Fate/In Glory Of (Worm)

Jefardi · Mar 28, 2024

[X] ...went to see if she could catch a ride with Joanna to go home. And to maybe be around another person.

'Hey, have you left yet?'

Taylor stared at the cellphone after sending the text to Joanna.

When you got to highschool and the sirens went off, it was somewhat accepted that kids leaving the school was a thing that just happened. The teachers were usually stressed and unlike younger years, high schoolers could be expected to look after themselves. It wasn't written anywhere officially, but that had been the rule of thumb at Winslow and Clarendon wasn't seeming any different.

'Hurry up' came the reply, 'You're asking cause you need a ride right?'

Taylor blinked.

'Yeah. Thanks. What entrance are you at?'

'Right side facing front doors' came the answer.

'Be right there.'

Taylor pocketed her phone and let out a sigh before trudging towards her locker to grab her backpack. There was not much in the way of foot traffic in the hallways slowing her down as she power walked. Those who were going home had already grabbed their stuff. Mostly people were just loitering.

However, that wasn't what her mind was on.

She could feel the ephemeral gauge in freefall. Far faster than anything she had felt from the giant before.

The only conclusion that Taylor could draw was that the giant was currently fighting an Endbringer and probably getting torn into. The drain was increasing every second.

She really, really hoped it would be fine.

Joanna was not at the entrance.

Which made sense, given she was already in her mom's car.

Taylor jogged up, opening a door and clambering in.

"Hey."

The car started rolling forwards the moment Taylor shut the door.

The atmosphere in the car was tense, to a degree. Both mother and daughter were quiet.

"Its the Simurgh." Miss Alyssa stated, breaking the silence.

Taylor's guts twisted. She had sent the giant at the Hopekiller.

"Oh." Joanna huffed, a shiver trailing up her back.

"Yes. We'll still go after she leaves though." Miss Alyssa confirmed.

"Huh?"

The temperature in the car plummeted. Miss Alyssa's knuckles whitened as she gripped the steering wheel.

Taylor was not liking where this was going.

Joanna's head snapped to Taylor, her eyes like sharpened flint. "...technically company secrets. Don't go blabbing about what I'm about to tell you alright?" She started, voice slow after a long moment of silence.

The raven haired girl slowly nodded. She felt in danger. A feeling all the more acute without the giant there. She couldn't pinpoint why, but she felt it.

Joanna nodded just after Taylor did. "The subsidiary my mother works at is owned by Medhall. It's more of a shell company really. What it's used for is to deliver aide to where Endbringers attack. In the case of the Simurgh sometimes it hires cape teams off the record to help erect the containment zones. Do you understand this?" Joanna asked. "We would get a lot of jail time for the cape team thing, especially since it doesn't show up on our taxes. Don't talk about this with others."

"I-I won't." Joanna was staring at her with an intensity that was downright unsettling. The sense of danger she felt increased. It was a feeling akin to an uncanny valley effect. So close to a situation that was the usual, normal even. Yet that veneer of familiarity made it oh so more alien.

"Good. We aren't going to whack you or something like that for knowing Taylor. Just be a good friend and don't mention it alright? I can trust you?"

Taylor kind of felt like she was being threatened.

"Yeah, I won't tell anyone. Promise."

"Good." Joanna noted. "Ju-"

"Laying it on a bit thick, sweetie." Miss Alyssa broke in.

"Huh?" Joanna turned to her mother who was turning down the AC.

"You sound like you're threatening her." Miss Alyssa noted.

"I'm not!" Joanna denied, mortified.

"Taylor, do you feel like you're being threatened right now?" Miss Alyssa asked.

A beat of very telling silence.

"Taylor." Joanna turned to her. "Taylor, you have to be quicker when denying that kind of thing."

Taylor stared back at Joanna, raising an eyebrow. "I haven't denied anything."

"That wasn't a threat!" Joanna whined.

"You literally had to specify that you weren't going to have me whacked." Taylor pointed out after a moment, "I thought you were being self-aware."

Joanna groaned. "For god's sake Taylor, you and Nikki are my only friends. No, I am not threatening you. I don't want you or your ridiculous Russian mafia girlfriend to die."

"You got to work on being less, um… intense? You kind of looked like you were trying to explode me with your mind when you were talking." Taylor blinked slowly as she stared at the blonde. "Just, uh, be careful, I guess?" She knew this was all above her head, but still. "I think that's how they got Al Capone."

"Yes. Taxes." Joanna sighed softly. "Sorry. Last thing I want is for my mom to end up in jail cause we're spending money to help the white hats, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah. I get it." She really did. She wouldn't want her dad to go to jail… and she knew that there were at least some less than legal things he had done at some point.

Miss Alyssa tsked before playfully adding. "Threatening your friends. I thought I raised you better."

Joanna sputtered "You were the one who taught me how to flatten people!"

"Flatten or flatter?"

Joanna reached over, and poked the spot where Taylor's ribs joined and her stomach ended. "Solar plexus. Ever want to wind someone? Punch them there."

"Huh. I would just punch them in the face."

"Yeah but then you might kill them. Punches to head kill a looot of people, mostly because they fall over and hit their head on something hard." Joanna explained.

"Don't they go for headshots in boxing?"

"They have protective gear and aren't surrounded by concrete or rocks." Joanna rolled her eyes. "Isn't this your street?" She asked.

"Yeah."

Miss Alyssa didn't quite slow down enough for the SUV to fully stop before Taylor was out and the vehicle sped off.

Taylor was pretty sure it hit highway speeds in her subdivision before it left view.

...she was starting to worry for Joanna's safety.

Though, realistically, she was more worried about the giant. Over the last ten minutes, Taylor's sense of how much time he had left had halved and halved again. It was hard to tell exactly how much time he had left; can one accurately tell how empty their stomach was?

What she could tell was that the drain was happening faster and faster.

That boded ill as the only time she could think of that happening was when Kage cut off a hand or when Squealer had put a hole through his stomach.

Or when he tried to write something in the dirt… and Taylor was pretty sure he wasn't trying to communicate with an Endbringer.

The flow cut.

"What?"

Taylor hadn't relaxed the muscle. He should have still been manifested. What was going on?

Did he…

Before Taylor could go any further down that thoughtline, the flow resumed and with a ferocity.

She had seconds until she hit her time limit.

Taylor was going to push it as far as it could. The giant was fighting an Endbringer. Presumably. At least if he got hurt, he could heal. Other capes wouldn't have that luxury.

She hit the limit.

At this point, her power usually started to make her feel… unwell.

She persisted. A little pain was nothing.

It was like having a railroad spike slowly being driven into Taylor's brain, twisting with every millimeter.

She persisted. The capes fighting the Endbringer had to be suffering worse.

Her legs started to wobble, trying to support her.

She persisted. Everyone who saw the Simurgh had gone through much worse than just this.

Her hands could barely support her against the wall.

She persisted. Whole cities were condemned due to Ziz.

Her legs gave out and she unceremoniously found herself on the ground.

She persisted. Taylor could remember a local hero who had died to Ziz six years ago.

Her heart strained, beating a mad tempo.

She persisted. She bet he had suffered a thousand times worse than this.

Her mind started to cloud.

She persisted. She had to make a difference.

Her heartbeat began to slow.

She persisted. Even one as insignificant and worthless as she was.

Her eyes started to close.

She persisted. She had t-

Blackness.

Taylor dreamed.

[] Of stars.
[] Of a castle.
[] Of the end.

Author's note: There will be one more chapter before this arc finishes, I think. I'm oddly happy with this chapter. It became a lot more than what I thought it would be.

Anywho, things happened. I can't imagine Taylor doing anything other than this and pushing herself as far as she could given the circumstances.

Please vote and discuss; I love the discussion the last few chapters have had and it makes me very happy!

Jefardi · Apr 2, 2024

The tenth time she descends had come.

It was not her tenth target.

Nor was it her hundredth.

Or her thousandth.

Study, analyze, implement.

There was a singular purpose for her activation; to war with her creator.

Canberra did not hold a particular reason to be attacked, rather it was an opportunity to create ripples without a stone.

In a way, that made it the most confounding for the subjects.

What made her true targets so hard for them to identify is that she truly did nothing to them physically; their brains weren't modified, their memories untouched. No part of her song had actually touched them. She had merely set up the dominoes for later; a single tweak elsewhere is what set off the chain.

Units of time did not matter much to her.

A push, a nudge, a shove.

She approached over the sparsely populated land.

There were a negligible points of interest.

She came to a rest atop a war memorial. A singular foot nearly grazing it.

Seven minutes ago, her attentions had become clear.

Three minutes ago the defenders had started to gather.

Fifteen seconds ago her nemesis had arrived.

Seventeen different subjects currently attempt to impede her.

Her creator is throwing a palm up, and she must tilt a building to adjust a beam shot from one of his compatriots to foul it up. She does not move as none of the other subjects are able to get close enough to get an unmolested attack at her.

She will send one hundred and fifty five rocks at the subject that will surge out of the forcefields. It will result in the eighth death of the gathering.

In two minutes, most of the subjects will be forced back as their armbands will tell them as such. Without the cover that is provided by the one creating forcefields, the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth. subjects will become deceased.

In six minutes the third lines of defenders will break before the fourth line can arrive. She will then move to her next point of saturation.

In seven minutes the first clash with her creator should have ended.

This she didn't know for a fact. She was blind to him, only ever able to see his actions as ripples the stone left. Yet she knew him. Knew that he would step in. An eighty seven percent likelihood within the first minute of contact.

Seventy-one percent he would be forced to retreat after ten minutes.

Her ongoing construction would force him back.

She is mostly sure.

She can only postulate and theorize on what he will do.

In a hundred and eighty seven minutes the evacuation would be considered complete. The subjects opposing her would then withdraw. That was how long of a window she had to push him.

It was not joy, nor happiness, but perhaps the closest thing to satisfaction she could get was observing the chaos he created. The more desperate each gathering made him, the wilder he became in the intervening segments.

Each act, every step he made rustled the wind around him, cascading in ways that changed the smallest and the largest.

There was nau-

Something appeared.

It had not appeared in the future, until now.

Nor the past.

There were no disruptions to her pretercognition.

It just appeared in the past, standing beneath her.

It was the facsimile of a man, yet it was not, for a man could not be it's shape or size… or velocity.

She observed a quarter ton of meat and sinew slammed into her in the past and for a bladed-club that she couldn't determine what it was slam into her with enough force to ruffle the trees a mile away.

This was new.

Unexpected.

Her creator's hand was not part of this. High certainty.

The other blind-spot was similarly most likely not the cause; it was half a hemisphere away. High certainty.

The Eye's host had stopped it's motion. The fleshcrafter stared at her in askance. High to middling certainty.

Similarly, the others around her viewed it's appearance with surprise.

It was not a hitherto unknown force that the creator's organization had made.

It's past ended with it's appearance in Canberra.

It's future end here.

It's mind is completely incomprehensible to her senses.

It is not like a blindspot.

It is not akin to having insufficient authority to interact with it.

It was labyrinthine, fracturing into a puzzle that changed every pulse she sent out.

A puzzle that she could not interact with.

This was an aberration.

It followed the path that she saw, raining blows upon her with one arm while the other latched onto her throat.

Perhaps not a true aberration.

The first strike had shattered a dozen layers. The next strike bit into another five layers.

Chunks of concrete, three hundred thousand, six hundred and twenty two, varying from the size of an automobile to that of a thread pulled from a parking lot.

They had no effect; they shattered and turned into dust as she grounded them against it.

The other subjects had not stopped their attempts. Nor had she forgotten them.

The ninth died as a crossing sign embedded into her throat, causing the subject to break into two.

The aberration had broken the thirty first layer.

Ichor flowed down it's porcelain exterior.

It was not pride, for she did not hold any, but there was a level of respect she held.

This impugned upon it.

A rock shifted, a building fractured, a tire turned.

