Alternative non-serious title "Help I've Been Reincarnated with an OP Power Copying Ability But My Family Won't Stop Cosplaying Racist Germans"
Water of the Vein (Worm/OP Trump SI)
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Stoic 1.1
- Location
- United States
Friday, January 7th, 2011
Brockton Bay
How'd the story start again? "An hour is too long for lunch?"
It's been so long I can barely remember anymore.
My eyes flicked up from the time on my phone to quickly pass over the presences I could feel in my mind. Most were scattered throughout the various tables, the only exception being the clique centered on Victoria Dallon. Her sister, cousin, and boyfriend made four all clustered within arm's reach of each other. Each one lit up like a light house or miniature dawn on the horizon in the void of my power. Even this close together there was no mistaking one for the other, no loss of ability to distinguish between them due to proximity. The feel of a person's power infinitely more distinct than faces, fingerprints, DNA.
Beautiful too, enough that it was almost possible to ignore that I was in a cosmic horror story.
I didn't look directly at the others, not willing to risk even the one-in-a-million chance that somebody might go over the camera feed and notice me picking out each of the local superheroes out of costume. A teenage boy glancing at Glory Girl on the other hand didn't stand out.
It was kind of expected when you had a known superheroine in a building full of teenagers and hormones.
I couldn't afford not to be aware of how things might look from the outside. It'd taken me too long to learn how to play things cool and keep people from noticing anything off about me. Kids were weird in general which prevented any of it from being catastrophic, but I'd still come too close. I was still dealing with the consequences.
In my defense I'd like to see anybody else fake needing to learn the alphabet and addition and not slip up or go insane.
With their attention occupied, I quietly gathered the trash from my lunch and slipped from the table to drift towards the exit. I only made it halfway before I felt Dean's presence shift to pay attention to me leaving, the same way he'd done ever since we'd gotten back from Christmas break.
Given the status of our respective families we knew each other in passing. Crossing paths at various upscale events, enough to be acquaintances and on casually friendly terms. But now I was on his radar for some reason, and I was losing sleep trying to figure out what the hell had gotten his attention. Knowing he could see emotions only redoubled the anxiety.
The last thing I needed was somebody who could read what I was actually feeling with a look, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. Best I could do was ignore him and hope he stopped eventually.
Part of how the Ward's identities were protected was by putting them in schools like Arcadia with vocational programs. After lunch a bunch of students bustled out to various programs or internships. Shuffle enough out to learn how to repair cars, do IT work, or flit about various local companies' programs and it covered that a small handful were playing teenage superhero. It also made it convenient and easy for the richer kids to go spend half a day in their parent's business learning all the joys of nepotism and how it looks fantastic on a college application. Kids like me in fact.
The school officials didn't stop me despite me leaving the lunchroom a bit early. My grades were basically perfect (having been an adult once made high school easy, go figure) and my family was loaded and important. Rules bent when you were a (fake) prodigal scion of an influential name. Color me surprised.
Nobody stopped me as I slipped out the doors and nestled into my usual spot leaning against a trash can, enjoying the quiet and the pleasant if chilly weather. I still didn't really like crowds or being around too many people and my ride always arrived the exact moment it was time to pick me up and not a minute later. I wasn't very good at reading people, but I got the feeling always being ready to leave immediately was earning me respect. I didn't necessarily want it but…I'd take every advantage I could get at this point.
Reborn in a fantastical world after dying to a random accident? Check.
As usual I made a minor game of tracking the power headed towards me, timing it via the ticking of my watch on my wrist without looking.
Reborn in a better, more attractive body into a rich and influential family? Appear to be a brilliant prodigy and avoid all the cringey childhood mistakes you did once before? Check.
Within about a mile I could pinpoint a parahuman's exact location with my eyes closed, past that and up to about five miles I just had a vague sense of their presence and the general direction and distance. For months now I'd been practicing placing it on a mental map in my head, trying to burn the skill into my brain so I didn't have to think of it. I'd gotten pretty good by my estimation. I could tell the exact moment between ticks that he'd snap into my inner range nine times out of ten.
Incredible cheat power that's heads and tails better than ninety percent of everything else in the setting?
Inside of me four slots laid quiet, patient, and empty. The fifth and only full one in contrast stirred to life the moment my thoughts ran over it and almost vibrated with eagerness.
Yeah, you better believe that's a check.
I went ahead stepped forward to the side of the road as the car pulled up, the locks clicking open as I plastered the same guilelessly warm and polite expression on my face I always used. Any anxiety vanishing under my self-control as I sunk into the same persona and interaction as always.
"Thanks for picking me up Mr. Fliescher."
Mask on.
"You're quite welcome Mr. Anders, and I've told you a hundred times you can call me James."
"Yeah well," I smirked, every bit the respectful but slightly cocky son of the boss. "I've also told you to call me Adam."
I sat down less than an arm's length away from Krieg, chuckling as he always did. He smoothly pulls back onto the street and we head out.
I had to keep a mental thumb on my currently only power as it ached to flow out into the metal surrounding us. Stirring the same way it always did when I sat there wondering if he knew I was planning to kill him.
==========
"Better."
The punch still slammed into my stomach, knocking the air out of me and almost making my legs buckle. I forced myself to stay upright and resisted the urge to dart backwards. Giving too much ground would lose me the fight, staying in punching distance would do the same. Instead, I took measured but quick steps back, giving me enough room to adjust my posture and shift to the side as Victor advanced on me.
At least two of my ribs were broken and it made bracing my arm against his charge hell. I ignored the pain and pushed my weight forward instead, refusing to give ground or show weakness. I was young, fit, and more athletic than I'd ever been in my previous life. But Victor was in his prime and had lifetimes worth of stolen combat skills. The only reason I managed to push him back was because he was teaching me instead of trying to kill me.
He hopped back and bounced on his feet with an easy grace that I couldn't manage, professional but innately too smug about his superiority here to completely hide it. I spit out the wad of blood threatening to choke me through my swollen lips and the fleeting moment his eyes flicked to follow the motion I charged. The opening was fake of course, they always were. But if I didn't take them dear old dad would hear about how I was too cautious, undecisive. I'd been taking the beatings and the pain without any complaints or backing down, but Herr Kaiser wanted his heir to be more than just scrappy.
My hook was stopped with ease, Victor sliding into my reach like a cloud of smoke an eyeblink before his fist shot into my stomach a second time. I barely had time for the room to spin before my arm was tangled in a hold I couldn't quite follow. The end result on the other hand…
Victor's knee slammed up as the hold forced me to bend, the shattering of my arm more familiar than it should have been before the white-hot pain burned through me, redoubling as I hit the mat. Whatever scream tried to force itself out of me was throttled and forced into nothing more than an agonized growl as I rode it out. I didn't bother trying to get up, a crippling hit like this was how Victor signaled we were done for the day.
Fridays meant I had two days to compose myself before returning to school, which meant Victor was free to push my endurance and injuries as far as they could go in the name of making me a better fighter. I counted two broken ribs, a sprained knee, bruises from head to toe, busted up lips, a swollen eye, a loose jaw and if I had a single finger unbroken on my left hand I'd be amazed. All on top of the arm.
I didn't yell out or cry, that would mean showing weakness. Everybody watching knew I was in pain, but they had to see that I was in control of it. None of them expected me to be a master fighter at my age but they'd leave and talk amongst themselves. Word would spread and I couldn't afford the Empire's capes and upper echelons to think of me as anything but the promising heir.
Especially since it meant Kaiser spent less time grinding down Theo when he was focused on me. Or worse, trying to put him through the same grooming his dutiful little cronies were providing me.
I'd kill them all if they tried, even with how much it'd cost me and this city.
Eventually the pain subsided to a dull roar and my vision settled as footsteps came towards us. Krieg clapping appreciatively even as Othala pressed a hand to my forehead and her power sank into me. I took hold of it and forced the regeneration into my fingers, lips, and jaw first. The sensation of flesh knitting itself back together coming with a dopamine high that helped alleviate the worst of the pain elsewhere.
"You've improved quite a bit Adam. You lasted a half hour this time."
I grunted in response, Othala putting a cold water bottle in my healed hand that I immediately started draining, forcing the healing through the rest of my injuries one by one, saving my arm for last.
"I still didn't win," I growled.
If it offended or annoyed any of them it didn't show on their faces. Victor hovered beside Krieg like the platonic ideal of a dutiful soldier, while Othala continued to keep a hand pressed on my uninjured arm to keep the regeneration constantly refreshed. Given her unwillingness to look me in the face or say much of anything I got the sense she wasn't entirely comfortable with mangling her boss's kid like this on a regular basis.
"Ah, but Victor is having to use far more effort than when he started. Given his skills that's still quite the achievement."
