Masks (a Worm AU Quest)

In the end, after some discussion, asking Dad was out. Anything you owned legally would be traced back to you unless there was some kind of anonymous Cape banking system. Even then you couldn't exactly rent property anonymously and minors couldn't rent anything at all as far as you and Emma knew. You might have been hesitant to ask Mr. Barnes for help, but with Aletheia you could find out anyway. And that added even more problems on top of the idea.

No. The legal option was out. And it wasn't as if you couldn't find any other options without hurting anyone in the process. The abandoned warehouse was the second option you disregarded. Mostly because it just seemed a bit too risky to you. Of course, you could get in without problems, but it had started to occur to you, that you could get in almost anywhere now. Not absolutely anywhere, you were sure some computer systems would still give you problems, but as soon as there was a person involved…. Well. Maybe you and Emma really could get in anywhere that didn't require monstrous strength. You were still afraid people would notice you using the warehouse, water or electricity being diverted anyway, so that was out.

If you tried using the attic, they might hear you or you would have to be very quiet at all times. It wasn't as if you could test the soundproofing without anyone noticing. Not to mention that while yes, no one had been up there in years, you still weren't as sure as you would like. Not if there was a better option available.

And because the other option was just cool. When you first came across it, you just thought it was an odd hollow at the edge of your perception or just a weird basement. On the next run, you passed a little closer and that hollow almost made you stop. You had to promise yourself to take a better look later, you only had the rough contours of the place after all. You knew it had access to fresh water and was connected to a storm drain, its rooms snaking around the sewer grid as if to ensure that no one would ever have to dig too close to it. It was also located underneath an old factory of some kind at the docks, currently occupied by squatters, but the manhole cover was curiously out of view from any windows.

Whoever built this must have taken a lot of care. Even if the underground space itself was only a few rooms. When you decided to further explore it, you found that the water pipes at least were still in decent condition. Nothing leaked, it was a floor or one and a half floors below street level, obviously watertight, with a waterproof door and a pipe leading from the shaft underneath the manhole cover into the storm-drain. There weren't any self destructs or similar things that would have made it an obvious supervillain base, but the way the walls were constructed didn't look like any normal construction company's work. Vaulted ceilings, insulation against water and then steel and concrete. Only the door frames seemed to be built to any normal specifications and that appeared to have been achieved with the help of more waterproofing and concrete. There was even some furniture there.

Naturally, you couldn't resist going down there. Turning the lock's mechanisms and watching all of the various mechanisms do their work made it hard to keep calm. You were seeing something that hadn't been seen for years. You were exploring an actual real life Lair, like something out of a TV series. The door swinging inward so easily.

Emma had figured out how to use her Illusions to light the way too, even if your eyes appeared to be able to function with far less light than your human ones, it was more than welcome. She was crouched, sneaking forward more for effect than anything else, while you stretched your senses.

Yes, you found the couch before she did, just like you found the kitchen and storage room with old bags of rice, beans canned canned food you had no idea would be even remotely edible by now. But Poking around, seeing them emerge out of the darkness and opening a new door still put you a little on edge every time. No matter what your senses were showing you. The broken tinkertech generator was still exciting, even if you didn't think it was still usable in any way shape or form. The Beds had an eerie feel to them. Eight rooms in all. Two bedrooms, one living room, one kitchen, two storage rooms, an office and a bathroom. You weren't even sure when or whether this had ever been properly occupied. All of it was about ten years out of date. You were saving the office for last.

There might not be a fridge and you weren't sure the electric stove was still functional, but you had couches, chairs, beds even, although you would have to buy new sheets. And you had the table and chair inside the office. As well as the paper in there. The rest of the place had been eerily bare. There were cables lying around, plugs to use and even a water heater, but nothing personal. No real belongings, apart from a single cupboard of clothes.

A Silk bathrobe, a suit, some kind of very fancy jacket and shirt giving you a sense of foreboding, matching pants, shoes and what looked like your average rich guy's wardrobe Then smaller things. Just dresses, shirts and such. Nothing nearly as extravangant, but they were small. Made for a child.. There was also another box of more clothing, but that seemed to be far less coherent. As if they were randomly thrown together just in case. The jacket and shirt were still rubbing you the wrong way and you both had trouble focusing on anything else. The clothes and the office were the only real signs of habitation, that this had been built for someone, but had apparently never seen much use. And then somehow simply abandoned altogether.

You opened the door to the office. Just as dusty as everything else and just as well preserved. Small as it was, you could see a desk. A Map of Brockton Bay pinned to one of the walls, pins next to it. Markers, but few markings. There were some black pins inserted near Downtown. Folders with copies of handwritten information and photographs. Allfather. Kaiser. Iron Rain. Neat writing, page over page, strategical notes on Empire Capes who had been dead for years. The old Merchants. Some Familiar heroes but many you only knew of as martyrs or had transferred away a long time ago. You tried to remember…

There weren't a lot of options. Not really.

