To the Rhythm (Worm/Beat Saber)
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Short summary:
Male Taylor with Beat Saber inspired...
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Short summary:
Male Taylor with Beat Saber inspired...
To the Rhythm [Worm Alt Power]
- Thread starter Alpha Zerg
- Start date
- Superhero
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- Ongoing
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Statistics (3 threadmarks, 8.3k words)
User Total Alpha Zerg 3 Threadmarks Reader mode
Alpha Zerg
The Last Primal Zerg
- Location
- Zerus
To the Rhythm (Worm/Beat Saber)
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Short summary:
Male Taylor with Beat Saber inspired powers and a slightly different history to canon Taylor. For the past few months since getting his powers he's been training hard, all leading up to this week. He's going to be a superhero, come Hell or high water.
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Class ended in five minutes and all I could think was, "Fuck, I'm looking forward to lunch."
My stomach was aching a little bit because I wasn't used to how quickly I got hungry these days. A little bit of running, some swordsmanship, a decent serving of weights, and by the end of it I had a metabolism running at mach speed. Luckily I'd packed a good-sized lunch, so I would be fine as soon as I got out.
I paid half-hearted attention to Mr Gladly as he spoke about some or other issue in Asia due to the emergence of Parahumans. I had nothing against the guy, but his exuberance was a little bit off-putting sometimes. Almost like a puppy that didn't know when to stop. Meanwhile, I was sitting next to a window absently scribbling a few annotations to a little music system I'd designed. Nothing fancy, it ran off of a little microprocessor hooked up to an MP3 system, anyone could do it.
The fun part was that it could increase or decrease the tempo of whatever it was playing with the tap of a button, gimmicky for most people, surprisingly helpful for me.
"Whatcha got there, Tails?" The chirpy voice came up from my side, jerking my attention away, eyes catching the clock on the wall and seeing everyone shuffling out, 'Class is over then, I guess.'
"Huh?" I asked before the question registered, "Oh, just a music player I've been working on. Pretty fun stuff, you know?" I closed the book casually and put it away, hefting my bag up. It's not like it was tinkertech or anything. "What's up, Emma?"
"I... um. Do you want to eat lunch with Sophia and I?" I raised my eyebrow at the question, looking at her side-on as we walked out the class.
"And why exactly would I want to? She's a bitch, Emma. I thought I made my thoughts on that perfectly clear." Seriously, I didn't see what she saw in Sophia, but I wanted no part in it. Psycho-ass bitch.
Emma frowned, though, thinking for a moment, and I interrupted whatever thought process she had in favour of a compromise. For old times' sake, if nothing else. I still liked her after all, a little distance wouldn't change a crush developed over years of childhood.
"Tell you what, I'm going up to the roof for lunch, if you guys want to join me I won't say no." A tiny power-play there, because Sophia's a bitch and I want them both to know where I stood. Once upon a time I wanted to spend all my time with Emma, all day, every day. 'Times change, I guess.' And with them, people.
She probably wouldn't bite, though. Emma had a reputation to uphold, along with Sophia and their little hanger-on Madison. The pretty redhead model, the slender black runner, and the cutesy brunette sycophant. I rethought that last one, she wasn't entirely a sycophant, but I was running out of comparisons.
"Sure, I'll see you then." Uh, excuse you, what? I'd almost think she was planning something if it were anyone else, that agreement was way too easy.
"Huh, cool. See ya." I shrugged and walked off, weaving through the sea of people in the hallway. My stomach panged again making me take a banana out of my bag and start munching as I walked. Being by myself let me think, and the throngs of people thinned as I got further from the cafeteria and closer to the roof.
Emma was a weird subject for me. I felt introspective enough to realise I definitely liked her, and she definitely liked me back, but she was... toxic, I guess you could say. Or maybe less her and more Sophia, but she tried to be like Sophia which rubbed off on her, and... I didn't know. I was trying to get rid of negativity, not surround myself with more of it. I had enough anger issues from my Dad as it was, I didn't need other things fraying on my nerves while I was at it.
I threw the banana peel in a bin absently as I stepped out onto the roof. There were already a few other groups up here, mostly stoners and the like, but the air was chilly enough through this part of the year that most people avoided it. My corner was empty, as usual, with a little spot of snow that had fallen overnight and was fighting the sun every step of the way. I kicked it out of the way and sat up on the wall.
Boiled eggs, some leftover pasta from last night, and a bottle of water. It wasn't pretty, but it was fuel if nothing else. I took my time eating and watching everything around me. The sun warming my face a little bit, offset by the biting air, the sports field below us with other people having lunch, the stoners from the year above me chatting just too far to hear.
Halfway through my pasta the door inside opened, a bit unusual and I started to look away when Emma walked out. 'Huh.' I honestly hadn't expected her to follow through and raised my eyebrow even as I waved shortly at her. I did have food to finish, after all. Said food became a bit more tedious to chew when Sophia came out after her, but I determinedly carried on, then swallowed.
"Hey," I said. I almost wanted to say something else, but couldn't think of anything.
"Hey," Emma replied as she smoothly sat on the corner side across from me.
Nothing happened for a few moments until Sophia scoffed.
"God, you two are pathetic."
"Fuck you." The words came easily.
"Oh yeah? Wanna go, faggot?"
"Excuse you, cunt? Remember what happened last time?"
"Fuck off, you got lucky." If I didn't know better I'd say she was enjoying this. In fact, a glance at Emma showed that she was definitely enjoying it if the smirk on her face was any indication. Maybe I didn't know better.
"Psh, you wish. I'll fuck you up again anytime, name the time and the place," The near choking snort that came out of Emma's mouth stalled my brain as I rethought that sentence. 'Aah, whatever.' I ate some more pasta rather than try and stammer something else out.
"And if I said this afternoon, at the gym?"
I took a moment to slowly finish the mouthful, ignoring the goading tone.
"I'd ask which gym and what time." Emma was definitely enjoying this now. In fact, this was probably why she wanted to come up here in the first place.
"Max's, three thirty."
"You know what? Fucking sure." God damn it, now I was looking forward to it too. I met Emma's eyes pointedly, with a raised eyebrow, "You happy now?"
She definitely was, even as she put on an air of, 'who, me?' I just shook my head.
Out came the notebook and away went the lunchbox as I started doodling, Emma chatting with Sophia and asking me a question every now and then, Sophia sniping at me trying to get a rise out of me. The rest of the lunch hour flew by and a thought popped into my head as we got up.
God fucking damn it. I'd enjoyed that. Emma was too fucking good at that.
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The rest of the day passed in a bit of a blur, both boredom and excitement. Classes that I paid half-hearted attention to, as usual, doodling in my notebook, as usual, boring monotony, as fucking usual, looking forward to a good fight, not usual. Eventually the final bell rang, and I was out of class in a flash, earbuds in my ears. I stopped outside the school for a quick stretch before I clicked the music player into a higher tempo and started jogging.
My feet met the tarmac on each beat, every step to the rhythm, my awareness expanding outwards to everything around me, the music always there but somehow bringing the rest of the world into clear focus. I could almost see the people outside my vision, could hear the cars far before I would normally, everything moving a little bit slower than it should. I clicked the player up another notch, cranking the pace up a little more, and turned sharply into an alleyway for a detour.
A few quick clicks down and I jumped onto a fence and up a wall, clicking back up again let me run along the wall and up onto a building.
The fun part was that none of this was superhuman at the moment. I was just cheating a bit of the effort away.
Soon enough I was home, hopping up the steps that I'd fixed a few weeks ago, and panting slightly from the exertion. I emptied my bag next to my desk and sat down in front of my computer to find Max's Gym before looking at the time, two forty-five. I'd have to leave immediately to get there.
I sighed, then got changed quickly, stuffed some sparring clothes in my bag and took off again.
"You know, you could be on the track team if you tried," Sophia called out from the door as I stopped.
"And spend more time around you? I'd rather jump off of a bridge." I moved past her and into the gym, "So where're we doing this?"
I noticed Emma sitting on a bench inside when she waved at me, eyes almost sparkling when she saw Sophia walking next to me. Instead of saying anything, Sophia moved up to a set of mats out of the way with enough space.
She was already dressed for a fight, handwraps and everything, but I took a moment to spy out the changing rooms and follow suit.
Emma and Sophia were sparring lightly when I got out, probably just to limber Sophia up, but I took notice of Emma specifically. Long legs, tight curves, red hair up in a ponytail, 'Damn it.' My eyes reached her face and she was looking back at me, openly smirking. My face heated up a bit, but I shook my head and walked over to start stretching.
Fists to the floor, hold for a few seconds, foot up to my ass and hold for a few seconds, alternate. A few minutes later I stopped and bounced on my feet a few times, looking around.
Emma was pointedly looking away from me, Sophia was openly weighing me up, and the moment she knew I was done she jerked her head to the center of the mats.
I spread my legs out a bit, shoulder width, left side forward, right foot pointing a bit to the side, fists held loosely in front of my face, a loose kickboxing stance. I judged Sophia as she settled into her own stance, similar enough to me, but with the hands lower, probably for grappling. 'Krav Maga, maybe?' I wondered. I had seen something similar in my own gym every so often, but lately I'd had less time to go, instead working out more at home. I'd heard horror stories about Krav Maga so I wasn't going to underestimate her, she threw a mean hook.
Emma sat on the sidelines to act as "referee", and god was she giddy. I raised my eyebrow at her and she just smiled innocently.