I responded with a snort and giving Victor the most sarcastic look I could manage as a bundle of awkwardly reversing injuries piled on the floor.
"And yet your aura of smug invincibility hasn't diminished one bit."
That at least made him unable to resist smiling down at me. Victor couldn't resist the backhanded flattery and it played into my persona. If it prodded his ego enough that he'd underestimate me when the time came well…
"It's a gift." He said.
I could end all three of you right now with a thought and there's nothing you could do about it.
I covered for the dark expression on my face by screwing my eyes shut and reaching over to force my broken arm back into place, growling as it started to rapidly knit back together. Once it was done, I opened my eyes and forced myself up onto my feet. Krieg offered his hand to help me up looking proud, Victor quietly preened as a quick flash of respect flitted across his face at my disregard for the beating even if Othala looked nauseous.
A part of me that was more like Kaiser than I wanted to admit filed it all away in the back of my head. Every little detail that might give me leverage or an advantage at the right time.
My power rippled somewhere deep inside me as Krieg clapped me on the back and I headed towards the showers. We were in a gym that mysteriously seemed to have no problem shutting down whenever three of the E88's capes needed to play drill instructor. I pushed it down, letting it sink into the depths until it vanished completely, waiting for me to call it up again.
A part of me wanted to end the farce right now despite all the collateral damage it would do, and it only got harder to ignore when my blood was up like this. I didn't trust myself not to use it accidentally and out myself as having triggered. The moment I did I'd be expected to step into the family business, and I wouldn't let that happen.
The danger made the quiet voices behind me sound far too loud, three pairs of eyes watching me the entire way.
==========
I was running out of time.
I sat in the recliner hyper-aware of the sounds of cooking in the apartment's kitchen, elbows on my knees and my chin leaning on my fingers as I ran everything I knew through my head. I was only a few months from the start of canon. I knew Taylor was catatonic in the hospital right now thanks to a small posting in the local newspaper. Just a mention of a student hospitalized on the page of random city events that didn't warrant a full article or report. Treated as hilariously unimportant in contrast to just how far things would spiral into chaos because of it.
A guilty part of me was relieved she had triggered since it meant her Shard was still in play, another part of me wondered if it'd been better if my presence had butterflied it away.
Either way I was running out of time.
"…was it a bad one?"
I was pulled out of my thoughts by Theo's voice, raising my eyes across the coffee table to where he was holding Aster on the couch, keeping her occupied while her mother bustled about the kitchen fixing dinner. We spent nearly every weekend here, I encouraged it in order to keep Theo as far away from Kaiser as possible, for as long as possible. Aster liked Theo which meant that Kayden did too, more-so than she did in the original timeline if my foggy memory was correct. That suited me just fine, even if I think part of what made her bond more with him was her inability to do the same with me.
She tried, but I had a feeling she saw more of Kaiser in me than she liked. I returned the sentiment since well…I remembered her going on a rampage and leveling buildings full of innocent people just fine. It was hard to really bond with a woman you think you might wind up murdering one day. Especially when she's the closest thing to a mother Theo has. Knowing how that would hurt him gave me…mixed feelings.
I'd been mentally preparing myself for how things were likely to go for a long time. I wasn't proud of it, I hated it. It made me want to pretend she was a good person, somebody I could care about like the mother I'd left behind. Then I'd see her with Aster and remember how many mothers and children would have been in those buildings and that feeling was just replaced with cold.
If you'd asked the old me if I could plan somebodies' death I'd have been disgusted. Now…I didn't know if it was the decade plus years of mentally preparing myself to fight for my life and betray my new family or if I'd inherited Kaiser's evil along with his looks. Maybe Kaiser's grooming was just better than my sense of right and wrong. Maybe having an adult's mind dumped into a malleable and impressionable brain didn't change how easy it was to influence who I was as much as I thought.
I just didn't know.
"…Adam?"
I snapped back to Theo staring at me, worried and trying not to talk loud enough for Kayden to overhear. I took a second to remember what he'd asked before shaking my head slightly.
"Nah…it's fine."
I hated that Theo got treated like the useless spare compared to me, even if it meant Kaiser reserved all his fatherly "effort" for me. Theo hated that I was the one in the line of fire instead of him, because he was a good person like that. Like I used to be. There wasn't much I could do about it, just keep poking and prodding so he spent more time here with Kayden and Aster. Give him some semblance of a loving family, at least while he could still have it.
That she genuinely loved him, even if not as much as she loved Aster just made me hate her more.
But none of that mattered right now.
I ignored Theo's look and closed my eyes, reaching down and bringing my sole power back up. It came without hesitation or delay, slotting into place perfectly almost before I'd fully willed it. Instead of tamping it down like before I let it out, and like a fanatical soldier it didn't even hesitate.
Eight bubbles larger than a human head slid through space around me, invisible and intangible to anyone else, and underlying the space they occupied. I could bring them into normal space if I chose at the cost of making them visible, but that would give me away. As it was, they were still useful.
I didn't need to direct them as they flitted about, several sinking into the walls or fixtures and morphing their shape to spread and overlay the metal they found there, a sense like proprioception mapping out portions of my surroundings wherever they'd sunk their influence into. I just had to know what I intended them to do, and they did it, as automatically as breathing.
I was focused on the one that hovered in front of Kayden, her watch and the knife in her hand already subject to my power even as she kept chopping carrots.
I barely had to think, and she "accidentally" sliced the knife into her finger, drawing a sudden shout of pain from her that had me opening my eyes and getting up the same time Theo was placing Aster in her crib, both of us moving to check on Kayden as she hissed and started running water over her fingers.
Theo's concern was legitimate, mine was feigned even as I strangled my guilt and pushed it to the back of my mind. My heart was beating so hard in my chest I could swear they could hear it. I could barely make out what they were saying.
After some back-and-forth Theo took her to the bathroom to get the first aid kit and take care of her hand, leaving me to clean up as I nodded along with what they were saying.
I turned and looked into the living room where Aster was looking at me.
Maybe there was some of the old me still in there somewhere, because I couldn't bring myself to meet her eyes.
I turned back to the sink and picked up the still bloody knife, the blood on it vibrating and singing to my power's senses. Sensing a power was indescribably beautiful, like a small cosmos wrapped up and folded into a parahuman shaped vessel. A parahuman's blood was an order of magnitude more so, like liquid awe that had been dimmed by the confines of the skin.
I wondered if that was a deliberate choice on my Agent's part to encourage me to be a monster.
I didn't have time to care, I needed to act and act now. To do that I needed freedom I didn't have.
I ran my fingertips along the flat of the blade and wherever they touched blood was sucked in and absorbed into my skin, a tongue of raw cosmic beauty curling and folding in on itself until it reached critical mass and bloomed into pure potential. A small star igniting in the inner vault of my soul, waiting to be shaped and molded into something new even as it carried the essence and nature of Kayden's…Purity's power.
I cleaned the knife and went about cleaning and then finishing up chopping the vegetables, taking over for Kayden and taking her place.
More than a little poetic considering we were both faking being a good person.
==========
OP Power Copying Trump Self-Insert Reincarnation. Because if you want to get over your reluctance to write an SI you might as well rip the whole band-aid off at once.
As for why he's reincarnated into the ruling family of the local Nazis, it's because 1. I wanted to see if I could write it. 2. Putting him anywhere else didn't come with as many plot hooks and problems. And 3. Because Theo's a good kid who doesn't get as much screentime as he deserves.
Updates are likely to be sporadic at best, but I hope you enjoy and thank you for reading.
Edit: The fic has undergone some changes in response to some criticisms which changed how I'd rather write this fic. Chapter 1 is mostly the same aside from some lines removed and a few paragraphs tweaked.
Brockton Bay
How'd the story start again? "An hour is too long for lunch?"
It's been so long I can barely remember anymore.
My eyes flicked up from the time on my phone to quickly pass over the presences I could feel in my mind. Most were scattered throughout the various tables, the only exception being the clique centered on Victoria Dallon. Her sister, cousin, and boyfriend made four all clustered within arm's reach of each other. Each one lit up like a light house or miniature dawn on the horizon in the void of my power. Even this close together there was no mistaking one for the other, no loss of ability to distinguish between them due to proximity. The feel of a person's power infinitely more distinct than faces, fingerprints, DNA.
Beautiful too, enough that it was almost possible to ignore that I was in a cosmic horror story.
I didn't look directly at the others, not willing to risk even the one-in-a-million chance that somebody might go over the camera feed and notice me picking out each of the local superheroes out of costume. A teenage boy glancing at Glory Girl on the other hand didn't stand out.
It was kind of expected when you had a known superheroine in a building full of teenagers and hormones.
