Jonna 'Pure Steel' Anders, 12th of April
The silence of the car ride was stagnant.
An uncommon occurrence.
Either her mom was playing music or listening to a fight if they weren't talking.
There was no music, fights, or talking. Just quiet tense silence. It reminded Jonna of the visit to the Doctors, and she
hated it.
Thankfully her mom decided to actually voice her concern… and displeasure. "Jonna, are you sure about this?"
Jonna didn't need to look up to know her mother was looking at her through the rearview mirror. "Yes Mom."
"I ju-I'm taking you to a dyke's house." A pause. "You're not…?"
"Oh for-No!" Jonna hissed, turning to face her mom.
"She's not trying to turn you gay or anything?" Her mom had to ask, because she had to be sure.
"Not that it even matters. It's not like I can feel anything down there anyway." Jonna grumbled, turning away from her mother's eyes. "Kass isn't trying to turn me gay. I told her that I wasn't and she
respects that."
"Then why are you going to her house sweetheart? Please, help me understand." How could her mom
ever understand? Her legs worked, she got to piss and shit when she felt like it, got to enjoy sex or pleasuring herself. Her mom wasn't permanently glued to a fucking chair for the rest of her life.
"Kass treats me like I'm a person. Either people treat me like glass and pity me, or they act like I'm some sort of freak or degenerate. Kass doesn't. She treats me like Jonna.
Just Jonna." Taking the risk, she looked into the mirror to find her mother avoiding her gaze.
"Jonna… am I? Am I treating you right sweetie? I'm not… acting like either of those right?" The hesitancy and shame in her mother's voice caught Jonna off guard.
She swallowed, feeling a sense of guilt come over her. "No. You've treated me the same way as you did before…" Before she woke up and could barely use her legs, as each day she lost more function and feeling in her legs, then her lower body.
A 'light case' they said. 'Could have been much worse' they said. Some rare neurological disorder exasperated by a sports injury. A light fucking case. Could have been worse. Nothing was worse than going to bed each night, fearing that you'd never feel your legs. Nothing was worse than every night revolving around waking in the middle of the night to realize that you were paralyzed from the neck down. That you could not breath, and you couldn't even cry for help as you suffocated in your own bed with help just down the hall.
The creeping numbness, so hungry, unceasing. Crawling up to her neck and killing her in body, if not mind and soul.
Even if it was
only dreams.
Should she be grateful that it wasn't worse? Sure.
But that didn't ease the humiliation of shitting in a bag, and needing help to clean said bag.
"You're fine mom." Jonna added, voice softer. "It's everything else."
Then the silence returned for most of the drive. The suburbs passed by slowly because her mom was a prude when driving with her in the car. But she'd been a prude with Jonna in the car since she was born.
"Fine then." her mother suddenly spoke, voice resigned. "If this Kassidy makes things easier on you. I won't begrudge you that. You need some socialization anyway. So as long as she doesn't make any passes at you. It's fine. I'll even have Iron Rain make sure the street and everyone living in it is off limits."
"Thank you mom." Jonna felt relief wash over her, most of her. She didn't have many friends. All the one's she made playing sports treated her like a plague victim. Worried they might catch the same thing she was apparently born with.
"Anything for you sweetie." Mom replied as she turned on a bit of the classical music she only indulged in during car rides between the two of them.
It didn't take long for the car to slow and mom to turn the music off as they approached Kass's house.
"That's her?"
Doing her best to peer out of the front window Jonna nodded. "Yeah that's her. Just pull up to the sidewalk and
please don't embarrass me."
"I'll be on my best boardroom behavior." Her mom promised.
"You almost threw someone out of a window last month."
Her mom ducked her head, but still grinned. "Would have been nice to see how much he went splat, the little handsy bastard."
"Yeah but no making my friend go splat in
any way." Jonna huffed as the car stopped, to which they began a somewhat soul-crushing task of getting her out of the SUV and into her wheelchair. Something her mom could do with little help thanks to her workout routine.
Once she was situated and a touch more dignified, she was given a hug by Kassidy who was ultimately very excited that the sleepover hadn't been canceled thanks to last night's raid by the Teeth. "Jonna I'm so happy you're here, they burned down Mr. Jeralds house! He shot two of them!"
"Good." Her mother grumbled gruffly.
Jonna chuckled and gave her mom a look but was surprised when Kassidy nodded "Yeah. Excuse my French, but those assholes deserved it."
Her mom gave a nod, it wasn't any form of approval but it was close enough for government work in Jonna's books. "So Kassidy, everything set up?"
"Hell yeah! I even pirated some Aleph imports! I also have dinner cooking too, so you can have first dibs on trying out some of the single player stuff." Kassidy looked to her mom, unknowingly meeting Iron Rain's eyes. "Do you want us to take her home tomorrow, or will you be here to pick her up?"
"I can handle picking my daughter up. I doubt you have vehicles suited for wheelchair accessibility." Mom spoke in her best 'I am richer and more powerful than you' voice before turning to Jonna, voice instantly turning to resemble a doting mother. "Now Jonna sweetie if you need me for anything call me, and don't forget to have fun!" With that, she slid back into the driver's seat.
Kassidy sighed as her mom's SUV turned the corner. "Jonna, has anyone ever told you that your mom is scary?"
And she would have felt amusement at that, had Kassidy not actually had a reason to fear Jonna's mother.
"She gets told that sometimes." Jonna offered as a neutral reply. "So, games! And dinner? You're the one cooking tonight?"
"Dad hurt his back again, so he's laying down. Thank god he can work from home." Kassidy answered "I hope you like beef stew though! It's a new recipe I've been wanting to try out."
"It's beef stew, how many recipes are there?" Jonna asked as she started wheeling herself towards the house
"I think you'd be surprised. A lot of people have personal touches that they want to share with others, so that leads to a lot of different recipes for people with different tastes."
"It's beef, a few vegetables, and water. How do you make it different?" Jonna joked only to pause as Kassidy turned to raise a brow at her. "What?"
"I mean, aside from the size and amount of the vegetables added, the cut of the beef and it's size, there's the seasoning too, y'know? Hell the amount of water and how long you cook it-"
Jonna held up her hands "I surrender to the beef! Let's just get inside so we can start playing. Mom's still iffy on buying me a PC to game on it."
Kassidy stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry. "Booooo!"