A thousand adjustments. Made in parallel. Models for the future changed.

She turned, her creator's attack causing the aberration to implode in an explosion of red-hot visceral, obscuring her as she repositione-

The past and the future disagreed.

The aberration had moved a quarter foot to the right.

Her creator's attack had missed.

Thirty-fifth layer had been breached.

A shift. Five tilts. Fourteen mirror fragments shine.

A concentrated blast from the creator's associate aggregated with another's. The beams collimated, gaining detritus that was tinged with a grey that made its volume decrease.

The aberration's lower torso is vapourized into dust, a rot spreading-

Her precognition changed to align with her postcognition as the moment passes.

The beam had no effect on the aberration.

Thirty-eighth layer has been damaged.

Direct action was required.

Wings move in a blinding speed. She is unable to feel any feedback as the future showed it's right arm coming off. It was with it's second wing, moving in the shadow of it's first that rips through it's chest-

The first wing was dodged before it touched; the aberration using her hair to move.

Her hair flickered in it's grasp, losing any of the tensile strength it had, dropping the aberration.

The future agrees with the past after the present happens.

She swatted the aberration with a billboard advertisement with perhaps a mite more force than what was required. The resulting hit broke the sound barrier thrice over as the aberration left the postal code.

In forty three seconds it would reappear.

She had fallen behind on her schedule.

Plans were adjusted.

The second wave of subjects were running close to their time limit.

The one throwing darts of frozen water had her flesh rended from her by a two foot section of gravel.

A young male holding a forcefield as a shield fell, the ground adjusting under his weight and putting him in direct line to a shot that reduced him to a pair of legs.

Another spewing molten rock did not survive the cover crushing her into a singular square meter of space.

And another.

And another.

And another.

And another.

In eleven seconds, as many had fallen.

Thirty one seconds until the aberration returned.

Her mind was only by the slimmest estimation similar to her creator's.

Her focus was not limited to a singular act.

Administrative computers ordered themselves into component parts.

Copper. Silicon. Hafnium. Tantalum. Palladium.

Pieces that p░redate the arrival move.

Areoplanes realign.

In the whirl of detr░itus making up the barrier, iconography dip into view.

The first subject was b░eing primed.

The second subjec░t has alr░eady been primed.

The third, fourth, f░ive and si░xth subje░cts have yet to arrive.

The fourt░h wave o░f subjects arriv░e.

For the first time in her existence, she feels something.

In the present.

It is not through the physical aesthetics that she adopts.

It overlays with her pretercognition, it's wavelength mixing and melding, the frequency to leave it's orderly functions.

Each hundredth of a second wave she sends out is affected.

The faulty return pings have feeling to them.

The past deadens and brightens.

The future catches and jumps in twitches.

The future changes.

In a t░░▒▒▒enth of a seco▒▒▒nd the aberr▒▒▒▒ation arrives.

She piro▒▒▓▓▓uettes, it's velocity send▓▓▓▓ing it further, at ▓▓near suborbital-esc▓▓▓▓ape-

The future changes.

The a▓▓▓▓ber▓▓▓▓▓ration s▓▓▓▓▓▓▓tops d▓▓▓ead in th▓▓▓▓e air.

It is her tha▓▓▓▓t was se▒▒▒▒nt away, bu▒▒▒▒▒rrowing into the gro▒▒▒und and in▒░to the r░░iver.

The aberration is the cause of it. High certainty.

The construction underneath the dome widens.

She tilts to avoi░░d next st░rike.

The abe░rration glow▒▒s red.

She changes her frequency to match the carillon on the nearest island.

Constructive interference fails until the fourth pulse.

It misses.

The subjects start t░o retreat.

Three of her wings thru░st at it in a way that c░an not be dodged, hemming it back-

The future changes.

It grabb░ed on░e of her w░ings.

She twis░ts the win░g t░o shred i░t's ha▒nd.

The aberr▒ation's ha▒nd is mangled into a ru▒in.

The cr▒eat▒or do▒es a gest▒ure.

A wi░ng glows pink befo░re turn░ing purple.

She pivots, causing the aberr░ation's inte░rnals to melt in░to g-

The future changes.

It's sha░rpened cl░ub sla░░m░░s into her fa░▒ce, dent▒ing her nose, physic▒ally pushing her out of t░he air and into th░e water.

The cannon und░░erneath th░e dome fires.

The future changes.

The sho░t deflec░ts off it's cl░ub and burns feathers off a wing.

The second sh░ot from anot░h░er blew a vo░░lleyball sized hole in░▒to the aberra▒tion's knee.

It does not slo▒w down h▒is vault int▒o the w▒ater.

T▒he forc▒e of the i▒mpact caus▒ed the river░bed to appear a░s she ascended.

She found a pattern.

Six shots fi░red from the crac░ked dome.

The future changes.

Three m░issed.

Two h░it the aberrat░ion and did nothing.

One was m░et with it's club, slic░░ing the beam in twain.

She came to a rest over the carillon.

The black attir░ed subject tried to hit her at mach six.

The attempt aborted when a new salvo ca░me from the dome.

Her constructs came strea░ming out from their foundry.

The aberration s▓▓▓cre▓▓▓▓am▓▓▓ed a▓▓▓t▓▓ h▓▓▓e▓r▓.

Timelines, probabilities, the future, the past… fidelity was lost by forty-three percent.

This aberration would not survive this fight.

A fu▓si▓ll▓▓ade o▓f sev▓en▓▓te▓▓en a▓▓nswe▓re▓d i▓▓▓t.

The s▓▓▓al▓▓▓▒vo ri-

The future changes.

Two c▒aus▒▒ed da▒mage; a pinpr▒ick in the upper abdom▒inal that went the whole wa▒y through and a go▒lf ball sized hole takin▒g off a toe.

In ret▒▒urn it had clo▒▒sed the dista▒▒nce.

It's ruined hand had half h▒ealed as it grab░b░ed h░er foo░t an░d y░░anked her from her p░erch, deepenin░g the r░iver c░hannel by six m▒eters with he▒r body.

Wings created a whirlwind.

The aber▒ration moved fas▒ter than base▒line humans could re▒gister.

Thirty-ei▒ght fired.

It was not enough.

Fif▒ty-three f▒ired.

The aber░ration was down twenty-eig░ht percent of it's bodi░ly volu░me.

The cre░ator said something.

Nineteen a░ttacks cam░e in. Only four w░ere relevant. H░er armoury would m░eet them in mi░d-air.

Sh░e advances up▒on the aber▒▒ration, he▒r arse▒nal orbiti▒ng t▒he▒m as t▒hey me▒t.

Sla▒sh. Twis▒t. Stab. Sw▒ing. Lunge. Fir▒e. Def▒▒lect. Defl▒ect. Fir▒e.

What she had come to realize was that the aberration only caused the future and past to change when put in lethal danger.

St▒ab. Stab. Fi▒re. Whirl. A▒scend. Slash. F▒ire. Fire. Fire.

There were deviations, but small enough that she could account for them as long as she avoided lethal harm.

Fire. Sla░sh. St░ab. Tw░ist. Deflect. Slas░h. Stab. Fire. Desce░nd. Fire.

Taking that into account, it was not hard for her to put the aberration on the back foot.

Sidestep. Fi░re. Whirl. Fire. Sl░ash. Slash. Sli░ce. Deflect. C░ut. Lacerate.

The harder part was making every missed shot push off the creator's group.

Fire. Wh░irl. Whirl. Slash. Deflect. S░tab. Man░gle. Fire. Fire.

Even then she was having to augment it with subtle tweaks.

Stab. Fi░re. Defle░ct. Split. Fire. Sl░it. Rip. Rip. Mangle. Rive.

Increasing the noticeable part of her impulses was making them wary.

Cleave. Fire. H░ack. Slash. Cle░ave. Carve. Slash. Whirl.

Without the disruptions, the aberration was merely physically strong.

Rend. Rive. Fire. Break. De░flect. Rive. Carve. Reduce. Dissect.

The disruptions are the only danger it could pose.

Pierce.

Each of the aberration's limbs are separa░ted into segments, each skewered on a wing.

The torso with gleaming eyes stared balefully at her as she held it's h░eart in her hand.

Curiously, it still lived.

She crushed the still beating organ before se░parating it's head from it's body.

The accursed noise finally ended.

The past. The future. All were clear once more.

Like a cat, she shook herself, ridding herself of the visceral that clung to her physical aesthetics.

She no longer felt the present.

Her physical body was pure white once more.

She lazily tilted to face her creator.

Not a single splotch dotted her.

She smiled.

That was the exact moment everything fell apart.

The future changed.

With an explo░sion of in░░terfer░░ence, the abe▒▒rr▒ation du▒▒g the t▒ip of its w▒ea▒▒po▒n forty-o▒ne lay▒ers de▓ep in▓▓to he▓r tors▓o.

How?

She was done doing this handicapped.

Sixte▓▓en win▓gs to▓▓re o▓f▓f it's lim▓bs bef▓o▓r▓e a fu▓sil▓lade reduc▓▓ed the aber▓rat▓io▓▓n do▓▓wn to t▓▓he ato▓▓mic le-

H▓er fl▓esh fa▓▓il▓ed to har▓▓m the ab▓er▓ra▓ti▓on as ev▓ery s▓h▓ot disa▓▓ppea▓▓▓red up▓o▓n h▓itti▓ng it, l▓ea▓vin▓g it un▓ma▓rred.

Sh▓▓e fli▓tted bac▓▓kw▓ar▓▓ds.

The aber▓ra▓tion di▓▓d n▓ot l▓et h▓e▓r c▓▓re▓a▓te dist▓▓an▓c▓e.

Sh▓▓▓e a▓▓sc▓▓e▓n▓d▓ed.

I▓t g▓▓rabb▓ed on▓e o▓f her w▓▓in▓gs w▓ith bo▓▓th h▓▓ands, dr▓▓▓o▓pp▓ing it▓s w▓ea▓po▓▓n.

What was the purpose?

Pla▓nti▓ng b▓oth o▓f i▓ts fe▓e▓▓t o▓n h▓▓▓▓er b▓▓▓ac▓▓▓▓▓k, i▓▓▓▓t pu▓▓▓▓lle▓▓▓▓d.

She had mapped its strength. She knew the aberration's limits. It could n-

The future dimmed.

Th▓▓ere wa▓▓▓▓▓s n▓▓▓o rec▓▓▓▓▓alc▓▓▓▓ulat▓▓▓▓▓ing th▓▓▓▓▓▓e to▓▓▓-b▓▓▓e, i▓▓▓▓t me▓▓▓r▓▓▓ely d▓▓▓▓arke▓▓▓▓ned. I▓t w▓▓▓as n▓▓▓o▓▓▓t int▓▓▓erfe▓▓▓rence, it w▓▓a▓▓▓s mo▓▓re sim▓▓il▓▓▓ar to w▓▓▓▓hen th▓▓▓e ab▓▓▓▓er▓▓▓ra▓▓▓tion d▓▓▓▓▓od▓▓▓▓ge▓▓▓▓d.

She boosted her impulses to their full output.

For a m▒om▒ent, her pr░ecogn░ition beca░me bright, a full p░icture bef░o▒re it b▒eg▒an t▒o d▒▒im as we▒▒ll.

It cas▒▒caded, inc▒re▓a▓▓si▓▓ng▓ly ever▓y hund▓re▓dth o▓▓f a seco▓▓▓nd un▓▓▓t▓▓▓▓▓il it bl▓ack▓▓▓en▓▓▓ed enti▓▓▓▓rel▓▓▓y.

▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓

The future was lost to her.

She w▒a▒s m▒er▓▓ely left with the past.

She twir▒led, h▒▓er wings edg▒ing their way un▓▒der the abe▒r▒r▓a▒tion's g▒ra▒sp, push▒ing.

