The Eldritch One (Celestial Forge)

[Optimal Robotics]

Settling in to live with some supervillains was shockingly easy. Bitch was the simplest to deal with. I pressed her on details on how to interact with her dogs which pissed her off, but prevented most other problems from coming up. Boiled down to not letting them jump on me, and only petting them if they've crawled on top of me in some fashion. Bitch herself just ignored me when she was here. Alec was... Well I have undeniable proof he still finds me attractive even at my most monstrous. Normally I would've socked him in his stupid face for the shenanigans he pulls, but when Mom gave me the talk she told me never to lie to myself in matters of romance. And the fact is no matter how hamfisted he is about it, his blunt and incessant flirting is a massive ego boost.

Lisa comes over sporadically. Ostensibly to check up on us. Probably even the truth too. Also to communicate to us jobs the boss wants done. Nothing going on so far though. No updates on Coil either. Brian is actually the one I get along with the most. We scheduled regular spars and coaching in the mornings. A real consistent guy who's teaching me genuinely useful ways to leverage my strength and a few martial arts stances to ground myself. Apparently I'm a good student.

I'm also keeping in contact with my Dad through a proxy. I'm visiting a certain restaurant for dinner every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Unfortunately I missed this Monday due to how busy I was with the meeting and sparring with Brian. A dockworker meets me there and he passes messages back and forth for us. That is how I found out that my transfer went through and I start attending Arcadia on Monday. Oh joy, school again. Hopefully it goes light-years better than last time, my God.

---

Using the route Lisa made for me was easy enough. I just walked a little bit quickly through some alleyways, which both obscured my origin point, and lost any tails I might have had. We made sure nobody was keeping an eye out here either. During the day at least. I brought the paperwork to the front gate, and they let me in without a fuss, with instructions to go to the front office. I ended up having to stay and do scheduling paperwork until lunch, at which point I was given a voucher because I wasn't in the system yet. Being in a new cafeteria was nerve-wracking, but I muddled through and sat down at a relatively isolated table. Unfortunately somebody sat down right next to me almost immediately.

"Hello there, my name is Dean Stansfield. What's yours?"

"..." Maybe if I ignore him he'll go away. I start eating my food faster.

"So are you new here?" Aw crap he's engaging me.

"How do you figure?"

"You underestimate the power of the rumor mill. Also you're the only one here with a faded gray sweatshirt." I look around. Everybody is in vibrant colors. Hell, even the goths are dressed in crisp blacks. Just about the only color absent here is of the melatonin variety. Oh wait no, I see a black guy over there.

"What do you want?"

"I was curious about the new girl."

"What, come to gawk? Fuck off." He frowns as I start eating again. He's about to open his mouth again when I feel weirdly elated.

"Hey there Dean! Who's this?" I feel the slightest bit of trepidation at the question. I look over to see a blonde bombshell hovering slightly off of the ground. Victoria Dallon then. Glory Girl.

"I have no idea." As she floats over to his shoulder and hugs him from behind. Her breasts have taken an interesting position in relation to his face, and she's staring at me like she's expecting me to start something for some reason. I give her a suspicious look, but quickly go back to eating my food. I feel like I missed a memo here somewhere, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna go searching for it. Enough for me that they're actually leaving me alone.

"So, there's a party going on at Dean's place Friday night. Wanna come over?"

"Buh-wha?" Party?

"Yeah a party. Short skirts, buff dudes, big pool, and lots of booze. We never bring that last one but it never fails to appear anyways." She winks. "What'ya say?"

"Sure, yeah." I mumble into my food.

"Cool. I'm gonna take you shopping later. Can't show up in that. C'mon Dean." As she practically drags him away. As she leaves that nice feeling that started when she got here fades away. Must've been her aura.

Wait a minute.

What did I just agree to?

---

The rest of the day wasn't all that eventful. I got to the rest of my classes relatively pain free. Had to share books when the work required it, but nobody gave me shit over it. Nobody gave me shit over anything. It was weird. Made me feel paranoid for the complicated routes I took through the school. After all the classes ended I went to the office to get my books and locker combination. Got my update to Dad at the restaurant and went back to the loft. About an hour after that Brian and Lisa came in at the same time.

"Guys, we got a job!!" From Lisa. Me and Alec both set down the controllers and look behind us. Once they're both in view Alec kisses me on the cheek. I shove him off of the couch. Bitch walks in followed by two of her dogs as he's picking himself up.

"What?" She demands.

"Boss wants us to knock over three ABB safehouse over the course of the week. It can be all at once or throughout the week, but it's gotta be done by Friday. We taking this job?"

"Yes." From Bitch.

""Yeah."" From Alec and Lisa.

"Yes." From Brian.

"Uh, what's going on?"

"We're voting to take the job or not." Says Brian. "Do you not wanna do it?" Ha! That's a trick question. One nay to four yays isn't gonna make any difference.

"Yeah, I'll do it. But I'd like a little more of a lead up than that! Like how many goons are we likely to be facing?"

"Usually only about three to four per location." Answers Lisa. "The gangs run a pretty decentralized shindig. Only central depots and Cape hangouts have any real heavy security. These are more like apartments that are over capacity with drug pushers than anything."

"Drug pushers? Hey, does that mean I could turn any drugs we find into diamond? I might not get a perfect one to one ratio, but that's gotta be worth more by weight. Whole helluva lot less risky to carry around too. Legally speaking that is." Brian looks like he's thinking it over.

"You know what? Yeah sure. I got family that's hooked on a couple hard substances, and I say fuck that noise. We'll have to test the markets to make sure it's worth it first though."

"Hey, uh, guys." Says Alec. "Oo ra ra, fuck drugs and alcohol, stay in school, all that jazz, yeah. But if there's weed could we save some for me? Shits less of a drug than beer." I narrow my eyes at him.

"Sure." From Brian. "Anything else you need to know?"

"Well this would be my first time doing something like this. What's the plan?"

"You know this is less dangerous than that surveillance van stunt you pulled, right?" I frown at him. "So the plan is to break the door down and bruise, taze, threaten them with a gun, or whatever needs doing to incapacitate them, and tie themselves up with zip ties. You good with that?"

"I'll need the zip ties."

"When we get there. Go get dressed everybody, we're hitting the first location tonight." Everybody files into their rooms and I do too. Well... I guess I'll have to go naked. Technically. Slime biology really isn't all that titillating unless you're into silhouettes, and at that point it's kinda pointless trying to dress modestly. And I can always fake wearing clothes if I need to. Given this non choice in apparel, I'm one of the first two ready in the living room. The other is Brian.

"Hey, uh... You missed practice today."

"Ah crap. The transfer went through on Friday. I'm going to Arcadia now. I forgot to tell you, sorry. Should we move it up to before school?"

"Sure, sure. I might not make it the day after we do a job though."

"That's fine..." The next ten minutes are spent in awkward silence.

---

I ended up riding with Alec to the job location. Riding on an enhanced dog was an experience, let me tell you that. Good thing I can't get saddlesore. We cased the location for about a half hour so Lisa, Tattletale in that ridiculous purple spandex of hers, could tell us if there were any nasty surprises for us. There weren't.

Getting in and finishing the job was contemptuously easy. Grue didn't even use his power. Tattletale just punched in a code for the door, and me and Grue broke down the door of the apartment we're robbing. Two of the guys were taken down immediately to Grue and me cause we caught them with their metaphorical pants down, and the third one got tripped by Alec. We ziptied them real quick. Tattletale found most of the cash and drug stashes. I found one hidden deep in the couch. We skedaddled real quick after that cause apparently there was a fourth dude who was just out to get some smokes or something.

All in all we got two thousand dollars cash and a half kilo of various drugs. Mostly low quality or cheap stuff. Once we were back at the base I started converting it to diamonds. Lisa tried to help advising me on the shapes and tiny sizes I should make them, but it's kinda hard to make a straight edge with this. I mean I'll probably get it eventually, but this is only my second time doing this kinda stuff.