"Whenever you're ready." I told Sophia with a smirk. She just rolled her eyes.
I looked at the clock quickly, quarter to four. I had about two hours before I had to worry about getting home, so we were more than in the clear.
The moment my eyes turned away, Sophia came at me. I stepped back from the first jab, then batted the second out of the way, leaning in to deliver one of my own. We danced back and forth like that for a minute or two, feeling each other out. I was almost distracted by the sweat glistening on her hard arms, and she smirked when she noticed.
Then she lunged forward with a flurry of punches, and I had to move. The first was dodged, the second and third caught on my arms, and as the fourth one came I ducked low into an uppercut. She wasn't an amateur, I'd say that much, because she took it beautifully, crashing in a hook that I barely avoided in response.
My breath was coming quickly and evenly, the tempo picking up my senses slightly and I spun low into a leg sweep that she neatly stepped over. I took the brief opportunity to hop up and follow through with a low kick to the knee.
We carried on like that for a while, until she finally got fed up and decided to come in hard. A strong cross that I caught on my forearm, followed by a hook that I ducked under, then an uppercut, each punch harder and faster trying to end it as soon as possible. She was flagging slightly, and I'd admit that I was too, my breath coming quickly enough that the tempo was starting to heighten my response time, even as I slowed down physically.
She leaned a bit too much into one punch, and I jumped at the opportunity, batting her arm further and following with a strong exhalation and a sharp hook, slightly boosted by the sudden slower and stronger breath. The punch landed cleanly on her jaw, my wrapped knuckles hurting quite a bit from the impact but nothing I wasn't used to, and she stumbled to the side.
Not one for honour or mercy, I followed up quickly with a knee into her ribs, then another punch, and finally the other knee into her stomach. I stepped away as she fell to her knees, gasping. It took a few moments for her to get her breath back and she rolled onto her ass to sit up when she'd recovered.
Meanwhile, I looked over at Emma to see her gasping just as hard as we were, her face flushed as she watched us recover. The rest of the gym went on as usual, ignoring everything happening in our little corner. Hell, similar scenes were playing out in other parts of it, so I could definitely see why Sophia, and apparently Emma, came here.
"Fuck, you're good for a dipshit."
Aah, Sophia. Such a way with words.
"Eh, you're not too bad for a little bitch."
Not that I could point fingers.
Now I was just left wondering, 'Should I still go out tonight or not?' I was getting a bit tired, but I'd been preparing for this for a while. 'Nah,' I decided. 'Friday night. Yeah. Then I'll use Saturday to rest and maybe fix up my stuff, then I can go out again on Sunday evening.'
It was time. I was going to be a superhero.
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Short summary:
Male Taylor with Beat Saber inspired powers and a slightly different history to canon Taylor. For the past few months since getting his powers he's been training hard, all leading up to this week. He's going to be a superhero, come Hell or high water.
I feel like a lot of him is still very similar to the original, but simply due to his maleness there will be many changes, so you may disagree with me.
Also, I intentionally started similarly to Wildbow, but I'm not sure if/for how long I can keep a similar style to his going. I'm taking inspiration from the style, at least.
Also, I intentionally started similarly to Wildbow, but I'm not sure if/for how long I can keep a similar style to his going. I'm taking inspiration from the style, at least.
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Class ended in five minutes and all I could think was, "Fuck, I'm looking forward to lunch."
My stomach was aching a little bit because I wasn't used to how quickly I got hungry these days. A little bit of running, some swordsmanship, a decent serving of weights, and by the end of it I had a metabolism running at mach speed. Luckily I'd packed a good-sized lunch, so I would be fine as soon as I got out.
I paid half-hearted attention to Mr Gladly as he spoke about some or other issue in Asia due to the emergence of Parahumans. I had nothing against the guy, but his exuberance was a little bit off-putting sometimes. Almost like a puppy that didn't know when to stop. Meanwhile, I was sitting next to a window absently scribbling a few annotations to a little music system I'd designed. Nothing fancy, it ran off of a little microprocessor hooked up to an MP3 system, anyone could do it.
The fun part was that it could increase or decrease the tempo of whatever it was playing with the tap of a button, gimmicky for most people, surprisingly helpful for me.
"Whatcha got there, Tails?" The chirpy voice came up from my side, jerking my attention away, eyes catching the clock on the wall and seeing everyone shuffling out, 'Class is over then, I guess.'
"Huh?" I asked before the question registered, "Oh, just a music player I've been working on. Pretty fun stuff, you know?" I closed the book casually and put it away, hefting my bag up. It's not like it was tinkertech or anything. "What's up, Emma?"
"I... um. Do you want to eat lunch with Sophia and I?" I raised my eyebrow at the question, looking at her side-on as we walked out the class.
"And why exactly would I want to? She's a bitch, Emma. I thought I made my thoughts on that perfectly clear." Seriously, I didn't see what she saw in Sophia, but I wanted no part in it. Psycho-ass bitch.
Emma frowned, though, thinking for a moment, and I interrupted whatever thought process she had in favour of a compromise. For old times' sake, if nothing else. I still liked her after all, a little distance wouldn't change a crush developed over years of childhood.
"Tell you what, I'm going up to the roof for lunch, if you guys want to join me I won't say no." A tiny power-play there, because Sophia's a bitch and I want them both to know where I stood. Once upon a time I wanted to spend all my time with Emma, all day, every day. 'Times change, I guess.' And with them, people.
She probably wouldn't bite, though. Emma had a reputation to uphold, along with Sophia and their little hanger-on Madison. The pretty redhead model, the slender black runner, and the cutesy brunette sycophant. I rethought that last one, she wasn't entirely a sycophant, but I was running out of comparisons.
"Sure, I'll see you then." Uh, excuse you, what? I'd almost think she was planning something if it were anyone else, that agreement was way too easy.
"Huh, cool. See ya." I shrugged and walked off, weaving through the sea of people in the hallway. My stomach panged again making me take a banana out of my bag and start munching as I walked. Being by myself let me think, and the throngs of people thinned as I got further from the cafeteria and closer to the roof.
Emma was a weird subject for me. I felt introspective enough to realise I definitely liked her, and she definitely liked me back, but she was... toxic, I guess you could say. Or maybe less her and more Sophia, but she tried to be like Sophia which rubbed off on her, and... I didn't know. I was trying to get rid of negativity, not surround myself with more of it. I had enough anger issues from my Dad as it was, I didn't need other things fraying on my nerves while I was at it.
I threw the banana peel in a bin absently as I stepped out onto the roof. There were already a few other groups up here, mostly stoners and the like, but the air was chilly enough through this part of the year that most people avoided it. My corner was empty, as usual, with a little spot of snow that had fallen overnight and was fighting the sun every step of the way. I kicked it out of the way and sat up on the wall.
Boiled eggs, some leftover pasta from last night, and a bottle of water. It wasn't pretty, but it was fuel if nothing else. I took my time eating and watching everything around me. The sun warming my face a little bit, offset by the biting air, the sports field below us with other people having lunch, the stoners from the year above me chatting just too far to hear.
Halfway through my pasta the door inside opened, a bit unusual and I started to look away when Emma walked out. 'Huh.' I honestly hadn't expected her to follow through and raised my eyebrow even as I waved shortly at her. I did have food to finish, after all. Said food became a bit more tedious to chew when Sophia came out after her, but I determinedly carried on, then swallowed.
"Hey," I said. I almost wanted to say something else, but couldn't think of anything.
"Hey," Emma replied as she smoothly sat on the corner side across from me.
Nothing happened for a few moments until Sophia scoffed.
"God, you two are pathetic."
"Fuck you." The words came easily.
"Oh yeah? Wanna go, faggot?"
"Excuse you, cunt? Remember what happened last time?"
"Fuck off, you got lucky." If I didn't know better I'd say she was enjoying this. In fact, a glance at Emma showed that she was definitely enjoying it if the smirk on her face was any indication. Maybe I didn't know better.
"Psh, you wish. I'll fuck you up again anytime, name the time and the place," The near choking snort that came out of Emma's mouth stalled my brain as I rethought that sentence. 'Aah, whatever.' I ate some more pasta rather than try and stammer something else out.
"And if I said this afternoon, at the gym?"
I took a moment to slowly finish the mouthful, ignoring the goading tone.
"I'd ask which gym and what time." Emma was definitely enjoying this now. In fact, this was probably why she wanted to come up here in the first place.
"Max's, three thirty."
"You know what? Fucking sure." God damn it, now I was looking forward to it too. I met Emma's eyes pointedly, with a raised eyebrow, "You happy now?"
She definitely was, even as she put on an air of, 'who, me?' I just shook my head.
Out came the notebook and away went the lunchbox as I started doodling, Emma chatting with Sophia and asking me a question every now and then, Sophia sniping at me trying to get a rise out of me. The rest of the lunch hour flew by and a thought popped into my head as we got up.
God fucking damn it. I'd enjoyed that. Emma was too fucking good at that.
---
The rest of the day passed in a bit of a blur, both boredom and excitement. Classes that I paid half-hearted attention to, as usual, doodling in my notebook, as usual, boring monotony, as fucking usual, looking forward to a good fight, not usual. Eventually the final bell rang, and I was out of class in a flash, earbuds in my ears. I stopped outside the school for a quick stretch before I clicked the music player into a higher tempo and started jogging.
