A Cat Is Fine Too (Worm CYOA)

[CrunchySharpie]

Or;How I learned to stop worrying and love belly rubs.
Or;Dignity is for the weak.

So. Having a bit of writers block when it comes to Momma Ziz, nothing too obstructing but annoying nonetheless. To endeavor a means to overcome this I fall back on my tried and try blockbreaker. Shameless and unapologetic Self Insertion. A guilty pleasure, but one I really don't indulge in often enough.

So enjoy.
The CYOA

Spoiler: The build

Name: Schrodinger
Game Mode: Self-Insert. "You appeared in an alleyway with nothing but a hundred dollars to your name and the clothes on your back."
Difficulty: Dragon (4 points +5 complication points = 9 points)

-Major powers-
Trump -2 (7 points)

-Perks-
Augmented power(Trump) Can switch between two canon non-cauldron powersets -1 (6 points)
Mental Fortress -2 (4)
Power Immunity -2 (2)
Shared Power(Trump) -2 (0)

-Complications-
Enemy: E88, (You are a Case 53, White, have a German Cape name and are not a sympathizer to Kaisers cause. This, rightfully, doesn't put you in their good books.) ABB (You are White and have a German Cape name. They hate you on principle. ) Merchants (You are White, have a German Cape name and most importantly are immune to the mind altering effects of drugs. They hate you on principle.) +3 points
Case 53: You have an articulate and functional set of cat ears, tail and slit lavender eyes that stay with you even if you use powers to change yourself. Ears and tail are also sensitive to touch and have a self relaxing effect if petted +0 Points.
Asimov: You have impulsive cat-like behavior. This includes but is not limited to chasing laser pointer dots, cleaning yourself with your tongue, and lazily sitting in the sun to warm yourself. +1 points
Minor(Age 14-15): You are a squeaker, outside of costume most adults won't take you seriously. +1 points

As my crack team of imaginary lawyers tell me. The following is a fanbased parody, I don't own Worm or Hellsing/Ultimate, those belong to their respective owners and even If I did own them they'd both probably be a lot more lewd.

But I digress, do the thing! *Clicks*

-oOo-

"Ow." I groan, running a hand across my eyes to rub at the sharp throbbing there. "Did anyone catch the number of the semi that hit me?" Okay, that sounded weird, was I huffing helium before I passed out? I palmed the ground and pushed myself up, an odd sense of lightness coming from the action. Taking a look around I took stock of my situation.

"Okay...It's dark out and I'm in an alley." Still with that strange alto to my voice rather than the baritone I was used to. I stared at the brick wall across from me, my vision far clearer than what I remember it being. I glanced down, taking in my body, which felt...strange...

My breathing became a bit labored as I started to hyperventilate.

I was a fucking squeaker.

Okay... calm down. Using the trash littering the alley I estimated my size to be about 5 feet-ish, the size and definition of my legs putting me in the fourteen or fifteen age range. I held up my hands and arms which confirmed that general assessment.

Alright. I'm in a body roughly half my age, laying in a really, really shitty looking alleyway. What the fuck?

Okay, I'm wearing clothing...small mercies. In the meager light I can make out black shorts, a yellow dress shirt, black knee length socks and a black tie. Hrm... then there were the white gloves and black shoes... why does this look so familiar?

And thats when I saw the red, white and black band around my left arm.

Okay, I'm apparently a Nazi.

A tail flopped into view. I stared at it. It stared at me. It twitched. I felt it twitch. Hesitantly I reached up to the top of my head and found a pair of cat eats sprouting neatly out of my hair.

A cat-boy Nazi.

Fucking Schrodinger. Why the hell am I Schrodinger? Last thing I could remember was sitting in my room browsing the Internet and then falling asleep at my desk. I stood up shakily, digging through my pockets revealed a small wad of cash that came out to a hundred US dollars and a note, a note signed to me.

April 8, 2011
Dear #$&!@% Entertainment.

I know you have plenty of questions that you're probably asking yourself. Quite frankly, I'd be astounded if you didn't have any questions given your circumstances.

To bring you up to speed as they say, I shall now go through a short list of key points.

1.You are my entertainment, full stop. I am finding myself increasingly bored with the multiverse so I have come to the conclusion that I must take matters into my own hands and make my own fun, this is where you come in.

2.You have probably already noted that your body is not as it should be. This is as intended. This will allow you to facilitate your introduction into this world, which leads to-.

3.You are not in Kansas anymore, as they say. Welcome to Brockton Bay! Or, at least, an iteration of it. I stumbled across something you might recognize; A Worm CYOA prompt, particularly the second version. From what I can gather, many individuals consider this version to be inferior or too weak for the endgame of the setting. I have endeavored to prove this assumption wrong, to facilitate this I have already made your selections for you.

4.The build I have gifted you with is below, take a moment to read it over. When you are done, this note shall self-destruct and you will be on your own. So have fun and be sure to make things entertaining for me, okay?

Hugs and kisses.
ROB.

I must have stood there for a good 10 minutes, just staring at the paper. This was real? This was really happening? I pinched myself. Yep, that hurt... huh.

Well as far as ROB's go I'd lucked out and got one that liked turning a setting up on it's head and spanking it's behind. The build given to me was... while not as overpowered as Power manipulator of the original Worm CYOA, it was still fairly hefty with significant ways to munchkin the hell out of it. It would take a little time and I'd need a partner in crime but...

I could work with this.

As the note dropped from my hands the paper caught fire in a brilliant green flame, I took a moment while watching the flame to consider my options. I'd always wanted to be the hero of my own story and now? Now I could actually live it. Granted, I had almost all of the antagonist villains in Brockton Bay as my complication enemies but I felt reasonably comfortable with my ability to take them on.

"Who the hell are you?"

Ah Murphy, I was beginning to wonder why you were running around barefoot.

I turned towards the mouth of the alley and the large, burly, imposing man who stood there with a few goons.

'Pants only, metal poking out of the arms and legs, metal wolf mask. Gonna go out on a limb and say this is Hookwolf. Wonderful...'

Shit..I didn't know how to use my powers. I'd have to learn fast so I searched inward to see if I could find anything relevant to my staying alive. I opened my mouth, keeping them focused on my voice while I started lying my ass off. "Oh vell I am just a fellow brother out for a little stroll." Horrible German accent? Check. Play up the Nazi, in the dim moonlight they can probably see your clothes and armband, let them think you're one of them and hope to God it's dark enough that they can't see your cat features. Just to make it harder to see I laid my ears flat and hid my tail behind me. Just gotta hold em off for a bit more.

Hookwolf approached, staring down at me through his full face mask. "I haven't seen a brat like you around here and this is my turf." His voice was like nails getting spun in a blender and his attitude spoke of violence. Cheerful fellow isn't he?

"Ja? I am a bit new around here myself. I just moved into zhe city und zhought it best to ally myself with zhose who have zhe right ideas and zhe power to make zhose ideals reality." Bullshit, complete and utter bullshit. Just, please, believe that bullshit for now. I prodded a few parts at the back of my head hoping to get a reaction, nada. Ah shit. I kept looking even as Hookwolf grew a bit wary at my response.

"New to the city? Are you a cape?" I didn't have a mask on so I could tell him I wasn't and probably be fine but it was at about that moment that one of the goons approached with his phone's flashlight on, revealing my cattiness to them.

Needless to say, they weren't amused.

"It's a fucking 53!" I heard Hoowolf snarl and I knew the jig was up. As far as I could remember the E88 disliked Case 53's, that I was dressed in Nazi colors was probably the only thing keeping Hookwolf from going murdercanine on me. As it stood he reached out with a metal clawed hand to grab me and most likely take me back to see Kaizer.

No! Bad touch! If only I had access to my powers, maybe Glory Girl's powerset or something I could... Really power? Really? I felt a click in the back of my head and strength flooded into me, alongside a couple other feelings that told me in no uncertain terms that I was now rocking mini-Alexandria jack boots and I wasn't afraid to shove them up someone's ass.

I lifted off the ground, kicking Hookwolf in the chin while I did so, sending him flying back into one of the surrounding wall's with a very, very satisfying crunch. I looked over at the two goons, who had drawn a pair of pistols and were now aiming them at me.

I flinched slightly as the first rounds pinged off my shield, the sparks flashing in the moonlight leaving me seeing spots. I reached out, a hand each grabbing their guns, crushing them like so much tinfoil in my grip.

The two goons paled, staring at their ruined weapons in shock. A quick deck to the face had each of them on the ground, out cold.

Of course, this is where Hookwolf interjected to my manhandling of his mooks.

"You fucker!" He snarled, already a whirling mass of blades.

Okay, you need to chill. Clockblocker, do your thing. Hookwolf plowed right into me, then subsequently froze midair which left me to continue on my arc into a brick wall. Ow, that fucking stings. I pulled myself to my feet, dusting myself off and walking closer to the capescicle I'd made. Hookwolf's bladed body was genuinely stuck there now for however long Clock's power decided to keep him there. I used this time to get my bearings. Okay, this was clearly my enemy complication at work so I needed to take care of this now before it came back and bit me in the ass later. I swapped out Clockblocker for Hatchet faces power and waited for the time stop to wear off. When it did, Hookwolf crumpled like a wet paper bag, falling to the ground in a flop and skidding along the pavement to a stop.

"What the fuck!? What did you do to my power!?" Hookwolf howled, scrambling to his knees, eyes wide behind his mask as I approached.

"You veren't being very nice so I zhought a time out vas in order" I singsonged, my young alto full of spite and sneer, the fake German accent I was using driving home that I was insulting him.

"Are you mocking me you sonofabitch!?" The man got to his feet, pulling out a dagger from his boot and rushing me.

Even without Glory Girls forcefield, the Brute rating from Hatchet Face was enough to stop the dagger cold. The man behind it slammed into me, not budging me an inch as Glory Girl's ability to give gravity the middle finger proved it's worth. All the breath left Hookwolf then as I lightly rabbit punched him in the gut, folding him over my fist as if I had hit him with a sledgehammer.

A quick shedding of one of my gloves and a swap from Hatchet face to Panacea had the Neo-Nazi cape out cold in lala land for the next few hours.

Alright. I sagged down into a crouched position, laying the Nazi cape flat on the ground. Walking over to his two henchmen I dragged them into the alley and laid them at his side, Panacea's power rendering them unconscious for a while as well. I then yanked off their jackets and pants while swapping Panacea's power out for Parian's. Using her power, I pulled apart the bunch of cloth and wove it into a better pair of jean pants that covered the rest of my legs. I hadn't noticed it at first but it was fairly chilly out this late at night, even in April this far north it was in the upper forties at best. My tail got stuffed into my new pants to hide my nature away and I used the rest of the cloth to fill in the sleeves of my shirt as well as to make a nice thick beanie to keep my cat ears warm and hidden. The swastika band on my arm was the last thing to get cannibalized and was turned into a small checkered half mask that kept the lower half of my face and neck warm. All in all I looked pretty snazzy now with my clothing tastefully redecorated and stylized.

And... ah yes the now half-naked goons would probably need to by taken in too or they'd freeze to death out here... hrm. I'd drop them off at a police station on my way to take Hookwolf in and... wait... Now that I thought about it, where was a police station? I literally had no clue where anything in the city was. Damn, where did that one guy's phone go? I glanced down at the ground, looking through the junk that had fallen out of their pockets when I had ripped apart their clothing; Some change, a pocket knife, ahhah there it is. I snatched the cheap burner phone up and popped it open. There was a password lock on the thing but there was an option for emergency calls so I selected it and a few seconds later a woman's voice came from the speaker.

"Nine-one-one what is your emergency?" Wow, she sounded...bored.

I had already dropped the fake accent and began speaking in a normal tone of voice. "Hello? Uh, yeah, hi?" Wonderful start Schrodinger my man. Why don't you start speaking in rhyme now, it'd be far less awkward. "I was just attacked by some guy named Hookwolf and a couple of his cronies in an alley. I'm fine but the three of them are unconscious, could you send someone this way to pick them up."

The line was silent for a moment before the operator spoke up again, far more attentive than before. "Understood, can you tell me which street you're on? Also, are you a cape young man?"

I nodded even though no one could see me. "Yeah I'm a cape and gimme just a sec I'll find the street name." I walked a few feet out of the alley and stared down the street to one of the stop signs, my cat's eyes coming in handy as they spotted both street names on top, I relayed it to the dispatch.

"Thank you, A PRT squad and Protectorate member are already on their way.." She cleared her throat. "I am required by law to remind you that if this turns out to be a prank call, please be aware that there are serious fines and even jail time involved if this turns out to be a misuse of emergency services." Her words were soft, stern and to the point.

I smiled lightly, appreciating the concern. "I'll keep that in mind. Should I stay on the line or can you track this phone somehow?"

The operators voice was now as bland as it was before. "Please stay on the line, we're tracking the phone and backup should be there within the next ten minutes."

"Can do." I responded cheerfully, tossing the phone on top of one of the two goons. Time passed quickly and the low rumble of a Harley announced Miss Militia's entrance with a pair of PRT vans not far behind her. The military chic hero pulled up to a stop at the entrance of the alley, shining her headlight down the length as PRT troopers rushed out of the van to secure the perimeter.

"Well isn't this a pleasant surprise?" I could almost feel the woman's pleasure at seeing Hookwolf face down on the ground. Her walk was one that was confident, her power spinning off a combat shotgun into her hands which she held non-threateningly. "And you're the one who took him down?" She stopped a comfortable distance between us and nodded at Hookwolf.

"That's me." I responded cheekily, scratching at my nose. Hey, if I was going to play up Schrodinger's cattiness I might as well double down. I was a catboy, being flighty and arrogant was my prerogative now.

That is until the PRT troopers entered the alleyway... and several of them had laser sights on their guns...

A red dot of light passed by my feet and my eyes snapped to it. Slowly, I dropped down to paw at it, following the thing like a hawk, even as the dot moved away from me. Out of the corner of my eye I noted Miss Militia tense up and heft her shotgun, though she didn't point it at me. Several of the red dots passed my position and I felt the urge to slap at them grow even larger. Finally, it got to the point where I could feel my tail thrashing back and forth in my pants, my eyes dilating and my breath coming in rough pants as I tried -and failed- to do the thing. I assume that the troopers had picked up on my strange behavior and flipped off their laser sights because when I snapped out of whatever daze I was in, I found myself in a rather compromising position on the ground.

