Eden's Edge (Worm/Sonnie's Edge [Love, Death, and Robots])
WhoAmEye
Bunker-Dwelling Cryptid
- Location
- Vault Birb
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You know, (as a kid especially) it must suck growing up being one of the only ones in your family that can't fly.
Not to mention hating your power... more I think about it the less surprised I am by how fucked up Amy is.
Speaking of, I wonder how being relieved of her power is affecting Amy? Taylor's power seems reactionary, so as long as she's touching her I'd think that it would be inactive?
(I'm probably completely off/wrong with this)
Huh. The fact that Taylor's power seemingly marks the wounds it makes, causes me to think there's a lot more to it that I'd first thought.
BOOM.
...I forget why I quoted this.
Well now I feel obligated to.
(I did but didn't delve further than seeing some pics of honeycomb or some shit).
I'm with Amy, cause I don't get it. Or the lewd component, for that matter.
Amy doth protest too much.
Also, I really wanna see someone else's POV of all this - does it look like the three of them are perpetually flirting/raring to bang? Is there some sort of underlying sexual tension?
Oooh la la you could totally make a smutty novel out of all this material.
The travesty!
Also, theirs are probably all laced with Alcohol.
Anywho, great chapter!
- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
I don't know that one either, but I'm terrible at remembering dreams.
The Lewd component is that all glide no friction can leave you... unsatisfied.
Power Play 8.2
WhoAmEye
Bunker-Dwelling Cryptid
- Location
- Vault Birb
- Pronouns
- She/Her
MEETINGS
Special thanks to my lovely co-author and wife, @hellgodsrus, without whom I would never would have been able to take part in creating half my fics, and our girlfriend @SolarFlare for being awesome and also betaing! Also special thanks Prime Betas @Tamahori and @32nd_freeze and @Ganurath for being betas and feeding me validation and feedback between updates!
Enjoy!
Power Play
8.2
-.-.-
Neil produced a map of Brockton Bay and spread it out on the floor after moving the coffee chest out of the way. I recognised a lot of pins from the map the Society had - and wasn't that a depressing thought?
The Empire had definitely spread their infestation a bit since I last knew - then again, it had been a week of war I hadn't even realised was going on - the ABB territory was almost crossed out entirely. Almost. Or split - recoloured. Lots of holes for missing pins.
"Right, so, first. What has been going on with Eden?" He looked between Brandish and Victoria. "Last we heard it, the girls were grounded for the stupid stunt they pulled on opening night. Now Lung's dead, and the Protectorate's acting like they want to turn the city into a quarantine zone."
I felt like I should speak up. I was Lilith's daughter after all, but - I wasn't New Wave. Part of me wanted to make a joke to myself about how it's a family affair and I hadn't married in yet, but it was taking a backseat right now. "We pulled another stupid stunt…" I admitted quietly. "And I killed Lung."
At this point, I think the guys were the only ones unaware - Sarah certainly didn't look surprised, Eric's jaw dropped, and Mark blinked a few times. But Neil - his eyebrows shot up. "Huh. That true?"
"Yes. She triggered." Brandish shifted. "A form of Brute power, based around power nullification. The injuries she inflicted on Lung didn't heal and given her unique physical state…"
"Damn." He rubbed his chin. "New dragon on the block, huh."
"Not until Mom grafts me wings." I sighed longingly.
"Not interested in breathing fire?"
"Nah, I've got combat tentacles, way more versatile."
He laughed quietly. "Shit. No wonder the Protectorate are flipping their lids."
"I'm - I'm pretty sure Mom can't make powered Beasties - my - uh. My me is in that body, I'm only in this one by proxy, but I sort of triggered while… in this body?" I shrugged helplessly.
"You have the corona gemma in both bodies." Amy supplied. "I checked after I got curious about why your power only worked when you were awake."
"So Mom could theoretically make powered Beasties?" I looked at her, but she just shrugged.
"I don't think so. They're mindless." Victoria coughed. "No para-anything other than humans, except maybe the Three Blasphemies, but it's possible that they're like the Endbringers or a tinker product like Blasto's stuff from the Boston Games and just are different. There's products of powers with abilities similar to parahuman abilities, but that's different, that's an extension of the original parahuman ability."
"Does that make me the first para-not-human?" I wondered, tapping my chin in glee.
"I mean, you are human. It's just your body's - I guess you're the equivalent of, um, someone like Headcannon, or Carnage, or some of the theories about the origins of Case 53s."
"V, you can do your nerd shit later. Point is, if Eden can take already nasty-powerful capes, then fit them out in new bodies that get rid of their weaknesses, that's a really dangerous power. Like - imagine if Oni Lee was also a T-Rex with laser guns."
"At least if he was a T-Rex his arms would be too short to pull the pins on his suicide vest." Eric grinned.
Crystal made a face. "You know what I meant."
"So that would increase Eden's provisional threat level. Combined with how hostile the chat with them after everything with Lung and Hookwolf went… yeah, I'm thinking they wanted to negotiate from a position of strength, hence the press conference. A big hit that's clearly connected in placement but not provably so. Hell, it's also probably retaliation for how Eden revealed itself as a thing, which undercut the legal proceedings that were under way to arrest Lilith. Shifts the narrative back towards that." Sarah's face twisted. "And, because you're friendly with both us and Eden…"
"We're a potential information leak, which is how we got caught up in it." Mark ran a hand through his hair. "Fun."
"Honestly the biggest information leak they had was Shadow Stalker." I rolled my eyes. "But, if we go back a moment to powered Beasties -" I grinned, almost all teeth, "Who wants to fight an Endbringer from the other side of the city?"
"... which the Protectorate would know. So they have to have a carrot prepared for the upcoming negotiation." Eric jiggled his leg. "Or to go full wild conspiracy theorist they want Lilith to go utterly nuts and develop the technology a bunch, then arrest her and hand it over to Dragon for duplication and study and stuff."
"That's like, sold powers level stupid as a theory, Eric."
"Dunno how you'd do it, but powers without the traumatic backstory sounds like a helluva deal." I shrugged. "If there's a chance the Protectorate doesn't know about the possibility of powered Beasties -"
"Shadow Stalker would have told them about what happened to you, so…" Victoria grimaced.
"I'm still a unique case? Kinda? If… okay, I guess it's a long shot, but if they don't know, that's a bargaining chip, right?"
"Right, but what are we bargaining for?" Neil folded his arms, which was pretty impressive. "Eden are, at best, a rogue group of tinkers with a tendency to get into big conflicts with major players and a court-dodging criminal as their leader. I'm not saying how the PRT is handling this is great, but…"
"Forced into." I corrected. "They'd be happy to just do the Arena thing but when people keep showing up at your door trying to kill you… like, what are you meant to do, let them?"
"Okay, so they're a beacon for conflict with the major players, my apologies. And with Lung dead, eyes are going to be on them - villains are going to be trying to move in and take them on. Shouldn't our focus be on that?"
"I'm inclined to agree with Neil." Sarah sighed. "Yes, the PRT is shitting on Eden, but there's not a huge amount we can do about that. We can try and keep things civil between the two groups but I think that's a battle that's already been pretty definitively lost."
"I tried to de-escalate things and then they went and decided to be a bunch of backstabbing dickwaffles." I muttered, folding my arms and leaning on Amy. She was warm. And boney. And elbowing me in the ribs until I whined and leaned the other way. "Well - anyways. The bargaining thing. I think Mom would want to bargain to just be left alone to do the Garden of Eden. I'd have to ask to be sure but…"
Brandish's eyes narrowed into an incredibly venomous scowl. "She wants a pardon for her crimes. For abusing you."
"Maybe." I stressed. "It - might be that she doesn't want to bargain at all, and just wants to fix this city's problems as much as she can before she's arrested for it."
"Not exactly a healthy outlook…" Eric grimaced.
I leveled a deadpan glare at him. "If you can name one cape with a healthy outlook on life -"
"That's easy. Legend."
"Kids." Neil held his massive hands up. Like he could probably fit my head in his palm. "Come on, focus please?"
"Sorry, Dad."
"So we're looking at either a Lilith who wants a revolution, or a Lilith that wants to be left alone. I want to say we're looking at the left alone option, but my gut is telling me otherwise."
"You have big guts."
"As one of the few people in town capable of ripping and tearing them, I implore you to please not do that." He smirked at me.
"Hey. Hey Dad." Eric grinned widely. "Focus please."
I - I had no idea what to think. I just sort of realised that this was - this was fun. This was a family team. That Neil and Sarah and Eric and Crystal were all able to joke with each other, laugh and relax despite being in a meeting about what to do about my biotinker mother. And - I wondered why Carol had taken Amy. Why the Dallons were so… cold and estranged compared to this loving family.