My feet met the tarmac on each beat, every step to the rhythm, my awareness expanding outwards to everything around me, the music always there but somehow bringing the rest of the world into clear focus. I could almost see the people outside my vision, could hear the cars far before I would normally, everything moving a little bit slower than it should. I clicked the player up another notch, cranking the pace up a little more, and turned sharply into an alleyway for a detour.
A few quick clicks down and I jumped onto a fence and up a wall, clicking back up again let me run along the wall and up onto a building.
The fun part was that none of this was superhuman at the moment. I was just cheating a bit of the effort away.
Soon enough I was home, hopping up the steps that I'd fixed a few weeks ago, and panting slightly from the exertion. I emptied my bag next to my desk and sat down in front of my computer to find Max's Gym before looking at the time, two forty-five. I'd have to leave immediately to get there.
I sighed, then got changed quickly, stuffed some sparring clothes in my bag and took off again.
"You know, you could be on the track team if you tried," Sophia called out from the door as I stopped.
"And spend more time around you? I'd rather jump off of a bridge." I moved past her and into the gym, "So where're we doing this?"
I noticed Emma sitting on a bench inside when she waved at me, eyes almost sparkling when she saw Sophia walking next to me. Instead of saying anything, Sophia moved up to a set of mats out of the way with enough space.
She was already dressed for a fight, handwraps and everything, but I took a moment to spy out the changing rooms and follow suit.
Emma and Sophia were sparring lightly when I got out, probably just to limber Sophia up, but I took notice of Emma specifically. Long legs, tight curves, red hair up in a ponytail, 'Damn it.' My eyes reached her face and she was looking back at me, openly smirking. My face heated up a bit, but I shook my head and walked over to start stretching.
Fists to the floor, hold for a few seconds, foot up to my ass and hold for a few seconds, alternate. A few minutes later I stopped and bounced on my feet a few times, looking around.
Emma was pointedly looking away from me, Sophia was openly weighing me up, and the moment she knew I was done she jerked her head to the center of the mats.
I spread my legs out a bit, shoulder width, left side forward, right foot pointing a bit to the side, fists held loosely in front of my face, a loose kickboxing stance. I judged Sophia as she settled into her own stance, similar enough to me, but with the hands lower, probably for grappling. 'Krav Maga, maybe?' I wondered. I had seen something similar in my own gym every so often, but lately I'd had less time to go, instead working out more at home. I'd heard horror stories about Krav Maga so I wasn't going to underestimate her, she threw a mean hook.
Emma sat on the sidelines to act as "referee", and god was she giddy. I raised my eyebrow at her and she just smiled innocently.
"Whenever you're ready." I told Sophia with a smirk. She just rolled her eyes.
I looked at the clock quickly, quarter to four. I had about two hours before I had to worry about getting home, so we were more than in the clear.
The moment my eyes turned away, Sophia came at me. I stepped back from the first jab, then batted the second out of the way, leaning in to deliver one of my own. We danced back and forth like that for a minute or two, feeling each other out. I was almost distracted by the sweat glistening on her hard arms, and she smirked when she noticed.
Then she lunged forward with a flurry of punches, and I had to move. The first was dodged, the second and third caught on my arms, and as the fourth one came I ducked low into an uppercut. She wasn't an amateur, I'd say that much, because she took it beautifully, crashing in a hook that I barely avoided in response.
My breath was coming quickly and evenly, the tempo picking up my senses slightly and I spun low into a leg sweep that she neatly stepped over. I took the brief opportunity to hop up and follow through with a low kick to the knee.
We carried on like that for a while, until she finally got fed up and decided to come in hard. A strong cross that I caught on my forearm, followed by a hook that I ducked under, then an uppercut, each punch harder and faster trying to end it as soon as possible. She was flagging slightly, and I'd admit that I was too, my breath coming quickly enough that the tempo was starting to heighten my response time, even as I slowed down physically.
She leaned a bit too much into one punch, and I jumped at the opportunity, batting her arm further and following with a strong exhalation and a sharp hook, slightly boosted by the sudden slower and stronger breath. The punch landed cleanly on her jaw, my wrapped knuckles hurting quite a bit from the impact but nothing I wasn't used to, and she stumbled to the side.
Not one for honour or mercy, I followed up quickly with a knee into her ribs, then another punch, and finally the other knee into her stomach. I stepped away as she fell to her knees, gasping. It took a few moments for her to get her breath back and she rolled onto her ass to sit up when she'd recovered.
Meanwhile, I looked over at Emma to see her gasping just as hard as we were, her face flushed as she watched us recover. The rest of the gym went on as usual, ignoring everything happening in our little corner. Hell, similar scenes were playing out in other parts of it, so I could definitely see why Sophia, and apparently Emma, came here.
"Fuck, you're good for a dipshit."
Aah, Sophia. Such a way with words.
"Eh, you're not too bad for a little bitch."
Not that I could point fingers.
Now I was just left wondering, 'Should I still go out tonight or not?' I was getting a bit tired, but I'd been preparing for this for a while. 'Nah,' I decided. 'Friday night. Yeah. Then I'll use Saturday to rest and maybe fix up my stuff, then I can go out again on Sunday evening.'
It was time. I was going to be a superhero.
Last edited:
RavensDagger
Officially Infracted Speceist since 2019!
- Location
- Someplace Cold, Canada
Okay.
I'm rather fond of Beat Saber, it's fun to bash those filthy boxes to an EDM beat, but I'm not sure how you're going to turn that into a superpower.
I'm rather fond of Beat Saber, it's fun to bash those filthy boxes to an EDM beat, but I'm not sure how you're going to turn that into a superpower.
The only way I think you could make it's power is if lights up a part of the opponents body that he has to hit to the rythym of a song. As his combo gets higher he slowly does more and more damage, but it relies on him being able to hit them. So fighting someone like Velocity would be like trying to do one of those crazy hard songs. *8 point multiplier could mean he hits 8 times harder then a human or brute 1? That's all I could think of.
- Location
- North America
Why not? There been a story where Taylor use soundtracks to beat ass. His power probably has a trump or striker effect on his eyes or swords while fighting to highlight parts of the enemy to hit to score maximum damage on them.
RichardWhereat
Feanor did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Australia
He's using his power to make parkour easier. So, hitting the right spots, and solidish soundwaves?
- Location
- United States
Nah boyz his power is to keep a beat. A rare thing now a days.
Alpha Zerg
The Last Primal Zerg
- Location
- Zerus
The rest of the week passed in a blur. School went on mostly as usual, keeping to myself, getting through classes, but there was one difference: Emma was badgering me a lot more. She wanted me to sit with them, or came and sat with me in classes, and even though it brought a bit more attention to me than I was used to, I couldn't say I disliked it. Sophia was still a bitch, though, and I made sure she was well aware of it every time she was around.
By Friday I was getting a bit tired of it, in all honesty. Throughout high school I had been mostly by myself. Sure, Emma and I chatted every now and then, and there were group projects and stuff, but since my mom had died it was difficult to connect to people. It was almost like a piece of me had died, leaving my Dad's temper and a desire for solitude behind. It took a good three years and the worst day of my life to start recovering because wasn't that what everyone said? "Time heals all wounds."
It doesn't, not really, but you learn to live with it, which is kind of the same.
Eventually though, the school week had finished and I was sitting at home going through my notebook. A few pages of notes on the various villains in the city, a few more on how to deal with each of them, a lot of notes on my own power and how to use it. Sketches of a costume that had developed and evolved over the months, schematics of my little music system that was so integral to using my power properly, and finally, my weapons.
There's a little rhyme that people used to think about powers, Mover, Shaker, Brute and Breaker, Master, Tinker, Blaster and Thinker, Striker, Changer, Trump and Stranger. It was pretty straight forward, with each term being descriptive of a type of power, Movers moved, whether it was running quickly or flying or whatever, Shakers affected the environment around them, that kind of thing. Each power type was given a rating to determine how much damage they could do with it, with higher being more damage.
One of the first things that I had done after getting my powers was research, and that led straight into thinking about what kind of powers I had. On that scale, I would probably be rated with a bit of Mover, Brute, Thinker, Tinker, and maybe Trump. Now, you might think that that's impressive, to have a power that fits into many categories, but really, each individual part is quite weak: depending on the music available, I would be faster, or stronger, or think faster and see more, but there was a second part to it.
As of yesterday, I had put the finishing touches on my lightsabers. Which are where my little Tinker rating would come from, if anyone but myself had ever seen me doing anything with them. Even then, though, that particular rating wouldn't be very high either, seeing as energy swords were the only thing that I had a superhuman knack for building. Everything else was exactly the same as usual, apart from maybe being able to cross-reference some normal tech issues with insights that I got from working on my sabers.
I had two different sabers that I'd spent the majority of my time working on, and they were my pride and joy. A blade of red plasma, able to cut through just about anything, even steel as thick as the blade was long; and a blade of blue lightning, rippling with electricity, the best taser you could ever wish for. Seeing as the one was... very obviously lethal, I wasn't really planning on using it unless someone pulled guns out. Or against a villain trying to kill me. But I fully expected tangible electricity to be able to deal with all of my problems, thank you very much.
The rest of my superhero design was maybe a bit lacklustre in comparison, unfortunately, with just a set of pure black clothes, a hood/face-mask thing that, while very easy to move in, didn't offer much protection. It was something that I wanted to work on, but seeing as I could only Tinker on my swords was a bit tricky, and without much money I couldn't exactly go to a professional costume designer or something.
