The Eldritch One (Celestial Forge)

Emma is not going to take this well. Too much of her is attached to Sophia for a graceful partitioning to be possible.
 
I'm a real sucker for show and not tell. But I gotta say, the real fork in the road here is that Taylor found out Sophia was Shadow Stalker real early.

Not trying to yell at anybody or anything, but because I gotta know. Was that too subtle?
Kinda she should have gotten a chat with someone from the protectorate a long time ago to hammer everything home
 
well Sophia's caseworker will probably wish she got dragged in the woods and shot
it's a far less painful alternative to what Piggot will do once she gets a hold of all the bullshit she pulled
 
Interlude: Piggot New
What a clusterfuck. A black Ward unmasked, her family killed by Nazis, and a potential lawsuit about to blow up in our faces and the media. Good thing for that little shithead caseworker she's already in jail. If I got my hands on her right now I'd fucking strangle the bitch!

"Armsmaster, give us your report on the situation." He already filed it with me, but this is a joint Protectorate/PRT meeting. And he's always good with slideshows.

"Yes Director." He clicks the remote. A slideshow of photos of evidence starts playing. The remains of Sophia's home, pictures of the incident in question sourced from PHO, etc. "As you can see we have extensive evidence that this is an E88 attack. Especially with the statement they put out."

"How do they expect to get away with this?" From one of the civilian consultants. Not Calvert thankfully. He's staying mercifully silent. "Aren't they scared of the response this could bring down on them?"

"They think they can get away with it because they're trying, and succeeding, at painting Shadow Stalker as a sadistic villain." Armsmaster clicks the remote again. A video plays.

It shows Sophia shoving the Taylor girl into a locker filled with an indistinct black mass and locking the door. Muffled and distressed screaming starts up as she high fives a redhead and they laugh about it. Most of the crowd does too.

The redhead speaks up. "Alright people, nobody better spoil our fun here or tell a teacher." As Sophia stands to the side like the thug she is. "If you do? Well we have plenty of creativity left in us. I'm sure we can think of something." The video ends with most of the students going to class presumably. With muffled screaming still going on in the background.

Everybody here is stunned at what they saw. Though it's one of my staff that recovers first. "Can we take the video down?" A couple of my heroes snap their heads to him with positively murderous intent. "This shouldn't be too bad if we can get ahead of it."

"Unfortunately we already tried." Says Armsmaster. "It was put up on seven more video hosting sites within the hour, along with four other videos of varying quality we didn't know about until then. Four of these websites are out of our reach. And I assure you, it only gets worse from here.

"A requisition of her phone records, made possible by her probationary status, revealed she was instrumental in planning this incident. The redhead, our Sophia, and one other coordinated the gathering of as many soiled feminine hygiene products as they could get their hands on, along with other miscellaneous biological waste, dumped it all in her locker, and left it all to rot over winter break. That was the black substance in her locker in the video." A look of horror and revulsion from most of our staff here. Good. "Further looking into her phone records here, it seems that this was far from the first incident Sophia had with miss Hebert. This was just the latest in a long series of coordinated bullying events at the time. Ranging from rumor mongering to theft and assault of her person.

"Taylor herself was hospitalized from this event. Looking over her medical records it seems she was septic and hours away from death. It was only the timely intervention of Panacea that saved her life. Everybody involved in this is looking at conspiracy charges with multiple felonies attached."

"Hey Armsy, we're shitcanning the little turd over this right?" Interjects Assault. "I mean thinking about it we kind of have to don't we? If this is how low the bar is for probationary members then..." He gestures vaguely with his hands. Left unsaid here is that until relatively recently he was a probationary member. Just thinking how fast the probationary program would fall apart under this standard sets my teeth on edge.

"Her probation is being revoked and she will be spending her sentence patrolling one of the quarantine zones." I interject. "Continue Armsmaster."

Another click of the remote. Three pictures come up. "We have three to four suspects for the unmasking depending on how you count it." The pictures are of some skinhead, the redhead, and Taylor. "It was this boy's phone that we traced the leak to. Half his classmates, including the teacher, say he was in class the whole time. Another fourth say he wasn't. The dissenting voices were mostly minorities. The redhead is Emma Barnes. The only person we know for sure who knew Sophia's secret identity, but can't verify her story on where she was at the time. She and her teacher say she was in the bathroom at the time. Only thing is, she and Sophia are best friends. Finally we have Miss Hebert again. She and her Dad are currently suing the school for criminal negligence."

