering my way. Despite her words to the contrary, years of experience told me that she was even more curious that the nimble track star.
I gulped, looking back and forth between Taylor's… no, my best friends. I knew that Sophie wouldn't be swayed with mere platitudes, and Emma was nibbling on her lower lip, a sure sign that she was bound and determined to get to the bottom of things. My stomach churning, I hung my head, sighing once in resignation. I had been about to broach this topic myself, anyway. Probably. I raised my head, and stood up, looking at them both, my eyes harder than they were previously.
"If I tell you what's going on, then you both have to promise, from the bottom of your hearts, to never to tell a soul about what I'm going to let you in on." Both girls kept their eyes on me. Sophie just nodded, and Emma stammered out a weak mutter of assent. I dropped a bomb on their tiny teenaged brains. "I'm a cape." Emma's mouth dropped open in shock, and Sophie blinked. "A few months ago I triggered. I have powers now."
"Oh. My. God!" shrieked Emma, apparently shocked to her core. It was luck that her parents and older sister were out of the house; my ears were ringing. I could tell that she didn't expect that at all. "How did it happen? What's your power!? Can you make clones like your mom?" The busty redheaded teen was yammering a mile a minute, her voice high and excited.
Sophie looked startled as well; I don't know what she was expecting me to say, but the revelation that I was now a parahuman wasn't it at all. I soon got my answer to that particular question. "I just thought that you were gay..." the dark skinned athlete mumbled, her face slack with surprise.
I blushed at her words, embarrassed; my face was once again aimed at the floor. Had it really been that obvious? "Um... Actually, I am. Gay, that is. But the reason I've been different for the past few months is mainly because I'm a parahuman now." I quickly explained.
Emma's eyes went even wider, if that were possible. "What!? Sophie was right about that?" the young model exclaimed in surprise. She had a puzzled look on her face. I hope that this wouldn't ruin our friendship. I didn't think so… Emma's older sister was gay, after all, and her family didn't seem to have any kind of problem with it. One of the few positive differences between Earth Bet and my homeworld was that homosexuality was more openly accepted here, due to one of the Triumvirate, Legend, coming out in the 90's.
Sophie's expression morphed from shock to a self-satisfied smirk, and she shot Emma a cocky look. "You owe me twenty bucks." she said, her voice thick with concentrated smug. The long legged gave fixed her redheaded friend a triumphant smile, holding out her hand expectantly.
Emma's face reddened, and she crossed her arms, scowling. "I so do not! You heard her, Taylor's been acting wiggy because she triggered, not because she's gay. Even if you were right about her being in the closet, I totally won our bet. You're the one who owes me money, Soph."
Sophie looked rebellious. With one hand raised, finger pointed, she started to argue back, before rapidly deflating. She closed her mouth, and with an effort of will pulled her hand down and rested it at her side. "Wait one fuckin' minute. Our best friend just told us that she's a parahuman, and we're arguing over twenty goddamn dollars?" she looked incredulous. He face became blank, her eyes assessing as she looked at me again. "I hear that trigger events are some serious shit." said Sophie, looking at me pointedly. "How are you really doing, Tay?"
Emma regained some semblance of clarity at these words, and paused. "Geez. You're right, Sophie." My oldest friend (in this world) looked at me again, her face filled with compassion, and a more than a hint of concern. "Taylor," she asked, "What happened? Is everything OK? I heard on PHO that Armsmaster triggered when his mom killed his dad right in front of him, or something." She and Sophia both were looking at me curiously now, waiting for some kind of answer. I swallowed, and Emma stepped closed the distance between us, pulling me against her strongly, embracing me.
It's a good thing I had tweaked my "Brute" powers to make me feel just like a regular human to other people, or she might have injured herself. I felt two large mounds press against me as she hugged me tightly, just below my own protuberances. "Soft... " I mumbled, my cheeks glowing red. Thankfully, worried as they were, neither of my friends noticed my little faux paw. Sophie was already moving to join us, and soon we had a nice group hug going. I was crying a little as we separated, but I felt a quite a bit better. I still had friends. We all crowded onto Emma's bed, under the covers to continue our conversation. It was a lot easier to talk with my friends close at hand like this. I could almost taste their love and acceptance.
I thought for a moment, trying to figure out a way of explaining my powers to them that would contain the essence of truth without giving away my biggest secrets. I needed them to know what I could do, if I wanted to empower and team up with my two besties. "I'm a second generation cape, so triggering is a little different from first gen parahumans. Trigger events are easier for us, they don't take nearly as much trauma."
Emma, cuddled up on my right, looked at me with wide eyes. "I didn't know that. So, like, did you just have a really shitty period, or something?" On my left, Sophie giggled.
I chuckled as well. "No. I had a really, really bad dream one night, not too long after mom's run-in with the Merchants." I paused. "The next morning, when I woke up, I had powers." It was technically true; I did have a bad dream, and I woke up with powers… and in this fucked up female body to boot. I didn't tell them that part, though. Taylor's pals would probably have murdered me for "body snatching" their BFF.