I couldn't afford not to be aware of how things might look from the outside. It'd taken me too long to learn how to play things cool and keep people from noticing anything off about me. Kids were weird in general which prevented any of it from being catastrophic, but I'd still come too close. I was still dealing with the consequences.
In my defense I'd like to see anybody else fake needing to learn the alphabet and addition and not slip up or go insane.
With their attention occupied, I quietly gathered the trash from my lunch and slipped from the table to drift towards the exit. I only made it halfway before I felt Dean's presence shift to pay attention to me leaving, the same way he'd done ever since we'd gotten back from Christmas break.
Given the status of our respective families we knew each other in passing. Crossing paths at various upscale events, enough to be acquaintances and on casually friendly terms. But now I was on his radar for some reason, and I was losing sleep trying to figure out what the hell had gotten his attention. Knowing he could see emotions only redoubled the anxiety.
The last thing I needed was somebody who could read what I was actually feeling with a look, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. Best I could do was ignore him and hope he stopped eventually.
Part of how the Ward's identities were protected was by putting them in schools like Arcadia with vocational programs. After lunch a bunch of students bustled out to various programs or internships. Shuffle enough out to learn how to repair cars, do IT work, or flit about various local companies' programs and it covered that a small handful were playing teenage superhero. It also made it convenient and easy for the richer kids to go spend half a day in their parent's business learning all the joys of nepotism and how it looks fantastic on a college application. Kids like me in fact.
The school officials didn't stop me despite me leaving the lunchroom a bit early. My grades were basically perfect (having been an adult once made high school easy, go figure) and my family was loaded and important. Rules bent when you were a (fake) prodigal scion of an influential name. Color me surprised.
Nobody stopped me as I slipped out the doors and nestled into my usual spot leaning against a trash can, enjoying the quiet and the pleasant if chilly weather. I still didn't really like crowds or being around too many people and my ride always arrived the exact moment it was time to pick me up and not a minute later. I wasn't very good at reading people, but I got the feeling always being ready to leave immediately was earning me respect. I didn't necessarily want it but…I'd take every advantage I could get at this point.
Reborn in a fantastical world after dying to a random accident? Check.
As usual I made a minor game of tracking the power headed towards me, timing it via the ticking of my watch on my wrist without looking.
Reborn in a better, more attractive body into a rich and influential family? Appear to be a brilliant prodigy and avoid all the cringey childhood mistakes you did once before? Check.
Within about a mile I could pinpoint a parahuman's exact location with my eyes closed, past that and up to about five miles I just had a vague sense of their presence and the general direction and distance. For months now I'd been practicing placing it on a mental map in my head, trying to burn the skill into my brain so I didn't have to think of it. I'd gotten pretty good by my estimation. I could tell the exact moment between ticks that he'd snap into my inner range nine times out of ten.
Incredible cheat power that's heads and tails better than ninety percent of everything else in the setting?
Inside of me four slots laid quiet, patient, and empty. The fifth and only full one in contrast stirred to life the moment my thoughts ran over it and almost vibrated with eagerness.
Yeah, you better believe that's a check.
I went ahead stepped forward to the side of the road as the car pulled up, the locks clicking open as I plastered the same guilelessly warm and polite expression on my face I always used. Any anxiety vanishing under my self-control as I sunk into the same persona and interaction as always.
"Thanks for picking me up Mr. Fliescher."
Mask on.
"You're quite welcome Mr. Anders, and I've told you a hundred times you can call me James."
"Yeah well," I smirked, every bit the respectful but slightly cocky son of the boss. "I've also told you to call me Adam."
I sat down less than an arm's length away from Krieg, chuckling as he always did. He smoothly pulls back onto the street and we head out.
I had to keep a mental thumb on my currently only power as it ached to flow out into the metal surrounding us. Stirring the same way it always did when I sat there wondering if he knew I was planning to kill him.
==========
"Better."
The punch still slammed into my stomach, knocking the air out of me and almost making my legs buckle. I forced myself to stay upright and resisted the urge to dart backwards. Giving too much ground would lose me the fight, staying in punching distance would do the same. Instead, I took measured but quick steps back, giving me enough room to adjust my posture and shift to the side as Victor advanced on me.
At least two of my ribs were broken and it made bracing my arm against his charge hell. I ignored the pain and pushed my weight forward instead, refusing to give ground or show weakness. I was young, fit, and more athletic than I'd ever been in my previous life. But Victor was in his prime and had lifetimes worth of stolen combat skills. The only reason I managed to push him back was because he was teaching me instead of trying to kill me.
He hopped back and bounced on his feet with an easy grace that I couldn't manage, professional but innately too smug about his superiority here to completely hide it. I spit out the wad of blood threatening to choke me through my swollen lips and the fleeting moment his eyes flicked to follow the motion I charged. The opening was fake of course, they always were. But if I didn't take them dear old dad would hear about how I was too cautious, undecisive. I'd been taking the beatings and the pain without any complaints or backing down, but Herr Kaiser wanted his heir to be more than just scrappy.
My hook was stopped with ease, Victor sliding into my reach like a cloud of smoke an eyeblink before his fist shot into my stomach a second time. I barely had time for the room to spin before my arm was tangled in a hold I couldn't quite follow. The end result on the other hand…
Victor's knee slammed up as the hold forced me to bend, the shattering of my arm more familiar than it should have been before the white-hot pain burned through me, redoubling as I hit the mat. Whatever scream tried to force itself out of me was throttled and forced into nothing more than an agonized growl as I rode it out. I didn't bother trying to get up, a crippling hit like this was how Victor signaled we were done for the day.
Fridays meant I had two days to compose myself before returning to school, which meant Victor was free to push my endurance and injuries as far as they could go in the name of making me a better fighter. I counted two broken ribs, a sprained knee, bruises from head to toe, busted up lips, a swollen eye, a loose jaw and if I had a single finger unbroken on my left hand I'd be amazed. All on top of the arm.
I didn't yell out or cry, that would mean showing weakness. Everybody watching knew I was in pain, but they had to see that I was in control of it. None of them expected me to be a master fighter at my age but they'd leave and talk amongst themselves. Word would spread and I couldn't afford the Empire's capes and upper echelons to think of me as anything but the promising heir.
Especially since it meant Kaiser spent less time grinding down Theo when he was focused on me. Or worse, trying to put him through the same grooming his dutiful little cronies were providing me.
I'd kill them all if they tried, even with how much it'd cost me and this city.
Eventually the pain subsided to a dull roar and my vision settled as footsteps came towards us. Krieg clapping appreciatively even as Othala pressed a hand to my forehead and her power sank into me. I took hold of it and forced the regeneration into my fingers, lips, and jaw first. The sensation of flesh knitting itself back together coming with a dopamine high that helped alleviate the worst of the pain elsewhere.
"You've improved quite a bit Adam. You lasted a half hour this time."
I grunted in response, Othala putting a cold water bottle in my healed hand that I immediately started draining, forcing the healing through the rest of my injuries one by one, saving my arm for last.
"I still didn't win," I growled.
If it offended or annoyed any of them it didn't show on their faces. Victor hovered beside Krieg like the platonic ideal of a dutiful soldier, while Othala continued to keep a hand pressed on my uninjured arm to keep the regeneration constantly refreshed. Given her unwillingness to look me in the face or say much of anything I got the sense she wasn't entirely comfortable with mangling her boss's kid like this on a regular basis.
"Ah, but Victor is having to use far more effort than when he started. Given his skills that's still quite the achievement."
I responded with a snort and giving Victor the most sarcastic look I could manage as a bundle of awkwardly reversing injuries piled on the floor.
"And yet your aura of smug invincibility hasn't diminished one bit."
That at least made him unable to resist smiling down at me. Victor couldn't resist the backhanded flattery and it played into my persona. If it prodded his ego enough that he'd underestimate me when the time came well…
"It's a gift." He said.
I could end all three of you right now with a thought and there's nothing you could do about it.
I covered for the dark expression on my face by screwing my eyes shut and reaching over to force my broken arm back into place, growling as it started to rapidly knit back together. Once it was done, I opened my eyes and forced myself up onto my feet. Krieg offered his hand to help me up looking proud, Victor quietly preened as a quick flash of respect flitted across his face at my disregard for the beating even if Othala looked nauseous.
A part of me that was more like Kaiser than I wanted to admit filed it all away in the back of my head. Every little detail that might give me leverage or an advantage at the right time.
My power rippled somewhere deep inside me as Krieg clapped me on the back and I headed towards the showers. We were in a gym that mysteriously seemed to have no problem shutting down whenever three of the E88's capes needed to play drill instructor. I pushed it down, letting it sink into the depths until it vanished completely, waiting for me to call it up again.