Instead, I was going to rely more on my power, going for faster beats over slower ones, giving up the added strength for better speed and perception. Unless I needed it, of course.
By the time I had finished my final preparations, it was dark outside my window and my watch said it was getting close to eleven. Dad had come in around six, as usual, we'd had dinner, before splitting up for the night. He went to sleep at about ten every night, so I was quite sure he was asleep already. I looked around my dark room one more time, checking that I hadn't forgotten anything.
Sabers on my hips, zip ties in my pockets, cheap emergency cell phone that I'd never even switched on in a different pocket, music player in my ears, and a few other odds and ends.
I slipped the bedroom window open and clicked the music player up a few notches. A few seconds later I was padding softly away from my house. Padding turned into jogging and I kept an eye out as I moved through the city.
A lot of thought had gone into these first few days, and so the biggest question was: where would I start? The city was a big place, and I would never be able to cover all of it. I could pick out a certain district and focus on that, only patrolling through there looking for things going on, or I could have a list of places that I did at different times, or I could even start at one place and move through the whole city in time. Obviously, with choosing where I would go came choosing who I would rub up against.
With the Docks, the area closest to home, came the Azn Bad Boys, a group of pan-Asian thugs led by Lung, a man who could change into a dragon as he fought, getting stronger over time. One of the most feared and well-known villains in the world. Under him was Oni Lee, a teleporting maniac who left clones of himself whenever he teleported, allowing him to attack from many places at once.
The Merchants usually operated out of the area close to my school and into the Trainyard to the North, and maybe even in the Boat Graveyard, right next to the ABB. They were known as one of the weaker groups in the city, even though they had one more cape than the ABB, they were less centralised and had fewer members. They were under the control of a man named Skidmark, a Shaker who could make weird fields that forced things to move in one direction, and with him were Squealer, a Tinker who made vehicles, and Mush, a disgusting golem made of trash.
Around the Commercial District and up into the suburbs and the Downtown Coast were the Empire 88. Literal Nazis, with almost too many capes to count. They were led by Kaiser, a man who could project blades of metal from any surface, but he was unlikely to be running around at night. I was actually quite wary of trying to poke at them, because while tickling a dragon is detrimental to your health, there is only one dragon. The E88 could field arguably as much power as the Protectorate, and that put them firmly on my "avoid for now" list.
There were other groups around the city, relatively unknown but still around, like the Undersiders, a group of teenage villains, Coil, someone who was more on the unknown scale than the others, and Faultline's Crew, who were more mercenaries than villains, even Uber and Leet were around somewhere. Of course, there was the Protectorate and the PRT as well, but I wasn't really expecting to fight against law enforcement. That was kind of opposite to my plans.
I had made my mind up weeks ago on the subject, to be honest. At this point I was just second guessing myself, but I had a plan in place. The E88 were too dangerous to make myself a target to and they were quite far away from my house anyway, while the Merchants and the ABB were quite nearby in comparison, as well as a lot less of a direct threat. Cape wise, at least. The other groups were all a bit more small-time in comparison, so while I would probably try to stop, say, Uber and Leet from committing a crime in front of me, I wouldn't go out looking for them.
Instead, I would alternate between the Merchants and the ABB, so the Docks and the Trainyard would be my patrolling route. Starting from the Boardwalk, the typical tourist trap of any city, and up into the Docks, then heading North until the Boat Graveyard, the near-skeletal remains of the city's shipping industry. After that, I'd go West along the edges of the Trainyard until I was about North-West of my house, and go South through the city and passed Winslow High till I was about due West of my house, where I would stop and head home. On my next run, I might do the reverse, or even change it up and start somewhere else.
At jogging speed, I should get through the route in three hours, which was just less than a marathon. Seeing as I wasn't in the mood to run a marathon every few nights, I would take it easier and give myself about five hours to get home again. That gave me a decent pace to jog at, as well as leaving me in decent shape should I need to fight someone.
There is quite a significant change in landscape as you move out from the nicer areas that I lived on the border of to the more run-down Docks. Once upon a time they were thriving, with money pouring in from shipping, but as seen by the Boat Graveyard, that time was long gone. Now the ABB had their grips in the area, running protection rackets on what few businesses remained, putting prostitutes on the streets, and selling drugs and weapons, among other things. I was going to start the night running through their territory, scoping out the area and getting a feel for the environment, before moving into the Merchant's "zone".
It's strange how noisy the city can be, even at just before midnight, but even with all that noise, the Docks were quiet. That is to say, there wasn't much going on. Sure, there were a few gangsters walking around here and there, waving their dicks about, but I was running on the roofs and unless they started anything, which they didn't, there wasn't much I could do. In fairness, while I had had fantasies of going out on my first night and stopping fights, or busting drug dens, the reality is a bit more mundane. You don't hear of New Wave, or even the Protectorate, getting into fights every night.
Eventually, I made my way out of the Docks with nothing to show of it except a good two hours lost and a vague sense of frustration. My ears were getting chilly, too.
Between the Docks and the Trainyard is another distinct change in scenery. While the most obvious change is that there were fewer buildings and more abandoned train cars and tracks, there was even more deterioration than in the Docks. Buildings obviously rusting or missing chunks of concrete, overgrown grass and bushes popping up, it was the outskirts of the city, in more ways than simple location. I did pick up on a few pieces of scrap that I made a note of for the future if I needed raw steel or anything, but again, getting through the Trainyard was an exercise more in boredom than anything else.
At least hopping up and down abandoned boxcars was fun for a bit.
Hours later, I slipped back into my bedroom window, my vague frustration having built into something almost tangible. I was fully annoyed at the lack of action over the night, even though it was entirely expected, and had even been the plan all along. Who knew being a superhero could be boring?
---
AN:
Exposition.exe has executed successfully.
This chapter wasn't supposed to be like this. Taylor was supposed to have run into a few Merchants or something and had a bit of a tussle, but then as the chapter progressed it veered away from that. I'm looking forward to writing the next chapter, because it should be quite fun.
Also, I wasn't planning on doing quite this much exposition, but hopefully it adds to this little world? I've filled in a few more details that I can't remember being there in canon and stuff, but it's mostly just to help this stand on it's own two feet.
Doing things To the Rhythm is how his power manifests.
By Friday I was getting a bit tired of it, in all honesty. Throughout high school I had been mostly by myself. Sure, Emma and I chatted every now and then, and there were group projects and stuff, but since my mom had died it was difficult to connect to people. It was almost like a piece of me had died, leaving my Dad's temper and a desire for solitude behind. It took a good three years and the worst day of my life to start recovering because wasn't that what everyone said? "Time heals all wounds."
It doesn't, not really, but you learn to live with it, which is kind of the same.
Eventually though, the school week had finished and I was sitting at home going through my notebook. A few pages of notes on the various villains in the city, a few more on how to deal with each of them, a lot of notes on my own power and how to use it. Sketches of a costume that had developed and evolved over the months, schematics of my little music system that was so integral to using my power properly, and finally, my weapons.
There's a little rhyme that people used to think about powers, Mover, Shaker, Brute and Breaker, Master, Tinker, Blaster and Thinker, Striker, Changer, Trump and Stranger. It was pretty straight forward, with each term being descriptive of a type of power, Movers moved, whether it was running quickly or flying or whatever, Shakers affected the environment around them, that kind of thing. Each power type was given a rating to determine how much damage they could do with it, with higher being more damage.
One of the first things that I had done after getting my powers was research, and that led straight into thinking about what kind of powers I had. On that scale, I would probably be rated with a bit of Mover, Brute, Thinker, Tinker, and maybe Trump. Now, you might think that that's impressive, to have a power that fits into many categories, but really, each individual part is quite weak: depending on the music available, I would be faster, or stronger, or think faster and see more, but there was a second part to it.
As of yesterday, I had put the finishing touches on my lightsabers. Which are where my little Tinker rating would come from, if anyone but myself had ever seen me doing anything with them. Even then, though, that particular rating wouldn't be very high either, seeing as energy swords were the only thing that I had a superhuman knack for building. Everything else was exactly the same as usual, apart from maybe being able to cross-reference some normal tech issues with insights that I got from working on my sabers.
I had two different sabers that I'd spent the majority of my time working on, and they were my pride and joy. A blade of red plasma, able to cut through just about anything, even steel as thick as the blade was long; and a blade of blue lightning, rippling with electricity, the best taser you could ever wish for. Seeing as the one was... very obviously lethal, I wasn't really planning on using it unless someone pulled guns out. Or against a villain trying to kill me. But I fully expected tangible electricity to be able to deal with all of my problems, thank you very much.
The rest of my superhero design was maybe a bit lacklustre in comparison, unfortunately, with just a set of pure black clothes, a hood/face-mask thing that, while very easy to move in, didn't offer much protection. It was something that I wanted to work on, but seeing as I could only Tinker on my swords was a bit tricky, and without much money I couldn't exactly go to a professional costume designer or something.
Instead, I was going to rely more on my power, going for faster beats over slower ones, giving up the added strength for better speed and perception. Unless I needed it, of course.
By the time I had finished my final preparations, it was dark outside my window and my watch said it was getting close to eleven. Dad had come in around six, as usual, we'd had dinner, before splitting up for the night. He went to sleep at about ten every night, so I was quite sure he was asleep already. I looked around my dark room one more time, checking that I hadn't forgotten anything.