<< Do you know, what Marquis' costume used to look like?>>

She froze, her fingers on the files in question <<Kind of flamboyant, like some kind of Renaissance superhero I guess? No. Wait. Seriously?>>

<<All of this is about ten years out of Date. They caught Marquis nine years ago. All of the files, the jacket and the shirt, what is that's like a spare costume?>>

<<How has nobody else found this yet?>>

<<I don't know. I'd never have looked if it weren't for my extra senses. IF the factory's broken down and it's owned by someone out of the country...>>

<<Like Marquis' shell account. He could build this. I head he could use his powers for digging, right? And Brandish never talks about how they caught him, just that there was a fight. So if they surprised him, maybe he never had a chance to go back?>>

<<If he never got a chance to get to his secret hideout. He could have built this. My dad talks about his gang sometimes. This looks rough. Not too rough, it works, but it's not like a contractor's work. If they put this together, left the files here, in case their main hideout got attacked or destroyed or something...>>

<<It's kind of small though.>>

<<I don't know, there's sewer lines around and if they were staying clear of those and only wanted to hide a few people...>>

<<Well, I'd have had a much more glamorous kind of Lair. I mean what's the point of being a supervillain if you're not even going to take advantage?>>

<<Maybe he had one. This was just the backup, I mean we found a silk robe. If this is supposed to be undetectable, it can't be too glamorous or draw power from the Grid or anything.>>

<<I'm still disappointed in him.>>

<<There could be more. We haven't searched even close to the whole city. Who knows how many secret Lairs there are. And this one is just the perfect size for us.>>

<<We should make a map. The not so secret Lairs of Brockton. Just knock and discover how our Villains really live! Look at how much the city doesn't know!>> She snickered. <<The gangs would kill us for that.>>

<<We could. It's not like we have to leave any tracks back to us.>>

<<We'd really scare them if we did.>>

<<True… We might get someone killed, actually. The gangs aren't really known for being rational or calm or anything.>>

<<I guess it's just so… It's so frustrating! We know so much about them, but we're not doing anything because they're still stronger than us! We could barely take Cricket. I know your masks grow but I just wish they could hurry up.>>

<<Dad says if they keep growing… you know what Aletheia can do after she's grown and if it's always jumps like that. Choire is gathering energy too. We need to pick our fights now, but we keep growing. They don't. They can't surprise us and we're getting better. We're better at running, we're really getting better at self-defence and we could already kick Shadow Stalker's ass anyway. If they keep growing, we could be anything.>>

You were looking at the files again. <<These are actually really interesting. I mean it's got nothing on your fighting style and most of these people aren't around anymore, but the way he thinks is interesting. And it's got some good stuff on Kaiser.>>

<<We should take them.>>

But what stuck with you, was that Marquis had had a child. A little girl. He had been captured, sure, but there had never been any news of children. You were both wondering, a little uncomfortably, what had happened to her. And what it must be like to live with a Villain as your father.

You got back home with the Files in your bag and a remarkably short list of things you would need for your reclaimed Lair. A fridge, a generator and bedsheets came first. Communications equipment was second, because what you had found was definitely out of date and probably broken too. And maybe a TV. You never had to buy any of those things before, but you were relatively confident and at least bedsheets were cheap. Internet access would be more difficult, but buying a Fridge shouldn't be. The problem with a Generator was, that a gas powered one would produce carbon dioxide, into a Lair whose ventilation may not be able to take it. You knew there were ducts up into the abandoned factory, but you would have to check the fans for functionality and noise levels first. On the other hand, tinkertech generators weren't exactly cheap.

You would decide that later.

[ ] Just get a relatively cheap relatively quiet generator and make sure the fans worked fine 500$

[X] Dragon tech is pretty good. It's not the miniature fusion reactor you could buy, but it was also only expensive instead of ridiculously so 4500$

[ ] A reliable tinkertech miniature fusion generator would be so much better. 40000$, yes, but you could power more or less anything you wanted with it and it ran on water and produced oxygen.

Although you would go and make sure the fans were functional anyway, even if you didn't get the best generator available. Grabbing bedsheets was much easier, just in case you ended up needing them. Living near Lord's Market meant you could get them quite cheaply too. You also had found out, that your Powers were very useful for dusting. Picking up every particle, stretching your abilities and piling them all into one ball into a plastic bag for disposal. It didn't make your Lair any less eerie, but at least it was now eerily clean instead.