I slowly glanced up at Miss Militia, who looked like she was struggling very, very hard not to laugh. A few of the troopers did laugh.

We meet again mortification, you unpleasant bitch. And you too ROB, such a fucking ridiculous Malus.

I rose to my feet, coughing to hide my blush and then clearing my throat to try and move past the situation I was just in, "I will ignore that which did not just happen, and nothing you say can make me admit to it." That was my story and I'm sticking to it.

"Of course." MM agreed, still struggling to hold in her amusement, the subtle shakes of her shoulders giving her away rather blatantly. "I suppose I should introduce myself." She replied, after overcoming her slight fits. "I'm Miss Militia, Second-in-command of the Protectorate ENE."

"Schrodinger." I replied absently. "Though that's not my real name, can't really say what my real name is, or much about my past."

That had the American themed cape blinking, then her gaze seemed to hone in on my cat-like features and drew her own conclusions. "Are you a case fifty-three? By that I mean do you not know who you are or where you're from and do you have a strange tattoo somewhere on your body?"

I shifted my stance, staring down at Hookwolf. "That big guy there called me a case fifty-three." I shrugged. "And like I said, I can't really say, everything's been turned up on it's head for me." Was I being vague? Yes I was. Fuck you Armsmaster! You and your bullshit Tinkertech lie detector. I didn't know if he could read lies through a recorded video but I wasn't giving him the chance, or the satisfaction of doing it to me. This also gave me an in to the Protectorate without having to explain away the uncomfortable fact that I lacked an identity in this world. Simple fact of the matter was, I didn't particularly want to join the Wards right now. In truth, I wanted to get into the good graces of the main character and see about taking care of Taylor's little bullying problem first.

I was here now, I could fix things. I might be sending butterflies out like a hurricane of Skitter vengeance but I was given the express purpose to create as much havoc and mayhem as I could to amuse and entertain an eldritch being. What better way than to turn canon completely on it's head and then smack it's ass with the shenanigan stick?

"Be that as it may." Miss Militia answered, a kind smile hidden behind her flag scarf. "Would you be willing to come down to the PRT headquarters to make a statement and would you consider joining the Wards? For teens- especially Case 53 teens, the Wards are there to support and train young parahumans in the use of their powers. In your case and for those like you, the Wards are also a shelter from the-" She glared down at Hookwolf. "Less than receptive people out there. As well as potentially finding where you came from so that you may be reunited with your family."

Wow, if I didn't already know how restrictive the Wards actually were that kind of sales pitch delivered in such a earnest and genuine manner would have me walking hand in hand with her anywhere in the city. But, as I did know how crappy Wards life actually was, I merely smiled a knowing smile and took a small step back. "As much as I like the sound of that, I'm more of the loner type." Truth, though I planned to at least have some companions in this little journey. "I can tell you the events that lead up to this though." I waved my hand down at Hookwolf's prone form which was just now being covered in containment foam and lugged into one of the vans by a couple of PRT troopers.

The frown that formed on Miss Militia's face was a bit heart wrenching, she was so much more attractive when she smiled. "Thats... unfortunate, but acceptable."

I spent the next few moments regaling the Brockton hero of my quick and decisive defeat of Hookwolf, though I did leave out my ability to change powers at a whim. When questioned about how I had disabled him so quickly I merely waggled a finger in her direction and smiled a toothy grin that was visible through my facemask. "Ah, but a good magician never reveals his secrets."

An eyebrow raised and the mocha skinned woman placed a hand on her waist and shifted her position to indicate 'Really? A magician?' Another smile, this one reaching her eyes, crinkling the skin there. "And just what kind of 'magic' do you know?"

I took that as my time to go, I wasn't needed here any longer and hey, I wanted to show off a bit. I switched to Strider's power and brought in the circle of his mass teleportation to right under my feet. "Oh, none other than the greatest magic of all time." I snapped my fingers. "A disappearing act!"

And that had the woman tensing up again, if only slightly. "Now you see me-" The last sight Miss militia saw of me that night was my Cheshire grin as I teleported away.

-ooo-

"-Now you don-oof"

I landed, quite indignantly, in a pile of garbage about 15 blocks away. Really need to work on my power usage. A lot of the power's I'd went through were a bit finicky and this one had just driven the point home that I was, in fact, in need of some practice.

Other than that? I was grinning like a loon.

I may be stuck in a world that shared a similar descriptor to Warhammer-fuckmothering-40K, but I'll be damned before I let this world's grimdark skullfuck my optimism.

Step one. Impress upon an emotionally wounded and paranoid teenager with trust issues why I'm the perfect person to help her with her problems.

Addendum. Impress upon Taylor-fucking-Hebert Aka. Our Lady of Escalation. Aka. Moses' Shit-list. Aka. Good God why the eye, woman!? that I am the perfect person to help her with her problems.

...Heh heh...heh...No pressure.

-oOo-

And that's the first chapter down, don't know when I'll update this as it is merely a springboard to get my Momma Ziz fic back up to speed, but it is a thing.

 

[CrunchySharpie]

And so, my first steps into the wormverse begin. Mistakes were made and I immediately regret all of my decisions.

Let the chaos begin..
-oOo-

I'd like to say my first glimpse of Taylor was one of her in her best light, where her determination, will to live and beauty shined through.

I was sorely disappointed. Angry tears and soaked to the bone in all manner of fruit juices was what I was presented with as I rode the empty bus with her. While not ugly, Taylor was, for lack of a better word? Average. Oh she did have a small pooch, her arms and legs were a bit thin, her facial features were as described in the story but it wasn't an ugly look by any means. Just... average? Huh. Well I could do something about that... not that I thought she needed it though. Given a few more years, a better diet, a rigorous exercise plan and a bit of make-up to highlight the best parts of her features, she could be practically stunning. But that wasn't the point here.

Adolescence is a time where body image is... well, practically everything. And Taylor? ...Yeah, her self esteem was shot right to hell. If I was going to get on the good side of one of the most powerful parahuman's on this planet then I needed a game plan. Sure, she wasn't much to speak of right now; She had no discipline, no skills, no experience. But what she did have, was the mindset to keep going and a preternatural ability to game the hell out of her powers.

Rob wanted me to entertain him, at least I'm assuming it's a him... then I was going to blow canon right the fuck out of the water.

This was my first step, lets make it graceful.

"Banzai hahahaa!" I leapt over the back of my seat with a hearty laugh, landing adjacent to Taylor with a loud thump of ass on cushion. The yelp the girl let out and her subsequent turtling up into the corner of the bench was practically heartbreaking. "Heyo, I know it's not that polite to sit next to someone without asking but I was getting bored sitting there all by myself." Did I sound like a spaz? But of course, I needed to come off as carefree and genuine. I was suitably concealed as well, with my tail hidden, a hat on my head and a pair of Panacea-power crafted contacts over my eyes to hide the cat pupils. It wasn't fool proof and under a suitable amount of scrutiny I'd probably be given away, but it did the job. "Names Shiro, what's your name?"

Those dark eyes stared at me for several moments, a dull buzz that even my prodigious hearing could only barely pick up tipping me off that Taylor was already starting to dump some of her emotions into her swarm. The girl's anxiety was palpable, if a bit sad and infuriating. I swapped to Tattletale and Uber, letting the former feed me information while the latter I focused on improving my negotiating skills.

Bullied. Bullied by person close to her. Best friend bullies her. Subconsciously suicidal, seeks escape from her situation, Plans to go out and patrol the streets as a Hero. Is a Parahuman. Insects nearby moving under conscious control. Can control insects.

Stuff that I already knew but good try, power.

"T-Taylor." She finally responded, her voice sounding rather quiet and reserved.

Anti-social. Wants validation. Cautious. Fearful. Will latch on to supportive influences. Control issues. Needs to be in control of the situation.

So I had to comfort her without coming across as manipulative and allow her to lead the conversation... huh. Well Uber's power was helping in that regard. Being a near instant master at manipulation feels weird. Tastes kinda like purple too. "It's good to meet you." I smiled, tilting my head in just the right way to seem genuine, the subtle pull of Ubers power moving my hand out for her to shake, palm up so that she can cover my hand with her own.

She reached out nervously, placing her hand on mine which allowed me to switch Lisa's power out for Panacea. In that second or two of contact I had her entire body mapped out. To facilitate an easier time of ingratiating myself to her, I tweaked her Serotonin levels a bit and sent her Endorphins trickling through her system in tiny amounts. When I let go of her hand the change wasn't quite noticeable but she clearly started to relax some in my presence as the happy-happy feel-good chemicals worked their magic. I swapped back to Tattletale and continue the conversation. "I don't mean to pry or anything, but why is your clothing stained like that?" Just a touch of concern said in just the right way.

Taylor seemed to wilt at that question, mumbling something about bullies and trying very hard not to make eye contact.

"Well then those bullies are assholes." I remark imperiously, a scowl on my face. "Just the worst sort of people." I pause, turning toward the front of the bus, sitting quietly, waiting.

"Y-yeah, they really are." Hook, line and sinker. "They... they've been bullying me for... a long time now."

My expression softens, empathy tactfully measured to get the best response. Taylor blushes slightly at the positive attention- and isn't that a sad thought? "Why haven't you told anyone about it? If it's gone on for as long as I'm assuming it has, then either you can't tell the faculty or you wont tell them?"

Again with the depressing kicked puppy look. Jesus, Taylor you need all the hugs. After this you're getting a hug. Fuck it, Amy's getting a hug too. In fact? Hugs for everyone. Except Coil, because fuck Coil.

Actually no, don't fuck Coil, he doesn't deserve the nookie. Also, how the hell am I going to hug an Endbringer? Hrm, you know what? Fuck it, I'm going to hug an Endbringer at least once while I'm here, just to fuck with everyone in the battle, hopefully the Endbringer too.

Ignorant of my...reasonably insane ramblings, Taylor was explaining her situation at school, slowly bleeding off some of the stress I could see in her body, which Tattletale's power helpfully pointed out and labeled. Tenseness in the neck? The girls slumping put pressure on the nerves in her back, causing headaches and generally giving her a crappy attitude. Slight twinge in the hip? A previous fall, likely from getting pushed down the stairs, had bruised her hipbone and perhaps even damaged the bone some. It wasn't anything major but it was creating some inflammation which was making it uncomfortable for her to walk. Must have been hell while she was running.

On and on her problems went, every little injury, every tiny emotion, all of it was observed and taken into account. By the end Taylor had tears in her eyes and wouldn't look at me, though I suppose having someone actually listen to her problems for once had been a kind of attention she'd been lacking for... years now. Emma, Sophia, Madison? You three are officially on my shit-list. God those three were monsters if even half of what Taylor said they did was true... and I had no reason to doubt her, the girl was smart and had a good memory, that and she had all of the incidents recorded back at home. She wouldn't forgive or forget so easily.

I rubbed a hand gently on her back, comforting the girl as best as Uber's power would allow. I couldn't push too hard this early I had already manipulated her into sharing what her bullies were doing, but this was merely the first step, the first lynch pin in my greater plan.

Granted my greater plan basically boiled down to "Wing it and pray." but it always worked before, there was no way it could fail, no way at all. Completely fool proof.

"Um... Why do you have cat ears?"

Mother! Fucker!

Feel check. Yep, hat had pulled back a bit over the course of the conversation and one of my ears was poking out from under it. I quickly pulled the hat back over my head and looked around, there wasn't anyone else on the bus but you could never be too sure. Uber's power piped in then, directing me towards a semi truthful explanation. "Shh, keep your voice down." I mutter, ducking my head down, my ears twitching in response under the hat. I sighed, laying on the annoyance real thick. "I'm a case 53." I respond helpfully, though Taylor is only tangentially aware what that means apparently. "Monster cape ring any bells?" And there's the light bulb...and a little bit of fear, shit "Oi, none of that." I chastise lightly, throwing on a moping veneer. "Getting sick of people doing that, just because I got some animal parts doesn't mean I ain't human."

And now she's flickering through guilt, curiosity and... affection? Seriously, Taylor what the fuck?

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to stare..." She looked away. "I... I don't think you're monstrous at all, in fact they look really-" She fidgeted, blushing slightly. "Really cute."

Wait, what?

That's when my powers chimed in with the oh so helpful 'Too many Endorphin's you fucktard!'

Fucking hell, I messed up with panacea's powers and now she was getting high off her own body chemicals to where it was starting to affect her actions. Taylor wouldn't be this forward otherwise, dammit.

"Do you... do you have a tail too?"

...Where the hell was this going? I nodded, slowly. Jesus. "Yeah... I have a tail." I hesitantly pulled it free and let it swish back and forth behind me. If anything Taylor's breathing grew deeper.

Oh, fuck no! I know this game, I am not playing it.

"Could I... Could I touch your tail... it's just so... fluffy."

And she fucking says it anyway... It was about that time Uber's power chimed in that I should probably let her touch fluffy tail as it would allow me to adjust the chemical imbalance without coming across as an asshole. Resigned, I sacrificed my dignity to let Taylor get her Hora on. Curling up to where I could look at her, I laid the tail between us. "Fine, but no tugging, it's not a toy."

Taylor reached a hand out, hesitantly. When one of her fingers touched the hair I got to work easing back on the Endorphin's and lowering the rest of her arousal down.

Then her hand grasped the limb gently and started stroking.

My eyes kind of crossed there for a moment and goosebumps rocketed up my spine.

What. The. Hell!? I laid there, trying not to gasp as it felt like my guts tried to uppercut my fucking lungs. Back and forth, scritching and scratching. I swear I thought I saw stars there for a moment as Taylor's other hand reached up under my hat to gently start rubbing and scratching at my ears.

ROB you are an asshole, a wonderful, infuriating, bless-you-you-crazy-motherfucker-and-damn-you-for-the-same, asshole.

I slumped, curled up like the cat I was on Taylor's lap as she continued turning me into a limp noodle.

And yes, I can purr somehow, don't ask me how because I don't know... This was just a wonderful first step along my path to adventure.

Can you taste the sarcasm in that sentence? Good, because I hope you choke on it.