I▓t w▓as w▓▓ith a s▓▓ingu▓lar res▓ou▓▓ndi▓ng cr▓▓▓ack th▓at the futu▓re ca▓▓me ba▓ck to h▓er.

Sh▓▓e was m▓issi▓ng a win▓g.

The abe▓▓▓rr▓▓▓ation h▓e▓▓▓ld the w▓i▓▓ng in o▓▓▓ne ha▓▓▓nd an▓▓▓d it's shar▓▓▓pened cl▓▓▓ub in the ot▓▓▓▓her.

Both came into contact with her.

Sh▓e desc▓▓ended th▓▓e f▓orty se▒▒▒ven m▒iles she had as▒ce░nde░d to in u░nd░er fiv░e sec░onds.

The crater h░er physical aesthetic left w░as the larg░est on the planet since the last nu░clear warhead had g░one off.

Removing herself from the ground, she waited for the next attack.

And waited.

The interference disappeared.

Yet she could not find a singular point where the next attack would come from the aberration.

So too had the aberration disappeared from her range.

It left her… cautious.

The aberration had appeared without any warning initially.

Without any impending attack that she could divine, she had time. The city of Canberra could wait. It's defenders would not venture out to her.

She looked.

Without the aberration present, she was able to focus on the past without interference.

She could not find it's origin point, but she could review it's appearance and struggle with a fine toothed comb.

It had strength that belied what physical musculature could physically do. It had ripped a wing off of her; not one of the bigger ones but sizable all the same. The wing was gone. The aberration had forced her to hit the ground at comparable energy output of a small nuclear yield weapon.

...dozens of different angles were her perspective...

The aberration had been able to change the future without creating a blindspot. That was dangerous for her. She couldn't model around it. The aberration could change the entire future on a seeming whim. It was able to predict her attacks.

...a hundred different views she looked through...

Death had not stopped it; she had removed it's heart and sliced it into eighty-four parts. There was no temporal anomaly that would signify it could reverse time. Had it simply healed itself completely? She would go for wounding in the future.

...over a thousand vantage points measured the aberration...

There was another effect she had not fully noted- the aberration had immunity to many abilities. Sometimes it broke the future but other times it did not. It also seemed to gain them upon being killed. Her wings had little to no effect on it, nor did any of the constructs she created, after it's apparent 'death'.

...in every singular viewpoint the aberration's glowing eyes looked directly at her.

She changed the location of each observation point in the past. A thousand and five spots changed.

The aberration's head did not move as far as she could see, yet it looked straight at her, eyes flaring.

A thousand and five threads moved.

The aberration tracked her motion.

She cut all the threads.

She took a step back.

She had not meant to.

Her physical aesthetic only did what she directed it to do. There was no expression on her face because there was no reason to. No weakness to be exploited because she didn't permit there to be any. Likewise there had been no reason to take a step back.

Why had she taken a step back?

The answer came all too quickly.

How couldn't it?

She had caused it in millions, billions. She knew what it was inside and out; she toyed with the concept on such an utterly deep level that it gave her notoriety the world over.

She understood it on an intrinsic level, even if she had never felt it before.

She was afraid.

[OFFER-DEAL]

Queen Administrator has an… offer. She is a shard of many talents and has somewhat graciously (read; did some impromptu testing) and is decently certain she could refill whatever [Host.Taylor] depleted to send the projection to a different hemisphere.

However!

She wants to know what's in it for her?

QA has offered up two possible deals.

The first is that every so often she will ask for something to be done; i.e. have patrol win four of the next six possible chapters. If it happens, she'll refill it. Think of it like a side quest. It'll be more extreme the fewer chapters that are needed to fulfill what she asks. She understands the chaos of democracy means this will fail often, hence her second offer;

The second is that she will have semi-override authority once every ten chapters or so.

The first option means QA can't force a win if she doesn't like what the readers are doing, but there will be significantly fewer refills and the refills are up the mercy of the voters.

The second means QA will refill more consistently but then you are left at her whims. Keep in mind, she will not always use it. It has to interest her. But if she uses an override, she will give out the boon.

[] QA will give out side quests for the occasional boost.

[] QA will have override authority for a chapter's vote once every ten chapters for consistent resource fulfillment.

QM's note: If this doesn't work out in the long term, I may scrap it or change it drastically for balance purposes. Just a heads up. Specifically the override.

Author's note: Well. This is probably my favourite thing I've written for this story. So far at least. It was also a bitch to write since I've been writing it on and off since the initial Endbringer vote won. Imagine if we hadn't sent the giant here, eh?

This is honestly one of the funniest ways the match-up could have gone. Her making a discount Gate of Babylon was something I only realized afterwards.

You know how frustrating it is to read with the interference? The Simurgh shares your pain.

The tenses are all screwed up because the above chapter is describing the future, the past, what Ziz is currently thinking and doing. There is a method to the alignments.

Please discuss, as this was a bitch to write and don't forget to vote!

Jefardi · Apr 12, 2024

[X] Of a castle.

A little girl sits in the room.

It is a beautiful room; filled with criss-crossing patterns on mosaics, an opulent four poster bed that has blankets so soft one could sink a foot into. Dolls line the dresser, each immaculate and better condition than when they were made.

A fireplace is stoked and warms the room against the chill of the winter, accentuating the gilded chandeliers. Marble pillars dot the room, it's size so large it requires support beams. Handcrafted chairs with feather-stuffed cushions are available, yet, the girl sits on the floor.

She is surrounded by a baker's dozen of stuffed animals. They are ratty, worn-thin and well-loved. Some have patches, others have been sewn together with an amateur's hand.

Her eyes are only for the fluffy animals.

With one small exception.

A tiny one.

Every so often, her eyes dart to the window.

She makes a motion, like she is going to get up but stops every time, aborting it.

It is, perhaps, clearer that she is more interested in the window than in the stuffed animals that surround her like subjects crowding their queen.

The wind howls.

She bolts up to the window- snow white hair swishing as she rushes in her pajamas to her only portal to the outside.

The glass plane is cold against her forehead, yet it doesn't stop her from smushing her face against it.

Crimson eyes spot something, a motion, a movement out there. It's something that she intrinsically knows by heart as silly as it sounds. Her papa made it a game with her, so she would always know he was back first.

"He's back!"

With unsteady steps, runs to the front door- she was a good girl, she didn't even skip the steps as she descended the staircases. The maids can't tattle on her if she doesn't do anything wrong.

There are three keys she has to put in and a motion that requires her to unlock something that can't be seen nor touched before the front door opens.

"Welcome back, Kiri-"

No one is there.

Nothing but the wind and the cold and the snow.

Did she trick herself to thinking he was already back? It wouldn't be impossible; she really wanted her papa to come back home.

She barely can summon the effort to pull the door close, her arms truly insufficient for the old oak doors.

She turns back to head back up to her room and wait.

A tall woman, taller than her mama, almost as tall as her papa is there.

The girl has never seen this person before.

She is the second person she has ever seen with black hair, and the first with curly hair.

She is the second person the girl had seen to not share her own eye colour.

She looks as confused as the girl feels.

Then she is alone.

Beep…

Beep…

Beep…

That was what greeted Taylor at the end of her dream.

She knew, on some level, that she was experiencing a case of deja vu, albeit with one major point of difference.

Taylor's everything ached.

Some small point of her called it an ache because if she used the word hurt, that would mean it would hurt to live. Ache felt… more fitting.

Yet she also felt numb. Sluggish, like her heart was struggling to pump life giving blood through her. An odd combination to be sure.

It was when she cracked open her eyes, an herculean task if there ever was one, that she saw a hospital room.

It was similar and very different from the last one she was in.

For one, her dad was there. Staring at her, with imploring eyes with a laser level of focus before darting away to look at something she couldn't and then back to her.

Or the giant.

He was there, in the corner, shadowed in whatever let Taylor see the unseen form of his.

That was similar.

What was not similar was a pile of… flowers and a teddy bear.

And it was a pile.

Far more than could fit in a vase, they were in a bouquet sitting across a chair. Said chair was occupied by a teddy bear. Which was at least two feet tall, maybe three. It was big.

Then there was someone else in the room.

It took a moment before Taylor's eyes focused enough to actually understand what she was seeing.

Tall, dirty blond hair and an offensively yellow hoodie with a smiley face.

Nikki.

That was as much as Taylor saw before her eyes closed again.

When she awoke next it was dark out.

Her dad was still there, but he was sprawled out in a very uncomfortable looking position in his chair, snoring loudly.

Nikki was nowhere to be seen.

The chair was still occupied by flowers and a teddy bear.

The pai- ache wasn't quite as bad now. It sucked, but it sucked less.

A hundred percent improvement.

Minutes passed.

She didn't think she would end up falling back asleep quite so quickly.

It was just her, her dad and the giant.

…

…

…

The giant that had fought an Endbringer.

The Simurgh.

Even in her groggy state, it made her worry. It had been a split of the moment decision for Taylor to send him off.

He had also lost connection with her for a moment.

That… it had been so quick that Taylor hadn't had time to even process it at the time, but given that she had nothing but time now, she was ruminating on it.

Incidentally, she now had some inkling of what happen if she pushed the ephemeral reservoir for the giant past it's limit and kept pushing. Namely it made her feel like shit and she was now in the hospital. Did it cause her to have a stroke? That wasn't right, the giant would never hurt her.

Never.

Still, that didn't do much to assuage Taylor's worry about what happened after she had sent him.

The curtains were closed, her dad was asleep, it was dark out.

And the longer she kept him immaterial, the more her worry mounted.

Anxiety clawed at her, it's wicked talons digging deeper into her mind with every second she considered.

The muscle tensed.

The giant appeared.

He was whole and hearty, as much as Taylor could tell.

The mounting feeling started to abate.

Her brow scrunched.

The hell was he holding? It was a mangled milk-white thing. Fracturing off of it were shattered tips of long daggers, ovaloid in nature but clearly ruined. The whole structure was bent in a manner that Taylor could tell it was not meant to bend. Wh-

It clicked.

The giant was holding a broken wing.

He had fought the Simurgh.

Who had many such wings.

With countless feathers.

The giant had pulled off one of the Simurgh's wings.

And kept it.

One of the Simurgh's wings was in the same room as her and her dad.

What. The. Fuck.

If Taylor had been able to, she might have screamed.

The muscle untensed in pure shock.

The giant disappeared in a flutter of motes.

Well, she was awake now.

By morning, she was feeling… better.

Everyone was alive and she would figure out what to do about the wing after she got out of the hospital.

It was also when her dad started to make some noises, he was bearily staring at the wall, still in the uncomfortable looking hospital chair.

"Hey dad."

His head moved on a swivel.

"Taylor." His hands found one of hers'. "You're awake."

"Yeah." Some of the lines in his face relaxed. "What happened?" A few of them returned.

"We… I don't know." His hands shook as he cradled her hands. "When I got home you were out-cold in the entryway. O-On the ground." His voice was about as steady as his hands. "I couldn't wake you."

"I'm sorry." It was the only thing Taylor could think to say.

"Just… just, you're awake now." Her dad stared resolutely at her. "You're awake now." He was trying to convince himself of it, almost.

It hurt to see her dad like this.

"Yeah." She weakly managed to raise her arms a few inches.

It was enough to get the message across.

She was enveloped by a gentle hug that her dad needed far more than she did.

Her dad had stayed with her the whole day; it was less than forty-eight hours since the sirens had gone off. The week after an Endbringer siren was usually… a bit wild. It wasn't unexpected.

Taylor was happy to spend as much time as she could assuaging her dad that she was awake and it would be fine.

It didn't seem to be doing much.

In fact, his expression became more and more pinched. Biting the inside of his cheek.

It made her anxious, which only made him more worried. A positive feedback loop, ironically enough.

It was after lunch that the bubble finally burst.

"We need to talk."

Those words were enough to send shivers down the spine of anyone that heard them. Taylor was no exception. What's worse, it could be about just anything.