You also ended up taking inspiration from the previous owner and got yourself an actual, physical map of Brockton Bay to mark gang caches, drug houses, secret Lairs, gang territories and really anything else interesting you could find on. There was really a disturbing amount of stuff underground. Storm drains, sewer lines, water pipes, electricity, phone lines, Basements, sub basements, Endbringer-shelters…

Actually you had to make sure you were counting correctly, but it felt like there was one more Endbringer-shelter than there should have been. But when you asked Aletheia, whose memory seemed to have gone from good to total recall for every second of your day, you were still sure there was one more than there was supposed to be, hidden under a building downtown. There were people inside too, although you had never gotten properly close to it. Asking Dad, he didn't think the PRT had such a thing, definitely not there. But what was it? You were sure it wasn't Empire and in fact the territory in question didn't seem to belong to any Gang. But you had found the people inside equipped and thinking like soldiers.

You would mark it on the map just in case and made a mental note to do some exploration flights while fused with Aletheia just to see how much more you could find.

Coordinating your running and parkour routes to find even more new places. You had to get some money. After you investigates your new base or Lair especially. You were going to research ways to make money as a Cape later, but if you wanted to put a costume together, you would have to pay for the parts, which meant while there might be better ways for it, you had been tempted by those gang stashes and drug houses for a long time. It would be so easy to do. One more pass had Aletheia dig into their thoughts and map the place in their entirety. The maximum distance she could be away from you was increasing, had doubled by now without much notice from you.

You were still nervous. Spent the day researching your target. The Merchants.

With Five Capes they were the second largest Gang in the City, but no one seemed to care as much about them as they did about the Empire, or even the fights with most of the Asian gangs. Scum. They didn't threaten downtown, they didn't come to any of the wealthy areas. They just took over the already poor parts, fed on the desperate to offer some kind of escape. They didn't have any ideals there wasn't really any low they refused to sink to as far as you could tell. The Archer's Bridge Merchants had been more powerful, more … respectable you supposed? In Marquis' time, they had at least been holding Archer's Bridge still. And hadn't been as run down, with a completely different Leadership. As far as you could tell, they had somehow been hanging on, despite multiple Capes, their full roster ending up dead several times until all that was left was what you could see now.

Skidmark, who had been with them the longest and had taken over a few months ago. A blue mask covering the upper half of his face. Dark skin on the lower portion, gaunt with chapped lips and a varying amount of beard. He had joined about a year and a half before and battles with the Empire had whittled their Cape numbers down until it had been just him, Squealer and Stain left over.

Squealer was the one who built the monstrosity that had burned down your house, but one of their newest members, Shine, had made it uninhabitable. You marked their territory down on your map and decided to that maybe Marquis had had the correct idea. Pages were filled with notes on their powers. How to deal with Mush using your telekinesis, what to do about Skidmark, what you might be able to do about Squealer's creations. You hoped,, Dad could take her out. Her vehicles shouldn't stand a chance against his power.

Stain disturbed you with what he did. Some kind of tinker or striker, who could switch two arbitrary properties of two objects. He wasn't a front line fighter. He created super drugs. Things that would not have been possible without him, even starting to get close to Lab Rat's abilities when it came to empowering their thugs. He might not be able to do people, but he could do clothes and that was enough for some very disturbing creations all on their own. He wore a full face mask, a long coat made of blatantly impossible material and fingerless gloves. His boots could stick to walls. You thought he might not be able to affect living bodies, but dead ones were fair game.

Mush's ability would be annoying, but it was Shine you were more afraid of. She wore a silver half mask and transformed into something made entirely of silvery metal she could both generate and shape into anything she wanted. An extremely toxic silvery metal alloy, definitely including mercury, highly reactive and apparently depending on whatever she felt like in terms of hardness. Contamination by her body would stay for years and damage someone's body and brain. Sure, she seemed to be able to clean up after herself if she wanted to, but it appeared most of the time she just didn't.

Which meant you would not touch her if you could avoid it in any way and had to find a way to contain her, because apparently her changer form made her immune to bullets. They would go through her, but she wouldn't sustain any notable damage. You really hoped your telepathy would be able to deal with her.

Either ways, thanks to Stain you could expect some strange abilities from their goons as well. Just nothing that would keep you from taking their money. And after reading what you had, forcibly addicting children to drugs, forced prostitution... The stories of people who had escaped from them, you didn't feel the slightest bit guilty about taking it.

If anything, it was disturbingly easy to fly out at night, open a window, wait until the people inside were distracted and carefully levitate all of their hard earned money out of the window into your waiting bag. You had considered sending Aletheia on her own, but with your expanded range, you didn't have to send anybody at all and could just make the money invisible as soon as it was out of sight. After that, all you had to do was not to knock it into anything.

