Taylor dies. She gets better. Things escalate.
That Time I Was Reincarnated In Brockton Bay (Worm/That Time I Was Reincarnated As A Slime) (Fusion)
- Thread starter Nimodes
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Statistics (20 threadmarks, 51k words)
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A time to slime
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
[Death will occur in 15 seconds.]
Okay, good news: the day couldn't get much worse.
Great, just great. It's January, why is it so hot in here?
[Request Confirmed. Acquisition of the skill Heat Resistance is successful.]
Is this it? Smashed into my own locker, bleeding to death, insects biting me.
[Request Confirmed. Acquisition of the skill Damage Resistance is successful.]
[Creating a body that does not require blood - successful.]
Now its getting so cold. Why?
[Request confirmed. Acquisition of skill Cold Resistance is successful.]
[Cold Resistance + Heat Resistance combined to Thermal Fluctuation Resistance skill.]
Can I at least be remembered, not forgotten as just some statistic in a crime ledger?
[Resistance to Data Deletion is not acquired. Substituting.]
[Electrical Resistance acquired. Paralysis Resistance included.]
I can't believe I'm dying such a pointless helpless death. Those three... if only I could figure out why.
[Analyzing past behavior and commentary.]
[Predator vs Prey, Darwinian Ethics 74% likely.]
Predator vs Prey? Darwin was about adapting not the 'stronger survive' thing though that's a common misinterpretation.
If only I could have adapted, convinced them that I was the top predator.
[Unique Skill Predator acquired.]
If only I had someone to advise me, some sage advice when I could have used it.
[Extra Skill: Sage acquired. Upgrading. Sage is upgraded to Unique Skill: Great Sage.]
[You have died. Reincarnation process activated.]
[Reincarnation successful.]
It's so dark now. Can't see. Where am I? I need some room. Those bugs are still trying to bite me?
[Absorbing organic matter in close proximity.]
That's better. That's... a human body? It's my body. Was my body. Huh. Now there's a lot more room in here. Am I still in the locker?
[Mimic ability acquired. Human form is now available.]
[Skill with Mimic can be increased, allowing for longer periods in human form.]
I can't see anything. My hands. My feet! I can't feel them! Huh. I can slide through the slits in my locker. Now I'm out on a flat surface... the hallway?
What the heck am I?
I'd better get out of the school fast. I need to figure this out. I don't think I'm human anymore and I definitely died.
Rubbery, shifting around, bouncy.
No, definitely not human. Hope I don't start some monster panic but then again there ARE capes who don't look too normal.
Except that I have this 'Mimic' skill? Can I just turn back to normal then?
[Insufficient energy to use skill Mimic for human form.]
[Absorb additional food to acquire mass and energy.]
Who the heck is talking anyway?
[Answer: Unique Skill Great Sage.]
[Now that your ability has been established, you will be able to adapt more quickly.]
Is that why I feel like my speed has increased?
[Affirmative.]
Why am I so calm? I just died and got reincarnated as a blob.
[Emotional responses muted due to lack of hormonal influence.]
Oh, that makes sense.
[Insectile form attacking. Use Unique Skill: Predator?]
Sure. I suppose. They attacked first, right?
[Form unlocked: Common Orb-weaver Spider (Larinioides Cornutus)]
[Absorbing loose grass for additional energy.]
Huh, surprised that there are bugs active outside in January.
[Most insect forms not viable at sizes supported by Skill: Mimic.]
[Sufficient examples of insectile life-forms absorbed for adapting pattern to appropriate size.]
So I can't Mimic teeny-tiny bugs or germs or something? Good to know.
Huh. That feels like a car I just fit underneath. So, uhm, Great Sage? Do I eat and drink and stuff? Or breathe?
[Form dependent on Mimic allows for absorbing of mass/energy via process: eating.]
Gotcha. So what happens to the stuff I absorb but don't use for food?
[Answer: Unique Skill Predator has an extra-dimensional storage space.]
Okay, good to know. So I don't actually need to eat, drink, or sleep in... whatever do you call this form anyway?
[Answer: blue slime.]
Right. Blue slimes don't require food, drink, sleep, and so on?
[Answer: Affirmative. Only requirements are for replacement of mass/energy utilized or damaged.]
Huh. So what do I eat?
[Answer: Any solid matter can be broken [down to sub-molecular level and utilized.]
True omnivore, huh? Well, there's stuff I wouldn't be comfortable eating no matter how awesome my digestion is.
Any idea whose car I'm hiding under?
[Information not on file.]
Yeah, kind of figured that.
If it's the Principal's car, I kind of want to eat it. I shouldn't, but it would be amusing for her to come out here and 'oh my gosh, someone stole my hideously expensive SUV' and all.
Can I use Mimic now to turn human?
(Bomf!)
Can I use Mimic now to have clothes please?
(Bomf!)
Thank you, that's 100% better...
Actually. Can I edit the human form? Make some alterations?
[Acquiring data on specific systems and alterations will require analysis.]
I am not eating people so I can give myself boobs.
[Permanent ingestion not required. Engulfing subject temporarily is sufficient for analysis purposes.]
Oh. That has possibilities then. So, what is 'Predator'?
[Unique Skill: Predator has five parts/options. Predation can absorb physical or energy attacks, organic or inorganic matter, skills, and magic. Analysis allows for study of objects and duplication/crafting. Stomach allows for storage of target. Mimicry is replication of absorbed appearance data. Isolation is storage of harmful materials or items not needed for analytics. Isolated objects can be used to replace magical energy reserves.]
Magic? You mean like powers? So if I get hit by something like Lung's fire I can absorb it?
[Probability High. Require analysis for certainty.]
Okay, that's also useful to know. How long can I maintain this human form at current energy levels?
[Duration: Four hours. Will require additional mass or energy reserves to extend period.]
Heh. If I can eat anything, then I might just be able to handle the cafeteria's excuse for meatloaf.
[Probability High. Requires sample for certainty.]
Suppose I ought to get to class. Oh heck. Did I eat my textbooks?
[Clothes and textbooks were absorbed into Stomach. Did you wish to regurgitate textbooks?]
Yeah! Can you repair them while we're at it? They were kind of grungy and all.
[Repairing. Done. Specify textbooks to regurgitate.]
Great Sage, I think this is the start of a beautiful partnership.
Okay, good news: the day couldn't get much worse.
Great, just great. It's January, why is it so hot in here?
[Request Confirmed. Acquisition of the skill Heat Resistance is successful.]
Is this it? Smashed into my own locker, bleeding to death, insects biting me.
[Request Confirmed. Acquisition of the skill Damage Resistance is successful.]
[Creating a body that does not require blood - successful.]
Now its getting so cold. Why?
[Request confirmed. Acquisition of skill Cold Resistance is successful.]
[Cold Resistance + Heat Resistance combined to Thermal Fluctuation Resistance skill.]
Can I at least be remembered, not forgotten as just some statistic in a crime ledger?
[Resistance to Data Deletion is not acquired. Substituting.]
[Electrical Resistance acquired. Paralysis Resistance included.]
I can't believe I'm dying such a pointless helpless death. Those three... if only I could figure out why.
[Analyzing past behavior and commentary.]
[Predator vs Prey, Darwinian Ethics 74% likely.]
Predator vs Prey? Darwin was about adapting not the 'stronger survive' thing though that's a common misinterpretation.
If only I could have adapted, convinced them that I was the top predator.
[Unique Skill Predator acquired.]
If only I had someone to advise me, some sage advice when I could have used it.
[Extra Skill: Sage acquired. Upgrading. Sage is upgraded to Unique Skill: Great Sage.]
[You have died. Reincarnation process activated.]
[Reincarnation successful.]
It's so dark now. Can't see. Where am I? I need some room. Those bugs are still trying to bite me?
[Absorbing organic matter in close proximity.]
That's better. That's... a human body? It's my body. Was my body. Huh. Now there's a lot more room in here. Am I still in the locker?
[Mimic ability acquired. Human form is now available.]
[Skill with Mimic can be increased, allowing for longer periods in human form.]
I can't see anything. My hands. My feet! I can't feel them! Huh. I can slide through the slits in my locker. Now I'm out on a flat surface... the hallway?
What the heck am I?
I'd better get out of the school fast. I need to figure this out. I don't think I'm human anymore and I definitely died.
Rubbery, shifting around, bouncy.
No, definitely not human. Hope I don't start some monster panic but then again there ARE capes who don't look too normal.
Except that I have this 'Mimic' skill? Can I just turn back to normal then?
[Insufficient energy to use skill Mimic for human form.]
[Absorb additional food to acquire mass and energy.]
Who the heck is talking anyway?
[Answer: Unique Skill Great Sage.]
[Now that your ability has been established, you will be able to adapt more quickly.]
Is that why I feel like my speed has increased?
[Affirmative.]
Why am I so calm? I just died and got reincarnated as a blob.
[Emotional responses muted due to lack of hormonal influence.]
Oh, that makes sense.
[Insectile form attacking. Use Unique Skill: Predator?]
Sure. I suppose. They attacked first, right?
[Form unlocked: Common Orb-weaver Spider (Larinioides Cornutus)]
[Absorbing loose grass for additional energy.]
Huh, surprised that there are bugs active outside in January.
[Most insect forms not viable at sizes supported by Skill: Mimic.]
[Sufficient examples of insectile life-forms absorbed for adapting pattern to appropriate size.]
So I can't Mimic teeny-tiny bugs or germs or something? Good to know.
Huh. That feels like a car I just fit underneath. So, uhm, Great Sage? Do I eat and drink and stuff? Or breathe?
[Form dependent on Mimic allows for absorbing of mass/energy via process: eating.]
Gotcha. So what happens to the stuff I absorb but don't use for food?
[Answer: Unique Skill Predator has an extra-dimensional storage space.]
Okay, good to know. So I don't actually need to eat, drink, or sleep in... whatever do you call this form anyway?
[Answer: blue slime.]
Right. Blue slimes don't require food, drink, sleep, and so on?
[Answer: Affirmative. Only requirements are for replacement of mass/energy utilized or damaged.]
Huh. So what do I eat?