"For the locker right?" Asks Assault again.

"No actually. It seems Emma wasn't satisfied with the locker 'prank.' she's been spreading a rumor on social media that Taylor has some sort of mouth based changer power, and the school took responsibility for any future bullying as part of the settlement for the locker." This actually shocks Assault into silence. His jaw is hanging open along with a few more people in the room. Miss Militia speaks up next.

"We should take the Barnes family into protective custody. If Taylor actually has powers they could all end up dead in short order."

"Good point." I point to one of the trooper Captains in attendance. "Go make it happen. Does anybody else have anything to add?"

"Are we sure this Emma chick isn't just trying to commit a very elaborate suicide?" Asks Assault.

"The possibility has been brought up." By Calvert no less, before the meeting was called. "It's why she's still a suspect. Continue Armsmaster."

"The final wrench in the works here is a mystery lady who was caught on camera entering the building right before the leak happened and leaving right afterwards." He clicks the remote to show a still that doesn't show her face. "Taylor was allegedly at home during all this so it could have been her, but the receptionist on duty at the time says it wasn't. And the locker that housed the cell phone used to leak Sophia's identity was in view of a camera whose lens has been spray-painted over. Until further investigation we have nothing else to go on."

I look over the room. "Does anybody have anything else to add here?" Nobody says anything. "Meeting adjourned. Everybody out except for Armsmaster and legal." I turn the recorder off while everybody files out of the room.

"You said you had something else for me Armsmaster?" He hesitates.

"...This will not be admissible in court."

"I don't care, I need all the information here. Tell me." He brings up his gauntlet and starts typing on an integrated computer. "I recorded this this morning."

*Knock Knock Knock*

"Hello there Miss Hebert."

"...hi there."

"I have some questions about Shadow Stalker's unmasking."

"I had nothing to do with it. We done here?"

"Well I was hoping to get a bit more than that out of you."

"Well then let me be absolutely clear here. I had no way of knowing her identity before yesterday. In the physical universe we actually live in, hell, any actual universe I have access to, it was just not possible for me to know. It just didn't happen. If you'll excuse me, I have a lawyer to call."

*Slam*


"Now with the lie detector technology I made"

The lawyer puts his hand to his head. "Oh my God."

"I was able to tell she was telling the truth about everything except not being the one to unmask her."

"Have you considered the possibility your lie detector was wrong about that, and she was telling the truth about everything?" Asks the lawyer.

"No because it's not. I already know we can't use this in court. I solicited a minor for testimony without parental consent. And not even tinkertech lie detectors are admissible. I believe she did this in retaliation for what Emma did not even caring if it was true or not.

"Look, Director Piggot. I realize why you wanted my presence for this meeting before you wanted to hear what I had to say. The Heberts have sent us a settlement offer. They want a guaranteed transfer to Arcadia for Taylor in exchange for leaving the PRT and Protectorate out of their lawsuit. I strongly advise we take this offer. Aside from the optics of fighting this in the first place, if we try arresting the girl while fighting a lawsuit with her we could land ourselves in so much more trouble. Monetarily, legally, and publicly." I consider my lawyer's advice with all the respect it deserves. Then I consider the path I would have to take to force her into the Wards. Lean on the Father with the settlement, maybe dangle the recording with the lie detection telemetry alongside it in front of him. It would be so easy.

I look the departmental lawyer dead in the eyes. "Attach as many NDAs as you can to the agreement and give them what they want. Give him a Wards brochure too, just in case the Empire comes poking around to recruit his daughter."

"R-really? I mean yes ma'am, right away ma'am." I give him a withering look.

"You do know I'm not a stupid woman, right? I'm smart enough not to stick my foot into that pile of shit. Besides, pissing off a Parahuman like that with completely unknown capabilities and a grudge? I think I'll let somebody else find out how deep the pile goes. And who knows, she might not even be a Parahuman! Good day gentlemen." I leave to coordinate damage control from my office.



At about four PM I receive a call from the BBPD. Something about a case my assistants can't find.

"Hello Director Piggot. This is precinct Captain James."

"Yes? What can I do for you?"