Sabers on my hips, zip ties in my pockets, cheap emergency cell phone that I'd never even switched on in a different pocket, music player in my ears, and a few other odds and ends.
I slipped the bedroom window open and clicked the music player up a few notches. A few seconds later I was padding softly away from my house. Padding turned into jogging and I kept an eye out as I moved through the city.
A lot of thought had gone into these first few days, and so the biggest question was: where would I start? The city was a big place, and I would never be able to cover all of it. I could pick out a certain district and focus on that, only patrolling through there looking for things going on, or I could have a list of places that I did at different times, or I could even start at one place and move through the whole city in time. Obviously, with choosing where I would go came choosing who I would rub up against.
With the Docks, the area closest to home, came the Azn Bad Boys, a group of pan-Asian thugs led by Lung, a man who could change into a dragon as he fought, getting stronger over time. One of the most feared and well-known villains in the world. Under him was Oni Lee, a teleporting maniac who left clones of himself whenever he teleported, allowing him to attack from many places at once.
The Merchants usually operated out of the area close to my school and into the Trainyard to the North, and maybe even in the Boat Graveyard, right next to the ABB. They were known as one of the weaker groups in the city, even though they had one more cape than the ABB, they were less centralised and had fewer members. They were under the control of a man named Skidmark, a Shaker who could make weird fields that forced things to move in one direction, and with him were Squealer, a Tinker who made vehicles, and Mush, a disgusting golem made of trash.
Around the Commercial District and up into the suburbs and the Downtown Coast were the Empire 88. Literal Nazis, with almost too many capes to count. They were led by Kaiser, a man who could project blades of metal from any surface, but he was unlikely to be running around at night. I was actually quite wary of trying to poke at them, because while tickling a dragon is detrimental to your health, there is only one dragon. The E88 could field arguably as much power as the Protectorate, and that put them firmly on my "avoid for now" list.
There were other groups around the city, relatively unknown but still around, like the Undersiders, a group of teenage villains, Coil, someone who was more on the unknown scale than the others, and Faultline's Crew, who were more mercenaries than villains, even Uber and Leet were around somewhere. Of course, there was the Protectorate and the PRT as well, but I wasn't really expecting to fight against law enforcement. That was kind of opposite to my plans.
I had made my mind up weeks ago on the subject, to be honest. At this point I was just second guessing myself, but I had a plan in place. The E88 were too dangerous to make myself a target to and they were quite far away from my house anyway, while the Merchants and the ABB were quite nearby in comparison, as well as a lot less of a direct threat. Cape wise, at least. The other groups were all a bit more small-time in comparison, so while I would probably try to stop, say, Uber and Leet from committing a crime in front of me, I wouldn't go out looking for them.
Instead, I would alternate between the Merchants and the ABB, so the Docks and the Trainyard would be my patrolling route. Starting from the Boardwalk, the typical tourist trap of any city, and up into the Docks, then heading North until the Boat Graveyard, the near-skeletal remains of the city's shipping industry. After that, I'd go West along the edges of the Trainyard until I was about North-West of my house, and go South through the city and passed Winslow High till I was about due West of my house, where I would stop and head home. On my next run, I might do the reverse, or even change it up and start somewhere else.
At jogging speed, I should get through the route in three hours, which was just less than a marathon. Seeing as I wasn't in the mood to run a marathon every few nights, I would take it easier and give myself about five hours to get home again. That gave me a decent pace to jog at, as well as leaving me in decent shape should I need to fight someone.
There is quite a significant change in landscape as you move out from the nicer areas that I lived on the border of to the more run-down Docks. Once upon a time they were thriving, with money pouring in from shipping, but as seen by the Boat Graveyard, that time was long gone. Now the ABB had their grips in the area, running protection rackets on what few businesses remained, putting prostitutes on the streets, and selling drugs and weapons, among other things. I was going to start the night running through their territory, scoping out the area and getting a feel for the environment, before moving into the Merchant's "zone".
It's strange how noisy the city can be, even at just before midnight, but even with all that noise, the Docks were quiet. That is to say, there wasn't much going on. Sure, there were a few gangsters walking around here and there, waving their dicks about, but I was running on the roofs and unless they started anything, which they didn't, there wasn't much I could do. In fairness, while I had had fantasies of going out on my first night and stopping fights, or busting drug dens, the reality is a bit more mundane. You don't hear of New Wave, or even the Protectorate, getting into fights every night.
Eventually, I made my way out of the Docks with nothing to show of it except a good two hours lost and a vague sense of frustration. My ears were getting chilly, too.
Between the Docks and the Trainyard is another distinct change in scenery. While the most obvious change is that there were fewer buildings and more abandoned train cars and tracks, there was even more deterioration than in the Docks. Buildings obviously rusting or missing chunks of concrete, overgrown grass and bushes popping up, it was the outskirts of the city, in more ways than simple location. I did pick up on a few pieces of scrap that I made a note of for the future if I needed raw steel or anything, but again, getting through the Trainyard was an exercise more in boredom than anything else.
At least hopping up and down abandoned boxcars was fun for a bit.
Hours later, I slipped back into my bedroom window, my vague frustration having built into something almost tangible. I was fully annoyed at the lack of action over the night, even though it was entirely expected, and had even been the plan all along. Who knew being a superhero could be boring?
---
AN:
Exposition.exe has executed successfully.
This chapter wasn't supposed to be like this. Taylor was supposed to have run into a few Merchants or something and had a bit of a tussle, but then as the chapter progressed it veered away from that. I'm looking forward to writing the next chapter, because it should be quite fun.
Also, I wasn't planning on doing quite this much exposition, but hopefully it adds to this little world? I've filled in a few more details that I can't remember being there in canon and stuff, but it's mostly just to help this stand on it's own two feet.
It's less conceptually Beat Saber, and more literal, which I think I've explained a bit in this chapter. There will be more in the next chapter, when some action starts happening that will show him using his powers in a cape context as opposed to the mundane uses so far.
Refer above.
That might be a cool idea, but probably not. His powers are more low-key, in exchange for how versatile/grab-bag they are.
Close, but less hitting the right spots and more:
This, but unironically. Which is hilarious because it was obviously a shitpost.
Doing things To the Rhythm is how his power manifests.
- Location
- North America
*snort* damn now I have a picture of Taylor mumbling "gotta keep the beat gotta keep the beat." while beating up random mooks combo chaining like a batman arkham game.
- Location
- Philippines
So if say Taylor is doing parkour and keeping the beat and someone interrupts his rhythm does he flop hard and it's difficult to recover from or is it somewhat easy to get back into
- Location
- Earth Prime
Clearly, the world shatters around him and he's left in a null void dimension to select his next song, before rematerializing with it playing to resume the fight!
Alpha Zerg
The Last Primal Zerg
- Location
- Zerus
Saturday morning started with a continued sense of annoyance. I wasn't even too sure what I was annoyed about anymore. Sure, not getting into any trouble the previous night was frustrating, but it was also a good thing. A quiet night means that nothing bad is going on, which in turn means nobody is getting hurt. A quiet city is a safer city. And yet, even with such logical arguments against my bad mood, I had still felt like I had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed.
This vague frustration stayed with me through the entire day, until I had the split-second decision to go out again. Sure, the plan was to spend the day going over the first outing and resting, but I hadn't gotten into any trouble and was getting antsy. So I waited until just after eleven again and slipped out of my bedroom window, just like the last night. The difference was that instead of heading east, to begin my route in the Docks and ABB territory, I headed North-West, for Merchant territory. The same route as last night, but in reverse.
I took a moment to breathe in the crisp night air, perched on a broken street light. I hadn't taken the time to appreciate it last night, but it was very easy to notice the differences between Merchant territory and ABB territory, apart from all the gang signs. Where the ABB's territory was run down in a general sense of the word, with broken lights and dirty streets, the Merchants went a step further. Most buildings past a certain point were boarded up, warehouses and offices alike obviously abandoned, trash strewn everywhere, it was like a third world country. The kind of thing you would expect to see somewhere in Africa.
It was disgraceful. A city that had once been thriving, booming, reduced to this. I shook my head and got ready to jump down, when suddenly I felt a rush of air through the street. At first glance there was nothing there, but a closer look showed some heavy tread marks, something you would expect a tank to leave behind. Except these tracks appeared in moments, completely silently, and invisibly. I smiled, a nearly feral thing behind my mask, and hopped cleanly to the ground. One hand clicked the music player into a higher tempo as I gave chase.
The blood pumped in my ears with each footfall that landed on the beat, every time I got used to the tempo I would step it higher. I settled on a pace that I would never have been able to keep up before my powers had manifested, running evenly at a sprinting speed. Every fallen trash can that I hopped over cleanly, or pot hole that I avoided gave me a brief boost on the beat, and I was almost tempted to go higher, faster. Almost.
I noticed that the tracks were heading into the Trainyard and instead of speeding up I slowed down a touch. This was the true heart of the Merchants, and I was under no illusions as to what I was chasing. If I were lucky, I could hit Squealer tonight. Maybe even bring her in. I just needed to catch her off guard.
The trail ended at a large warehouse, in the middle of a dead industrial area. Perfect for building whatever crazy trucks Squealer made, I was sure. Silent as a mouse, I climbed up another building nearby. There weren't any lookouts, as far as I could see. They probably relied on Squealer's stealth to keep them from being found this late at night. 'Wait, no,' A man sitting in the shadows lit a cigarette. 'Amateur,' I scoffed mentally, well aware of the pot calling the kettle black. At least I had thought this through. Mostly.