-oOo-

By the time Taylor's stop arrived, my dignity in regards to her was most assuredly gone...but that was fine, I could deal with it. On the plus side, she was far, far more comfortable with me than she would normally be. Granted, it's hard to be afraid or suspicious of someone when you just spent the past hour treating them like a house cat...

But then the uncomfortable moment arises as we both get off at her stop.

"I...um. Have to go home now." And she honestly looked kinda sad at that, having someone to talk to and have some comforting physical contact with was probably a major booster to her confidence.

"Yeah, I suppose you do." I shrugged, there really wasn't an not-awkward way to say this.

She seemed to hesitate. "Um." She fidgeted again, the buzz from her insects a bit stronger than normal due to her nervousness. Tattletales power was feeding me all kinds of fun facts about the situation too. The key point here was that she wanted my phone number but didn't know how to ask. Sadly.... I sigh. "I don't have a phone, cell or otherwise."

"Ah..." She grimaces, the buzzing increased a little bit.

If she was going to be this awkward then I might as well throw out the elephant/grizzly bear in the room. "Actually I don't really have a home either come to think about it."

Taylor stared at me, like what I'd just said was crazy. Okay, so not having a home for this girl, while terrifying, wasn't something she had to really worry about. There was no frame of reference for her, she'd always had a home so not having one was, anathema to her.

"I..." I cleared my throat. "I don't really have a place to live... Case 53 remember? Wake up in an alley, don't know who you are, kinda wander around for a bit until someone finds you then it's Protectorate or Wards? That Case 53?" I shrug. "I've only been aware of myself for." I glance up at the sky and snowball a number. "Probably about 16 hours now. Kinda had an altercation with some goons calling themselves the E88, met some lady named Miss Militia, turned down her offer because I really, really didn't like the sound of the Wards, too much like a sales pitch for comfort." Was I steering her away from the Wards and towards Independent? Fuck yeah I was. Last thing she needs is to meet up with Sophia at the PRT building and there's been so many Undersider Taylor stories out there it might as well be cliche. So no. No standard team for Taylor. I was going to create a team, or at least have us as a duo for the moment because I'd genuinely had a good time with Taylor.

Granted I spent eighty percent of that time being used as a fluffy stress ball but one cannot be too choosy in the grimmy darkness of Earth Bet.

Anyway. "After that I've just been walking around and..." And Uber's gift of Master Manipulator chimes in oh so helpfully that now was a good time to drop a bombshell. "And I kinda... saw you, walking by yourself all covered in juice." Here I forced a blush, though one not that hard to fake with just a few thoughts on the sensations my ears and tail had given me. "I couldn't help it, you looked so sad, sooo." I stressed the word, like it was poison on my lips. "I kinda followed you, to try and cheer you up." Was I laying the shy on thick? Perhaps, but by the way Taylor's face splotched red all the way down to her neck the buzzing growing a bit louder into a pulsing heartbeat that only I could hear.

I think she appreciated my stalker-ish/friendly neighborhood catboy attentions.

God, said like that I sounded like such a creeper...

And now another bomb for the bomb god, apparently "And I sorta, kinda, might know you're a Parahuman." I said this in a rush, as low as possible so that only she could hear.

The buzzing stopped.

Oh shit.

"What?" The flat tone coming from Taylor was terrifying.

Uber you fucker, first chance I get you're getting kicked in the nuts.

"I said." I gulped, already feeling a couple of bugs alighting on my body, mostly flies. I made the conscious decision not to slap at them. "I know about your...uh little friends. I can apparently determine certain things on touch... when we shook hands I... sorta found out?" The end came out more as a question than a statement but she continued to stare at me, the swarm started up again. This was probably terrifying to her, like a sucker punch to the gut. Some random person making her feel great while at the same time being completely at her mercy? Would make anyone feel better about themselves. But here? I was treading upon holy ground, something she'd kept secret for a quarter of a year now, while being paranoid as fuck.

And I'd just threw my knowledge of it in her face, just... just perfect. Fuck you Uber, I will make your capture as painful as physically possible.

Thankfully, the swarm did not descend and I did not have a chance to scream like a little girl. Also, Taylor lost that blank just-edging-on-terror filled face and replaced it with something a bit more... resigned? "So what are we going to do?" She sounded tired now, like she didn't know what to do. Hell, she probably didn't.

"Okay." I say slowly. "I didn't want to scare you but this seemed about as good a time as any to tell you. I didn't want me knowing your secret to cause some problems later on down the line. I didn't want to hide it from you." Annnd defeated look is a go. "If it's any conciliation my real name-well the name I chose for myself when I woke up, is Schrodinger."

Taylor blinked at that, resignation falling away to something bordering gratefulness and a hint of curiosity. "And your power?"

"Powers." I corrected her. "Near as I can tell, I can copycat any two powers from any Parahuman I know of." I switched Tattletale out for Skitter... and then let my mind into the swarm.

Whoa that feels fucking weird.

Taylor jolted as if she'd been slapped as I gently took control of one butterfly, alighting it on her cheek for a moment before releasing the ability and allowing Tattletale's to resume its functions.

The butterfly zoomed off, as fast and as far away as a creature such as it could move. Taylor was breathing heavily now, staring at me with wide eyes.

"Don't worry, I won't do that again." I assured her, holding up my hands. I didn't want to hurt our relationship this early, so I walked forward gently, bringing her hands into my own. "Just allowing you to see that I'm not bullshitting you." And here I smiled. "I have one other power though, one that you might be interested in."

I felt the flick of a switch within the back of my mind, then something traveled along the connection between me and Taylor and settled into her mind.

Taylor froze, a sudden jolt of whatever alien feeling my Shared Power Perk gave her, completely stopping some key thought processes for a moment.

"I can share with one person my ability to copy any two powers." Was I smug? Hell yes I was.

The hands in my grip tightened, becoming slightly uncomfortable as I assumed Taylor took on some Brute package, probably Aegis if Tattletale's power was anything to go by. Easy knowledge of what the teen's powers were, on top of Taylor's seemingly intuitive ability to use powers and... well...yeah.

Why didn't I like that look in her eyes...

Oh shit...

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I became the Hebert family pet.

Somewhere, somehow I just know ROB is laughing at me.

-oOo-

Canon? What canon? I don't see any canon, nothing but butterflies for miles. Sorry Japan, you gotta take another one for the team.

Also, again, only lightly looked over, couldn't sleep so decided to bust out this chapter over the butt crack of 'tomorrow'. Took a bit longer than I expected, unfortunately. Gonna go sleep now. Like always will fix things in the morning.

 

[CrunchySharpie]

Okay, here's the next chapter, not much to say about it but that I don't really like how it turned out. It fought me the whole way through and I couldn't seem to get past it. If the quality dropped a bit because of that I apologize. Near the end I was just wanting that scene to be over, don't know why it's bothering me so much.

And some more music for this chapter. Nothing to really go with the chapter, just something I was listening to on repeat while writing. Yes it's kinda weird. No, I won't stop listening to it because of that, song is catchy as hell.

Spoiler

Lets do dis.
-oOo-

The Hebert residence was about what I'd expected it to be; Quaint, cozy, a bit run down, just this side of the docks in an equally run down neighborhood. There wasn't any gang signs visible but I knew, just from the hazy half-remembered maps of Brockton Bay that the Merchant and ABB lines were barely more than half a dozen blocks away.

That was kind of terrifying in it's own way and really brought home that this was real. That this was my life now until I fulfilled whatever criteria ROB felt was sufficient for his amusement and either sent me home-

-Or left me here. And that was an equally terrifying thought. I was in the middle of a war torn city, in a war torn country, on a war torn continent, on a planet besieged by a multi-dimensional space whale. The only thing keeping said space whale from flying off the reservation and going Carrie on every planet earth ever was some homeless guy in some city I can't remember.

This didn't fill me with anything close to confidence.

But, I could manage. I had power, plenty of power to handle that problem. And without having to worry about the single point of failure that Flechette would be. I could create a Flechette gun with Leet's power then reverse engineer and mass produce these with Dragon and Masamune. That was something I could do when I had time. Scion was a far off threat, coming years from now. After Leviathan. After the Slaughterhouse Nine.

Or possibly even longer than that as I doubt that those stations of canon would be passed through that easily.

I was going to change things. First thing I needed to do was neutralize Bakuda, she along with Noelle were the catalyst for Leviathan's attack on Brockton bay. Take care of them and the beast will go to greener pastures. Subsequently, no Leviathan means no Slaughterhouse Nine taking advantage of the city's weakness, which means no Escalation ex Machina to where Jack Slash can turn Scion into his final middle finger to the alternate Earths.

That would give me plenty of time to fuck with the rest of the world for ROB's amusement and build up sufficient amounts of Dakka to take out Scion.

But that was neither here nor there at the moment. I wouldn't be able to put the hurt on that big golden bastard for some time until my infrastructure was built up and to do that I had to get materials and funds to buy the crap needed to make everything I needed.

But back to the matter at hand; Taylor. Dragging me. Into her house. I was suddenly glad that Danny didn't appear to be home just yet, it gave me a chance to think up some bullshit to say in the meanwhile.

"Here's home." Taylor waved her arm around magnanimously, slumping into the somewhat lumpy couch in the living room.

"Any particular reason you dragged me to your house?" It was a legitimate question.

Taylor gave me a look, her hand reaching out to the wooden end table and proceeded to lift the thing with one hand as if it weighed nothing. She set it down and her eyebrow twitched. "You can share your power, which itself copies any two powers. Do you know how bullshit that is?"

I gave her a bland look. "I am aware, yes. That still doesn't really answer my question."

Taylor's fingers tap-tapped a simple rhythm on the end table, brain seemingly whirling in thought. "You know that I'm a cape and what's happening to me at school, I know that you're a cape and your general situation." The finger tapping stopped. "You don't have anywhere else to go and no one to go back to while I have a place to stay." She eyed me like a hawk would eye a small mouse and her words became a little thick. "You wanted to help me, talked to me, encouraged me when you didn't have to, I... wanted to repay the favor..."

Ah... so that's it. The power sharing was the cherry, me being a cape was the whipped cream but it was me stepping up to listen to her problems and comfort her that won the 'best ice cream of the year' award.

And why the hell is she blushing, I thought I fixed that...?

In order; You listened to the problems of an attention starved teen, vilified her bullies, revealed that you were a cape and thus available for hero worship, muddled with her feel-good chemicals to make her relax around you then let her touch you in ways that, given your reaction, can be construed as inappropriate. And to top all of that off, as Schrodinger you're almost sickeningly attractive. What the fuck did you expect was going to happen?

Thank you sarcastic mental voice, your input is neither appreciated nor welcome.

Shhhhit... Taylor was crushing on me.

I was...kind of okay with that, actually. If I was stuck here, then starting up a relationship with someone was a given. I wasn't going to spend the rest of this life celibate. The only real problem I had with the idea was the age difference, and that would become less and less important as time went on.

I wouldn't deny her if she wanted to start a relationship but she had to start it and it wouldn't go anywhere I didn't approve of until the age difference wasn't as... disconcerting. But I ramble, it was too soon to be thinking about that kind of future with anyone and I had more important things to think about. For instance, Taylor brought me here for a reason, I could probably guess what.

"Okay, so you like touching the fluffy tail." I responded cheekily, her blush extended a bit further down her neck. "But you're probably chomping at the bit to play with my power a bit, huh?"

A nod. "I have so many ideas for power combo's." Here a small smile formed on her lips. "I haven't spent much time on it but PHO had some interesting idea's for cape team-ups and power combinations.

Oh yeah... PHO is a thing, huh. I'll definitely need to take a look at that later. "Well, probably don't want to do any power testing in the back yard were people can see, so we're kinda limited to inside the house." I looked around. "Got a basement somewhere? That'd help a lot in hiding any power usage."

"I have a basement... it's just..."

I turned to look at Taylor, who was still blushing up a storm. "Just?" I had a feeling I knew what the problem was; Black Widows out the ying yang.

"Well, I control bugs as you know." I nodded, obviously I'd 'found out' she was a cape with my power so obviously I should know what her power is. "So... I'm kinda making my costume down there, with spiders." She blushed. "Lot's of spiders."

Yeaaah, the less I see of the that the better I'll sleep at night thank you very much. "I'll just take your word for it." I collapse into the couch beside her. "So, how do we do this?"

Taylor nodded, leaning back to look up at the ceiling. "I have a computer up in my room that has Internet access." She frowned a little bit. "It's pretty slow; dial-up is kinda the worst, but it'll do the job checking the Parahuman wiki for powers to try and copy."

In Taylor's room... Yeah, I'm not that stupid ROB, I see your bullshit. "I'm... not really comfortable being in your room when your dad could be home any moment and maybe, possibly, misunderstand why I'm in your room with you... alone." I felt my lips twitch into a rather sour expression, imagining Danny walking in to an unknown boy in his daughters' bedroom. Apocalyptic didn't even cover it. And I really, really didn't want to get pulled to the side to have the 'talk' with someone else's father. Especially since I'm not even dating his daughter.

Yet.

Shaddup sarcastic mental voice. "And on that topic... if I'm going to be staying here then he's going to know I'm a Case 53, there's no way I can hide the cat parts twenty-four/seven around him. By extension, hiding our powers is going to be impossible." Operation; Less Awkward Family is a go.

Taylor sank deeper into the couch. "Does he have to know?"

I softened my features somewhat, still channeling Uber and Tattletale to help me with my game face. "Look Taylor... my memories of my family may be shot to hell but even I know that lying to parents, especially if they're good ones, isn't going to do any good for you. Believe me, if he's got any sort of brain between his ears, he knows you're having problems. Maybe not the specifics but just the fact you're lying and keeping things from him is hurting your relationship more than you realize." I placed a hand on her shoulder, which elicited a little jump on her part. "Whether you grow distant from each other or he just gives up trying entirely, lying to your dad will only end badly."

She still didn't look so sure. I squeezed her shoulder lightly, showing a bit of solidarity to try and convince her to tell the truth to her father. Fuck, a number of Taylor's canon problems could have been solved if she had included her father in them. Going by fanon the guy was connected all throughout the docks and had friends that could grease the wheels a bit where it's needed. Plus, he was kind of a badass. To name a few of his feats; lived through(possibly fought in) the dock riots which caused the boat graveyard, spent the last two decades of his life working the gang infested docks, has held together the Dockworkers Union for at least a decade on pure guile and hard work, married a feminist gangster who worked for one of the biggest man hating female capes of his decade.