I continued my story. "I realized something was weird when I went downstairs. I could tell all of mom's clones apart, which is normally impossible, and I just instinctively knew what their powers were, and how they worked. It wasn't until later that day that I found out that I had copied all of their powers, and could use them whenever I wanted. Including mom's clone power..." I trailed off.
The two popular teens shared a shocked look, and a second later Sophie deferred to Emma when they both made a move to speak at the same time. My redheaded friend smiled at me weakly before asking her question, her eyes alight with excitement, and not a little awe. "Holy shit, Tails," whispered Emma. That was her childhood nickname for me. "Holy shit." she repeated.
Sophia looked at me incredulously. "Taylor, what are your powers, exactly?" she asked gently.
I must have looked like a caged animal as I considered how to continue. I needed to tell them a lot about my abilities, to make them understand just what I could do. We already had something awesome here; we trusted each other, liked each other. Innumerable school projects and homework assignments proved that we could work together amazingly. At least in my case, the Taylor in me caused me to love both of the girls, just as much as I loved the brother I had left behind in the last world. Between Emma's people skills, Sophie's tenacity and discipline, and my general awesomeness, I was sure that we would make an absolutely amazing team. I took the plunge.
"I'm a "Trump" type cape. I can do basically anything with powers themselves. I can copy them, make other capes' abilities stop working… I can even give out powers, and make brand new ones. I can enhance other capes, and turn normal people into parahumans." Neither of them moved, neither spoke. In for a penny, in for a pound; I kept talking. "I've found a few soft limits, but nothing that I can't get past if I work a little and look for loopholes. I guess that you could say that my power is like Eidolon's... but better."
. . .
Sophie was staring at me, her mouth a hard line. Her hands were gripping the edges of the blanket that covered us, her fists tightly clenched. Emma had tucked herself under my long arm, her eyes closed as silent tears streamed down her cheeks. Using more strength than a girl of my age and build could possibly possess, I pulled Sophie closer and into my side, like Emma was. Her face thawed a tiny bit, but she still wasn't giving me anything.
"I know that things are going to be different," I began, trying to lead into explaining my plan. Emma suddenly wailed like she had when she skinned her knee at the playground when she was five, and tried to pull away, to escape. I had no clue what was going on in her mind, but I help her close until her panic fled, and she stopped fighting me. Sophie opened her mouth to say something, but Emma beat her to it.
"Why!?" she sobbed, "Why are you even here, telling us about how amazing you are? The way you've been gone, you've been out having cape adventures, haven't you?"
"Emma-" I started, trying to explain.
"No!" she cried, cutting me off. "If you haven't joined some team already, then you're going to soon, aren't you? You're going to go away! Did you come back here out of pity, to hang out with us regulars and let us make idiots of ourselves, worrying about where you've been and how you've been acting for the past two months?" She poked me in the chest, wincing when she jammed her finger. "Or was it just to tell me an' Soph goodbye?" Tears had ruined her makeup; dark streaks of mascara trailed all the way down, from Emma's red cheeks to her quivering jaw. Her eyes were filled with hurt, and the need to share some of it with me.
"God dammit, Emma!" I cried, my own tears coming out now. "You seriously think that I would ever leave you? Quit being your friend? I love you! I've been trying my fucking best to figure out a way to tell you what happened without losing you... I needed to get strong enough that I could protect you when I did tell you. Because I know, that no matter what, you will want to be standing right there beside me when I finally become a hero." Emma's red, runny face looked up at me, her puffy eyes comically wide. Her full-lipped mouth had formed into an "O" of astonishment.
My nose was running, my face wet, and my own makeup was becoming a mushy mess. I wasn't going to lose my friend. I couldn't! I just needed to make her understand. I felt a PM charge disappear, and I suddenly knew what to say. "I kind of lied, triggering really fucked me up. I finally dealt with enough of my own shitty emotional baggage to tell you and Sophie the truth. That's why I came over here today. I'm finally strong enough to let you in. I have enough powers copied that I can make sure that you two don't die when we go out." I looked at Emma imploringly, and she gave me a water smile. Joy suffusing my being, I smiled back. "My plan this whole time… To give you and Sophie powers, so that we can be a superhero team together!"
I was breathing hard and still kind of sobbing a little at the end of my rant, and my two besties were both openly crying along with me. 'Men don't do this,' I thought. I tore that thought into little pieces and threw it away. I was happy, goddammit, and I had friends! I wiped my eyes off with the back of my hand, then gave my two besties a small, sincere smile. That was when both Emma and Sophie decided to spontaneously tackle-hug me, resulting in an undignified burial under a heap of crying, emotionally wrecked teenaged girl. Laughing, I did my best to hug them in my current, immobile position. Things just might be looking up.
. . .
After we each took a trip to the bathroom to freshen up, we moved our discussion to the treehouse in Emma's large back yard. I had called Annette, asking to stay the night with Emma. She had readily agreed, much to my relief. Both Emma's father and Taylor's had worked together to build the treehouse when their daughters were much younger. Emma and I had begged them for a playhouse for weeks, before they finally broke down and started building one for their precious children. After the third time one of them had fallen off of Alan's rickety ladder, and over a week of work, Danny had called in a half dozen burly dockworkers with construction experience to finish the half-built project.