All in all, it was disturbingly easy to make about ten thousand dollars in a single night and to purchase your costume supplies the day after that. With some help from Dad, but still. He didn't seem to have expected you to just turn up with the money and you knew he was both happy the Merchants were a little poorer and concerned about your health. How easy it had been for you really drove the point home tough. The Protectorate would never let you go out to do something like that and if you had knockout grenades or anything similar, you could have taken them all in without ever getting too close or revealing your location. You could have kept a wall between you and them at all time.

Dad still looked stressed and his smile seemed a bit pained. Especially since you both knew, you knew what he was thinking anyway. That none of this was how he imagined you would grow up.

And that neither of you could see a way out or any way to make things better. That forbidding you from using your powers, despite his impulses, would only work to alienate you from him. You didn't get hurt. You had been careful, even if he wished you didn't have to go out at all.

Still, you didn't have much time in the morning. Your materials were sent on their way on the same day and you had to go meet with Emma, catch up, do some running and then train.

At least it was helping you get rid of some nervous energy. Pushing your bodies and in your case your mind to see how your thinking speed increase measured up against Emma's agility. As soon as you had recovered from your run and Aletheia had given you the all clear, you were squaring off in the Trainyard.

Without using your telepathic information overload.

About fifteen feet from each other, you floating, the standing. You knew you could force a draw just by flying upward, but that wasn't the point of the exercise. You were trying to train. So you allowed her to count down. There wasn't anyone to referee, but it would do. Dad was at work. You knew, you would have seconds, even less once she reached zero. Her ethereal voice reverberating through the Trainyard. "Three."

"Two."

"One."

"Go."

She surged forward.

Time slowed around you, still it was only as if a normal person were running at you now, You had barely enough time to dodge, pulling yourself sideways, seeing her turn with a notable delay. You thought faster, she barely did. Her body could react, but the commands still came at nearly normal speed. Your movements felt sluggish. You tendrils only came up slowly and you were forced to dodge again, careening off to the side, in her eyes faster than ever. In yours just as fast or slow was ever.

You knew where she was going to aim. You moved yourself aside, already starting to spread your tendrils out. But you couldn't win like this. She was just as fast and more flexible. You couldn't just dodge. You had to hope for something else. She thought slower, is you calculated you attacks just right, you could hit her anyway. Position you tendrils but use your levitation to change position and maneuver them into place. You were still running. Lights flashing in front of you, but the lights didn't matter. The sound disrupted you, but taking away one of your senses made focusing on hers easier.

Discerning which one of the three Emmas was attacking you was easy. You let yourself seem fooled, just shaped your tentacles into hooks, seemingly trying to evade an attack by one of the duplicates. Ignoring Emma's attack until you could swerve, to wrap around her hand only to have her withdraw her fingers too quickly for you to close. A foot hit your back, the disruption spreading through you and your reflexive motion saved you. You flew faster than she could run and you needed more preparation. You needed to somehow time your movements to already start closing your grasp when she arrived. You had felt the slight tug at your powers too. Your electronics sensing could take the hit at least right now. Invisibility too. You weren't using either.

You flung yourself toward her. Tendrils outstretched, already given the command to close, sluggishly starting to move just before you hit her leg. The lap reverberating through you. Wrapping more tightly despite the drain. She was pulling on you, but your energy stores would hold out. For now, your tentacles were extending from her leg, starting toward her neck, when her body seemed to turn into liquid, melting though your grasp. You felt the disruption where you had hit her, but even so, the shapeshift held with just a small wobble. Her Illusions couldn't be used against you.

You couldn't grasp her.

There was one more thing you could do.

She screeched, making you falter for a few split seconds, your cognition receding. Something hit you. The noise kept changing, something else impacting your back. Side. Front. You blocked out the noise. Forced yourself to think faster, shifted the disruption off to invisibility and electronics sensing again and even if the slipperiness of your tendrils wouldn't let you slip the hold of a hand morphed into a shackle, the desperate throw of two tendrils did.

She rolled.

You recoiled.

Her hair was fanning out behind her, tail held like a weapon in and on itself. Your tentacles moved outward, coiled not to capture but just to hit. This was your friend. You couldn't. She had pulled her punches, but you were training. The disruptions went away. You sent your thought to her. Made her stall for a moment. <<We'll be fine. We need to see what we can do. This is nothing like that bullet. Don't hold back.>>

She ran.

You flung yourself forward, swerving only at the last second you could. Your tentacles flexing, tips coiled into knots, you spun toward her. Felt the disruption of your tendrils hitting her and Emma's disruptions at the impacts. Spinning away, while she stumbled, shook her self, dissipated the impacts toward her illusions.