[Answer: Any solid matter can be broken [down to sub-molecular level and utilized.]
True omnivore, huh? Well, there's stuff I wouldn't be comfortable eating no matter how awesome my digestion is.
Any idea whose car I'm hiding under?
[Information not on file.]
Yeah, kind of figured that.
If it's the Principal's car, I kind of want to eat it. I shouldn't, but it would be amusing for her to come out here and 'oh my gosh, someone stole my hideously expensive SUV' and all.
Can I use Mimic now to turn human?
(Bomf!)
Can I use Mimic now to have clothes please?
(Bomf!)
Thank you, that's 100% better...
Actually. Can I edit the human form? Make some alterations?
[Acquiring data on specific systems and alterations will require analysis.]
I am not eating people so I can give myself boobs.
[Permanent ingestion not required. Engulfing subject temporarily is sufficient for analysis purposes.]
Oh. That has possibilities then. So, what is 'Predator'?
[Unique Skill: Predator has five parts/options. Predation can absorb physical or energy attacks, organic or inorganic matter, skills, and magic. Analysis allows for study of objects and duplication/crafting. Stomach allows for storage of target. Mimicry is replication of absorbed appearance data. Isolation is storage of harmful materials or items not needed for analytics. Isolated objects can be used to replace magical energy reserves.]
Magic? You mean like powers? So if I get hit by something like Lung's fire I can absorb it?
[Probability High. Require analysis for certainty.]
Okay, that's also useful to know. How long can I maintain this human form at current energy levels?
[Duration: Four hours. Will require additional mass or energy reserves to extend period.]
Heh. If I can eat anything, then I might just be able to handle the cafeteria's excuse for meatloaf.
[Probability High. Requires sample for certainty.]
Suppose I ought to get to class. Oh heck. Did I eat my textbooks?
[Clothes and textbooks were absorbed into Stomach. Did you wish to regurgitate textbooks?]
Yeah! Can you repair them while we're at it? They were kind of grungy and all.
[Repairing. Done. Specify textbooks to regurgitate.]
Great Sage, I think this is the start of a beautiful partnership.
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Interesting start. Watching and lurking. 🫥
- Pronouns
- You
Wait, she now has blue hair?
- Location
- Over there
Ha! have her just walk back inside school with blue hair all of the sudden and pretend nothing changed. freak Sophia out at a obvious triggering.
interested to see where this goes, don't think there's many, if any, crossovers of these two
Aurora Moon
Verfied Insomniac with too much time on her hands
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think this was over on SB before and is being reposted here.
This is also on AO3 and FFNet
There slime goes, turn the Sage
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
Yeah, I received multiple comments that I should post on SV and SB. I'm having trouble figuring out the Threadmark system though as I've never used anything like this. Was trying to post more chapters but haven't found the right help section yet.
anyway, trying it like this.
That Time I Was Reincarnated In Brockton Bay
Chapter Two
* Later *
"Miss Hebert, you're late."
"Unfortunate difficulties with my locker, Miss Knott."
"I'll still have to mark you as a tardy."
"Understood."
* Taylor *
It was kind of weird, when getting to the class I shared with Madison.
I was aware of the staring. The whispers. The spitballs.
The first two didn't concern me the way they used to. It was like... like it was beneath my concern. The buzzing of an insect that was too troublesome to swat unless it got close enough that I didn't have to get up. Something like that.
The spitballs hitting my hair were simply absorbed when I shifted my position. Out of sight, out of mind, tiny bits of energy added to fuel my maintaining a human form.
It's also kind of weird how my mind seems to remember anything I focus on. Is that your doing, Great Sage?
[Answer: Correct. Ability to recall important data is included in Great Sage ability.]
Makes sense. I mimic the form, but I'm still a slime at heart.
[Full transformation possible but requires extensive information base and is currently outside energy reserves.]
Okay. So that means it's possible down the road, right?
[Affirmative.]
I can kind of sense you're busy with something. Is that it?
[Negative. Reincarnation was supposed to occur with planar shift to appropriate dimension.]
Wait? I wasn't supposed to stay in that damn locker?
[Affirmative. Reincarnation destination blocked.]
Whoa. So any idea what blocked this?
[Interdimensional barriers showing reinforcement and high transmission density along subset of alternate worlds.]
[Source unknown. Countermeasures unknown. Purpose: isolation of strand? Determining cause an Alpha-class priority.]
[Od field drainage detected. Unknown factor. High probability related to reincarnation interference.]
I can hear some definite frustration there.
[Affirmative.]
Ugh. Mister Gladly is looking at me. What was the question?
[Question was what event preceded to rise of parahumans.]
"The answer is Scion, Mister Gladly." Hey, at least I knew the answer to that one.
Almost to the end of class. I expect Sophia is going to try something in the hallway.
Now, how do I want to handle this?
I could go all Elasti-girl on her and start punching her while she's halfway across the hall. That might just draw the Administration going after me. Decisions, decisions.
Hey, Great Sage, what do you advise?
[Analyzing situation. Methods of attack available. Current capabilities.]
[Damage Resistance level is higher than anticipated abilities of Sophia Hess.]
[Physical harm highly unlikely. Mental/emotional harm possible from source Emma Barnes.]
[Predator-Prey/Darwinian Philosophy 74% likely. High probability physical conflict followed by attempts to do emotional damage.]
[Option One: Use Predator to eliminate sources of conflict.]
Yeah, I don't think eating them would go completely unnoticed.
[Option Two: Find place to transform unseen by residents of establishment. In base form, stretch to ceiling tiles and hide in ceiling.]
Yes, go on.
[Ceiling tiles cover crawlspace for wiring and plumbing connections. Utilize crawlspace for transport. Wait until harassers separate to find Taylor.]
Not just use the crawlspace to avoid them?
[When each harasser is alone, utilize Predator in non-lethal mode. Engulfing targets allows for extensive analysis.]
So it's a plan for long-term goals? Go on.
[Gathering data useful. Short-term memory loss to avoid consequences of capture. Difficult but within current capabilities.]
I like the avoid consequences bit, but what all will this accomplish?
[Understanding nature of problem, causes of conflict, will affect long-term plans to resolve situation.]
Okay, let's do that. Any chance for a bit of personal revenge while we do this?
[Suggestion.]
Ooooh. Yeah, that's a possibility.
Let's do it.
* Sophia *
"Where'd the little shit go?" asked Sophia.
"Maybe she's hiding in that bathroom on the second floor again?" asked Madison.
"Could be she ducked into a classroom and is trying to wait us out," said Emma. "She's not that clever."
"Whatever. Find her. I want to know how she got out." Sophia got the feeling that Hebert was laughing at them. That was not going to be allowed to sit.
Still, the classroom idea had merit. Prey trying to hide from predators was a thing. She certainly couldn't outrun them.
Sophia entered the classroom, saw the supply closet was ajar, and smiled a grim little smile. This was gonna be fun. Just ease over to it, pop the door open, and-
"Yoinks and away!"
What. What had just happened? Why was she on the floor? She'd been going after Hebert in the empty classroom.
Now her head was foggy, there was a strange taste in her mouth, and she was holding a bottle of...
(SHUFFF!) went the door to the room.
Sophia's eyes went to the door, where the Track Coach was standing. She blinked, then her gaze went back to the spilled pills around her, and the pill bottle in her hand. "Uhm."
The Track Coach, Miss Feinmann, frowned.
"I can explain," said Sophia.
"I'll bet," said Miss Feinmann.
"These aren't mine," said Sophia.
"Of course," agreed Miss Feinmann.
"I was framed," said Sophia.
"By whom?" asked Miss Feinmann.
"Uhm. I don't know," admitted Sophia. Hebert would have motive but she was too dull and sheep-like.
"What kind of drugs are they?" asked Miss Feinmann.
Sophia looked at the bottle. The label was handwritten (really badly) and read 'tinker-made performance enhancers' but she was NOT going to say that. So she said the first answer that came to mind. "Birth control..."
Miss Feinmann nodded as if she had expected that very response. "See me later. I understand."
Sophia was quiet for a minute after the door closed again. Took a deep breath, threw the bottle as far away as she could, and stalked out. Someone was going to pay for this!
* Taylor *
Okay. Sophia had the fake drugs. They were fake, right?
[Fat and protein in a crystallized matrix. No pharmaceutical effects.]
Madison woke up, probably not realizing she was wearing makeup that made her look completely goth.
[Added 'Lolita Goth fashion' to database.]
I saw the look on some girl last year. Tempting to do it with permanent marker, but this'll be enough. For now.
And dear Emma gets absolutely nothing for now. Let them wonder.
Now we need to address the elephant in the room. Are you sure about Sophia?
[Anomalous growth removed from brain of Sophia Hess. Anomalous growth shows extradimensional connection. Claimed/redirected connection. Analyzing.]
[Sophia Hess not directly harmed by loss of tumor. Normal brain activity commenced after 0.25 seconds.]
Weird. Let me know what you figure out.
[Affirmative.]
Hey, how about after school we go check out this 'eat damn near everything' ability?
Taylor went to her locker, which was currently the cleanest thing in the school as all organic matter had been scoured from the inside, seeing the charging figure of the Principal but not paying much attention.
"MISS HEBERT, there was a report of you... it's clean?" asked Principal Blackwell as she started out hostile before her visual of the locker indicated a disconnect with the information she'd been given.
"Uhm, yes?" asked Taylor, going for as innocent a look as she could.
"I... see?" asked Principal Blackwell. "But she said... Well. Yes. Carry on."
"Okay," chirped Taylor. Gee, pranking people could be fun. Who knew?
Switch out some supplies, use stored materials for a fresh pen. Close locker, get to next class.
Which was horribly boring, but Great Sage could work those analysis routines while she was watching and keeping an ear out for whatever the Three planned next.
[Analysis continues. Extradimensional connection indicates data exchange.]
[Sending information to Voice Of The World. Continuing.]
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Itadakimasu!
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
* Elsewhere *
The Voice of the World wasn't sentient or sapient.
It adapted and developed but stopped short of either condition.
New data came in that was outside the set parameters. More data.
