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Taylor's Gotta Power [Worm/Dragonball] [Complete]

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To be fair, quantified power levels are bullshit and in canon people say so and they aren't bought up post Frieza saga. And power levels measure metaphysical energy, not feats, so I don't know if doubling power levels multiplies punch force by 2, sqrt (2), 2.23, 4, et al. But yeah, the power creep is nuts. End game DB characters were fighting for the fate of the planet. Vegeta when first introduced was probably planet-buster, but even if he wasn't planet buster until Namek, everyone's power levels ramp up exponentially, even if you don't include transformations. Roshi destroyed the moon near the first arc of DB, and Piccolo did it near the beginning of DBZ. And then some guy made Androids capable of defeating Super Saiyans in his basement. Just feel free to do what makes the plot work.
 
I'm very interested on where this goes. But will you please make sure to add in an index? Sorry if I sound whiny or something, but I really hate stories that have lot's of chapters, with even more comments in between them, and no index. Or, maybe dedicate a thread to just the story. I've seen that done as well, and it worked fantastically.
 
Edited so that Taylor isn't taking off her clothes in January weather under the Boardwalk. I can't believe I missed this. Also, I've been making minor edits all along (Taco Bell doesn't serve Coke.)
 
Vicjer said:
While I agree with most of what you said I do have one correction: Goku couldn't move faster than lightning until after he trained will Popo and Kami (and even then, that might have been hyperbole, so maybe even later. It would definitely be pre-SSJ though, so your point still stands). The rest seems legit though. Anything that needs to be measured on the DBZ power level scale is guaranteed to be bullshit and a half.
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The Afterimage technique requires the user to move faster than the eye can see. Even Krillin on the first World Tournament was faster than lightning.
 
LSauchelli said:
The Afterimage technique requires the user to move faster than the eye can see. Even Krillin on the first World Tournament was faster than lightning.
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... I'm too lazy to look up how fast the human eye can perceive things as well as the speed of lightning, so I'll just say "touché" and leave it at that.
 
So... How is she flying? There was no dancing! No dancing I say! :p

Also, the Dragon Balls are a creation of the Namekians. No Namekians, no Dragon Balls. Don't feel the need to throw them in. Earth bet is crazy enough as is really.

Keep it coming.
 
I'm interested! Good writing so far. I hope there will be more.

Please, please use threadmarks though. At least an index. If there isn't at least an index, I honestly won't be able to read much farther; I don't have time to dig through entire threads looking for story posts.
 
LSauchelli said:
The Afterimage technique requires the user to move faster than the eye can see. Even Krillin on the first World Tournament was faster than lightning.
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The return flash of lightning travels at about 1/3rd the speed of light. A trained and experienced fighter pilot can identify something that was flashed on screen for 1/255th of a second, and identify that there was something when flashed for 1/300th of a second. So while the afterimage technique requires a certain level of speed, it probably isn't as fast as lightning. If it was, Goku wouldn't have taken so long to go over Snake Way, which is about 625,000 miles. It would have taken him barely anytime at all.
 
Even if Goku at that point could only run at a speed just above what te eye can follow, he'd still should have gotten to Kaio-sama's place much faster. Maybe he couldn't sustain that speed or the turns made the Snake Way longer than what was stated. Or maybe being able to move for a split of a second that fast doesn't translate to running speed. Or maybe Toriyama forgot.
 
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Chapter 3: Conflict in the Terrible School, and Elsewhere
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    • Chapter 3: Conflict in the Terrible School, and Elsewhere​

    January 6, 2011

    The fact that the school administration wouldn't even meet with Dad and me until next Tuesday should have told us how well it would go. At any rate, I was forced to stay in school with Winslow's own Triumvirate of hell until then.

    My new powers made me immune to lockers, or rather lockers not immune to me, but physical confrontation was only a small part of the problem. Whoever made up that saying about sticks and stones and words must not have seen even an Empire 88 rally, let alone Winslow, and their children must have talked back to them a lot because, after all, how could words possibly be anything wrong? My Mom was an English professor and depended on words.