"So I was thinking we would do the same thing for the next two days with the other location." Says Brian.

"Not tonight?" I ask.

"No not tonight. I had things to do today, and I'm beat. Why, you got anything going on this week?"

"Glory Girl is gonna be taking me shopping sometime this week. I don't know how long it's gonna take."

"Glory Girl." He breathes in and out. "Explain."

"Hey it's not my fault this happened! Her boyfriend tried to strike up a conversation with me during lunch. I told him to fuck off, but he didn't leave before she came over and started acting all territorial. Thought she was gonna start dumping on me, but I got invited to a party and a shopping trip instead."

"Oh my God!" From Alec. "Do you have mad game Taylor?" I stop what I'm doing with the diamonds to walk over to him.

I start beating the crap out of him with a couch cushion.

 

[Optimal Robotics]

This past month has been exhausting. The ABB got a bit rowdy in the middle of January for some reason, so then they cut us down to PR patrols only. That's never fun.

Then Sophia was unmasked. She was fucking furious when the news was broken to her. Piggot ordered her into Master/Stranger quarantine before she could find out about it. The reason given was to keep her from killing a bunch of Empire members in retaliation for her family. 'We don't need that kind of bad press.' Piggot said. As opposed to looking totally incompetent? But I do get her point. I saw the videos and what she helped do to that Taylor girl was horrendous. All our PR department's spin doctoring has amounted to all of jack and shit in this subject. All it did was keep Sophia in the public eye for longer. Stopping coverage didn't really help locally, but it sure got the heat off of us on the national stage. Apparently.

Then whatever power Taylor got from this debacle allowed her to murder several Coil mercenaries and Empire gang members spying on her. Assuming it was Taylor who did it, whatever power she has allowed her to completely atomize the human body, and only the human body. Armsmaster's analysis detected dustings of iron, zinc, copper, and all the other trace elements normally found in the human chemical makeup all over the floor of one of the vans. The only bright side here is that it's not an instant thing apparently. There were three vans, and crime scene analysis indicates that a gunshot went off in the second one. She had to finish up real quickly after that before the authorities came, so no lengthy cleanup was possible for the last two.

All this came after the order from Piggot that she was going to get a guaranteed transfer to Arcadia. Naturally, she didn't want to rescind this to limit our liability for Sophia's actions. So she ordered all the Wards to leave her the hell alone. A reasonable request.

Coincidentally, just today I saw somebody with my power exuding absolutely no emotional signature. Naturally I investigated. Following behind her through the lunch line was easy. She seemed to react normally to everything as a normal person would, albeit with an utter lack of emotional presence. I sat down next to her and tried to engage in conversation. All the whole with a little niggling sensation at the back of my head that I should know who this is.

"I was curious about the new girl."

"What, come to gawk? Fuck off." I frown as I contemplate her response. But then it hits me! This is Taylor! The person I was explicitly told not to talk to. Fuck!! I open my mouth to agree when I see just about the worst person float up to us.

"Hey there Dean! Who's this?" My girlfriend Victoria Dallon. AKA Glory Girl. Part of the hero team that unmasked themselves. Well at least none of the bystanders are fleeing in terror at her jealousy. Progress.

"I have no idea." I say as woodenly as possible. Come on, we're both obviously very uncomfortable here. Take the hint you magnificent woman of mine! She smooshes her breasts up against my face, and starts a staring contest with the other girl. No not that hint! Fuck!! Luckily Taylor starts ignoring us and eats her food. Phew.

"So, there's a party going on at Dean's place Friday night. Wanna come over?" No no no Vicky! Stop trying to help!

"Buh-wha?" In surprise. Her mouth is even full. Well at least this means she's probably just immune to my emotion reading. Hopefully I never have to test my emotion blasts.

"Yeah a party. Short skirts, buff dudes, big pool, and lots of booze. We never bring that last one but it never fails to appear anyways." She winks at her. "What'ya say?"

"Sure, yeah." She mumbles into her food. Son of a bitch!

"Cool. I'm gonna take you shopping later. Can't show up in that. C'mon Dean." And she all but drags me away. Halfway to our usual table she starts talking again. "So what's the story with that little shy girl?"

"Vicky, I'll tell you all about it after school, okay."

"Oh come on now, you haven't suddenly gotten a taste for brunettes now, have you?" I give her a long suffering sigh. I'm glad she's confident enough now not to get as jealous as she used to, but I can just tell the rest of today is going to be hell.

---

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" After I told her about the situation.

"Unfortunately not. And we can't uninvite her either because apparently that was one of the things Sophia and her friends would orchestrate to fuck with her." There were quite a lot of those things really. Too many to read through in the afternoon I devoted to it. Sophia's a bitch.

"Oh goddamnit. I even started a rumor about her too."

"You what now?"

"Oh it's... It's nothing too bad. I just whispered in the ears of some single guys that she might be extra hot under all those extra clothes of hers." Well, that's not all that bad. Trouble is we have absolutely no idea how she'll react to guys being pushy.

"Ah crap, there must be some way to fix this." I fret. We both put our thinking faces on.

"Oh, I know!" As her aura flares in joy mode. "We'll have our shopping trip double as a double date with Amy. Without telling Taylor!" I stare at her, judgingly.

"That's a terrible idea."

"No no, hear me out. This is the perfect way to drive her away from us! Three of the guys in our class won't even talk to me anymore because of how badly their dates went. And if Taylor reacts violently, Amy can just anaesthesize her in response. It's a foolproof plan!" I think about it.

"And you're sure Amy is straight, right?"

"Of course I am. I asked her about it once, and she confirmed it straight to my face. Trust me Dean, she wouldn't lie to me about this."

"Right. Let's do this thing."

---

So the next day after school we were able to put everything together. I drove everybody to the mall and we're in the clothing store. Amy was grumpy and Taylor, uh, looked grumpy. Physically it's like dealing with two Amys. Stubborn as all hell, and you practically have to drag them everywhere. Though there was a little hiccup when we went into the designer store.

"I didn't bring enough money for this place. Not for an entire wardrobe at least." Oh yeah, she's from Winslow.

"My girlfriend invited you, I got your tab." I won't have that be what sets her off.

"Come on, let's leave them be. We gotta go look at the swimsuits." As Vicky drags me off, I look back at them. Amy grabs onto Taylor's hand to drag her away, but stops dead in her tracks to stare at her. Hmmm, her power also has a sensory component, doesn't it? Hopefully that doesn't derail our plan. Last I saw of them before breaking line of sight was Taylor leading her to the shirts.

Later​

"So we got some nice swimsuits for the party. How are our guests holding up?"

"Well I got a massive spike of annoyance from Amy and she's been at a decent simmer ever since. I think everything's going according to plan."

"Well, let's see." I lead her over to her sister. Hopefully Taylor is still there. I don't even get a void to track when she's concerned, not even when she's in a crowd. Weird. Luckily she is still here.

"Oh goody, our sugar daddy is here." Deadpans Amy. I look over to Taylor. She has a great big pile of shirts, and a pile of pants about half as big. That, uh, that might actually take a decent chunk out of my allowance this month.

Everything up until checkout was conducted in terse silence. Good sign, good sign. And once I buy everybody's clothing Taylor insists on walking home by herself. Also a good sign. A much less good sign was what Amy said when we were in the parking lot.

"Your gaydar is malfunctioning Dean, she has a boyfriend."

"Oh, uh-"

"She also didn't know this was a date. What the fuck."

"So you drove her off?" Asks Vicky, hopefully. Amy slides her eyes over to her.

"Oh was that the plan? I'm so bad of a date that I'll automatically screw it up?"

"Amy no-" From Vicky, but Amy interrupts her

"Well we figured out the situation about two minutes after you left because we don't live in a fffucking sitcom!!