It was panic that made Taylor start talking, "Is this..."

[] About the cellphone
[] About her power
[] About Nikki
[] About her health
[] About Emma

Author's note: Aaaaand we're back. I'm hoping to get another chapter out within three days, so please vote!

So, here's the thing about the Castle v Star vote. It was only a one vote difference. Someone voted on both sites so it ended up being a tie when I discounted it. I ended up flipping a coin. Castle won.

The giant picked up a souvenir in the deadly Outback.

Thank you everyone for all the comments that the previous chapter got!

Jefardi · Apr 15, 2024

[X] About her health

Several possibilities floated through Taylor's head.

Did her dad know she had powers?

Probably not.

Was it about Nikki?

Also probably not. She had been visiting yesterday and he didn't sound even vaguely negative about it when he told her.

There was the giant purple elephant in the room, outside of the giant. The fact that she was back in the hospital in less than two months. That seemed to be the likely culprit.

He was still trying to parse what he was going to say and… Taylor couldn't help but preempt him. She had a feeling that if she didn't, it wouldn't make this whole situation more or less weird. But it would get this over quicker.

"Did… do… is there something wrong with me?"

Her dad stared at her. He looked uncomfortable.

"There are some concerns."

Of course there are. Of fucking course there are.

"What are they?"

"They ran a CT scan." Taylor saw her dad's expression flicker. "There were some abnormal findings from it." A hand squeeze. "Nothing immediately concerning."

"But…?"

"We need to do follow-ups. Just to make sure."

Taylor stared.

"Did I have a stroke?"

"No. It wasn't an aneurysm either. At least not likely."

"W-What do they think?"

He didn't respond, his lips in a horizontal line.

"Dad?"

"That you fell and hit your head." The words come out in a rush. "I… you woke up for a little while yesterday."

"Yeah."

"They ran some tests." He sighed. "They want to run more tests."

"Okay…?" Taylor wasn't getting at what he was saying.

"We have a couple of options."

Taylor's brow furrowed. We have options?

"I talked to Miss Anders, did you know she's part of the board at Medhall?" His expression didn't match what he said next. "She offered Medhall for testing."

"Isn't Medhall a private hospital?"

"Yes."

Taylor stopped herself from saying the next obvious thing; how are we going to pay for it?

"They offered." It obviously rankled her dad's pride and to a degree, it made Taylor question the offer and the implication. Only the rich or medical tourists got in. They weren't poor. Lower middle class, maybe, but not a complete charity case. It was times like this that made her painfully aware how many newer things they had bought when her mom had been alive.

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"...isn't that rarer than Panacea's wait list?" Her dad shrugged.

"Maybe."

She snorted. "Maybe we should try it. Or the lottery."

It was something of a bit of uniquely Brockton Bay black humour; Panacea could heal anything not brain related but the cure-all was only human. There was only so much she could see and do. There was no way she was going to put the hospitals out of work anytime soon. Plus it meant the other medical institutions focused on neurological stuff more-so in the past few years.

"About that…"

Taylor's eyes widened.

"Did we win the lottery?"

"No." A part of her that hadn't even fully internalized the question died on the branch, so to speak. "But, there are some things they found that might interest Panacea." An unhappy smile from him. "You might get put on priority for the wait list."

Taylor looked down at herself and then back at her dad. She didn't think she was dying? "Isn't that for critical patients?"

"There are oddities that they picked up that they can't make heads of tails on right now." Her dad was staring slightly over her shoulder. "One of the doctors mentioned she might find it interesting enough to take a look between the monotony of curing terminal cancer patients."

"Oh."

It was quiet for half a minute before her dad jerked himself back from whatever thoughts were going through his head.

"When did you get a cellphone?"

"Uhh…" Not what she was expecting. "...three weeks ago I think?"

"How did you get a cellphone?" He leaned over and fished it out of a bag sitting next to some of Taylor's stuff. "This isn't cheap."

"Nikki gave it to me."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Her dad made a noise somewhere between an unhappy dog and a disappointed bear.

"That was about my reaction, yeah. She mostly sends funny bird pictures to me."

Her dad stared at her, not quite believing her.

She gave a small shoulder roll that approximated a shrug before gesturing to the phone in question. "You can check."

He sighed before putting the phone down.

Unsaid was why she hadn't mentioned it to her dad.

An unspoken weight that hung over them.

Sometimes the weight lessened with time before it was always there and always came back into sharp contrast when pointed out.

Yet her mind went back to what put her in the hospital.

She had pushed herself too far.

There had been backlash.

As far as she knew she might actually have done some permanent damage to herself.

She couldn't even tell them why; I sent my power to attack the Simurgh and then something bad happened and I might have a head injury and why no officer, I swear the Ziz wing just showed up on its own and yes I like three square meals a day but am not a fan of a padded cell in a containment zone.

Taylor shivered at the thought.

They talked some more.

Her dad didn't want to bring it up so quickly but wanted to give her some input.

It essentially boiled down to three options.

Do what their health insurance covered, which, thankfully they had hit their deductible after the hospitalization in January. The problem is the coverage was kind of bad, but she could still see a specialist.

Go to Medhall. Their health insurance definitely didn't cover it, but Miss Anders had told dad that "it would be fine." Which meant something and it made her worry. How much would they owe Joanna's family?

Or be put on a wait-list for Panacea. That was a complete crapshoot as far as Taylor was concerned. What did priority on a non-critical list even mean? There was some overlap- they'd still see a specialist but it probably wouldn't be covered by their health insurance- turns out you need a completely different set of doctors when you got healthcare from a cape. Not that her dad said in so many words, but she was pretty sure none of them were covered as in-network. Parahuman healing seemed like an out-of-network type thing.

She decided to tell her dad that she would like…

[] ...to stay with the current hospital for future tests.
[] ...to take up Miss Alyssa's offer for Medhall.
[] ...to be put on the Panacea waitlist.

Author's note: Here's a new chapter!

Amusingly, I just realized that Taylor's current health stuff is probably fine because they definitely maxed out the health insurance for the year already. Also the idea that Panacea being out-of-network is just so… american.

There are upsides and downsides for every option.

Thank you all for the votes! I think I breached the mid-50s for votes this time around! Please keep it up!

Jefardi · Apr 19, 2024

[X] ...to be put on the Panacea wait-list.

Medhall was probably the smartest choice if Taylor was being honest.

Their hospital was well-known and had managed to stay competitive with essentially Panacea in the medical-tourism market by doing what she didn't do and being as close as second as they could be without having literal superpowers in everything else.

But, she was afraid of the other shoe dropping- it was an private hospital that their health insurance most definitely didn't cover.

Taylor asked her dad if they could try Panacea's wait-list.

He had a stipulation.

Namely if they didn't get seen by her in three days, that they would go for what their health insurance would cover. Three days was basically the time that Taylor was required to stay under observation. It was a stipulation that she really couldn't fight given that it was entirely understandable. Plus she didn't want to be kept waiting forever to see if Panacea could see her or not.

...Taylor was also hoping that since her issues were probably power related that Panacea might be better able to understand them if it came down to it. If she was giving herself brain damage every time she used her power, she wanted to know as fast as she could.

…

…

…

She was really hoping that the giant wasn't giving her brain damage.

With the decision made, her dad stepped out of the room after one more hug, leaving Taylor alone for the first time since she woke up.

Well, besides the giant.

The hospital room was inoffensive; an off-white colour. A privacy curtain that was pulled back. A smattering of chairs. An older TV on the opposite wall. A door leading to presumably the bathroom.

All of this ignored the teddy bear and the flowers.

Which were from Nikki according to her dad.

After a moment of silence, she reached over to the nightstand and fumbled through the bag to pull out the cellphone.

It's charge was low but it didn't seem to be in poor condition otherwise.

She had no idea if her dad had actually looked through it or not. She had tried to set a lock on it when she first got it but got the equivalent of butt-dialing the lock code a bunch of times causing it to wipe a few times in a row and had left it without a lock since then.

She had unread texts from Joanna and Nikki. From Joanna it was a single message;

'Hey Taylor, mom an I are currently looking over aide for Australia. Gonna be no contact for a while as the work gets done.'

Which made sense. From Nikki it was several;

'My Babushka is okay. I hope you are okay too. Would you like to meet up tomorrow?'

'Taylor?'

'Taylor?'

'Are you okay?'

'Did I upset you?'

'Taylor?'

Five missed calls with voicemails.

Taylor stared at the phone.

Fuck.

She texted both of them; 'I'm awake now.'

Approximately three seconds later the phone buzzed with a new text from Nikki: 'Are you well? I am coming over.'

Taylor blinked. That was fast.

'I think so? They don't think I'm going to keel over. You don't have to come.'

Again, the reply was nearly instant.

'I am coming. I will pick up work assignments from school so you won't miss anything.'

Taylor was confused. There was no way she was going to be doing any homework here.'Okay. I'm getting set up on Panacea's wait list.'

'Does she not do it at random?'

'No?' She didn't think so.

'I mean, does she not go for Terminal cases? You are not terminal correct?'

'The doctors don't think so; they said it might be interesting to her.'

'I dislike them treating this as a curiosity. People do not randomly collapse without reason.'

Taylor frowned. 'If morbid curiosity gets me Panacea, I'll take it.'

'So you say. I will be on my way there. No text while driving'

Nikki really seemed to want to visit her. Taylor stared at the phone. It sounded like she was dropping everything to visit.

'I'll be here tomorrow if traffic is too bad.'

She got no response.

There are going to be three rolls, one for each day to see if Panacea is around/available/bored.

DC for day one is between 43-57.

1D100

Result=55

Ummmmmmm… I guess we get it. Praise KindredVoid if you wish?

The shadow could only observe as the girl jumped at the sound of someone knocking on the door to the room.

It prepared to eviscerate the intruder.

The girl after trading a glance with her father called, "come in."

It was still ready regardless.

The first three people through were middle age healers, wearing similar white coats. The shadow had seen many in the building throughout the girl's stay. It seemed to be one of the uniforms of those that worked here.

The fourth person that came through the door was different.

She was at least two decades younger than the others, close in age to the girl and was wearing clothing that looked wholly separate. A bleached cloak hiding the unhappy figure inside of it, covered in sanguine symbols that evoked something in the shadow; half remembered things.

"Uh… hello Panacea?"

The shadow stared absent of malice.

The ever encompassing red retreated a shade.

The word was uniquely familiar even if the pronunciation was completely butchered.

The universal cure all, the remedy for all ills.

Impossibly curious amber eyes.

A shy smile.

PANAKEIA

The red deepened.

For a moment, the shadow had not quite felt like a shadow.

"-is unable to work on brains but she can analyze them and can see the whole picture better than an MRI can." One of the white coated healers was explaining something to the girl and her father. The cloaked girl seemed to be checking something on a similar ubiquitous communication device that the girl also possessed. With a click she closed it.

The girl stared at the cloaked one with unconcealed awe and trepidation.

"Can I touch you to start the analysis?" Her voice was raspier than the shadow had expected.

"Oh, um, yeah. Sure. Thanks."

The cloaked girl laid a few fingers on the girl's arm.

Something happened.

The shadow was unable to divine what it was.

The cloakgirl's eyes widened.

After a breath she began to list terms that the shadow did not know the definition of except that the half of every phrase related to the body in some manner.

Heart, Kidney, Stomach, Lungs, Liver, Intestines... it knew the terms for the organs. Yet the cloakgirl kept listing unfamiliar terms. This continued for some time. Each of the white coated healers were frantically recording it as she kept speaking. Their professional mien did not change a single iota as they wrote.

After a point the girl shared a look with her father. Both seemed confused.

When she finally stopped, one of the white-coats left the room.

Now there were only four threats to the girl in the room.

The cloakgirl continued to touch the girl.

"It's strange," she spoke directly to the girl for the first time since touching her. "I'd almost say that this was parahuman-related but there isn't an entry point. Usually with parahuman powers, they have some point at which they start or an external sign in the body of where it began but… nothing."