    I had been keeping track of them all day, as before the locker, except that instead of furtive glances up when I hoped nobody was watching me, I was sensing their ki through the walls. Even if I never got a chance today to go out as a cape, at least I would be training that one power. I wondered just how trainable it was, anyway. It felt like I should be able to sense them from more than a couple of dozen feet away, but I really had no basis for comparison.

    The first one I noticed was Emma. Once the bell rang and Mr. Gladly's class (currently discussing World War II) let us out, I could tell that Emma, who had left first, had stopped somewhere in the hall, around a corner to the right. A second later, so did Madison. My senses were not really that much better than non-capes' which left me with no way to hear if they were just talking about their idol Sophia or if it was something I needed to worry about. Sophia herself had come from whatever class she had and was waiting around the corner to the left. I had to go left anyway and at least would only be facing one.

    It would be wrong to say that Sophia had first spotted me then. But it was the first time today that I registered as a target. "There you are," she said as I passed by. She moved to trip me, but I could see it coming and turned around. "Go flee, coward," she said. "You know where you stand. I'm surprised you even dared come back here after that prank. Was it fun for you too?"

    I walked at a rapid pace in the other direction. Emma and Madison were already moving away. Perhaps it wasn't a trap after all. They weren't going to the lunchroom--where were they going? Something was strange here. I tried to stay out of sight as I followed them, but Emma spotted me. "Girl talk," she said. "And someone who cries over losing a flute hardly even counts as a girl."

    They ran off. I followed them away from the beaten path to the lunchroom and towards an unused lab. Emma slammed the door in front of my face. I reached for the doorknob, but it wouldn't turn. Locked from the inside, of course. I was sure I could break the door down, but it wouldn't look good if they were to tell Principal Blackwell that I had destroyed school property.

    Meanwhile, Sophia had arrived from behind me. She grabbed my ear and forced me to move aside, then yelled "Open up." Someone unlocked the door and Sophia shoved me inside.

    There was a girl tied to a chair with rope and gagged. Her skin was pale and her hair was darker than Madison's. Emma and Madison stood behind her, one on each side. I tried to recall if her name--it was Charlotte something. Borach, I thought.

    "It looks like we have our rescuer come to rescue her rescuer," said Sophia. "She goes into the other chair. Emma, help me." Sophia reached for my shoulder and as I dodged, I realized that she didn't just practice brawling. She had combat training, somehow, and she had had it for some time; the armlock was a practiced move. Even the way she arranged it so that trying to escape would lead me away from the exit was a practiced move. I could see how she did these moves, and I knew that they were something that I could mimic myself.

    I wasn't sure how surprised I should be that I could do that. Alexandria was said to have learned ten styles of martial arts, and she didn't do by taking lessons--she had some kind of secondary power which let her learn things fast. Since I hadn't managed to memorize textbooks at a glance, I seem to have gotten the cut-rate version of that power.

    I shifted away from the armlock attempt and dodged Emma easily. Emma wasn't combat trained. But I was in a dilemma with two choices (that's what a dilemma is): Use powers or don't. My powers weren't really meant for subtlety and I wasn't sure I could do much here without being outed as a cape. I also needed to find out what was going on here. Could the Trio have been tormenting other students all along, and I just never noticed it?

    I let Sophia shove me in a chair and tie me to the chair using a stained curtain, taken from some abandoned cleaning room. Apparently there wasn't enough rope. "I expected you'd fight back more," she said. "Or at least scream. Scream like your life depends on it, because it does. Of course, your voice has to go through several walls and the lunchroom is awfully noisy."

    "Taylor really was a screamer," added Madison.

    Emma grinned. "Maybe she thinks someone else will come by to rescue her."

    "You can't get away with this," I said. "I mean you really can't. Do you think I'm not going to report this?"

    "No, you won't report this," replied Sophia. "You've rarely reported us before, and everyone knows that reporting us is not healthy. Right, Charlotte?"