Guy has huge, huge balls, just absolutely massive.

The only downside to this was that he'd lost most of his spine after Annette died. Thankfully, one only needed to break their foot off in his ass as a transplant and the man Danny used to be could be brought forth like a raging firestorm of fuck you's. And this? This was the first step to that, getting the main problem to admit that she has a problem, to reach out and actually ask for fucking help to give her father an in-road so he can actually connect with his daughter, rather than letting him wallow at the edge of her life with no idea how to help.

People always seem to give canon Danny shit, when it really, really was a lot of Taylor's fault for not speaking up in the first place. Nipping the bullying in the bud when it was just starting would have made things a whole lot easier. Danny could have actually talked to Alan before things got so bad that the lawyer bastard had to go all papa wolf and burn bridges.

Emma could have gotten help, Taylor could have helped her... Fuck, a lot of the cast could have been a lot better off if they just fucking talked about their problems and visited a shrink. But no, shard idiot balls and the general grimmy darkness of the setting kept the issue on the fire until it blew up in everyone's face.

And speaking of fire and explosions.

"Look." My shoulder squeeze turned into a one armed hug as I let out a small sigh. "What's the point of hiding this from your dad? Are you trying to impress him with your accomplishments after you've done them? Do you want to keep him in the dark so as not to worry him?"

Taylor opened her mouth and was about to defend her actions but I was having none of it; I shooshed her with a finger.

"Rhetorical questions. I don't honestly care about your motivation to keep this hidden from him, merely that doing so is stupid. I want you to sit there and listen about what I have to say, please." And now for guilt trip maneuver number twenty-three. "From what I gathered from Miss Militia, Hookwolf is a pretty tough and nasty bastard, following so far?" A nod, good. "I ran into him within the first five minutes of waking up in an alley. What if you had the same luck I had, huh?" The girl stilled under my arm, telling me exactly what she thought about that information.

"What if you had it worse?" I pushed, not giving her a chance to respond. I stared into Taylor's eyes and she stared back, a small gulp escaped her as she imagined such a situation. Knowing my luck she was probably envisioning picking a fight with Lung on her first night, with all the irony that entails.

"Can you imagine running into someone worse than Hookwolf on your first night out? What if you died out there on the streets trying to prove whatever it is you're trying to prove to yourself? If your father is as good a man as I believe him to be, finding out that his daughter died doing something as stupid as getting into a fist fight with a giant wolf-shaped blender would probably crush him. Do you want to put him through that? Do you want to make him go through losing the only family he has left?"

And now there were tears in Taylor's eyes... shit. I pulled the bug cape into a hug, tactfully ignoring the little sniffles I heard coming from my shirt. "He's your dad, he has a right to know that he can help his little girl rather than getting pushed away and kept in the dark."

We sat there for a few minutes, Taylor venting whatever frustrations, fears or any number of other emotions into my shirt.

Then.

"A..alright, I will... tell him that is." It was thick, half garbled and in need of some expansion, but that admittance was a wonderful, amazing thing. I didn't like manipulating Taylor, hell she didn't deserve that but unlike Batman, I was indeed the hero she needed right now.

Actually I'm pretty sure batman would have been a lot more of a hardass to her. Guy took a bullet to the parents and still had the testicular fortitude to go out there as a human, picking fights with gods and madmen who think they're gods. He'd have probably told her nut up and overcome the problem like he overcame his.

By punching it in the face.

But again I ramble. Taylor pulled away, taking a long shuddering breath as she regained her lost composure. A pained but hopeful smile was painted on her lips, held together with just the right amount of gratefulness that, in my mind at least, vindicates my actions up to that point.

If she didn't have hero worship before, she damn sure does now.

Don't ruin this moment for me sarcastic inner voice, I will fucking cut you.

It was at about that moment that I notice Taylor stiffen, eyes going wide and her face paling. Shit what was the problem now? And then I hear the door creak open.

"Taylor I'm... home." A tall, slightly balding, middle aged man with dark hair and dark eyes walked in the door; Danny Hebert, I presumed.

He took one look at us, sitting on the couch, one of Taylor's hands in mine, my arm around her shoulder and her face covered with all the signs of a woman who had been crying up a storm.

Sunovabich, this isn't going to end well...

The man's demeanor darkened, several of his muscles tensing in his body as his voice took on an edge. "Are you alright Taylor? Who is this boy; a friend?"

Jesus, he could go Papa Wolf at the drop of a hat. I tactfully kept my trap shut until Taylor could answer for me.

"Y-yeah." Taylor sniffled, trying to compose herself. "I just met him today on the bus." Probably shouldn't have told him that I noted, as the man's face grew a bit more stony. "He's been really helpful, talked with me about some things." And here Taylor began to fidget, her fingers playing with mine in ways that had Danny staring at me.

Okay need to make a good first impression. "It's good to meet you Mister Hebert, Taylor has told me a lot about you." My mouth was dry and I couldn't think of anything meaningful to say beyond that soooo shutting up now.

"Call me Danny." He spoke evenly. "Mr. Hebert was my father." His gaze landed on Taylor again. "Maybe we should sit at the kitchen table, to talk about a few things." Okay, that sounded a bit angry, rightfully so I suppose. He turned, stiffly and walked into the kitchen to put a pot of tea on. I asked for water and a cup was set in front of me, which I gratefully used to wet my parched throat and maybe my voice wouldn't break while I spoke.

Danny sat across from me, giving me a look that spoke of pain if I harmed one single hair on Taylor's head. Yeah, no. I'm not that stupid, Taylor wouldn't need your help to kick my ass, thank you very much. "Alright, now what is all this about? Why were you crying Taylor and what were the two of you talking about that would cause such a reaction?"

Ohhhh shit. I shared a glance with Taylor who seemed to be finding it very hard to swallow right now. I handed her my cup and she took it, eyeing the rim with slightly reddening cheeks. Oh for Pete's sake, cooties and second hand kisses are ridiculous, quit being a doofus. She hesitated for a second more before taking a gulp.

After she swallowed the mouthful of liquid, she turned all of her attention to her father, took a deep breath, screwed her eyes shut and just said to hell with it, or at least thats what I imagined she was thinking right this moment. "I'm a cape."

Three little words and it sounded like she'd just strangled a cat to try and get those words across. Needless to say Danny's expression was one of confusion. "What?" He looked back and forth between us.

How very eloquent... Whatever, I can roll with this. "She said she's a cape, otherwise known as a Parahuman." I sat up straighter as the man turned his attention to me. I pulled my hat from my head, revealing my cat ear's to the world. "I also happen to be a parahuman, a case 53 'monstrous cape' or so I've been told."

Danny flinched back slightly at the strange sight of my cat ears before turning his attention to his daughter. "Is this true Taylor?"

In response, a small squadron of flies started performing aerial stunts around the man's head. Taylor nodded. "Yeah, I can control all kinds of bugs."

And as good a time as any for me to come in. "As for why Taylor was crying, well, I was just explaining to her why it was a bad idea to keep her being a cape secret from you. I...uh." I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. "Might have worded things a bit strongly and upset her a bit." I held my hands up in the face of Danny's frown and uttered quickly. "That's not to say it didn't need to be said, because it really is that dangerous and I didn't want to see her get hurt because she decided to go pick a fight with a gang leader or something."

Danny seemed to simmer on that a bit, mulling over my words. "I...see." He finally said at length. "But what I have to ask is, why Taylor? Why help my daughter out of any other person in this city?"

That was an easy one. I shrugged. "Because she was someone who I could help? She was walking home from school covered in juice, well before school got out and had a look like someone had just drowned her puppy, I couldn't not help her." And there goes Taylor again, blushing up a storm. At least now I can explain that away...

Danny attention locked onto me, then back to Taylor. "She's still having trouble at school? After being hospitalized?" The man rose to his feet, looking about ready to shout, only for him to catch himself and sit down, visibly calming himself as much as he could. "Why didn't you tell me about this Taylor?"

Taylor wilted a bit, shying away from Danny and not looking anywhere in his direction. Fine, I can explain things. I sighed. " From what I've gathered, she didn't want to worry you, beyond that she knew there wasn't anything you could do about it."

"Of course I can do something about it!" And now Danny was being loud, though his tone wasn't quite screaming. "I have half a mind to call the school right now, this is just ridiculous it's-"

"It's Emma, Dad."

Taylor's words cut Danny off and he stares at her. "What?"

"Emma." She says with a quivering lip, looking about ready to cry. "Emma, Sophia and Madison, those are the three main bullies, with the rest of their hanger-ons acting as backup." She shook her head. "They've been doing this since high school started Dad. I didn't tell you because I knew Emma's dad would bury us in court costs if we tried to sue them and the school wont do anything because whatever I say is me against them, no one would take my side because I'm just some loner while all three of them are the most popular girls in school." Now Taylor really was crying, her hands clenched into fists.

Another sigh escaped me, this one just a bit bitter. "Which is why I said you can't really do anything. Without evidence, it'll just be a circus in that court room and if you let Emma's dad goad you into lashing out you'll just be playing right into their hands." My fingers started tapping out my irritation with the trio into the hard wood surface. "Even with evidence they could still walk away with a slap on the wrist if they get enough people to slander your character, which Emma and her father could do, easily. It's a lose-lose situation and you'd need hard, irrefutable evidence to put those three down all at once, which would be very difficult if they've gotten away with it for over a year now."

Instead of further increasing his anger, that bit of knowledge seemed to diffuse Danny, the older man slumping into his chair, looking almost defeated. "It's been going on that long?" He shook his head. "How did I miss that."

"In part." I interrupted, leveling an even stare on the elder Hebert. "Because Taylor kept this from you, for a good reason. Another part? Because you weren't more forceful when the hints were there that there was a problem." Danny sputtered at the insult but I plowed through that by raising my voice for this next part. "But! A fair majority? Most likely the school. Have you gotten a single call or report card detailing Taylor's declining grades or constant tardiness?"

That stopped both of them, Danny especially looked rather thunderstruck...Before that stroke of sound was replaced by a blazing lightning bolt as the elder Hebert brooded. "No, I haven't. I can't recall any notes or phone calls that said that anything was wrong. Even the... the locker was the Police calling me, not the school."

"And that's why things got as bad as they did, if anyone is truly to blame, blame the faculty for letting this go one for as long as it has without telling people." I spoke in a calm collected voice, trying to calm down the depressing and electrified atmosphere with sheer relaxing presence. "Also don't worry about her keeping the important things from you anymore like that, I already sorta dressed her down a bit about it, though I would have a chat with her later about all this."

Danny nodded, slowly, his apprehension visible. "I suppose that's fine." he seemed to fidget, staring at me with a strange expression. "Now... that that's out of the way." He looked me up and down, then glanced over at Taylor before staring at me again. "You're a cape?"

I nodded. "A case 53 to be exact.."

"And your power?" Another glance at a now blushing Taylor who was...staring at me as well.

I sat there for a moment, thinking things over, and just how I wanted to present myself to the Hebert patriarch. "My power is." I began slowly. "a bit more... ridiculous, or so I'm told." I turned to Taylor. "Mind if I show him first hand what the other half of my power can do?"

Taylor nodded, holding out her hand. I didn't need actual physical contact to do this but it was the thought that counted. I grabbed her hand and felt my second set of powers leave her and return to me. Taylor let out a harsh sigh as if she'd just been sucker punched in the gut and released my hand. "That... felt weird." She grimaced and held her stomach a bit. "Not painful, just weird, like you just pulled something out from behind my stomach."

Huh... so some kind of withdrawal? Or perhaps having a power active then having that power leave you unnaturally felt like a piece of you was ripped out with it. "Well... I kinda did, removed my power I shared with you I mean." Whatever the case may be I needed to keep an eye on that. I turned to Danny, who was looking a bit apprehensive, switching a concerned gaze between Taylor and I. "Alright, hold out your hand, this might feel a bit weird."

Danny stared at my offered hand, visibly shying away from it. "I'm... not to sure about that, couldn't you just tell me what it does?"

Another shrug. "I suppose I could. My secondary power is that I can share an exact replica of my main power with one other individual."

"...And your main power?"

"I haz all the powers, power for days."

"Powers for days?"

"Powers for days."

Thats when Taylor helpfully chimed in. "Oh enough you two." Taylor turned to her father. "Just try it out for a bit Dad, it's awesome, I was able to lift the coffee table with one hand earlier!" Taylor's enthusiasm seemed to break down whatever resistance Danny had because finally, he reached a hesitant hand out to clasp my own, letting the transfer take place and shuddering slightly as the feeling of my power suffused his body.

"Now." I grinned. "Pick a random cape in the city and imagine that capes name and what their powers do." A flash of concentration washed over Danny's face for a moment before that look changed to astonishment as an old, Smith and Wessen Model 29 Revolver appeared in the man's hand with a swirl of green-black energy.

A Dirty Harry classic, me like. My grin grew wider. "Miss Militia, a good choice, as well as a very good choice in handgun, you have good taste."

Danny stared at the handgun, his hand shaking ever so slightly as the weapon responded to his stress and changed to a rather generic looking Sawed-off double barrel shotgun; another classic.

"To answer your earlier question, I can utilize the powers of any two capes that I know the name and power's of." I nodded in Taylor's direction. "I think you can already see what my secondary power does with your own eyes."

"Bullshit." It was barely a whisper but Danny's words were clear to my ears. I struggled, very hard, not to laugh.

I failed.

A sharp clenching laugh escaped me, followed by several more as I lost whatever gravitus I had and let out a long series of snorts and full belly cackles that left me breathless in my chair. To my side, Taylor was laughing a bit more reservedly, though she did note Danny's mortified expression and reached a hand over and pinched one of my ears between her fingers.

A hacking cough came from my throat as I tried to gasp and laugh at the same time. I sat up, clearing my throat a few times and giving Taylor a sour look. "That wasn't very nice."

"The same could be said to you." Taylor shot back with a smile, not stopping with the ear rubbing.

Goosebumps rose up on my skin and I gripped the table tightly enough to set it to creaking. "Please stop doing that."