I was sure if I spent more time with them, I'd see cracks form in the facade, but the Dallons almost didn't even seem to bother with a facade. Brandish - Carol. Carol had her two modes of stonewall impersonal lawyer, and… and the traumatised girl - young woman - woman? - who never got out of the dark room. Even looking at Sarah, I could see the tension in her shoulders. Just barely there. Hardly anything compared to the way Carol's jaw was clenching, the tendons in her neck standing out with each and every interruption.
Neil seemed almost like me, maybe. Talking for the sake of talking, because it was easier than thinking. Or maybe I was completely wrong and he'd managed to get past his trigger trauma. I wouldn't know without knowing what their trauma was and I only knew Victoria's and Amy's because of how public they'd been, and overhearing the gossip when it came up at school. Victoria got fouled in basketball - second gen triggers were supposedly easier but I held no doubts that it wasn't the foul that did it - it was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Amy's though - Victoria had been shot, I think it had been after she triggered, so she was meant to be invincible, but there was something there and suddenly she wasn't and she was bleeding out -
That didn't need to be a straw to break the camel's back. That was traumatic enough in itself.
Ugh, I needed to focus instead of going all psych major on everyone. Now that I was a cape myself, everything about them seemed so much more interesting. Was I ever going to go back to school? I kind of hoped so - but at the same time… I was a monster. A cape monster.
"Earth to Taylor, come in, Taylor." Victoria was poking me, arm around Amy.
"Huh?" I blinked. "Sorry, got - caught up in my thoughts. What'd I miss?"
"Where'd you drift off?"
"Eric just told Neil to focus."
That brought a snort from the boys in question.
"Right - so, to sum up, we were talking about worst case scenarios." Victoria pointed to the map. "Your Mom gets arrested or - maybe Birdcaged, though… hey, it's okay, it probably won't happen, but we are talking about worst case." She pulled me close and the Amy sandwich was real. "We've got our ideas on what'll happen but - we want to know what you think. Guess that'll be even cleaner since you weren't listening to our ideas?"
"Mph." I pushed her away, more for Amy's sake. She was turning red and not in the fun way. "I guess - I guess if Mom's no longer available, I'm reliant on Amy's help to stay alive. If the Protectorate are unable or unwilling to repair the tank if it ever needs it, I'm going to be stuck spending all my time eating."
"Huh?" Crystal frowned at me. "That's - a bit of a non-sequitur."
"Seriously, how many calories do you think it'll take to run a body that's like - fifteen foot tall, bulletproof - I hope - and - well, you saw me take out Lung, right?"
"Didn't realise it was you at the time, but I saw the video on PHO, yeah..."
"Whenever I'm not in my real body, it's basically suspended in nutrient fluid twenty-four-seven, as far as I can tell. Big things need a lot of food, and food is expensive. At least, in bulk like that. And to top it off, I don't know what vitamins and minerals and stuff I'll need compared to human - not to mention I'm struggling to keep my weight up in this body simply because I never feel hungry. And - I don't know if that's a side effect of my real body being satisfied by the nutrient bath, my implant just not getting something right, or what." I sighed and slumped back into the couch. "I'm still Tinkertech, and it needs maintenance. The Tinkertech used to sustain me will need maintenance. I don't want to take Amy for granted, so in the worst case where the Protectorate is unavailable to unable, Amy is unavailable or unable, my best bet is to either hope an Endbringer kills me before I starve, or pray the Guild is willing to take on a fifteen foot tall nullifier Kaiju and her grocery bill." I gestured in the vague direction of Canada. "Because there's no way in fuck I'm joining the Protectorate after the stunt they just pulled."
"So - there's nothing we can do?" Sarah looked at me with pleading eyes.
"Sorry but - not without an extremely large disposable income you're willing to waste on me. Amy's the only one with powers relevant enough to the case." I sighed and winced. "Other option is I give up living in my human body entirely so I don't do something stupid like forget to take care of my real body because I've never had to before and just drop dead for no reason in the middle of class or something."
"It's kind of like Dragon's agoraphobia and her suits - except she's locked away safe in a Tinker fortress." Crystal nodded.
"And probably has automated systems to take care of her." Neil agreed with a sigh, folding his arms. "I could try calling them, see if they're interested should the scenario play out like that, if you'd like."
"I -" I bit my lip. "Maybe? I still feel an obligation to try to do something to help the city I grew up in, and, well, all my friends are here." And girlfriend-but-not Amy. No, just good friends with benefits. Occasional benefits.
"Well, the offer is there if you ever want me to contact them on your behalf." Neil nodded with a gentle smile. I was surprised he could, but - then again, Victoria had applied too, once? Maybe they just had an open number for application.
"Perhaps." Carol frowned. "Perhaps we can reach a compromise with Lilith. She was willing to release you into our custody only a few days ago. But the issues of maintenance and health you've brought up are troubling. Maybe some form of… shared, or monitored custodianship, transferred when your health can be assured. Maybe as an alternative to going to war with the PRT."
"It'd be nice, but it'd still require the Protectorate to back the f-rrrick -" don't swear in front of the fourteen year old again - "off long enough to go through with it, which I'm honestly not sure they're going to be capable of." I huffed.
"Which makes the negotiations today important." Sarah frowned. "... and I think I was technically invited to them too. So if we all show up…"
"... act as a mediating force…" Carol was still frowning heavily, but was nodding with her sister.
"... then maybe we can stop things from blowing up so much. Or at the very least make it clear we're not affiliated with either side if they do explode."
"Sounds like a plan." I forced a grin. "Now the question is - are we driving there or flying there with my unconscious body?"
"Neither yet." Mark smiled. "First. Power testing."
The eager looks on everyone's faces made me feel like a deer in the headlights.
Special thanks to my lovely co-author and wife, @hellgodsrus, without whom I would never would have been able to take part in creating half my fics, and our girlfriend @SolarFlare for being awesome and also betaing! Also special thanks Prime Betas @Tamahori and @32nd_freeze and @Ganurath for being betas and feeding me validation and feedback between updates!
Enjoy!
Power Play
8.2
-.-.-
Neil produced a map of Brockton Bay and spread it out on the floor after moving the coffee chest out of the way. I recognised a lot of pins from the map the Society had - and wasn't that a depressing thought?
The Empire had definitely spread their infestation a bit since I last knew - then again, it had been a week of war I hadn't even realised was going on - the ABB territory was almost crossed out entirely. Almost. Or split - recoloured. Lots of holes for missing pins.
"Right, so, first. What has been going on with Eden?" He looked between Brandish and Victoria. "Last we heard it, the girls were grounded for the stupid stunt they pulled on opening night. Now Lung's dead, and the Protectorate's acting like they want to turn the city into a quarantine zone."
I felt like I should speak up. I was Lilith's daughter after all, but - I wasn't New Wave. Part of me wanted to make a joke to myself about how it's a family affair and I hadn't married in yet, but it was taking a backseat right now. "We pulled another stupid stunt…" I admitted quietly. "And I killed Lung."
At this point, I think the guys were the only ones unaware - Sarah certainly didn't look surprised, Eric's jaw dropped, and Mark blinked a few times. But Neil - his eyebrows shot up. "Huh. That true?"
"Yes. She triggered." Brandish shifted. "A form of Brute power, based around power nullification. The injuries she inflicted on Lung didn't heal and given her unique physical state…"
"Damn." He rubbed his chin. "New dragon on the block, huh."
"Not until Mom grafts me wings." I sighed longingly.
"Not interested in breathing fire?"
"Nah, I've got combat tentacles, way more versatile."
He laughed quietly. "Shit. No wonder the Protectorate are flipping their lids."
"I'm - I'm pretty sure Mom can't make powered Beasties - my - uh. My me is in that body, I'm only in this one by proxy, but I sort of triggered while… in this body?" I shrugged helplessly.
"You have the corona gemma in both bodies." Amy supplied. "I checked after I got curious about why your power only worked when you were awake."
"So Mom could theoretically make powered Beasties?" I looked at her, but she just shrugged.
"I don't think so. They're mindless." Victoria coughed. "No para-anything other than humans, except maybe the Three Blasphemies, but it's possible that they're like the Endbringers or a tinker product like Blasto's stuff from the Boston Games and just are different. There's products of powers with abilities similar to parahuman abilities, but that's different, that's an extension of the original parahuman ability."
"Does that make me the first para-not-human?" I wondered, tapping my chin in glee.