The Voice of the World continued to adapt in the absence of its creator.
* Brockton Bay *
Taylor had left the school behind and now beheld a true test of her abilities.
"Are you ready for this, Great Sage?" asked Taylor aloud.
[Prepared. Running continuing analysis of interference on Track 5. Running continuing analysis of extradimensional transmission node recovered from individual Sophia Hess on Track 4. Tracks 1-3 ready to begin analysis of acquired materials.]
The car wrecking yard on Rorschach Alley showed every sign of being abandoned for years. Old battered cars were the lowest layer, what the place had been used for back when it was actually a working business. People had been throwing broken appliances and furniture on top of it all after everything had come apart.
"Okay," said Taylor, from her position at the rear gate. While holding up one arm and pointing her hand at the mass of the yard she took a deep breath before speaking. "Nothing alive. Activate Unique Skill: Predator!"
Taylor's hand blurred into something that looked like a whirlwind and things began flying from the yard into that funnel before vanishing.
Car wrecks in various stages of decay, refrigerators, washer, dryer, old computer, tires, an air conditioner - all vanishing into the blur which moved around as Taylor waved her hand about.
A VERY startled stray dog went running away with only a ruffling of its fur to show for it.
Sofa, old mattress, dining table, chair, chair, chair, set of power armor, end table, drug stash, really old wrecked car...
Taylor dropped the effect. "Wait. What? Was that... some kind of armor suit?"
[Analyzing. Suit is made of several metallic alloys. It appears to be designed for a humanoid wearer.]
"It looks like one of those video game things that L33t or Uber would wear," said Taylor after looking over the image that Great Sage had sent.
[Continuing to analyze. Materials acquired.]
Taylor nodded. Great Sage sounded satisfied. "Well. If you've got research materials, then I've got homework and I've got to figure out what we're going to do about this current situation. I mean - do I go out and do the Hero stuff, or do I find another way to deal with the Trio and school? I need to know what options are on the table. Maybe I could go hero and get transferred to another school. Immaculata or Arcadia sound like they'd be a lot better than Winslow."
[Acquisition of data would seem indicated.]
"Glad you agree," admitted Taylor. It was nice to have someone to talk to again.
[Transportation seems required. Sufficient analysis of vehicles to reconstitute one from the remains of six others.]
"I don't know how to drive," said Taylor. "And there's probably laws against that sort of thing." Taylor thought for a few moments. "What about that power armor? I don't think there are laws against that sort of thing."
[Insufficient analysis for repairs. Initial analysis indicates cascade of malfunctions terminating in failure of primary systems in spontaneous combustion event.]
"Definitely something of L33t's design then," noted Taylor.
[Analysis of undersuit materials completed. Acquired: Synthetic Spider Silk. Acquired: Flexwire. Acquired: Biosensor Monitors. Acquired: Shock Padding. Continuing analysis.]
"That sounds useful," said Taylor. "Sounds like you're having fun."
[Affirmative.]
"I'm going to try Mimic to get home," decided Taylor as she looked over the mostly-empty scrapyard. "What forms do I have?"
[Baseform: Slime. Human Mimicry. Giant Spider.]
"That's it?" asked Taylor. "What about the analysis of the Trio? Can I look like them?"
[Humanform already set as modified-Taylor. Alteration of base humanform possible. Full consumption also necessary for adding additional forms.]
"Oh." Taylor thought for a few moments. "I have to actually eat something to gain a new form. You have to get detailed information, right?"
[Affirmative. Full genetic duplication not currently available.]
"Gotcha. Right." Taylor sighed. "How about if I eat a few pigeons to construct a bird form?"
[Mass limitations make flight difficult without significant modifications.]
"Oh, right. Physics. I'd probably need to grab someone with flight abilities for you to analyze that." Taylor shifted to her little blue slime form. "Let's see how I can move around. Bouncing isn't very fast. What if I..." A tentacle lashed out from the blue blob, stuck to a wall, then the bulk of the slime flowed to the far point. "That isn't very fast either. Faster than bouncing though."
Taylor lash-traveled for another two blocks as she thought about it. "What if I take in a large amount of air, then forcibly expel it... no that sounds like travel by fart, doesn't it?"
A lash went out, grabbed a very startled pigeon, and pulled it in.
"Yech," said Taylor. "I didn't realize how filthy they were."
[Analysis complete. Many design inefficiencies noted.]
"Yeah, that was something I heard in Biology. Evolution goes for the 'good enough' and stops," agreed Taylor.
[Working. Further sampling required.]
"Let me try the fart travel method, this is a big gap," said Taylor, beginning to suck in a lot of air.
That was a window-rattling boom a moment later and a blue blob wahoo-ing as she sailed across a street.
[Acquired Skill: Air Pressure Propulsion. Acquired Skill: Wind Blast.]
"A bit louder than I like, maybe if I change things so..." Taylor said before shooting halfway across a drainage canal. "Oh frak."
(SPLASH!)
A few moments later she was skimming across the top of the water at high speed.
[Acquired Skill: Water Pressure Propulsion. Acquired Skill: Water Movement. Combined Skill: Water Blade.]
[Acquired Skills Water Pressure Propulsion, Water Movement, and Water Blade evolve to Extra Skill: Water Manipulation.]
"Hydrokinesis? Coastal city so that's handy."
(Hissss!)
"A snake? In January? Oh, the water's warm here so that's probably why. WATER BLADE!"
The crescent of pressurized water cut through the snake, the half-inch of concrete of the canal there, and at least six inches of dirt on the other side.
"Okay. I need to be careful using that on people," mused slime-Taylor. "You know, snake is supposed to be tasty but I can't actually taste anything if I eat it this way."
[Acquired Water Moccasin Snake data.]
[Acquired Venom Data.]
[Acquired Tremorsense.]
[Acquired Thermal Sense.]
"Whoa," said Taylor. "So I can get powers from eating things. I kind knew that but it's different seeing it. I wonder what else there is for me to munch on? Maybe a side-trip to the ocean? No, best I get home and plan a full day of chomping fish."
A bat was sleeping in an overhang and quickly found its rest disturbed. Then it was gone.
[Acquired Common Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fucus) data.]
[Acquired Echolocation.]
[Evolution: Tremorsense + Thermal Sense + Echolocation + Acute Hearing. Radar Sense Acquired.]
"Whoa. Three hundred sixty degrees and I can kind of tell density of objects from this. This'll be handy to avoid ambushes in school," realized Taylor. "Good going, Great Sage."
[Affirmative.] Great Sage sounded a bit smug.
Back to lash-travel to get some height, which seemed easier now. Taylor was mostly content with this.
* Sophia *
Sophia quickly made her way to the roof where she'd stashed her costume. A little patrol and off to the Wards room where she could knock out her homework and put down those losers. She had a fair amount of frustration to work out after all. Especially with all the whispers and rumors involving her.
The teacher hadn't squealed, but apparently someone had gone into the classroom after she'd left and found the pill bottle she'd thrown against the wall.
Nobody was brave enough to accuse her to her face, of course.
She turned on her power to reach through the ventilation grille for her costume.
(CLANG!) "SONNOVA-"
Sophia shook her hand. Then tried again, this time without slamming her fingers into a metal vent. Nothing.
"What?" asked Sophia. She reached again for her power. Nothing.
"What?!" repeated Sophia, trying again, concentrating so hard her teeth felt as if they were going to break against each other.
"WHAT?!" yelled Sophia as she once again was unable to turn shadowy.
* Taylor *
[Acquired Green Crab (Carcinus maenas) data.]
[Acquired Light Armor]
[Combining Light Armor (Crab) with Synthetic Spider Silk and Armor Panels from Power Armor.]
[Acquired Body Armor ability.]
"Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy," said the blue slime as she made her way across a rooftop. "Huh. Spider silk. I wonder."
A drop of chemically produced glue, a strand of synthetic spider web, an air blast to shoot the wad of sticky with the line across the street. Reel it in. "WHOA! I can webshoot! How fast can I do this?"
(Whip! Thwap! Reel! Repeat!)
"Spider-slime, spider-slime, does like a spider in half the time! Spins a web, any size. Avoids the bullies, win a prize. Look out! Here comes the spider-slime. Bowww bowww bowww!" sang the little blue blob as it went through the commercial area before getting to where the buildings were much smaller and then finally to residential areas.
(SPLAT!)
[Acquired Common Centipede data.]
[Paralysis Bite acquired.]
[Venom data added to database.]
There was a brief pause after cleaning up some trash atop her own house's roof.
[Analysis of three types of glue, two types of epoxy - complete. Combining with data of spider thread.]
[Acquired Skill: Sticky Thread. Acquired Skill: Monofilament Thread.]
"Yeah, probably want to be very sparing with that last one, have to be very careful. I'm pretty sure slicing crooks up would cause me some legal problems." Taylor thought about it. "Yeah, maybe if it were someone who has one of those 'kill on sight' orders you hear about."
[Wind Blast + Echolocation = Extra Skill: Ultrasonic Blast]
[Venom data + Wind Blast = Extra Skill: Poisonous Breath]
[Paralysis Bite + Wind Blast = Extra Skill: Paralysis Breath]
"All right, you just continue to digest all that juicy data," Taylor told Great Sage.
After all, her biggest challenge was before her. What to tell her father, or if she should.
The Voice of the World wasn't sentient or sapient.
It adapted and developed but stopped short of either condition.
New data came in that was outside the set parameters. More data.
The Voice of the World continued to adapt in the absence of its creator.
* Brockton Bay *
Taylor had left the school behind and now beheld a true test of her abilities.
"Are you ready for this, Great Sage?" asked Taylor aloud.
[Prepared. Running continuing analysis of interference on Track 5. Running continuing analysis of extradimensional transmission node recovered from individual Sophia Hess on Track 4. Tracks 1-3 ready to begin analysis of acquired materials.]
The car wrecking yard on Rorschach Alley showed every sign of being abandoned for years. Old battered cars were the lowest layer, what the place had been used for back when it was actually a working business. People had been throwing broken appliances and furniture on top of it all after everything had come apart.