"You know what? Fuck this, I'm walking home too." As she takes a sharp left turn.

"Amy? Amy wait, please, we didn't mean it that way!" As Vicky floats after her. Well that could've gone better.

I'm gonna have to report this clusterfuck to Piggot now, aren't I?



AN: Taylor does not currently have a boyfriend. That was a panic lie.

Powers gotten this chapter

Environmental Tolerance IV (Essential Body Modification Supplement) (400CP)
You are not damaged by hazardous environments, though this does not provide you a method of propulsion.
I: You no longer need to breathe and do not suffer from temperatures between -100C and +100C (-150F to +200F). You are immune to most radiation (up to about 1,000 mSv; the amount experienced during unshielded exposure to space).
II: As tier I, plus you do not suffer from temperatures below 1500C (+2700F) or the effects of pressure lower than 1000 atmospheres (including the effects of vacuum). You are immune to the effects of radiation at all levels.
III: As tier II, but the protection extends to any non-magical environmental source.
IV: As tier III, but the protection extends to magical environments such as energy planes.

 

[Optimal Robotics]

I really think knocking over gang hideouts should be harder than it has been. Like, really, what the fuck. The cops could be doing this, and the gang members would actually be going to jail instead of going on with their lives and continuing to make the city worse. Seems like the only way I could take them off the streets is if it was permanently and there's no way in hell I'm doing that. I mean that might be unfair to the police, but they surely have the capability for just this much, right?

Whatever. Lisa gave me the third degree about my shopping trip when I got back. Broke into hysterical laughter once I got to the part where I found out they thought I was gay and set me up with Panacea. I went over to my room and closed the door in her face for it. Lowercase bitch.

School is going well enough. I started finishing all my homework in class on Thursday which was both fantastic and annoying. Fantastic for obvious reasons, but annoying due to being just a little bit obvious that there's a superpower at play. I got Tattletale to take a look at it before our third drug dealer hit. Apparently I'm just able to do stuff faster now, but not actually any better. Well it's a bit late to quit this in school, more than half my teachers and classmates saw it. Probably best to keep going as is and try passing it off as me getting used to the curriculum before I got into the swing of things.

My social life is going along well enough too, surprisingly. Amy broke off from her sister's group, (for like the third time this year if the gossip is to be believed.) And started curating an acceptably unobtrusive lunch group for us. She even got in trouble for putting one of the pushy girls to sleep face down in her food. Thank God I got a promise from her on Tuesday that she wouldn't put any more moves on me. The one kiss was enough.

It's Friday now. All my homework and testing is done with. I put my backpack with all my crap in it in my locker and start looking for Amy. I find her in short order in the cafeteria.

"Hey there!"

"Hey! Dean's giving us a ride. You wanna hold hands in the back to mess with him?" I give her a look of disappointment.

"Didn't we agree that we wouldn't be doing anything like that?" Her good cheer strains and she looks guiltily to the side.

"Well yeah, but- Look, could we talk about this at the party?" I watch her squirm for a couple seconds.

"...Sure. You know where Dean's parked?" She leads me over to a particular spot in the parking lot. We don't have to wait at all, as the other two are already here. Me and Amy are on the opposite sides of the backseat as I ponder the payday I got from my cape job. Probably gonna get a decent computer with the first thousand, get some neat gadgets like pepper spray and a tazer for non-lethal takedowns, and-

"-Taylor's boyfriend." I catch from Vicky.

"Bwuh! What?"

"Nothing much." Says Dean. "We were just thinking you would've brought your boyfriend along. Or if he even exists." Prick. Though the thought of bringing Alec along. Or even the smug look on his dumbass face if he ever found out I claimed him as a boyfriend...

"Oh God no. No offense guys, but if you and him ever meet under any circumstances, multiple somethings have gone very wrong."

"What, ashamed of your boytoy?" Teases Victoria.

"Yes." I deadpan. The conversation goes a couple more rounds of that before they give up on it. Mostly Victoria though, Dean is busy driving.

About fifteen minutes of driving, we're at Dean's place, and it's one of the ritziest houses in the city. Gated driveway, brick wall, multiple acre lawn, the works. He leaves the gate open as we drive through. For the other guests apparently.

"All right, I'm gonna set up the sound and coolers. This is a pool party because nobody is allowed inside after last time. You got your swimsuit Taylor?"

"Yeah, I wore it under my clothes." It's a black one piece. "You got anywhere to change?" He grimaces.

"Well I guess you can come in. Put your clothes in the back of my car though."

I do so, and Amy is waiting for me back at the car.

"So I figured out why they pulled that douche canoe move with the double 'date'." I put my clothes in the car.

"Yeah? You seem alot less angry at them for it than you were."

"Yeah, that's because all three of us are getting punished if our parents find out we're still hanging out with you. I'm not sure if you noticed, but you and Shadow Stalker stirred up quite the shit storm when she was unmasked. Mom doesn't want us interacting with you in case you have another surprise turd sandwich landmine waiting to blow up on all of us. Dean's, uh, parents don't want you interacting for exactly the same reason." You know I think I'd be a lot more pissed about that if I wasn't on a villain team right now.

"They chose that exact method to drive me away, why?"

"They thought it would be kinder than uninviting you to the party."

"..." I close the car door and dead ass stare at her.

"No no, I didn't say I agreed with it! It was real fucking stupid! I only said I knew why! Look, there was another reason I wanted to talk to you. The PRT did a good job covering it up, but anybody who was paying attention knows you're a cape. Nobody knows your complete power set, but the PRT knows you at least no sell most thinkers. Not even I can see your biology at work, even if it's just to look at the surface bacteria." If I still had blood in my face or veins to pump it in, my poker face would be thoroughly ruined right about now. Holy shit, my power almost got revealed to the heroes just like that. "I didn't wanna hold your hand earlier to freak Dean out, I wanted to figure out your biology. See if it had anything interesting in it." Oh my God, I don't know what's worse. If she's telling the truth, or if she's lying off her ass to get in my pants. Never in my life did I think having a lesbian stalker would be the safer option.

"Would you be able to give me a scraping of skin or something? If you're power is hiding your biology there's probably something interesting going on there that you'll want to know about." I can't even tell her she already saw my biology and healed me after my trigger event to divert her attention. That would just bring up more questions.

"Absolutely not." I harden my heart at her stricken expression. "I value my autonomy Amy. I'm not going to get involved in cape bullshit any more than I can help it. It's a death sentence to any professional and academic dreams. No." I look over past her face to a car coming up the driveway.

"We should go back to the pool. Guests are arriving."

"Oh, uh, one more thing. Could you keep the fact I'm gay on the downlow? Nobody but you knows. I'm still in the closet."

"Not even your sister?" I take a second to run my question back in my head. "You know what? I don't think that's any of my business. Let's go." I briskly walk past her relieved form. I should not be the one to start throwing stones in this glass house.

I spend the party relaxing on a lawn chair, occasionally telling guys to fuck off.


Powers gained this chapter:

One-Man Industry (God Catching Meister) (400CP)
Despite being chained to the forge for hours on end, alchemists can make just a handful of works per day. Mixing, forging and enchanting take time and finesse, after all. Those who make items in masse tend to vomit works of low quality. In face of that, you trained and mastered the art of making things really quick without a loss in quality. About ten times as faster as your peers, in fact. While an alchemist with your same rank would take an hour to make a fire sword, you in the same span of time can make ten, and even give each different powers. This bleeds out to other aspects in your life. Time is money, after all.


AN: Timeline is Monday was first raid, shopping trip on Tuesday, one raid on Wednesday and Thursday each, power gained on Thursday, and party on Friday.