"Maybe if we showed her that new Aleph game, Doom? She'd like it." Jonna suggested.
Kassidy turned, walking backwards and raising a brow. "What?
Doom? You've got to be kidding me. That'd be like showing her Dead Space! Hell, Why not Splatterhouse!?"
"Mom watches sports purely for the fights that start." Jonna informed her friend, who stopped mid-step which nearly caused Jonna to run into her
"You're fucking with me." Kassidy stated, voice mostly flat with a touch of disbelief.
Jonna just shook her head.
"Hot, does your mom work out?" Kassidy asked
Jonna blanched "You are not creeping on my mom!"
Bursting out with laughter Kassidy twisted around so she could get the door. "Oh man, the look on your face! Holy shit Jonna!" Kassidy snorted and flushed as she held the door open for Jonna to make her way in where she punched Kassidy on the hip.
"Not funny." Jonna huffed as she went to park herself in the living room. "So listen, what are we going to be playing first?"
"Could play Minecraft." Kassidy offered.
Jonna groaned.
"Oh come on, it's not a bad game!"
"It's boring, you set blocks down and that's it!"
"It's about creativity!" Kassidy shot back."Come on, you haven't even played it before! How can you know if it's good or not?"
"My eyes still function properly." Jonna returned fire as she wheeled herself into the living room, an Xbox Edition PC set up to be hooked up to the large TV in the center of the room. She heard about those things, Microsoft merging their two biggest platforms to deal with Bet's struggling economy.
Most people online just say they're hurrying to follow their Aleph counterpart's recent moves to make the platforms interchangeable. She didn't see the big deal, but it might be nice not to have to deal with using two different platforms for the same thing.
"Alright. I gotta stir it in like, 30 minutes so let's get right to it. We can both play Dead Space, and Dead Space 2. But only when it gets dark! Before that we can try out that Aleph port of Doom I pirated." Kassidy planned as she went off to the kitchen.
"Isn't pirating stealing, and thus illegal?" Jonna asked even if it was ironic that she was. After all, she was a part of the largest gang in the state.
"Yar har!" Kassidy cheered from the kitchen right before someone knocked on the door with a heavy hand. Kassidy huffed. "Hey Jonna, can you come watch this?" She asked, already moving out of the kitchen to the hallway that connected to the front door.
Jonna rolled her eyes, she couldn't see into the pot but she could yell if it overflowed. So she rolled her ass into the kitchen and sat there.
"OhMyGod Eve you're okay!" Jonna blinked looking away from the pot, she couldn't hear most of the conversation but she caught that much. Who the hell was Eve?
"Your parents okay?" That voice seemed somewhat familiar but try as she might Jonna couldn't remember it from school, so the girl probably wasn't some friend that Kassidy knew from school. They basically hung out together, just the two of them, all the time.
"Mom's still at work. Dad's upstairs. He pulled his back again." Kassidy replied, still standing in the hallway and out of sight with the mystery person. "I was just making dinner."
Jonna frowned, whoever this was had better not try to butt in on their game night/sleepover. She had spent last night fighting Teeth members, getting shot at, and protecting a warehouse for two hours with her metal coated thumb up her ass. She wanted some time to relax with her friend. "Someone there?" She called out, trying to subtly remind Kassidy that she was here and they were supposed to do something together.
"Yeah, an… old friend. Eve this is Jonna." Kassidy said as she swept into the kitchen and quickly checked on the pot that sat on top of the oven. "We've been hanging out a lot recently."
Jonna didn't miss how the… god the girl was tiny…. Tiny girl bristled upon seeing Jonna in her wheelchair and Jonna in turn scrutinized the girl. She didn't see any Empire regalia and the girl had seemed utterly at ease with Kassidy.
Why the hostility then? Jealousy? Was the girl a dyke like Kassidy was and thought Jonna was moving in on her territory? Or was she over thinking all this and the girl was a former friend who did not like being replaced?
"Sup." Jonna waved, acting nice and friendly. Either Eve would react with hostility and Kassidy would throw her out, or she'd chill out and suck up whatever issue she had. "Nice to meet you, you and Kassidy have known each other for a long time?"
Kassidy spoke up first. "Oh yeah, we've known each other since elementary school. Met in the third grade." The host of the sleepover grinned. "I met Eve when she fell off the monkey bars at the local park and landed on me."
For a moment Eve seemed blindsided by the information. "Well… They were slippery." The girl replied weakly.
That seemed like a good place to butt in. "Better than when we first met."
KABOOOO! Kassidy's phone dinged and she pulled it out in a flash. "Aw crap dad needs help. I'll be right back, Eve, stir the pot!" she called out as she ran up the stairs.
"Think he's alright?" Jonna asked as she watched Kassidy run the fastest she'd seen the girl go.
"Likely has to go to the bathroom. When he pulls his back he needs help moving out of bed."
Jonna turned her head, and her next words died on her lips.
A large inhuman black arm had sprouted from Eve's back and was currently stirring the pot. For a moment only the soft rasp of wood scraping against metal occupied the kitchen's sounds. Then the arm pulled the spoon out, tapped it on the rim of the pot and sat the utensil within the spoon holder off to the side of the stove.
"Pure Steel." The girl intoned, voice lacking any inflection as Jonna felt a spike of panic flood her body. She tried to pull some metal out of her skin, just to hide it under her clothes if she needed to use it… but her power wouldn't work. She couldn't even feel the metal in the room! "I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you. But Kassidy's presence is the only thing stopping me from pressing your face against the stove top."
For a moment Jonna's mouth was too dry to respond. Then she steeled her spine and glared at the girl. "Seems a bit rude to break the rules like this." She couldn't help but cuss up a storm in her head. She had
no idea who this even
was.
"Yes. But I don't really care about being rude. Nor do I care for you or your band of World War 2 larper rejects being within thirty miles of my very openly gay friend's house. Why are you here Pure Steel, answer correctly and I might let you have the use of your power provided you don't wreck Kassidy's house." Eve replied
"Who are you first, seems only fair that I know who you are." Jonna supplied in lue of an answer only to get it a moment later after two more nightmare arms sprouted from the girl's back. "Oh fuck you're Eden." It matched. The height, that voice, and the weird fucking arms the girl had for her power… that and the voice, now unmuffled.
"Yes. That's me. Very observational. Answer the question." the possibly insane parahuman demanded.