"Okay," said Taylor, from her position at the rear gate. While holding up one arm and pointing her hand at the mass of the yard she took a deep breath before speaking. "Nothing alive. Activate Unique Skill: Predator!"
Taylor's hand blurred into something that looked like a whirlwind and things began flying from the yard into that funnel before vanishing.
Car wrecks in various stages of decay, refrigerators, washer, dryer, old computer, tires, an air conditioner - all vanishing into the blur which moved around as Taylor waved her hand about.
A VERY startled stray dog went running away with only a ruffling of its fur to show for it.
Sofa, old mattress, dining table, chair, chair, chair, set of power armor, end table, drug stash, really old wrecked car...
Taylor dropped the effect. "Wait. What? Was that... some kind of armor suit?"
[Analyzing. Suit is made of several metallic alloys. It appears to be designed for a humanoid wearer.]
"It looks like one of those video game things that L33t or Uber would wear," said Taylor after looking over the image that Great Sage had sent.
[Continuing to analyze. Materials acquired.]
Taylor nodded. Great Sage sounded satisfied. "Well. If you've got research materials, then I've got homework and I've got to figure out what we're going to do about this current situation. I mean - do I go out and do the Hero stuff, or do I find another way to deal with the Trio and school? I need to know what options are on the table. Maybe I could go hero and get transferred to another school. Immaculata or Arcadia sound like they'd be a lot better than Winslow."
[Acquisition of data would seem indicated.]
"Glad you agree," admitted Taylor. It was nice to have someone to talk to again.
[Transportation seems required. Sufficient analysis of vehicles to reconstitute one from the remains of six others.]
"I don't know how to drive," said Taylor. "And there's probably laws against that sort of thing." Taylor thought for a few moments. "What about that power armor? I don't think there are laws against that sort of thing."
[Insufficient analysis for repairs. Initial analysis indicates cascade of malfunctions terminating in failure of primary systems in spontaneous combustion event.]
"Definitely something of L33t's design then," noted Taylor.
[Analysis of undersuit materials completed. Acquired: Synthetic Spider Silk. Acquired: Flexwire. Acquired: Biosensor Monitors. Acquired: Shock Padding. Continuing analysis.]
"That sounds useful," said Taylor. "Sounds like you're having fun."
[Affirmative.]
"I'm going to try Mimic to get home," decided Taylor as she looked over the mostly-empty scrapyard. "What forms do I have?"
[Baseform: Slime. Human Mimicry. Giant Spider.]
"That's it?" asked Taylor. "What about the analysis of the Trio? Can I look like them?"
[Humanform already set as modified-Taylor. Alteration of base humanform possible. Full consumption also necessary for adding additional forms.]
"Oh." Taylor thought for a few moments. "I have to actually eat something to gain a new form. You have to get detailed information, right?"
[Affirmative. Full genetic duplication not currently available.]
"Gotcha. Right." Taylor sighed. "How about if I eat a few pigeons to construct a bird form?"
[Mass limitations make flight difficult without significant modifications.]
"Oh, right. Physics. I'd probably need to grab someone with flight abilities for you to analyze that." Taylor shifted to her little blue slime form. "Let's see how I can move around. Bouncing isn't very fast. What if I..." A tentacle lashed out from the blue blob, stuck to a wall, then the bulk of the slime flowed to the far point. "That isn't very fast either. Faster than bouncing though."
Taylor lash-traveled for another two blocks as she thought about it. "What if I take in a large amount of air, then forcibly expel it... no that sounds like travel by fart, doesn't it?"
A lash went out, grabbed a very startled pigeon, and pulled it in.
"Yech," said Taylor. "I didn't realize how filthy they were."
[Analysis complete. Many design inefficiencies noted.]
"Yeah, that was something I heard in Biology. Evolution goes for the 'good enough' and stops," agreed Taylor.
[Working. Further sampling required.]
"Let me try the fart travel method, this is a big gap," said Taylor, beginning to suck in a lot of air.
That was a window-rattling boom a moment later and a blue blob wahoo-ing as she sailed across a street.
[Acquired Skill: Air Pressure Propulsion. Acquired Skill: Wind Blast.]
"A bit louder than I like, maybe if I change things so..." Taylor said before shooting halfway across a drainage canal. "Oh frak."
(SPLASH!)
A few moments later she was skimming across the top of the water at high speed.
[Acquired Skill: Water Pressure Propulsion. Acquired Skill: Water Movement. Combined Skill: Water Blade.]
[Acquired Skills Water Pressure Propulsion, Water Movement, and Water Blade evolve to Extra Skill: Water Manipulation.]
"Hydrokinesis? Coastal city so that's handy."
(Hissss!)
"A snake? In January? Oh, the water's warm here so that's probably why. WATER BLADE!"
The crescent of pressurized water cut through the snake, the half-inch of concrete of the canal there, and at least six inches of dirt on the other side.
"Okay. I need to be careful using that on people," mused slime-Taylor. "You know, snake is supposed to be tasty but I can't actually taste anything if I eat it this way."
[Acquired Water Moccasin Snake data.]
[Acquired Venom Data.]
[Acquired Tremorsense.]
[Acquired Thermal Sense.]
"Whoa," said Taylor. "So I can get powers from eating things. I kind knew that but it's different seeing it. I wonder what else there is for me to munch on? Maybe a side-trip to the ocean? No, best I get home and plan a full day of chomping fish."
A bat was sleeping in an overhang and quickly found its rest disturbed. Then it was gone.
[Acquired Common Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fucus) data.]
[Acquired Echolocation.]
[Evolution: Tremorsense + Thermal Sense + Echolocation + Acute Hearing. Radar Sense Acquired.]
"Whoa. Three hundred sixty degrees and I can kind of tell density of objects from this. This'll be handy to avoid ambushes in school," realized Taylor. "Good going, Great Sage."
[Affirmative.] Great Sage sounded a bit smug.
Back to lash-travel to get some height, which seemed easier now. Taylor was mostly content with this.
* Sophia *
Sophia quickly made her way to the roof where she'd stashed her costume. A little patrol and off to the Wards room where she could knock out her homework and put down those losers. She had a fair amount of frustration to work out after all. Especially with all the whispers and rumors involving her.
The teacher hadn't squealed, but apparently someone had gone into the classroom after she'd left and found the pill bottle she'd thrown against the wall.
Nobody was brave enough to accuse her to her face, of course.
She turned on her power to reach through the ventilation grille for her costume.
(CLANG!) "SONNOVA-"
Sophia shook her hand. Then tried again, this time without slamming her fingers into a metal vent. Nothing.
"What?" asked Sophia. She reached again for her power. Nothing.
"What?!" repeated Sophia, trying again, concentrating so hard her teeth felt as if they were going to break against each other.
"WHAT?!" yelled Sophia as she once again was unable to turn shadowy.
* Taylor *
[Acquired Green Crab (Carcinus maenas) data.]
[Acquired Light Armor]
[Combining Light Armor (Crab) with Synthetic Spider Silk and Armor Panels from Power Armor.]
[Acquired Body Armor ability.]
"Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy," said the blue slime as she made her way across a rooftop. "Huh. Spider silk. I wonder."
A drop of chemically produced glue, a strand of synthetic spider web, an air blast to shoot the wad of sticky with the line across the street. Reel it in. "WHOA! I can webshoot! How fast can I do this?"
(Whip! Thwap! Reel! Repeat!)
"Spider-slime, spider-slime, does like a spider in half the time! Spins a web, any size. Avoids the bullies, win a prize. Look out! Here comes the spider-slime. Bowww bowww bowww!" sang the little blue blob as it went through the commercial area before getting to where the buildings were much smaller and then finally to residential areas.
(SPLAT!)
[Acquired Common Centipede data.]
[Paralysis Bite acquired.]
[Venom data added to database.]
There was a brief pause after cleaning up some trash atop her own house's roof.
[Analysis of three types of glue, two types of epoxy - complete. Combining with data of spider thread.]
[Acquired Skill: Sticky Thread. Acquired Skill: Monofilament Thread.]
"Yeah, probably want to be very sparing with that last one, have to be very careful. I'm pretty sure slicing crooks up would cause me some legal problems." Taylor thought about it. "Yeah, maybe if it were someone who has one of those 'kill on sight' orders you hear about."
[Wind Blast + Echolocation = Extra Skill: Ultrasonic Blast]
[Venom data + Wind Blast = Extra Skill: Poisonous Breath]
[Paralysis Bite + Wind Blast = Extra Skill: Paralysis Breath]
"All right, you just continue to digest all that juicy data," Taylor told Great Sage.
After all, her biggest challenge was before her. What to tell her father, or if she should.
- Location
- California
This is going to be adorifying!
I read ahead a little bit on FF, did she ever "edit" her base form like she considered doing early on?
Slime-on Says
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
* PRT HQ *
"Shadow Stalker has lost her power. She is currently undergoing an extensive medical exam to try and determine how this happened, if it is temporary or permanent."
Emily Piggot nodded. "Keep me apprised. She's on console duty for now. Investigate that school of hers. Investigate everything, there may be someone she encountered there. There's rumors about Victor of the E88 being able to steal skills. That visiting marksman who suddenly didn't even know how to maintain a rifle with pictures of Victor being in the neighborhood. That time Miss Militia was suddenly unable to operate a motorcycle when responding to an E88 attack, though she eventually regained that ability. It may be something like that."
Armsmaster nodded. "The medical exam is very thorough and may be done sometime late tomorrow. We'll know more then."
* Hebert Household *
As she was currently a little blue blob. Well, maybe a seventy-five pound blob. Taylor Hebert was examining her house from a completely different viewpoint.
Homework was a breeze. She'd kicked that stuff out faster than normal because she could just literally eat a bunch of paper and then spit out finished homework. Boom, put that in the Done column with slime-powers for the win!
She had come up with sixteen plans. She had rejected sixteen plans. Dealing with her father was going to be a LOT more difficult. Maybe do something wild and put him on the back foot to begin with?
She put on an aleph movie. The Incredibles. Huh. What if she...
"Hey, Great Sage, what if I'm in human form and I stretch my arm?"
[Working. Human form would have to be in minimal amount of mimicry and mass limitations would apply.]
