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.
Probably could have done better then that; with the way that locks tend to have notched pins it would probably have been easier for her to just align them manually by feel.
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!
I'm sorry what is even the point of this course of action? Wasn't she going to leave in the car? Even if she just wanted more clothes on she could have just put them on over her other clothes. This whole fiasco is...Actually pretty much what I'd expect from Early Worm Taylor.
I start running away when he starts bulking up and his arms start turning black.
*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!?"
"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?
"Look what you made me do Taylor!" Some sort of black substance is running down his arms as he looks towards me.
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."
Alright so presumably he pinged primarily off of Amy and Taylor, because Parahumans can Ping off of environmental factors, and got some bacterial-vector Striker-ranged dissolving-ability, along with possibly some Blaster, Thinker, and Brute functions attached to it presumably in the form of being able to sense, throw, and self-reinforce with bacteria, and immediately turned the pool into a environmental hazard and hit Victoria with a solid one-two punch of a actual punch followed by his Striker effect.
Taylor should probably learn how to parry Brutes and Strikers and whatnot, maybe get into a wrestling match with some of Rachel's dogs when they're bulked up, and probably also get herself some armor that she can pop out of her skin as needed; something like some scales would probably work decently well.
I was actually thinking that Taylor could probably combine some diamond with iron to get a diamond-hard metallic polycrystalline material, capable of plastic deformation via dislocation-glide, and with bone to get biocompatibility and mineral-arrangement into it, since in bones and antlers those minerals are arranged to directionally absorb impacts, as well to get a good skeleton.
"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.
Well that was anti-climactic.
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.
Yeah no worries; he just shambled in like a jackass and died from tripping over his own legs like a dumbass; no need for further explanation.
"Oh damn, is that gonna be a problem? I know Panacea was really scared about the pathogens he made."
In light of the fact that he didn't specify "strains" or something that was probably more then just bacteria; might have had some prions as well. Possibly also enzymes to pre-digest some food for them to make something out of.
"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."
Mold? That doesn't seem like a particularly fast vector. Could have been a half-decent structural element I guess? Virus's are also a strange choice; those things are reliant on hosts and aren't even technically alive.
"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."
It was all the single thing that she was touching by the time she was done with it; not that confusing.
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.
Oh that should be ridiculously helpful within the context of needing to learn how molecules are made and/or how they look in order to synthesize them.
The guy triggered out of sheer frustrated entitlement. It's no wonder he was super toxic.
That was actually probably mostly Amy actually; some Shards chose their Hosts, normally Brute or Blaster powers or other relatively simple expressions of their abilities, for the express purpose of stirring shit up for other Shards; I wouldn't be surprised if [Shaper] made some heavy contributions to this Trigger Event in order to get Amy some more interesting work.
As I understand it these catalytic Parahumans burn themselves out fast and allow their Shard to get new Hosts.
Also from
what I can find on Trigger types this guy was probably a Changer and I honestly wouldn't be surprised to learn that he wasn't even straight; identity/social-identity conflict issues are a big part of Changer-type Triggers.
That Librarian perk is pretty cool.
Oh yeah that thing's going to pay not merely dividends but compound-interest.
"Jesus Christ himself could've come again with that and gotten himself a kill order." Assuming anyone was still alive to issue it...
Nah this is another kind of shit-stir-Trigger; things like the Machine Army or Nilbog or Teacher who get extremely wide-scale abilities and function effectively like Raid-Bosses.
WEE-WOO WEE-WOO, Stalker alert! Stalker alert! 'Oh no, I casually am checking people with my power to see their emotions and if I see something interesting I stalk investigate them.' Wow.
Stop that; even if his Thinker powers weren't always on
the way you're saying it is cringe.
I can very much see being caught in a crime being a very stressful situation.
Someone telling you that several hours ago you were acting inappropriate, on the other hand… I really have to wonder what sort of backstory you are imagining where this constitutes a trigger event in Worm. (Unless this is our hint that Taylor getting powerups counts as trigger-y enough to make surrounding people more likely to trigger at the same time or something like that.)
Oh yeah this is another aspect of Triggers; they have to be novel enough to catch the interest of Shards.
While his situation might
seem Basic Bitch enough to not prompt a Trigger, regardless of whatever extenuation circumstances were making it worse for whatever reason, you've got to remember that he was around a Slime with Plentimaw Mouths and several Parahumans so there were a few contributing factors.
Forgot to mention it before, but I wonder how she'll handled Armsmaster's request for her clothes without admitting that she's a parahuman. She can't actually give them to him given their current state.
I believe that she was made exempt by Amy clearing her but she might also be able to either repair the clothing, possibly even just by stretching the fibers of the fabric, and/or either bag or outright incinerate it herself.
Two hours ago, if that. Left it vague for a reason. Also that was not the only factor here. Three that I spelled out, and I was under the impression that not having the best home life goes without saying. Kinda like Glory Girl.
Catching a STD, being terrified by Victoria's Aura, being related to Mush, being humiliated by not merely everyone at the party but seeing Taylor outright leaving "because of him", being drunk, some social shit with Dean; it might have been a butt-dial but you spelled out a lot more then merely three possibilities there.