"Well I was wondering if you could transfer me back a case that your department claimed jurisdiction over. Only none of your underlings seem to be cleared to access it."

"What's the case number?"

"Eleven dash Eff Ee dash zero nine six two four five." I go to type it into my search apparatus.

"I'm not seeing it here." Hopefully nobody went over my head. "Could you tell me which agent claimed jurisdiction?"

"One agent Smith." I feel myself twitch. Now isn't that just the log that broke the camel's back?

I think I'll be pulling her qualified immunity. I hear she owns a nice house the Heberts could either sell or move into.




Powers gained this chapter.

Environmental Tolerance IV II (Essential Body Modification Supplement) (400CP) (200CP)
You are not damaged by hazardous environments, though this does not provide you a method of propulsion.
I: You no longer need to breathe and do not suffer from temperatures between -100C and +100C (-150F to +200F). You are immune to most radiation (up to about 1,000 mSv; the amount experienced during unshielded exposure to space).
II: As tier I, plus you do not suffer from temperatures below 1500C (+2700F) or the effects of pressure lower than 1000 atmospheres (including the effects of vacuum). You are immune to the effects of radiation at all levels.
III: As tier II, but the protection extends to any non-magical environmental source.
IV: As tier III, but the protection extends to magical environments such as energy planes.
 
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A wild question overcame me, Do sidestories or Apochriphas count for Taylor gaining a new power?

I supose the answer is a no, but the idea of people writtingseeing lot's of sidestories just to stress Taylor with new powers is bringing a smile to my face right now :p
 
Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. Just incredible. This fic continues to provide catharsis in frankly unreasonably high quantities, and I am HERE FOR IT.
 
They killed Sophia's family and her family didn't deserve to be killed. When Taylor tested different methods in the alternate universe, did she ever check to see if Sophia's family were affected? That's very careless, and people died from it.

Also, the lie detector isn't a genie. Saying "in the actual universe..." when she knows very well that Armsmaster isn't even thinking of universes when he asks the question, is an intent to hide the truth (even if it's literally accurate) and will show up in the lie detector.
 
Welp Agent Smith is just screwed and going to jail. Too bad about Sophia's family deaths. Coil I bet is going to try to recruit Sophia and will not go well considering her mentality.
 
Taylor knowingly got Sophia's family killed. She knew innocents would paye the price for Sophia's madness and still did it. What doesn't she understand in "Don't talk to the police" ??
 
Still in the fake timeline I went to open the garage with my remote. This opened into something a lot more sane. A single stall commercial garage with one of those hydraulic lift thingies, and some space to work with. There's a backroom with a stupid amount of car parts I have no idea what to do with, a small indexing desk, and, oh yeah, three rooms down from that is the Anti-Matter control observation room again.
You know what? I get that Taylor wouldn't know what to do with this but also I would think that she might be able to get some help with it at some point.
Anti-Matter units stored: 243​
AAAHH!! FUCK ME, IT WENT UP!! Why!! Why me! I can't use this! Nobody can use this! The only cape I ever heard of who tried anything with anti-matter was String Theory, and she's in the fucking bird cage right now. Rightly so too. If this is her workshop I can't show it to anybody, they'd lock me up or kidnap me. If this isn't her workshop then, well, how even the fuck? If everything my power gives me like this connects to the anti-matter room, then I can't show my space to anybody ever. It's just not a risk I can take.
*Thinks with malicious intent* *Researches* Actually apparently anti-matter, or rather annihilated matter, "only" has a TNT-Equivalence of roughly twenty-one-billion-to-one, or a ratio of one to two-point-one-to-ten-to-the-tenth-power (2.1e+10 or 21e+9) or twice as much as ten orders of magnitude, so, if I'm reading this unit-conversion correctly, that means that a single Microgram of Antimatter is equivalent to twenty-one Kilograms of TNT.

Wait, no, twice that because the Matter that it's mutually annihilating with would also contribute. So forty-two Kilograms which looks a bit more like this.


Regardless this calculation only counts the raw fuel itself rather then the containment system which, logistically speaking, can be surprisingly analogue if you know how to make it so; the comic "Schlock Mercenary" came up with the idea of what is called "Fullerened Antimatter" which, if you can stick Anti-Protons into molecular cages with Electrostatic Repulsion (basically the opposite of Ionic Bonding), could be possible.