Knowing that they had at least one person keeping an eye out, I spent a few more minutes looking for others. I only managed to spot one more, a guy casually leaning against the other side of the building. Or maybe he was sleeping, I couldn't tell from that distance.
Ever so quietly, I lowered myself off the building and got back to the ground. I slowly made my way over to the first guy that I had seen, my music soft, tempo at a snail's pace. Every second I expected something to snap under my feet, some animal to make a noise, or the guy to turn around and spot me. None of those things happened.
With all the grace of a predator, I reached out from behind him and as the beat came down, clamped my hand over his mouth and put my arm around his neck. He struggled, obviously, but I overpowered him easily, clenching tighter every second or so with the beat. A few seconds later and he was out like a light. Zip ties went around his ankles and wrists, and suddenly I wanted to smack myself. 'Next time I'll bring some tape as well,' I promised myself.
As it was, I slowly dragged his body a little distance away and gave him a quick punch to the back of the head. It's usually illegal in mainstream fighting, but an easy way to knock someone out. A choke-hold won't put someone out for more than a few seconds, while a mild concussion can last up to half an hour. I wasn't expecting everything to be quiet for that long, anyway.
Just as silently as I had the first time, I approached the building again. I knew that I was on the clock now, so I was a bit less cautious as I crept up to a window and looked inside. There were a few lights on. I could spot someone with a blowtorch working on a huge vehicle that I assumed was the one I had followed here. There were many other vehicles in the warehouse, or garage I supposed, ranging from skeletal wrecks to tricked out sports cars. At a glance, only a few of them looked like they were in any condition to actually run. It didn't seem like much else was going on inside. There wasn't enough light to see either.
As quietly as I could, I brought my red saber up to the window and pointed it at the latch, angled downward to hopefully miss out on some of the light. I took a breath to calm myself, and switched it on for just a moment before switching it off again. The snap-hiss was almost anti-climactic and the brief flash of light could probably have looked like a cigarette being lit or something.
I snuck inside.
By this point I was feeling very nervous. Everything was going too easily. I hung back for a while between the rusted wrecks of what had once been cars and trucks. The realisation of exactly what I was doing was starting to get to me. I was crouching in the middle of a villain's lair, having knocked out a guard outside, and was creeping up on said villain. I could see her a bit better from here, although the light was still horrible. I wasn't even sure why she was working on something this late, although with a moment's thought it might just be some maintenance. Or maybe she was high. Knowing the Merchants, peddlers of every drug under the sun, it was possible. Maybe even likely.
It was the thought of the guard outside that got me moving again, knowing he could wake up at any moment was not a good thought. It may even have been the renewed sense of haste that made me step on a piece of scrap and lean on one of the wrecks to stabilise myself. The screech that came from rusted metal scraping against rusted metal in the dead of the night was nigh unholy, and I froze for a second, eyes snapping to Squealer's form. Her blonde hair caught the light as she too, froze, before looking slowly around.
I didn't waste a second. The tempo rocketed up as I burst forward, blue saber coming into my hand and igniting even as a shout of, "What the fuck?" Split the night. I could imagine Merchants snapping awake, reaching for guns or knives even as I ran at one of their capes.
When I reached her it was over before I even realised it. She'd picked up a gun from next to her and was bringing it around to aim at me.
"I don't know who you think you are, cocksucker, but-" She cut off in a gurgle as I lunged at her, saber catching into her side and filling her with electricity. Not enough to kill, but sure as hell enough to put someone down.
Also enough to spasm your fingers into pulling the trigger. The gunshot rang through the building and people started shouting, lights switching on on the sides of the warehouse. Thinking as quickly as I could, I kicked the gun out of Squealer's hand and tied her up in zip ties. I didn't know how many people were in this building, and I was starting to think that I hadn't thought this through. I spotted the first guy coming out of a little side office that I hadn't noticed with the lights off, and ran at him, swerving behind another wreck just before he saw me.
He went down when I smacked my glorified taser into him, and I had the presence of mind to reach for his gun before it went off as well. I almost wanted to zip tie him up, too, but suddenly I had a crazy idea. I picked up his gun and shot at the lights. I'd never shot a gun before, but the internet is a wonderful place. With my perceptions matching up to the lightning pace of the music in my ears, I shot out every light that I could see, until there was only darkness.
I focused on my hearing, hands shaking in time with the beat, and I found my next target. Giving the one under me a quick smack to the head just to be sure he wasn't thinking of getting up, I was off again.
In the darkness, I could barely see ahead of me, but I could hear where the Merchants were in their own building, and I could practically feel anything in my way. Each step on the beat made the surroundings almost light up, not literally, but figuratively, helping me feel where to put my feet.
The next one went down as easily as the first one, as I popped out from behind him and shocked him out with a lightning saber to the back. I pushed him over to the floor and jumped on his friend, slashing through his stomach with a blade that didn't cut. He fell down shaking as well. Before they could recover I had zip-tied their hands and moved on.
I tried to be as quiet as possible. One smart man brought out a flash-light, and a few others did the same.
"What kind of cocksucking, anal-festering, shit-cyst breaks into someone's garage in the middle of the night, boys?" Someone shouted through the darkness, "I'll tell you! A fucking dead man, that's who! I'm going to tie you to one of Squealer's trucks and peel out your insides, cuntface!"
'Shit,' Skidmark, probably. Now, normally this would be the time to get the fuck out, right? Instead, I just thought, 'Hey, wouldn't it be cool if I could beat both Skidmark and Squealer in the same night? Then the Merchants would probably crumble!'
I had to take a breath to appreciate the possible stupidity of what I was going to do in a second. A moment later, I was creeping towards where I'd heard Skidmark's voice. It was close to the entrance, which made sense if he'd just gotten here, so I had a good amount of cover from the wrecks strewn everywhere as I got closer.
There was a pretty big pickup truck standing in the now-open warehouse doors, light streaming inside, and I knew that was my target. I'd thrown the gun that I'd picked up away after shooting the lights out, and now I was kind of regretting that, because it would have been useful to shoot out the truck's lights too.
As I took in the scene, a plan began to come to mind. There were about nine men standing around the entrance, looking inside. A guy with a blue mask, who I assumed was Skidmark, was standing on the back of the pickup truck waving a gun about as he shouted. If I ran in from the side with my lightning saber, I could shock at least two before hopping up onto the pickup truck and taking Skidmark down in close range. Then, I would use the truck as cover to shock out the rest of them before calling the cops. I nodded to myself. This could work.
Slowly but surely I crept into position, as the guys waiting around got more and more antsy.
"Oi, you and you, go find Squealer!" Skidmark was getting impatient and sent two of his men inside. I waited just a moment longer for the thugs closest to me to look away, then I pounced.
My legs pumped like piston rods, the lightning saber springing to life again as I slashed it once, twice, three times, through three men as I passed them, their bodies collapsing to the floor. A hop on the beat and I was on the hood of the pickup truck, another hop and I was on the roof, close enough almost to smell Skidmark's breath. I was about to lunge at him when suddenly my foot slipped out from under me and I fell back, some force pushing me backwards. Skidmark's hand was raised at me, and I realised that he was using his power to push my feet back.
"Got you now, you piece of shit!"
I lost the beat for a second as I fell to the ground, but I rolled backwards and picked it up again with my breathing. I wanted to say something cool, some witty one-liner or something, but all that came out was:
"Fuck you," And I jumped to my feet, spinning into a slash to hit the guy closest to me. As his legs collapsed, I grabbed onto him and shoved him at another one. The tempo started coming back, and I could see there were only four more guys near me, apart from Skidmark. I ducked below a shot before the guy fired it, and jumped at him. A slash and he was down, then I used a vehicle as a springboard to leap at another, tackling him and dragging the lightning blade across his body even as I rolled off of him to the next one.
He let off a few shots, but he was panicking, and I used him as cover from the other one even as I rose up and stabbed the blue lightning into his belly. With a not-quite superhuman push, I held him in front of me for the few steps it took to reach the last guy and shoved the body on me into him. Then I had to jump out of the way as Skidmark started shooting, so I dragged the blade across the last thug's arm as I got behind a vehicle. I put the blade away and grabbed the last guy's gun quickly.
In the blink of an eye, I hopped out and shot the truck's lights out, then sprinted at Skidmark from the side. My foot landed on a tire that I nearly used to leap into the air at him, but at the last moment I just rolled forward on the ground instead and stabbed into the truck with my blade.
"Shit!" I heard Skidmark's voice from above as I electrified the entire car for a brief second before I shut the blade off to avoid it losing all its power. Then, before he could recover, I hopped over the side of the pickup truck.
It's a strange experience to see the leader of one of the three biggest gangs in the city lying on the floor in front of you, especially Skidmark, with his blue outfit, dreadlocks, and teeth that probably rotted years ago. I didn't take my time to enjoy the scene and just punched him on the jaw while he was down. He stopped swearing, but didn't stop moving, so I punched him again.
A moment of exhaustion came over me. I wanted to just sit back and take a breather so much, but I knew I couldn't. There were still people inside, I had to make sure Squealer hadn't escaped, I had to loot the place for whatever money I could find, because I damn well needed it, and I had to call the police.
A low thumping drew my attention, growing louder and louder coming from the Trainyard's direction, until I saw it.
Mush.
"Aaw, come on," I groaned, "Fucking really?"