    Charlotte sputtered something into her gag.

    Emma explained. "Even after I told her not to, Charlotte decided that she should tattle on us. That may have gotten you free then but it really wasn't worth it, because we still haven't decided if you're going to walk out of here. Rumor has it that Taylor nearly died. Well, you can both nearly die again. Or maybe not nearly." Charlotte cried out in fits, terrified.

    Charlotte obviously thought they were for real, but I didn't believe a word of it. They had nearly killed me, but if they had wanted to hurt me physically, there were a lot of things they could have done while I was helpless; all they did was flee, come back later to turn on the heat, and flee again. They hadn't thought about heatstroke and the fact that I could have gone to an early grave had been a result of depraved indifference. And they certainly didn't know that nearly killing me would be ignored by the authorities, considering that Dad and I hadn't met with the administration yet. This was no threat to our lives; this was just more of the Trio's mind games.

    "Charlotte," I said, "they're not really going to...."

    Madison stuffed the end of a towel into my mouth. "Pathetic geek," she said. "Yes, We're really going to. Or maybe we'll let one of you free. I wonder who it will be?"

    We never found out who it would be or exactly what Madison was threatening us with at this moment. Charlotte let out a cry into her gag, then slumped over. Sophia slumped too, and collapsed to the ground. She fell directly on top of an old bucket, not even able to use her training to fall safely. Emma yelled "What did you do to her?" and she and Madison panicked, looking in all directions as if searching for some unseen attacker. They ignored Charlotte and me and finally decided to work together. "Let's get Sophia some help," said Emma, opening the door. They approached Sophia, probably preparing to get her to safety.

    For a few seconds, nobody was paying attention to me.

    I ripped free of the curtain. I would have to hope it passed for something that a normal person could do. Sophia obviously had some training, but maybe not in tying people up.

    "She's free!" exclaimed Madison.

    I ran forward and threw the curtain at them. It covered Sophia's head and tangled up Madison's arm. Then I pulled at Charlotte's bonds. The rope held. No choice, then. I grasped two pieces of rope and strained. A strand popped loose, then another.

    Sophia moaned and began to stir. She clutched her head and pulled at the curtain, discarding it in a huff. "I saw... saw... never mind." Her harsh voice strengthened, became more confident.

    "You just fainted," said Emma. "We have to get you to the finfirmary."

    "I'll be fine," she said.

    I snapped the rest of the rope and began releasing Charlotte. It didn't take long and the ropes seemed to come free magically.

    "Come on," I said, pulling her up out of the chair. "It's not safe around here,"

    "You and Charlotte aren't going anywhere," said Emma. "Madison, get Sophia to the infirmary." The two left, but Emma was blocking the door.

    Charlotte looked around and took in the situation. She glared at Emma without saying anything. Emma glared back. Charlotte wasn't ever Emma's friend and Emma had little to draw on to insult her other than the standard "slut" and "trash" and vague threats.

    Charlotte stomped down, hard. Emma noticed at the last moment and Charlotte's heel speared down into the floor instead of her foot. Charlotte ran past Emma at that moment, pulling me behind her this time.

    Emma yelled out. "You can't change things, you know! Your mother hated men and you reminded her too much of one...." Charlotte and I ran away; Emma didn't follow. There was no reason she couldn't, but clearly she was less in control of the situation than she had planned to be. We kept fleeing. I sensed Sophia and Madison around the corner once and had to pull Charlotte into the 11th Grade physics lab. They passed by the room. It was over. But what had happened?

    * * * * *​

    Emma and Madison didn't cause any trouble for the rest of the day. Sophia didn't appear in any class that I had shared with her, but I saw her going home normally at the end of the day. Charlotte had left early.

    I had promised to tell Dad about things. And this was "things," and not the only thing, either. I came home, went to my room, and got out a black marker and a sheet of notebook paper. On it I wrote "I am a cape," and then started on my homework. I was just about finished by the time Dad had arrived. He entered the living room, I said "Hi" and gave him a hug, then held up the sheet of paper.