A part of me wanted to end the farce right now despite all the collateral damage it would do, and it only got harder to ignore when my blood was up like this. I didn't trust myself not to use it accidentally and out myself as having triggered. The moment I did I'd be expected to step into the family business, and I wouldn't let that happen.
The danger made the quiet voices behind me sound far too loud, three pairs of eyes watching me the entire way.
==========
I was running out of time.
I sat in the recliner hyper-aware of the sounds of cooking in the apartment's kitchen, elbows on my knees and my chin leaning on my fingers as I ran everything I knew through my head. I was only a few months from the start of canon. I knew Taylor was catatonic in the hospital right now thanks to a small posting in the local newspaper. Just a mention of a student hospitalized on the page of random city events that didn't warrant a full article or report. Treated as hilariously unimportant in contrast to just how far things would spiral into chaos because of it.
A guilty part of me was relieved she had triggered since it meant her Shard was still in play, another part of me wondered if it'd been better if my presence had butterflied it away.
Either way I was running out of time.
"…was it a bad one?"
I was pulled out of my thoughts by Theo's voice, raising my eyes across the coffee table to where he was holding Aster on the couch, keeping her occupied while her mother bustled about the kitchen fixing dinner. We spent nearly every weekend here, I encouraged it in order to keep Theo as far away from Kaiser as possible, for as long as possible. Aster liked Theo which meant that Kayden did too, more-so than she did in the original timeline if my foggy memory was correct. That suited me just fine, even if I think part of what made her bond more with him was her inability to do the same with me.
She tried, but I had a feeling she saw more of Kaiser in me than she liked. I returned the sentiment since well…I remembered her going on a rampage and leveling buildings full of innocent people just fine. It was hard to really bond with a woman you think you might wind up murdering one day. Especially when she's the closest thing to a mother Theo has. Knowing how that would hurt him gave me…mixed feelings.
I'd been mentally preparing myself for how things were likely to go for a long time. I wasn't proud of it, I hated it. It made me want to pretend she was a good person, somebody I could care about like the mother I'd left behind. Then I'd see her with Aster and remember how many mothers and children would have been in those buildings and that feeling was just replaced with cold.
If you'd asked the old me if I could plan somebodies' death I'd have been disgusted. Now…I didn't know if it was the decade plus years of mentally preparing myself to fight for my life and betray my new family or if I'd inherited Kaiser's evil along with his looks. Maybe Kaiser's grooming was just better than my sense of right and wrong. Maybe having an adult's mind dumped into a malleable and impressionable brain didn't change how easy it was to influence who I was as much as I thought.
I just didn't know.
"…Adam?"
I snapped back to Theo staring at me, worried and trying not to talk loud enough for Kayden to overhear. I took a second to remember what he'd asked before shaking my head slightly.
"Nah…it's fine."
I hated that Theo got treated like the useless spare compared to me, even if it meant Kaiser reserved all his fatherly "effort" for me. Theo hated that I was the one in the line of fire instead of him, because he was a good person like that. Like I used to be. There wasn't much I could do about it, just keep poking and prodding so he spent more time here with Kayden and Aster. Give him some semblance of a loving family, at least while he could still have it.
That she genuinely loved him, even if not as much as she loved Aster just made me hate her more.
But none of that mattered right now.
I ignored Theo's look and closed my eyes, reaching down and bringing my sole power back up. It came without hesitation or delay, slotting into place perfectly almost before I'd fully willed it. Instead of tamping it down like before I let it out, and like a fanatical soldier it didn't even hesitate.
Eight bubbles larger than a human head slid through space around me, invisible and intangible to anyone else, and underlying the space they occupied. I could bring them into normal space if I chose at the cost of making them visible, but that would give me away. As it was, they were still useful.
I didn't need to direct them as they flitted about, several sinking into the walls or fixtures and morphing their shape to spread and overlay the metal they found there, a sense like proprioception mapping out portions of my surroundings wherever they'd sunk their influence into. I just had to know what I intended them to do, and they did it, as automatically as breathing.
I was focused on the one that hovered in front of Kayden, her watch and the knife in her hand already subject to my power even as she kept chopping carrots.
I barely had to think, and she "accidentally" sliced the knife into her finger, drawing a sudden shout of pain from her that had me opening my eyes and getting up the same time Theo was placing Aster in her crib, both of us moving to check on Kayden as she hissed and started running water over her fingers.
Theo's concern was legitimate, mine was feigned even as I strangled my guilt and pushed it to the back of my mind. My heart was beating so hard in my chest I could swear they could hear it. I could barely make out what they were saying.
After some back-and-forth Theo took her to the bathroom to get the first aid kit and take care of her hand, leaving me to clean up as I nodded along with what they were saying.
I turned and looked into the living room where Aster was looking at me.
Maybe there was some of the old me still in there somewhere, because I couldn't bring myself to meet her eyes.
I turned back to the sink and picked up the still bloody knife, the blood on it vibrating and singing to my power's senses. Sensing a power was indescribably beautiful, like a small cosmos wrapped up and folded into a parahuman shaped vessel. A parahuman's blood was an order of magnitude more so, like liquid awe that had been dimmed by the confines of the skin.
I wondered if that was a deliberate choice on my Agent's part to encourage me to be a monster.
I didn't have time to care, I needed to act and act now. To do that I needed freedom I didn't have.
I ran my fingertips along the flat of the blade and wherever they touched blood was sucked in and absorbed into my skin, a tongue of raw cosmic beauty curling and folding in on itself until it reached critical mass and bloomed into pure potential. A small star igniting in the inner vault of my soul, waiting to be shaped and molded into something new even as it carried the essence and nature of Kayden's…Purity's power.
I cleaned the knife and went about cleaning and then finishing up chopping the vegetables, taking over for Kayden and taking her place.
More than a little poetic considering we were both faking being a good person.
==========
OP Power Copying Trump Self-Insert Reincarnation. Because if you want to get over your reluctance to write an SI you might as well rip the whole band-aid off at once.
As for why he's reincarnated into the ruling family of the local Nazis, it's because 1. I wanted to see if I could write it. 2. Putting him anywhere else didn't come with as many plot hooks and problems. And 3. Because Theo's a good kid who doesn't get as much screentime as he deserves.
Updates are likely to be sporadic at best, but I hope you enjoy and thank you for reading.
Edit: The fic has undergone some changes in response to some criticisms which changed how I'd rather write this fic. Chapter 1 is mostly the same aside from some lines removed and a few paragraphs tweaked.
Last edited:
Well, it's a good start. I'm curious about the exact specifics of his power tho.
Cloak&Dagger
Definitely Insane
I guess eating the E88 is technically one way to get rid of them...
- Location
- Louisville KY
- Pronouns
- He/Him
myself instead of me.
Anyways, I have some real questions on the facets of his power(s) so I'm really looking forward to seeing how this goes.
Good start.
You know, the first thing I thought when I saw the title was that you were inserting yourself as Donald Trump, and the sheer confusion was enough to prompt me to click on it.
It didn't help that I saw it under the User Fiction highlight on the main page, so the 'Worm' tag wasn't initially visible.
It didn't help that I saw it under the User Fiction highlight on the main page, so the 'Worm' tag wasn't initially visible.
- Location
- United States
Crossposted from a similar question on SB.
His power works in three stages.
Stage 1: Absorb at least a small amount of a parahumans blood. This can be done once per parahuman and grants him a charge flavored by their shard (or one for each shard for a grab bag cape) that he can mold into a unique power thats at least somewhat related. He can't get biokinesis from laser beams for example. If he has multiple charges he can mix them to further buff the result and gain more freedom in what he can make. The resulting powers are always pretty top tier with a single exception explained below.
Stage 2: Permanently assign a resulting power to one of his slots. Each slot can hold an unlimited amount of powers but a power can only ever be pulled up in its assigned slot. His first slot is an order of magnitude stronger than all the others and a power assigned to it is boosted to match. The splitting feature mentioned above was a deliberate feature he engineered to weaken the power he got from Kaiser until it was useable on a smaller scale.
Stage 3: Pull the power up into the active slot and then have access to it so long as he keeps it there.
Yep. This is good writing and has a good premise. You have my watch.
Stoic 1.2
- Location
- United States
Saturday, January 8th, 2011
Brockton Bay
Everybody else was asleep. Kayden and Aster in the main bedroom, Theo in the guest room, and me on the couch. Kayden was doing well for herself after leaving Kaiser, but not well enough she could afford a three-bedroom apartment just so me and Theo could each have our own rooms on the weekends. That didn't stop the place from being nicer than any house I'd ever set foot inside during my prior life, but that's just how it goes in the city. Not that I cared, I'd rather Theo make it feel like his own space so he felt like he belonged here. We only really called it the guest bedroom as a polite pretense.