Since particles of Antimatter have the opposite Charge as their Matter counterparts this should be relatively easy compared to how hard it would be to contain a regular Proton using Electrons.

If you wanted lots of control over the process you could make a nanostructure able to expose them to a proton, probably via something with a Hydrogen ion like Hydronium, on command.



Now I'm not saying that it would be easy but one theoretically could, in fact, use Antimatter.

Theoretically it would be possible to fire a gun using, if I did the math on orders of magnitude and converting between Grams and Grains correctly, sixteen Picograms of Antimatter.

I'd figure out how much you would need for each piston-ignition of a internal-combustion-engine but figuring out the TNT-Equivalency of fuel, the amount of fuel injected into each piston for each combustion-cycle, and then converting that into the Metric System is being a bitch so I'm not going to do it.

Edit: based on that TNT-to-Antimatter ratio I found and the Joules produced in a engine, and how much of that is lost when converted to torque, and dividing that between several pistons I get a number somewhere between seven and zero-point-two Picograms, which is 1e-12 or Ten-to-the-negative-twelfth-power Grams, of Antimatter. That's very few Grams of fuel.

Edit: also I found a unit-converter able to convert between Picograms and a unit used to measure the weight of individual atoms, in a way that really seems like it counts neutrons worth of atomic weight, and from there was able to calculate that a Picogram of Carbon comes out to about fifty-billion individual atoms.

Now that's Carbon atoms and if you're using Anti-Protons instead of Anti-Particles, as you bloody-well should, that gets multiplied by twelve, or thereabouts if you want to be precise enough to account for a Electron's worth of mass, to get you something like three-hundred-billion Anti-Protons, paired with the same number of Protons for a total of six-hundred-billion Protons worth of particle/anti-particle annihilation, per piston-stroke.
Thursday morning brings with it the lucky lucky gift of rain. I make my move in both timelines. Dad is off to work, and I was left alone with an abundance of sandwich materials and the TV for my exclusive use. I'm going to school today to unmask Sophia.
Taylor getting panic-proactive is usually not a good thing. Especially before she's developed the ability to channel it productively.

Also this strikes me as being a contrivance forced to happen to produce a pre-determined scene. Like upon character-analysis I realize that it is, at most, slightly contrived for the purposes of reaching a scene, being rather in-character for Taylor, but it still feels that way which is rather unfortunate.
"Well I went to the school to use some skinhead's phone to plaster it all over the web. I used public access computers to make the accounts." He looks very unimpressed. "What?"

"Taylor you realize there are cameras in your high school, right?"

"My face didn't show up in any of them. And I was in disguise."

"Taylor, a mystery girl in your height on camera isn't any better here."
I time my arrival from the public bus system so I arrive in the middle of the period. I'm wearing my never before seen sweatshirt, not wearing my glasses, and the rain has given me an excuse to have an umbrella to shield my face. Hunched over and shielded, I pretend to have some trouble closing my umbrella as I walk past the receptionist.

"Excuse me, young miss?"

"Yeah yeah yeah, I'm late." I'm talking with one of my extra mouths. It has a real butch voice. Turns out I can talk with them with a few hours of practice. "Teach'll take care of it in class." That mollifies her somewhat. Or at least she doesn't call security on me. Out of the coverage of the cameras I start moving towards my target. Get into his locker, and tell the world that Sophia Hess is Shadow Stalker. Just like yesterday. Except this is for real, and the butterflies in my stomach just won't quit.

All in all I was able to get her identity out to only one less outlet than yesterday. My nervous thumb typing triggered the incorrect password lockout on that one. This is all I'm willing to risk though, so I log out, wipe the phone down, lock up, wipe the locker down, and leave the school. The place has a few one way side exits, and I'm able to leave with minimal fuss through one of those. Keeping my head down and umbrella forward guarantees my anonymity. Mission successful. Hopefully. Going to have to get rid of this sweatshirt somehow to complete this reverse heist.
So I guess that Taylor has just completely forgotten that she can become amorphous and superhumanly strong. Bloody hell she's not good at planning; she's like the strategy-forming equivalent of Crawler with how she needs to survive a behavior biting her ass before she modifies it.
"Fine! You wanna know about it so bad? In one of Coil's fake timelines I assaulted Sophia! Just to see what would happen. I already knew she was Shadow Stalker so I thought I could get her into trouble by airing it all out in court, or however far it went in the time I had. And you know that other suited bitch at the meeting yesterday? She moved to protect Sophia. She arrested me. But when she thought there was the barest chance it all could get her in trouble she took me out into the woods to fucking murder me! I did what I did to keep myself alive Dad."
Yeah seems that she has.