It was only after a few more moments of bliss that I finally felt the hand release me. I glanced out of the corner of my eye at Taylor who seemed to be... pouting? Seriously Taylor, quit being adorable, it's very, very hard to take you seriously as an eldritch commander of plagues when you do that.

I returned my attention back to the matter at hand and Danny who seemed kinda shocked at Taylor's playful attitude towards me; fucking feel-good chemicals I swear to God. "I think now is as good a time as any to bring that up." I clasped my hands in front of me on the table, getting both their attention. "Over the course of our conversation I might have mentioned that I don't really have a place to go back to, Case 53 and all... and Taylor might have made an offer for me to stay here. I'd go to the PRT but personally I got really bad vibes from the PRT. So...uh, can I stay here, sir?"

I almost want to say the look Danny gave me was a negative, but there was just enough there for Tattletale to piece together that he was interested, playing up the concerned father angle. I knew how to handle that.

"If it helps any, I can promise you that I will do everything in my power to help Taylor at Winslow. Also...uh." Another shared glance with Taylor, not so subtly nudging her with my foot under the table.

Taylor frowned a bit, though when I gave her a pointed look she seemed to get what I was pointing her towards and nodded slightly with a sigh. "I want to be a hero Dad. I have powers that could help the city." She poked me back with her foot, another pout on her lips. "And with Shiro's power's we can do a lot of good for the city." A small smile, as she stared at her father. "Like cleaning up the Boat Graveyard or helping restart the ferry." By the end of her sentence the words were practically honey in the man's ears I just knew. The PRT and Protectorate had 'better' things to do than to do 'actual' work and spent more time either being completely useless or attacking a symptom at best. Taylor's plan would attack the route cause of things directly; poverty.

And now Danny's face had traces of interest. He gave us both a long hard look, weighing his options for several moments before nodding, seemingly to himself. "I don't like this." And there's the glare. "I don't like the thought of my little girl going out to be Hero, no matter how proud that makes me." Here he sighed. "But I'm also not stupid, I can see the writing on the walls; Taylor is exactly like her mother."

And here he gave me an exasperated look, glancing over at a blushing Taylor who was staring at me. "In more ways than one... She would have gone out to be a hero and possibly gotten hurt, with or without my blessing because she is just as stubborn as her parents." A soft smile. "I can't really blame her for being her mother's daughter with just a hint of my temper and willfulness."

Okay, long winded much? "and on the topic of me staying?"

And there's the sour expression I've been expecting from Mr. Overprotective. "I would feel far more comfortable getting to know you better first."

"Oh come on Dad, he's not that dangerous." Thank you Taylor for defending my honor, I'm touched. "I mean, he's not very threatening when you can do this at any moment." Oh dear God, no... I felt my ears being tweaked again and my hands again reached out to the table for support. This time Taylor started scratching and petting and I found myself face down on the table. A bit of a shifting of cloth over my ass and my tail was free and just as under assault from Taylor as my ear's were. Guh... I started to shake, then darkness.

I honestly think I blacked out there for a moment as I jerked up from the table, drool coming from my mouth a bit and a pleasant numbness all over my body. What the fuck?

Taylor was practically radiant in her smugness while Danny seemed to be rather amused himself by my reaction. Now it was my turn to pout, brooding while I stuffed my tail back into my pants. "You two are mean."

"See." Taylor laughed, twas a nice laugh, one that seemed to be infectious as Danny joined in. "He's just a big kitten, he even purrs."

Oh for fuck's sake. I was finding it very easy to fuse with my chair in that moment.

The sacrifice of my dignity and humorous atmosphere seemed to bear fruit though as Danny started nodding to himself. "Alright fine, we can try this for a few days to see how things work out." He gave me a not so subtle glace. "Provided you keep your hands where I can see them, do chores around the house to help pay for your stay here and keep your promises to Taylor and I. Then yes, you can stay."

Well, that's fair I suppose, and it takes care of lodging for the long term. As Taylor pulled me into a hug, and why is she hugging me again? Fuck it, hands are in the air, just roll with it man. Danny's not so subtly raised eyebrow in my direction was not comforting. I mouthed 'I don't know, she's freaking clingy!' to him and look of understanding and perhaps pity crossed his face. He turned, muttering something about "Exactly like her mother." and walked back into the kitchen to grab the pot of tea which had just started whistling.

Alright, just going to enjoy the hug then. Shelter is taken care of, as well as food and water, which I could probably help with if I used a power to grow food, whether in the backyard or in a pot in the house. I mentioned that to Danny when he sat back down with two cup's of steaming hot tea in his hands. He handed one to Taylor and kept the other one for himself.

"That sounds like a great idea, it would save some money here and there. And you can't beat fresh vegetables grown in a garden." Well, he seemed to agree with that at least, who knows maybe I could even get a license and start... selling... it. Shit, a license requires a background, which I sorely lack. I let out a string of curses which attracts both Taylor and Danny's attention.

I stare at the both of them, slumping in defeat onto the table. "I'm going to have to go down to the PRT tomorrow and figure out how to set up my identity. I can't just live as some random no name for the rest of my life..."

"And this is a problem... how?"

I groaned in annoyance. "Paperwork. All of the freaking paperwork and dick waving that I'm going to have to deal with. I can feel my spirit crying in protest already."

Their laughter was unwarranted.

The ear rubs from Taylor on the other hand, were greatly appreciated.

-oOo-

As always, if there are errors I'll check them in the morning. Not much else to say really.

 

[CrunchySharpie]

And here's a new chapter. If you keep up with my momma Simurgh story then you know the reason why this is a bit late. On top of all that I meantioned before I've had to help prepare for thanksgiving. Which, incidentally, is today in America. So happy thanksgiving to my 'Murican readers and if you're not of the states or don't celebrate thanksgiving then at least tip your hat or make a toast with something stout (I prefer vodka) to celebrate another day of livin.

Some more music for those who care to listen.

Spoiler

Willis Earl Beal - Too Dry To Cry
ARIUS - The March (FingerGangBang Version) [HALLOWEEN SPECIAL]
Skit Hassassin - Lose it
Rhianna - Where Have You Been (Hardwell Club Mix)
Trigun OST - Never Could Have been Worse
Metalcore - Adore Your Pain - UNDEAD CORPORATION
Krftkds - Thats A Huge Bitch (DJ Vodka Dirty Dutch Remix)
Datakrash - Screaming Girl of the Sea
Digimon Frontier English opening

And without further ado~

-oOo-

I blinked awake, darkness all around me as I lay in a semi-comfortable bed, going through the mental checklist of awareness to make sure everything was still there; hands, arms, tail, legs, feeeewhat!? Back up there!

I swished the limb in front of my face, feeling it as if it were my own.

Then my brain caught up to the rest of me.

"Oh." My higher than normal pitched voice answering me once again, just like the last time I'd woken up with no recollection of where I was. Only, this time I did know where I was.

The Hebert's spare room was Spartan, a Full bed, dresser, bedside table and a single closet; The floor was carpet so that was nice, it wouldn't be freaking cold walking across to the bathroom at night. Huh... speaking of, I noted the time...why did I wake up this early?

I rolled over.

Suddenly Taylor.

I will be honest here; I jumped, squeaking like the squeaker I was, my back slamming against the wall with a dull thump as I stared upon the teen girl's nighty clad form.

Okay...that's a good sign, clothing is on for the both of us, no strange ache's, stains or smells and no alcohol was consumed at any point the previous night. I was fairly certain I was safe, no accidentally the landlord's jailbait daughter during the night.

I let out a sigh of relief and poked Taylor in the forehead until she opened her eyes, grumpily swatting at my hand. "Wha-?" She sounded almost petulant, that is, until the situation at hand presented itself and she snapped her pillow in front of her clothed chest like a shield.

"What are you doing in my bed." I deadpanned. ROB, I know you like shenanigans...that is, like, your favorite thing-slash-word but for the love of God, you or some other being whose name may very well be unpronounceable, would you please stop throwing the jailbait at me? I'm not that desperate, stupid or deviant and Taylor isn't drop dead gorgeous enough to seduce me, so quit it.

"I...had a nightmare..." What? Are you fucking twelve? I tried very hard not to facepalm.

I failed.

Okay, even breaths, don't sound mad. She's an impressionable teenager, they don't think things through. "And why, did you have to come to me and slip into my bed because of that?"

Taylor blushed, a hand snaking out to grab one of my ears. I closed my eyes, my head tilting then turning to the side while a shiver passed up my spine. "I... dreamed about the locker, I couldn't get comfortable. And... well, your cat parts are relaxing."

Why are you making this so uncomfortable ROB, why? Though dreaming about your trigger event is probably as good a way to sour your sleep more than anything else could be I guess. Well, at least I didn't mind staying up long hours to help other people sleep, I'd done that on multiple occasions for my girlfriend back home...

Ow.

I felt an ache in my heart, eyes misting up a bit as something occurred to me. I flopped onto my back, the sensation coming from my ears almost completely forgotten. Staring up at the ceiling, my body went numb a bit as I really considered that thought. The people I knew, the people I'd loved and cared for, they were out of my reach. My mom, grandmother, sister and her family, girlfriend, cousin, pretty much anyone worth mentioning really. They were gone... and it was likely I'd never see any of them again.

Shit, that fucking hurts. I rubbed a hand over my chest, the empty ache spreading around the rest of my body, causing my stomach to drop as well. I'd been in too much shock, to focused on where I was that I hadn't noticed what that had meant for me. I was alone, the only people I knew were a bunch of fictional characters who'd never even met me and I only held an arbitrary level of attachment with.

Beyond the powers, beyond the gangs, beyond even the apocalypse waiting to happen, that revelation sucker punched me more than I thought it would.

The real question now was what I was going to do about it?

Tears dripped down in the darkness and I was suddenly very self conscious of the person next to me, who shifted uncomfortably, likely hearing the muffled sounds of my grief. I grimaced, grasping a nearby pillow and rubbed it against my face, clearing up the majority of the moisture and giving me a moment to compose myself.

I can't change my current predicament now. I need to be hopeful but I can't expect anything. ROB is a dick, repeat that as a mantra and carry on. Swallowing the bile in my throat I turned back to Taylor who was looking at me with wide, innocent eyes, lips pursed in a-Fucking hell, stop that!

I gripped my heart again, taking a deep breath and schooling my features. Okay. "Okay." I reiterated externally, getting Taylor's attention. "New rule; Don't slip into my bed without BOTH my and your father's permission. This is his house and his rules and beyond that, make sure I am comfortable with it, you about scared the shit out of me before I realized it was you."

"...I'm sorry." Her eyes fell, the pillow in her arms getting squeezed to her chest as she slumped back down into the mattress.

An awkward silence followed that apology, one that didn't seem like it would go away for a while.

So color me surprised when Taylor spoke up again after only a few minutes. "Um...why were you crying? I didn't scare you that badly did I?" Wow, from that tone of voice you'd think I kicked her puppy or something.

I sighed, rubbing my tired eyes with my fingers. "No, just thinking about my past, or lack of one." Had to play up the Case 53 angle. "It... hurts, not knowing where my family is. I wish I could find them, tell them I'm alright..."

A hand snaked out from behind Taylor's pillow and gave me an awkward one armed hug... Eh, at least she tried. I gave the teen a crooked smile, snorting thickly as I wiped at my nose. "You suck at comforting people... but thanks, it helped."

She smiled as well. "You're welcome... uh, so can I?" Here she looked hopeful.

...

I give her a bland stare, one eyebrow raised and expression nowhere near amused. "Yes, you can sleep here tonight. Keep several pillows between us and explain to your father if he catches you coming out of my room." Taylor looked far, far too happy with that situation. I really need to address my discomfort with this eventually.

As I turned around and placed a pillow behind my back, I felt a hand on one of my ears again and all of my muscles went slack, relaxing. Lethargy replaced stress and I felt my mind go foggy as I drifted off to sleep.

Yeah, I'll bring that up...eventually.

-ooo-

Paperwork.

God, I fucking hate paperwork.

The PRT was a rather dull place all told. Flat white concrete walls with an equally flat white interior. The lights in the halls were the flickering white flourescant kind that created that annoying barely there buzz that no amount of desensitizing could ignore, and then there was the labrynthine hallways that stretched on and fucking on for no obvious reason.

In other words, pretty much the sum total of all things I hate about office buildings.

I'd walked in early, only an hour or so after sunrise when everyone was still nursing their coffee and rubbing sleep from their eyes. Danny was behind me all bright eyed and bushy tailed after a quick application of Panacea's power popped a few drops of adrenaline through his system to wake him up.

They'd given me a choice of when to come in and I'd chosen the earliest time possible to make sure that whoever was interviewing me wasn't at the top of their game and also, maybe, kinda because I was feeling like a bit of a dick. What can I say, I hate paperwork.

As I sat down in a bland white room, Danny to my left and one of the most forgettable PRT pencil pusher I could imagine sitting across the desk from me. I was given a stack of paper roughly a quarter inch thick, no signing or legalese bullshit, just a general information questionnaire; what I remember, general level of schooling, etc.

Yeah, like I was going to fill any of this out at all truthfully.

Tattletale's power was in full swing, firing off reasons for each of the questions while an Uber charged skill in lawyering kept me from walking face first into any fine print pitfalls. Danny was here to check my work and make sure there wasn't anything I might have missed, as well as act as my self appointed 'guardian' until all the I's were dotted and T's crossed.

It actually went a lot faster than I thought it would, all told. That was probably due to the efforts of good ol' Halbeard and his need for everything to be efficient, that or they wanted to process Case 53s as quickly as possible to show off their 'competence' and 'skill' then recruit them early.

Yeah, I wasn't buying it either. I checked the 'friendly' and 'affiliate only' check boxes in the "What is your stance towards the PRT, Protectorate and Wards?" section of the questionnaire. I had my own plans for this city, getting stuck on monitor duty would only hamper me in the long run.

After all the non-legalese paperwork was filled out, the PRT stooge who was overseeing the process left and a pair of individuals walked in behind him.

Miss Militia I recognized immediately, the other... of fucking course I recognized Armsmaster, even if I'd never seen him in real life the armor and beard kind of gave it away.