To be honest I think between his bed and the couch I had the more comfortable sleeping arrangements. I could fault Kayden for a lot of things, but the woman knew how to pick good furniture.
Putting all that aside, nobody should be getting up for several hours. There was a chance of Kayden or Theo making a small bathroom trip, but it was small enough for me to risk it. I didn't plan to be gone for too long, and I'd dipped down to the convenience store in the building lobby in the middle of the night often enough to build an alibi in case that happened.
I closed my eyes and got to work.
The bundle of potential I got from a parahuman's blood was aspected towards the nature of their power. Not in the sense of being a one-to-one copy, but with what I was reasonably certain was the general aspect of the shard they were connected with. Given how even a powerful parahuman only had access to a fraction of a fraction of a shard's potential capabilities that meant I had very generous amount of leeway in how I could shape the final result.
I'd spent an awful lot of time experimenting with the charge I'd got from Kaiser before I'd settled on what I had now. It'd been an invaluable experience, and I was more than happy with the result. But thanks to that I already had a pretty good idea of what to do with Kayden's.
I let my consciousness sink deep into the inner well of my power, the outside world receding as my mind dipped into the vault. It was pure solitude and isolation, absolute in a way that I couldn't properly put into words. Even if you imagined yourself in space or at the bottom of the sea you'd be surrounded by water or the stars. Here there was nothing but the dark and silence, and nothing had ever made me feel safer.
Because here the only thing I felt was power.
An idle thought sent my consciousness brushing along a wellspring of endless churning metal, a howling fractal sea of alien steels mixed with impossible alloys that vibrated and purred in response to my presence. It was a maelstrom that would drown, crush, rend and flense without knowing pause or hesitation. Its currents existed only to obey, and any lesser metals that had the temerity to exist in its presence would know only servitude or dissolution.
Unwilling to waste time on the feeling no matter how intoxicating I drew away. The sea obediently withdrew into itself until it was just a mote floating in my metaphorical hand. I reached out to the new charge.
Purity's power let her absorb light as fuel, taking it into her body as power and using it to fly or release blasts that could redecorate part of a city's skyline. Right now I didn't need firepower on that kind of level, I needed freedom and the ability to come and go as I pleased without being caught. With Kaiser's I needed days to experiment and roll all the possibilities over in my head, this one was going to be easier.
I didn't need to understand the exact mechanisms of how a power worked, only guide my Agent towards what I was aiming for while it did the heavy lifting. I thought of how it'd feel to be unseen, of how in between the stars at night are vast bridges of light invisible to the naked eye. I thought of light flowing through the city streets whether from the sun or streetlights. I thought of how limited the human eye was and how even if that wasn't the case the mind would fall woefully short of being able to follow those waves. I arranged it all like scaffolding in my mind and then willed it to take shape.
By the time I came back to my senses the time had jumped forward over half an hour, not that I paid it much mind. My new power (quickly christened Light Wave) clicked into place alongside the Metal Sea and I immediately headed to the bathroom mirror.
The looks I'd inherited from Kaiser vanished under a ski-mask I'd squirreled away in my backpack, and with my heart pounding in my chest I let the power take hold.
My sight sharpened enough to pick out every trace imperfection in the glass even as my reflection vanished. The background sensations of a flesh-and-blood body and gravity went with it. Looking down I could vaguely make out an almost non-existent outline of my own body that I knew was only visible to me. An experimental wave of my hand along the sink saw my fingers flow around but not through the material. A second through the transparent glass on the counter on the other hand had them ignore it like it wasn't even there.
Thankfully I don't currently have lungs, so there wasn't any sound made by my laughing.
Without a hint of effort I flickered back into the living room and came to a stop, watching as the second hand appeared frozen. The mental component of the power that let me process things normally while moving was only kicked on while I was in motion. It was still amazing. My first power made me feel strong and safe, but this one made me feel free.
Fifteen years of playing the good little heir and twitching at every glance and whisper, wondering when I'd get run over by the roller coaster of misery that was Earth Bet. Fifteen years under the power and control of a man with who knows how many corpses and how much human misery that could be lain at his feet. Fifteen years having to call him my father when he could live for a thousand and everything he accomplished still wouldn't be worth a spoonful of the dirt they'd packed onto the grave of the only man who would ever claim that title. Fifteen years since I'd felt at peace.
Before the clock had a chance to tick, I had already hit the other side of the city. Any fear of heights I once had left for dead.
The calculating part of me whispered that I'd be done with what I had to do tonight and back on the couch in five minutes. The other part decided that I could afford to take ten.
I'd be back in twenty.
==========
Brockton Bay was beautiful.
My eyes cut through darkness and light pollution alike. Starlight glittered as it drifted down and raced through the streets to vanish wherever the glare of streetlights dominated only to peek out wherever they grew sparse enough. Gentle winter moonlight rippled in concert with the waves of the bay wherever my gaze caught the ocean. I counted the three dozen or so dust motes on an isolated porch light for no reason other than because I could. A second turned into five, then ten, and then a full minute.
I told myself it was to stress-test my new power, but well…I knew better. Eventually I got my head back in the game and turned towards the direction of one power that had flickered in-and-out of my range as I moved.
Finally, I came to a stop on a rooftop with a direct line of sight to the hospital I was looking for.
Taylor Hebert was here, and with her was Queen Administrator.
Every power I'd taken had resulted in something far stronger than its originator. I didn't know if I was drawing out a stronger connection with the Shard or if my own Agent was powering the effects. The minutia was functionally irrelevant to me since I lacked any ability to truly peek behind that curtain, but the Queen Administrator was arguably the apex of mind control powers. Powerful enough that a couple of naked apes crudely jailbreaking it with tools they barely understood let a girl kill a god. If I could manage what I thought might be possible with it, then it would be game over for nearly every obstacle in my way.
The tiny slits in between the plastic blinds might as well have been an open door, and I floated unseen half an inch above the floor of a small hospital room.
A girl lay unconscious and still catatonic on a hospital bed, the machines beeping softly once every few breaths. The halls past the closed door were dead silent, only a rare noise dulled by distance and isolation reaching here at this time of night. A waft of long dead liquid awe lightly stained a biohazard disposal and clung almost imperceptibly to the bandages on her fingers where she'd torn them trying to claw her way out of a locker.
Jesus fucking Christ she was just a kid.
I floated there, glancing at the door periodically. Making sure I didn't lose track of what was around me.
One little drop of blood. Just one poke and I could stop Kaiser. I could stop the entire Empire. There wouldn't be a single villain or threat in this city that I couldn't overcome.
The machines kept beeping. The clock on the wall kept ticking.
Compared to the damage that any of them could do, likely would do, it would be justified. She'd never even know and the world she lived in would be a much safer place.
The entire world was under siege by ruthless cosmic god-monsters. Piles of corpses were sacrificed every year just to hold them back one more minute. A literal shadowy conspiracy was dumping horribly mutated rejects from their human experimentation projects in dark alleys to make room for their next attempt at finding something that could kill a being that had more in common with stellar bodies than organic life.
If it won then all of humanity was dead, across countless earths. If I was here then did that mean that my old family was in one of them and in the line of fire? Did the answer even change anything when it meant genocide on a scale the human mind couldn't properly conceive? In the face of extinction so all-consumingly total and the sacrifices already being made the idea that this was crossing a line was a joke. This wasn't a silver age comic book where a man in tights was going to drop some cheesy one-liner before saving the day. This was a world where if you took every advantage you could get you still had to pray for a miracle.
Taylor would do it. If she was conscious and knew everything I did she'd offer it up herself. I didn't have any excuse.
Silently a spherical distortion formed and without a hint of noise alien metal filled it, only my will preventing it from leaving the confines of its borders. A lone tendril emerged and honed itself to a needle so thin it would have been hard to see with the normal human eye. I made sure it reached out gently, moving for a spot on her arm where a small poke would be overlooked and would heal within a day.
Averting the end of the world might mean quietly exploiting an already victimized child in a way that nobody but me would ever know. The greatest harm that would come of it would be my own pointless self-flagellation. So be it. I already hated myself for planning far worse than this.
"…Mom?"
A broken kid whimpered in her sleep.
I left the same way I came in, empty-handed.
==========
I hate meal-replacement shakes.
Kayden bustled about the kitchen frying up bacon and eggs while Theo played with Aster. Same as every Saturday had been for a long time now. Aster never stopped giggling, Theo kept her distracted so Kayden could cook, and I sat in my miserable chair being my miserable self while cheerful music came out of the radio for no other reason than to shame me for being a grouch.