This time you were thrown. She had adapted one of your self-defence training measures into a grapple to throw you off course regardless of the impact you too. You flung a small barrage of rocks toward her, just as fast as you were moving.

Watched her bend out of the way, while taking up more ammunition. Rushed at her, just to give them that little bit extra speed and the stopped while one hit her and one grazed.

"Again."

If she could, she would have been grinning. She was holding her own. Both of you held back a little less each time. You were fighting, but she could counter you, just like you could counter her and when Choire she grew, you would really be able to go up against one another. You flew back, loading up ammunition again, shooting at her again and again, until she could dodge every single one of your rocks. You could curve them, have them circle her, but that wasn't the point of the exercise. She would have to dodge projectiles. And to learn how, this was as good as you could get.

You needed to aim. Get better at control, had them fly back to you after each shot slowing them back down, changing the angles, before dropping the rocks and trying some more of the self-defence techniques on your own. Squirming out of holds. Your energy restored, you could start redirecting losses again. Develop better grappling techniques just as she was figuring out how to shapeshift out of them.

Only encircling her with rocks would work reliably. She could retract limbs and become slippery. She pushed against you, found a way to counter your techniques and you pushed back.

Were it a real fight, you would have won, but you also knew she would never go down so easily again and neither would you. Could you dodge bullets? Not reliably, but now you had a chance at trying and the more you tried speeding up your thoughts, the more used to it you got. Each scratch and potential bruise was drawing energy. Your mind growing more exhausted hour by hour, as you improved, but it was worth it, no doubt about it. You were preparing and when you finally took your masks back off and allowed an Exhausted Choire and Aletheia to settle next to you, you were both smiling.

"Makes you almost look forward to another Cape fight." The thrill, being hurt and getting back up again. Fighting back.

You laughed. "Maybe. Just don't go easy on them." There was an exhilaration, something that just felt right in using your powers, even if your head was throbbing, every detail burned into your mind. Analysing already, just like Aletheia was.

She hesitated. "Not even if I know I can take them?"

"Maybe if we can find someone else to spar with us. In a real fight I don't want to risk it. In case they come up with something."

"Who would we ask? Your Dad is always busy isn't he and while I'm sure attacking him on the job would be fun..." Emma grinned.

"No. We're not getting labelled as villains. But we should see whether we can find anyone else. Go through PHO again."

Emma nodded and stretched. "Tomorrow. My head is just spinning. That was..."

"Yeah." Incredible. Exhausting and making your mind hurt afterward but… you were so much more. Could do some much more and not having to hide it for a little while… You nodded, but without having to say anything, you both just leaned back for another perhaps half hour, you petting Aletheia, Emma running her hands through Choire's fur.

The next day, after your run, you dug right back into research. Anyone you could hire around the City. Anyone who would spar with you would do. Maybe New Wave?

They had a decent number of Capes, most with very similar powers and they even had Panacea on hand in case anyone got injured. Who wasn't much older than you were. Glory Girl was also just a few years older, Laserdream, a littler older still and Shielder, who was about your age. Emma's Dad knew Brandish of course, but you had no intention of slipping into his office to ask. Still if you could find them somehow, out on patrol or just wrote them a letter, you might have your training partners.

New Wave's big success had been capturing Marquis. Even if that was almost ten years ago and they had struggled by since. Losing Fleur. They were supposed to be open and accountable. Their names on public record and their addresses easy to find, but the idea had lost its shine, after Fleur's death. No one else had joined and they were more or less a family affair. They had even more money than Emma's family. Most of it coming from donations or Brandish's job, but you couldn't quite be angry at them. They were risking their lives for the city. Panacea went out to heal everyone.

You couldn't really begrudge them their nice houses or the fact that their children went to Arcadia. IF they didn't, if they went to some of the other schools, you didn't think they would be doing as well. Not from what you had been picking up anyway. It made you look forward to Winslow with some trepidation. But it wasn't as if you could go anywhere else. Not without paying anyway and you refused to let yourself be separated from your best friend. Besides, you were Superheroes. School would be easy in comparison.

At least you hoped it would be. You spent another half hour researching New Wave patrol routes and adding more markings to your map. The cognitive enhancement actually made research so much faster. Or rather just gave you more time, but the effect was much the same. You managed to draw a lot of possible routes. Emma was adding more considerations to the costumes. She had briefly considered just going for maximum protection, but she would much prefer looking her best and not needing to focus on maintaining a shapeshift all the time during combat. Not to mention that we had already added armour to the exact places she needed protected the most.

After that, it was off to get more training. Self-defence. You were somewhat forgetting, what not being sore felt like. You were improving day by day. Getting just a little bit better. You had to admit, something about the pain felt good. It was probably just the feeling of getting something done. Being able to go to bed and thinking you had done something that day.