The two hero's sat down across from me, Armsmasters chair whining ominously as his weight settled.

"It's good to see you again Schrodinger." Militia's smile, what I could see of it, was warm and genuine, Tattles power pointing out the little nuances of the whys and what for's. She apparently did genuinely enjoy helping others, her job at the protectorate merely an extension of this desire.

I glanced over at Armsmaster, his demeanor as cheery and pleasant as most fanfics describe. (Read as, not at all) Tattle's power was pinging off all sorts of information from him. Chief among his current thoughts and emotions were inadequacy, jealousy and annoyance.

Sure, most of these were only subconscious thoughts and actions, little nuances here and there on his body that gave away his most inner feelings but the fact he defaulted to this state of mind only cemented my continued dislike for the man. He was a hero and did his utmost best to protect his city but underneath it all he was just a petty child whose feelings of inadequacy were pushing him well past the breaking point.

I wasn't going to ignore his good points but his bad points were very real and needed to be addressed before I said anything good about him.

So to reiterate my previous sentiment.

Fuck you Armsmaster, you and the motorcycle you rode in on!

"Good to see you too Miss Militia." Both heroes unknowing of my disrespectful non-sequitur, I gave both of them a tooth filled grin. "Sorta got picked up like a stray cat since last we met. He's a good owner, just need to convince him to get me a bell collar." I playfully patted Danny on the back, who rubbed the bridge of his nose and let out a long suffering sigh.

Hey, if I had to put up with the people touching my cat parts, Danny could put up with me abusing said parts for my personal gain and amusement.

I flicked my tail and ears a bit to play up the cattiness and I could tell Miss Militia was struggling not to crack a smile. "I thought you said you were a loner type last we met. What changed?"

I stood up straight, eyes hard and said to her in my most serious voice. "Belly rubs and ear scritches, all of them."

Now her eye's crinkled were in amusement. "I can see where that would be good incentive to leave the loner life style behind." Ah, but she was having too much fun with this, I approved.

Of course, Armsmaster was still a dick. "I believe there are more important things at hand." The armored hero cleared his throat, plonking a stack of papers on the table. "We have a few questions for you about the events of last night and. Also, given a few of your comments from last night we assume you are a new Case Fifty-three with little knowledge of the world and likely only instinctual control of your powers? The director felt it wise to offer one of our Case Fifty-three acclimation pamphlets and the use of our power testing facilities."

We were bonding here, asshole... I honestly think Worm's been lying to us all these years. Armsmaster's Tinker specialty has to be the ability to create tech that can locate, analyze, then fucking kill all the fun in a room with a tomahawk cruise missile.

A soft thump, like that of a booted foot hitting metal came from under the table.

Armsmaster's mouth drew a thin line as he cleared his throat. "If you feel so inclined." He added on, shooting Militia a frown.

In other words 'We want to know how your powers work and how you lolnoped Hookwolf's powers' Yeah, I'm not stupid, even without powers this was kind of blunt. The pamphlets were sort of interesting though, probably contained all sorts of useful, if biased information on the PRT umbrella in detail and the world in general.

I scratched at my chin, a nervous tic that apparently carried over to this world despite not having a beard any longer. "Not really feeling power testing at the moment, I'm fairly certain I have a good grasp on my powers as is." A beatific smile graced my lips, though mostly to come off as approachable to the two heroes rather than any ultradickery on my part. "I will take one of those pamphlets if you're offering one. Since I've woken up I've only found out a passing bit of knowledge on Brockton bay, mainly from talking with the Hebert family, so having bit more concrete info will make my stay here a lot more tolerable."

Armsmaster seemed disappointed, but nodded reluctantly. "I'll have a secretary bring one by. Now." And here he seemed all business. "Onto the matter at hand. Hookwolf. His fingers tapped away at the table as he opened the file in front of me. "A Changer with the ability to morph his body into a conglomeration of rotating metal shards, blades, hooks and wires. Favors a wolf shape while in this form. Affiliations: Empire Eighty-Eight. Considered extremely dangerous." He glanced up, looking towards me. "This is the person you fought the previous night?"

Ah, protocol then. "Yes. That is who I fought." Probably calibrating his lie detector as well...

He cleared his throat. "After questioning Hookwolf for several hours he mentioned that you were wearing a swastika and what appeared to be a Nazi youth uniform based on a World War Two design when he found you." The armored hero's attention sharpened, his voice becoming more firm. "From what you can recall did you or do you have any connection with the Empire Eighty-Eight, Gessleschaft or any similar criminal organizations?"

Well, that one I could at least answer honestly. I deadpanned. "I'm not a Nazi, nor do I work for Nazi's. So no, I have no connection to those groups as far as I am aware. Whether I was one before becoming this-" I gestured to my cat ears. "-Or not is irrelevant as I would have no recollection of such things and am, in all ways that count, a completely different person."

Armsmaster nodded slowly, flipping the page. "Very well, I will have that noted. Moving on, pertaining to your classification as a Parahuman, do you plan to use your abilities in any capacity? And if so in what way? Hero, Villain or Rogue?" He looked up. "For clarification a Rogue is a Parahuman who uses their powers as a service to make money. Hero and Villain should be self explanatory."

Well I wasn't going to answer villain, that would just be stupid. "I plan on helping this city out in some way, it's in a right sorry condition. So, probably a combination of Hero and Rogue I guess."

He nodded again, seemingly the only somewhat positive emotion the man showed as he flipped through the folder some more. "A noble goal, I hope that we can work together some day." He paused in his flipping when he came to a photo. Staring at the piece of paper intently, he slid it over to me. "Do you recognize this symbol?"

I picked up the photograph, which had a scaly skinned creatures flesh in view, imprinted on one of the scales was a strange horseshoe shaped symbol. Ah, the big-C. I didn't trust that Miss Fedora wasn't keeping a few steps on the lookout for people that knew her name or the name of her organization, so I decided to play dumb.

Like really, really dumb.

Also, I switched out Uber's power for Browbeat, using it to change some of the pigment on the back of one of my boys, imprinting what Tattletale could divine from the image onto the skin. So, when I looked back up at Armsmaster, I could say with a perfectly straight face that- "Yes, I have something that looks like it on one of my nads. You want me to drop my pants so you can confirm?"

For a moment the room was quiet, Militia looking gobsmacked and Armsmaster appeared as if he had sucked on a lemon. Then Militia turned away, hand going to her mouth as she struggled not to burst out laughing. Armsmaster cleared his throat, ignoring his struggling teammate. "No, that isn't necessary, we'll take your word for it. The symbol is indicative of Case 53's, every one of them we've encountered had one and it is a good indication that you are one. However, If you wish to confirm if this is or is not the same symbol as what is in the picture, we can offer you a free physical check up?"

"I'll pass." I grimaced. "I'd rather not have some doc standing behind me, rolling my dice thank you very much." Because no, just no. Going to a Urologist was not fun, speaking from experience. So no, fuck to the hell no.

Armsmaster grunted, scooting back in his chair. "Then everything seems to be in order, thank you for your time, a secretary will be by with one of the pamphlets I mentioned earlier as well as a few more documents to fill in and sign to make your stay in Brockton bay official." And without another word the hero turned on his heels and walked out the door.

Militia stood up as well, glancing my way with a smile. "Don't mind him, he's just takes his job very seriously, most Tinkers are like that."

Yeah, you can say that again. I threw her a thumbs up. "No worries, just make sure he doesn't upgrade that stick up his ass any more than he already has and we'll be good."

Militia's eyes widened slightly, showing her surprise, then shifted to amusement. "I'll be sure to do that. Try to stay out of trouble, alright?"

My Cheshire smile reached ear to ear. "I'll try, but you know how cats are with curiosity. I'll just have to make sure my nine lives are up to snuff."

Saying our goodbyes, the patriotic hero left us in the room. Danny, who had remained mostly silent during that exchange, turned to me, looking a bit nonplussed. "I feel as if I missed something there."

I waved him off. "Don't worry, just a bit of dick waving and shenanigans." It was about then a blonde and bubbly secretary came in through the door, arms loaded down with a stack of papers a good half foot thick.

She slapped the thing down on the table and gave me a bright smile. "Here's the rest of the forms that need to be filled in an signed." She reached into her pocket, pulling out a small but thick booklet and set it on top. "And here's the pamphlet. If you need anything then press the button by the door. Good luck!" And out the door she went.

I stared at the door for several moments.

Then at the pile of papers on the table.

Then back at the door.

I sighed.

I fucking hate paperwork...

-oOo-

And thats that. As always, I'll fix anything that's messed up in the morning.

 

[CrunchySharpie]

watched even if it never updates.

Click to shrink...

You could have just sent a PM, or even put this on his profile!
Why here?!

Click to shrink...

Because necromancy isn't against the rules here, so it's 'okay'.

Click to shrink...

and post a new chapter of the story).

Click to shrink...

So I heard you like new chapters...

Been a little bit but here's a fresh new bit of writing hot off the press.

And a bit of music for those who want to listen, nothing specific to the chapter just some of the stuff I listen to when writing.
BTSM & Lektrique - Religion (Far Too Loud Remix)
Markiplier Remix _ Back that A$$ Up
Alestorm - You Are A Pirate

So yeah, here. We. Go.

-oOo-
I needed to hit something. Like really, really fucking hard. Preferably with my fists, though knees and elbow's were acceptable as well.

Why, you may ask?

As a grown man well into his twenties, finding out you have to go back to high school would come as quite the surprise.

Well, for me it was a bit different. I had been home schooled for much of my required schooling, partly because of shitty teachers playing favorites and sabotaging my school work and partly because of bullying which culminated in me nearly being stabbed by two other students. Say what you want about pre-teens, they can be vicious little fucker's when they want to be. After that debacle that got my would be attackers suspended, my mother had enough and the rest, as they say, is history.

Finding out that I had to go back to public school, with other students, in particular a group of students who's gang population likely made my previous school situation look like the fucking care bears in comparison?

I was not amused, at all. And the bad part? I didn't remember shit from high school so I couldn't test out. Granted, I could use thinker powers to learn much faster and bullshit my way through but I'd still have to attend school for at the very least a short period of time to solidify my unmasked persona..

I sighed, walking through the front doors alongside Taylor, Tail, ears, and eyes all suitably hidden in pants, under a Tinkertech wig and behind Tinkertech contacts respectively. All of it itched like a sunofabitch but it did the job of keeping my parts at least out of sight, though it didn't help my mood any which is why when Taylor came up behind me and grabbed me in a tentative hug, I huffed a bit in annoyance.

She glanced over my shoulder at the frown on my face. "What? What's got you so grumpy?" she asked, a raised eyebrow and a bit of hurt in her voice.

"My cat parts itch." I whispered to her. "And I don't do that great around a bunch of teenagers." I could feel my ears flatten further against my head as I passed by a group of teens clearly wearing gang colors. "Not to mention my personal problems with certain things."

"Personal problems?"

"Personal problems." No I wasn't going to elaborate to her. I sighed when she shrank in on herself like a kicked puppy. Dammit, I needed to stop taking out my annoyance on her. "Look, it's not important, I'm just in a mood." I wrap an arm around her neck and pull her in for a noogie. "So stop worrying yah?" After a couple of quick swipes I let her go, her hair ruffled a bit. She slugged me in the arm but the way she struggled to keep the smile off of her face took the heat away from it.

It felt good, to have someone to spend time with...

We made it to our lockers in short order, mine being only a few down from hers. She grabbed her books while I stored my unneeded ones that I'd bought earlier that day.

We fell into step with each other, walking in a companionable silence even with all the noise from the other students. But of course silence was, as it was want to do, broken.

"Well well well, look what the cat dragged in."

... I take offense to that...

I turned around, coming face to face with a... wow... okay, damn. Say what you will about the trio, Emma was fine. Like, if I were a woman and she were a bit older 'I'd go gay for that' kinds of fine. I glanced at Taylor who looked about ready to bolt, her entire body clenched like a bear trap and her fight or flight response just moments away from saying fuck it and hauling ass...

Too bad that beauty was wasted on a backstabbing troglodyte.

I stepped in front of Taylor and faced the trio down. "I'm sure you three know all about cats, takes a pussy to know one." Why yes, I just called you three a demeaning slur, what are you going to do about it?

Emma stiffened, glaring at me with a shocked expression, almost as if I'd spit in her face. Which, in a metaphorical sense, I had. The pipsqueak next to her had to be Madison and she was... huh, she wasn't actually that cute, a bit too mousy for my tastes.

Sophia on the other hand... well she looked pissed, she was also tweaking something at the back of my mind that I just couldn't place, like a niggling little feeling that I was missing something.

"And who the fuck are you?" Sophia growled, puffing up like an over important penguin. Oh look it's chesting up to me, how cute.

"Name's Shiro, Shiro Langer Delgatto ." I crossed my arms, staring unimpressed at the trio. "And you three are?"

"Emma Barnes." And now this one was preening like her name actually meant something to me.

"Madison Clements." Is that a hint of uncertainty I hear?

"Sophia Hess." And more growling from the bitch.

"Sooo, The Backstabber, The Nuisance, and The One Not Worth Mentioning About?" Yes I said it in such a way that they could all tell I was capitalizing every word. Yes it was delicious. "Yeah, I've heard of you three."

Sophia snarled and took a step forward, my attention zeroing in on her as that feeling in the back of my mind got stronger. I clenched a fist ready to knock the shit out of her if it came to blows.

Then the bell rang, damn shame.

Sophia looked from me to the bell system then back to me, a scowl on her face. "This ain't over Delgatto."

"No, it isn't, you're too skinny and I doubt you have a good voice for opera, Backstabber's got you covered though."

It took Sophia a moment to realize what I meant and Emma's fist clenched tight at my insult. Oh, there would be a reckoning for this.

Those three didn't know who they were fucking with.

As the trio departed, Taylor came up beside me, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. "Are you insane!?" She hissed at me. "Are you trying to pick a fight?"

"Why yes, yes I am." I whispered back as we walked briskly to our class. "Those three have been bullying you for a very long time. That stops, Now!"

"But they'll start bullying you too!"

I stopped, hand gripping the handle for the classroom door. "You think I care about what they do or think?" I stared at her, face tight. "They're nothing, nobodies to me, the only reason I even talked to them was because you're the one they're trying to hurt."