"Let's try it out," suggested Taylor. "Go go Elasti-girl powers!"
(whip! grab!)
"Okay, this has possibilities," said Taylor as she reached halfway across the room to the cabinet with the cooking supplies. "I'm going to practice while I make dinner."
[Acknowledged. Research continues.]
* PRT HQ *
"WHAT'S THAT SMELL?!?"
"Shadow Stalker has had to drink two gallons of Go-Lytely. Currently she's on the toilet imitating a space shuttle." Clockblocker said through a gas mask.
Vista quickly opened a vent, then shrank the distance between the vent opening and the air at sea three miles away. Once that was done, she could ask the obvious questions. "What is 'go lightly' and why did she have to do that here?"
"I asked myself," admitted Clockblocker through his gas mask. "Go-Lytely is apparently something they call 'bowel prep solution' - it causes everything inside someone's digestive tract to get in a hurry to leave the body. They do it because they're going to do stuff like look up someone's body to see if there's something that shouldn't be in there."
"Again. Why is she doing that here?!" asked Vista.
"Because when she understood what was going to happen she didn't want to go home and inflict this on her family. Apparently we're fair targets," said Clockblocker.
"She wasn't on my Christmas list before, and this certainly isn't going to change that," declared Vista.
A sound, as if a mudslide was occurring in the next room, and fresh wave of smell emanated from the Ward room toilet.
Vista considered. "I can leave. You're on console duty. I'm leaving."
"I got one of the troopers to bring me a gas mask in return for permanent no-prank status," said Clockblocker. "Have fun."
* Hebert Household *
Danny Hebert could tell what was going on before he opened the door. Oregano, bay leaf, and other smells spoke of spaghetti sauce on the stove.
It threatened to bring up old memories and another dip into further depression, so he just went inside and tried to mumble some greeting towards his daughter.
Danny stopped as soon as he saw Taylor reach out to grab a cup out of the cupboard from six feet away. Her arm had thinned and lengthened until she had the cup and then smoothly shrank until it was a more normal size.
"Wha?" managed Danny Hebert.
"Hi Dad. You might want to take a seat. A lot happened today."
Danny Hebert had a feeling that this was understating things quite a lot.
"So... how to put this," said Taylor in a voice that sounded a little off. "Where to start?"
"At the beginning?" tried Danny as he took a seat and found Taylor's arm stretching out to put the cup on the table.
"Well, about 13.4 billion years ago, there was this Big Bang..." Taylor stopped and shrugged a little. "Sorry, humor when dealing with bad situations. Anyway, about a year and a half ago, I came back from camp and Emma had changed."
Danny listened. At one point the cup of tea was replaced with a beer. At another point he was wishing that the whiskey was not locked away or that Taylor would just go ahead and get to the point where she was explaining why she was imitating Stretch Armstrong.
He'd also gone from the fog of depression to the burning rage of denied vengeance to the cold clarity of planning out a vengeance that Hades himself would give him a nod of approval.
His daughter had died at the hands of these three with the tacit approval of the school administration. He had a clear goal before him.
Taylor had taken the opportunity to shift her appearance so that she still looked like Taylor, but as a Taylor that was sculpted entirely of blue crystal.
"So I can go with several possibilities here," said blue Taylor. "Keeping the whole 'I died and reincarnated' thing off the table because that could panic people. Elasti-girl is one, obviously. Stretching and manipulating my shape. I could go with spider powers like that old cartoon from the '60s they run every so often late night. My 360 vision through radar sense, clinging to walls, spider thread would do that. I could even do animal form shifting to be Animal Girl, protector of the planet!"
"Uh huh," said Danny, mostly thinking about torture of several individuals. Maybe the little bit of string and a small fruit method. Hard to go wrong with the classics.
"I'm more or less immortal, I think," said Taylor. "With regeneration and a lack of specific organs, as long as part of me survives I'll eventually regain full mass again."
"That's nice," said Danny. The city had those snowplows, a little modification and nailing someone to the street.
"I... what?" asked Taylor.
"What what?" asked Danny.
"Great Sage has some initial analysis she's sharing," said Taylor. "Apparently the weird tumor was actually two connected tumors. The extradimensional aspect was some kind of high-density transmission kind of like a cable connection elsewhere. Feeder lines running to other sections of the brain. So... Sophia Hess might not have started out as much of a bitch as she was. Weird."
"The Great Sage thing is your Thinker power?" asked Danny, not entirely sure what all these things meant as this HAD been quite an info-drop and it HAD happened when he was tired from a full day of trying to get workers jobs.
"Something like that," said Taylor. "Oh, I need to show you the other forms I can do. Here's Spider!"
(BOMF!)
"That... is pretty horrifying," summed up Danny on seeing a spider the size a coffee table.
(BOMF!) Back to a blue squishy ball. "And here's snake!" (BOMF!)
"That is also pretty horrifying," commented Danny as he was now facing about nine feet of snake with obvious venom fangs.
(BOMF!) "Worked out a bird form." (BOMF!)
"You can fly like that?" asked Danny.
"That will probably require a lot of work," admitted Taylor. "Birds have instincts on how to do it. I don't."
"So, more falling than flying?" asked Danny.
"Yeah, I seem to have some hard limits on apparent mass," summed up Taylor. "I can go for breadbox to giant serpent, trading mass from storage. I'll need more eventually. Maybe eat a few lizards and see if I can go dinosaur."
"Didn't that Horner guy in the papers say they were more related to birds?" asked Danny.
"Yeah, so maybe some different birds," admitted Taylor. "I want to try getting some fish tomorrow. Go slide into the ocean and see what I can eat. Maybe I could do a Loch Ness Monster impression - that'd bring in some tourist money."
"One thing at a time, Taylor. One thing at a time."
* PRT ENE HQ *
"Her Corona Pollentia and Gemma are both gone?" asked Director Piggot. "Nothing else. No other damage. Just gone."
"That's right, biopsy is still ongoing," said Armsmaster. "Whatever happened to her completely removed the growths and all indication of parahuman abilities. Other than that, all results of her physical are showing results within a normal range."
"That's concerning," said Director Piggot. "Someone or something that can remove parahuman abilities, apparently permanently? On the one hand, it could make an alternative to the Birdcage if we could get it."
"There would be riots from various parahumans at the possibility of the PRT being able to remove powers," said Armsmaster.
"You think it might be tinkertech?" asked Director Piggot.
"It is possible," admitted Armsmaster. "If so it would have to be either stationary and disguised or small enough to be hidden. Due to the complexity of such a device, I would think it the former as the more likely."
"We're already investigating Winslow, so we'll alert the search teams for possible tinkertech mechanisms," said Director Piggot. "On that note, they've already uncovered something very worrying about Stalker's activities at school."
* Medhall, 7th Floor Corner Office *
Krieg looked over the blurry photographs they'd gotten of the Docks area. What WAS that thing?
The first thing looked like a blue blob, looking like a deflated blue beach-ball, except it was throwing out a line and then pulling that line into itself rapidly. Tinkertech robot? Bio-tinker stuff? Freaking aliens? No, probably not that last. Maybe a Case 53 of some kind.
The second picture showed the blob had two tentacles, one of which had the familiar line it was reeling in. The third was a woman made of blue goo. Whatever it was, it was trying to imitate a human. Or was human originally and was trying to regain that form.
Rune had spotted it, apparently one of those times she'd been sunning herself out on a rooftop, and had been curious enough to look but not so incautious as to approach. Then he'd gotten two more badly shot pictures of the thing, also one where the sympathizer had apparently not toggled the camera and gotten a selfie of the top quarter of their face.
Still, whether it was a new parahuman Case 53 or a wet tinker's minion or a very weird robot of some kind - it was worth investigating.
Victor would be the best fit for the job, except he had other work that was more important at the moment. Othala could be subtle but she wasn't much on fieldwork. The twins? Nah, getting them away from Max or out in the field for long wasn't happening. Rune? No, hardly any experience and she could be unreliable. Cricket? No, she'd be even worse than Hookwolf. Besides she was busy with the organization on that shipment of non-arms military equipment. Same with Alabaster. The only one not showing up as busy was...
Oh hell. Not him.
On the one hand, Hookwolf could handle intimidation and strongarm tactics. On the other hand, subtle information gathering was completely outside his wheelhouse.
Maybe just have Klauss or Schmidt do the job and Hookwolf just be ready to back the normals up if things got problematic? Klauss looked like a butterball but was a True Believer, and had a vicious streak a mile wide. Schmidt was completely mercenary, the only thing he believed in was a steady paycheck. Klauss was good at intel gathering. Schmidt was good at violence.
Investigation. Possibly eliminating the monster or at least determining what it was.
Of course, it was possible that it WAS a Case 53 and they'd originally started out as the right sort of person but was mutated by whatever made the Case 53s to begin with. Since nobody knew what or who did that sort of thing - actually getting an answer there was unlikely.
"Shadow Stalker has lost her power. She is currently undergoing an extensive medical exam to try and determine how this happened, if it is temporary or permanent."
Emily Piggot nodded. "Keep me apprised. She's on console duty for now. Investigate that school of hers. Investigate everything, there may be someone she encountered there. There's rumors about Victor of the E88 being able to steal skills. That visiting marksman who suddenly didn't even know how to maintain a rifle with pictures of Victor being in the neighborhood. That time Miss Militia was suddenly unable to operate a motorcycle when responding to an E88 attack, though she eventually regained that ability. It may be something like that."
Armsmaster nodded. "The medical exam is very thorough and may be done sometime late tomorrow. We'll know more then."
* Hebert Household *
As she was currently a little blue blob. Well, maybe a seventy-five pound blob. Taylor Hebert was examining her house from a completely different viewpoint.
Homework was a breeze. She'd kicked that stuff out faster than normal because she could just literally eat a bunch of paper and then spit out finished homework. Boom, put that in the Done column with slime-powers for the win!
She had come up with sixteen plans. She had rejected sixteen plans. Dealing with her father was going to be a LOT more difficult. Maybe do something wild and put him on the back foot to begin with?
She put on an aleph movie. The Incredibles. Huh. What if she...