I hate meal-replacement shakes, I hate getting up this early, I hate that I've been doing this for years because I couldn't just ride my academics to easy street when there was the end of the world coming. No, I had to go and be athletic in this life too. I hate that Theo and Kayden decide to wake up earlier along with me for some absolute farce of a family breakfast while I sucked down nutrient slime and got ready for a morning run.
Theo smiled at me from across the table. Face full of brotherly love and encouragement and so…so punchable. My glare instead of setting him on fire like I wanted just had Aster giggling even louder. It was an innocent sound full of nothing but sunshine and the innocent wonder of new life still untouched by the harshness of an uncaring world.
"Your joy offends me."
Her giggles turned into outright laughter. Theo covering his mouth to stifle a noise because he's a fucking traitor.
"Are you feeling okay Adam?" Kayden set my sports bottle freshly filled with cool water down on the table beside me, swiftly joined by a plate for each of them and a jar of baby food for the gremlin. Yay…thank you for the wasser nazi mom. Big danke, much wow.
"Mm'fine," I said. "Just didn't sleep well."
I kept hearing whimpering in my dreams.
Kayden frowned and paused before a coo from Aster had her grab the baby food and spoon and start feeding her.
"Why don't you skip your run today and take it easy? You can afford to take it easy once in a while, it's not like you haven't earned it." She said.
I really can't, especially since apparently I'm a spineless pussy.
"It's not about if I can afford to." I grunted. "If I skip today I'll want to skip tomorrow, then Monday, etc. It's about discipline."
Kayden gave me the best mom look she could manage. Well jokes on you bitch that doesn't work on regular teenagers let alone me. I ignored her, went to the sink and washed the leftover slurry from my cup and placed it on the rack to dry.
I'd go for my run, come back to shower and change, then head back out for my rapidly forming Plan B. If I couldn't trivialize my problems with mind control I needed another power. I'd bet on the Metal Sea against any ten parahumans in this city but using it would have at least one person looking at the known family of metal manipulating shakers. Kaiser was sharp enough I might as well just send him a singing telegram. Light Wave gave me unparalleled freedom but that was the kind of card best kept up my sleeve. The best way for nobody to suspect I had the power to come and go as I please was for them to never know the power existed in the first place.
I needed a power I could use in a direct confrontation that would also serve as a new but known quantity in the city. One that could stir a little trouble without making too many waves, build up a bit of a name and let people feel secure that it's just another bit of new blood arriving in town. A little skirmish here and there gave me plenty of opportunities for all the scuffs, scrapes, nicks, and cuts a power plagiarizing parasite could want.
"I'm going to spend most of today out and about," I said. "I figure I'll hit the library and maybe do some shopping. Do the whole teenage independence thing."
"Adam," Kayden cut herself off as Aster's grabbing knocked the spoon out of her bandaged hand. She sighed and leaned down to retrieve it, whatever protest she'd had ruined as I slid my jacket on and made for the door.
"Do you still want to watch that movie tonight?" Theo asked before I stepped out.
"You know it, I want to see how they ruin this one." Earth Bet had some truly atrocious cape comedies, and I was overdue for a good laugh. Crooked Capes was up to movie number six, and they'd ran out of writing talent after number two. But damned if it wasn't good for lightening the mood.
A few minutes later I hit the streets and after a few stretches took off running. First a light jog, then a run, then practically a sprint. Trying to find the fastest speed I could maintain for a long stretch while maneuvering around turns and obstacles. If somebody was watching they might think I was practicing fleeing through the streets and back alleys like my life depended on it. They'd be right, but more importantly invisible forces flew ahead of me and with every alley I passed through small bits of metal detritus snaked through the air into my jacket pockets. A nail here, a rusted hinge that had broken in two there, just bits of litter that accumulated in a city's nooks and crannies even in the nicer parts of town.
Eventually I headed back and then out again, the metal in my pockets kept quiet by the dual precautions of packing them in with cotton balls and my power keeping a firm hold at all times.
Once I was out of sight I turned into light and blitzed through the streets until the power I was looking for entered my range. I followed and watched as my target and a few others walked around enjoying a lazy Saturday without a care in the world other than gossip and petty bickering amongst themselves. I waited until the time was right, letting my power pluck the right pieces out and dart them away into the proper positions.
A subtle tug on the metal hoops her shoelaces were threaded through and the rusty hinge she'd stepped on and she fell forwards.
"Fuck!"
"Holy shit did you just forget how to walk?"
Emma Barnes helped Sophia Hess to her feet while Madison Clements giggled to herself. Sophia cussed up a storm as she pulled out the small nail that had lodged itself into her hand when she tried to catch herself. They all went on their merry way none the wiser with something to bitch and moan about to complete their day.
When they turned the corner I turned from light to flesh inside the alley and sighed, holding my hand out as the nail leapt into the air to hover over it. The metal flowed apart and the hollow space I'd shaped in the center of it emptied the blood it'd sucked out of her into my waiting palm.
Guess I could hurt a kid for power after all, so long as she was enough of a bitch for me to convince myself she deserved it.
I kicked the hinge into the pile of litter against the wall and let the nail drop before flipping it like a coin to land along with it.
Well Taylor, it probably isn't the kind of justice you wanted but maybe you'd be lucky and she'd get tetanus.
I started walking thinking over what I wanted to do with her power. I had several ideas, but regardless I already knew who my next target was going to be. I'd need to fight this one. There were only so many accidental cuts and stabbings you could hand out before somebody might start smelling something funny, and I needed to establish a cape identity even if it was strictly temporary, disposable even. He was E88 too, which was a plus in my book. The best part though?
Alabaster's power meant I didn't have to worry one bit about killing him unless I meant to.
==========
So yeah, dropped the overcomplicated slot nonsense since the bookkeeping isn't as fun as I thought it would be. Absorbs blood to make a super variant of a parahumans power, can use five at a time, blah blah. Keeps it simple.
The last third of this feels weak but it's done and I can move on to the next one.
Thank you for reading.
Brockton Bay
Everybody else was asleep. Kayden and Aster in the main bedroom, Theo in the guest room, and me on the couch. Kayden was doing well for herself after leaving Kaiser, but not well enough she could afford a three-bedroom apartment just so me and Theo could each have our own rooms on the weekends. That didn't stop the place from being nicer than any house I'd ever set foot inside during my prior life, but that's just how it goes in the city. Not that I cared, I'd rather Theo make it feel like his own space so he felt like he belonged here. We only really called it the guest bedroom as a polite pretense.
To be honest I think between his bed and the couch I had the more comfortable sleeping arrangements. I could fault Kayden for a lot of things, but the woman knew how to pick good furniture.
Putting all that aside, nobody should be getting up for several hours. There was a chance of Kayden or Theo making a small bathroom trip, but it was small enough for me to risk it. I didn't plan to be gone for too long, and I'd dipped down to the convenience store in the building lobby in the middle of the night often enough to build an alibi in case that happened.
I closed my eyes and got to work.
The bundle of potential I got from a parahuman's blood was aspected towards the nature of their power. Not in the sense of being a one-to-one copy, but with what I was reasonably certain was the general aspect of the shard they were connected with. Given how even a powerful parahuman only had access to a fraction of a fraction of a shard's potential capabilities that meant I had very generous amount of leeway in how I could shape the final result.
I'd spent an awful lot of time experimenting with the charge I'd got from Kaiser before I'd settled on what I had now. It'd been an invaluable experience, and I was more than happy with the result. But thanks to that I already had a pretty good idea of what to do with Kayden's.
I let my consciousness sink deep into the inner well of my power, the outside world receding as my mind dipped into the vault. It was pure solitude and isolation, absolute in a way that I couldn't properly put into words. Even if you imagined yourself in space or at the bottom of the sea you'd be surrounded by water or the stars. Here there was nothing but the dark and silence, and nothing had ever made me feel safer.
Because here the only thing I felt was power.
An idle thought sent my consciousness brushing along a wellspring of endless churning metal, a howling fractal sea of alien steels mixed with impossible alloys that vibrated and purred in response to my presence. It was a maelstrom that would drown, crush, rend and flense without knowing pause or hesitation. Its currents existed only to obey, and any lesser metals that had the temerity to exist in its presence would know only servitude or dissolution.
Unwilling to waste time on the feeling no matter how intoxicating I drew away. The sea obediently withdrew into itself until it was just a mote floating in my metaphorical hand. I reached out to the new charge.
Purity's power let her absorb light as fuel, taking it into her body as power and using it to fly or release blasts that could redecorate part of a city's skyline. Right now I didn't need firepower on that kind of level, I needed freedom and the ability to come and go as I pleased without being caught. With Kaiser's I needed days to experiment and roll all the possibilities over in my head, this one was going to be easier.