Edit:
I'm a real sucker for show and not tell. But I gotta say, the real fork in the road here is that Taylor found out Sophia was Shadow Stalker real early.

Not trying to yell at anybody or anything, but because I gotta know. Was that too subtle?
There's also the fact that she had access to her father as a form of counsel.
 
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"Well then let me be absolutely clear here. I had no way of knowing her identity before yesterday. In the physical universe we actually live in, hell, any actual universe I have access to, it was just not possible for me to know. It just didn't happen. If you'll excuse me, I have a lawyer to call."

Really upping her eldritch being rep by saying that. Not that anyone knows about the combination of changer powers and other powers yet. But, still, people will be wary after hearing stuff like that.
 
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I'm pretty sure this isn't a thing she can do retroactively.
It may be (depends on how the PRT law is structured, so for this, I'd assume it is). INAL, and to my understanding, qualified immunity is just the state extending it's inherit immunity to individuals that are carrying out its directives. It'd be the same as the exceedingly rare times when a nation revokes diplomatic immunity. In either case, if the state disavows the actions of the individual, they can withdraw their grant of immunity. The end result is just that the individual can now be tried in a court of law (well... for the diplomatic immunity, that depends on the country they're in, I guess... but generally). Because the individual still has the availability a trial (and all protections that go along with that) revoking immunity doesn't run afoul of any constitutional protections.
 
completely give upon finding out
up on

new Anti-Matter storage
antimatter

is the Anti-Matter control
antimatter

Anti-Matter units stored
antimatter

fucking bird cage right now.
Birdcage

Lean on the Father with the settlement,
father
 
They killed Sophia's family and her family didn't deserve to be killed. When Taylor tested different methods in the alternate universe, did she ever check to see if Sophia's family were affected?

I recall Sophia announcing outright that Taylor had gotten her family killed when she came after Taylor.

So, yes. This Taylor deliberately did this knowing 100% that this would occur.

This is definitely a villainous Taylor. I don't mean worm's Villain/Hero crap, I mean in the classical sense. Selfish, uncaring of those she doesn't care about, etc.

And Danny knows. His daughter murdered innocents.

I'm on board for now. Eldritch horror fun times aren't victimless fun times. Buuuuut this could cross over easily.

No hard feelings Author! Write your story. : )
 
I will defend Taylor here, Emma claimed she was a parahuman in front of the whole school, not 5 min later, an E88 recruiter tried to recruit her, Emma endangered her life for a second time.

While Sophia was not present in this second instance, this last try, not only could harm Taylor, but her family. And Taylor has already died twice at the hands of Sophia and her Hanfdler, which cannot be good for her mental health.

So, given this, there were 2 options, do nothing and have Emma do something more dangerous for her and Danny, or remove the trio from her life and surroundings, and forgive me but being a bully victim myself who had my little brother trgeted once i will say that i would throw my by bullies families under the bus if it meant keeping them away from mine.
 
Taylor also said that her mother was just like her daughter in a timeline split off. So Taylor could believe the entire family is rotten and could be afraid that Sophia shared that she has been torturing Taylor for two years.
 
What a clusterfuck. A black Ward unmasked, her family killed by Nazis, and a potential lawsuit about to blow up in our faces and the media. Good thing for that little shithead caseworker she's already in jail. If I got my hands on her right now I'd fucking strangle the bitch!

"Armsmaster, give us your report on the situation." He already filed it with me, but this is a joint Protectorate/PRT meeting. And he's always good with slideshows.

"Yes Director." He clicks the remote. A slideshow of photos of evidence starts playing. The remains of Sophia's home, pictures of the incident in question sourced from PHO, etc. "As you can see we have extensive evidence that this is an E88 attack. Especially with the statement they put out."

"How do they expect to get away with this?" From one of the civilian consultants. Not Calvert thankfully. He's staying mercifully silent. "Aren't they scared of the response this could bring down on them?"