Oh. And Dad got back around midnight again.

The day after, you realised why. He, Velocity and Miss Militia had gotten into a fight with the Empire and Shine and Mush of the Merchants. Velocity and Miss Militia had been called in as his backup. Every hit made you flinch. Dad's Drones and Armour were coordinating well. Better than any normal tinker would have been capable of, but you were still only reassured by his presence at the breakfast table. They were reporting the Capture of Mush and Alabaster, but it had all been a distraction anyway. While they had been out, the Empire had attacked Downtown as well, drawing Assault and Battery into a fight, while another group broke Cricket out of holding. Armsmaster on his own hadn't been enough. Dad said he had been busy trying to protect the PRT employees. Challenger would only join them tomorrow and she only really worked well in a group anyway.

Dad told you, it was to be expected. That's what his colleagues had told him after all, but how could they ever make Progress like that? Their own involvement had been kept secret. Independents was all they had let slip, but the Empire would definitely know now. Even if their Goons would be put behind bars thanks to Sven, they would know. And the goons didn't really matter as compared to Cricket.

Not unless they lost far too many of them anyway. They were replaceable.

You knew Dad was disappointed too. He tried not to show it, of course he did, but Aletheia told you as much. Still, if Dad could move on, so could you. It wasn't even about keeping the capes off the streets at all cost. It was about protecting innocent people. Giving Brockton Bay hope. Not letting them run wild was the first priority. Everything else came later according to Dad.

Privately, you thought you might be able to do something. Find some way to sabotage the gangs and do permanent damage. But first you would have to do research. Your costume supplies would arrive soon and after that you could even contact New Wave for some sparring. Right now, your time would be best spent researching ways to make money. It might even up your fashion budget. If it went well you couldn't see too much reason not to go out with Emma and spend a day celebrating.

In nay case, Dad still had more training to do. He seemed to be coming home just as sore as you and apparently his recent fight had only driven Armsmaster to new heights when it came to training schedules. You were reasonably sure he resented Dad for his powers, but without actually taking a look inside the Rig, you couldn't. You made a mental note to see whether you could accompany Dad to work at some point.

As it was, you were going for a run, adding new markings to your map, looking around for some way to get a fridge and then it was back to your notebook. Well, notebooks. Emma had joined you with hers, you would do a bit of research some more training and then go right back to what you were doing after you'd made your head hurt and added some more red marks to hide under clothing. You thought it was probably inflamed but seemed to go away relatively quickly as long as you didn't overdo it.

It wasn't quite regeneration and you did notice some deep bruises after you'd had a bullet in you, but considering the alternative? You would be fine and if you kept improving at that rate…

Your research turned out a lot of the usual things. You could sell information, if you knew where and to who, but even if you wanted to, you would have to prove yourself trustworthy first and people would start coming after you. Selling information on innocent people would be safer, their credit card details, social security number and more, but you refused to consider the option. Unless you found someone who really deserved it.

Although it did make you think. The rapist you had found on the bus, all of those gang members going out to hurt people. And the people who didn't look like it… if you didn't think they would take it out on their victims. But you might just be able to get the police to investigate them or implicate them in something and get their money. You couldn't entirely disagree with Emma that getting them investigated, even if it was for something they hadn't done, was a good idea. It was still stealing and you didn't have to rob them just to get them investigated by the police though.

Maybe if some of the gang lieutenants or even their capes lost money, you wouldn't feel guilty. Stealing from a Supervillain was fine under vigilante laws, apparently and who would they go to to blame?

Another way to make money was obviously exclusive to tinkers. None of your Masks could create Items, but you were finding better ways to buy tinkertech, which was just as interesting in your mind. Just in case you would need any.

The other obvious way was to rent out your services. Some were more well known than others. There were different sites, different ways of doing it but it all boiled down to taking money for protection of something most of the time. Fighting. Other uses were rare. If you could do something no one else could, like a brute doing construction work, capes offering deep sea construction or research services, but you were hesitant to offer your abilities. Choire would do well in entertainment of course. Emma wouldn't mind at all, but that would take up a lot of time and seemed… hollow in comparison to being a Hero.

Although it did give you an idea. You could hire someone to spar with you. There was even a local mercenary you had overlooked, who seemed to mostly be doing small scale work. Protection and some other stuff, but you hadn't seen him described as anything but professional in his work. Not excessively cruel. No gang association. You might also be able to rent out your skill transferring ability if it got any better, especially if you could somehow convince Uber to help you. Maybe if you split the profits, he would be interested. You were certain there had to be people who would pay very good money for that and you wouldn't need to feel guilty at all. And might be learning some interesting things. You made a mental note to look into Uber and his doings more closely. Uber and Leet were known to be more silly than dangerous, but still. If you could somehow get Aletheia close to him, you would know.