"Why? You barely even know me..." And there was the self loathing, dammit I'm taking out my frustration on her again.

I sighed, releasing the door and placing my hands on her shoulders. "I care because that's just who I am. I also know that bullies don't just go away because you ignore them. Ignoring the problem only makes things worse. You have to stand up to them, I know that's hard, I know you were alone up until this point... but that's why I'm here, right now." I squeezed her shoulders. "I might not have known you for very long, but you're a good person Taylor, you don't deserve any of the shit those three give you."

Shit, now she was tearing up on me. I wiped at her eyes and gave her an encouraging smile. "Now let's get in there before we get in trouble."

I pull Taylor in behind me and nod to the teacher who half-heartedly mutters "You're late." I ignore him and his little introduction of me to the class as the hanger on is in here with us.

Madison eyes me warily as I walk over to a pair of empty seats.

Both covered in glue.

"How cute." I remark dryly, several people snicker, including Madison.

"Sit down Mister Delgatto, Miss Hebert."

I turn to the Teacher, slightly balding forty-something with glasses. I don't even know his name. "There's glue on our seats."

"I said, sit down."

I raised an eyebrow. Oh, is that how it's going to be then? Luckily I came prepared. I might not remember much about Worm but I did know that Taylor's clothing and stuff got stolen or ruined on multiple occasions, so preparations were in order. I set my bag down and unzip it, pulling out a large plastic ziplock bag containing an even larger assortment of items, but chief among them was one in particular. I fish out the small roll of 50 gallon bags, pull two and open them, being as obnoxiously loud and flamboyant as I can be, then slip them over the chairs.

I then sit down, Taylor joins me, ducking her head even as her cheeks light up red in embarrassment.

The entire room is silent, everyone staring at me. The Teacher is a bit... yeah he's the wrong side of annoyed. "Just what is this about?" A hand waved at the chairs in general and my bag specifically.

I shrugged. "I like to prepare for all of life's little annoyances." Here I glance over my shoulder at Madison. "Sometimes you just don't know what minuscule problem you might come across so I like to keep a bunch of stuff on me for any occasion. The seats were covered in glue, I put something over it. Simple concept."

If anything, the teachers frown deepened. "I don't appreciate your attitude young man."

I turned and stared at him with an intensity he probably wasn't expecting. "And I don't appreciate being expected to sit in a puddle of glue for the next 40 minutes. These clothes were a gift, I'm not going to dirty them so easily. If you want, we can go talk to the principle, I'm sure with a few pictures and an explanation of the problem we can have things sorted out in short order."

And now there was a grimace perched nicely on his stupid face. "No! No, just... don't make it a habit to disturb the class as you did."

"As long as I don't find glue on my seat, there wont be a need for it I assure you."

-oOo-

"You're insane, there's no other explanation for it." Taylor spoke slowly as we walked towards our next class.

"Puurfectly sane I assure you." I let out a Cheshire grin as Taylor groaned at the horrible pun. "But in all honesty, I've been planning for the past few days to deal with the Trio and the teachers, our little skill helps out in that regard.

Taylor stopped, staring at me like I'd just slapped her. She got real close and hissed in my ear. "You've been using powers in school!?"

I shrugged, whispering back. "Say what you want about Uber, his power is hella useful, makes talking circles around people a cakewalk."

She was still glaring, probably about misusing my powers for... evil? Evil. "Oh stop, these douchebags have a bit of well deserved schadenfreude credit built up and I'm cashing it in on their asses." And there's the huff... I wonder if she realizes I'm still using Uber's power? Yeeeah, no sense in making her more mad at me... I threw an arm around her shoulder. "Look, I promised your dad that I'd have your back here, I'm not letting those three get their claws in you anymore."

I felt her shoulder muscles relax a bit, her posture slumping. "I...T-thanks."

I smiled. "Don't mention it, if they try to corner you, just have one of your little friends guide me to the action and I'll kick their asses."

And there's the smile I was looking for. "You're a nuisance."

I snorted. "The very best kind."

-oOo-

Lunch rolled around and I was starting to get very- make that extremely annoyed.

Seven times. Within the time frame of getting to school and lunch, the Trio had attempted no less than seven different acts of bullying, two of which had teachers present or nearby.

Oh but I was livid with the faculty. At least Ms. Knott's class was tolerable and Taylor could finally relax.

Honestly, if even a fifth of these attempts were commonplace then Taylor's school life had to be absolute shit...

No more, no more I say!

I stroll into the cafeteria, Taylor all but dragged behind me as I purposefully get in line. Eugh, glad to see cafeteria food is just as unappetizing as it was the last time I saw it... I grabbed three trays and handed one to Taylor, who was glancing around like a twigging squirrel half expecting the trio to pants her in line. After seeing their antics in person... yeah that actually wasn't out of the question, I started subtly glancing around too.

Hrm, what to get what to get. Ah... apple, milk, veggie pizza and a banana. Perfect! Simple, mostly healthy and most importantly, recognizable.

No mystery meat here, nosiree.

We sit to one side of the room, Emma and Madison off to my left with Taylor across from me. I pulled the bottom tray off my food, setting it to the side, leaving the rest of my food on it's own tray.

Taylor noted the strange action with a frown. "Why'd you get two trays?"

"Oh, no real reason." I remark lightly, peeling my banana -correctly!- from the bottom, taking a few bites of the fruit. "Just thought it might come-" A twitch from out of the corner of my eye as Lisa's power started ringing in my ears, my hand snapped to the piece of plastic on the table and positioned it behind me to my left.

"Ah!"

A loud crash, and a splat of semi-solid foods accompany a rather nerdy looking boy hitting the ground a few feet away, his tray full of food flying towards me only to be stopped by the plastic tray.

"Watch where you're going Veder, you could hurt someone." Sophia, the bitch that she was, appeared from behind the poor boy, obviously the one who caused him to trip if her self important smug was anything to go on. An expression which melted off her face when she noted me holding my tray in front of me like a shield to block a most of what the now-obviously-Greg had spilled. The track star scowled at me, which turned even darker when I started eating my banana again, without a care in the world. I was about done with it when she finally began to walk away.

Hmph, you picked the wrong day to be a bitch, you're about a decade too young to be trying that schoolyard bullshit on me. I finished off my banana and lowered the hand holding it under the table. A quick switch to Tattletale and Foil had the banana sent underhand in a low arc right in line with Sophia's next step.

With a squish and a yelp Sophia's lead foot slipped forward and try as she might she couldn't regain her balance in time before she fell into a most uncomfortable looking split.

A track star she may be but only Gymnasts can do splits like that without hurting themselves and hoo boy that's got to sting...

Sophie stood shakily, favoring one of her legs as she eyed the tool of her misfortune smeared across the floor. All around her the cafeteria was snickering and whispering, Sophia doing her best to ignore it as she gave me the most withering glare she could...which sharpened to a needle point when I set my tray aside and opened my milk box and stuck an honest to God bendy straw in it. I stared her evenly in the eyes, taking a slow, measured draw on the dairy drink, occasionally slurping it to make a point.

Why yes, I do look absurd, and you just showed your metaphorical and at some point literal ass, what you gonna do? I can do this all day bitch.

The school's lunch lady walked over to check on Sophia, which simmered down some of the tension in the room a bit and gave Sophia an out to go limp over to her table, favoring her left leg significantly.

Taylor was looking back and forth between me and the Trio's table with an eclectic mix of emotions, somewhere between nervous, panicky anxiety and a bitter frustrated satisfaction, which is a horrible mix of emotions come to think of it.

I poked her with my foot. Hard.

"Ow!" She frowned, swatting at my foot. "Why'd you kick me?"

"To get your attention on me and away from those three bozo's." I responded mildly, crunching down on my apple while I kept an eye on the Trio's table. "I don't want to have to keep repeating myself; I got your back, so don't be afraid to relax a bit." I glance her way. "I'll run interference if anyone tries to mess with you so eat up, can't learn anything on an empty stomach!" I shot her one of my patented goofy grins. I didn't have the face for it anymore but the effect was similar enough as Taylor blushed a bit and started poking at her food with a bit more enthusiasm.

Slowly but surely...

Oh... and that might help too. I subtly poke her again to get her attention. "What do you say we go out this evening and have a bit of fun?"

Taylor stilled, fork stopping cold half way to her mouth. After a moment her mind seemed to catch up with the rest of her. "You mean... like a date?"

I switched out Uber for her Skitter power and idly swirled a fly at the edge of her range, a devious smile on my face as a twitch crossed her own. "Something like that, I was thinking you could show me around town, I am new here after all and with as much crime in this city I think it's a good idea to know what places to avoid." Left unsaid was the rather blatant invite to go bust some heads in those aforementioned places.

And now she was pouting... What is it Taylor? Disappointed that this isn't going to be a date date? Well, I can fix that real quick. "Also, we can catch a movie and dinner while we're out if you want?" And there's the rosy red cheeks! Dammit this is more fun than it really should be, is Tattletales smug contagious through her power?

It was about then that her power chimed in.

Signs point to Yes.

Dammit Lisa, you're getting out-smugged at the first possible convenience!

-oOo-

There's a pun in here somewhere, if you can figure it out, good for you.

So Shiro meets the Trio, taunts the Trio and one ups the Trio. And then there's some daws and teasing intermixed, a bit of fluff and filler but next chapter things are gonna start up as we have a bit of fun picking fights with men of ill repute.

 

[CrunchySharpie]

Long time no see, if you've read the newest chapter of Momma Ziz you'll know the low-down, if not then just know life's been unpleasant.

Sorta happy with how this turned out after so long away from it, tried to mix funny with actiony, hope I found a good mix.

-oOo-


Darkness, as it was want to do, filled the night as Taylor and I stared out over the city from a modest height in the air, the frigid temperature blocked out somewhat by our costumes and Glory Girl's fuck physics shield while Shadow Stalker's power was used to make absolutely sure no one was aware of our presence.

After the final class of the day we'd made good our escape from that hellhole the city calls a higher place of learning, dodging the trio's rather weak attempts at cornering us and heading back home.

A quick dinner with Danny and a bit more digging through the Internet yielded some more of the interesting capes from abroad, though that also brought to a head a rather pointed question which I really didn't want to answer right then.

Namely, Taylor bringing up that some capes can't be copied, namely Case 53's and certain other capes. She'd stared at me for a solid couple of seconds when she pointed out she couldn't copy any of the powers of the Triumvirate, or Battery for something a bit closer to home. She'd written it off at first but after trying Weld and a couple other Parahuman's abroad there was an eclectic mix that she just couldn't copy. I'd felt a cold sweat run down my back as I quickly shifted to Uber and Tattletale and did my damndest to bullshit my way out of it. She barely bought my explanation, barely, because it basically boiled down to "I don't know." and amnesia was sort of the defining feature of Case 53's beyond the monstrous additions, which helped sell it a bit more. There would be more questions like that later, of that I'm sure but for now I was safe.

Sighing the sigh of a bullet barely avoided, I stared down at the city proper, occasionally switching out Stalker to scan the streets with Tattletale. It was at about the fifth or sixth pass that I noticed it.

'It' being the hulking monstrosity parked out back of a loading dock next to a run down warehouse deep in the docks. Looking like the bastard love child of a garbage truck, ATV and front end loader, the 'killdozer' (because that is the only name that did the vehicle justice) was generously coated in turrets and gun ports as well as enough armor to make a tank enthusiast froth at the mouth. At the moment it was being loaded by a small army of ratty dealers, the 'cargo' being large bags of white powder and even larger bags of gray-green mulch.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what those packages were and, if I missed my guess, that truck belonged to Squealer.

"Found some trouble." I remarked, pointing down at the operation.

Taylor's eyes focused on the truck, a small flash of incredulity tugging at her lips as she gawked at the massive machine. "What the hell is that?"

"If I were to guess? Nothing good. The Merchants are here at least, probably Squealer or Skidmark giving out orders to the non-powered gang members."

Taylor floated over to me. "What's the plan?"

...Was that deference? Did she trust my opinion that much? ...Huh. Well I suppose I was the more confident one between the two of us and that would lend well to planning... Scratching at my chin, still annoyed with the lack of a beard there, I scanned the surrounding buildings. "Probably not the best idea to go in there wrecking ball style, so maybe something a bit more covert?"

Taylor frowned, chewing at her lips as ideas ran through her head. "We could drop down to the roof with Shadow Stalker's power and I can take them down with mine?"

A classic, I like it. Though, it could use a bit of tweaking. "And if we get discovered THEN we take the wrecking ball approach." I nodded to myself, a satisfied smile on my face, which earned me an amused laugh from Taylor.

'Operation Sneaky' is a go.

We both fell from the sky, cloaked in shadows, releasing the power at the last moment and touching down lightly on the roof. Now within range of the ground I could feel Taylor's power get to work, moving a large host of bugs from the surrounding abandoned buildings.

I switched out Glory Girl and dropped into the network filling up around me, noting Taylor twitch out of the corner of my eye and paying extra care not to touch any of the bugs within range. I'd already promised I wouldn't control any of her bugs, so I made do with the passive awareness of the swarm to piggy back her senses, using Tattletale in tandem to divine bits and pieces from the bugs senses and relay them back to Taylor to give her a better idea of her surroundings.

It was a bit crude but it helped immensely in getting a real time map of the area, including all the people in it.

Holy shit that was a lot of people.

Aside from the dozen outside, there was close to fifty inside, moving like a kicked anthill and gathering what they could, likely to distribute their product and change hideouts.

There was a short pause as Taylor and I glanced at each other.

"Uh, how do we take all of them down without them alerting everyone." Taylor seemed rather sheepish in that moment, "I don't have any bugs that can knock them out instantly..."

"Ah... right.. hrm." I tapped idly at my lips in thought, running though the list of capes I could name off the top of my head that could help with this, marking off the ones who wouldn't help in this situation. Realistically, there was only one choice I could think of that would work here, but did I want to make that kind of choice right here, right now?

I glanced over at Taylor, she smiled.

Fuck it, lets do something crazy. By our powers combined! Panacea I choose you!

As my brain filled with data from all the microscopic organisms covering my body, I smiled back, mine a lot more predatory. "Bring a bunch of bugs over here, Christmas just came early."