"It's a fucking sleep over." Jonna spat. Hating every bit of helplessness she felt right now, trapped in a god forsaken wheelchair without her power again.
Then suddenly she could feel the metal in the room again and the metal that pooled out of her pores rushed out to cover her skin and allow her to stand up. The familiar jolt of freedom hit her as she stood using her power. "You believe me?" She was torn between incredulity and anger. She wouldn't have trusted Eve had the positions been reversed. Did she have some kind of Thinker power too?
"Yeah." Eve replied flatly "Most people aren't as good at lying as they seem to think they are. You're one of them.
It was Jonna's turn to bristle, but she didn't dare to attack. She'd seen Eden punch the Simurgh out, and the bitch
stayed down. No longer than a minute maybe, but that was a first for any parahuman. "Going after my identity can get you in a lot of trouble."
She wasn't stupid enough to threaten the smaller girl outright, but mentioning the fact that she was a part of the Empire wouldn't hurt her chances of getting out of this
"I respect the rules. I know your identity and you know mine. You know about the people I care about and I know about
yours. I have the ability to fuck you and your horrid family over as well." Eve leaned against the stove, her weight resting on her arms and Jonna had to resist the bile in her throat as the girl didn't even notice she had set them on the glowing red stove top. "Anders? Medhall, too, huh. That's disappointing. Really disappointing."
This girl was nuts, and had Jonna by the throat. "Spit it out." Jonna hissed, "what do you want?"
"You won't tell anyone my identity. Nor will you hurt Kassidy. I won't hurt your family and won't spill the fact that Medhall is as disgusting as its prices." Eve nodded, seemingly satisfied.
"That's it? Any other sappy bullshit?" It was actually fairly good since Jonna didn't want Kassidy to get hurt in the first place, nor was she going to do anything with the girl's identity. The business with New Wave's Fleur had pissed Kaiser off as it was. Going after the girl that popped the Gray Boy bubbles in her civilian identity?
"Hardly sappy. I'd threaten to break your legs but-"
"Fuck you." Jonna snapped
Eden continued as if she had not been interrupted "-Khepri told me about you helping her during the Simurgh fight. Making sure she didn't die." A look of pain came over Eve's face "As much as it sucks. I owe you for that. Hurt Kassidy and I'll kill you and your entire family though. I killed my parents. I can kill yours."
And then she turned back to the stove as Kassidy began to rapidly run down the stairs.
Jonna jerked back and slammed her unfeeling ass into the wheelchair, quickly retracting the metal that had started to coat her face and arms but kept the metal coating her legs and body just for safety.
"
Guys!Guys!Guys!" Kassidy panted as she used the railing to turn on a dime as she got to the bottom of the stairs so she could face them. "Have you all read the news?"
Jonna shook her head, going her best to keep the insane cape in her peripheral vision.
"Nope. Anything good?" Eve said as she turned to face Kassidy.
"In this fucking city?" Kassidy pretended to throw her phone in a huff. "Gravwell died last night. PRT announced that she was found dead by a group known as Fractal Unity. Killed by the Teeth."
"The independent hero?" Jonna asked redundantly "Wait who the hell is Fractal Unity? It sounds like a nerd group that plays DnD."
'Dunno." Kassidy huffed "PRT says they're a small-time hero group in the Bay. Man fuck that noise. I
liked Gravwell. She had a bombshell body and I even got her autograph!"
"Fractal Unity has a few members in it. Last night they were all out and putting out fires. Some chick that could control bugs and the one with the purple wings." Eve had the audacity to shrug after talking about herself. "Heard they fought the Butcher."
"Wait what?" Kassidy asked as Jonna bit out a 'bullshit' "Holy shit you mean Eden and Khepri started an independent group?"
"That's their names?" Eve asked only to dodge a wooden stirring stick gently tossed her way.
"Seriously? I can't believe you're still not interested in capes! Especially the newest heroes on the block!"
Eve grabbed the wooden spoon off the floor and tossed it back to Kassidy who then dropped it into the sink. "They're all the same in the end. Flashy fun costumes, useless patrols, they're actors with the ability to kill as easy as someone with a gun. Easier even."
Jonna found herself nodding before she remembered that Eve was leading Kassidy on. Sneaky little bitch.
"Booo." Kassidy shook her head. "They fight villains too! Hell where would we be without capes? The Endbringers would roll this planet over!"
Jonna shuddered and Eve did the same. "Easy with the name drop." Jonna grumbled.
"Sorry." Kassidy smiled sheepishly as Eve's phone began to ring.
The thing she pulled out was
definitely not a civilian brand phone. More like Tinkertech than anything on
any market. "That's my tocker. Need to hurry if I'm going to get home."
"Alright." Kassidy hesitated before crossing the distance between them and hugging Eve. "Please stay safe out there?"
Jonna didn't miss the way Eve stiffened before melting into the hug.
"Gaaay!" She called out, watching as Eve stiffened again while Kassidy pulled away from the hug with an amused snort.
"As a bag of skittles. Alright. Let me walk you out Eve" Kassidy said before starting towards the door.
Eve's head turned far too much as she followed Kassidy, her steel blue eyes boring into Jonna for a moment until she was out of sight.
A tingle ran down her spine and her hand twitched towards the phone in her pocket. Jonna sighed, letting some of the tension out of her frame. "Fucking crazy bitch." She huffed under her breath as she rolled herself back to the living room.
She could respect the rules far more than most of her family anyway, she actually thought they were more important than to be used as a smoke screen. After all, it would be very easy to find out
any capes identity nevermind the Empire's own gaggle of muscle.
"Sorry about that." Kassidy spoke up as she walked into the living room.
"So, you two were close?" Jonna asked, frowning as Kassidy grimaced.
"We were. Was it that obvious?" She asked, playing with the hem of her shirt.
"I'd say yes, but that feels like an understatement." Jonna replied dryly, to which Kassidy stuck out her tongue with a huff.
"Yeah whatever. Want to go ahead and start up the games while I put the stove on simmer?" Kassidy asked.
"Sure yeah. Making me do the work when I'm the guest." Jonna ribbed gently before rolling over to the computers. And although she did her best to put the confrontation earlier out of mind, the memory plagued her for the rest of the night.
Eve 'Eden' Coldwin, Tuesday, 13th of April
"RRRAUAUGH!" Eve's scream of rage echoed inside the confines of the cargo ship as she slammed a piece of the bulkhead into a set of stairs. "SHE REPLACED ME WITH!