"I mean, you are human. It's just your body's - I guess you're the equivalent of, um, someone like Headcannon, or Carnage, or some of the theories about the origins of Case 53s."
"V, you can do your nerd shit later. Point is, if Eden can take already nasty-powerful capes, then fit them out in new bodies that get rid of their weaknesses, that's a really dangerous power. Like - imagine if Oni Lee was also a T-Rex with laser guns."
"At least if he was a T-Rex his arms would be too short to pull the pins on his suicide vest." Eric grinned.
Crystal made a face. "You know what I meant."
"So that would increase Eden's provisional threat level. Combined with how hostile the chat with them after everything with Lung and Hookwolf went… yeah, I'm thinking they wanted to negotiate from a position of strength, hence the press conference. A big hit that's clearly connected in placement but not provably so. Hell, it's also probably retaliation for how Eden revealed itself as a thing, which undercut the legal proceedings that were under way to arrest Lilith. Shifts the narrative back towards that." Sarah's face twisted. "And, because you're friendly with both us and Eden…"
"We're a potential information leak, which is how we got caught up in it." Mark ran a hand through his hair. "Fun."
"Honestly the biggest information leak they had was Shadow Stalker." I rolled my eyes. "But, if we go back a moment to powered Beasties -" I grinned, almost all teeth, "Who wants to fight an Endbringer from the other side of the city?"
"... which the Protectorate would know. So they have to have a carrot prepared for the upcoming negotiation." Eric jiggled his leg. "Or to go full wild conspiracy theorist they want Lilith to go utterly nuts and develop the technology a bunch, then arrest her and hand it over to Dragon for duplication and study and stuff."
"That's like, sold powers level stupid as a theory, Eric."
"Dunno how you'd do it, but powers without the traumatic backstory sounds like a helluva deal." I shrugged. "If there's a chance the Protectorate doesn't know about the possibility of powered Beasties -"
"Shadow Stalker would have told them about what happened to you, so…" Victoria grimaced.
"I'm still a unique case? Kinda? If… okay, I guess it's a long shot, but if they don't know, that's a bargaining chip, right?"
"Right, but what are we bargaining for?" Neil folded his arms, which was pretty impressive. "Eden are, at best, a rogue group of tinkers with a tendency to get into big conflicts with major players and a court-dodging criminal as their leader. I'm not saying how the PRT is handling this is great, but…"
"Forced into." I corrected. "They'd be happy to just do the Arena thing but when people keep showing up at your door trying to kill you… like, what are you meant to do, let them?"
"Okay, so they're a beacon for conflict with the major players, my apologies. And with Lung dead, eyes are going to be on them - villains are going to be trying to move in and take them on. Shouldn't our focus be on that?"
"I'm inclined to agree with Neil." Sarah sighed. "Yes, the PRT is shitting on Eden, but there's not a huge amount we can do about that. We can try and keep things civil between the two groups but I think that's a battle that's already been pretty definitively lost."
"I tried to de-escalate things and then they went and decided to be a bunch of backstabbing dickwaffles." I muttered, folding my arms and leaning on Amy. She was warm. And boney. And elbowing me in the ribs until I whined and leaned the other way. "Well - anyways. The bargaining thing. I think Mom would want to bargain to just be left alone to do the Garden of Eden. I'd have to ask to be sure but…"
Brandish's eyes narrowed into an incredibly venomous scowl. "She wants a pardon for her crimes. For abusing you."
"Maybe." I stressed. "It - might be that she doesn't want to bargain at all, and just wants to fix this city's problems as much as she can before she's arrested for it."
"Not exactly a healthy outlook…" Eric grimaced.
I leveled a deadpan glare at him. "If you can name one cape with a healthy outlook on life -"
"That's easy. Legend."
"Kids." Neil held his massive hands up. Like he could probably fit my head in his palm. "Come on, focus please?"
"Sorry, Dad."
"So we're looking at either a Lilith who wants a revolution, or a Lilith that wants to be left alone. I want to say we're looking at the left alone option, but my gut is telling me otherwise."
"You have big guts."
"As one of the few people in town capable of ripping and tearing them, I implore you to please not do that." He smirked at me.
"Hey. Hey Dad." Eric grinned widely. "Focus please."
I - I had no idea what to think. I just sort of realised that this was - this was fun. This was a family team. That Neil and Sarah and Eric and Crystal were all able to joke with each other, laugh and relax despite being in a meeting about what to do about my biotinker mother. And - I wondered why Carol had taken Amy. Why the Dallons were so… cold and estranged compared to this loving family.
I was sure if I spent more time with them, I'd see cracks form in the facade, but the Dallons almost didn't even seem to bother with a facade. Brandish - Carol. Carol had her two modes of stonewall impersonal lawyer, and… and the traumatised girl - young woman - woman? - who never got out of the dark room. Even looking at Sarah, I could see the tension in her shoulders. Just barely there. Hardly anything compared to the way Carol's jaw was clenching, the tendons in her neck standing out with each and every interruption.
Neil seemed almost like me, maybe. Talking for the sake of talking, because it was easier than thinking. Or maybe I was completely wrong and he'd managed to get past his trigger trauma. I wouldn't know without knowing what their trauma was and I only knew Victoria's and Amy's because of how public they'd been, and overhearing the gossip when it came up at school. Victoria got fouled in basketball - second gen triggers were supposedly easier but I held no doubts that it wasn't the foul that did it - it was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Amy's though - Victoria had been shot, I think it had been after she triggered, so she was meant to be invincible, but there was something there and suddenly she wasn't and she was bleeding out -
That didn't need to be a straw to break the camel's back. That was traumatic enough in itself.
Ugh, I needed to focus instead of going all psych major on everyone. Now that I was a cape myself, everything about them seemed so much more interesting. Was I ever going to go back to school? I kind of hoped so - but at the same time… I was a monster. A cape monster.
"Earth to Taylor, come in, Taylor." Victoria was poking me, arm around Amy.
"Huh?" I blinked. "Sorry, got - caught up in my thoughts. What'd I miss?"
"Where'd you drift off?"
"Eric just told Neil to focus."
That brought a snort from the boys in question.
"Right - so, to sum up, we were talking about worst case scenarios." Victoria pointed to the map. "Your Mom gets arrested or - maybe Birdcaged, though… hey, it's okay, it probably won't happen, but we are talking about worst case." She pulled me close and the Amy sandwich was real. "We've got our ideas on what'll happen but - we want to know what you think. Guess that'll be even cleaner since you weren't listening to our ideas?"
"Mph." I pushed her away, more for Amy's sake. She was turning red and not in the fun way. "I guess - I guess if Mom's no longer available, I'm reliant on Amy's help to stay alive. If the Protectorate are unable or unwilling to repair the tank if it ever needs it, I'm going to be stuck spending all my time eating."
"Huh?" Crystal frowned at me. "That's - a bit of a non-sequitur."
"Seriously, how many calories do you think it'll take to run a body that's like - fifteen foot tall, bulletproof - I hope - and - well, you saw me take out Lung, right?"
"Didn't realise it was you at the time, but I saw the video on PHO, yeah..."
"Whenever I'm not in my real body, it's basically suspended in nutrient fluid twenty-four-seven, as far as I can tell. Big things need a lot of food, and food is expensive. At least, in bulk like that. And to top it off, I don't know what vitamins and minerals and stuff I'll need compared to human - not to mention I'm struggling to keep my weight up in this body simply because I never feel hungry. And - I don't know if that's a side effect of my real body being satisfied by the nutrient bath, my implant just not getting something right, or what." I sighed and slumped back into the couch. "I'm still Tinkertech, and it needs maintenance. The Tinkertech used to sustain me will need maintenance. I don't want to take Amy for granted, so in the worst case where the Protectorate is unavailable to unable, Amy is unavailable or unable, my best bet is to either hope an Endbringer kills me before I starve, or pray the Guild is willing to take on a fifteen foot tall nullifier Kaiju and her grocery bill." I gestured in the vague direction of Canada. "Because there's no way in fuck I'm joining the Protectorate after the stunt they just pulled."
"So - there's nothing we can do?" Sarah looked at me with pleading eyes.
"Sorry but - not without an extremely large disposable income you're willing to waste on me. Amy's the only one with powers relevant enough to the case." I sighed and winced. "Other option is I give up living in my human body entirely so I don't do something stupid like forget to take care of my real body because I've never had to before and just drop dead for no reason in the middle of class or something."
"It's kind of like Dragon's agoraphobia and her suits - except she's locked away safe in a Tinker fortress." Crystal nodded.
"And probably has automated systems to take care of her." Neil agreed with a sigh, folding his arms. "I could try calling them, see if they're interested should the scenario play out like that, if you'd like."