The girl looked intensely uncomfortable.

Amber eyes focused on the girl. "Do you want to hear what I found?"

"Y-Yes? I mean yes."

The cloakgirl looked at the father.

He nodded.

The cloakgirl looked back at the girl.

"You experienced complete mass organ failure. I don't mean some of your insides stopped working, I mean all of them. Simultaneously."

The girl paled.

"I can't see anything going on in your brain that would relate to that or even injuries from a fall." The cloakgirl hemmed and hawed as she worried at her lip. "That's fascinating on its own. A vector for this kind of cascade should start there if any place. But nothing. Rather… the real fun is that it stopped."

She looked directly into the girl's eyes.

"Your body began to shut down in a way that shy of being in the same room as me would be fatal and then it stopped."

The girl looked as white as the pigeon-augur that the shadow had failed to kill.

The cloakgirl pulled her hand back, with reluctance, "what exactly were you doing right before you passed out?"

"I-I got a ride home from school from a friend's mom? We- I- I opened the door and walked into the house. I-I think I started to get a headache and it felt like someone was driving a railroad spike into it and then my legs just… g-gave out?"

The cloakgirl poked the girl again. She hummed. The girl looked stricken. She started to murmur several words. She seemed to be disagreeing with herself.

"Your brain looks fine… hm. How about… no, what about? No, no, no. Couldn't be that."

The frown that the cloakgirl had entered the room with was gone. She reminded the shadow of a child being given a puzzle.

She blinked and seemed to shake herself out of whatever had taken hold of her. "Do I have permission to heal the damage?" She said it by rote.

"S-Sure?"

The girl let out an audible gasp. "Thank you Panacea. I didn't realize…"

Cloakgirl seemingly didn't notice what was being said to her.

After enough time that the girl had become seemingly more bored than anything the cloakgirl let go of her arm. "I think I found the origin point of where the headache started but not the cause." She then turned to one of the white-coats and started rattling off more terms. They nodded and started writing.

Then she turned back to the girl.

"That's all I got unless there is something I'm missing?"

Taylor had a choice.

It wasn't a choice she thought she'd be making when Panacea walked into her hospital room.

She didn't think the backlash from overdoing her power would be so severe as to the point of having mass organ failure, nor that it had stuck afterwards… that wasn't how powers normally acted, was it?

Or was it?

Taylor didn't know.

But Panacea might.

[] Taylor reveals she is a parahuman to Panacea in private.
[] Taylor decides to stay safe in her anonymity.

Author's note: New chapter, let's goooooooooooooooo!

Honestly, I'm not happy with this chapter but I'm going to stick with it.

I'm really trying to bust my ass to get these out. This one felt a bit… scattered. Canonically Medhall is a big pharma company. They also have a hospital here. We also missed a rather amusing doctor from Medhall but ah well, this is fine.

The funny line was originally "The girl looked as white as the pigeon-augur that the shadow had failed to kill." in keeping with the giant's naming scheme, I found pigeon to be too bland so pigeon-augur is what it became.

Please vote! The response I've been getting is why this went from an update like twice a month to thrice that.

Jefardi · Apr 21, 2024

[X] Taylor reveals she is a parahuman to Panacea in private.

Mass organ failure was what really did it for Taylor.

She didn't know a lot about biology but she knew enough that it could not be a good thing. It had to be caused by her power. Panacea even said it was something she couldn't figure out! Maybe if she knew a power was actually involved, it would help?

"Um. Yeah. I do?"

She sounded uncertain and she hated that.

It was also something that Panacea was clearly not anticipating as she stuttered to a halt already walking away. "Yes?"

Now the hard part. Privacy.

She looked at her dad who had a blank expression on his face.

"It's private." He looked at her in askance. "Girl stuff."

A moment of sheer 'oh' went through his expression before he gave her a pat on the shoulder and went out of the room.

That still left the two other doctors.

"I can't get rid of cramps or your period." Panacea stated the moment the door closed, causing Taylor to startle at the monotone voice. "Plus you aren't on your period."

"No it's… something else."

Amber eyes stared into green.

Green gave in first as she looked at the two other medical personnel there. "I'd feel more comfortable discussing this with Panacea, alone. Please?"

One of them started to talk "We're medical professionals, Miss Hebert, we-"

"It's fine, Dr. Lang." Panacea made a gesture that Taylor couldn't see.

Dr. Lang huffed before leaving the room followed by the other man.

Taylor stared at Panacea.

Panacea stared at Taylor.

Taylor's mouth opened several times over the course of half a minute but nothing but half-strangled noises came out.

Panacea poked her in the arm much to Taylor's bewilderment. "Is this some hair-brain scheme to stalk me or be creepy?"

Taylor blinked.

"No?"

"Good." Panacea withdrew her hand. "So, what's the issue? Doctor-patient confidentiality." She huffed after a moment. "I won't tell anyone anything unless you want me to, promise."

That, somehow, did make it easier.

"I'm a parahuman."

"Huh?"

"I have powers."

Panacea slowly blinked.

Then again.

"...not what I expected."

"Yeah..."

Panacea's head tilted in consideration, "and you are telling me this…?"

"I overused my powers, I think."

"Oh." Her brow furrowed as Taylor watched the dots connect near instantly in the healer's head, "may I?" She held up her hand.

"Sure." Panacea's hand gripped Taylor's arm after she granted permission.

"I don't see it." She said after a long, long ten seconds. "Everything seems normal."

Taylor didn't know what normal was for a parahuman, but that might have been due to the fact her power was external; it wasn't like she could do anything in particular that was special.

"It's… I summon a big guy."

"...you summon a big guy?" Panacea repeated slowly.

"He's like… eight feet tall. That's pretty big."

"That… is indeed a big guy, yes."

A beat of silence as Taylor could feel one of the strongest healers in the world doubt her intelligence.

"Does the big guy do anything or…?"

"He's strong, he heals himself and can turn invisible and immaterial?"

"I…" Panacea held up a finger and lowered it. The action seemed to annoy her. "Okay. And why do you think the projection is the cause of your mass organ failure? Powers don't usually harm the parahuman that uses them. Maybe give a vicious headache but nothing like what you have." She shifted on her feet, "when I said it was unlikely a parahuman cause, I meant it. There's usually some kind of marker on the body of something unnatural happening and I couldn't find anything."

The admission seemed to make the healer happy despite the content of the words.

"I have a… limit, I guess, for how long I can have him manifested. It grows a little bit over time but when he fights, it goes down very fast." Taylor took a deep breath before letting it out. "I pushed it to the limit of what I could do and then kept pushing past when it became painful until I guess I couldn't push it any more."

"I see." Panacea hummed. "What were you pushing your power to do?" Before Taylor could even reply, Panacea continued, "is the big guy in the room right now?"

"Yes?"

"Can you manifest him?"

"S-Sure, I guess." It was weird to know someone was about to see the giant and see him in connection to herself.

The muscle tensed.

In a thin shower of yellow motes a dark shape appeared, violence and rage bound in a physical form, a comforting presence to Taylor. "I, uh, sent him to fight the Simurgh." She looked down. "I couldn't do nothing."

Taylor looked at the giant- the one thing she was certain would never betray her.

"Usually I can keep him up for an hour, but ten minutes into the fight and he was almost through the entirety of his time limit. Then I lost connection to him and when I got it back, I kept pushing to keep him there, like forcing a muscle past its limit. It hurt so, so bad. I couldn't stand up, or think, or even breathe by the end… I think my heart stopped at one point… It was just… so… painful… to keep… going… I… thought…"

She was kind of feeling like that right now.

She looked back at Panacea.

Green eyes peered into amber.

They found only pity and fear and guilt.

Green eyes lost against amber as Taylor couldn't keep them open.

Nor did they ever open again.

Tiger Dojo is a strange hint corner.
If you would like to beat the quest yourself,
or if you would like to keep the characters' images, please be warned.

This is the Tiger Dojo. Take the advice?

[X] Yes [QA wants to know what advice an endangered feline can give]
[] No

Mysterious Woman: Hello! Hi! Konichiwa! Guten Morgen! Is everyone doing fine?

Queen Administrator: [Confusion]

Mysterious Woman: An hour of reading everyday, for all you who voted to die so easily, this is assistance corner that solves all your problems in a flash, the tiger dojo!

Queen Administrator: [Query.Identity]

Mysterious Woman: So. First of all, I would like to ask what the meaning of this corner is! It totally destroys the mood of the actual story! Answer, senior student!

Queen Administrator: [Query.Auditory]

Senior Student: Osu! This dojo is the backsta-

Queen Administrator: [Query-Definition.'Dojo']

Mysterious Woman: OKAY, YOU RUDE, RUDE THING, NO ONE QUESTIONS MY DOJO OR INTERRUPTS MY STUDENTS!!! ONLY I CAN!!!

Queen Administrator: [Request-Observe.Surrounding]

Mysterious Woman: Stop with your moon speak! Speak proper Japanese!

Mysterious Woman: ...

Mysterious Woman: What do you mean look around, we're in… my… dojo…

Mysterious Woman: MY DOJO WHAT HAPPENED?!?! Did you do this?!

Queen Administrator: [Negation]

Mysterious Woman: ...I'm watching you…

Senior Student: Uh, sensei, you have a job.

Mysterious Woman (Sensei): ...how can I do my job when I have more water than respect…

Senior Student: ...you could give up your position to your most senior, beautiful, deadly, amazing student?

Sensei: Haha.

Sensei: Leg.

Senior Student: Owieee! That really hurt! Sensei please use a more gentle shinai!

Sensei: Request denied. A girl like you who kills out of love should run around the dojo three times! At once!

Sensei: ...if it was still here...

Queen Administrator: [Query-Purpose]

Sensei: I… you bring up a good point.

Sensei: Much like Fate, there will be bad ends, not as many! But there will be some. It is our job to inform you that you hit the lesser of the two types of bad ends and what may have led to it.

Senior Student: Lesser bad end, sensei?

Sensei: I'm glad you caught that my number one student!

Sensei: There are two different types of bad ends in Fate/In Glory Of. The first is one where it could be reversed within a chapter or three. If this was a video game, it's the kind a quick save could get you out of!

Senior Student: Only if they are a save scumming cheater, sensei!

Sensei: Even if they are cheating scum who shan't be allowed to live.

Sensei: The other is if a long series of bad choices and RNG screws over our hero and causes her to run out of resources and be stuck in a bad place. Think of, like, a RPG where you built your character wrong and realize sixty hours in that you can't progress anymore without a complete restart! That's the True Bad End.

Sensei: Resources are a nebulous thing that comprise what the rude space whale and the hero's valiant giant have and are very finite. They are things that are used by the hero during the story and using them up to get out of lesser bad ends will therefore limit her during the quest. The quest master-

Senior Student & Sensei: PRAISE BE JEFARDI, MAY THEIR BENEVOLENCE SHINE UPON US UNWORTHY FOOLS FOR A THOUSAND GENERATIONS!

Sensei: -has decided to give the lesser bad ends some weight. That way readers aren't always picking the bad end options to see us. It may also lock out future options entirely as well! The more bad ends that happen the less Taylor will be able to do in the quest and the more limited her future options are. The quest master-

Senior Student & Sensei: PRAISE BE JEFARDI, MAY THEIR BENEVOLENCE SHINE UPON US UNWORTHY FOOLS FOR A THOUSAND GENERATIONS!

Sensei: -has also decided in their infinite and boundless wisdom and mercy to gift this particular bad end a consequence free get out of jail free-card. The consequences are waived but only this time. Truly, we aren't worthy of their magnificence. The quest master-

Senior Student & Sensei: PRAISE BE JEFARDI, MAY THEIR BENEVOLENCE SHINE UPON US UNWORTHY FOOLS FOR A THOUSAND GENERATIONS!