    "What?" he said.

    "I'm a cape, Dad."

    "And you wrote that down on a sheet of paper?"

    "Some people on PHO recommend that," I said. "If you try to tell people you're a cape and you get too scared, they can end up thinking you're a lesbian, or you joined a cult, or some other kind of sitcom misunderstanding. And I don't want to live in a sitcom." I rose two feet off the ground. "See, Dad, I'm a cape."

    "I'm sorry, Taylor. I didn't realize-- realize that it was so terrible. In that locker... I know you nearly died, but there you were, the doctors said you were okay, and maybe it didn't completely dawn on me how horrible it must really have been, for you to have triggered. Come Tuesday, the school is going to pay."

    "I hope we can do it, Dad."

    "I've dealt with bureaucracy. Now, kiddo," he said, "the discussion."

    I knew it.

    "First of all, what powers do you have exactly? I know that you can't stop a cape from cape-ing, but I need to know what my daughter has gotten herself into."

    "It's an Alexandria package. Flight, strength, invincibility. I can learn moves by watching them and I can sense the presence of people. And I have this feeling that that isn't the end of it. Remember the trouble they had getting an IV in me? That was when I was unconscious. When I'm awake and I really have my powers working, I can't be hurt by sharp things. Probably not bullets, but I'm not planning to experiment with that one."

    "Did you start cutting yourself, Taylor?"

    "Of course not, Dad! I was throwing around pieces of metal from the wreckage near the Boardwalk. A regular girl who tried that, even if she used pieces small enough to pick up, would keep getting cut on random points and edges. I didn't have a scratch on me."

    "And if you had been wrong and you had gotten tetanus from one of them?"

    "I-- I didn't think of that, Dad."

    "Well?"

    "All right. I screwed up."

    "I'm glad you're still alive to say that to me. Now, you haven't fought any other capes, I hope?"

    "I wanted to fight someone--." He didn't bother holding back the frown. "But I didn't find any. And Dad, I'm smart enough not to go after capes that are out of my league."

    "How do you know when a cape is out of your league? Anyone you run into could be keeping a secret power that lets him control your mind or burn you with a touch. You'd never know until you're someone's puppet or dead."

    "Dad, for someone who knows he can't stop me from being a cape, you're trying awfully hard to stop me."

    "What do you expect me to do? You're a cape. That's it."

    "It isn't it, Dad. Something else happened at school...."

    * * * * *​

    Dad was furious, in an "It isn't quite your fault, but I'm riled up" sort of way. I couldn't blame him--that had been the most I'd talked to him in a while. When things had settled a bit I showed him my costume and told him my cape name. He threw his hands up at them, not really wanting to bother criticizing my aesthetic choices when the danger was the problem. I had hoped to ask what he thought of my joining the Wards but never found a good moment for it.

    Later I told him I was going to go out for a walk. "I'm not going to be walking all the time," I explained. "But nobody says 'I'm going to go out for a fly.' And no, I'm not planning to fight any capes. Just powers practice, and flying over the city. It's really a lot of fun flying around and looking at everything from above."

    It was dark by the time I got back to the metal piles. I lifted each piece and threw it as hard as I could a couple of times. I tried to control the energy that I felt around and inside me as I threw things. I found that I had thrown the old hull fragment half again as far as it went the last time I was here throwing things. And as I gathered my ki together, the environment shook. Sand grains, shells, and small metal fragments floated up into the air. I released the energy in one direction and blasted a broken door across the sand, making a furrow. I flew over to it and saw that it was badly dented, worse than when I had started. I had some kind of Alexandria/Legend grab bag cape hybrid powerset, then. And... It occurred to me: If my power could lift small objects as a side effect, I could lift them deliberately, right? All it would take was more training, and I could call myself a telekinetic. Although it was unlikely that I could ever get the time for enough training to master all my powers.