"I -" I bit my lip. "Maybe? I still feel an obligation to try to do something to help the city I grew up in, and, well, all my friends are here." And girlfriend-but-not Amy. No, just good friends with benefits. Occasional benefits.
"Well, the offer is there if you ever want me to contact them on your behalf." Neil nodded with a gentle smile. I was surprised he could, but - then again, Victoria had applied too, once? Maybe they just had an open number for application.
"Perhaps." Carol frowned. "Perhaps we can reach a compromise with Lilith. She was willing to release you into our custody only a few days ago. But the issues of maintenance and health you've brought up are troubling. Maybe some form of… shared, or monitored custodianship, transferred when your health can be assured. Maybe as an alternative to going to war with the PRT."
"It'd be nice, but it'd still require the Protectorate to back the f-rrrick -" don't swear in front of the fourteen year old again - "off long enough to go through with it, which I'm honestly not sure they're going to be capable of." I huffed.
"Which makes the negotiations today important." Sarah frowned. "... and I think I was technically invited to them too. So if we all show up…"
"... act as a mediating force…" Carol was still frowning heavily, but was nodding with her sister.
"... then maybe we can stop things from blowing up so much. Or at the very least make it clear we're not affiliated with either side if they do explode."
"Sounds like a plan." I forced a grin. "Now the question is - are we driving there or flying there with my unconscious body?"
"Neither yet." Mark smiled. "First. Power testing."
The eager looks on everyone's faces made me feel like a deer in the headlights.
Last edited:
- Location
- Earth, probably.
- Pronouns
- None/Any
Man, this was a really nice chapter that managed to do nothing to detract from my worries that this will end in fire and blood... again. I'm glad that Taylor's getting along with the extended New Wave family, though.
SolarFlare
(Verified Cape)
- Location
- Brockton Bay, USA
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The fire already happened, and Flare bled a lot.
Lab_Accident
A 2D 1D4
- Location
- Your dreams
Minor correction, Trump power. Will leave a better review later. Today has been a sucky day, thank you for the update.
Nothing important happened this chapter, but I felt like it was a good setup chapter that made explicit a lot of the issues that might be coming soon should diplomacy continue to fail.
"made me feel"
- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
"I set the bar too low, that's on me"
I mean, it's technically a Trump power, but it expresses as a Brute / Striker power in automatically nullifying at touch range, including making her attacks linger or punch through Brute ratings. Now whether ranged attacks are nullified brings us to Power Testing to see if ranged power projections are covered too. In theory she might be able to tank Purity's beam unless she gets creative (IE targeting the street in front of her and sending shrapnel up at Taylor)
Last edited:
Kadath
Sinnamon Roll
- Location
- Somewhere
New entry for the shipping wall:
Monster (S)layers (Taylor x Dragon)
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Alright, I might be actually very fucking biased against wildbow's original work, because.
First a Butcher!Taylor, now this.
Why do I think this is still more wholesome than Worm.
I've read only up to 7.6, and you know. Thoughts of suicide, attempts of suicide, kidnapping, torture, broken people bonding to each other to a frankly unhealthy degree, gaslighting, identity crisis, fucking Shadow Stalker and Emma Being even more fucked up than in canon ( honestly, because canon couldn't spare that much time on them ).
And I still think this is a more hopeful and optimistic work than Worm.
I might actually be... Worm-ist?
*coughs*
Anyway. Shit's pretty fucked, but it's fucked beautifully.
I'm here for the ride on the hellmurder train all the way down... just as soon as I get to sleep and have some free time to continue reading.
Well, maybe another chapter before sleep.
First a Butcher!Taylor, now this.
Why do I think this is still more wholesome than Worm.
I've read only up to 7.6, and you know. Thoughts of suicide, attempts of suicide, kidnapping, torture, broken people bonding to each other to a frankly unhealthy degree, gaslighting, identity crisis, fucking Shadow Stalker and Emma Being even more fucked up than in canon ( honestly, because canon couldn't spare that much time on them ).
And I still think this is a more hopeful and optimistic work than Worm.
I might actually be... Worm-ist?
*coughs*
Anyway. Shit's pretty fucked, but it's fucked beautifully.
I'm here for the ride on the hellmurder train all the way down... just as soon as I get to sleep and have some free time to continue reading.
Well, maybe another chapter before sleep.
WhoAmEye
Bunker-Dwelling Cryptid
- Location
- Vault Birb
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think that's in how the story is told. Worm itself was saturated with a feeling of 'it gets worse' and every time it looked like it was about to get better, it took a hard dive in the other direction. I remember reading it at times wondering 'how the fuck is he going to top this', especially when we got to the Golden Morning, the endgame, the literal godling is the bad guy now and it's like - how the hell are there still three fucking arcs to go?
Meanwhile, here, Taylor is embracing her useless lesbianism and avoiding thinking about her problems in favour of boobs.
I am very very glad you're enjoying it!
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Was rereading this with fresh knowledge to figure out what I feel about the whole fastercluck and
Can I just say that Adam "I never asked for this" Jensen teaching World Affairs is fucking hilarious?
Oh, oh, I'd bet he's a retired PRT captain of security who had to undergo surgery after some gang or another bombed the Detroit branch
A Protectorate cape tinker with specialization in cybernetics offered to upgrade him, but he refused
Armsmaster tangentially knows about him and is secretly jealous of his much cooler beard
Deus Ex/Worm crossover when?
WhoAmEye
Bunker-Dwelling Cryptid
- Location
- Vault Birb
- Pronouns
- She/Her
HALLEFUCKINGLUJAH SOMEONE FINALLY NOTICED
I've been waiting for so long for someone to get that reference I forgot about it until you brought it up again
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Nobody did? Really?
I mean, I noticed it in the earlier chapter when Taylor mused he had scars, was pretty sympathetic to her and not a creep and didn't say things like "just call him Mr. J or Adam", but I didn't comment on it then, because I thought someone already pointed it out, and now I just felt like really highlighting the fact he teaches World Affairs.
Like, so much potential for hilarity. Maybe he's secretly a conspiracy theorist who digs up dirt on Cauldron and Contessa lets him just to fuck with him as a hobby. Maybe he has a crazy theory that Endbringers are created by an unknown biotinker with an over 9000 threat rating. Maybe he's secretly here to keep an eye on Wards and write reports on any possible E88 sympathizers. Who knows!
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Even if you assume someone's already commented on something, I promise that adding another pov to the pile is not going tobe something I'm going to dislike or throw away. I write for the reactions to my writing after all
Oh, btw, what's this historical lesbian coming of age story that I keep reading references about?
I thought Beowulf for a second, but there's nothing like that in there? Or is there? Maybe I should reread it, lol?
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Ah, I figured it was "Annie on my mind", when I couldn't find the name drop.
Edit: just found it by scrolling down the threadmarked post.
Last edited:
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Wha. Is that just Taylor being bad at history?
I mean, WWI wasn't about that, everyone on both sides was a racist imperialistic asshole. Just somehow less so than the Third Reich.
WhoAmEye
Bunker-Dwelling Cryptid
- Location
- Vault Birb
- Pronouns
- She/Her
She was referring to the Civil War, which I'm pretty sure was also about racism at one point?
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Yes yes.
Ah, the Civil War. Totally forgot about it.
*insert a culturally insensitive remark about significance of the American Civil War to the world at large here*
Well, tbh, when I'm thinking about the Civil War, I'm thinking more about the Russian Revolution.
Provincialism and all.
Power Play 8.3
WhoAmEye
Bunker-Dwelling Cryptid
- Location
- Vault Birb
- Pronouns
- She/Her
EXPLOSIONS!
Special thanks to my lovely co-author and wife, @hellgodsrus, without whom I would never would have been able to take part in creating half my fics, and our girlfriend @SolarFlare for being awesome and also betaing! Also special thanks Prime Betas @Tamahori and @32nd_freeze and @Ganurath for being betas and feeding me validation and feedback between updates!
Enjoy!
Power Play
8.3
-.-.-
The backyard was rather spacious once things like the swing-seat had been moved out of the way. "So is this the part where I just stand there and repeatedly yell 'HIT ME' in an increasingly gravelly voice like that one dude from that movie?"
"Of course not," said Carol, still standing on the patio. "We'll test non-destructive powers first. Amelia? You've been in contact with both Taylor and Victoria. Can you still sense Victoria while touching Taylor?"
"Yes. Taylor's… not there, she's like a… hole, or a lack, I guess. I can feel the bacteria on her skin, though." Amy shrugged. "She turns off Crystal's power by touch though - or I guess turns it off when it's trying to act on her? Flight and all. Same happened to Victoria when she tried to carry Taylor into the lounge."