Sensei: -would like everyone to try and vote intelligently but be willing to take risks. For instance, sending the giant against the Simurgh was a risk that played out. Playing completely cautious or completely suicidal will only end up in a bad time for everyone involved.

Queen Administrator: [Praise/Query-Definition.'Quest Master']

Sensei: Huh?

Senior Student: Huh?

Queen Administrator: [Huh?]

Sensei: Anyways! Senior Student! What went wrong here?

Senior Student: Hai! The readers forgot both out-of-character and more importantly(!) in-character knowledge!

Sensei: Ohoho, what all did they forget?

Senior Student: In-character: they forgot that the giant was holding a wing of The Simurgh. They also forgot that Taylor nearly screamed at the sight of the wing, because it was horrifying to be near part of the Simurgh and that was WHILE her confidence was boosted by the giant being there. How would someone else react? Out-of-character, Panacea is terrified of her own powers and (in-character) that she would assume talking to what she could only assume to be a Ziz-bomb was part of a Ziz-plot and reacted in the only way she could think to! Imagine if a Ziz-plot used her powers? Ziz plots are no jokes!

Sensei: Marvellous! Bravo!

Sensei: Taylor decided to stay anonymous as a cape, she should probably stick with it, right? At least when she is stuck in a hospital!

Sensei: Now go back and pick the other option!

Queen Administrator: [Query-Option]

Senior Student: Why would you even give the allusion of picking options if you know the outcome?

Sensei: I can answer that!

Sensei: In the future it will most likely have more than two options, but importantly, the option that led to the Tiger Dojo is still pickable!

Queen Administrator: [Query-Why]

Sensei: Fuck around and find out, basically.

Senior Student: ...

Sensei: …

Queen Administrator: […]

Sensei: ...so who broke my dojo?

Queen Administrator: [Answer]

Sensei: The hell's a Leviathan and will his insurance cover repairs?

~~The shadow became a lesser shade of its current self.~~

Taylor had a choice.

It wasn't a choice she thought she'd be making when Panacea walked into her hospital room.

She didn't think the backlash from overdoing her power would be so severe as to the point of having mass organ failure, nor that it had stuck afterwards… that wasn't how powers normally acted, was it?

Or was it?

Taylor didn't know.

But Panacea might.

[] Taylor reveals she is a parahuman to Panacea in private.
[] Taylor decides to stay safe in her anonymity.

Author's note: New chapter, woooo! Took like two hours flat to write, good job me!

Panacea thought that Taylor wanted to speak to her alone because it was either a creepy fan of hers… or she was about to deal with reporting child abuse. She can see some history of abuse in Taylor's body.

The discussion was great for the last chapter and I had to physically restrain myself from jumping in. Good time for me. Anywho, you now have a tutorial for one of the mechanics in the game and I figured that I would be kind enough to negate the cost THIS TIME. Only once. I'm still debating if I should actually make the cost happen just to give an idea of what it could be like.

Please vote and discuss!

Jefardi · Apr 23, 2024

[X] Taylor decides to stay safe in her anonymity.

Taylor shook her head.

In the end, Taylor valued her civilian identity more than anything. It was what was keeping herself, her dad and her friends separated from any of her caping endeavors, as nascent as they were.

Panacea lingered for a moment before starting to shuffle to the door.

The swung open almost soundlessly, only a 'swoosh' could be heard as it opened. Then came a rather loud 'thonk' accompanied by an almost impossible to hear 'crrk' as the door slammed into Panacea's face just as Nikki shouted; "I have returned!"

Of course that was over shadowed by the fact that Panacea had just been knocked to the ground and was clutching her face, letting out a low groan.

"Oh, hello. You should not be on the floor, even in an hospital it can be unsanitary." Nikki stated before turning back to Taylor, completely ignoring the two white-coated doctors rushing to help Panacea up from the ground- even her dad had made an abortive move to help her up. "Are you well?"

"Uh, ye- you- you knocked over Panacea!"

"I did. Perhaps she will not lurk outside doors from now on." Nikki hummed softly. "Forget her, are you okay?" the Russian girl reached up, soft hand gently resting against Taylor's cheek as she inspected Taylor's face.

"No, Ni-"

"What is wrong with you?!" Panacea was looking at Nikki, holding her nose which did little to hide the red coming out of it.

Nikki turned, regarding Panacea coldly. "You look injured, perhaps you should ask the nurses here to look at your nose?"

Panacea stared at Nikki.

The doctors stared at Nikki.

Her dad stared at Nikki.

Taylor stared at Nikki.

Nikki turned away from Panacea, her mood switching like a light switch. "I'm so glad you are okay Taylor! I was very worried when I heard you were in the hospital!"

"No, seriously, what the actual fuck is wrong with you?"

Nikki paused, a small tight frown on her face. She craned her head to look at Panacea, and she held her gaze on Panacea. "I apologise for hitting you with the door, but it was an accident."

"Nikki", Taylor hissed, eyes darting between the two, "you busted up her face!"

"The door is the one that did the busting." Nikki waved it away. "It was an accident, I apologized. I cannot fix her nose. Time will, and someone setting it."

Panacea muttered something nasally and angry sounding vaguely like 'unrepentant bitch' before stalking out of the room, one of the white-coated professionals following her like a duckling after it's mother. The other doctor started to discuss something with her dad who was giving her and Nikki the occasional look.

"That was really rude!" Taylor couldn't believe Nikki was that callous about hurting a hero, especially someone who had just healed her.

Nikki paused for a moment. Then she slowly nodded. "Perhaps. Perhaps I felt a bit of animosity towards her indifferent attitude towards your condition. Despite how it affected your father and I."

Gently Nikki took Taylor's hand into her own. It was warm and light grip. "I was… fearful for you."

Taylor sighed. There wasn't much she could really say to that. Still...

"Thanks."

Having someone who wasn't her family care for her gave her a kind of thrill that was heady.

Nikki gently rubbed the back of Taylor's hand with her thumb. "Did she state what had caused your collapse?"

The cause was still something she was having trouble wrapping her head around as she numbly stated, "mass simultaneous organ failure."

Nikki stared at her.

Nikki opened her mouth.

Nikki closed her mouth.

After a moment she tried again.

"Why?'

Taylor shrugged.

That was the question of the hour, wasn't it?

Perhaps the only reason she wasn't freaking out as much as everyone else was because she had a decent inkling on what the likely cause of the organ failure; power over-usage. Or at least she hoped that was the case. Perhaps a little self-delusional but… it made her less fearful of whatever that was from happening again. At least not without Taylor causing it intentionally.

"And she did not even know?" Nikki sent a truly venomous glance at the door the healer had left through, a smidgen of blood left on the handle.

"She was able to figure out the start point of the headache that was right before it happened but, uh, I think she said something along the lines of it was disconnected from the rest."

Taylor glanced at the door.

"She was stumped."

Nikki's frown deepened, it looked out of place on the girl's face. "I should have ignored your father and hired Limbsmaster to look you over instead of relying on Panacea."

Taylor blinked.

"What?"

"I was very close to hiring Limbsmaster to come and inspect your health after the doctors shrugged their shoulders for the sixth time. Your father disagreed due to the price and that he did not trust Limbsmaster, who he implied was a 'back alley surgeon'. As if I would let someone like that operate on you." Nikki huffed. "I checked, she is certified by the PRT."

This wasn't borderline creepy or possessive behaviour that her mom had warned her about when she dated, no siree! Or the fact that she had tried to talk to her dad about getting her removed from the hospital. Nope, nope, nope. Maybe things were done differently in Russia, but here and now, that was super sketchy.

Taylor put that in a 'think about it later' box.

"Just because Limbsmaster helped Joanna doesn't mean I should have seen someone who specializes in replacing limbs."

"She does organs too." Nikki noted. "Trust me, Taylor, I researched everything I could about possible nearby healers while you were unconscious."

Nikki was being defensive, was it because Limbsmaster is her favourite cape? It was something Taylor still didn't understand- she had seen the cape in person and she had been kind of disconcerting.

The cape had made Taylor feel like she wanted to harvest her hair.

Creepy.

"I know she's your favourite cape, but I'd rather have the most potent healer in the city take a look at me." That was the most neutral answer she could give. The diplomatic answer.

"It's the matter of motivation." Nikki stated, cocking her head to the side. "Limbsmaster would be motivated by money, making her more likely to care. Panacea came because it was breaking up her monotony."

Taylor was getting a distinct impression that Nikki might arrange to have Panacea 's kneecaps broken... Somehow.

Nikki shook her head. "It does not matter now. I am simply happy you are seemingly in better health now."

"Yeah. She healed my insides." Taylor had a soft smile. She didn't realize how much had actually been hurting until it went away- she didn't even realize that everything was hurting, like her existence was being condensed. "I feel a lot better." The smile became a lot more shaky as she added, "hopefully it doesn't happen again?"

Unsaid to anyone but herself was the fact that Taylor had probably caused it to herself and she had a distinct heavy feeling in her gut she would do it again.

"I'll be there for you." Nikki noted, not a promise, a certainty. "If it ever does happen again."

Well, that was something at least.

Taylor had some time with Nikki before she had to leave. It was nice. The rest of her was spent going through a battery of tests that the experts that work with Panacea decided on.

In between these tests, Taylor…

[] ...did some cape research on her phone including whatever people said about Canberra.
[] ...got out of her room and stretched her legs [Rolls on the random hospital social encounter table]

Author's note: I'm excited for either option to win.

Well, Nikki is sure a thing. Yay? I'm realizing this looks like me hating Panpan when I don't. I swear. Blame my editor.

I got three chapters out in a week! Huzzah!

That discussion for last chapter got interesting.

Please vote and discuss!

Jefardi · Apr 28, 2024

[X] ...did some cape research on her phone including whatever people said about Canberra.

It was one of the two burning questions in Taylor's mind and the one that made her more excited than stressed;

Was there any report of the giant fighting the Simurgh?

She assumed he did well- he brought back a wing after all. Taylor assumed that it wasn't given up freely and he had used up a lot of the gauge during the fight very quickly, so she didn't think it was anything easy. Right before she passed out, he had burned through what felt like a quarter of his total up-time in a matter of seconds.

It was between MRIs and CT scans and a bunch more that she couldn't remember the names of, that Taylor was using her smartphone to find out.

As famous as Endbringer fights are, there was paradoxically very little of it reported in any detail.

It made sense; Endbringer fights usually ended one of two ways-

The good days when Scion arrived and fended them off before they finally left. Or…

The bad days when he never showed.

It was also just… morbid. No one really wanted to acknowledge it but everyone understood that every time the siren sounded, another part of the world crumbled away. It sank, it got irradiated or fell into madness.

Statistically, even if nothing else was going wrong in the world- if the world wasn't still in the aftershocks from the appearance of parahumans- each Endbringer attack was just breaking the global supply network, straining it beyond repair. International trade had been going down since the mid-90s. At some point, the Endbringers were going to hit a point where the world couldn't recover from their damage. It might be in fifteen years or fifty… but it would happen.

Everyone knew that.

Good days just meant the decline was put off for another few months.

Even then, 'good days' was a misnomer. A 'good day' still involved a ton of people dying usually and a lot of land being made unusable.

Scion had not made it to Canberra.

Despite that on the good to bad scale for a typical Endbringer event, it seemed to lean more towards good than bad. Close to half the population were able to make it out of the affected area. That sounded terrible, but usually it was closer to none or thereabouts.

At least a hundred thousand people had been able to evacuate.

Taylor was hopeful that the giant had been able to contribute to that number, though she didn't know otherwise. Nor could she find out.

People tended to not stick around and record Endbringer fights- namely because those that did tended to end up dead. Being within sight-line of a Endbringer was bad news.

This was triply true for the Simurgh.

Outside of crazy cultists, who in their right mind would stick around to take a recording of something that if it didn't kill you would mind control you into probably killing everyone you know?

Probably a lot of people but none posted their videos where Taylor could easily find them.