She gave me a funny look but did as asked, a large eclectic mix of insects, ranging from fly's to roaches to beetles skittering around in front of me. I shivered slightly as I stuck my hand into the pile, getting various blueprints of the insects that I touched.

This was... incredible, I honestly couldn't fathom why Amy limited herself like she did. Sure, there were about a million ways I could turn these bugs into the worst pestilence this world had ever known... but to counter that, there were millions upon billions of ways to turn these creatures into a force for good. To heal people, to manage crops without pesticides, to feed people even. It was... humbling.

Taylor cleared her throat, which brought me back to the present with a small jerk. She was staring at me expectantly, waiting... it was kinda creepy actually with those orange lenses of hers reflecting back at me.

Well, no time like the present. I dug back into the mass of bugs, grabbing a wad of them and fusing them into a big ball of biomass. To my side Taylor sucked in a breath between her teeth as I focused and shaped what I wanted.

After a few moments the bug was done. Barely the size of a fifty cent piece, the mosquito looking creature zipped out of my hand and made a small buzzing arc around the roof before landing in Taylor's hand.

Taylor stared down at the bug, wide eyed through her lenses for a moment before a bright smile formed on the visible part of her face. "This is awesome, what power did you find that could do this?"

"Funnily enough? Panacea's." I laugh, creating a couple dozen more of the bugs, "Turns out, her power is actually bio kinesis, she just uses it to heal people, very noble of her if you ask me." Was I laying it on a bit thick? Probably, but Amy deserved a bit of praise for the shit she had to put up with. I'd probably... stop by and stick a spanner into that bit of messed up clockwork, get her out from under Carol's thumb and convince her to take a vacation once in a while.

"Sounds like it." Taylor nodded along, more interested in her new toys than me at the moment, "Can you make anything else with it?"

"Loads of stuff." I answered, amused at the almost childlike gushing over her new bugs, "Can do pretty much anything with it, only really limited by biology honestly."

Taylor paused at that, her expression going blank. Shit... what did I say wrong this time? I reflexively switched Panacea out for Tattletale.

"Anything?" Why didn't I like that tone of voice...? "Even... um-" She leaned forward and whispered in my ear. She leaned back after she was done, Tattletales power informing me that she was blushing a deep crimson under her mask.

Oh fuck you ROB, you and the plot device you rode in on. Tch, figures, nigh unlimited power to play God with biology and flip mother nature the bird and the first thing she thinks of is her body image issues... I couldn't really blame her but... "Can we address that after we take down the super powered drug dealers?"

If anything Taylor's blush grew deeper. "R-right ...sorry."

Oh for the love of... I reached a hand out and thumped her on the forehead, drawing a small noise of pain from her.

"What was that for?" she pouted, rubbing the spot on her face under the mask.

"For being stupid," I respond dryly, "I'm not mad at you, it's just now is not the time to be thinking about power induced makeovers. And besides, you look good already so quit taking what those three base bitches say so literally, they wouldn't know beauty if it reached out of a fashion magazine and bitchslapped them with a handbag full of it."

Taylor rocked back slightly, eyes wide behind her mask as she tried to hold back a snort of laughter, the mental image that must have brought forth would probably stick with her for a while, that and my powers told me in no uncertain terms that she was appreciating the complements too. Ah, teenage hormones and an emotionally wounded personality, like gas on a fucking fire I swear... but at least it was progress.

"A-alright." Taylor mumbled, a pleased hum to her voice.

Maybe too good of progress... The humming was kind of unnerving considering the countless billions of bugs she was currently building up into a swarm around the warehouse.

It was kinda horrifying to watch really, the almost inhuman intelligence that formed in the swarm. Taylor couldn't know, not without an outside perspective like mine, just exactly what her power was doing. With Tattletale chiming in my ear exactly how much processing power was on display here, I could use my direct connection with the swarm to pick out where Taylor ended and Queen Administrator began.

It really was a sight to behold, To see Taylor's attention shift between individual bugs at ridiculous speeds while the rest of the swarm ran on autopilot, guided by a sort of precog based behavioral system that offloaded the bandwidth to her shard which fed back the information in easily assimilated packets that wouldn't turn her brain in scrambled eggs.

With this kind of system, I could see why some stories had Taylor's personality bleed over into QA. Now that I was digging deeper, Taylor's brain appeared to be in more of a symbiotic link than a parasitic one and her emotions were having a very minor influence on how the autopilot systems acted, each currently showing more enthusiasm and joy than they had mere minutes ago.

It was something I'd have to address eventually, but for now, it was amazing to watch a shard at home in it's environment, watching in real time how they went about their bullshit.

Speaking of bullshit... I blinked, returning my focus back to what Taylor was doing with the bugs I'd made for her. Most of them were crawling around on the drug dealers below, though a few were circling the killdozer, finding their way into the giant conglomeration of steel, concrete and turrets.

Huh, that had to be Skidmark there and that was probably Squealer in the drivers seat. Taylor hadn't found Mush yet but given the giant pile of garbage that was moving around in the expanded cargo hold of the vehicle... well, the less said about the guy's habits the better.

"Alright you cock sniffing nut wads, time is money and we're losing too fuckin much of it, so hurry that shit up!"

Hello Skidmark, glad to see your vulgar lexicon was as extensive as it was in canon...

In response to Skidmark's... enthusiastic pep talk, the rest of the gangers double timed it, grabbing double and huffing as fast as they could, tossing the large bags of drugs into the back of the killdozer.

"That's right, pack that shit in tight, we got a long ride to go. Ain't that right sweet cheeks!"

"You know it skids!"

The voice over the killdozer's speakers was slurred but clearly Squealer and from the feel of things on Taylor's end, was covered head to toe in leather, fire retardant clothing and a sealed helmet, likely to combat the heat that was coming from the kildozer's engines.

So no go on putting her to sleep the easy way, we'd need to go down there and bust her the good old fashioned way.

It was at about that moment that Taylor chose to strike.

In perfect synchronicity several dozen bugs stabbed down with their syringe-like probes, injecting their chemical payload.

"Alright, that's the lasof it, ge-" Whatever Skidmark was about to say was cut off as he slumped to the floor of the killdozer, all around the machine and inside the building the rest of the gangers joined him.

"Skids, you okay out there?" Squealers voice had flecks of concern in it, which grew more apparent when the drug lord wouldn't answer her. "Mush, see what's up with Skids!"

The trash in the hold stirred, the man within surging up into hunched crouch, opening the door to the back of the vehicle.

I knew the jig was up the moment a tide of trash flooded out the back, grabbing up Skidmark and a dozen nearby gangers before forming into a roughly man shaped blob. "We're gettin attacked!" The voice coming from the mass was raspy and ill-used but clear enough to raise alarms.

"Shit!" Squealers voice growled over the speaker as the hulking machine rattled to life with the sound of a jet engine and rattling metal, "Grab who you can, we're getting the fuck outa here!"

Taylor made a noise of annoyance in her throat as she got to her feet, me not a moment behind her. Our feet left the ground at the same time, both of us switching to Glory Girl as we leapt off the roof. There was a brief moment of weightlessness as her powers settled in the both of us providing lift and, more importantly, acceleration. IN the short space between the rooftop and the back of the Killdozer the two of us had approached the speed of a car on the highway, barreling towards Mush.

The Merchant cape must have saw us coming as he turned at the last moment, twisting and expanding into a giant trash balloon that blinded us as we splashed through the much and grime, exploding out the other side without our target.

Mush snarled, shedding mass by tossing the ball of gangers into the back of their escape vehicle. Now a good two feet shorter the trash heap golem spun, launching a wad of foul wetness at us, making up for the loss by sucking in a mass of trash from within the warehouse and surrounding dumpsters.

The veritable whirlwind of garbage made approaching a bit of a challenge, it didn't help that I couldn't blatantly use Hatchet Face in front of Taylor as we hadn't read up on the Nine to make my usage unremarkable and I still didn't want her asking any more pointed questions right now. So no quick wins for me, just had to beat his face in, intelligently.

To help with that I slotted in Shadow Stalker into my second slot, fading to shadows as I shot through the trash. At the last moment I phased back, tackling the trash heap at the chest in a foot ball tackle that sheared off the top half of the golem, revealing that the little troll had dropped down into the trash ball's stomach.

I could feel whatever bond that kept the trash in my hands dissipate, losing coherency as it started moving back towards it's source. Now I couldn't have that.

Shadow Stalker shifted out to Lung and fire filled the air, burning and melting the trash as the licking tongues of flame surged towards Mush. The man tried to escape but Taylor chose that time to clothesline the golems legs, flipping it nearly ninety degrees upside down to land on the trash heaps neck stump.

Give credit where credit is due, Mush was coherent enough to throw a rope of trash towards the back of the truck, yanking himself away from the trash ball, losing mass but speeding up in the process.

I shot forward, preparing to grab the annoying little shit out of the air but the canons in the back came on and peppered me with a hail of bullets and I swerved, switching out Lung for Shadow Stalker to let the bullets pass through.

Mush hit the back, rolling into the trash ball that was once the container of his boss and their henchmen. "I'm in, let's go!" He screamed further into the hold to Squealer, who punched a button in the cab, snapping the back of the machine closed. A factory stack's worth of smoke blew from the muffler sticking off the top of the machine as it lurched forward, picking up speed as it barreled down the abandoned roadways.

Dammit! Couldn't let em get away, not when we were doing so well! I kicked up to speed again, making sure to stay intangible as I quickly caught up to the thunderous vehicle plowing through decrepit cars and broken light posts. Landing on the roof I planted one of my fists into it, preparing to rip the damn thing open to get to the people inside.

"Get off my ride you shit-eating cunt!" Squealer snarled, flipping a switch in the cab that sent arcs of near lethal electricity down sides and roof of the machine.

My teeth snapped shut as liquid fire ran up my imbedded arm, sending agony through my nerves as I tried, and failed to rip my arm free.

"Schrodinger!"

And Taylor to the rescue. I could kiss you, you wonderful girl.

She'd apparently shifted out Stalker for Velocity as her current...well, velocity was an order of magnitude faster than Glory Girl was capable of, plowing into me, ripping me free even as we flipped end over end past the Killdozer.

Taking the short reprieve that followed the vehicle turned on a dime at the next intersection, the rocket engines protruding out the sides of the machine roaring to life to keep the damn thing from tipping over as it clipped into several of the buildings on that street.

"You motherfuckers are messin up my paint job!" Oh and now Squealer sounded pissed. The volley of missiles that followed was uncalled for. The flamethrower after that even more so.

Still, we had numbers -power wise at least- on our side as we dodged all the little turrets we could, occasionally switching out for a blaster to blow them off the sides of the machine. Finally after a minute of dodging and weaving we slammed down onto the roof of the vehicle over the cab. Before the bitch could shock us again we slammed our fists down and ripped the top off of the thing. Granted there was about another two feet of concrete and rebar below that but we made quick work of it and were now staring at a rather baleful looking Squealer.

"Stop this thing!" Taylor yelled down at her, letting a few of the bugs she had on her amplify her voice over the wind as it whipped by.

Squealer threw a wrench, Taylor caught said wrench and threw back at her, hitting the console, setting things to sparking. "Oh fuck, you did not just do that, you borked the fucking invis-suite."

"I said, stop this thing."

" Eat a dick you flat chested bitch! I'm the only one who can stop this thing, you take me out and anything in the path of this thing gets pasted! So just fuck off so I can-."

A heavy impact filled the air, followed by a slight lurch then a grinding of metal as a resistance was met. Then whatever resistance there was vanished and the killdozer continued on.

A flash of metal bounced past, which I caught in my hand.

It was a mask.

A Dragon mask.

I glanced behind us at the large human shaped divot in the ground with a group of people huddling around it, staring down into the hole. Around them, small fires flickered and guttered out.

I glanced back at the mask, then up at Taylor.

"Did we just run over Lung?" Taylor voiced, a morbid bit of awe tingeing her voice

I would have laughed at that if it wasn't for the fact that Squealer was screaming.

"Now look at whatcha done, the controls aren't working, shits fucked!"

Okay... that's not good... Especially because there was a large warehouse at the end of the street, which ended in the bay beyond that... Okay, really not good!

Shit! Who could handled this? Assault? No if I stopped this thing on a dime everyone inside would get splattered. Fenja and Menja? Same problem. Fuck! Uhhh, hrmmm OH! That could work. I reached out a hand and grabbed Taylor's, pulling her close. "I have an idea, be prepared to fish these idiots out!" Taylor nodded sharply, digging her hands into the concrete of the vehicle and holding on for dear life.

I swapped out to Kaiser and raised my arms.

In front of the killdozer a wedge of metal formed, slightly higher than the warehouse, just high enough to let the machine clear the roof, remain airborne for a moment before plopping down with a horrendous splash into the shallows that probably displaced water all the way out to the oil rig in the bay.

Taylor held on rather well, as did I after nearly falling off the quickly settling boat anchor that the vehicle had found itself. With a very real chance of the thing sinking we quickly pulled Squealer out of the cab by the scruff of her neck, ripped off a section of clothing and administered some knock out juice to keep her from flailing around. It was short work to do so with the rest of the vehicle's occupants, though we had some trouble with Mush. Well, only in so much as it took for the hold to fill with water and soak all of his trash. At that point everything became a biiit too heavy and the ugly, wirily little man extracted himself like a drowned rat from his cocoon of garbage. Another bit of knockout juice and liberal use of Rune's power had the rest of the gang piled onto a slab of metal and ferried out of the water and onto dry land.

Breathing hard, I plopped down next to our little party wagon of villains. "Well, as first outings go, This was smooth sailing."

Taylor, somewhat breathless, glanced pointedly over her shoulder at the smoking wreck in the bay. "I don't know... it felt like a bit of beach to me."

...

I raised an eyebrow. "Whale, it was a bit of a pain in the bass, but I'm shore you enjoyed yourshellf-" I waggled my hand a bit."-ish, just make sure you re-fin-ber the porpoise of this little voyage."

Taylor stared at me blankly.

I stared at her back.

"You two are fuckin nerds."

We both stared at Skidmark.

I couldn't help it, I laughed. Taylor joined a moment later.

-oOo-
Something something Lung forgot to stand behind the yellow line at the stations of canon.