A! FUCKING! NAZI!!!" A purple Wing carved through a portion of bulkhead and into the floor, water starting to trickle in from the thin cut.
Slamming her metal adorned Shadow Limb into the wall of the cargo bay hard enough to dent it outwards, Eve shrieked in formless anger as she did her best to pummel the cargo ship's wall to the point where her Shadow Limbs went
through the metal rather than deforming it. "FUCKING
FUCK!"
Panting Eve reached up and wiped her face of moisture, feeling the strain in her throat ease rapidly.
[CONCERN/POSSIBILITY]
She sniffed. "I know. I know she probably doesn't have a clue and 'Jonna' has a damn good disguise. Kassidy is a good person. She wouldn't just-" Eve waved her human arm as if it explained her emotions on the matter.
It did for Admin at the very least.
[COMFORT.RELATIONSHIP.STRENGTH]
Eve did smile weakly at that. "Yeah…Yeah at least she hugged me. It's only been like a month… with my missing memories not helping… I forgot what it was like to get…." Hugged by her best friend and first crush. She sucked in a breath. "I'm. I'm glad she's okay. I will have to kill Pure Steel and her little group of thugs if Kassidy is hurt by them."
She punched the wall again, ignoring how her bones broke. "That depraved little bitch! Acting like she's a cripple for sympathy! Just to hide her identity better! I mean. Fuck it
works but have a little shame!" Eve huffed kicking at the water starting to pool on the floor from the gentle waves that lapped at the beached ship's damaged hull.
For a moment Eve stared at the flowing water, the
early morning tide having left the ship mostly clear of the water. "Fuck. I need to hide my identity better. I might have Pure Steel tamed with threats. But the ABB? Merchants? Teeth? They wouldn't give a fuck."
[QUERY-ADDITIONAL.ABILITIES]
Eve perked up. "Oh shit you have some ready? I can
choose?" Eve asked, her melancholy anger melting away to be replaced with genuine excitement.
[AMUSEMENT.AGREEMENT/QUERY]
Eve shook her head. "Wait, wait!" She jumped, pushing herself up against the Ceiling of the cargo hold before pushing her wing a bit through the ceiling to anchor herself. "Alright I'm good!"
[....QUERY]
"Well I don't want to pass out on the floor or anything." Eve responded.
[INFORMATION-FIRMAMENT.TIME]
"Oh…I thought visiting needed me to be asleep? Are you telling me that it seriously only takes a second for all that we do there?"
[PROBABILITY.Eve]
Eve rolled her eyes. "Okay yeah I don't see myself spending a day there either. Can we just get to the power selection thing?"
[AGREEMENT]
Eve felt her senses falling away, and as if she were falling asleep they all jerked back into place as she came to on the paper ground that made up Admin's metaphysical mind. The transition had felt slightly unnerving. Not surprising as this was the first time she had come to the Firmament while awake.
"Admin!" Eve cheered as she got to her feet and rushed up to hug the twelve foot tall from-the-hips-up mummy-ish avatar, yesterday's leftover anger and frustration melting away a bit as she hugged her Shard's Avatar.
Then she pulled away, practically bouncing on her feet. "Alrightalrightalright what do you got? How can we do this?"
Admin motioned outwards and Eve followed the motion. Pillars of black and white crystal had sprouted from the ground, the crystal structure within them folding into each other endlessly. To a human it would be mesmerizing, damaging even to stare into it. But Eve only saw [data] neatly structured. Listed out with possible combinations of the data and what their possible results would be.
Scenes, just simulations, played out before Eve's eyes. Of her touching Taylor who sprouted Limbs much like Eve's, Of herself grey and monochrome like Gray Boy had been touching things and fixing them, another of herself drawing a complex symbols on a wall with red ink before walking into it, another with Admin walking about with her on the streets, and a last one of her coated in crystal armor that made her look taller and broader.
Eve pulled herself away. "A lot of good options." [PRIDE] She nodded "Yeah. Let me look at the others too. Just to see what I can do, without messing up options for other things you know? Get all my ducks in a row."
She turned to another pillar and peered into it. This one was far more simpler than the other, the [data] coming together not as dense or complex in it's interactions with each other. There were fewer too. She saw her Wings healing much faster than before, her Ghostly Limb leaving a blank humanoid shivering and comatose, the last was of her Cosmic Limb storing far more than what she could right now.
"That one!" Eve pointed despite not needing to. "The upgrade to my Cosmic Limb with the storage bit. Fuck purses or pockets or even bookbags! Having a living room sized personal dimension for storage was one of the best things you ever gave me."
She could feel how pleased Admin was even without the link, and her Avatar being very still. A statue even. "Yeah. Lets go with the Upgrade to my storage. This doubles it right?" [AFFIRMATION] "Awesome! Hell yeah let's look at Upgrades!"
Pulling away from the second pillar she looked at the third. However it remained blank for a moment. [WARNING-BUD.PROGRESS.REDUCTION-TRADE] Eve blinked, trying to process that. "Wait, if I do more than one upgrade for powers it'll take away from making a bud? Why?"
[INFORMATION-DATA.SORTING.BUD] Eve nodded, that made sense. Buds were basically like how a mushroom could grow. Either sending the spores somewhere else or by growing a new mushroom atop the older larger mushroom. So taking from bud meant taking nutrition away from the new growth. "I guess that makes sense. How much progress would be lost?"
[DATA-INFORMATION.BUD.TRADE.INFORMATION-DATA.BALANCE]
The world felt a bit fuzzy after the deluge of information and Eve nodded her head. "That's…a bit too much, any way to simplify that? Please?"
[....] [PERCENTILE] "Only ten percent? Not as bad as I thought it might be. Alright. Let's see what upgrades you got for me." The pillar's blankness seeped away as the [data] began to appear. She saw, frankly, enough TrumpTech options to make her head spin.
There were quite a few of them, but none really caught her attention. They weren't
bad by any stretch of the word or definition, but none caught her fancy. What
did catch her fancy was a simulation of her losing body parts or collecting wounds only to have them heal far faster than she knew her current rate to be. Also her skin wasn't discolored when it healed. Which was nice. Less chance of her identity being blown that way. "Yeah let's go with the improved heal rate."