    When I got tired of practice, I flew over the city, like I told Dad. Once I got high enough, I could flip my visor and not see everything in shades of blue. Even then, the night made it hard to see if there were other capes around (barring capes like Purity who were living nighttime targets). I covered huge circles, and I flew up and down streets. I flew down to the Market and bought a strawberry shake from one of the few ice cream shops that was open during the winter. I introduced myself as Imperator and the staff and all bystanders were extra-polite. Flying makes people tend to respect you, maybe even fear you. I was not used to either of those.

    At about 10 PM, after most stores had closed, I headed home. Without a map, it was annoyingly hard and I finally just followed a highway and took the correct exit as if I was a flying car. I needed a phone, no matter what Dad thought, for directions. That was also when I had finally found a crime to stop. It was a masked burglar, using a crowbar on the window of a small white house half a block from the highway. I picked him up and he hit me with the crowbar twice, after which he gave up and let me fly him to the police station.

    "Is there some protocol for this?" I asked, confused.
     
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    • For fucks sake, taylor, you could have beaten them half to death right there and gotten off scott free do to self defense.
     
    arromdee said:
    At about 10 PM, after most stores had closed, I headed home. Without a map, it was annoyingly hard and I finally just followed a highway and took the correct exit as if I was a flying car. I needed a phone, no matter what Dad thought, for directions. That was also when I had finally found a crime to stop. It was a masked burglar, using a crowbar on the window of a small white house half a block from the highway. I picked him up and he hit me with the crowbar twice, after which he gave up and let me fly him to the police station.

    "Is there some protocol for this?" I asked, confused.
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    XD. Best part of entire update is when the burglar just gives up on trying to beat up Taylor.

    EDIT: I guess it's the random mugger/burglar who Taylor busts in all sorts of fics and he's just become meta-aware as to his inevitable fate. Just has to keep up appearances so he can keep paying his bills.
     
    Wouldn't the whole 'defense of others' thing override the duty to retreat considering they were going to kill charlotte if she hadn't triggered?
     
    arromdee said:
    Duty to retreat - Wikipedia

    Also, she doesn't know it, but Sophia could stick an object in her head and let it materialize. Taylor isn't immune to that.
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    New Hampshire is a Stand Your Ground state, and I think that the Castle Doctrine applies to schools, although I could be misremembering (basically, because the law requires her to be in school, it can't then require her to leave). Certainly Charlotte's presence gave her Defense of Others, and the locked door closed the possibility of retreat. Further, in many jurisdictions where there is such a law, the Duty to Retreat applies only in matters of property. When the attack is a specific and deliberate murder attempt, it goes out the window.

    From a legal standpoint, Duty to Retreat just does not apply here for many reasons.

    From a moral standpoint, it's a bullshit attempt to maintain a monopoly on force which, like gun control, makes certain that only criminals have power in confrontations.
     
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    1) Taylor did *not* believe that anyone's life was in danger. She thought the threats were only meant to scare them.

    2) If you're a superhero with super-strength and invulnerability, a locked door does not foreclose the possibility of retreat.
     
    That's fine, but in New Hampshire there simply is no duty to retreat. There is no such law, and there is a law against there being one.
     
    arromdee said:
    Okay. But it still doesn't affect the story.
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    It may not affect the story now, but given that you mentioned the duty to retreat outside of a story post, I am informing you that it does not apply. Her own reasons are her own reasons. You now know that her own morality is the only answer she needs to give, and that if she attempts to cite a law that doesn't exist in a future chapter, it will be jarring.

    I apologize for any seeming brusqueness, just trying to help.
     
    Even stand your ground in New Hampshire only applies to defending yourself from deadly force by someone else. Taylor did not believe the Trio was using deadly force, so stand your ground doesn't apply and she is not allowed to kill them.

    Technically, you are correct, there is no duty to retreat here. But she is not permitted to kill them (or to beat them half to death) whether there is a duty to retreat or not.
     
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    It's not just deadly force. It also covers unlawful imprisonment and torture, which they absolutely were using here, and rape, which they had not yet threatened her with.

    If anything, she had a duty to break exactly as many bones as it took to get Charlotte out that door.
     
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