You had to wonder how all of those Capes did their apparently safe completely anonymous banking though. It wasn't as if there was some kind of super bank who just handled everything, was it? It just seemed a bit far fetched. Then again, so did almost everything Cape related, costumes included. Like it or not, getting into a villain's head would be so useful. Maybe you could just get Aletheia to spy on Faultline and her crew? They should be easy enough to find.

If there was anything else you should know, they would know it, too. It maybe wasn't the absolute safest thing to do, but you figured if you were careful and made sure you at least didn't see anything weird, you should be fine. You and Emma managed to come up with a few options.

[ ] Take an evening off to go have a look at the Palanquin, stand nearby and have Aletheia take care of it, with Emma making sure you would be fine.

[ ] Hover outside the Palanquin, as close as you can get and ask Emma to help you make sure you didn't miss anything and no one is noticing you.

[ ] Infiltrate the Palanquin while masked, with Emma. She can pretend to be just another person going there to have a good time, you can get past any extra security and get the best look possible.

[X] Politely ask for information. You weren't so sure on this one. She was a Villain according to the PRT or at least a rogue who didn't mind working with them. This didn't feel safe, although you supposed you could at least write her a letter and ask. Mom always used to say you never knew until you tried.

[ ] None of the above. You weren't quite comfortable with the idea and maybe you could think of a better way?

[ ] Write in

Regardless, you were definitely looking forward to getting your costume. Picking up the materials after your Run, you still had way too much to do. You had to make models of your bodies – with duct tape, foam and a few other things no less, you had to make patterns, layer the fabric, make sure everything fit and worst of all bend the metal for Emma's costume into shape. Suffice to say, you had to cut back a bit on training time after that. You were just too busy. There was only a week of summer vacation left after all and you wanted to get done with your costume and Lair before you went back to school.

Your ability to sew multiple things at a time, use Aletheia to help look at pages and even use your cognitive enhancement to sew faster than anyone should have been able to by hand by an absurd margin definitely helped, but making your drawings into reality was still harder than it sounded. You had no idea how many alterations you had to go through, how much you had to do to your shoes, how much adjustment and plain recutting you had to do to get everything to fit and move right. To get the lining into place, add the metal parts and top layer….

Combat training was relaxing in comparison. You were using self-defence training just to recover from your sewing sessions and your powered training to do much the same thing. There was nothing quite as frustrating as seeing something on the page and desperately trying to make it real. It was supposed to be possible. New Wave looked fine. Okay, the Protectorate sometimes had stupid designs, but their costumes looked fine too, so why couldn't you get this to work? You lost count on the number of reworkings. Emma trying to get something to look better, redrawing and a little bit of reworking because it just didn't come out right. You felt like you had taken the hardest crash course in sewing imaginable, but by the end of the week, somehow, through some kind of miracle you had a costume. And so did Emma. It had the right sort of covers, it had a lining to absorb sweat, it didn't look too silly, even if you still felt a bit weird in them and best oaf all, you felt protected.

Your masks transformed them. Yours became slick, looking like thick organic material, like a kind of alien cross between a robe and light armour. The lines you had added glistened slightly, ominous eyes simmering on top. Your tendrils flowed from underneath your collar and spread out to make you match the most theatrical of villains without ever seeming fake. Tall, eerie and ominous. Carrying two bottles with coloured water to be able to skywrite and communicate without needing to use Telepathy. Your costume and tentacles allowed you to carry a decent amount of stuff.

Emma appeared to be entirely sick of looking like a teenager. Her Hero outfit made her look as if she had stepped out of one of the old comic books. Red hair flowing and floating in an utterly impossible fashion. The fox mask fused with her face, tail waving behind her, though a slit at the back of her costume. An exaggerated chest through its armour, bracers to deflect both knives and possibly bullets soon enough and boots capable of doing much the same as well as making any Villain regret ever getting close to her. Her unattainable figure, the grace in her movements and the fact that the black leggings hid anything interesting from view made her look entirely the part of a Hero that you yourself didn't.

Which was fine with you. Your powers seemed much more suited to being ominous than jumping around and being obviously heroic anyway. Even Emma's new power helped with that. Much like Aletheia before her, Terpsichore had discovered a new ability. She could somehow, through her voice or a psychic kind of resonance, possibly both, reinforced another ability of yours. Or of any single person, she could double Dad's range just by singing. Or increase any one ability of all of the people around her. You and Dad had tested it with her one evening. She had a solid 50 foot radius in which it would still work. You had no idea what it did for normal people, but that didn't matter. If you tried to hire this kind of ability out, your money problems may well be solved anyway. But if you told anyone, you didn't think you would ever be safe from people trying to recruit her. Not if PHO was correct anyway. Supportive Trumps, Tinkers and Thinkers were the most popular kind of Capes for forced recruitment. You would have to think very carefully about what to do with this.