The tree house was finished later that same day, much to my and Emma's girlish delight. Since then, we had spent more hours than I could count up here, doing everything from playing capes to having sleepovers. With a flush, I remembered the "practice kissing" the redhead and I had experimented with in our last year of middle school. I quickly dismissed that thought. We had also stored our greatest treasures up here. As I climbed up through the trap door I spied a small, uneven bookcase that had been hand-made by Danny, Taylor's father. One of its rickety shelves held Emma's Alexandria action figure, alongside which stood my mother's flute, and my, err, Taylor's dad's pocket watch.
The three of us gathered together in the sitting area, a section of the floor covered by pillows and cushions that we had gathered over time. After our little group's misunderstanding and subsequent breakdown we had hardly spoken a word to one another, wary of breaking the strange spell that we all seemed to be under. Sophia sat with a single cushion directly under her rear, with her legs stretched out wide. She was doing some light stretches as she sat, and looking back and forth between Emma and I. Emma still appeared to be half in shock, and she kept shooting hopeful glances my way. I guess it was up to me to jump start this little rodeo.
I glanced at both of them, switching my gaze between two sets of eager eyes. "So, just for the record, you two both want in on my plan, right? Get some superpowers, help me save the world?"
Sophie glared at me, almost offended. "What do you think, Tay? Of course I do!"
Emma smiled sweetly, her voice filled with a mocking tone. "Oh geeze, I don't know… Should I accept the free, non traumatizing powers being handed out by the person who I trust the most in the whole world? That a tough one!"
I chuckled. "Ok, I just needed to make sure we're all on the same page. I know that today's been rough, but you guys were being really quiet. I'm really not used to that, especially from you, Emma."
She shot me a mock-angry look, her lips pursed comically. "Are you calling me loud, Hebert?" she asked.
I laughed, real mirth filling me. Emma was definitely snapped out of her shock and acting like herself again. Here is the girl that had been thrashing me in Smash Bros. twice a week since forever. "Maybe just a little bit. Well, let's get you two set up with some basic powers first, then we'll design a theme for the both of you. I'm going to give you all of the basics to start with; flight, teleportation, invisibility, intangibility, toughness, super-strength, personal skin-tight forcefield, regeneration, and long-range laser blasts."
Sophia's jaw dropped open in shock. "Bullshit! That's just the basics?" she exclaimed loudly. I had no fear of anyone coming to see why were were shouting; I had already placed a perception bubble on the treehouse to prevent anyone from discovering our clandestine activities.
I looked smug. "Yep, those are just the basics." I concentrated for a moment, and each of my friends jumped a bit as they felt copies of the above mentioned powers integrating themselves into their bodies. "There, done. You're both Brute eights, Mover eights, Breaker sixes, Stranger fours, and Blaster fives. Each of you give me your wish-lists, and I'll see what I can do about custom powers. I have a whole bunch of copied powers that I can mix and match, and I can always whip up new ones if needed."
Emma was grinning like a lunatic as she hovered a few inches above the floor, still sitting cross legged like she had been previous to her empowerment. Sophie was staring at her right hand intently, studying the trickles of energy that she was emitting using the blaster power I had given her. Just for fun, I had made Sophie's energy powers look like beams of swirling, luminescent shadow. Emma's energy effects would be a deep red, like her hair. I allowed myself to float up into the air as well, as did Sophie when she realized what the two of us were doing.
"Omigawd, I want to go flying so bad!" said Emma boisterously. She was hovering all about in the treehouse now, reveling in her ability to defy gravity. Sophie was hanging upside down in the air now, her hands far apart and palms facing each other as she shot bursts of tiny lasers back and forth between them.
"Let's talk about the rest of your powers first. We can't go out until we figure out a way to make sure that we can differentiate ourselves from each other. If two or three people with nearly identical powers show up, who clearly aren't related, then people might get suspicious." I explained, willing the excitable teens to calm down for now, until we were finished with the task at hand.
"Emma, you think about what signature powers you would like to have. Sophie, you can go first. Do you have any ideas on what you would like for your signature powers?" I questioned my dusky skinned BFF. Predictably, she was still playing with her laser power. Somewhere along the line she had shot a hole in the floor of the treehouse, and Sophie kept looking between the smoking hole she had made and the speck of iridescent shadow on her fingertip in surprise, a dumb look plastered across her shocked face.
"Umm…" said the black teen slowly, dragging her attention away from her coherent light firing phalanges. "I'm really, really digging this laser power. It looks really cool, too, the glowing smoky shadow effect is awesome. Maybe I could get some more energy powers that look like that? Unless Emma's powers look the same as mine."
"Hmmm… Let me think for a moment, and I'll see what I can do." I said, winking at her. Sophie smiled. Energy powers could be very interesting. I examined my list of powers; there were several types in my inventory of abilities, and beside that I had a full day's worth of Power Manipulation charges just sitting around, specifically set aside for empowering my friends. I used PM to slap together a copy of Sophie's current laser blast power with shardless copies of all of the New Wave members' powers, save for the those of the two Dallon children. I had picked up copies of all their powers a while back, during a PRT event. I also added in a copy of Purity's power, which I had just happened to pick up yesterday.