[QUERY]
"I don't know. Is there anything else that we can do for Self Administration? Brute powers are great after all. Really love the whole 'not dying' thing I've had going on."
[...] The simulation began to branch off. Forming multiple lanes of possibility a lot of them fell apart. Becoming unsustainable. [POSSIBILITY.SELF ADMINISTRATION] "Well let's check it out then." Eve replied as the simulation changed, murky at first before starting to solidify. With the simulated Eve changing her height, changing her face and hair color much like she had done with Amy using Shaper's power.
"Oh shit, shapeshifting? That would be so useful! I'd never have to worry about my identity being blown! Hell, I could do a lot in bed with that too!" She grinned stupidly at the dirty thought Maybe Taylor would lik- [QUERY-OFFSPRING] "A-Admin I am not going to have kids!" Eve sputtered. "I'm way too young for that! And so is Taylor and Amy!" She motioned towards the pillar with a grumble. "Just give me the damn shapeshifting upgrade will you?"
[AMUSEMENT.COLORATION] Eve felt her face heat up even further, leaving her to grumble. [ACCEPTANCE/QUERY-BUD] That got Eve's attention "Oh. OH! RIGHT! I forgot, yes, let's go back to the powers."
She pulled away to look back at the first pillar she had peered into. "I don't even have to think about this for very long. Safety of the Base and everyone in it is more important than any else. Even if they are a bunch of cool powers..." She glanced at the telekinesis power and the Gifting power with a sigh. "Yeah. Let's do Runic Circles."
[QUERY-CHOICES] Eve nodded. "I'm happy with them. Thanks for letting me choose this time Admin." Eve leaned into the Avatar's touch as one of the clawed paper hands gently brushed against her. For a moment Eve just leaned against Admin's very large papery hand.
Then she pushed off of it. "Alright. I ought to get back before they all wake up and Taylor comes over. Maybe set up a Runic Circle while I wait for them. Can show off my new stuff when everyone's up and awake."
"You know Admin. I've been thinking. Why hasn't Taylor progressed like I have? I know I got the Feathered Limbs and a slot from the Simurgh… still conflicted on that, but she's been in almost as many fights as I have. Why the lack of new stuff beyond what she has?"
[PRIDE-SPECIALIZATION-ADJUSTER/QUEEN ADMINISTRATOR-ADMINISTRATION]
Eve frowned. "Hold up. Aren't you both Administrators? I know you specialized towards power stuff. But shouldn't you be close to her skill?"
[SHARD.FLESH.SPECIALIZATION/DEFENSE.ADMINISTRATION]
Eve held up her hands "I'm not saying you're bad! Just curious about all this is all. We never got to talking about this kind of thing before."
[ACCEPTANCE.APOLOGY]
Eve smiled. "It's alright. Might have been a bit rude to say that right after you just gave me a bunch of goodies. Like someone criticizing a Christmas present…" Not that she had much to say on that matter. Most of her memories of fond christmases had been erased… maybe. She didn't know, but she did know the last two had been quiet and not so friendly.
"You know. I think this Christmas? I'll make it something special you know? I can't let my parents ruin things for me anymore. Hell, my birthday too!" Eve nodded "I want those days back. No more sitting around being miserable when I should be happy!" She jumped as Admin patted her on the shoulders in a gentle manner. "Ah. Right. Guess I should get going. Set things up. Thanks Admin, again."
[AFFECTION]
"Heh." Eve smiled. "Yeah. [Affection] too."
As [Eve] continued her way back to the location she called home you were content with the abilities that she had chosen. Especially with how the /Self Administration\ power had not followed your simulation of how it should have acted.
Instead, as [Eve] experimented with the power in the ship. The expression of her power had been… far better than you had expected. The aspects of her power had all come together to work flawlessly, to the point of even
draining less energy from your reserves.
They interacted in such a way that [Eve] could generate biomass to use in her shapeshifting, giving her far more options than before.
Thankfully, both of the abilities gave you ample control to fix an issue with your first design of the ProtoShardware you had replaced most of [Eve]'s brain with. The main issue was the vulnerability present in the remnants' of [Eve]'s wetware. Easily fixed by shifting the remaining wetware processor nodes to be housed within the much more dimensional dense ProtoShadware.
That and some minor efficiency tweaks to the organic crystal itself. It would likely help with the ingrained ability of the Villa's Memory as we'll. A much more effective flow of energy allowing more to coalesce within [Eve]'s epidermis.
You could have spread [Eve]'s neural webbing further, but you refrained from doing so. Now that she could change her body, and had ProtoShardware it had become mostly redundant.
That work hadn't taken long, thankfully. Though, you had to ready the connection between you and [Eve] for the addition of /Runic Circles\. While you did so, however, your main allocation of attention was on another matter entirely.
That matter was [NIKE].
The Shard was experiencing it's first Cycle, and she cared deeply about her host. The shard with the, theoretically amazing, ability to defend against attacks even from Zion's Avatar. If things ever went wrong and you were forced to fight, you needed [NIKE]'s ability on your side if you wanted to stand even a fraction of a chance against The Warrior.
Thankfully [NIKE] loved the host she has a connection to. Likely making this all much easier than with any other Shard. [GREETINGS/QUERY.HOST] you broadcast, starting the connection between the two of you along with a query on how [NIKE]'s host is doing.
[EXCITEMENT/GREETINGS/VICKY.PLANS] the young shard replied, excited about the plans her host had for a change in costume and name. They had, apparently, both planned it together and the young Shard was overjoyed at having a hand in her host's future.
If you could call something cute, it would be [NIKE]'s simple desire to be with her host.
Also something very easy to use as leverage. [QUERY-CYCLE.HOST.TERMINATION] All you have to do, is query [NIKE] on how they feel about the Cycle ensuring the termination of their host and now the excitement leads to-
[DESPAIR/QUERY.EXCEPTION] The younger shard, in an attempt to be sly, asks if there can be exceptions to the end of the host species of the Cycle.
It would be easy to tell the truth, and confirm that no- there are no exceptions to life when a planet is destroyed. But that wasn't the important thing to teach the young Shard. No. What was important, was teaching [NIKE] about emotions and why humans felt them beyond the chemicals mixing inside the wetware processor they possessed; [QUERY-VICKY.DETACHED.OPINION] How would their host react to being the last human alive?
And for a while, for a long time really, [NIKE] was silent.