"I thought I would have just registered as something… I dunno, inorganic, or dead, to you?" I shrugged, twisting around to watch Crystal and Eric play a game of tag that turned into slap fighting in the air.
"Dead and inorganic things... I can feel the bacteria as a big string because it's all so close. With you, there's none of that." Amy tilted her head. "It's like… I can get a vague outline of something based on the bacteria clinging to it for a few centimeters, if it's inorganic. With you, I don't. If that makes sense."
"So the nullification is personal range."
"Like Victoria's forcefield, rather than mine." Crystal shrugged. "Okay."
"In the same area, though, places she's…" Amy screwed up her face, looking for the words. "Modified? Damaged? They're similarly dead zones. I still can't feel the bruise she left on Victoria's shoulder when we all chased Crystal down the stairs."
"What about the one on my arm from where I banged it on the bannister?" Crystal hop-floated over. "Like, okay - first degree of separation injuries, but what about second?"
Amy shrugged. "I can see it."
"So - things at one degree of separation outgoing. Incoming as well? Uhhh, Dad? Basketball time?"
"Basketball time," Neil said cheerfully, then whipped an orange blur at my head.
"I do not like the - AH!" I ducked but wasn't fast enough, the orange blur slamming into my face - thank fuck I didn't need glasses - and - I braced myself for being bowled over by it but it didn't? It just bounced off and I was left flailing and unbalanced because it was supposed to move me but it didn't and I landed on my ass anyway. "What the hell?!" I shouted, clambering to my feet again, stalking forward and grabbing the basketball.
"Neil!"
"What?" He grinned, innocently.
Carol's neck was taught and her hands were clenched by her sides. "If you were wrong - "
"You're a Brute, right?" I asked, both hands on the ball behind my head.
"I threw it barely above normal human speeds. And yes, I'm a Brute."
I flung the ball at his face and it bounced off with a very satisfying basketball-bouncing noise, leaving him reeling like someone who expected not to be moved but was. But he was laughing, regardless. "Hey, nice shot!"
"Uh, honey?" Sarah frowned and floated closer, touching under his lip. "You're bleeding."
His finger followed hers and came away crimson. "Oh. Oh, wow." He looked at me, almost in amazement. "Hey, how do you feel about needles?"
I cringed and flinched away. "No."
He chuckled and shook his head. "I don't think anyone's managed to draw blood from me in quite some time. If it weren't for Amy, I wouldn't even know my blood type."
"And you still probably can't remember from the last time I told you." Amy glared in his general direction.
"I don't remember the detailed stuff, but I remember the letter bits." He shrugged, genially. "What about second order effects? From Lung I'm guessing directly controlled pyrokinetic fire wouldn't affect you."
"But fires set by Lung after his death did seem to, given the burns." Victoria bit her lip. "Um, Crys or Aunt Sarah - "
"If you're going to ask what I think you're going to ask, please don't do it on the lawn. That flowerbed there has needed tidying for a while though." Mark ran a hand through his hair.
"Right. Okay." Victoria shot me a brief smile. "Uh, Taylor, mind standing next to that flowerbed?"
"If this burns my clothes off…" I grumbled, but trudged over to the garden's edge, ready to cover myself if something went wrong. "Wait, are you planning on setting me on fire?" Had to make sure before something happened and maybe it worked.
"No! Definitely not!"
"Yeah, pretty sure V just wants me to blast a hole at your feet and like, see if you can walk on the dirt that's not there since the dirt only got blasted away because of my lasers." Crystal raised a hand. "Then, presumably, we'll try blasting the dirt out from under you directly?"
"... okay…" I shuffled awkwardly, pulling my hands away from myself. "I'm not sure if I can walk on air - Lung did sort of toss me into a building at one point, I think."
"Better to be sure." Mark nodded. "We've learned that when it comes to powers, assuming anything is… not good."
"And at least this is friendlier than the North-East Testing facility."
All the other teens winced at what Amy had muttered. The adults all looked varying things - Mark was just kinda tired looking, but his eyes narrowed a little, Carol looked like she'd bitten into the sourest of all the lemons she'd been biting into, Neil's face shifted from smiling to scowling in an instant, and Sarah just rubbed at one of her eyes and sighed.
"No love lost between New Wave and the PRT, huh?" I tried, but it fell flat, even to my own ears.
"Usually when someone uses the phrase 'for science' you're meant to be like 'no, Steve, calm down', not 'no, Steve, you've traumatised these kids enough'." Eric floated there angrily. Like a hovering blue shell.
"That's a little unfair." Victoria rubbed her head. "But only a little. One of the things they test for are psychological triggers, things that might - set a parahuman off, that might upset them or need to be looked out for, things like sociopathic tendencies or reduced empathy. They're generally pretty subtle, but it's still. Unfun."
"... they seriously take people with incredibly dangerous powers, presumably having recently suffered massive trauma, and deliberately poke them in the issues. Just to make sure I've got this right." The thought of them doing that to Amy was enough to make me want to go down there myself and smack some heads.
"It's more complicated than that." Brandish's lemon sucking face was sucking harder than ever. "Some parahumans - their powers, or trigger events, change their emotional responses. They also need a basic psychological profile to understand the cape in question's response to trauma. If an individual, say, is utterly paralysed with fright by the sight of fire, sending them to assist in search and rescue in a burning building is unideal."
"The problem is…" Sarah tilted her head back. "That the guidelines they implement are advisory. Especially in problem departments, like East-North-East, aka here. So all the trauma of the testing happens, they're told it's so they don't have to go through it again…"
"And then the people in charge put them into those situations anyway, because they're understaffed or because some asshole whitebread desk jockey thinks they know better than a team of trained psychologists." Crystal's mouth was set.
"Gotta fucking wonder why the PRT staff mortality rate isn't higher if that's the attitude they take with walking traumatised WMD's." I scowled, arms crossed over my chest. "I wanna go on a rampage through the facility just hearing about it."
"Don't." Carol stared at me with a look almost as intense as her lemon.
"I won't. But I want to." I grumbled. "You guys are friends. They hurt my friends, I wanna hurt them."
"It's all just cheap tricks and chicanery for the most part." Amy folded her arms. "The thing they tried with me didn't work at all."
"And it was for a reason. Mostly it's to do with how you react to people being, uh. Hurt because of you. Or scared of your powers." Victoria winced. "Anyway! Dirt exploding time!"
"Did she punch them?"
"It is dirt exploding time now."
"Fiiiiiine." I rolled my eyes. I hoped Amy punched someone, but - did I really want that or was it just a heat of the moment 'I don't like these people and hope they got some karma' thing? "Hit me."
Crystal made a face and extended a hand. A bolt of brilliant red energy seared from her palm into the dirt in front of me, making me jump and carving a shallow trench just in front of my shoes.
"Uh, Taylor -"
"Look, it's one thing knowing you're immune to powers, another thing entirely when they are right there." I dipped my toe into the trench. Pokey poke. "Yeah, no air-walking for me - oh, hey, do you know any hydrokinetics? Maybe I could do the Jesus thing!"
"Or maybe your power would think the water they were controlling wasn't there at all." Crystal re-angled her hand. "Okay, time to blast out from under your feet. Hold still."
"Yeah… that's more likely." I wrapped my arms around myself and ducked my head. Just waiting… waiting… I opened my eyes and peeked. "Um. Are you…"
Crystal was frowning and waving her hand like she was trying to summon a laser.
Eric was beside himself laughing. "Don't worry, Crystal, I heard it happens to one in five- oof!" The lasers apparently still worked on him, at any rate.
"I guess… if the power would, uh. I dunno how that works." Victoria scratched at her chin. "That's one of the advantages of having testing equipment and like, big scanners and shit rather than just a backyard, I guess."
"If I could try?" Mark stepped forward, holding a tiny spinning seed of light cradled in one hand. "Just concussive force, so even if Taylor is effected, one of you could catch her - "
"Except strength and flight don't work while we're touching her."
Neil shrugged, and jogged round behind me. "I'll stand ready. I think I'm strong enough even without powers to handle a launched person."
"Were you that big before you had powers?" My eyebrows shot up.
"Eh." He waved a hand. "It's complicated, and given how physiological changes from powers work, I doubt you'll fall through my torso. I was always big, but I didn't stop growing until twenty five, at least."
"Christ, what did your parents feed you?" I mumbled, turning back to face Mark.
Neil's smile was a little more forced. "Not a lot, actually. Anyway." Ah. Shit. I was hoping he'd reply with a joke about 'smaller children', but - I apparently loved stepping on social landmines.