I formed this raw material into a single power that allowed for the creation and manipulation of hard-light constructs, including force fields, concussive blasts, beams, weapons, and pretty much any shape that could be thought up. It was already a really strong and versatile power, but this was going to be Sophie's signature ability. I used a PM charge to enhance it. I shaped the infusion of energy like clay, molding and shoring up the weaknesses of the existing power until it was a nearly flawless work of art.
Sophie would be able to bring anything at all made of hard light into existence with barely a whisper of thought, and each item would persist indefinitely, until she either dismissed it or telekinetically moved it with her will. Thanks to an integrated thinker power, she would be able to make hundreds of objects at a time while controlling them all simultaneously. Her blasts would be several times stronger than Purity's, with range and precision an order of magnitude greater. She wouldn't have the versatility of effects that Legend boasted, but her blasts and constructs could be shaped with edges a single photon wide for incomparable cutting and piercing power, and their temperature and luminosity could be modified to nearly anything she wanted.
One of the few addressable weakness to Sophie's new power that I could find was that her force fields and constructs would break if enough kinetic energy was brought to bear on them. I wouldn't really be able to account for exotic effects, to I put that thought aside. Currently, the hard light fields were maybe quadruple the strength of Narwhal's, the world's current strongest force field cape. Thanks to Purity's power, energy beams could be absorbed, only adding to the constructs strength. I shrugged, and threw another PM charge at the problem, making it a Shaker 10 to 12 power easily, maybe more. Now, force fields would be able to cover square miles of area, and they would be nearly unbreakable, being both stronger and now able to absorb kinetic energy as well, to further enhance themselves. I nodded, coming out of my power creating fugue; I was done.
I had been still for a maybe ten or fifteen minutes, so I stretched a bit, before smiling at my friend. "OK, it's finished. I mixed together something special for you, Soph. A healthy dose of New Wave, a little dash of Purity, and a whole lot of special love from your truly equals a totally kickass shaker power that's stronger and more versatile than Narwhal's, with beams that are more powerful than Legend's." She gaped at me, sputtering. I wound up my arm, like a pitcher on the mound, and tossed the power at her, not bothering to leave a copy for myself. This one was just for her. The softly glowing ball of flickering shadows impacted Sophie Adams' chest, and then sunk in. Still floating in the air when the projectile hit her, she gently floated to the ground as it integrated itself into her being, causing a huge, dopey smile to spread across her face as the thinker part of the power connected with her mind.
"Woah," said Emma, staring at Sophie, who was floating around the treehouse on her back, incandescent with happiness, "what was that!?" she asked, startled. My oldest friend looked at me quizzically.
"That, my dear Emsworth, is the world's first "Shaker" twelve." I said, smirking at her. She looked at me oddly, before replying.
"I'm not a huge cape geek like you, but I'm pretty sure that what you just said, if it's true, means that your power is totally unfair, and completely bullshit." Somehow the teen was able to say that with a completely straight face, which made me laugh all the harder. Emma quickly broke down into a giggling fit, causing me to laugh all the harder. Sophie was still lying in the air, one her back, though now she had coated herself in a shadowy, nearly opaque forcefield that wrapped itself around her like a mummy sleeping bag, with only her face peeking out. Tiny men made of hard light were dancing above her face as she cooed at them in awe. I snickered at her antics.
"Ok, it's your turn Emms. What powers do you want most in the whole wide world?" I asked, a teasing note in my voice. She screwed her face up in thought, and I smiled gently at being privileged enough to see the odd expression. Emma had been mortally embarrassed about showing her natural facial expression in public ever since we were in middle school. She had been teased brutally by a group of high school boys during the whole seventh grade, and shortly enough our classmates had begun joining in. I remember seeing her practice making different, more "normal" expression in the mirror every morning before school, and every night before bed.
Afterward, the busty redheaded teen only revealed her true facial expressions when she was alone with family and her closest friends; people who accepted her unreservedly. Showing off one of her goofy faces was a sign that Emma really trusted someone, that she was comfortable being her real self with them. Besides her parents and sister, that group only included me, my mother, and more recently Sophie. I missed seeing her like this, and just hanging out with her and Sophie while being casual; it had taken away a small piece of my amalgamated soul to stay away, like I had been until today. I made a vow not to keep my distance from those who cared about me any more from now on. I wondered if I would be able to keep that promise in the future.
Emma was still thinking, so I contemplated my own feelings. 'Man,' I thought, 'things are great now that I shared my status as a "parahuman" with my friends… not to mention coming out to them.' It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I know part of it was that my Taylor side loved these people and really, really enjoyed their company. The rest of me was really starting to appreciate them too. It was nice to have people to share things with, that accepted me. They didn't know who I truly was, and I didn't know if I could ever tell them, but at least I would be able to be myself around them.