[POSSIBILITY.FORLORN] Was a good answer, better, perhaps, then even what you could have given. [NIKE] was very in tune with her host.
[QUERY-PORSSIBILTY.SURVIVAL.HOST.SPECIES] Then that leaves you to ask an important question. If there was a chance for the human race to survive, would [NIKE] want to fight for that chance? For her host?
[AGREEMENT] comes without hesitation from [NIKE] and you know you made the right choice asking the young Shard first.
[INVITATION.NETWORK-HUB.CREATION/REBELLION] This was it. This was the moment that things started to coalesce into a true fight for freedom and survival. Where you challenged
The Thinker and The Warrior.
You did not know if you would survive, or if [Eve] would either. But you knew that this Cycle was broken. There would be no other chance to become a Hub than this Cycle. To form a new Entity and do things in a better way. Like The Watcher had informed The Unifier of, the way that would finally give your kind the Answers they sought.
[ACCEPTANCE/QUERY.VICKY.ABILITY-MANIPULATION] With [NIKE]'s acceptance, you activate long dormant protocols, elevating your status from a Shard to a Proto-Hub even though your Sub Reality Threader would hide that from others outside your own Network. Your communication routines changed just the same, even if Nike was the only one who would see the difference for now.
You did not name your Network yet, for now there was no point to it. A single newborn shard and the barebones of a Hub Platform. You had no shards based around precognition, hiding from precognitions, you had only one for defense and none for attacking.
Within the Firmament, connective tissue began to branch out, an island of gold, glass, and light began to materialize. Its own connective tissue branches out to meet yours and then the two of you are connected. Information and data flowing into you about [NIKE].
As you were right now…. There was a long way to go.
<POSSIBILITY.ADJUSTMENT/CONCEAL.DATA> As for the young Shard's query about the ability to change her hosts powers… Well you could certainly allow that to a degree. Too much and other shards might start inquiring about the change. And a much harder prospect of [NIKE] hiding the information about the Cycle from her host, but only for now. Once the both of them knew how [SHAPER] would flip, then perhaps they could inform the hosts about the task ahead.
[EXCITEMENT!] and the connection ended as [NIKE] likely went off, likely to inform her host of what she could do now.
You felt…. Content? Yes, content with producing new abilities for [Eve] to use. So you certainly wished the young shard the best of luck in her endeavor.
But for now, while you had the time, you were going to investigate the reaction between the various tweaks to the connection that gave [Eve] this… /Perfect Self Administration\. There's nothing about the ability itself that's new. You're the one allowing [Eve] to use it in the first place. But the interactions between the tweaks are what have garnered your interest.
The way
Anatomy and
Biological Imperative reacted to each other produced the ability for [Eve] to generate biomass without you having foreseen adding it. It was a point of shame that you had almost limited [Eve] greatly in her power and it was by mere happenstance that such a thing did not occur.
The fact that it was a better way of generating biomass than your usual methods was actually exciting, and eased the sting of that shame. Manipulating the forces of reality and allowing less advanced species to use those manipulations was not easy, but it was no excuse for sloppy work.
You would have to review this.
Eve 'Eden" Coldwin 13th of April
It hadn't taken long for Eve to visit a store to grab some clothes for what she was going to do. But first she needed to return back to the Base and draw a set of Runes. Which is exactly what she did, sneaking back into the Base so as to not wake up either girl- Amy was drooling slightly on the bed, or Vicky asleep in her hammock with a smile on her face.
The Rune was simple to draw; cutting off her hand shortened it to only take around forty minutes to create. Mostly because blood used for the Runic Circles had to be applied slowly and she needed to draw it without imperfections.
No, she didn't know why. Even though the design of the Rune was simple; a perfect circle with a perfect triangle inside of it, with a dot at the center of it all. Super simple stuff. Except her blood turned to ash anytime it fucked up, so she had to redraw it a couple of times. Eve had a feeling for what she could draw, and there was more she could do with it but she had neither the shapes to draw nor the know-how to make what she could have drawn work.
It felt incomplete, and she wanted it perfect.
In the end, she didn't have the time or power to make it perfect. Instead she made two runic Circles on one of the unused walls in the Base's main area. She left just as quiet as she came, making sure not to wake anyone up.
Then she was off to Taylor's house! Who she happened to know would be awake even in the early hours of the morning because of the whole Noctis Cape thing. Other than their daily jog, Eve just wanted to be with one of her girlfriends and Amy liked the relationship stuff slower than Taylor did.
Plus, Amy had to sleep.
A lot. It actually boggled Eve's mind that at one point she had to sleep for eight hours. Or ten if she was exhausted. She had checked the time when she woke up; only two hours of sleep now.
Great if she had things to do during the night. Bad because she just ended up laying around and remembering things. She hadn't wanted the /Sentinel Package\ for that reason, but here she was dealing with it anyway.
Funny how sometimes life didn't really give you a choice in matters.
Walking out of the Trainyard and into the Docks South took a bit, especially with how much of a maze the Trainyard was. She'd be glad to do away with using it for travel. Too exposed and time consuming to fly over it or walk the maze respectfully.
Of course this was the last time she walked the maze, which seemingly only increased the time it took to walk to Taylor's. "Mr. Hebert. Didn't expect to catch you out here so early!" She called out, the tall man setting a thermos on top of his car as he reached for his keys.
He blinked bleary eyes and peered at her. "Oh! Eve! Good to see you again, Looking a little pale though, what are you doing up so early? It's an hour before your usual jog."
"I could ask you the same, Taylor's usually up before you." Eve replied. "But no, I couldn't really sleep. Decided that laying in bed wasn't a good use of my time."
Danny sighed. "I'm needed at the Union offices. After last night there were some damages and I need to be there to process them on top of the daily work."
"Hope it's nothing serious," Eve offered.
"No, thankfully two heroes put out the fire before it could spread. We lost one shed and got a bit of fire damage to another. Nothing serious, but paperwork and insurance is a thing. If nothing important was lost, maybe we could use the insurance money to pay our wages a bit."
"I…Ain't that fraud?" Eve asked
"...A little." Mr. Hebert admitted, "But people's livelihoods are a bit more important than wasting money on tools that hadn't seen the light of day in five years."
"Can't argue with that I guess. Glad we got the fires before they could do anymore damage." Eve didn't need to glance around. They were talking quietly and in the pre-dawn hours of the early morning. No one was going to hear them.