"Hey, Great Sage, what if I'm in human form and I stretch my arm?"
[Working. Human form would have to be in minimal amount of mimicry and mass limitations would apply.]
"Let's try it out," suggested Taylor. "Go go Elasti-girl powers!"
(whip! grab!)
"Okay, this has possibilities," said Taylor as she reached halfway across the room to the cabinet with the cooking supplies. "I'm going to practice while I make dinner."
[Acknowledged. Research continues.]
* PRT HQ *
"WHAT'S THAT SMELL?!?"
"Shadow Stalker has had to drink two gallons of Go-Lytely. Currently she's on the toilet imitating a space shuttle." Clockblocker said through a gas mask.
Vista quickly opened a vent, then shrank the distance between the vent opening and the air at sea three miles away. Once that was done, she could ask the obvious questions. "What is 'go lightly' and why did she have to do that here?"
"I asked myself," admitted Clockblocker through his gas mask. "Go-Lytely is apparently something they call 'bowel prep solution' - it causes everything inside someone's digestive tract to get in a hurry to leave the body. They do it because they're going to do stuff like look up someone's body to see if there's something that shouldn't be in there."
"Again. Why is she doing that here?!" asked Vista.
"Because when she understood what was going to happen she didn't want to go home and inflict this on her family. Apparently we're fair targets," said Clockblocker.
"She wasn't on my Christmas list before, and this certainly isn't going to change that," declared Vista.
A sound, as if a mudslide was occurring in the next room, and fresh wave of smell emanated from the Ward room toilet.
Vista considered. "I can leave. You're on console duty. I'm leaving."
"I got one of the troopers to bring me a gas mask in return for permanent no-prank status," said Clockblocker. "Have fun."
* Hebert Household *
Danny Hebert could tell what was going on before he opened the door. Oregano, bay leaf, and other smells spoke of spaghetti sauce on the stove.
It threatened to bring up old memories and another dip into further depression, so he just went inside and tried to mumble some greeting towards his daughter.
Danny stopped as soon as he saw Taylor reach out to grab a cup out of the cupboard from six feet away. Her arm had thinned and lengthened until she had the cup and then smoothly shrank until it was a more normal size.
"Wha?" managed Danny Hebert.
"Hi Dad. You might want to take a seat. A lot happened today."
Danny Hebert had a feeling that this was understating things quite a lot.
"So... how to put this," said Taylor in a voice that sounded a little off. "Where to start?"
"At the beginning?" tried Danny as he took a seat and found Taylor's arm stretching out to put the cup on the table.
"Well, about 13.4 billion years ago, there was this Big Bang..." Taylor stopped and shrugged a little. "Sorry, humor when dealing with bad situations. Anyway, about a year and a half ago, I came back from camp and Emma had changed."
Danny listened. At one point the cup of tea was replaced with a beer. At another point he was wishing that the whiskey was not locked away or that Taylor would just go ahead and get to the point where she was explaining why she was imitating Stretch Armstrong.
He'd also gone from the fog of depression to the burning rage of denied vengeance to the cold clarity of planning out a vengeance that Hades himself would give him a nod of approval.
His daughter had died at the hands of these three with the tacit approval of the school administration. He had a clear goal before him.
Taylor had taken the opportunity to shift her appearance so that she still looked like Taylor, but as a Taylor that was sculpted entirely of blue crystal.
"So I can go with several possibilities here," said blue Taylor. "Keeping the whole 'I died and reincarnated' thing off the table because that could panic people. Elasti-girl is one, obviously. Stretching and manipulating my shape. I could go with spider powers like that old cartoon from the '60s they run every so often late night. My 360 vision through radar sense, clinging to walls, spider thread would do that. I could even do animal form shifting to be Animal Girl, protector of the planet!"
"Uh huh," said Danny, mostly thinking about torture of several individuals. Maybe the little bit of string and a small fruit method. Hard to go wrong with the classics.
"I'm more or less immortal, I think," said Taylor. "With regeneration and a lack of specific organs, as long as part of me survives I'll eventually regain full mass again."
"That's nice," said Danny. The city had those snowplows, a little modification and nailing someone to the street.
"I... what?" asked Taylor.
"What what?" asked Danny.
"Great Sage has some initial analysis she's sharing," said Taylor. "Apparently the weird tumor was actually two connected tumors. The extradimensional aspect was some kind of high-density transmission kind of like a cable connection elsewhere. Feeder lines running to other sections of the brain. So... Sophia Hess might not have started out as much of a bitch as she was. Weird."
"The Great Sage thing is your Thinker power?" asked Danny, not entirely sure what all these things meant as this HAD been quite an info-drop and it HAD happened when he was tired from a full day of trying to get workers jobs.
"Something like that," said Taylor. "Oh, I need to show you the other forms I can do. Here's Spider!"
(BOMF!)
"That... is pretty horrifying," summed up Danny on seeing a spider the size a coffee table.
(BOMF!) Back to a blue squishy ball. "And here's snake!" (BOMF!)
"That is also pretty horrifying," commented Danny as he was now facing about nine feet of snake with obvious venom fangs.
(BOMF!) "Worked out a bird form." (BOMF!)
"You can fly like that?" asked Danny.
"That will probably require a lot of work," admitted Taylor. "Birds have instincts on how to do it. I don't."
"So, more falling than flying?" asked Danny.
"Yeah, I seem to have some hard limits on apparent mass," summed up Taylor. "I can go for breadbox to giant serpent, trading mass from storage. I'll need more eventually. Maybe eat a few lizards and see if I can go dinosaur."
"Didn't that Horner guy in the papers say they were more related to birds?" asked Danny.
"Yeah, so maybe some different birds," admitted Taylor. "I want to try getting some fish tomorrow. Go slide into the ocean and see what I can eat. Maybe I could do a Loch Ness Monster impression - that'd bring in some tourist money."
"One thing at a time, Taylor. One thing at a time."
* PRT ENE HQ *
"Her Corona Pollentia and Gemma are both gone?" asked Director Piggot. "Nothing else. No other damage. Just gone."
"That's right, biopsy is still ongoing," said Armsmaster. "Whatever happened to her completely removed the growths and all indication of parahuman abilities. Other than that, all results of her physical are showing results within a normal range."
"That's concerning," said Director Piggot. "Someone or something that can remove parahuman abilities, apparently permanently? On the one hand, it could make an alternative to the Birdcage if we could get it."
"There would be riots from various parahumans at the possibility of the PRT being able to remove powers," said Armsmaster.
"You think it might be tinkertech?" asked Director Piggot.
"It is possible," admitted Armsmaster. "If so it would have to be either stationary and disguised or small enough to be hidden. Due to the complexity of such a device, I would think it the former as the more likely."
"We're already investigating Winslow, so we'll alert the search teams for possible tinkertech mechanisms," said Director Piggot. "On that note, they've already uncovered something very worrying about Stalker's activities at school."
* Medhall, 7th Floor Corner Office *
Krieg looked over the blurry photographs they'd gotten of the Docks area. What WAS that thing?
The first thing looked like a blue blob, looking like a deflated blue beach-ball, except it was throwing out a line and then pulling that line into itself rapidly. Tinkertech robot? Bio-tinker stuff? Freaking aliens? No, probably not that last. Maybe a Case 53 of some kind.
The second picture showed the blob had two tentacles, one of which had the familiar line it was reeling in. The third was a woman made of blue goo. Whatever it was, it was trying to imitate a human. Or was human originally and was trying to regain that form.
Rune had spotted it, apparently one of those times she'd been sunning herself out on a rooftop, and had been curious enough to look but not so incautious as to approach. Then he'd gotten two more badly shot pictures of the thing, also one where the sympathizer had apparently not toggled the camera and gotten a selfie of the top quarter of their face.
Still, whether it was a new parahuman Case 53 or a wet tinker's minion or a very weird robot of some kind - it was worth investigating.
Victor would be the best fit for the job, except he had other work that was more important at the moment. Othala could be subtle but she wasn't much on fieldwork. The twins? Nah, getting them away from Max or out in the field for long wasn't happening. Rune? No, hardly any experience and she could be unreliable. Cricket? No, she'd be even worse than Hookwolf. Besides she was busy with the organization on that shipment of non-arms military equipment. Same with Alabaster. The only one not showing up as busy was...
Oh hell. Not him.
On the one hand, Hookwolf could handle intimidation and strongarm tactics. On the other hand, subtle information gathering was completely outside his wheelhouse.
Maybe just have Klauss or Schmidt do the job and Hookwolf just be ready to back the normals up if things got problematic? Klauss looked like a butterball but was a True Believer, and had a vicious streak a mile wide. Schmidt was completely mercenary, the only thing he believed in was a steady paycheck. Klauss was good at intel gathering. Schmidt was good at violence.
Investigation. Possibly eliminating the monster or at least determining what it was.
Of course, it was possible that it WAS a Case 53 and they'd originally started out as the right sort of person but was mutated by whatever made the Case 53s to begin with. Since nobody knew what or who did that sort of thing - actually getting an answer there was unlikely.
Slime & Wolf
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
* PRT ENE HQ *
* January 5 2011, 0500 *
"A CLONE?" asked Armsmaster, a bit aghast at the idea.
"Biopsy results indicate the tissue from the area where Sophia Hess used to have a Gemma is younger than would be indicated otherwise. Telomere length for one thing. Initial indications is that there is cloned tissue present. So... she may be a clone now," said the physician just before Armsmaster hit a button.
* Wards area *
"What's that alarm?" asked Gallant.
Troopers swept in, went straight to Shadow Stalker's room, grabbed the girl in question, and hustled her out with much cursing and swearing. Most of which was from Sophia herself but a fair few comments from one of the troopers whom she'd managed to kick in the balls while she was being restrained.
Gallant watched things commence, scratched his head, and wondered what the heck was going on. Not for the first time.
* Taylor *
Slimes apparently didn't need to sleep. She COULD sleep, if she wanted to, and it let her recover energy faster than if she were awake.
Also - if she did fall asleep she went back to being a blue blob.
[Further analysis of acquired skills and combining them has given new options.]