"Right." Mark carefully put the seed of light at my feet, then jogged backwards. The light bubbled and - whoomph!
Arms flailing, I blinked a few times, stumbled, and got my balance back. I was… standing sort of in a crater? Small crater, like a paddling pool for toddlers but filled with loose dirt and clumps of grass. "So, uh - whoa -" I windmilled a little more as dirt shifted under my foot and ended up sitting on the edge. "Didn't feel anything when I fell, just - suddenly there and off balance. Did that thing look like a snowflake to anyone else?"
"Yeah it was uh. It kinda looked like you just clipped into the ground."
"You know about clipping, uncle Mark?"
"I'm not completely without hobbies." He glared gently at Eric. "I'm guessing no-one else saw anything because of the light?"
Amy lowered her arm from where it was firmly over her eyes. "Nope."
"What light?" I asked, frowning. "I thought you said it was just concussive?"
"There's always some light too."
"Some light he says." Aunt Sarah elbowed Mark gently. "Generally Mark's power scales from camera flash to ouch in terms of light output."
"Not called Flashbang for nothing."
"I… didn't notice anything?" I frowned. "Like looking at Lung, yester- fuck, was it really just last night?" I sighed and shook my head. "So, just to be clear - the orbs he makes. They look like balls of light for everyone else, yeah? Not the cool spinning snowflake construct I see?"
"You can see through light based powers?" Victoria grinned with a raised eyebrow and started smirking. "Meeting Narwhal in person's going to be fun."
I - and likely everyone else - already knew what Narwhal looked like, given how - how skintight those forcefields were, and I hadn't really stopped to think about her since realising I was gay, and now my face felt like a red version of the Beacons of Gondor.
"Hey, you can see this, right?" Crystal held her hand up like she was presenting something, but there was nothing there.
"No!" I cried out, panicked. There were a few capes that used power-generated shields for costumes, right? Was I going to see a bunch of naked capes at the next big gathering - naked Narwhal holding up Amy argh no brain not now!
Eric snickered. "She's not generating a forcefield yet."
"No, I definitely am." Crystal winked, obnoxiously.
"Fine then. Can you see this?" Eric held out his hand.
"No!" I almost shrieked, just before Crystal gently fell out of the sky laughing and clutching her guts.
"Stop teasing her." Aunt Sarah scolded them both, but I saw her trying not to smile. Traitor! "Here." A gossamer-thin bubble sprouted around her arm, shimmering and golden.
"Yes! Yes, I can see it! Thank fuck!" I threw my hands up in the air in victory. "Now I don't have to think about -" I was sitting in front of New Wave do NOT admit anything, Taylor! " - stuff. That. Shut up." I hid my face in my hands.
"You useless lesbian." Victoria cackled as she landed next to me. "Was Tay-lor thinking about Narwhal and Shieldmaiden doing kissy-kisses?"
I paused in my embarrassed suffering to look up. "Who's Shieldmaiden?" Is she hot? No, bad Taylor, bad lesbian brain!
"European vigilante. Wears this kinda hard-light armour. Victoria was obsessed with her." Aunt Sarah grinned.
I even saw a twitch of the lips from Brandish. "If I recall, Victoria's exact words on the subject were, 'I hope I get a really cool power like Shieldmaiden, I want to be an awesome paladin like she is and have you heard her talk, she's so eloquent, wow'."
"Moooom!"
"Join me in the pit of suffering." I pulled her legs out from under her so she was sitting next to me and put an arm around her shoulders. "Freshly dug."
"We should probably finish up testing if we want to make it to Eden on time for the thing…" Amy grumbled quietly, looking away from us.
"Amy's right, what's next on power testing?" I called, getting everyone's attention from sharing embarrassing stories about each other - or the kids. Just the kids, really.
"I think we've covered pretty much everything we can do safely." Neil scratched at his head. "Carol?"
"I'm not risking injury by using my offensive power on her. But, I suppose - in terms of power interactions…" She sighed. "Top corner?"
"Top corner."
Victoria scrambled back and away from me. "Uh - "
And then Brandish was an orb.
An orb of light with fire roiling inside it - it barely had time to drop before Neil was thundering towards it, moving fast over the ground in long bounding strides, foot coming up in a perfect soccer kick that launched the orb right at me.
I shrieked and held up my arms as quickly as I could - but it wasn't quick enough, the ball smashed into my nose but it wasn't hard it was soft and also yelling as I was thrown onto my back - or had I reacted and flung myself? - and there was a pressure on my face and I couldn't breath, only flail and kick at air and my arms were pinned by knees -
"I apparently am knocked out of my form by contact with Taylor," came a somewhat strained voice above me. "Victoria, could you help me up, please?"
The weight was lifted off and I took a deep heaving breath, probably a bit exaggerated as I sat up.
Crystal was snickering. "I thought you said she had gills, Ames?"
What would that have to do with -
I froze. Twisted around to see where Brandish was lying in the grass, curled slightly around herself, hands between her clenched legs like someone - someone had headbutted her in the crotch.
"I -" I cringed and made a gurgling sound. "Sorry."
"Hey, uh, Amy, could you -" Victoria started, sounding worried, before Amy cut her off.
"Taylor-inflicted. No can do."
Carol let out a very painful sounding groan into the grass. "I suppose. That that is my fault."
"You did kind of launch yourself at top speed, sis." Aunt Sarah knelt down next to her and patted her back. "Though, uh. Neil? The aiming was also probably an issue."
"I mean, it's not like I know what part's which when she's a morphball."
"I - I couldn't tell either, if that makes a difference." I was still staring at Brandish, wide-eyed. Was I going to get in trouble for that? Was Amy still going to want to kiss me after I had her adopted mother's crotch on my face? Should I really be thinking about that right now? I had a sneaking suspicion the answer to all of those questions was a big resounding no.
Maybe Mom has some anti-bruising gel she could offer? Would that even work given I'm a nullifier? Is bruise cream even safe to use there? So many inappropriate questions, so few appropriate answers.
"So. Meeting's at three, right?" Victoria coughed. Awkwardly looking anywhere but her family. I kind of wanted to see what Brandish turning into a morph-ball looked like under high-speed, if she just vanished, or folded, or what. "We should, uh. Probably get changed."
"Right," coughed Carol, then hauled herself to her feet. "I'll be upstairs. If we have any time estimate on how long before Amelia can repair Taylor-inflicted damage, it would be appreciated."
Vicky and Amy looked at each other, before Victoria floated over and held out her hand. Amy shook her head. "So far, looks like at least an hour and a half." Had it been that long already? "I suspect it might not wear off." She frowned. "That's… going to be really bad if it doesn't wear off even after naturally healing."
"You can't change something to help the body naturally fix it faster itself?" I tilted my head, curious.
"Uh." Amy blinked a few times. "Victoria? Do you mind being a test subject?"
"Sure."
A few moments of contact passed, Victoria pulling the neck of her shirt to the side so we could all see her bruised shoulder. It wasn't bad-looking yet, but - well, it was purple. Purple and sensitive looking.
"Okay…" Amy frowned, tilted her head, expression changing a few times. "... this is… not fun."
"What's happening?"
"It's like trying to hit a precise target, and only the target, but the only weapon you have is a rocket launcher. A napalm-loaded rocket launcher. I can help, but everything in the quarantine zone is hit and if I dump a load of stuff in the intake, it might help, but unless I'm there to regulate the outtake flow - enzymes - ugh." She shook her hand out. "Okay, I think. I think I'm just going to let it be for now."
"Can't soften nerves in the area?" I winced.
"If I had access to the nerve endings, I could. So unless you want that entire area numb…" she looked over at Carol with a grimace.
"Could you undo it before we leave?"
"Easily."
"Please."
Once the exchange was over and Carol managed to walk back inside under her own power unassisted, Victoria looked to me with a raised eyebrow. Everyone else's attention was on each other or getting inside to change. "So. The whole team, huh?"
I had the immediate urge to do something to establish dominance, so I set my shoulders, looked her straight in the eye, and in a deep, serious voice that made her shiver, I said:
"The whole damn team."
Special thanks to my lovely co-author and wife, @hellgodsrus, without whom I would never would have been able to take part in creating half my fics, and our girlfriend @SolarFlare for being awesome and also betaing! Also special thanks Prime Betas @Tamahori and @32nd_freeze and @Ganurath for being betas and feeding me validation and feedback between updates!
Enjoy!
Power Play
8.3
-.-.-
The backyard was rather spacious once things like the swing-seat had been moved out of the way. "So is this the part where I just stand there and repeatedly yell 'HIT ME' in an increasingly gravelly voice like that one dude from that movie?"