I moved up this power acquisition by a few hundred words for story reasons. This will not affect future rolls

 

[Optimal Robotics]

I tried to mind my own business at the party. I really truly did, I promise. Told every guy who came up to flirt with me to fuck off, and almost all of them got the message. The one who didn't, I pushed harmlessly into the pool with my foot. People laughed. One guy even asked for the same treatment afterwards. As the party went on the boys got drunker and clumsier, and their flirting got even easier to ward off. I got up from the chair once the party started winding down. This, perhaps, was a mistake, as I saw the dude I shoved into the pool drunkenly yelling at Dean. Why does he allow alcohol at his parties?

"We don't all have the luxury of screwing a bombshell superhero on the regular Dean!"

"Hey!" From Vicky as I feel a pulse of fear rush through me. Everybody here is watching the drama unfold now.

"And then the new girl you brought in doesn't want anything to do with me. She humiliated me Dean! What the fuck!!" You know what, I think I'm gonna just leave. They're in between me and Dean's car, but facing away from me. I can just skirt around the other side of the pool and avoid them entirely.

"Dude, that is not why I brought her here. And I saw how handsy you were getting with her, you're lucky she didn't kick you in the nuts!"

"You know what, fuck you Dean, I'm outta here! I thought you woulda been on my side for once. I'm leaving!!" And as he turns around the world seems to go into slow motion as he looks at me. Our eyes meet as inevitably as a couple of magnets locking together. I stop for the barest of moments before starting up again at the speed of a decent power walk.

At first nothing happens. Just a particularly angry face sent my way. But then Amy, Dean, Victoria, and this guy all collapse to the ground. Though the yelling ass only fell to his knees. I start running away when he starts bulking up and his arms start turning black. Nope. This is my civilian persona. I refuse to have my school life popped like a soap bubble by some drunk asshole I don't even know the name of.

*Splash*

I've rounded the corner by now. Sounds like he fell in the pool.

"Wait, what the fuck?" Amy asks. Good they're up now. "Everybody out of the water! Now!! What the fuck are you doing you crazy bastard!?" I 'jog' up to Dean's car. Shit it's locked. I look around. Seems like nobody's followed me. I shove prehensile slime down the glass and back up to jimmy it open. There's some panicked sounds from the other guests right about now.

"Don't worry guys, I'll take care of this." As a swell of awe rises in me. No no no, concentrate on the task at hand... Got it! Victoria's aura suddenly cuts out.

"Vicky!!" Yells Amy. Fuck me, how did this random asshole take down Glory Girl? Fuck it, I'm taking my clothes and actually running into the garage. Not even checking for cameras, I'm changing into my clothes as fast as I possibly can. Turns out to be three seconds flat. After that I cautiously walk out of the garage to check my surroundings, only to have this asshole walk up and block my path. Shit!

"Look what you made me do Taylor!" Some sort of black substance is running down his arms as he looks towards me. I take stock of my surroundings. I'm trapped in-between a car, probably Dean's parent's, and the garage wall with him bearing down on me in the corridor this makes. I could flow under the car, but I'd rather not blatantly out myself like that just yet.

"I'd really rather not if it's all the same to you." There's some random odds and ends that tend to pile up in garages. Some paint cans over there, some sheet metal on a shelf to my side, etc.

And he lunges at me. Well I guess that's all the time he was willing to give me. I block him, like I've been training to do, and what happens next is incredibly screwed. My arms go all black and gangrenous where he touches. They lose all consistency as he shears through them with rot, and my hands fall off. I look to him to see my shock mirrored in his own face.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a normal girl wouldn't stand up as well as the Brute did." I liquefy the parts of my hands that aren't rotted to return the biomass to me. "Wait, what the-" In response to my injury I grab his head with a new tentacle and smash it into the edge of the sheet metal. He wasn't totally helpless while I did this. He managed to flail outwards and punch a rotten hole straight through my chest. Good thing I don't have organs anymore, or else that would've been brutal. I prepare myself for his next attack-

Oh.

Oh he's super dead. I didn't think sheet metal would be that sharp. A good portion of his skull is sitting on top of it while the rest of him is slumped on the ground with a bare cross section of his brain bleeding onto the floor. I swallow. Well shit! I don't have enough time to get rid of the body! And that wouldn't even work anyways! Everybody probably knew he was coming after me! Well, um, can I reclaim my rotten slime? Yes, yes I can. My ability to digest things into myself has not been hampered by whatever the hell his power is. Was. Whatever, the point is I hoovered up all the evidence he ever hit me. He ruined my outfit too, but luckily I was able to fake it with shape shifted slime.

Now I gotta go tell Dean there's a body in his garage.

Armsmaster​

I look to the veritable swarm of PRT agents in decontamination gear at the newest incident. All following in the wake of the Hebert girl of course. We told Dean not to socialize with her, the moron.

"So, how much you wanna bet Dean's still gonna be hosting parties after this?" Assault quips at me. I turn to him to give him a disappointed stare. I'm not sure how much of it translates through the hazmat suits.

"I am not betting on a teammate's trauma." He looks away.

"Yeah, probably a good call. So, how much do you think Taylor was lying about?" I think it over.

"Definitely the part where she said she didn't let him touch her. I saw the location of their fight and the only way he didn't lay a hand on her is if she's a mover. And there were some suspicious stains on the floor that looked a lot like bleach stains."

"Oh damn, is that gonna be a problem? I know Panacea was really scared about the pathogens he made."

"No. Panacea gave the Hebert girl the all clear, and the garage was going to have to be sterilized regardless. She didn't do us the favor of disappearing this body after all. And to answer your original question, I don't know. My lie detector isn't working on her anymore."

"What really?"

"Really. I suspect that we were interacting with a projection."

"Seems kind of suspicious that she would go to one of Dean's parties with a projection."

"Not really." Assault gives me a look at that. I'm not sure what kind of look due to his mask, but the context fills me in well enough. "Let me rephrase. I don't find it suspicious that the chronically bullied girl didn't feel safe enough to attend a social event in person." Assault nods his head along with that. "Enough about Taylor though. What did you find out from the other kids?"

"Well her story was mostly corroborated by them, so unless Piggot loses her mind over this we're not going to be arresting her. Panacea was real adamant we start decontamination procedures immediately. Apparently whatever rot he made was the work of a highly mutable cross species RNA virus, combined with some complimentary super mold." I shudder at the thought. "There is good news though. No casualties! Not even Glory Girl! Though that was a close thing with all the crap in her bloodstream I'm told."

"Well that's a relief, now-"

"Oh! And apparently we can stop worrying about all the dead grass. Panacea did that to try and contain any spread."

"She did? I thought she could only effect what she was touching."

"Yeah, I thought so too. Then she started talking about how sometimes grass twines it's roots together to survive or something. Honestly I stopped paying attention two sentences in. I hope she didn't notice."

"Hmph. Well, now we are in the unfortunate situation of having to demand a bunch of rich teenagers hand over their clothes for incineration. Hopefully the news doesn't catch wind of this. I'll handle the Hebert girl if you get the Dallon sisters on board."

"You have yourself a deal." As he shakes my hand.

I do note that there was one casualty though. One Anthony McCormick. By all accounts an entitled little asshole, but still a waste. Probably for the best though. A power that spawns persistent super pathogens? Jesus Christ himself could've come again with that and gotten himself a kill order.


Powers gained this chapter

Librarian (Smash Up-Obligatory Cthulhu Supplement) (100CP)
You have a phenomenal memory and organizational skill, and a real gift for research. It's a rare day indeed where you can't find the information you need, or at least narrow it down to a single rare book.

AN: I would say no human being could possibly act like that, but... And Victor's trigger was canonically getting caught in a crime

 

[Optimal Robotics]

"So what did you do about having to give them your clothes?" Asks Tattletale.

"I stuffed all my clothes into my pants, and then into a biohazard bag that they burned. I was a little bit nervous about it at first, but they had a portable incinerator that they set up in the street while I was inside. No chance of them snooping through my stuff to find out I was exposed worse than they thought I was."