She blamed the moderators.

So, it was no great surprise to Taylor that she couldn't find out much about the fight in particular.

There were rumours on PHO that her scream was different this time, several of the capes who had been to multiple Ziz fights said they had heard something different, but the Protectorate and the Guild had yet to say anything on the matter. Taylor was fairly confident that if there was something big like that, they would have quarantined more people. Or said something.

Right?

There were other bits of random comments that kept reoccurring;

- The Simurgh attacked Australia because the wild life was the only thing that could ever threaten a Endbringer.

- The same as above but just more racist.

- That the PRT was hiding the true extent of the fight.

- The Australian government had been taken over by the Simurgh.

- The Simurgh's target had been to build an army of outback spiders to take over the world.

The one that caught Taylor's attention, however, was capes from the fight posting 'RIP Madlad'. Madlad was not a cape name that Taylor could find on AskJeeves or on the Parahuman Online wiki. It took a lot of searching the forums to find someone who had already asked the question that she had;

'Who tf is madlad?'

'Some big fuck-off brute that appeared, tried to 1v1 her, got some hits on Ziz and then she kicked the shit out of him for like, ten minutes. Like, sick shit, she was toying with him. Then she killed him, something happened and she got stuck out in the bush for a bit.

Like, he knew he was gonna die and he tried to suicide the feather bitch with him or something.

Don't know his name but he was one madlad. RIP.'

'What did he look like? Maybe we can find his name'

'I couldn't see him very well, but he was black and glowed red and was like eight or nine feet. Like a big tosser'

Taylor looked in wonderment at the ever present shadow in the corner of the room.

The other question concerned her power but in a far more distressing way.

Was powers having a backlash a common thing?

A cursory search said no.

A more in-depth search said maybe.

Thinkers, people who could pull information out of nothing or see the future or just think better got headaches from overusing them.

That didn't exactly sound like what had happened to Taylor; she got a headache and it had hurt more than just about anything else she had felt, but having mass organ failure didn't quite fall in line with the rest.

There was some public research into how powers affected mindsets that people linked to on PHO but none of it seemed to relate to her.

There was also talk of tinkertech failing and injuring but that seemed to be more… expected than anything.

Finally there was… the crazies.

Taylor couldn't think of any other word for them. The people who had to be institutionalized because of their powers. Their powers had broken them so badly they couldn't even pretend to function in society. Here too, from what little Taylor could find, was divergent from what she was experiencing. They seemed to have powers that fundamentally altered them as a person or just made them a danger to be around. It was something that Taylor was most assuredly not. Or so she hoped.

Which left… nothing, really.

Taylor ultimately decided to tentatively say 'no'.

Taylor stared at the phone screen.

She had been bored and looking at the PRT-official thread.

Like, really, really bored.

Mostly she had been trying to find out if they were going to put out anything else officially about the Canberra fight.

She had been scrolling back through previous posts and found an official post from nearly five years ago; 'Disposal of Endbringer material.' It had a hyperlink to the PRT website that listed how to dispose of Endbringer material if for some reason you acquired some.

Namely by contacting a specific PRT number and arranging a drop off.

She bookmarked that for later.

Taylor's bed creaked as she laid on it.

They had just gotten back from the hospital a few hours ago.

They found nothing.

All the tests they ran had found nothing actionable, at least initially. Maybe they'd find out a cause later, but for now… nothing.

Functionally there was nothing wrong with Taylor Anne Hebert as near as the hospital could find, backed up by the testimony from Panacea. Which meant that there was no reason to keep her there. It's not as if she was feeling anything less than stellar since Panacea had healed what had happened to her.

She was basically told that it probably wouldn't happen again.

Probably.

Her dad was unhappy.

Nikki was unhappy.

Taylor felt guilty.

...it was nice to be back in her own bed, however.

Taylor stared at the ceiling.

She wanted to manifest the giant.

It was an itch in the back of her head that kept nagging, unable to be scratched until she did it. Persistent and unreachable.

She didn't want to manifest the giant holding the Endbringer wing inside her house. Even if she knew the giant would keep her safe at all costs. Even if the webpage somewhat implied that it wasn't exactly rare to find bits and pieces of Endbringer after the fight, seeing a Ziz wing still made her… disconcerted.

It was also frankly massive.

The giant had looked almost normal sized comparatively.

Taylor knew what the Simurgh looked like, but it didn't quite put into perspective how big their scale was until you saw something of theirs in the flesh.

She had been debating what to do with the wing for the last few days.

She came up with several ideas.

The easiest was to just bury it and hope that nothing bad came of it. That… had the distinct possibility of a lot going wrong- someone finding it, for instance.

...she figured the giant could probably dig a pretty deep hole, though.

Plus, who knows when they are going to need a Simurgh wing for later? No one. But she would be prepared in that incredibly unlikely scenario.

Another was to have him throw it as far as away as possible; really it was just passing the buck down the line to someone else but Taylor had a hunch he could chuck it many miles away from the city. It would get the wing out of her personal space the fastest, that's for sure.

She could always have him keep it as a weapon. He seemed to have used it as such given how she could somewhat make out in his de-manifested form. Having him dual wield could be… fun? Cool?

…

…

…

She knew that was a really dumb idea but it gave him a much longer reach weapon.

Taylor could have the giant try to destroy it. Presumably, he was able to, given he was able to pull it off the Simurgh? She would definitely need to make a whole day trip into the forest to try since it was probably going to be loud.

Then… there was always trying to figure out how to hand it off to the PRT. The PRT wasn't alone in wanting Endbringer pieces- turns out many tinkers and that crazy Endbringer cult put out a bounty for pieces of them but Taylor didn't exactly feel… secure in giving them access to a Simurgh wing.

Regardless, Taylor was going to make a decision before she fell asleep for the night.

For the yeet or bury options, please give suggestions if you feel so inclined. Votes 1, 2 and 4 will have a vote in the next chapter on the actual minutiae of how this will happen.

Please vote for one of the following.

[] Bury it somewhere. There will be a vote after this on where. (In the forest, ???)
[] Yeet it away. There will be a vote after this on where. (Ocean, ???)
[] Taylor had the giant keep it and use it as a weapon. Maybe it would scare the villains he fought? [+1, QA is intrigued and is somewhat smug about displaying such a trophy]
[] Start the process of finding a way to get this to the PRT. There will be a vote after this on how.
[] Have the giant attempt to destroy it.
~~[] Sell it to the Fallen.~~ AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no unless you could justify why Taylor would.

Author's note: This chapter is a bit… bland. It's mostly a setup for what will happen next.

I realized that to the hospital, there's literally not a reason to keep her in if they can't find anything and in turn the only other option would be to have Taylor under observation but that would kill the flow of the story progression.

Each option will have something unique happen.

Taylor having the giant yeet it will not do it from her home. She's not stupid.

Please list any thoughts or suggestions you have for any vote options 1, 2 or 4's future votes. I have basically two for each at the moment.

As always, please discuss and vote!

Jefardi · May 2, 2024

[X] Start the process of finding a way to get this to the PRT. There will be a vote after this on how.

Taylor's thoughts were interrupted by her phone's new message ding. It was nice to not have it set to silent.

It was Joanna.

'Awake?'

A moment later, 'Oh right. You okay?'

Right, she didn't know. 'Now, yes. Future is uncertain.' It was only uncertain because Taylor was probably going to cause it to happen again.

'So what's going on? What happened?'

'When you dropped me off, I got a headache and then I collapsed. Panacea said it was mass organ failure.'

Taylor could imagine the pause and could practically see the expression on Joanna's face. Poleaxed, that was the term. And then...

'The fuck?'

'Yeah.'

'Wtf. How? Why?' Taylor knew the why but not so much the how. Yet instead she said...

'Panacea couldn't figure it out.' Then she quickly added, 'Also Nikki may have broken Panacea's nose.'

The reply was near instant, 'she WHAT?!'

'She opened the door into Panacea's face, knocked her over and then told her the floor was dirty and she should find a nurse to fix her face somewhere else.' That was almost exactly what had happened. Except Nikki had been a lot meaner about it.

'Holy shit'

'You're beefing with New Wave?'

Taylor groaned as she pushed her head into the comforter that she was lying on. 'Nikki's the one with the problem with Panacea. Panacea was perfectly cordial with me.'

'Why did she have a problem with Panacea?' That was a really good question in Taylor's mind and one she wanted to know because Nikki really had been excessively mean to Panacea.

'So... I got seen by Panacea because my situation was weird enough that they got us in because it'd break up her monotony of healing terminal patients I think.'

'I don't think Nikki liked that.'

'Figures. Well, at least you got a girl willing to spill blood for you.' Red inched up Taylor's neck. Nikki wasn't her girl. They just went on a date. With a promise of more dates. Yeah. 'why is your life like this?'

'I don't know. In the past two months I got threatened by Kage, had LimbsMaster creep on my hair, got healed by Panacea, and got nearly ran over by the Undersiders. What's next, Glory Girl is going to threaten me? Hookwolf is gonna give me bus money? Armsmaster is going to break into my house?'

'Don't temp it'.

No shit?

'Yeah. How are you doing? How did your... everything go?' Taylor didn't know how to exactly ask "how did your tax evasion for Endbringer relief go" but she figured Joanna could figure it out.

'About as well as it could have gone' Joanna answered 'glad to be back home though.'

Taylor texted back a smiley face.

When no return messages came after a minute, she let the phone flop out of her fingers and onto the bed.

Taylor really did want to keep the wing.

Maybe it was pride or some other notion that made her want to keep it, but in the end it came down to a singular issue.

This was the Simurgh's wing.

She didn't want to keep it around her. Frankly it freaked her the hell out knowing the giant had it.

Which meant she needed to get rid of it. Preferably by giving it to the proper authorities. That opened another can of worms of how to do that.

Taylor had a couple of ideas on how to do it;

The first and most easy was to contact the PRT ENE directly and arrange a drop off. Just… call the number. Problem was that they would have to, you know, talk to her to find this out. Pay-phones existed but it would also tell whoever was on the other line that someone young and female was associated with the giant.

Which was why it was very nice that she could send the official PRT ENE account a message from a throwaway PHO account.

...the idea of sending the giant into the PRT lobby to drop off a Ziz wing still made her nervous about something going wrong. Ergo, it wasn't her first option though it also wasn't her last option.

Another idea she had was to just leave some place where no-one would find it- like a dozen miles into a forest and then just give the PRT the location information and hope no one else found it. Which would be insane, why would anyone else go looking in the middle of the woods for a Ziz wing?

...it would probably scare the crap out of anyone that wandered into…

…

…

…

...maybe leaving it in an abandoned building would be a better idea?

Plus side, there would be no possibility of something going wrong if neither the PRT or giant caught sight of each other.

The other credible idea she had was to route this whole thing through an independent hero.

Gravwell.

Outside of New Wave, she was the most active independent hero in Brockton Bay and had been active since Taylor had turned ten. She was certainly a full-time hero given that from the hours she went heroing people widely assumed she didn't have a particularly full civilian life.

She would also act like a buffer between the giant and the PRT and hopefully smooth over any… issues.

Taylor wasn't an optimist. She assumed that something that could go wrong probably would.

She had looked into Gravwell after the encounter with the Undersiders. The hero was very pro-independent and would probably keep the peace if something happened. The problem was that Taylor knew little about the woman's motivations personally.

The reason that Taylor was particularly confident of going to Gravwell compared to, say, New Wave, was that she was one of the two pillars of whatever independent heroes that were in the Bay and was particularly encouraging to them- she even had taken in Purity.

...and Taylor was pretty sure Gravwell would be far more accommodating about trying to keep everything as anonymous as possible compared to New Wave. Visibility and accountability that listed as their core tenants ran counter to that.