"Ok, I know what powers I want." said Emma, startling me out of my deep thoughts. She was grinning, her smile stretching nearly from ear to ear. "I want to be able to shapeshift… into anyone or anything. And I want to be able to breathe out clouds of different kinds of gasses, like teargas, or sleeping gas." The bubbly ginger grew more and more animated as she spoke, until her eyes were alight with hope and excitement. "Is that OK, or is it too much?" she asked, when I remained silent for more than a second after she had stopped speaking.
"I think I can do that… give me a minute, and I'll see what I can do." I said, teasingly and with a wink. Emma's excited squeal caused one of the still-floating Sophie's eyes to pop open. Her face was alight with shadowy laser beams, three of which sprouted from each cheek, like a cat's whiskers. She examined us for a moment, blinked, and then closed her eyes again in bliss as she continued to play with her new powers.
I concentrated, going through my library of stored powers to see what I could use as a base for Emma's signature abilities. I had copied the powers of a few local capes that could be used as a base, the most interesting of which was a young man called Browbeat. He had a strong form of self biokinesis, which technically allowed him to alter his shape however he wished, as long as he stayed biological, and didn't alter his brain. I also had changer powers from the Empire 88's Valkyrie twins, Fenja and Menja, which allowed them to increase their size by orders of magnitude, while reducing the damage they took, and increasing the power of their attacks. Hookwolf's copied power might be useful as well, at least as a base for inorganic transformations. I also added a manton unlimited version of Panacea's power into the mix, to increase the array of biological changes that could be made.
I combined all of these powers into one. I was a blacksmith, stripping off unusable parts of the components I worked with, while twisting the pieces of each power that I kept into shapes that I that could be forged together into a coherent whole. After finishing, I enhanced the conglomerate power as much as I could without adding charges. This produced a changer power that allowed its user to change themselves into anything biological, as well as many inorganic forms as well. It would allow Emma to increase her mass by at least three orders of magnitude, and to shift into any living creature she could imagine, as well as anything made out of any type of metal or other dense, rigid substance. She could also eject clouds of any substance she could turn herself into, including the gasses she had specified earlier. The changes were too slow, however, requiring minutes to grow or change her body significantly. It was time to add some metaphysical bullshit.
I threw a PM charge at the project, visualizing what I wanted; I needed this power to allow Emma to turn into anything that she could imagine, anything that she wanted. The power bubbled, morphing into something more. The result was astounding, it would indeed let my best friend change into any creature or substance that she could come up with, but the time it would take her to shift was even slower than the original. I added another charge, directing it to increase the speed of the change as much as possible. I prodded the power with PM, running the numbers; it looked pretty good; the power would let her shift into even creatures as large and nearly as durable as the Endbringers in maybe half a minute.
I growled, a low dangerous sound emerging from behind my clenched teeth. It still wasn't good enough! Thirty seconds was just too long in a battle! I shoved two more charges at the problem, willing them to speed up the power, to streamline it, and to make it better. The already brightly burning orb of superhuman might that I held flared up, becoming as powerful as a tiny star. It held vast metaphysical weight, and it was easily the most powerful ability that I had yet constructed with Power Manipulation. I beheld it's jeweled depths using my inner eye, and became enraptured at the elegance and sheer beauty that I, a flawed mortal, had somehow built. When I came back to myself, as single tear was leaking from my left eye, and Emma was looking at me with slight concern and a breed of confusion tempered by her love for me. I leaned forward, stretching my long arm, and tapped her forehead, transferring Unbound Metamorphosis to Emma. Again, I failed to create a copy; this treasure was solely for my friend's use.
Emma's mouth pursed, and her eyes went wide, and then wider still, until finally he blue orbs were resting on the sides of her head, like she was some kind of fucked up ungulate. I snickered, and she turned her head to stare at me, her skin shifting to a lovely share of aquamarine as she moved. Her mouth shot open, growing wider than her head itself, her jaw literally dropping onto the floor. Her teeth turned razor sharp, and her feet into a bear's paws. Emma let out a startled gasp, more of a muted roar really, and her spiked, silvery tongue shot out, punching a splintery hole through the wall of the tree house. She closed her eyes, and with an effort of will my oldest friend returned to normal.
"Holy shit!" yelped Sophie. It seemed that she had finally rejoined us. "What kind of crazy, fucked up power did you give her, Taylor!?" she exclaimed. I blinked; Sophie looked different. The lean muscled track star was now clothed in a skintight garment of rippling shadow, thin tendrils of azure electricity constantly flowing over and through the energy suit. A helmet of the same material covered her head, with only her face, from mid-forehead to just below her lips, visible. Her headpiece combined both rounded edges and sharp points, like some bastard child of a medieval knight's headgear and one of those ultra-slick, super expensive motorcycle helmets. Her back was adorned with two long, black, anatomically correct wings.
Sophie's wings were long, perhaps two or three times the length of her body, though they were folded up, and partially draped across her body, like a cloak. Each wing was somewhat reptilian, like a dragon or a petradactyl, but with hundreds of intricate feathers instead of membrane. The energy wielding girl had also made sword made of hard light, and it was sheathed at her waist. She had done something to it that made the blade turn a searing cobalt blue instead of the more muted black of her regular constructs. I studied the blade intently for a second, before realizing that it was made entirely of the more energetic part of her hard light material, the type that normally presented itself as the lightning bolts and swirling colors.