"They think they can get away with it because they're trying, and succeeding, at painting Shadow Stalker as a sadistic villain." Armsmaster clicks the remote again. A video plays.
Well that's a war started. Taylor will probably want to reinforce her house as much as possible.
Everybody here is stunned at what they saw. Though it's one of my staff that recovers first. "Can we take the video down?" A couple of my heroes snap their heads to him with positively murderous intent. "This shouldn't be too bad if we can get ahead of it."

"Unfortunately we already tried." Says Armsmaster. "It was put up on seven more video hosting sites within the hour, along with four other videos of varying quality we didn't know about until then. Four of these websites are out of our reach. And I assure you, it only gets worse from here.
I just love the Streisand Effect~
Another click of the remote. Three pictures come up. "We have three to four suspects for the unmasking depending on how you count it." The pictures are of some skinhead, the redhead, and Taylor. "It was this boy's phone that we traced the leak to. Half his classmates, including the teacher, say he was in class the whole time. Another fourth say he wasn't. The dissenting voices were mostly minorities. The redhead is Emma Barnes. The only person we know for sure who knew Sophia's secret identity, but can't verify her story on where she was at the time. She and her teacher say she was in the bathroom at the time. Only thing is, she and Sophia are best friends. Finally we have Miss Hebert again.
Well that's unfortunately obvious.
She and her Dad are currently suing the school for criminal negligence."
I would recommend that you swap that for "her Father"; I just don't believe that Armsmaster would use terminology that unprofessional.
"For the locker right?" Asks Assault again.

"No actually. It seems Emma wasn't satisfied with the locker 'prank.' she's been spreading a rumor on social media that Taylor has some sort of mouth based changer power, and the school took responsibility for any future bullying as part of the settlement for the locker." This actually shocks Assault into silence. His jaw is hanging open along with a few more people in the room. Miss Militia speaks up next.
...Well that is both unorthodox and highly effective given the circumstances. I can't tell whether it is out of character for Blackwell to try to pull this shit.
"We should take the Barnes family into protective custody. If Taylor actually has powers they could all end up dead in short order."
This is a shockingly competent suggestion regardless of how necessary it actually turns out to be.
"Well then let me be absolutely clear here. I had no way of knowing her identity before yesterday. In the physical universe we actually live in, hell, any actual universe I have access to, it was just not possible for me to know. It just didn't happen. If you'll excuse me, I have a lawyer to call."
...This is...Remarkably poor some-fucking-thing of Taylor. I don't even know what skill it is a poor showing of and I am bewildered by the question of what even led her to say that. I assume alternate timeline fuckery?
"Now with the lie detector technology I made"

The lawyer puts his hand to his head. "Oh my God."
Shut the fuck up he already said that it wasn't admissible in court.
"I was able to tell she was telling the truth about everything except not being the one to unmask her."

"Have you considered the possibility your lie detector was wrong about that, and she was telling the truth about everything?" Asks the lawyer.

"No because it's not. I already know we can't use this in court. I solicited a minor for testimony without parental consent. And not even tinkertech lie detectors are admissible. I believe she did this in retaliation for what Emma did not even caring if it was true or not.
I don't know why Armsmaster believes this? With the sort of contrived sentence that poured out of Taylor like a calf from a mare I would assume that some degree of fuckery was going on there.
"Look, Director Piggot. I realize why you wanted my presence for this meeting before you wanted to hear what I had to say. The Heberts have sent us a settlement offer. They want a guaranteed transfer to Arcadia for Taylor in exchange for leaving the PRT and Protectorate out of their lawsuit. I strongly advise we take this offer. Aside from the optics of fighting this in the first place, if we try arresting the girl while fighting a lawsuit with her we could land ourselves in so much more trouble. Monetarily, legally, and publicly." I consider my lawyer's advice with all the respect it deserves. Then I consider the path I would have to take to force her into the Wards. Lean on the Father with the settlement, maybe dangle the recording with the lie detection telemetry alongside it in front of him. It would be so easy.

I look the departmental lawyer dead in the eyes. "Attach as many NDAs as you can to the agreement and give them what they want. Give him a Wards brochure too, just in case the Empire comes poking around to recruit his daughter."

"R-really? I mean yes ma'am, right away ma'am." I give him a withering look.