"That's good. Anything else?"

"Well they had this decontamination shower that they also set up that everybody had to go through, Panacea included. She checked everybody over again after that, and we got these plain white clothes. But I wanted to ask. How was the PRT so prepared for something like this when, uh-"

"They're pretty fucking useless otherwise?" I nod my head. I don't want to be unfair to them, but let's just say it's hard to be fair to them having grown up here. "Well that's because the Director had some skewed priorities when she got her posting. Focussed a bit too much on existential threats when she took office ten years ago. Now being prepared for all that is good planning and all, but all the supplies for this took up valuable space. Space that could've been turned into training grounds, be used for other supplies, etcetera. Really threw off their game. Though that's only one of the reasons this town is so shit." She grumbles out.

"Hey! You done talking all that depressing shit?" Calls out Alec from the couch. "I have a game to play here."

"Hell no! And put a shirt on you fucking weirdo." He ignores her with an ease only gained from practice. I decide to cut through the irritation I see bubbling to the surface.

"Hey, let's not argue here. Hey, how about we go shopping for a knick knack at the boardwalk." She looks back to me.

"Don't think I don't see what you're doing here. Honestly, how can you stand him? You know he wants to-"

"I am well aware of what he wants to do to me." Not like he doesn't proposition me every other night. "You are stressed and staying here isn't helping. Even if we don't end up buying anything a casual walk will do you good."

"Sure." She grumbles

---

It's Saturday morning right now, and a half hour after we left we made it to the boardwalk. Probably going to eat some overpriced food come lunchtime and then head back. In fact I see a nice painted seashell store-

"Hey Miss?" And I really want- a hand grabs my shoulder. "Miss I'm going to have to ask you to leave." We both freeze in our tracks and turn around to look at the security guard. One of the boardwalk enforcers. Relatively heavy armored and packing a tazer.

"What?" I ask.

"The boardwalk is unfortunately closed to violent parahumans. I'm going to have to ask you to leave." My heart skips a beat at the absolute declaration that I'm a parahuman. Fortunately Lisa has enough presence of mind to respond in my stead.

"What the fuck!! Since when has anybody been saying that?!"

"I don't know ma'am, we just got a company wide email about her last night. I'm sorry."

"Gonna be fucking sorry once I'm done with you." She mumbles as she turns around.

"What was that?"

"Nothing! Come on Taylor, we certainly won't be spending our money here." I snap out of my stupor and walk after her. Once we're a couple blocks away she takes out her phone, dials a number, and sets it to speaker phone.

"Yes Tattletale?"

"Yo boss, you fucking the team over?" There's a pause.

"...Not to my knowledge. Why, what happened? And what's going on with the sound quality?"

"I'm not a technician boss, I don't control our shitty cell service. One of the Boardwalk enforcers just turned Taylor away for being a 'violent' parahuman, and I know you have contacts with every mercenary outfit in town. Did you do this?"

He sighs heavily. "No. Despite what you may believe Tattletale I am not the architect of your every misfortune."

*Click*

"Was he telling the truth?" I ask.

"Yyeeess." She drags out of herself. "Which means somebody else is pulling the strings here. Somebody who knows your parahuman status. Unfortunately, given the state of the local PRT communication network, that could be literally anybody who matters." I make a face at that.

"So what now?"

"Now we call a team meeting."

---

A few hours later we have everybody gathered at the kitchen and all filled in.

"Any questions?"

"Yeah." From Brian. "This seems a little too personal to be safe. You sure this won't affect our secret identities?"

"Positive. As far as everybody in town is concerned this is just gonna be another Undersiders heist. Routine shit."

"I got a question." From Bitch. "Why are we taking orders from the skinny wimp?"

"Because I am a petty vindictive bitch, no offense, and this job will make us around twenty grand. Do we wanna do this?" As she raises her hand. Bitch raises her hand too.

"Are we going to find out why I'm not allowed in the Boardwalk anymore?"

"Of course." Tattletale smarms at me. "I'd like to go after everybody responsible if at all possible." I raise my hand too.

"Excellent. Here's the plan..." All in all not the most complicated of plans. At least not by heist movie standards. Most of the cash from the weekend business in the boardwalk is stored in an onsite Enforcer safehouse until the banks open on Monday. Lisa and Alec are gonna pickpocket a key card from one one of the enforcers in plain clothes when they can still get lost in the crowd Sunday afternoon. Couple hours later after sunset when a good portion of the pedestrians are away, we hit the storage area. Steal everything in the vault and Lisa uploads a worm into their computer systems and we're out. Should be in and out in under 7 minutes with law enforcement completely unaware of us for four of them. Hopefully these butterflies in my... torso don't get any bigger than they already are.

---

"You feeling up to this still?" Asks Lisa. Their end of the operation went off without a hitch. Now it's my turn. I harden my resolve.

"Yeah I'm good. Give me a boost Grue." He nods and lifts me up to the fire escape. I climb the rest of the way as quietly as this creaking piece of crap allows. Luckily I don't think anybody saw me. Once I get up to the roof I start moving towards the security building. Heh. Even in Brockton Bay nobody ever bothers looking up.

I'm doing this to drop down into the alley way where the door is to bypass the security cameras they have up. That part of the plan goes without a hitch. Then I open the door with the key card, slap some tape on the latch to keep it from closing, and slip inside. I come face to face with two enforcers. One of them is filling up a little water cup. It overflows.

"CA-" I spring into action to shut him up. First I sling a tendril of slime onto their mouths, and then I move it around their necks to cut off their blood flow. Once they're unconscious I move on to the security room. There are three people in here this time. I prioritize the ones Lisa drilled me on. The ones most likely to be right next to the silent alarms. Though apparently I focussed a bit too much on them because

*BZZZT*

Fuck me, ow, what was that?! I move to get up only for

*BZZZT*

To happen again. Oh. A Taser.

"What the hell Jenkins! The fuck is this?!" And apparently that let them loose from my slime too, because the others are free now.

"I have no idea. I'm calling the PRT though. I don't get paid enough for this shite." No, not now! The plan was coming together too. I freeze as I see the rest of the Undersiders on the cameras. Nobody else saw them because they're all looking at me. "Did it move again? Fuck it, I'm not taking any chances." Plan in mind I dodge the taser at my top speed. I flow up and move for the asshole tasing me

*BZZZT*

Only for him to tase both of us as I put as much of my slime in contact with his skin as possible. Haha, bitch! Apparently I'm conductive. Still hurts, but he drops his taser almost immediately. I destroy his walkie, then disarm and do the same for the one going for the phone, then the last one. All at top speed. I may have been overthinking things here. Oh well. Good thing the door closed while they were gawking at me. I'd hate for there to be any surprise assholes I didn't see the first time around to hear these guys scream.

My teammates came in as I was organizing all the bodies on the floor. Not much else for me to do until Tattletale gets here. Regent screws around with the security cameras when he gets here, the asshole. He's costing us time!

"Ho-ho-ly shit Taylor, you're terrifying!" I glare at him with the apathy of a thousand black holes. "What?"

 

[Optimal Robotics]

A curious thing happened to my social life once it was confirmed to the student body at large I was a killer. Oh, sure, that was supposed to be a secret, but there were about fifteen uninvolved classmates at that party and I guarantee you they all talked. The thing that happened was that people started leaving me alone. Not everybody, and not even most people at my lunch table, but Amy Dallon was one of the ones that stopped talking to me. I'm not really mad about it, she already told me her parents were being difficult about socializing with me. Then there were some other people that gravitated towards me after all this happened. I wasn't sure if I was comfortable with that until a particularly mousy looking girl sat next to me at lunch on Monday and whispered to me.

"Thank you." And suddenly I was a lot more okay with letting these random people cozy up with me. Funny how that works isn't it.