Although it did give you an idea. If Terpsichore could boost Aletheia's Telepathy, she would be able to help you learn. Copy skills or knowledge while you were asleep. At least as long as the people with that skill were close enough for your increased range held out.

You couldn't help but wonder, what other kind of abilities your Masks would discover in time. Emma still wasn't sure, what to think about this new one, although you both agreed, that it could be incredible in a fight. Especially seeing as the receiver could decide where the boost went, as long as they had more than one ability. Dad seemed to be able to boost understanding or range for example.

He also mentioned one more thing.

It would be incredible in an Endbringer fight.

Which he never wanted you to attend, but now had colleagues whose friends had died there. Which he himself would be going to.

All in all, it definitely had been a productive week. Now you just had to decide, what to do next. Even better, you could now go out in costume.


Would you:

[X] Contact and try to hire Grue for some sparring and figuring out whether you should consider him a Villain or not

[X] Contact New Wave for some Sparring and more General advice

[ ] Spend more time with Dad, ask more about his job, try have a look around there.

[ ] Try to get new stuff for your Lair
- Write in: what to get

[ ] Attempt to hire out Emma's Song of inspiration to make some more money

[ ] Write in

(these are not mutually exclusive, but taking more than two locks on research or training option. Taking any of them may unlock more options)



Dad is inviting Assault and Battery over for Dinner next week. What are you going to do?

[ ] Visit Emma, you're still paranoid they might find something off and you would be way too nervous to have an actual conversation.

[X] Ask Emma if she wants to meet Assault and Battery, is so invite her for Dinner as well, have fun, don't tell them anything, get to know them a bit better. They've got a lot of experience, maybe you can learn something.

[ ] Write in


Resources: 5250$
Underground Lair
Full costume



Points: 1 (+3 Points to @StormyAngel for spelling corrections, +2 Points for @StormyAngel for a canon Omake, seriously, whoa, +1 Point to @Trondason forquestions +1 Point to @w34v3r for an omake and +1 Point for various discussions, corrections and Ideas.)
( -8 Points for Song of Inspiration)
These can be acquired with omakes, posts in the thread I find amusing, art, helping me out, etc. and can be used to reveal details or get boons. Boons, in essence are a lucky circumstance, something to add to the story that would be decidedly unlikely, but not impossible. The more unlikely, the higher the cost.
One point per detail revealed, boon cost variable (5 points translate to one wards patrol or a single protectorate member).
You may trade one point for 25 exp or 5% progress to the next mask.
Mask abilities or ability upgrades not taken may be purchased for 8 points at current.


[X] Spend points (How)
- Level up Terpsichore
[ ] Don't spend points


You may choose three training, two research actions and three additional actions, freely chosen from research, training and other.

Research:
[ ] How do powers work?
[X] Research tinkertech
[ ] Research Mercenary work
[X] Research construction and underground structures around Brockton Bay
[ ] Spy on and Research a specific Cape (can be taken multiple times)
- Write in: which one
[ ] Write in
- [X] Write in-Figure out how to get the police to arrest the rapist and other criminals that hurt people that Taylor has come across.

Training:
[ ] Extra Running and Parkour, your performance is still barely okay and Emma is little better
[X] Extra self-defence training
[X] Train with Aletheia
[X] Train with Emma
[X] Train with Terpsichore
[ ] Write in

Other:
[ ] Go exploring: Downtown
[ ] Go exploring: The Docks
[X] Go exploring: The Market
[ ] Go exploring: The Boat graveyard
[ ] Go exploring: Gang territory (which Gang?)
[ ] Raid some gang stashes for your Hero fund
[ ] Go exploring: Write in
[ ] Write in


Taylor also needs a Hero name:
[ ] Write in (vote will probably continued in the next post unless I make a decision or the vote is super obvious and I don't dislike it.)



Masks:

Aletheia
Status: healthy, active
Understanding?
Level 3
55/350 exp


Terpsichore
Status: healthy, active
?
Level 2
105/200 exp

gained:
Song of Inspiration level 1: able to reinforce sound manipulation with the Mask's own power to empower one ability of an ally.

Gained while masked:
Song of Inspiration level 2: able to reinforce sound manipulation with the Mask's own power to empower one ability of any ally in hearing range or one ability of all allies in a 50 foot radius


Progress to next Mask: 45%