I didn't need to understand the exact mechanisms of how a power worked, only guide my Agent towards what I was aiming for while it did the heavy lifting. I thought of how it'd feel to be unseen, of how in between the stars at night are vast bridges of light invisible to the naked eye. I thought of light flowing through the city streets whether from the sun or streetlights. I thought of how limited the human eye was and how even if that wasn't the case the mind would fall woefully short of being able to follow those waves. I arranged it all like scaffolding in my mind and then willed it to take shape.
By the time I came back to my senses the time had jumped forward over half an hour, not that I paid it much mind. My new power (quickly christened Light Wave) clicked into place alongside the Metal Sea and I immediately headed to the bathroom mirror.
The looks I'd inherited from Kaiser vanished under a ski-mask I'd squirreled away in my backpack, and with my heart pounding in my chest I let the power take hold.
My sight sharpened enough to pick out every trace imperfection in the glass even as my reflection vanished. The background sensations of a flesh-and-blood body and gravity went with it. Looking down I could vaguely make out an almost non-existent outline of my own body that I knew was only visible to me. An experimental wave of my hand along the sink saw my fingers flow around but not through the material. A second through the transparent glass on the counter on the other hand had them ignore it like it wasn't even there.
Thankfully I don't currently have lungs, so there wasn't any sound made by my laughing.
Without a hint of effort I flickered back into the living room and came to a stop, watching as the second hand appeared frozen. The mental component of the power that let me process things normally while moving was only kicked on while I was in motion. It was still amazing. My first power made me feel strong and safe, but this one made me feel free.
Fifteen years of playing the good little heir and twitching at every glance and whisper, wondering when I'd get run over by the roller coaster of misery that was Earth Bet. Fifteen years under the power and control of a man with who knows how many corpses and how much human misery that could be lain at his feet. Fifteen years having to call him my father when he could live for a thousand and everything he accomplished still wouldn't be worth a spoonful of the dirt they'd packed onto the grave of the only man who would ever claim that title. Fifteen years since I'd felt at peace.
Before the clock had a chance to tick, I had already hit the other side of the city. Any fear of heights I once had left for dead.
The calculating part of me whispered that I'd be done with what I had to do tonight and back on the couch in five minutes. The other part decided that I could afford to take ten.
I'd be back in twenty.
==========
Brockton Bay was beautiful.
My eyes cut through darkness and light pollution alike. Starlight glittered as it drifted down and raced through the streets to vanish wherever the glare of streetlights dominated only to peek out wherever they grew sparse enough. Gentle winter moonlight rippled in concert with the waves of the bay wherever my gaze caught the ocean. I counted the three dozen or so dust motes on an isolated porch light for no reason other than because I could. A second turned into five, then ten, and then a full minute.
I told myself it was to stress-test my new power, but well…I knew better. Eventually I got my head back in the game and turned towards the direction of one power that had flickered in-and-out of my range as I moved.
Finally, I came to a stop on a rooftop with a direct line of sight to the hospital I was looking for.
Taylor Hebert was here, and with her was Queen Administrator.
Every power I'd taken had resulted in something far stronger than its originator. I didn't know if I was drawing out a stronger connection with the Shard or if my own Agent was powering the effects. The minutia was functionally irrelevant to me since I lacked any ability to truly peek behind that curtain, but the Queen Administrator was arguably the apex of mind control powers. Powerful enough that a couple of naked apes crudely jailbreaking it with tools they barely understood let a girl kill a god. If I could manage what I thought might be possible with it, then it would be game over for nearly every obstacle in my way.
The tiny slits in between the plastic blinds might as well have been an open door, and I floated unseen half an inch above the floor of a small hospital room.
A girl lay unconscious and still catatonic on a hospital bed, the machines beeping softly once every few breaths. The halls past the closed door were dead silent, only a rare noise dulled by distance and isolation reaching here at this time of night. A waft of long dead liquid awe lightly stained a biohazard disposal and clung almost imperceptibly to the bandages on her fingers where she'd torn them trying to claw her way out of a locker.
Jesus fucking Christ she was just a kid.
I floated there, glancing at the door periodically. Making sure I didn't lose track of what was around me.
One little drop of blood. Just one poke and I could stop Kaiser. I could stop the entire Empire. There wouldn't be a single villain or threat in this city that I couldn't overcome.
The machines kept beeping. The clock on the wall kept ticking.
Compared to the damage that any of them could do, likely would do, it would be justified. She'd never even know and the world she lived in would be a much safer place.
The entire world was under siege by ruthless cosmic god-monsters. Piles of corpses were sacrificed every year just to hold them back one more minute. A literal shadowy conspiracy was dumping horribly mutated rejects from their human experimentation projects in dark alleys to make room for their next attempt at finding something that could kill a being that had more in common with stellar bodies than organic life.
If it won then all of humanity was dead, across countless earths. If I was here then did that mean that my old family was in one of them and in the line of fire? Did the answer even change anything when it meant genocide on a scale the human mind couldn't properly conceive? In the face of extinction so all-consumingly total and the sacrifices already being made the idea that this was crossing a line was a joke. This wasn't a silver age comic book where a man in tights was going to drop some cheesy one-liner before saving the day. This was a world where if you took every advantage you could get you still had to pray for a miracle.
Taylor would do it. If she was conscious and knew everything I did she'd offer it up herself. I didn't have any excuse.
Silently a spherical distortion formed and without a hint of noise alien metal filled it, only my will preventing it from leaving the confines of its borders. A lone tendril emerged and honed itself to a needle so thin it would have been hard to see with the normal human eye. I made sure it reached out gently, moving for a spot on her arm where a small poke would be overlooked and would heal within a day.
Averting the end of the world might mean quietly exploiting an already victimized child in a way that nobody but me would ever know. The greatest harm that would come of it would be my own pointless self-flagellation. So be it. I already hated myself for planning far worse than this.
"…Mom?"
A broken kid whimpered in her sleep.
I left the same way I came in, empty-handed.
==========
I hate meal-replacement shakes.
Kayden bustled about the kitchen frying up bacon and eggs while Theo played with Aster. Same as every Saturday had been for a long time now. Aster never stopped giggling, Theo kept her distracted so Kayden could cook, and I sat in my miserable chair being my miserable self while cheerful music came out of the radio for no other reason than to shame me for being a grouch.
I hate meal-replacement shakes, I hate getting up this early, I hate that I've been doing this for years because I couldn't just ride my academics to easy street when there was the end of the world coming. No, I had to go and be athletic in this life too. I hate that Theo and Kayden decide to wake up earlier along with me for some absolute farce of a family breakfast while I sucked down nutrient slime and got ready for a morning run.
Theo smiled at me from across the table. Face full of brotherly love and encouragement and so…so punchable. My glare instead of setting him on fire like I wanted just had Aster giggling even louder. It was an innocent sound full of nothing but sunshine and the innocent wonder of new life still untouched by the harshness of an uncaring world.
"Your joy offends me."
Her giggles turned into outright laughter. Theo covering his mouth to stifle a noise because he's a fucking traitor.
"Are you feeling okay Adam?" Kayden set my sports bottle freshly filled with cool water down on the table beside me, swiftly joined by a plate for each of them and a jar of baby food for the gremlin. Yay…thank you for the wasser nazi mom. Big danke, much wow.
"Mm'fine," I said. "Just didn't sleep well."
I kept hearing whimpering in my dreams.
Kayden frowned and paused before a coo from Aster had her grab the baby food and spoon and start feeding her.
"Why don't you skip your run today and take it easy? You can afford to take it easy once in a while, it's not like you haven't earned it." She said.
I really can't, especially since apparently I'm a spineless pussy.
"It's not about if I can afford to." I grunted. "If I skip today I'll want to skip tomorrow, then Monday, etc. It's about discipline."
Kayden gave me the best mom look she could manage. Well jokes on you bitch that doesn't work on regular teenagers let alone me. I ignored her, went to the sink and washed the leftover slurry from my cup and placed it on the rack to dry.
I'd go for my run, come back to shower and change, then head back out for my rapidly forming Plan B. If I couldn't trivialize my problems with mind control I needed another power. I'd bet on the Metal Sea against any ten parahumans in this city but using it would have at least one person looking at the known family of metal manipulating shakers. Kaiser was sharp enough I might as well just send him a singing telegram. Light Wave gave me unparalleled freedom but that was the kind of card best kept up my sleeve. The best way for nobody to suspect I had the power to come and go as I please was for them to never know the power existed in the first place.