I was able to update my dad on the rot powered dude through a letter on Monday. I didn't tell him about the robbery I did. I figured I'd tell him when I have something to report on about whoever tried to blacklist me. But it's Tuesday afternoon right now, and Tattletale called a meeting.

"So I have good news and bad news everybody." We all wait expectantly at her word. "The good news is that I found out who the dipshits who blacklisted Taylor are. They're the McCormick family."

"..." If there were crickets in here now is the time they would be chirping.

"The bad news is they're the McCormick family. They're a billionaire family that made their fortune on the spice trade. They're a bunch of sociopaths that have something like a twenty percent trigger rate in their family tree."

"I'm sorry," Chimes in Brian. "But how exactly did little old Taylor here draw their attention?"

"She killed their newest trust fund cape on Friday." Ah, hell. "And it gets worse! They've been bribing all the local grocery store managers and fast food stores into banning her too."

"Oh for fuck's sake, that was self defense!" I cry out. "Fucker was fist deep in me-"

"Giggity."

"-and rotting me from the inside out! Shut up Alec!"

"So how are we getting back at them?" Asks Bitch

"We aren't." From Tattletale as she looks like she's eating earwax. "We don't know how far this goes up their family tree, and as far as I can tell they only have one married couple in town: the dead dipshit's parents. If we retaliate on this we'll bring down an Elite branch, a normal ass billionaire clan, what amounts to a private parahuman team, and all of the law enforcement down on our heads. Not to mention the risk to our identities it would bring. A villain team targeting the Boardwalk enforcers right after Taylor got blacklisted is happenstance. All of us targeting the rich assholes responsible would be a clear pattern."

"I guess we'll just lie down and take it up the ass from this rich guy's parents then." From Alec. "What's next oh fearless leader? We gonna actually surrender next time the cops tell us to?"

"Hell no! I'm gonna be hacking the rubes who accept this bribe, taking the bribe money, and deleting the notifications that the managers send out. I told y'all I am a petty spiteful bitch, and I intend to live up to that. Hell, since this is a team matter I'll even be splitting the money with everybody.

"Oh, and another thing, I finally found a buyer for those diamonds. They're getting sold for four times the worth of the drugs Taylor made them from. Happy new years everybody." She takes a duffel bag and starts piling up cash for each of us.

"But it's the middle of February."

"Shut up and take your money Alec." As she all but throws his share into his lap. When it gets to be my turn her eyes widen slightly and she stares a little bit as she gives me my money. She starts speaking again once she's done with that.

"Alright, now Taylor come with me, we gotta talk."

"Oh, heeell no," protests Alec. "I had plans for tonight."

"Take your plans and shove 'em, we have some girl talk to hash out. Come on." As she starts dragging me out of the loft. I give the team a wry little smile, and wave goodbye. Not all that much of a walk later, we're in the booth of a local restaurant.

"Spill Taylor, what the hell did you get?" I blankly stare at her.

"I thought we went over this. I don't really know what I get. And how would you even know I got something anyway?" She grinds her teeth.

"There was a slight spatial distortion all over you during the meeting. How in the hell could you possibly- You know what? No. I'm calm. Deep breaths."

*Breathing Noises*

While she's doing that the waitress gets us some water. This is getting weird.

"Lisa, are you alright?" Her eyes snap open. One of them twitches.

"I'm a little stressed, I'll admit. Tell me, is there anything you could think of that is... extradimensional about your powers?"

"Hmm, nothing immediately comes to mind." Let's see, there's my speed, my slime, my mouths, my timeline viewing, my- oh no.

"You just thought of something! What is it?"

"No no, I didn't think of shit. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't play coy Taylor, I'm pretty sure I saw you get another one of your powers back there. Is there any possible way there's more than one of what you're thinking about?" Ahhh, son of a bitch, she's right! I have the garage too. "Taylor. We do need to know what you're capable of if we're going to be able to take down Coil."

"Okay fine, but when I tell you to not to look, you better fucking not, alright?"

"Of course." I pull out the key to the space and show it to her.

"Taylor, this is a key."

"...Why yes, thank you for stating the obvious. Now-"

"No you don't understand, this is a key. No goddamnit, that's still not right this is... A key." I look at her for a few seconds. She looks frustrated.

"So anyways, do you know any locked doors I can use this on nobody's going to come across?" She glares at my anomalous key before answering.

"I know a few, yeah."

---

I look around. Oh good, it didn't open up into the anti matter room again. To the right of me is labeled facilities, and to the left is labeled storage. That's new. The facilities branch even opens up into a T-section instead of the anti matter room too!

"So you can open doors, big d-" As she shoves her way past me. "Huh." She starts walking towards the facilities.

"This way Lisa." As I start dragging her towards the storage. "The storage is new, and any extra facilities will be blindingly obvious."

"So when's the last time you checked this place out?"

"A few weeks ago. Less than a month."

"You really gotta check this place out more often."

"Oh hey look a door." I open it and pull us in. Looks like storage is just a long hallway with all the doors on one side of it. In here is a small plinth with some sort of gun on it. Looks like an industrial angled flashlight.

"So what do you think this is?" She squints at it.

"Not entirely sure. It doesn't fire bullets and the crystal bits at the end don't give off any more radiation than a household flashlight." I walk forward and pick it up.

"Jesus fucking Christ Taylor!! Point that thing away from me! Haven't you ever heard of trigger discipline!?" I swivel it to the wall.

"I thought you said it wasn't a gun?"

"I said it didn't fire bullets! And even if it's not a weapon tinkertech can still kill your dumb ass!" I point it to a back corner and pull the trigger. A holographic screen pops up saying 'dimensional callback error.' hmm.

"I have no idea. Let's try the next door." As I put it back on the pedestal.

The next room has a massive fuck off diamond in it. The kind of thing you would see in a cartoon vault, except vaguely futuristic looking.

"Oh goody a diamond too big to sell. How useful to me specifically." I deadpan.

"Uh, Taylor, that isn't a diamond."

"It isn't? Well then what is it?"

"I don't know, but it's alive." I look to the diamond, and then to Lisa, and then to the diamond again.

"God I hate my power. Let me know if you ever find a way of disposing of this then. Next one."

The next room actually looks like a sane kind of warehouse storage room thing. A bunch of plastic totes are stacked to the ceiling, wall to wall, with who even knows how far back it goes. Lisa goes up and opens one. It has like an interlocking lid holding it together. Real fancy.

About two seconds after opening it she springs to her feet, rotates around, and starts power walking away.

"Lisa? Lisa, what is it?"

"Nope." And she steps up her pace.

"Lisa! You can't just not tell me what's wrong with these boxes. That's the entire point of you being here." As I follow her out of the room. I look back to the closing door in a vain hope that it would hold the answers I needed. And to my surprise and horror I found it. The door was labeled.

Antimatter Storage​

Goddamn motherfucker!!




Powers this chapter

Taydenite (Ben 10) (200CP)
You have found yourself in possession of a large taydenite crystal. Both the rarest and hardest gem in the galaxy, it could be sold for a small fortune. The only thing known to be able to cut taydenite is taydenite. Taydenite is also used to power spaceships, so with some work you could use it as a power source.

 

[Optimal Robotics]

Lisa did not come back to help figure out my storage situation, and a quick (supersonic) look through the facilities section told me it was still just the garage and antimatter production. Not the worst this could have gone, but that's not really saying much when that particular bar is at the level of a multi-megaton explosion. Apparently.

I don't blame her for not wanting to deal with my bullshit. Hell, I don't wanna deal with it. I'm just going to let her cool off for a little bit, and call her after I update my Dad via the union guy. Just gonna go back to the loft and reeelaax.