"Fuck it. Come on, then! I'll take you as well, three for three, bitch!"
By this point Mush was essentially a three-meter monstrosity of trash, shit, and anything in between. I swapped my lightning saber over into my left hand and activated the plasma blade for the second time tonight. This time I was planning on using it properly. Then, I had an idea, 'Why don't I ram him with the truck that I'm standing on?' But logic quickly showed its face, and told me, 'I don't even know how to drive, and I probably destroyed the battery earlier.'
Instead, I hopped to the floor and put the truck in between myself and Mush's quickly approaching form.
Three.
Two.
One.
I burst into motion, running up the pickup truck and launching myself through the air as Mush got just a few meters away from the entrance. I soared through the air, a techno beat going faster than I could think roaring in my ears, and brought both blades down on one of Mush's arms as I passed him. The trash that made up that arm fell and I could hear a different set of roaring now, from Mush as he shook himself and tried to turn around.
I rolled when I landed and spun around, slicing into the legs of the construct with both sabers again, and I could see sparks appearing on the various bits of trash and scrap as the electricity passed through. He roared louder and fell to the side, even as more trash around him started clinging back to his form, the stench something that I doubted I would ever forget.
"You fucker!" He yelled.
Suddenly, that quip that I had been looking for the entire night came to me, and I grinned ferally.
"No, you."
'This is what being a superhero is supposed to be like,' I thought, as I stabbed both blades into the 'stomach' of Mush's golem form. 'Not running around doing nothing all night,' The red one I put off a bit to the side, trying to avoid stabbing him, but the blue one sank deep into him. His trash sparking all over until suddenly going limp, falling off of his body as he followed suit. 'But winning! Making an impact!' I shut the blades off and clipped them back to my hips as I rushed over to Mush's body. He groaned as he landed, and I could see the trash around us begin to shake as he tried to exert his power again but I ended that with a quick and hard punch to the jaw.
I looked around at the scene. Squealer hopefully tied up inside the building, who I was going to check on in a second, Skidmark out cold in the back of the pickup truck, Mush lying defeated by my feet.
A profound sense of satisfaction and pride came over me.
This was only the beginning.
---
AN:
So! I hope this makes up for the exposition fest that was the last chapter. Unfortunately, I'm fully aware that this chapter, while fun to write, is also a bit weak. Taylor taking out all three of the Merchants' capes may be a bit unrealistic or contrived, but I do want you to keep in mind how it happened: sneaking up on Squealer (breaking the Unwritten Rules, which is going to be so fun to deal with the results of Maybe not?), then beating up Skidmark who is known for not utilising his powers for anything other than making mosh pits and stuff like that, and finally, Mush, taken down by the Tasersaber.
Next chapter should deal with the direct aftermath of this stuff, but there's going to be quite a few later results of this as well.
This vague frustration stayed with me through the entire day, until I had the split-second decision to go out again. Sure, the plan was to spend the day going over the first outing and resting, but I hadn't gotten into any trouble and was getting antsy. So I waited until just after eleven again and slipped out of my bedroom window, just like the last night. The difference was that instead of heading east, to begin my route in the Docks and ABB territory, I headed North-West, for Merchant territory. The same route as last night, but in reverse.
I took a moment to breathe in the crisp night air, perched on a broken street light. I hadn't taken the time to appreciate it last night, but it was very easy to notice the differences between Merchant territory and ABB territory, apart from all the gang signs. Where the ABB's territory was run down in a general sense of the word, with broken lights and dirty streets, the Merchants went a step further. Most buildings past a certain point were boarded up, warehouses and offices alike obviously abandoned, trash strewn everywhere, it was like a third world country. The kind of thing you would expect to see somewhere in Africa.
It was disgraceful. A city that had once been thriving, booming, reduced to this. I shook my head and got ready to jump down, when suddenly I felt a rush of air through the street. At first glance there was nothing there, but a closer look showed some heavy tread marks, something you would expect a tank to leave behind. Except these tracks appeared in moments, completely silently, and invisibly. I smiled, a nearly feral thing behind my mask, and hopped cleanly to the ground. One hand clicked the music player into a higher tempo as I gave chase.
The blood pumped in my ears with each footfall that landed on the beat, every time I got used to the tempo I would step it higher. I settled on a pace that I would never have been able to keep up before my powers had manifested, running evenly at a sprinting speed. Every fallen trash can that I hopped over cleanly, or pot hole that I avoided gave me a brief boost on the beat, and I was almost tempted to go higher, faster. Almost.
I noticed that the tracks were heading into the Trainyard and instead of speeding up I slowed down a touch. This was the true heart of the Merchants, and I was under no illusions as to what I was chasing. If I were lucky, I could hit Squealer tonight. Maybe even bring her in. I just needed to catch her off guard.
The trail ended at a large warehouse, in the middle of a dead industrial area. Perfect for building whatever crazy trucks Squealer made, I was sure. Silent as a mouse, I climbed up another building nearby. There weren't any lookouts, as far as I could see. They probably relied on Squealer's stealth to keep them from being found this late at night. 'Wait, no,' A man sitting in the shadows lit a cigarette. 'Amateur,' I scoffed mentally, well aware of the pot calling the kettle black. At least I had thought this through. Mostly.
Knowing that they had at least one person keeping an eye out, I spent a few more minutes looking for others. I only managed to spot one more, a guy casually leaning against the other side of the building. Or maybe he was sleeping, I couldn't tell from that distance.
Ever so quietly, I lowered myself off the building and got back to the ground. I slowly made my way over to the first guy that I had seen, my music soft, tempo at a snail's pace. Every second I expected something to snap under my feet, some animal to make a noise, or the guy to turn around and spot me. None of those things happened.
With all the grace of a predator, I reached out from behind him and as the beat came down, clamped my hand over his mouth and put my arm around his neck. He struggled, obviously, but I overpowered him easily, clenching tighter every second or so with the beat. A few seconds later and he was out like a light. Zip ties went around his ankles and wrists, and suddenly I wanted to smack myself. 'Next time I'll bring some tape as well,' I promised myself.
As it was, I slowly dragged his body a little distance away and gave him a quick punch to the back of the head. It's usually illegal in mainstream fighting, but an easy way to knock someone out. A choke-hold won't put someone out for more than a few seconds, while a mild concussion can last up to half an hour. I wasn't expecting everything to be quiet for that long, anyway.
Just as silently as I had the first time, I approached the building again. I knew that I was on the clock now, so I was a bit less cautious as I crept up to a window and looked inside. There were a few lights on. I could spot someone with a blowtorch working on a huge vehicle that I assumed was the one I had followed here. There were many other vehicles in the warehouse, or garage I supposed, ranging from skeletal wrecks to tricked out sports cars. At a glance, only a few of them looked like they were in any condition to actually run. It didn't seem like much else was going on inside. There wasn't enough light to see either.
As quietly as I could, I brought my red saber up to the window and pointed it at the latch, angled downward to hopefully miss out on some of the light. I took a breath to calm myself, and switched it on for just a moment before switching it off again. The snap-hiss was almost anti-climactic and the brief flash of light could probably have looked like a cigarette being lit or something.
I snuck inside.
By this point I was feeling very nervous. Everything was going too easily. I hung back for a while between the rusted wrecks of what had once been cars and trucks. The realisation of exactly what I was doing was starting to get to me. I was crouching in the middle of a villain's lair, having knocked out a guard outside, and was creeping up on said villain. I could see her a bit better from here, although the light was still horrible. I wasn't even sure why she was working on something this late, although with a moment's thought it might just be some maintenance. Or maybe she was high. Knowing the Merchants, peddlers of every drug under the sun, it was possible. Maybe even likely.
It was the thought of the guard outside that got me moving again, knowing he could wake up at any moment was not a good thought. It may even have been the renewed sense of haste that made me step on a piece of scrap and lean on one of the wrecks to stabilise myself. The screech that came from rusted metal scraping against rusted metal in the dead of the night was nigh unholy, and I froze for a second, eyes snapping to Squealer's form. Her blonde hair caught the light as she too, froze, before looking slowly around.
I didn't waste a second. The tempo rocketed up as I burst forward, blue saber coming into my hand and igniting even as a shout of, "What the fuck?" Split the night. I could imagine Merchants snapping awake, reaching for guns or knives even as I ran at one of their capes.
When I reached her it was over before I even realised it. She'd picked up a gun from next to her and was bringing it around to aim at me.
"I don't know who you think you are, cocksucker, but-" She cut off in a gurgle as I lunged at her, saber catching into her side and filling her with electricity. Not enough to kill, but sure as hell enough to put someone down.
Also enough to spasm your fingers into pulling the trigger. The gunshot rang through the building and people started shouting, lights switching on on the sides of the warehouse. Thinking as quickly as I could, I kicked the gun out of Squealer's hand and tied her up in zip ties. I didn't know how many people were in this building, and I was starting to think that I hadn't thought this through. I spotted the first guy coming out of a little side office that I hadn't noticed with the lights off, and ran at him, swerving behind another wreck just before he saw me.
He went down when I smacked my glorified taser into him, and I had the presence of mind to reach for his gun before it went off as well. I almost wanted to zip tie him up, too, but suddenly I had a crazy idea. I picked up his gun and shot at the lights. I'd never shot a gun before, but the internet is a wonderful place. With my perceptions matching up to the lightning pace of the music in my ears, I shot out every light that I could see, until there was only darkness.