"Holy shit! You look awesome, Soph!" said Emma, smiling at her friend. "So that's what you were doing while you were floating around; you were learning enough about your power, and practicing to make that awesome costume. Neat." she finished.
The black girl nodded in agreement. "You're damn straight. I am awesome." she replied. "I was pretty wrapped up, there, so spill. What powers did you pick Emms?" she asked eagerly.
"Taylor made it so that I can breath out different types of gasses… and I can change into anything!" she cried. "Watch!" Emma concentrated for a moment, making another one of her adorably silly faces as she so. Suddenly, almost faster than I could see, she changed. Gone was the Emma that I knew and loved, and standing there was fucking Santa Claus! She had even managed to make a perfect copy of his suit. "Ho ho ho, bitches!" cried a booming bass voice. Her belly jigged like a bowl full of jelly as she laughed, her rosy cheeks raised in a smile. Tiny eye-glasses were perched on her button nose. Grinning, Emma Claus sucked in a gigantic lungfull of air, and pursing her lips for effect, blew out a streams of frigid winter air and snowflakes. Snapping her fingers, Sophie brought up an oddly shaped force field which blocked and redirected the icy blast out the treehouse's window.
"Holy shit, Kringle, cool it with the special effects!" cried Sophie, arms crossed and teeth chattering. Emma might not have hit us directly with the cold air, but her little stunt had lowered the temperature in the little wooden room by at least twenty degrees. The girl in question, in her original shape, lay on her back laughing hysterically. I looked down at her; she was wearing a copy of the Santa outfit, sized for her regular body. I raised an eyebrow when I realized that she was not quite back to normal; her, um, assets were now at least half again as massive as normal, and she was nearly a foot taller now.
"Wow Emma, tits much?" I asked, chuckling. She had settled down, and was leaning back against a pile of cushions. Now that she wasn't shaking and, er, jiggling around so distractingly, I could see further changes to her form. The redhead had made herself maybe two or three years older looking, and her face was now without blemish, and perfectly symmetrical. Perhaps the biggest departure from her previous appearance was the presence of actual muscles. Emma had never been fat, or even chubby, really, but she had always had an excess of feminine softness. Memories from years ago told me that she had often been tired out just by riding her bicycle around for a twenty or thirty minutes. My oldest friend had done her best to correct that problem by taking yoga and spin classes in the past few years, but she hadn't really been built for athletics, being more of the "voluptuous" archetype. No more; Emma had chosen to retain all of her old curves, and more, but they were now built upon a stronger foundation, made up of lean, powerful muscle covered by a thin layer of fat that partially disguised her new strength.
"Thanks Tay, you fucking hypocrite." She said without heat, grinning at me. "Now that you've 'come out' as a cape, Sophie and I know how you really managed to become to change in appearance so much." Sophie looked startled, not having considered my recent "flowering into adulthood" in light of the new information I had recently provided to them. I grinned at both of my friends, nodding to acknowledge Emma's point.
Sophie glanced between the two of us, and then down at her own body, frowning. She was an incredibly well muscled girl; she had to be to be such an amazing athlete, but she had never been all that curvy. I hadn't realized until now that someone so pretty might be insecure about her appearance. "Hook a sister up?" she asked in a normal tone of voice, but I heard the plea there.
Sophie was one of my best friends, so my answer was never in doubt. "K," I said, tossing her a copy of Browbeat's power. "There you go. Give it a try?"
Sophie proceeded to do just that, and shortly enough there were three of us in the treehouse with hourglass figures. I guess it was predictable that my friends would want to change their appearances; I had done so at the first opportunity I had. I surreptitiously glanced back and forth between my besties, studying their new shapes. Blushing lightly, I gulped. The cold Emma had summoned earlier must have been gone, as it was starting to get a little warm in the treehouse. Sophie was still playing with her energy fields, but Emma was playing with her hair, and she seemed to be blushing for some reason and staring at the wall near where I sat. I decided to press forward; we still had things that we needed to do.
"Ok, so now that we have the power granting and makeover portions of the sleepover out of the way, I think that we need to think about what to call ourselves. We need to come up with a cape name for each of us, and one for our group as a whole. Any thoughts?" I asked.
"Um," said Emma, "I was thinking about Chrysalis, for myself. Something that has the potential to transform into something greater… that sounds good, right?" she sounded a little unsure about the name that she had presented, but I liked it.
"That sounds awesome, Em." I complemented. "Do you have any other ideas? How about you, Sophie? Any suggestions for Emma's cape name?"
"I like Chrysalis, too. Hmm… How about 'Changeling'? Or 'Morph'." she suggested. Sophie seemed to be getting into the conversation again; I think that the bare edge of the novelty of having powers might have been starting to wear off. I was still reveling in having superhuman powers, and it had been months, so I didn't expect her to be completely attentive, but it kind of sucked to lose her for large amounts of time, too.