After I get back I hang up my coat, trudge up the stairs, and freeze at the ridiculous sight before me. Alec has apparently turned the couch around to face the entrance, set a bunch of dark chocolate out on the counter, and is currently posed on the couch with rose in mouth and wearing a fake suit. Fake as in the shirt is a muscle shirt with a picture of what a suit is supposed to look like on it.

"...You realize Valentine's Day was yesterday, right?"

"I was asleep by the time you got back yesterday. You spent too much time sparring" Accentuated with an eyebrow waggle. "With Brian."

---

Yeah, I'm not writing the rest of this guys. You'll just have to use your no doubt vivid imaginations. This does mean Taylor/Alec is an official couple.

Plus 1,000 words.


AN: little mini chapter guys, don't go looking for any bonus scenes on the other site, they don't exist. I would've had a more accurate word count for you if they did.

I put this here for future character development and group dynamics purposes.

 

[Optimal Robotics]

Waking up the morning after was an experience. I dealt with it by going to school and reading some books. And my God, am I having trouble with that. I accidentally read through seven entire novels before homeroom ended. And then I had nothing to do but contemplate my life choices. What a nightmare.

To slow myself down I started reading the most technically dense books that I can find in the library. That ought to slow me down. Except it didn't slow me down as nearly as much as it should have. It's like I kept accidentally stumbling on the books that I could just barely understand and get something out of. Absolutely maddening! At least the Arcadia library will probably never run out of the good stuff to glut my eyeballs on. This place is a college prep school for rich kids. That means the library is well funded.

All told, I taught myself calculus by accident, can now build a clockwork watch, could probably pass the written portion of a welding exam, and memorized twenty recipes utilizing bacon. All things I am unlikely to use in my day to day life.

After school I tell the union courier about the boardwalk job, the reasons for it, and that I, Taylor Hebert, am now in the cross hairs of a billionaire family because of that stupid dickhead who tried to murdalize me at a party. Telling him about it now because I don't have any excuse not to anymore. No major updates on Dad's end.

When I got back to the loft something weird happened. Lisa was missing while we were in a fake timeline. She's here in the real timeline though. God I hate this. Coil has been using his timelines since I was recruited, but never on me or anywhere I could tell. Until now. I went for a very enthusiastic walk in the fake timeline once I couldn't reach her on her phone. An out of town walk so I don't scare the locals. And holy motherfucking shit, have I been underestimating my top speed. Wait, no, I got faster. I definitely wasn't going this fast when I was out jogging. Point is, once I got out of town, I hit Boston in under ten minutes. Mental.

A few minutes after I got back to the loft in the actual timeline, Lisa decided to comment on my discomfort. "Taylor how the hell are you more agitated than me right now?"

"Well first of all she got fuckin' laaaiid~" from the couch.

""Shut up Alec!!"" Holy shit that's mortifying. I might just have to-

"Can't really blame him for that though. I knew the second I walked in the door." She says tapping her noggin. Stupid cheating thinkers. "So what's got you so wound up?" I pointedly look over to Alec.

"Maybe away from certain nosy assholes?" She nods and we leave for a local diner. This time it's a flapjack place.

Once we're seated she starts talking immediately. "So what was it about him, was he too much of a perv?" I stare at her judgingly. What? She's a dirty cheating thinker, how does she think this is actually about Alec? "...Was he too vanilla for you?"

"No, this is about 'bossman.' He put a disposable timeline up, and you aren't answering your phone there. What would he have you doing that's so important?" The instant frown on her face tells me she's not happy, though with me or Coil I couldn't say.

"He'd have to physically separate me from my phone for me to not text you back at least telling you I'm busy. Doesn't bode well for my physical health. Say, how do you know it's a fake timeline?"

I shrug. "Dunno. Sometimes one starts as fake, sometimes they're both maybes. Sometimes one turns fake for a couple hours, sometimes it just closes out."

"Sounds like you're marching to the time of his drum then. Still useful though." She bites her lip and thinks as the waitress gets us our pancakes. Mmm, blueberry. "If he's not allowing me access to my phone, then it's nothing good for me. I'll see if I can't set up some sort of alarm system for this in the future. This does mean you'll have to carry a phone with you in school."

"You do realize that there's a faraday cage thing in Arcadia's walls, right? That won't be able to get to me while I'm in school."

"Pshaww." She waves me off. "I'll just patch you into the system the Wards use to get their alerts. Shouldn't take more than a week to set up. Is there anything else I can do to ease your concerns over this?" I frown at the situation.

"Not right now, no. You mind if I help out with that? It would give my twitchy fingers something to do." Now it's her turn to frown.

"Sure."

---

It was obvious from the tone of her voice that she didn't expect much from me, and to be fair, neither did I. At first. Then by the end of the day I learned more about coding, tech support, and the internal networking of the PRT and Protectorate than I thought was feasible. Just enough to be useful as a proofreader for her work. I might have to exploit this in the future

"Lisa I think something's up with my learning speed." As I look through the function directory for C plus.

"No, really? What was your first clue?"

"Har dee har har. And to answer your question, it was when I started learning calculus this morning. On accident."

"How'd you manage that?"

"I was looking through a technical manual on how to build a watch. It got really detailed in the math. Look, that's not the point Lisa. The point is that I think I outed myself to my teachers with how fast I'm finishing my work."

"Ha! No Taylor. I'm sorry to break it to you, but that ship sailed a while ago. The PRT briefed the staff there to not play any fuck fuck games with you because of your bullying history, and probable trigger."

"Oh for fuck's sake! Is nothing in my life private anymore?"

"Not with me here!" She says with a grin. "Hey, could you look through this next section of code?"

"Sure." I walk over and start scrolling. "So what else does my file say about me?"

"Says you go everywhere as a projection due to extreme social anxiety." I stare at her judgingly.

"Hey, I'm not the one who said it! They came to that conclusion all on their own. Apparently the opinion solidified of them when you didn't collapse when the rot asshole triggered."

"And this is significant because?"

"Nearby Parahumans do that when somebody triggers."

"Huh... Dean collapsed when that happened."

"No shit, really? He's probably a Ward then. And he's been dating Glory Girl for half a year now! Which one do you think he is?"

"No idea." I highlight a section of code. "This right here is calling on the wrong variable."

"Thanks Taylor, you are such a time saver. We'll probably get this thing done a few days early with you here. You wanna skip school for a couple days to get it done even earlier?"

"No." I go back to reading up on functions.

"I think he's either Aegis or Gallant, he doesn't fit any of the others based on his height and face."

"Isn't speculating on this stuff kind of a big deal? I know half of VoidCowboy's bans on PHO are for this exact thing."

"Not when it's in private. And it's only a big deal for us if we plan on going after a hero in their personal life or home. And that ain't ever going to be on my agenda."

"Yeah, well I don't even feel comfortable even talking about this in private. Could we change the subject?"

"Fine. Let's talk about Alec lover girl. How can you stand that asshole?"

"He makes me laugh."

"Really? Is that all it takes?" I glare at her

"All right you stuck up bitch, have you considered the possibility I don't want to die alone? Considering my biology that might be a lot more likely than you think." As I turn my arm to slime and open some mouths for her to look at.

"I think you're underestimating how pervy this world is. There are probably thousands of dudes in this city alone that would tap that. Hell, get any guy drunk enough and he will go for it." I stare at her for a while.

"...I don't think we should talk to each other about romance."

"You know what? That's fine by me."

 

[Optimal Robotics]

"so Taylor, huh?" Says Brian. This is after he dragged me to the gym. Apparently it was to get out of earshot of Lisa if this is what we're talking about. Lord knows I'm not gonna be doing much here.

"Yeah? She's cute you know." I'm sitting down next to him while he's using the leg machine.

"She's also made of acid. How the hell was this a good idea in your head?"

"The power of horni compels me."

"Haha!"

*CLACK*

"Oh holy shit man, don't make me laugh when I'm working out."

"Don't drag me to the gym then." He opens his mouth, then closes it.

