Chapter 18: Exposition
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.
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.
"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.
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