I needed a power I could use in a direct confrontation that would also serve as a new but known quantity in the city. One that could stir a little trouble without making too many waves, build up a bit of a name and let people feel secure that it's just another bit of new blood arriving in town. A little skirmish here and there gave me plenty of opportunities for all the scuffs, scrapes, nicks, and cuts a power plagiarizing parasite could want.
"I'm going to spend most of today out and about," I said. "I figure I'll hit the library and maybe do some shopping. Do the whole teenage independence thing."
"Adam," Kayden cut herself off as Aster's grabbing knocked the spoon out of her bandaged hand. She sighed and leaned down to retrieve it, whatever protest she'd had ruined as I slid my jacket on and made for the door.
"Do you still want to watch that movie tonight?" Theo asked before I stepped out.
"You know it, I want to see how they ruin this one." Earth Bet had some truly atrocious cape comedies, and I was overdue for a good laugh. Crooked Capes was up to movie number six, and they'd ran out of writing talent after number two. But damned if it wasn't good for lightening the mood.
A few minutes later I hit the streets and after a few stretches took off running. First a light jog, then a run, then practically a sprint. Trying to find the fastest speed I could maintain for a long stretch while maneuvering around turns and obstacles. If somebody was watching they might think I was practicing fleeing through the streets and back alleys like my life depended on it. They'd be right, but more importantly invisible forces flew ahead of me and with every alley I passed through small bits of metal detritus snaked through the air into my jacket pockets. A nail here, a rusted hinge that had broken in two there, just bits of litter that accumulated in a city's nooks and crannies even in the nicer parts of town.
Eventually I headed back and then out again, the metal in my pockets kept quiet by the dual precautions of packing them in with cotton balls and my power keeping a firm hold at all times.
Once I was out of sight I turned into light and blitzed through the streets until the power I was looking for entered my range. I followed and watched as my target and a few others walked around enjoying a lazy Saturday without a care in the world other than gossip and petty bickering amongst themselves. I waited until the time was right, letting my power pluck the right pieces out and dart them away into the proper positions.
A subtle tug on the metal hoops her shoelaces were threaded through and the rusty hinge she'd stepped on and she fell forwards.
"Fuck!"
"Holy shit did you just forget how to walk?"
Emma Barnes helped Sophia Hess to her feet while Madison Clements giggled to herself. Sophia cussed up a storm as she pulled out the small nail that had lodged itself into her hand when she tried to catch herself. They all went on their merry way none the wiser with something to bitch and moan about to complete their day.
When they turned the corner I turned from light to flesh inside the alley and sighed, holding my hand out as the nail leapt into the air to hover over it. The metal flowed apart and the hollow space I'd shaped in the center of it emptied the blood it'd sucked out of her into my waiting palm.
Guess I could hurt a kid for power after all, so long as she was enough of a bitch for me to convince myself she deserved it.
I kicked the hinge into the pile of litter against the wall and let the nail drop before flipping it like a coin to land along with it.
Well Taylor, it probably isn't the kind of justice you wanted but maybe you'd be lucky and she'd get tetanus.
I started walking thinking over what I wanted to do with her power. I had several ideas, but regardless I already knew who my next target was going to be. I'd need to fight this one. There were only so many accidental cuts and stabbings you could hand out before somebody might start smelling something funny, and I needed to establish a cape identity even if it was strictly temporary, disposable even. He was E88 too, which was a plus in my book. The best part though?
Alabaster's power meant I didn't have to worry one bit about killing him unless I meant to.
==========
So yeah, dropped the overcomplicated slot nonsense since the bookkeeping isn't as fun as I thought it would be. Absorbs blood to make a super variant of a parahumans power, can use five at a time, blah blah. Keeps it simple.
The last third of this feels weak but it's done and I can move on to the next one.
Thank you for reading.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I was thinking of pericognition but it seems he already got that from Light Wave.
Kryptonian Steel
Insects, unworthy of such attention.
- Pronouns
- Alone
I'll never understand why someone would write a Worm SI and give their MC a shard, it makes no sense whatsoever, these things should perfectly be able to read the mind of their hosts, via electric signals, OUR technology is in the beginning stages of doing just that.
Any SI would immediately give away information of the future and Doom Earth, independently if their shard could contact Zion, that is an automatic loss, your premise is faulty from the start, your MC living past the first seconds of this life makes no sense, and even If he somehow managed it to he'd automatically become a Ziz bomb.
This fic is full of plotholes after plotholes and the only way it wouldn't be is if his shard fabricated his life or a ROB threw him there, but at this point, you might as well use the ROB excuse.
Perhaps. But fanon is rife with shards having their own agenda and priorities. Maybe this shard is either an abaddon shard or wants to make a new entity. Whatever the case, we get a fun story.
Rob hijinks would also be fine. There is always a bigger fish.
Having light transformation include invisibility is perfectly possible. After all, if orange is invisible to deer, infrared is a perfectly valid color as well. It even shows up in nature, where among other things, bees can see infrared, while we cant see it.
I like the story so far. Keep up the good work!
I like the story so far. Keep up the good work!
- Pronouns
- Hello
I totally agree with this, but as far as I remember, Shards don't give a shit and they only want data. If an SI they get attached to does some funky shit outside the precog Shards predictions, then all the better.
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Or a light-construct Breaker-state could just avoid emitting light.
Edit: possibly by including something based off of Grues power?
Nah; Eden/The Thinker is assigned to internal threats so Shards wouldn't have individual responses to that just like they didn't have individual memory-editing abilities until that was assigned to them as a part of The Cycle.
I would recommend a matter storage/phasing/displacement ability, possibly one refined via other storage/phasing/displacement abilities like those of Circus or Labyrinth or Hookwolf, for future Tinkering efforts; just straight up all of the composites and alloys and shit like that.
Also if you wanted a form of immortality then something based off of Crusaders power might also work since his projections apparently use something like a Beta Fork according to some quotes from the Wiki page on him.
Edit: oh yeah also it would probably be possible to just explode Alabaster; since he can self-resurrect just use a good imitation of a car-bomb on him and be down wind of his aerosolized ass.
Might want to throw in some Oni-Lee as well for robustness of that resurrection ability; something something one of a group of pre-made projections becoming meaty upon the death of their maker?
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Kryptonian Steel
Insects, unworthy of such attention.
- Pronouns
- Alone
Rule 3: Be Civil
You forget about Contessa's shard, that MF wants to become a Hub, no SI with a shard would be able to survive, and if they did they'd only be puppets, hence having a shard is an incredibly stupid plot point, a retarded one If I say so myself.
It's a gigantic plot hole bigger than the one in the author's head because nobody with a brain would write this.
- Location
- Izmir, Turkey
Hold your horses mate, this is a fanfiction and the author is trying to get used to things. You dont need to insult him to feel good about yourself.
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Kryptonian Steel
Insects, unworthy of such attention.
- Pronouns
- Alone
Sorry, I just hate SI's that get Shards, it's a faulty premise that shouldn't even exist in the first place
- Location
- India
- Pronouns
- He/His
@GilGilMashi One thing I dont get is the whole pointless agonizing over copying Taylor's power. There is literally no moral quandary in copying QA. Does the MC's power copying destroy or damage or weaken the original power? Does it destroy or damage the parahuman? Does it require you spill gallons of blood to copy the power (evidently no, since in both the times it was shown copying, only a little bit of blood was enough)? If the answer to all 3 questions is NO, then WHY is copying Taylor's power so agonizing and morally repugnant. You could have just used a small needle to poke her arm, take the blood, wipe the wound and let it heal naturally in a day. Only thing that could cause the MC any agony is if Wildbow decided to copy Nintendo and sue you for millions for literally plagiarizing his created special snowflake Queen of Escalation.
- Pronouns
- Hello
Common decency, I suppose. Taylor recently got hospitalized. Maybe he thought it was a bit scummy taking blood from a vegetable(temp.).
Stop: Dropping the Hard R is not okay
Shadows
Sacred Priestess of the Benevolent Dice Gods
- Location
- USS Civilian, DDG-214
- Pronouns
- She/Her
dropping the hard r is not okay
Kryptonian Steel has been permabanned from this thread for failing to abide by Rule 3: Be Civil, specifically this section:
"Respect the participation of others. Attack arguments, not people. Don't post personal attacks or insults, or join a thread for the purposes of attacking someone else."
Using the word 'retarded' as a pejorative is unacceptable, and insulting the intelligence of another user is likewise banned under Rule 3.
Kryptonian Steel has been permabanned from this thread for failing to abide by Rule 3: Be Civil, specifically this section:
"Respect the participation of others. Attack arguments, not people. Don't post personal attacks or insults, or join a thread for the purposes of attacking someone else."
Using the word 'retarded' as a pejorative is unacceptable, and insulting the intelligence of another user is likewise banned under Rule 3.
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