"Okay, fine." He extracts his legs from the foam things and fully faces me. "So what made you go after our team horror monster specifically?"

"My man, team horror monster describes everybody on the team except for me and Lisa. But fine, I'll answer your question. It's because I am one kinky freak. I'm not elaborating which kinks to you, cause I get the vibe that you're really not all that interested."

"Dude, she can literally dissolve you." I think about it. "Dude, stop smiling. Look, I don't really care about all that. I'm worried how it will affect the team."

"I imagine dead men don't really have much use for living teams."

"Oh for fuck sake, no! Despite how violent she is, she strikes me as the calculating type. Somebody with principles given how she refuses to give up on school. If you have a bad break up, she could just leave us holding the bag with whoever we pissed off most recently. Or even with the boss if he's used to a certain quality of work. She may not be all that technically skilled in hand to hand, but she's good. A real asset to our jobs." You know what? He's right.

"Well then I have some bad news boss man." He flatly stares at me. "I have never in my life had what you would call a smooth breakup."

"Goddamnit Alec. Okay, look, you can still fix this."

"Don't you mean we can still fix this?"

"Fuck the hell no, dude! I ain't getting in between you two. So. All you have to do is talk to her. Make sure she knows just what you're about."

"... Wouldn't that make her mad?"

"There's a good chance of that yeah. But I guarantee you it'll be worse if you string her along. Communication is key in relationships dude. I read that in a book once. Totally fucking useless for my parents, but you could probably make use of that advice."

"I think I'll try that. Tomorrow night when she gets back from school. Say you wouldn't happen to remember the title of that book would you?"

 

[Optimal Robotics]

So apparently Lisa doesn't usually write code from scratch. She usually just kludges something together from pre-built blocks of code that she collected previously. That is when she doesn't just divine or con the required credentials from some poor schmuck who is probably getting fired in the next month for what she does with it. The reason I was writing code with her was because she wanted to see what I could do. Like she couldn't have just asked. The bitch.

Anyways, school went by real smoothly today. Nothing went wrong at all, and I was able to get all my work done. Started reading coding books and finished off The Wonders Of Bacon from last time. Mmm, bacon. Anyways, I'm probably going to drop a grand or so on building a magnificent beast of a computer. Probably not going to be permanent, but I gotta get my coding practice in somewhere. Going home right now.

"Hey babe." From a dude in a trenchcoat and a hat over his face. Oh boy. This seems super shady. We're in front of one of the alleyways I use to shake any potential tails. One of three I use on my route currently. Oh, if a new gang is setting up shop here that's going to be so inconvenient.

I walk past him with no hesitation and my head held high. Not showing fear is the first step to not being victimized. Right after that being to never walk into strange alleyways with strange men in front of them, but nevermind that just now. I'm a big bad cape! I can handle some random asshole! If he lays a hand on me I'll just be at the crap out of him.

Speaking of, I hear him coming up behind me. What a prick. I'll only start the violence once he touches me though. Not only will that give him time to rethink his life choices, it'll also give me an excuse-wait, why's his skin orange? I spin arou-

---

Oh God, I'm so dizzy. Dizzy, and nauseous, and turned on- Wait, what the FUCK!! Oh, I am going to fucking murder somebody!! Or I would if I could figure out what's going on here. I can't see, I can't move, and it feels like my mind is broken, and trudging along at the speed of a wheel made of broken glass. Is this what being high feels like? Holy crap, how can people stand this shit. First I crank my speed all the way up. Wait, no. Shit, no. How would that help me? Alright, first I turn my acid all the way on.

Several things happen at once when I do that. First is that I reform back into a human shape. Naked, of course, because why wouldn't that happen. Then I sink into the sheets because of acid, flail around, and make a sound I would imagine coming out of a panicked newborn bird. I managed to turn my acid off, and sit up, only to see some chick staring at me. She's wearing a shamrock shirt and ripped jeans, and balancing precariously on a windowsill.

"Guuyyys!! She's awa-Oh shit!" As she falls out of the window. Well that took care of itself. Also, oh shit I've been kidnapped! In both timelines too, so it's not Coil! I turn translucent and start taking stock of my surroundings. Oh good, I'm still fast. A look out of the window reveals she's struggling under some debris in the alley. Good, good. Also I'm on the second floor of wherever I am. Going out into the hallway reveals a lanky dude in a gasmask looking getup, and presumably the same orange fucker who got to me in the alleyway. He has a tail. Neat.

"The empire called. They want their Gestapo fuckin' look back." I run up to orangy and activate my acid to slash him with it and avoid getting drugged again. I intended to slash him through as far as I could get, but it's taking more than three seconds to do anyth- Holy shit, did gasmask just hock a flaming loogey at me?! I give up on orangy as a bad job to throw him into the path of the next flaming booger coming out of the gasmask.

"Oh God, why!?" I then smash the gasmask guy into the wall as hard as I can. He doesn't get up. Goody. I look up to see a real ugly fucker coming out of another one of the rooms. Looks like a real fat ghoul from Fallout starting to ooze something from his skin. Yeah, fuck that noise. Not going through that song and dance again. I rush up to him with my acid on full, only to fail to tackle him into the ground. And fail to dissolve his skin given a full five seconds. Again, fuck that noise. I'm not feeling particularly merciful given my situation, so I go up to his face and rip his eyes out of his head with my acid. He tried to stop it, but not much can be done about me in a grapple.

"Holy shit you crazy bitch, my eyes!!" Barely takes a second. Looking over the hallway, everybody is incapacitated and/or screaming... And the hallway is on fire... Moving on!

I don't see any fire extinguishers, so they're shit outta luck in that department. Looking through the doors I see some catatonic chick in a wheelchair, no idea, and I find an office with a phone. Let's see, nine? Pound and nine? No, just pound. I call Tattletale for advice.

"What the fuck is it this time Faultline?"

"Tattletale it's Taylor. I've been kidnapped, and wherever this is is on fire, and that last part is definitely not my fault."

"...Oh for fuck's sake. Taylor could you start at the beginning?"

"I was kidnapped on my way back from school, and now I'm here. The dickhead who did it is bleeding and on fire in the hallway. Four assholes are down, but I don't know how many friends they have. That's it. That's everything I know about the situation."

"Who kidnapped you?"

"Some lanky orange dude with a tail. He drugged me somehow."

"That would be Newter, yep." Popping the P. "Just come back- Yes it's Taylor. No. Alec, now is not the time for that. We're in the middle of a situation in case you haven't noticed. Look, Taylor. I need you to come back right away."

"Will do. I'm just gonna call the PRT and fire department so they can clean this mess up."

"What? Taylor, no. Do not call the cops to this clusterfuck you got going on here. They couldn't find their asses with both hands, and even if they did, they would put you in a holding cell for days on end just to get you to join up or confess to something. Director Piggot is a bitch like that."

"Well I'm not letting these idiots burn to death. The PRT would pin that on me too."

"Look Taylor, just-"

*Click*

And the line goes dead. No dial tone just dead. I look up to see a barbed wire hellscape creeping up on me from the hallway and the left wall. You know what my friends, I am out. These assholes can burn to death for all I care, I am not dealing with this bullshit.

I jump out of the window and start running.



AN: Should be the last useless supply/tool power for a while guys. Though Taylor may or may not get much use out of the upcoming rolls.

Powers gained this chapter

Glove of the East (Binbougami Ga!) (300CP)

This hand of mine glows with an awesome power! It's burning gri-... oh! Sorry, wrong show. This single glove comes in any color and style, and is actually quite useful! You can channel your spiritual energies through it to help you with mundane tasks; your cooking might turn out excellent, cleaning takes less work for better results, and massages work WONDERS when you hit those points. If you channel a LOT of spiritual energy, you might even imbue items and equipment to improve them and be more receptive to your spiritual/chi powers! Heart symbol optional.