"Of course not," said Carol, still standing on the patio. "We'll test non-destructive powers first. Amelia? You've been in contact with both Taylor and Victoria. Can you still sense Victoria while touching Taylor?"
"Yes. Taylor's… not there, she's like a… hole, or a lack, I guess. I can feel the bacteria on her skin, though." Amy shrugged. "She turns off Crystal's power by touch though - or I guess turns it off when it's trying to act on her? Flight and all. Same happened to Victoria when she tried to carry Taylor into the lounge."
"I thought I would have just registered as something… I dunno, inorganic, or dead, to you?" I shrugged, twisting around to watch Crystal and Eric play a game of tag that turned into slap fighting in the air.
"Dead and inorganic things... I can feel the bacteria as a big string because it's all so close. With you, there's none of that." Amy tilted her head. "It's like… I can get a vague outline of something based on the bacteria clinging to it for a few centimeters, if it's inorganic. With you, I don't. If that makes sense."
"So the nullification is personal range."
"Like Victoria's forcefield, rather than mine." Crystal shrugged. "Okay."
"In the same area, though, places she's…" Amy screwed up her face, looking for the words. "Modified? Damaged? They're similarly dead zones. I still can't feel the bruise she left on Victoria's shoulder when we all chased Crystal down the stairs."
"What about the one on my arm from where I banged it on the bannister?" Crystal hop-floated over. "Like, okay - first degree of separation injuries, but what about second?"
Amy shrugged. "I can see it."
"So - things at one degree of separation outgoing. Incoming as well? Uhhh, Dad? Basketball time?"
"Basketball time," Neil said cheerfully, then whipped an orange blur at my head.
"I do not like the - AH!" I ducked but wasn't fast enough, the orange blur slamming into my face - thank fuck I didn't need glasses - and - I braced myself for being bowled over by it but it didn't? It just bounced off and I was left flailing and unbalanced because it was supposed to move me but it didn't and I landed on my ass anyway. "What the hell?!" I shouted, clambering to my feet again, stalking forward and grabbing the basketball.
"Neil!"
"What?" He grinned, innocently.
Carol's neck was taught and her hands were clenched by her sides. "If you were wrong - "
"You're a Brute, right?" I asked, both hands on the ball behind my head.
"I threw it barely above normal human speeds. And yes, I'm a Brute."
I flung the ball at his face and it bounced off with a very satisfying basketball-bouncing noise, leaving him reeling like someone who expected not to be moved but was. But he was laughing, regardless. "Hey, nice shot!"
"Uh, honey?" Sarah frowned and floated closer, touching under his lip. "You're bleeding."
His finger followed hers and came away crimson. "Oh. Oh, wow." He looked at me, almost in amazement. "Hey, how do you feel about needles?"
I cringed and flinched away. "No."
He chuckled and shook his head. "I don't think anyone's managed to draw blood from me in quite some time. If it weren't for Amy, I wouldn't even know my blood type."
"And you still probably can't remember from the last time I told you." Amy glared in his general direction.
"I don't remember the detailed stuff, but I remember the letter bits." He shrugged, genially. "What about second order effects? From Lung I'm guessing directly controlled pyrokinetic fire wouldn't affect you."
"But fires set by Lung after his death did seem to, given the burns." Victoria bit her lip. "Um, Crys or Aunt Sarah - "
"If you're going to ask what I think you're going to ask, please don't do it on the lawn. That flowerbed there has needed tidying for a while though." Mark ran a hand through his hair.
"Right. Okay." Victoria shot me a brief smile. "Uh, Taylor, mind standing next to that flowerbed?"
"If this burns my clothes off…" I grumbled, but trudged over to the garden's edge, ready to cover myself if something went wrong. "Wait, are you planning on setting me on fire?" Had to make sure before something happened and maybe it worked.
"No! Definitely not!"
"Yeah, pretty sure V just wants me to blast a hole at your feet and like, see if you can walk on the dirt that's not there since the dirt only got blasted away because of my lasers." Crystal raised a hand. "Then, presumably, we'll try blasting the dirt out from under you directly?"
"... okay…" I shuffled awkwardly, pulling my hands away from myself. "I'm not sure if I can walk on air - Lung did sort of toss me into a building at one point, I think."
"Better to be sure." Mark nodded. "We've learned that when it comes to powers, assuming anything is… not good."
"And at least this is friendlier than the North-East Testing facility."
All the other teens winced at what Amy had muttered. The adults all looked varying things - Mark was just kinda tired looking, but his eyes narrowed a little, Carol looked like she'd bitten into the sourest of all the lemons she'd been biting into, Neil's face shifted from smiling to scowling in an instant, and Sarah just rubbed at one of her eyes and sighed.
"No love lost between New Wave and the PRT, huh?" I tried, but it fell flat, even to my own ears.
"Usually when someone uses the phrase 'for science' you're meant to be like 'no, Steve, calm down', not 'no, Steve, you've traumatised these kids enough'." Eric floated there angrily. Like a hovering blue shell.
"That's a little unfair." Victoria rubbed her head. "But only a little. One of the things they test for are psychological triggers, things that might - set a parahuman off, that might upset them or need to be looked out for, things like sociopathic tendencies or reduced empathy. They're generally pretty subtle, but it's still. Unfun."
"... they seriously take people with incredibly dangerous powers, presumably having recently suffered massive trauma, and deliberately poke them in the issues. Just to make sure I've got this right." The thought of them doing that to Amy was enough to make me want to go down there myself and smack some heads.
"It's more complicated than that." Brandish's lemon sucking face was sucking harder than ever. "Some parahumans - their powers, or trigger events, change their emotional responses. They also need a basic psychological profile to understand the cape in question's response to trauma. If an individual, say, is utterly paralysed with fright by the sight of fire, sending them to assist in search and rescue in a burning building is unideal."
"The problem is…" Sarah tilted her head back. "That the guidelines they implement are advisory. Especially in problem departments, like East-North-East, aka here. So all the trauma of the testing happens, they're told it's so they don't have to go through it again…"
"And then the people in charge put them into those situations anyway, because they're understaffed or because some asshole whitebread desk jockey thinks they know better than a team of trained psychologists." Crystal's mouth was set.
"Gotta fucking wonder why the PRT staff mortality rate isn't higher if that's the attitude they take with walking traumatised WMD's." I scowled, arms crossed over my chest. "I wanna go on a rampage through the facility just hearing about it."
"Don't." Carol stared at me with a look almost as intense as her lemon.
"I won't. But I want to." I grumbled. "You guys are friends. They hurt my friends, I wanna hurt them."
"It's all just cheap tricks and chicanery for the most part." Amy folded her arms. "The thing they tried with me didn't work at all."
"And it was for a reason. Mostly it's to do with how you react to people being, uh. Hurt because of you. Or scared of your powers." Victoria winced. "Anyway! Dirt exploding time!"
"Did she punch them?"
"It is dirt exploding time now."
"Fiiiiiine." I rolled my eyes. I hoped Amy punched someone, but - did I really want that or was it just a heat of the moment 'I don't like these people and hope they got some karma' thing? "Hit me."
Crystal made a face and extended a hand. A bolt of brilliant red energy seared from her palm into the dirt in front of me, making me jump and carving a shallow trench just in front of my shoes.
"Uh, Taylor -"
"Look, it's one thing knowing you're immune to powers, another thing entirely when they are right there." I dipped my toe into the trench. Pokey poke. "Yeah, no air-walking for me - oh, hey, do you know any hydrokinetics? Maybe I could do the Jesus thing!"
"Or maybe your power would think the water they were controlling wasn't there at all." Crystal re-angled her hand. "Okay, time to blast out from under your feet. Hold still."
"Yeah… that's more likely." I wrapped my arms around myself and ducked my head. Just waiting… waiting… I opened my eyes and peeked. "Um. Are you…"
Crystal was frowning and waving her hand like she was trying to summon a laser.
Eric was beside himself laughing. "Don't worry, Crystal, I heard it happens to one in five- oof!" The lasers apparently still worked on him, at any rate.
"I guess… if the power would, uh. I dunno how that works." Victoria scratched at her chin. "That's one of the advantages of having testing equipment and like, big scanners and shit rather than just a backyard, I guess."
"If I could try?" Mark stepped forward, holding a tiny spinning seed of light cradled in one hand. "Just concussive force, so even if Taylor is effected, one of you could catch her - "
"Except strength and flight don't work while we're touching her."
Neil shrugged, and jogged round behind me. "I'll stand ready. I think I'm strong enough even without powers to handle a launched person."