I focused on my hearing, hands shaking in time with the beat, and I found my next target. Giving the one under me a quick smack to the head just to be sure he wasn't thinking of getting up, I was off again.
In the darkness, I could barely see ahead of me, but I could hear where the Merchants were in their own building, and I could practically feel anything in my way. Each step on the beat made the surroundings almost light up, not literally, but figuratively, helping me feel where to put my feet.
The next one went down as easily as the first one, as I popped out from behind him and shocked him out with a lightning saber to the back. I pushed him over to the floor and jumped on his friend, slashing through his stomach with a blade that didn't cut. He fell down shaking as well. Before they could recover I had zip-tied their hands and moved on.
I tried to be as quiet as possible. One smart man brought out a flash-light, and a few others did the same.
"What kind of cocksucking, anal-festering, shit-cyst breaks into someone's garage in the middle of the night, boys?" Someone shouted through the darkness, "I'll tell you! A fucking dead man, that's who! I'm going to tie you to one of Squealer's trucks and peel out your insides, cuntface!"
'Shit,' Skidmark, probably. Now, normally this would be the time to get the fuck out, right? Instead, I just thought, 'Hey, wouldn't it be cool if I could beat both Skidmark and Squealer in the same night? Then the Merchants would probably crumble!'
I had to take a breath to appreciate the possible stupidity of what I was going to do in a second. A moment later, I was creeping towards where I'd heard Skidmark's voice. It was close to the entrance, which made sense if he'd just gotten here, so I had a good amount of cover from the wrecks strewn everywhere as I got closer.
There was a pretty big pickup truck standing in the now-open warehouse doors, light streaming inside, and I knew that was my target. I'd thrown the gun that I'd picked up away after shooting the lights out, and now I was kind of regretting that, because it would have been useful to shoot out the truck's lights too.
As I took in the scene, a plan began to come to mind. There were about nine men standing around the entrance, looking inside. A guy with a blue mask, who I assumed was Skidmark, was standing on the back of the pickup truck waving a gun about as he shouted. If I ran in from the side with my lightning saber, I could shock at least two before hopping up onto the pickup truck and taking Skidmark down in close range. Then, I would use the truck as cover to shock out the rest of them before calling the cops. I nodded to myself. This could work.
Slowly but surely I crept into position, as the guys waiting around got more and more antsy.
"Oi, you and you, go find Squealer!" Skidmark was getting impatient and sent two of his men inside. I waited just a moment longer for the thugs closest to me to look away, then I pounced.
My legs pumped like piston rods, the lightning saber springing to life again as I slashed it once, twice, three times, through three men as I passed them, their bodies collapsing to the floor. A hop on the beat and I was on the hood of the pickup truck, another hop and I was on the roof, close enough almost to smell Skidmark's breath. I was about to lunge at him when suddenly my foot slipped out from under me and I fell back, some force pushing me backwards. Skidmark's hand was raised at me, and I realised that he was using his power to push my feet back.
"Got you now, you piece of shit!"
I lost the beat for a second as I fell to the ground, but I rolled backwards and picked it up again with my breathing. I wanted to say something cool, some witty one-liner or something, but all that came out was:
"Fuck you," And I jumped to my feet, spinning into a slash to hit the guy closest to me. As his legs collapsed, I grabbed onto him and shoved him at another one. The tempo started coming back, and I could see there were only four more guys near me, apart from Skidmark. I ducked below a shot before the guy fired it, and jumped at him. A slash and he was down, then I used a vehicle as a springboard to leap at another, tackling him and dragging the lightning blade across his body even as I rolled off of him to the next one.
He let off a few shots, but he was panicking, and I used him as cover from the other one even as I rose up and stabbed the blue lightning into his belly. With a not-quite superhuman push, I held him in front of me for the few steps it took to reach the last guy and shoved the body on me into him. Then I had to jump out of the way as Skidmark started shooting, so I dragged the blade across the last thug's arm as I got behind a vehicle. I put the blade away and grabbed the last guy's gun quickly.
In the blink of an eye, I hopped out and shot the truck's lights out, then sprinted at Skidmark from the side. My foot landed on a tire that I nearly used to leap into the air at him, but at the last moment I just rolled forward on the ground instead and stabbed into the truck with my blade.
"Shit!" I heard Skidmark's voice from above as I electrified the entire car for a brief second before I shut the blade off to avoid it losing all its power. Then, before he could recover, I hopped over the side of the pickup truck.
It's a strange experience to see the leader of one of the three biggest gangs in the city lying on the floor in front of you, especially Skidmark, with his blue outfit, dreadlocks, and teeth that probably rotted years ago. I didn't take my time to enjoy the scene and just punched him on the jaw while he was down. He stopped swearing, but didn't stop moving, so I punched him again.
A moment of exhaustion came over me. I wanted to just sit back and take a breather so much, but I knew I couldn't. There were still people inside, I had to make sure Squealer hadn't escaped, I had to loot the place for whatever money I could find, because I damn well needed it, and I had to call the police.
A low thumping drew my attention, growing louder and louder coming from the Trainyard's direction, until I saw it.
Mush.
"Aaw, come on," I groaned, "Fucking really?"
"Fuck it. Come on, then! I'll take you as well, three for three, bitch!"
By this point Mush was essentially a three-meter monstrosity of trash, shit, and anything in between. I swapped my lightning saber over into my left hand and activated the plasma blade for the second time tonight. This time I was planning on using it properly. Then, I had an idea, 'Why don't I ram him with the truck that I'm standing on?' But logic quickly showed its face, and told me, 'I don't even know how to drive, and I probably destroyed the battery earlier.'
Instead, I hopped to the floor and put the truck in between myself and Mush's quickly approaching form.
Three.
Two.
One.
I burst into motion, running up the pickup truck and launching myself through the air as Mush got just a few meters away from the entrance. I soared through the air, a techno beat going faster than I could think roaring in my ears, and brought both blades down on one of Mush's arms as I passed him. The trash that made up that arm fell and I could hear a different set of roaring now, from Mush as he shook himself and tried to turn around.
I rolled when I landed and spun around, slicing into the legs of the construct with both sabers again, and I could see sparks appearing on the various bits of trash and scrap as the electricity passed through. He roared louder and fell to the side, even as more trash around him started clinging back to his form, the stench something that I doubted I would ever forget.
"You fucker!" He yelled.
Suddenly, that quip that I had been looking for the entire night came to me, and I grinned ferally.
"No, you."
'This is what being a superhero is supposed to be like,' I thought, as I stabbed both blades into the 'stomach' of Mush's golem form. 'Not running around doing nothing all night,' The red one I put off a bit to the side, trying to avoid stabbing him, but the blue one sank deep into him. His trash sparking all over until suddenly going limp, falling off of his body as he followed suit. 'But winning! Making an impact!' I shut the blades off and clipped them back to my hips as I rushed over to Mush's body. He groaned as he landed, and I could see the trash around us begin to shake as he tried to exert his power again but I ended that with a quick and hard punch to the jaw.
I looked around at the scene. Squealer hopefully tied up inside the building, who I was going to check on in a second, Skidmark out cold in the back of the pickup truck, Mush lying defeated by my feet.
A profound sense of satisfaction and pride came over me.
This was only the beginning.
---
AN:
So! I hope this makes up for the exposition fest that was the last chapter. Unfortunately, I'm fully aware that this chapter, while fun to write, is also a bit weak. Taylor taking out all three of the Merchants' capes may be a bit unrealistic or contrived, but I do want you to keep in mind how it happened: sneaking up on Squealer (
Next chapter should deal with the direct aftermath of this stuff, but there's going to be quite a few later results of this as well.
I was seriously debating doing that, but then I expanded on the frustration that he was feeling from the previous day and instead he went out a night early, resulting in this.
I think I've addressed this now, it's somewhat easy to get back into, although he does noticably need to regain the tempo. As with BS, when you miss a beat it's not game over, so you can carry on going, it just sets him back a bit.
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globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
Definitely a Taylor Hebert, witty extraordinaire
- Location
- North America
To bad for Mush, one of Taylor's swords was a lightning sword. He would've won or stalled longer.
RichardWhereat
Feanor did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Australia
So, is the lightning saber like Raijin from Naruto?
Sad to see Skidmark go down like a chump, but he couldn't have defended himself with his power.
Sad to see Skidmark go down like a chump, but he couldn't have defended himself with his power.
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Shadeshadow227
Writer of Eldritch Knowledge
- Location
- St. George, Utah
Nice chapter, but iirc Mush's power doesn't work like that. His body sorta unravels, forking out into a mass of thin tendrils that grab debris and integrate it into a golem-esque form. It's not a telekinetic effect, but is honestly more limited shapeshifting allowing for addition of outside mass.
Infestation 11.7 said:
Aside from that little inconsistency, which really doesn't matter tbh, this fic is definitely interesting, and rather well-written. I'll definitely be reading more of this as it is continued.
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- Location
- Earth Prime
I do not remember ever seeing it described as working that way, before. Do you have a citation?
Shadeshadow227
Writer of Eldritch Knowledge
- Location
- St. George, Utah
Segev, I included an excerpt in my initial comment, from the text of Worm where it was described, in the fight between the Merchants and Faultline's Crew. Here's the part where it's from, just in case you want to verify it.
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- Location
- Earth Prime
I mis-parsed your excerpt as a quote from somebody else's post, my mistake. Thanks!