"Hmm. I don't know about those." replied the redhead. "Morph sounds kind of masculine. And isn't a 'changeling' a monster that replaces a baby so that monsters can steal the original?" her nose wrinkled slightly in distaste.
"Well, shit." said Sophie, "Sorry Emma. I guess those aren't that great." said Sophie, slightly abashed.
"I'm going to go with Chrysalis for sure." said Emma confidently. "I really like it, and it describes my powers really well, without revealing what I can actually do."
"Great, that's a really good name, and I'm pretty sure no one is using it locally. Sophie, do you have any ideas about what you'd like to call yourself?" I asked the suddenly busty athlete. I wondered how her new figure was going to affect her running.
"I dunno, but I want a name that has to do with force fields, or energy. Maybe shadows and light, or something like that? It has to be badass, though!" she said excitedly, a big grin on her face. "Help me out guys, you know that I'm not wonderful with this kind of stuff." she pleaded.
"Well, let's see…" I said. "Hmm. Light and shadows, energy, beams, etcetera. Something badass." I muttered while I thought. "How about "Glimmer-Gloom", or "Blackbeam"." I suggested. Sophie looked doubtful. She opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly, a totally amazing idea popped into my head I shouted it out, cutting Sophie off before she could make a sound. "Wait, wait! Darkness and light! What about "Eclipse"?" I cried.
"Eclipse…" Sophie repeated slowly, as if tasting the word. "I really like it. It has to be taken, though, right?" she asked.
"Not by anyone in Brockton Bay, as far as I know. It's not like we've decided to join the Wards or something, so we don't need a completely unique name, just one that nobody around here is using." I explained. I had done my cape research in preparation for this.
"Well, then, I guess I'm going to be Eclipse!" she said. She hovered in the air, and smirking, her costume became a much darker black than it had been before, while the edges of the suit began glowing with a powerful white light, making her appearance match her namesake.
"Woah! That's awesome, Soph!" said Emma, blinking her suddenly watering eyes.
"Now for me," I said. "I already have a bit of an alternate persona that I created. I pretended to be a Tinker cape, and called myself Grant the other day, so that I could make some money and practice with my powers." I admitted. "But for our team I'm going to go with a completely different name. I don't want anyone connecting my to the appearance of Grant, as that would be bad…" I mumbled.
"Why, what did you do as 'Grant'?" asked Sophie.
"I opened up a stall at the Lord's Bizarre and sold powers to a bunch of random people." I said, wincing.
"Oh, shit!" said Emma, "What the fuck were you thinking, Taylor!?" she shouted angrily. "You could have been killed, or worse, captured by a the E88, or the ABB!" She was really upset, so I moved next to her in order to calm my frantic friend down.
Taking her hand, I tried to explain. "Emms, it's not that bad, really. I can't just make new powers for myself, like I just did for you guys… not easily, at least. But if I give other people powers, then I can copy them and modify them in all kinds of ways. I wanted to gather up a whole bunch of different powers, both for myself, and so that I could do what I did tonight, when I made those totally kickass powers for the both of you. Also, I needed some money to order some unique items, and for plans that I have."
"Taylor," said Sophie, "Why didn't you tell us this shit earlier? We could have helped you, you know? That's what friends are for." she said, walking up and giving me a hug. 'Mmm, squishy.' I thought as she embraced me tightly. I shook my head and let my slight blush subside.
"I was afraid." I said. "I wasn't sure what you and Emma would say, or do. I felt like I needed to get stronger before I told you." I hung my head, feeling hot tears began to squeeze their way out of my tightly closed eyes.
"Dummy," said Emma, but without heat. She wrapped her arms around me as well, joining Sophie in a double hug. "You didn't need to do that. Next time, just tell us what's going on, we'll always be here for you." she said, emotion thick in her voice as well.
"Ok." I said demurely. I made myself a promise; if anything that I couldn't deal with come up, I would seek help from my friends.
"Oh, and I totally figured out what you should call yourself… and our group name." said Emma smugly.
"Oh, really?" asked Sophie haughtily. "And what, pray tell, are these wonderful ideas, little miss H-cups?" she asked teasingly.
Emma blushed, but answered anyway. "Taylor should call herself "Transition", because she can switch between multiple powers any time that she wants. It makes sense, and it ties us all together into a theme, because both of our cape names involve things that involve changes. A Chrysalis is a cocoon that changes into a butterfly, and an Eclipse is the the sun changing into a shadow ringed by light." she explained. Sophie and I both nodded along; she had obviously put some thought into this.
"Alright," I said, "You've convinced me. Just call me Transition." I said, posing. I stood on one leg, with my arms held out wide.
"Dork," snorted Sophie, smirking at my antics.
"Two out of ten." said Emma deadpan, both thumbs pointed at the ground.
"Alright, my ginger comrade, if you're so smart, why don't you tell us the team name that you've so kindly chose for our little group." I taunted.
"Revolution." she said with a completely straight face. Sophie and I both started at her, our minds awhirl. Glancing back and forth between each other, we somehow communicated without words. Simultaneously we began clapping, and after moment, Sophie put two fingers into her mouth and produced a piercing whistle. Emma blushed prettily, as we made a scene, but she looked pleased.