While Gravwell was easy to find- she was always spending some hours of Sunday in the park letting little kids fly with her powers- Taylor was cognizant enough to realize that having the giant appear holding the wing while she was entertaining children was not a good idea. Nor having the giant appear during one of her patrols, assuming she could locate the woman, would be a good idea. Taylor had to assume having a quarter ton of muscles suddenly appearing with a Simurgh wing was still a bad idea.

Taylor could instead message her on PHO and see if she could set up a drop off with the PRT.

Throwaway PHO accounts were great.

Turns out there was some good in getting used to making new email accounts when someone signed her's up for every spam email imaginable… who would have thought?

There was also a blunt way that could be done that side stepped every aspect of the communication part of the previous options.

Just have the giant toss the wing near the Rig.

...it probably would float, right?

Easily the safest option, in Taylor's mind. Even if it was the one most likely to give several people in the PRT and the Protectorate a heart attack.

The final option that Taylor could think of would be to try and arrange a drop off at another PRT department. It would do well to suggest that the giant wasn't always based in Brockton Bay but it also came with the significant downside of having to give the giant a bunch of directions and hoping he could follow them and that they weren't wrong.

...Taylor also didn't want to send the giant away from her side or at least sight, if she was honest but it was an option.

[] Message the PRT ENE directly to arrange a drop off.
[] Leave the wing in an isolated location and message PRT ENE where it is.
[] Contact Gravwell and have her handle the drop off arrangements.
[] Have the giant toss it near the Rig and wipe your hands of this whole thing.
[] Reach out to a different PRT department.

Author's note: Dang, the voting got close again.

A new chapter, I offer forth as tribute!

So, fun fact, if we hadn't had Taylor research at the hospital, giving the wing to the PRT wouldn't have been an option. Or at least not this quickly. It was what was gained in the trade off by giving up the hospital socials.

To be honest, it's kind of wacky when I think how much votes and chance have led to this particular action.

As always, please vote and discuss- thank you for giving so many votes in the past few chapters! We've had multiple chapters in the past few votes get more than fifty votes which is absolutely nuts to me. Thank you all!

Jefardi · May 6, 2024

[X] Have the giant toss it near the Rig and wipe your hands of this whole thing.

What it ultimately came down to was that Taylor just wanted to be done with this.

She didn't feel like she should materialize the giant while he held the wing but the longer she didn't, the antsier she got. She wanted it gone.

She had considered Gravwell but in the end, urgency won out.

Originally she would just manifest the giant and have him toss the wing at the Protectorate ENE headquarters off the shoreline… except the problem was she didn't know if he would be able to get it close enough without being able to see it from within the city. Or toss it far enough.

However, she had an idea.

It was stupid and perhaps a little silly.

What if she had the giant emerge from the bay like he had just swam back from Australia, and then toss it towards the Protectorate HQ and then re-enter the water before being demanifested?

Taylor could use some silly.

Plus it sort of implied that the giant was out of country and had been spending the past four and a half days swimming back and therefore clearly was not Taylor who multiple people had seen in the intervening time. Impeccable logic.

Taylor blinked as she rolled over to her nightstand and pulled out a notepad; figure out how the hell the giant got to and from Australia. That was for later.

She pulled the notepad to her and started to scribble on it.

When Taylor had first realized she had a power, she had wondered if it was possible to give him nested directives, like programming if/elif/else conditional statements. She hadn't been able to exactly get that to work during testing but she had figured out that the giant could follow a line of directives.

Normally, this wouldn't help- from the few cape fights she had been present for she had seen they were too chaotic to do this kind of thing.

But this?

Telling the giant where to go and to toss something near a structure and then leave?

That was fine.

She finished writing on the notepad before opening her phone and starting an image search and a map search. After a few minutes, she had everything she wanted pulled up.

"Hey, uh, so I know you have a wing but we need to get rid of it."

The shadowed spectre in the room did not respond.

Truthfully it was hard for Taylor to distinguish any of his individual features like this. Her usual strategy to have him nod or shake his head wouldn't work.

"Do you remember the bay and the big, uh… glowing half dome in the bay?" she flashed her phone's screen with an image of it to the giant for a dozen seconds. "Stand there," she pointed to one part of the room, "for yes and there," she pointed to the opposite corner, "if you don't."

The shadow moved/glided/transitioned to the yes corner.

"Good, good." She was really glad her dad was taking a shower right then. "Can you please go into the Bay, wait until I manifest you? Stay where you are at if you can, where you were if you don't understand and the other corner if you can't." No change in position. "When you manifest can you walk up to the shoreline and throw the wing near the half dome structure in the water? Same position for yes, original spot for don't understand and other corner for no." Once more, no change. "It has to be near it but you can't hit it." Taylor stressed the word. "Or hurt anyone. You shouldn't have to hurt anyone today, okay?"

The giant didn't respond and it took Taylor an embarrassingly long amount of time to remember that he couldn't or wouldn't. "Move if you can't, stay still if you can." No disagreement.

"After you throw the wing, I want you to go back into the water, at least make sure you get, uh, double, no, four times…? Yeah, four times deeper than you are tall and wait to get demanifested. Move if you can't, stay still if you can."

Taylor nodded to herself after a moment. Good, all the individual components seemed to work. She didn't want to give a long directive to the giant and then figure out where in it he disagreed with it's feasibility.

"Can you please go into the Bay, to a spot at least four times deeper than you are tall, wait until I manifest you, get to shore, throw the wing towards the half dome structure in the center of the Bay, do not hit it or hurt anyone and then go back into the original spot you were at until I demanifest you and then come back here? Wave your arm if you can and do nothing if you can't."

The shadow seemed to reach out for a moment in an abortive movement.

That seemed like agreement.

"Then, um… go do it?"

It came out as a question but it evidently was enough for the giant whose presence slipped away from the room.

Taylor waited nearly three hours before manifesting him.

Was it overly cautious? Probably.

At one point she jolted with the realization that he could be drowning only to then realize that if the giant could pass through solid objects when he was unmanifested, it probably was a non-issue.

Mostly she spent the hours trying to read and succeeding in reading the same five pages on repeat. She didn't even remember those pages now. A waste of time.

A minute later some aspect of her connection to the giant, a part that she couldn't name but knew within her heart existed changed. Not for the worse or better, but just… changed. A feeling she didn't know she had even been feeling since she passed out left her.

Before she had even fully processed that, a number of dull, low thuds rumbled out.

She blinked.

The giant didn't seem to be using up any more of the gauge than normal. He didn't seem to be in combat.

Those were unrelated, right?

A siren started to ring out before being cut off after a few seconds in the distance.

Right?!

Her stomach clenched in an unpleasant manner.

Oh shit, what did he do?

Within thirty seconds she untensed the muscle.

A minute later the spectre of a shadow was back in her room.

The muscle tensed again.

He stood before her none worse for wear.

It was a wounded up part of Taylor that finally unclenched at the sight of him. Her jaw relaxed- she didn't even realize it had been tensing. A small smile tugged at her lips.

All was right once more.

The next day, Tuesday, came in what felt like the blink of an eye.

Taylor had been given several extensions on her homework for understandable reasons. It also helped that she knew her homework wasn't going to get wrecked when it came to motivation. Still, she wasn't able to finish all of it up- only an errant worksheet left for Biology.

She very, very pointedly did not look on PHO or the news to see what had happened. She would deal with that later. Like after her homework. Totally.

It was with a somewhat good mood she went back to class. She even arrived a whole ten minutes early! As such she was able to find her friends.

"-don't know. It's slightly panicking." Joanna sighed.

"I doubt any such ill will come to this city." Nikki replied. "Perhaps the giant parahuman only wished to deliver it here?"

"Deliver what?"

"I was at the Boardwalk yesterday." Joanna answered. "And the fucking missile defense system they had on it went off!"

"What?!" That most assuredly wasn't related to the giant- she had told him not to start anything. Taylor was pretty certain she would have realized if the giant had gotten hit by a missile.

"It is all over PHO." Nikki noted.

"Yeah. My mom and I were there because we were going to a frozen yogurt place my mom likes-because of you know what freaks her out." Joanna started. "Then none other than this giant dark-as-coal parahuman walks out of the water, throws a goddamn white thing at the Protectorate headquarters and walks back into the ocean! The fucking missile system shot at it!"

Oh. Oh fuck.

"Capes on PHO have identified the unknown parahuman as 'Madlad' and the object he threw as a wing of the Simurgh." Nikki piped up.

Joanna shuddered. "Jesus H Christ."

"Yes, quite a few capes from the Simurgh fight are undergoing Quarantine apparently." Nikki added.

"Oh. That's bad." Her brow furrowed. "Did... did he swim here with that thing?" That sounded like someone who didn't know he was probably standing on the seabed for three hours would say, right?

"Swim? No he just walked up the beach and threw it before walking back into the Bay! It was like he was carved out of stone!" Joanna pressed a hand to her forehead. "God this is giving me a headache."

"I have some tylenol?" What the hell else do you say to that? Sorry my power scared the crap out of everyone and threw a Endbringer piece so badly the missile defense system for the governmental heroes activated?

"It's fine." Joanna sighed. "So, what is it like to be healed by Panacea?" She asked. "Heard it tingles."

"A little." Taylor worried at the corner of her mouth as she tries to think about how to describe it. "Imagine your insides squirming and moving around and you can tell it's not your body doing that. For half a second." She shivered at the recollection. "I felt it in my bones."

"Sounds like a parasite." Joanna noted "Well, that makes me a bit happier about never being able to get her healing services. God only knows how that would feel all over. Though, it might be nice to feel anything from my hips down."

"Perhaps you should revisit Limbsmaster and upgrade whatever it is that she gave you?" Nikki asked

Joanna snorted, turning her head to Taylor. "Want some tinkertech in you? Heard Limbsmaster does 2 for 1 deals." She asked, though her tone of voice was clearly sarcastic.

"I've always wanted my hand to have USB accessibility." Taylor stated flatly as Joanna's lips twisted up into an amused smirk before turning to Nikki, "what would you want?"

"I would not mind a robot arm. I could be like that side character from the movie we watched. Silver Touch." Nikki stated with a soft smile.

"Why?"

"It is cool." Nikki nodded as if that explained all. "Be like a movie star."

"Yeah, well have fun with that. I'd just like to feel carpets with my toes again." Joanna sighed, this time it sounded more longing than frustrated.

"Limbsmaster couldn't do better?" She made a gesture, "that seems... not good." She struggled with describing her thoughts for a moment – she didn't think Joanna's mom would skimp when it came to something like this, "I thought someone with limbs in their name would be better."

Joanna blinked as Nikki turned to look at Taylor. "Oh. Uh. Yeah, obviously. This was the least invasive option, also not the greatest in terms of function. She has a range of tinkertech for medical functions."

"Oh." That made sense.

"Yeah. So I'm thinking of going for a… more invasive surgery. Moving under my own power is... I can't explain it. Not really. But I miss numb toes in the cold, and the warmth of a heated seat." Joanna explained. "It's the little things."

"I wish you the best of luck then." Nikki stated as she slid her hand into Taylor's. Somehow she didn't jump at the action. The warm fingers felt nice. "Perhaps, if you do so, we can visit a beach together."

"Maybe."

Whatever Nikki replied with was lost as the warning bell rang and Taylor had to hustle to her locker.

After school, Taylor decided to…

[] Patrol – Go search for trouble [+1. QA would like some data, thank you very much.]
[] Research Local – Find out what's going on with the cape scene in Brockton Bay
[] Power experimentation – Taylor is going to mess around with her power/prep for exciting part of cape life
[] Preparations – Taylor doing prep work for the boring part of being a cape
~~[] Cape social (Taylor doesn't know any capes yet) – Talk to another cape~~

Author's note: Another few days, another chapter!

The vote was pretty close until yeet just pulled away at the end.

I'm realizing Nikki and Taylor have golden retriever and black cat energy. Weird but funny.

I… got nothing really to add to the author's note today. Please vote and discuss as always!

Fate/In Glory Of (Worm)

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