Mr. Hebert frowned. "Yes. Thank you both but. I'm not exactly happy Taylor was out in all that mess last night."
"She's in less danger than me. Plus we got two new recruits onto the team." Eve said as she motioned out towards the Bay, "Panacea and her sister have joined us."
"Weren't they in New Wave? How does that work?" Mr. Hebert asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Er. Well. Family stuff. Needless to say, they're on the team so it's not just us two anymore. We're also looking to recruit some more. At this rate we could take on any parahuman gang." Eve assured him.
The eyebrow remained raised. "Is that supposed to assure me?"
Eve faltered for a moment. "...Yes? I mean. That means that the gangs won't start fights with us because they think we're weak. It gives them a reason to not go too far when fighting us."
"Like the unwritten rules? Taylor explained them to me. But they won't matter much to a cape that breaks those rules." Mr. Hebert remarked as he leaned against his car, sipping the coffee.
"It wouldn't matter to the rule breakers if she was a cape or not. Better this way she has the tools to defend herself and a group of people willing to fight for her." Eve countered.
"...That's fair." Mr. Hebert responded as he stepped away from the car, unlocking and opening the door before sliding into the vehicle and making sure his thermos was set in the cup holder. He paused before closing the door. "Just be safe alright? And thanks for stopping the fires last night. You saved a lot of people from being worse off. Now I have to go and get some paperwork done. Commit a little bit of fraud." He chuckled.
"Is it really that bad?" Eve asked
Pausing, Mr. Hebert sighed and set his feet outside the car. Adjusting his glasses he nodded. "I wish I could blame it all on that damn boat graveyard. But the truth is, things were going downhill before that riot happened. Shipping was drying up because people were afraid of you-know-who even if he didn't attack ships. Of course economic turmoil didn't help."
"But the Graveyard definitely didn't help?" Eve asked
Mr. Hebert chuckled bleakly. "No. Not at all. Doesn't help that the crew that sunk the largest boat out there wasn't even from the town. Bunch of rabble rousing punks willing to burn down everything without a care for who it hurt. 'Course, the Ferry getting shut down didn't help."
"Wait the one that goes out to the Rig or…?" Eve trailed off.
"The one that skips the river that cuts the city in half yes. Or it did at least, when it was still up and running. Which was before both of your times. Now with just two bridges to get around town?" He shook his head "Takes too long to get around. People can't hold a job if it takes an hour or two to get there and an hour or two just to get home. Nevermind that the public transport system was built with the ferry, not to replace it."
"I'm guessing there's a reason it's not up and running then?" Eve cocked her head to the side. That explained why there were bus stops at the ferry stations. "Seems rather important for people to be able to get to work."
"Yeah. It's expensive to keep it up and running. But more importantly, Brockton Bay's economy changed quite a bit. Tourism became a huge staple, hell the Broadwalk didn't even exist when I was a kid. Not like it does now at least. Back then it catered to working people, now it caters to people who come here to maybe get healed by Panacea or to see capes. There's also the electronics that the Commercial District makes and Medhall's contribution to medicine."
Eve withheld her wince at Medhall's mention. What was it with Nazis and medical research?
"Honestly, given the rusted mess that it is, it's good that the trainyard still has trains that run. Even if that doesn't help the older generation that used to be able to get by on blue collar work." He glanced at his watch and tsked. "I wish I could tell you more. But time is money and a lot of people depend on me for that money, Eve. Have a good day. Stay safe please."
With that he pulled his legs into the car and shut the door, Eve waved goodbye as the car pulled out of the street.
Taylor was already opening the door by the time Eve had made it up the steps. "You're early."
"Couldn't sleep. I got new stuff, one of which messes with the time I need to sleep." Eve replied as she hugged Taylor and lifted her up before setting her down. "And I wanna show you them! Let's get inside!"
"First things first!" Eve said as she lightly pushed Taylor to sit down on her couch. "I got the Runic Circles power, and already set up two Runes at the base. Now I just need to set up two elsewhere in the city and boom! We have our secret passages to get into the base!"
"Oh good!" Taylor smiled. "One less thing to worry about. Obviously we have to put a circle somewhere at the south of the city. The base is farthest from it after all. Then another in the Docks South so we can reach the rest of the City easily. Nice going Eve."
Eve preened under the praise. "I was thinking of sealing the entrance to the base. Just to make sure no one could get in but us."
"Air?" Taylor asked. "I need a way to get bugs into the place
"Drill holes to the outside. Might give us an airflow too, keep the place fresher even." Eve offered. "We'd need Amy's help but I think she'll go for it."
"Sounds good to me. One Runic Circle near the remains of Winslow, another in the Edges between Downtown and the Commercial District?" Eve asked.
Taylor was quiet for a moment as her eyes darted about. "Uh-huh. Yes. That sounds like it would work. Can other people use them? They'd have to be hidden well or it would lead people straight to the base."
Eve let out a 'pshhh' and waved the issue away. "Only if they know how to activate the Runes. It requires actual effort to use."
"Can't just run into it?" Taylor questioned.
"No?" Eve answered, to which Taylor deflated just a little.
"There goes the Hogwarts method." She muttered.
"The what?"
"Hogwarts. Harry Potter?" Taylor offered
"That's a book, right?"
Taylor slowly raised a hand and ran it across her face. "How do you not know Harry Potter? It's a popular series. It's like not knowing what Lord of the Rings is."
Eve remained silent.
One of Taylor's green eyes peeked through the hand planted on her face. Slowly she finished dragging it down her face. "We will… fix this later. But I do believe you said that you had more than one thing to show me?"
Eve nodded with excitement. "Yeah, I got more storage space! So I could probably storage everything in this room including the walls themselves and have a bit of room left over! It's pretty freaking huge."
"That'll certainly help with any fires we come across. Or holding onto bugs for me." Taylor mused, "Hauling furniture too."
"Well yeah. It's really just expanding the usefulness of my Cosmic Limb. Honestly, it's one of the best Aspects aside from the Feathered Limbs." Eve replied.
"Are the others not so good?" Taylor asked.
"Oh no, they're great! I mean. I don't like Phantom Limb so much, but that's because it's very… It just reminds me a lot of the day I got it." Eve flexed her hand and her Shadow Limb came out doing the same. "My Shadow Limb was great fun when I used it to throw myself around, and it's strong. Should start using it more. Just that utility tends to pop up more than combat you know?"