"You do know I'm not a stupid woman, right? I'm smart enough not to stick my foot into that pile of shit. Besides, pissing off a Parahuman like that with completely unknown capabilities and a grudge? I think I'll let somebody else find out how deep the pile goes. And who knows, she might not even be a Parahuman! Good day gentlemen." I leave to coordinate damage control from my office.
Motherfucker you broke terms on a alliance against the Slaughterhouse. That you are delaying your stupidity in the face of what you consider to be a far more horrifying danger, looking bad, is the best that can be said of you.
Powers gained this chapter.

Environmental Tolerance IV (Essential Body Modification Supplement) (400CP) (200CP)
You are not damaged by hazardous environments, though this does not provide you a method of propulsion.
I: You no longer need to breathe and do not suffer from temperatures between -100C and +100C (-150F to +200F). You are immune to most radiation (up to about 1,000 mSv; the amount experienced during unshielded exposure to space).
II: As tier I, plus you do not suffer from temperatures below 1500C (+2700F) or the effects of pressure lower than 1000 atmospheres (including the effects of vacuum). You are immune to the effects of radiation at all levels.
III: As tier II, but the protection extends to any non-magical environmental source.
IV: As tier III, but the protection extends to magical environments such as energy planes.
For reference the expansion of Dry Ice into Carbon Dioxide gas increases its volume by a order of seven-hundred-and-sixty, or I believe by seventy-six-thousand percent, which I believe means means that if Dry Ice were to sublimate without being allowed to expand it would reach seven-hundred-and-sixty Atmospheres of pressure.

Oxygen has a ratio of eight-hundred-and-forty-seven in case anyone was interested.
They killed Sophia's family and her family didn't deserve to be killed. When Taylor tested different methods in the alternate universe, did she ever check to see if Sophia's family were affected? That's very careless, and people died from it.
A little bit but also Taylor clearly panicked; this was a poorly executed plan for everyone involved.

Also Sophia's probably going to try, and fail given her amorphous physiology, to kill her for this anyway.
Also, the lie detector isn't a genie. Saying "in the actual universe..." when she knows very well that Armsmaster isn't even thinking of universes when he asks the question, is an intent to hide the truth (even if it's literally accurate) and will show up in the lie detector.
Yeah that was...Poorly thought out from her perspective. I can only assume that she tried other things in other timelines and that this was the best that she could come up with that kept people off of her ass.
I recall Sophia announcing outright that Taylor had gotten her family killed when she came after Taylor.

So, yes. This Taylor deliberately did this knowing 100% that this would occur.

This is definitely a villainous Taylor. I don't mean worm's Villain/Hero crap, I mean in the classical sense. Selfish, uncaring of those she doesn't care about, etc.

And Danny knows. His daughter murdered innocents.

I'm on board for now. Eldritch horror fun times aren't victimless fun times. Buuuuut this could cross over easily.

No hard feelings Author! Write your story. : )
I mean she hasn't decided to be a Hero yet has she? People getting caught up in her struggle for what she sees as survival isn't inexcusable, by her, until she starts holding herself to a higher standard.

Now surely she intends to hold herself to a higher standard at a later date but until then it's unfortunate collateral damage. Collateral damage that could have been avoided if she had given them early warning, which I am sure that she would have done if it had crossed her mind, but collateral damage all the same; it's sort unavoidable in the Tragic sense that she could have avoided it if she was able to be anyone but herself.
I will defend Taylor here, Emma claimed she was a parahuman in front of the whole school, not 5 min later, an E88 recruiter tried to recruit her, Emma endangered her life for a second time.

While Sophia was not present in this second instance, this last try, not only could harm Taylor, but her family. And Taylor has already died twice at the hands of Sophia and her Hanfdler, which cannot be good for her mental health.

So, given this, there were 2 options, do nothing and have Emma do something more dangerous for her and Danny, or remove the trio from her life and surroundings, and forgive me but being a bully victim myself who had my little brother trgeted once i will say that i would throw my by bullies families under the bus if it meant keeping them away from mine.
Taylor also said that her mother was just like her daughter in a timeline split off. So Taylor could believe the entire family is rotten and could be afraid that Sophia shared that she has been torturing Taylor for two years.
she did not? she gave her a note, she climed was for Sophia that read BITCH.
The mother opened the note, read it and laughted
Y'all are both misremembering; Taylor didn't actually die in those timelines and Taylor didn't seem to think anything at all of Sophia's family.
 
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