We talked long into the night, after I shared my "no sleep" power with my two best friends, and now teammates. We needed some practice with our powers, and to finalize our costumes. We needed to decide on a few things, and to come up with some group tactics, as well as strategies. We needed to do a lot of things, but we that wouldn't slow us down much.
Revolution was going to take Brockton Bay by storm. And once we had shown the local cape community just how powerful and dedicated we were by cleaning up the city. Well... after that, there was the world.
I can't stand this fucking character. God. "Oh look I got 'Power Manipulation' buhuu, I'm too stupid to re-create my old body and implant my mind/soul/thing into it, leaving Taylor very sane. Or give myself a shapeshifting power that'll make me a man whenever I want."
If it'd been outright stated that shit like that wasn't possible. Cool. But you haven't, so there's a plain lack of common sense. Jesus christ. So much wangsty angst. Couldn't get past the admission of "I'm a parahuman" cause it's painful to read. And the whole 'Imma lock my mind up forever and seal away my memories because I'm weakling trash that can't deal with emotional pain' is so damn irritating to read.
People are stronger than that.
If it'd been outright stated that shit like that wasn't possible. Cool. But you haven't, so there's a plain lack of common sense. Jesus christ. So much wangsty angst. Couldn't get past the admission of "I'm a parahuman" cause it's painful to read. And the whole 'Imma lock my mind up forever and seal away my memories because I'm weakling trash that can't deal with emotional pain' is so damn irritating to read.
People are stronger than that.
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faux paw -> faux pass. (unless Taylor copped a feel)
but we that wouldn't slow us down much. -> but we wouldn't let this slow us down much.
I like how the MC is a wimp, it's honest. You know, he's an amalgam of Tay and himself. Disentangling those might be like death to him. Making himself a male body will give the Tay part problems.
but we that wouldn't slow us down much. -> but we wouldn't let this slow us down much.
I like how the MC is a wimp, it's honest. You know, he's an amalgam of Tay and himself. Disentangling those might be like death to him. Making himself a male body will give the Tay part problems.
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A bit over the top with Power manipulation.
Also the character interaction does not feel natural.
Also the character interaction does not feel natural.
Definitely pretty interesting so far, and if it actually continues then I'd like to see where it goes. Though, what exactly are her goals? The MC doesn't have to worry about Scion because of the AU changes, but what does that mean for other things? Does Scion being less insane mean the Endbringers are less of an issue since he'd be going after them? Are the Endbringers even active considering Cauldron doesn't have to worry about preparing for Scion destroying everything meaning Eidolon would have less reason to inadvertently activate them?
So far the only thing that I don't like is how, well, pointless the first chapter seems to be. Which is sad since that is the chapter I found most interesting. The reason I find it nearly pointless is that immediately after it happened it seems to have been ignored. BB at this point should be swarmed with all kinds of people. Every parahuman of note should be trying to find Grant and there must be countless news websites, channels, and everything in between talking about the new cape capable of granting basically any kind of power. And with the amount of attention BB would get from all of that, the economy would likely skyrocket from people moving in and everyone focusing on it. To the point I'm guessing basically all the gangs would end up being kicked out because why would anyone join when there are suddenly so many other options?
Basically, I'm just kind of disappointed that the impact of what the MC did seems to have been ignored. I mean, neither Emma or Sophia had even heard about what the MC did as Grant. How?
So far the only thing that I don't like is how, well, pointless the first chapter seems to be. Which is sad since that is the chapter I found most interesting. The reason I find it nearly pointless is that immediately after it happened it seems to have been ignored. BB at this point should be swarmed with all kinds of people. Every parahuman of note should be trying to find Grant and there must be countless news websites, channels, and everything in between talking about the new cape capable of granting basically any kind of power. And with the amount of attention BB would get from all of that, the economy would likely skyrocket from people moving in and everyone focusing on it. To the point I'm guessing basically all the gangs would end up being kicked out because why would anyone join when there are suddenly so many other options?
Basically, I'm just kind of disappointed that the impact of what the MC did seems to have been ignored. I mean, neither Emma or Sophia had even heard about what the MC did as Grant. How?
- Location
- USA
Do we know how long ago she did that? If it was within a few days they might not have heard of it if the PRT or Cauldron were trying to keep it quiet.
Yesterday. Kids don't watch the news every day.
- Location
- United States
I'm going to try to focus on people and events other than the MC next chapter. Needless to say, her actions were more far reaching and have impacted things much more than she ever realized. Cauldron doesn't actually know that Scion had been nerfed... They can't predict him with precog. I obviously didn't do a wonderful job of portraying it, but the MC is fairly fucked up mentally from trying to fight the merging of his mind with Taylor's. Now that he's beginning to accept her lot in life, and actually acknowledging his Taylor side by spending time with her friends, she's going to start getting healthier mentally in short order. Fighting it was by far the worst thing he could have been doing, and 'first power' made everything a lot worse than it should have been.
- Status