"Oh? Anything interesting, Great Sage?"
[Venom data cross-referenced with biological data from 'Emma Barnes' 'Madison Clements' and 'Sophia Hess' now allows for multiple effects.]
"Oh, specific to those three only?"
[Bio-data draws on commonalities. Further sampling will allow for more precision for safety measures for non-fatal venoms.]
Taylor considered that as she went down the stairs. "More options is a good thing."
[Currently have 'Paralysis', 'Knockout', 'Anti-Aggression', 'Frenzy', and 'Deadly' at 100% formulated.]
"Okay. Can you add 'Epi-Pen' to it?" asked Taylor as she went to her computer and pulled up the data on a webpage. "Being able to assist EMT at the scene or keep people alive would be a big step in the whole 'hero' career track."
[Adding to queue.]
"Great," said Taylor. "Huh. If we had general healing abilities that would be a plus. Not sure how Panacea's power works though. How does french toast sound?"
[Additional data always welcome.]
"Well, I like to eat. Maybe I don't need to anymore, but there's still something to be said for a sense of taste," said Taylor. "Huh. I've become a lot more philosophical since I died. I wonder if that's common."
* Brad Meadows *
"All right you lot... what's with the hats?" asked Brad Meadows, aka Hookwolf.
"We're your minions, ain't we?" asked Leroy. "Found someone who could make things like this, got these knit caps with the wolf design on them. They're nice and warm and all too - and it's 27 degrees out there right now."
Brad considered that, the importance of showing their tattoos and allegiance towards the Empire vs the whole pack affinity thing. Sticking his head out the door decided him. It might be 27 degrees out there, but that wind chill took a good ten degrees off that. "Fine. Any of you know the mission?"
"New cape spotted," said Leroy, the long flappy legs of his wolf-cap jiggling as he started counting off points on his fingers. "Figger out if the cape is Empire-material or not. Recruit or put 'em down. What if they're not Empire-material but still useful?"
Brad considered that. Not everyone in the Empire was 100% behind their agenda. Couldn't admit that aloud of course. "Orders are orders."
Leroy nodded, then gestured towards one of his colleagues.
"Okay," said Eric Klauss, putting a map up on the corkboard. "This is the Docks area. I'll run in first. If we see Dockworkers I'll shout and try to intimidate them so they run off and we don't face a swarm of them."
Brad nodded. Dockworkers had a bunch of ex-military. No capes, but replacing minions was a right pain and they could be sniped.
"When that's going, I'll need Anthony Schmidt to come in and start shooting as well to keep them scattered." Eric pointed to several areas. "Then Bass comes in and does the same thing - the idea is to keep them running and out of the way. Plus the noise might draw the cape to us."
Brad nodded. He wasn't great at planning, which was another reason to have minions.
"Use the grenades sparingly, you guys," Eric indicated two of the guys in the back. "Area of effect is great, but we don't want to kill a bunch of Dockworkers or they'll set up sniper positions and be out for blood. Target is the non-Empire cape, not the Dockworkers. Even worse if some of OUR people are in the AoE - you got that CARL?"
Carl nodded, turning a bit pale as Brad stared at him.
"We do this and we can maybe avoid some of the problems from last run. Anyone running a number crunch, we got enough ammo and such?" asked Eric.
"Ah, give me a moment," said Euron, adjusting his glasses and staring down at a calculator. "Yeah, so far I've got 32.33 - repeating of course - percentage of success."
"That's a lot better than we usually do," admitted Eric. "Okay then. Let's do this."
"We'll meet again at 3 in the afternoon, that's when that cape was seen yesterday," announced Brad. "Go do your usual assignments until then."
* Taylor *
* 0700 hours *
"Why couldn't it be a weekend?" complained Taylor as she got ready for another day of torture and despair and idiocy. In other words, school.
"Because it's Wednesday," said her father. "I'm filing paperwork to get you out, but there'll be tests you have to do really well on."
"I could just eat the school," offered Taylor. "Drop by in the middle of the night and then everyone comes in the next morning to find an empty lot."
"We'll mark that down as Plan C," countered Danny Hebert.
"I could be learning so much OUT of school," complained Taylor.
"We need to do everything legally and by the book," Danny told her. "That means going to school and not eating your classmates no matter how annoying they are."
"Fine, fine, I'm going fishing after school though," griped Taylor, showing all signs of going into a magnificent sulk later.
"And no storing them in your stomach to regurgitate them later in embarrassing poses or places," added Danny.
"I have no idea where you would get such an idea," said Taylor.
"I saw that look," added Danny. "We'll talk more tonight. I want to plan you registering with the PRT - it might just avoid the whole problem of the introductory fight scene."
"Like that sort of thing happens in real life," scoffed Taylor.
[Analysis complete.]
"Oh, Great Sage - you've got something else?" asked Taylor.
[Analysis of human healing process and cellular regeneration 83% complete. By temporarily swallowing individuals, healing process can be significantly advanced. Stabilization of wounds would be instantaneous. Continuing analysis but more individuals with a variety of ailments will be necessary for data gathering purposes.]
Taylor smiled and relayed this to her father. This was certainly going to help her establish a heroic career!
* After School *
"Taylor!" called out Danny. "We're under attack!"
"Eh?" said Zephron, the large man glancing up only to see a blue blob land in front of Danny and transform into a young girl.
"You've met my daughter Taylor," said Danny to the assembled men. "This is her second day as a cape, so keep it quiet will you?"
There was a chorus of assents and muttered comments about how fast kids grew up nowadays.
"What's going on?" asked Taylor, feeling a bit of stage fright at being the center of attention.
"Hookwolf is leading a bunch of gangers through the Docks area," explained Zephron, jerking a thumb behind him and to the left. "They keep shooting at random things, got a couple of people who weren't fast enough vacating the area. No fatalities yet, but it's a matter of time."
"Okay, show me where the wounded are, I can help them. Meanwhile we need to set up defenses," answered Taylor.
"I've got some people up as spotters," said Danny. "Zephron, could you?"
"Yeah, we've got a med station this way," said Zephron, taking off with only a glance behind to make sure Danny's kid was following.
* Danny *
Snipers with partial concealment they could duck behind.
Spotters with walkie-talkies to call in locations.
Medic station prepped with some of his people who knew First Aid, but if Taylor could do as she thought she could - that would be even better. That it was the safest place for her was...
There she went in blob-girl form, running past and shifting to giant spider form and throwing webs up on the inside of the fenced area?
What was she doing? Those thin little threads weren't going to stop anyone - those gangers were likely hopped up on drugs and certainly weren't going to let obstacles like that get in their way. You couldn't even see them except where the light was hitting them just right.
The spider flexed and became the little blue blob again, which bounced around and spat out posts?
What was she doing?
* Taylor *
"Okay, sticky threads above, monofilament below," said Taylor. "The main problem is going to be the guns and Hookwolf."
[Insufficient data on target: Hookwolf.]
"Yeah, I suppose I ought to research the local cape scene more," agreed Taylor. "Didn't expect I'd be facing a major supervillain this quick though."
[Guns = firearms. Uses an ignited chemical reaction to propel small bits of metal at high speeds. Insufficient to damage Taylor Hebert.]
"And I really need to come up with a cape name fast," said Taylor. "To keep my private life and public life separate."
[Naming conventions based on limited sample have little to no meaning.]
"Well, to some extent that's true," admitted Taylor. "I'm not a tailor. But cape names usually have a meaning. Miss Militia can summon up all sorts of guns. Armsmaster carries a halberd and wears armor, like some guy who is supposed to guard a castle. Mouse Protector... okay, I'm not too sure about her other than it's her motif. Velocity though - he can run really fast."
[Slimegirl.]
"No," responded Taylor.
[Reincarnated Girl.]
"Absolutely not," responded Taylor.
[Awesome Girl.]
"Hell no," said Taylor. "That would lead to SO many comments."
[Flexi-girl.]
"That's not too horrible, but that still might be considered an 18+ kind of name," complained Taylor.
[Reference not understood.]
"How about... Rime, as in ice? I could probably pull energy out of things to freeze 'em," reasoned Taylor.
[Research for ability added to queue. Name not indicative of other abilities.]
Spinning another layer of monofilament down and making sure the posts were in place to both anchor them and to provide a safe escape route where gaps could be marked, Taylor considered things. "How about 'Weaver' since I do these threads?"
[Limiting.]
"Hey, it's better than 'Slimegirl'," complained Taylor.
[Opinion.]
"Hmph," said Taylor. It had been so long since she'd had a friend. Pity that she'd had to die to get one, but at least that had been a temporary situation. "How about... slime: goo, ooze, gunk. No, nothing there. Mythology maybe? Jelly? Gel? Gel!"
[Isn't that the brand of your toothpaste?]
"Okay, maybe not Gel. I can shift around like plastic... Plasti-girl!"
[Plastic + Girl = Plasti-Girl. Possibility name is taken?]
"I'll check later," said Taylor. "Let's go with that for now. Hey, I'm blobby now but I can shift around to form other shapes, right? Like my jelly-girl shape?"
[Affirmative. Analysis of materials obtained from scrapyard allows for limited appearance/density change.]
"That's promising," said Taylor. "I was just thinking of looking like a blue tarp stretched over some boxes, but if I can do colors and textures that adds a lot. Same mass restrictions, right?"
[Affirmative. Simple shapes are possible to be maintained for short periods.]
"Oh yeah. I see... possibilities," confessed Plasti-Girl.
* January 5 2011, 0500 *
"A CLONE?" asked Armsmaster, a bit aghast at the idea.
"Biopsy results indicate the tissue from the area where Sophia Hess used to have a Gemma is younger than would be indicated otherwise. Telomere length for one thing. Initial indications is that there is cloned tissue present. So... she may be a clone now," said the physician just before Armsmaster hit a button.
* Wards area *
"What's that alarm?" asked Gallant.
Troopers swept in, went straight to Shadow Stalker's room, grabbed the girl in question, and hustled her out with much cursing and swearing. Most of which was from Sophia herself but a fair few comments from one of the troopers whom she'd managed to kick in the balls while she was being restrained.