"Were you that big before you had powers?" My eyebrows shot up.
"Eh." He waved a hand. "It's complicated, and given how physiological changes from powers work, I doubt you'll fall through my torso. I was always big, but I didn't stop growing until twenty five, at least."
"Christ, what did your parents feed you?" I mumbled, turning back to face Mark.
Neil's smile was a little more forced. "Not a lot, actually. Anyway." Ah. Shit. I was hoping he'd reply with a joke about 'smaller children', but - I apparently loved stepping on social landmines.
"Right." Mark carefully put the seed of light at my feet, then jogged backwards. The light bubbled and - whoomph!
Arms flailing, I blinked a few times, stumbled, and got my balance back. I was… standing sort of in a crater? Small crater, like a paddling pool for toddlers but filled with loose dirt and clumps of grass. "So, uh - whoa -" I windmilled a little more as dirt shifted under my foot and ended up sitting on the edge. "Didn't feel anything when I fell, just - suddenly there and off balance. Did that thing look like a snowflake to anyone else?"
"Yeah it was uh. It kinda looked like you just clipped into the ground."
"You know about clipping, uncle Mark?"
"I'm not completely without hobbies." He glared gently at Eric. "I'm guessing no-one else saw anything because of the light?"
Amy lowered her arm from where it was firmly over her eyes. "Nope."
"What light?" I asked, frowning. "I thought you said it was just concussive?"
"There's always some light too."
"Some light he says." Aunt Sarah elbowed Mark gently. "Generally Mark's power scales from camera flash to ouch in terms of light output."
"Not called Flashbang for nothing."
"I… didn't notice anything?" I frowned. "Like looking at Lung, yester- fuck, was it really just last night?" I sighed and shook my head. "So, just to be clear - the orbs he makes. They look like balls of light for everyone else, yeah? Not the cool spinning snowflake construct I see?"
"You can see through light based powers?" Victoria grinned with a raised eyebrow and started smirking. "Meeting Narwhal in person's going to be fun."
I - and likely everyone else - already knew what Narwhal looked like, given how - how skintight those forcefields were, and I hadn't really stopped to think about her since realising I was gay, and now my face felt like a red version of the Beacons of Gondor.
"Hey, you can see this, right?" Crystal held her hand up like she was presenting something, but there was nothing there.
"No!" I cried out, panicked. There were a few capes that used power-generated shields for costumes, right? Was I going to see a bunch of naked capes at the next big gathering - naked Narwhal holding up Amy argh no brain not now!
Eric snickered. "She's not generating a forcefield yet."
"No, I definitely am." Crystal winked, obnoxiously.
"Fine then. Can you see this?" Eric held out his hand.
"No!" I almost shrieked, just before Crystal gently fell out of the sky laughing and clutching her guts.
"Stop teasing her." Aunt Sarah scolded them both, but I saw her trying not to smile. Traitor! "Here." A gossamer-thin bubble sprouted around her arm, shimmering and golden.
"Yes! Yes, I can see it! Thank fuck!" I threw my hands up in the air in victory. "Now I don't have to think about -" I was sitting in front of New Wave do NOT admit anything, Taylor! " - stuff. That. Shut up." I hid my face in my hands.
"You useless lesbian." Victoria cackled as she landed next to me. "Was Tay-lor thinking about Narwhal and Shieldmaiden doing kissy-kisses?"
I paused in my embarrassed suffering to look up. "Who's Shieldmaiden?" Is she hot? No, bad Taylor, bad lesbian brain!
"European vigilante. Wears this kinda hard-light armour. Victoria was obsessed with her." Aunt Sarah grinned.
I even saw a twitch of the lips from Brandish. "If I recall, Victoria's exact words on the subject were, 'I hope I get a really cool power like Shieldmaiden, I want to be an awesome paladin like she is and have you heard her talk, she's so eloquent, wow'."
"Moooom!"
"Join me in the pit of suffering." I pulled her legs out from under her so she was sitting next to me and put an arm around her shoulders. "Freshly dug."
"We should probably finish up testing if we want to make it to Eden on time for the thing…" Amy grumbled quietly, looking away from us.
"Amy's right, what's next on power testing?" I called, getting everyone's attention from sharing embarrassing stories about each other - or the kids. Just the kids, really.
"I think we've covered pretty much everything we can do safely." Neil scratched at his head. "Carol?"
"I'm not risking injury by using my offensive power on her. But, I suppose - in terms of power interactions…" She sighed. "Top corner?"
"Top corner."
Victoria scrambled back and away from me. "Uh - "
And then Brandish was an orb.
An orb of light with fire roiling inside it - it barely had time to drop before Neil was thundering towards it, moving fast over the ground in long bounding strides, foot coming up in a perfect soccer kick that launched the orb right at me.
I shrieked and held up my arms as quickly as I could - but it wasn't quick enough, the ball smashed into my nose but it wasn't hard it was soft and also yelling as I was thrown onto my back - or had I reacted and flung myself? - and there was a pressure on my face and I couldn't breath, only flail and kick at air and my arms were pinned by knees -
"I apparently am knocked out of my form by contact with Taylor," came a somewhat strained voice above me. "Victoria, could you help me up, please?"
The weight was lifted off and I took a deep heaving breath, probably a bit exaggerated as I sat up.
Crystal was snickering. "I thought you said she had gills, Ames?"
What would that have to do with -
I froze. Twisted around to see where Brandish was lying in the grass, curled slightly around herself, hands between her clenched legs like someone - someone had headbutted her in the crotch.
"I -" I cringed and made a gurgling sound. "Sorry."
"Hey, uh, Amy, could you -" Victoria started, sounding worried, before Amy cut her off.
"Taylor-inflicted. No can do."
Carol let out a very painful sounding groan into the grass. "I suppose. That that is my fault."
"You did kind of launch yourself at top speed, sis." Aunt Sarah knelt down next to her and patted her back. "Though, uh. Neil? The aiming was also probably an issue."
"I mean, it's not like I know what part's which when she's a morphball."
"I - I couldn't tell either, if that makes a difference." I was still staring at Brandish, wide-eyed. Was I going to get in trouble for that? Was Amy still going to want to kiss me after I had her adopted mother's crotch on my face? Should I really be thinking about that right now? I had a sneaking suspicion the answer to all of those questions was a big resounding no.
Maybe Mom has some anti-bruising gel she could offer? Would that even work given I'm a nullifier? Is bruise cream even safe to use there? So many inappropriate questions, so few appropriate answers.
"So. Meeting's at three, right?" Victoria coughed. Awkwardly looking anywhere but her family. I kind of wanted to see what Brandish turning into a morph-ball looked like under high-speed, if she just vanished, or folded, or what. "We should, uh. Probably get changed."
"Right," coughed Carol, then hauled herself to her feet. "I'll be upstairs. If we have any time estimate on how long before Amelia can repair Taylor-inflicted damage, it would be appreciated."
Vicky and Amy looked at each other, before Victoria floated over and held out her hand. Amy shook her head. "So far, looks like at least an hour and a half." Had it been that long already? "I suspect it might not wear off." She frowned. "That's… going to be really bad if it doesn't wear off even after naturally healing."
"You can't change something to help the body naturally fix it faster itself?" I tilted my head, curious.
"Uh." Amy blinked a few times. "Victoria? Do you mind being a test subject?"
"Sure."
A few moments of contact passed, Victoria pulling the neck of her shirt to the side so we could all see her bruised shoulder. It wasn't bad-looking yet, but - well, it was purple. Purple and sensitive looking.
"Okay…" Amy frowned, tilted her head, expression changing a few times. "... this is… not fun."
"What's happening?"
"It's like trying to hit a precise target, and only the target, but the only weapon you have is a rocket launcher. A napalm-loaded rocket launcher. I can help, but everything in the quarantine zone is hit and if I dump a load of stuff in the intake, it might help, but unless I'm there to regulate the outtake flow - enzymes - ugh." She shook her hand out. "Okay, I think. I think I'm just going to let it be for now."
"Can't soften nerves in the area?" I winced.
"If I had access to the nerve endings, I could. So unless you want that entire area numb…" she looked over at Carol with a grimace.
"Could you undo it before we leave?"
"Easily."
"Please."
Once the exchange was over and Carol managed to walk back inside under her own power unassisted, Victoria looked to me with a raised eyebrow. Everyone else's attention was on each other or getting inside to change. "So. The whole team, huh?"
I had the immediate urge to do something to establish dominance, so I set my shoulders, looked her straight in the eye, and in a deep, serious voice that made her shiver, I said:
"The whole damn team."