Gallant watched things commence, scratched his head, and wondered what the heck was going on. Not for the first time.
* Taylor *
Slimes apparently didn't need to sleep. She COULD sleep, if she wanted to, and it let her recover energy faster than if she were awake.
Also - if she did fall asleep she went back to being a blue blob.
[Further analysis of acquired skills and combining them has given new options.]
"Oh? Anything interesting, Great Sage?"
[Venom data cross-referenced with biological data from 'Emma Barnes' 'Madison Clements' and 'Sophia Hess' now allows for multiple effects.]
"Oh, specific to those three only?"
[Bio-data draws on commonalities. Further sampling will allow for more precision for safety measures for non-fatal venoms.]
Taylor considered that as she went down the stairs. "More options is a good thing."
[Currently have 'Paralysis', 'Knockout', 'Anti-Aggression', 'Frenzy', and 'Deadly' at 100% formulated.]
"Okay. Can you add 'Epi-Pen' to it?" asked Taylor as she went to her computer and pulled up the data on a webpage. "Being able to assist EMT at the scene or keep people alive would be a big step in the whole 'hero' career track."
[Adding to queue.]
"Great," said Taylor. "Huh. If we had general healing abilities that would be a plus. Not sure how Panacea's power works though. How does french toast sound?"
[Additional data always welcome.]
"Well, I like to eat. Maybe I don't need to anymore, but there's still something to be said for a sense of taste," said Taylor. "Huh. I've become a lot more philosophical since I died. I wonder if that's common."
* Brad Meadows *
"All right you lot... what's with the hats?" asked Brad Meadows, aka Hookwolf.
"We're your minions, ain't we?" asked Leroy. "Found someone who could make things like this, got these knit caps with the wolf design on them. They're nice and warm and all too - and it's 27 degrees out there right now."
Brad considered that, the importance of showing their tattoos and allegiance towards the Empire vs the whole pack affinity thing. Sticking his head out the door decided him. It might be 27 degrees out there, but that wind chill took a good ten degrees off that. "Fine. Any of you know the mission?"
"New cape spotted," said Leroy, the long flappy legs of his wolf-cap jiggling as he started counting off points on his fingers. "Figger out if the cape is Empire-material or not. Recruit or put 'em down. What if they're not Empire-material but still useful?"
Brad considered that. Not everyone in the Empire was 100% behind their agenda. Couldn't admit that aloud of course. "Orders are orders."
Leroy nodded, then gestured towards one of his colleagues.
"Okay," said Eric Klauss, putting a map up on the corkboard. "This is the Docks area. I'll run in first. If we see Dockworkers I'll shout and try to intimidate them so they run off and we don't face a swarm of them."
Brad nodded. Dockworkers had a bunch of ex-military. No capes, but replacing minions was a right pain and they could be sniped.
"When that's going, I'll need Anthony Schmidt to come in and start shooting as well to keep them scattered." Eric pointed to several areas. "Then Bass comes in and does the same thing - the idea is to keep them running and out of the way. Plus the noise might draw the cape to us."
Brad nodded. He wasn't great at planning, which was another reason to have minions.
"Use the grenades sparingly, you guys," Eric indicated two of the guys in the back. "Area of effect is great, but we don't want to kill a bunch of Dockworkers or they'll set up sniper positions and be out for blood. Target is the non-Empire cape, not the Dockworkers. Even worse if some of OUR people are in the AoE - you got that CARL?"
Carl nodded, turning a bit pale as Brad stared at him.
"We do this and we can maybe avoid some of the problems from last run. Anyone running a number crunch, we got enough ammo and such?" asked Eric.
"Ah, give me a moment," said Euron, adjusting his glasses and staring down at a calculator. "Yeah, so far I've got 32.33 - repeating of course - percentage of success."
"That's a lot better than we usually do," admitted Eric. "Okay then. Let's do this."
"We'll meet again at 3 in the afternoon, that's when that cape was seen yesterday," announced Brad. "Go do your usual assignments until then."
* Taylor *
* 0700 hours *
"Why couldn't it be a weekend?" complained Taylor as she got ready for another day of torture and despair and idiocy. In other words, school.
"Because it's Wednesday," said her father. "I'm filing paperwork to get you out, but there'll be tests you have to do really well on."
"I could just eat the school," offered Taylor. "Drop by in the middle of the night and then everyone comes in the next morning to find an empty lot."
"We'll mark that down as Plan C," countered Danny Hebert.
"I could be learning so much OUT of school," complained Taylor.
"We need to do everything legally and by the book," Danny told her. "That means going to school and not eating your classmates no matter how annoying they are."
"Fine, fine, I'm going fishing after school though," griped Taylor, showing all signs of going into a magnificent sulk later.
"And no storing them in your stomach to regurgitate them later in embarrassing poses or places," added Danny.
"I have no idea where you would get such an idea," said Taylor.
"I saw that look," added Danny. "We'll talk more tonight. I want to plan you registering with the PRT - it might just avoid the whole problem of the introductory fight scene."
"Like that sort of thing happens in real life," scoffed Taylor.
[Analysis complete.]
"Oh, Great Sage - you've got something else?" asked Taylor.
[Analysis of human healing process and cellular regeneration 83% complete. By temporarily swallowing individuals, healing process can be significantly advanced. Stabilization of wounds would be instantaneous. Continuing analysis but more individuals with a variety of ailments will be necessary for data gathering purposes.]
Taylor smiled and relayed this to her father. This was certainly going to help her establish a heroic career!
* After School *
"Taylor!" called out Danny. "We're under attack!"
"Eh?" said Zephron, the large man glancing up only to see a blue blob land in front of Danny and transform into a young girl.
"You've met my daughter Taylor," said Danny to the assembled men. "This is her second day as a cape, so keep it quiet will you?"
There was a chorus of assents and muttered comments about how fast kids grew up nowadays.
"What's going on?" asked Taylor, feeling a bit of stage fright at being the center of attention.
"Hookwolf is leading a bunch of gangers through the Docks area," explained Zephron, jerking a thumb behind him and to the left. "They keep shooting at random things, got a couple of people who weren't fast enough vacating the area. No fatalities yet, but it's a matter of time."
"Okay, show me where the wounded are, I can help them. Meanwhile we need to set up defenses," answered Taylor.
"I've got some people up as spotters," said Danny. "Zephron, could you?"
"Yeah, we've got a med station this way," said Zephron, taking off with only a glance behind to make sure Danny's kid was following.
* Danny *
Snipers with partial concealment they could duck behind.
Spotters with walkie-talkies to call in locations.
Medic station prepped with some of his people who knew First Aid, but if Taylor could do as she thought she could - that would be even better. That it was the safest place for her was...
There she went in blob-girl form, running past and shifting to giant spider form and throwing webs up on the inside of the fenced area?
What was she doing? Those thin little threads weren't going to stop anyone - those gangers were likely hopped up on drugs and certainly weren't going to let obstacles like that get in their way. You couldn't even see them except where the light was hitting them just right.
The spider flexed and became the little blue blob again, which bounced around and spat out posts?
What was she doing?
* Taylor *
"Okay, sticky threads above, monofilament below," said Taylor. "The main problem is going to be the guns and Hookwolf."
[Insufficient data on target: Hookwolf.]
"Yeah, I suppose I ought to research the local cape scene more," agreed Taylor. "Didn't expect I'd be facing a major supervillain this quick though."
[Guns = firearms. Uses an ignited chemical reaction to propel small bits of metal at high speeds. Insufficient to damage Taylor Hebert.]
"And I really need to come up with a cape name fast," said Taylor. "To keep my private life and public life separate."
[Naming conventions based on limited sample have little to no meaning.]
"Well, to some extent that's true," admitted Taylor. "I'm not a tailor. But cape names usually have a meaning. Miss Militia can summon up all sorts of guns. Armsmaster carries a halberd and wears armor, like some guy who is supposed to guard a castle. Mouse Protector... okay, I'm not too sure about her other than it's her motif. Velocity though - he can run really fast."
[Slimegirl.]
"No," responded Taylor.
[Reincarnated Girl.]
"Absolutely not," responded Taylor.
[Awesome Girl.]
"Hell no," said Taylor. "That would lead to SO many comments."
[Flexi-girl.]
"That's not too horrible, but that still might be considered an 18+ kind of name," complained Taylor.
[Reference not understood.]
"How about... Rime, as in ice? I could probably pull energy out of things to freeze 'em," reasoned Taylor.
[Research for ability added to queue. Name not indicative of other abilities.]
Spinning another layer of monofilament down and making sure the posts were in place to both anchor them and to provide a safe escape route where gaps could be marked, Taylor considered things. "How about 'Weaver' since I do these threads?"
[Limiting.]
"Hey, it's better than 'Slimegirl'," complained Taylor.
[Opinion.]
"Hmph," said Taylor. It had been so long since she'd had a friend. Pity that she'd had to die to get one, but at least that had been a temporary situation. "How about... slime: goo, ooze, gunk. No, nothing there. Mythology maybe? Jelly? Gel? Gel!"
[Isn't that the brand of your toothpaste?]
"Okay, maybe not Gel. I can shift around like plastic... Plasti-girl!"
[Plastic + Girl = Plasti-Girl. Possibility name is taken?]
"I'll check later," said Taylor. "Let's go with that for now. Hey, I'm blobby now but I can shift around to form other shapes, right? Like my jelly-girl shape?"
[Affirmative. Analysis of materials obtained from scrapyard allows for limited appearance/density change.]
"That's promising," said Taylor. "I was just thinking of looking like a blue tarp stretched over some boxes, but if I can do colors and textures that adds a lot. Same mass restrictions, right?"
[Affirmative. Simple shapes are possible to be maintained for short periods.]
"Oh yeah. I see... possibilities," confessed Plasti-Girl.
It keeps getting better
so only the part where the tumor was is cloned or the whole brain?
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
just the immediate section where it used to be.
It's unclear why this provoked the response it did
Is "being a clone" illegal (and strangely defined in law, at that)? If it's just that one bit of tissue they can't be thinking she's not the original, can they?
They probably think she has been Mastered or Strangered (M/S Protocol basically)