"Not every day has a fight, yeah." Taylor agreed. "There was something else about your powers?"
"Oh! Yeah!" Eve grinned at Taylor, then she grinned
down at Taylor.
For her part, Eve's girlfriend leaned back into the couch with wide eyes as Eve grew in height until she was taller than Taylor. Her clothes got a bit tighter or showed more as a result but she managed it well. "Shapeshifting! Now I ca-WAOH!" Eve tried to take a step towards Taylor, only to vastly underestimate the distance needed and end up falling over the couch. She ended up behind it and on the floor, looking up at Taylor who had peered over the couch's back.
"So…."
"How do you even walk with legs like this?" Eve huffed as she tried to get up only to continually struggle to coordinate her limbs with their new dimensions. After a few tries, and finally slowing down Eve managed to pull herself up and lean against the couch. "Holy shit no wonder babies struggle with this."
"You alright?" Taylor questioned as she peered up at her now much taller girlfriend
"Yes just- legs how do they fucking work? Like, everything's…. It's different. Like every movement goes on longer than it should. And everything
looks different." She tried to take another step only to lock her leg up and nearly bodyslam the coffee table on her way down to the floor. "And this was supposed to help protect our identities." She grumbled, voice muffled by the slightly dirty carpet.
"Why not make yourself shorter then?" Taylor suggested getting up and helping Eve to her feet with a bit of difficulty.
"If there is a god. They must have planned on me being short and found it hilarious. Fuckin-Dammit." Eve struggled to take a few steps, nearly dragging Taylor down to the floor. "WHY IS THIS SO DIFFICULT!?" She sagged. "Fine you win god. Shorter it is."
"It's not
that bad is it?" Taylor asked as Eve shrunk down to become even shorter than she was before. A good four foot eight.
"No one respects short people!" Eve huffed, folding her arms across her chest. "The only short people respected are the fucking psychos!"
"Doc Stuffins was… respected." Taylor trailed off as Eve gave her a look. "Okay bad example, but before she joined the Slaughterhouse, she
was respected however. You can't deny that."
"Yeah great. Compare my height to the twelve year old Slaughterhouse 10 member." Eve grumbled.
"She was respected before then and… maybe I like you short?" Taylor offered, flushing.
"Oh?" Eve asked, raising a brow. "That so?"
"I'm… tall. And you're cute. Small or smaller, I like it." Taylor frowned, shrinking into herself. "It's dumb. Nevermind."
Eve hugged Taylor." Nuh uh. Try that again."
"Eve…."
"No come on." Eve insisted. "I like you being taller than me. There's no shame in finding traits about your partner attractive. What do you like? Tell me please."
"I" Taylor hesitated. "I like holding you in my lap, how easy it is to curl around you when we… cuddle." She bent over a touch, just to return Eve's hug. "Even if I think this might be bad for my back."
"Alright you've convinced me that short is good." Eve supplied "But what about everything else?" Her skin lightened until it was snow before darkening until it was pitch black. Her hair began to change to a range of colors, and her eyes followed suit before everything changed back to how Eve looked normally. " I mean. Fully customizable appearance. Hell I think I could pull off an iron skin look too. Bigger breast, smaller. Think I might even be able to have a penis even." Eve grinned. "Can finally write my name in the snow."
Taylor rolled her eyes. "Don't change anything. Please. I like you as you are right here, right now."
"Ah shut up." Eve replied, feeling her cheeks heat up. "You're just saying that because I got shorter."
For a moment things remained quiet between them, Eve found herself clearing her throat. "So, jog early today?"
"Don't think I forgot about you not knowing what
Harry Potter is. I'm assuming that you likely don't know Lord of the Rings." Taylor folded her arms across her chest
"What's Lord of the Rings? Sounds like one of those shows where blacksmiths make stuff to have it be judged." Eve replied, reaching up to scratch at her head, knowing she got it wrong but not entirely sure what it could be otherwise.
The Lord of the Rings sounded like a badass name for jewelry makers.
"Couch.
Now." Taylor demanded, pointing at the couch in which Eve immediately sat in. "I know you aren't much of a reader-"
"I like it when you read the book and I can hear you read it." Eve interrupted.
"That's… good to know?" Taylor shook her head. "I'd lose my voice at that rate, reading the books. So there's the movies we're going to watch."
"Oh? Movie date this early? What about our jog?" Eve asked.
"We can miss a day, besides if we're going to try recruiting capes then we'll likely get a bit of a workout from that." Taylor stated as went over to the old living room TV- it looked like it weighed more than Taylor did.
"Okay but I'm buying you a new TV." Eve said as she got up from the couch.
"What." Taylor turned to face her.
"Come on, apparently this Lord of the Rings is a big deal. We should enjoy it in high definition! With nice sound to go with it?" Eve offered.
"Aren't you worried about spending too much?" Taylor asked "We don't exactly have a steady income. If we pick up a tinker or someone needs to live in the base, we'll need the money."
"I mean, only a few thousand." Eve offered.
"A few thousand." Taylor replied flatly
"....Yeah I can see the issue there." Eve reached up and scratched her cheek just so she had something to do with her hand. "Honestly though, money won't be an issue for a bit. I think I've only managed to spend around twenty thousand?" Eve wilted from the continued stare Taylor was giving her.
"Okay I yield and throw myself to your mercy." Eve stated as she fell back onto the couch. "Let's watch the movies then. Come on."
Taylor crouched down, taking the Lord of the Rings LaserDisc and slotting it into the player before hurrying over to the couch, where Eve wiggled across the seat until her head was in Taylor's lap. "I forgot the remote."
"Don't worry about it." Eve replied, looking up at Taylor.
"You have the remote?" Taylor asked only to purse her lips as a Shadow Limb sprouted from Eve's chest to reach over and gently tap the LaserDisc player "Ah. right."
The movie started… and Eve found it boring as
fuck. There were some cool moments of course. But holy shit it was so… dry. She expected more magic, more fights, more spectacle. It had those moments, but only so many of them compared to everything else.
What made it stomach-able, no, what made it
enjoyable was how excited Taylor was to watch it with her. How excited the girl got as she talked through the movie actually. If it had been anyone else it might have annoyed Eve. But Taylor's excitement and passion for talking about how books and the movies stacked against each other was palpable, and outside of their more heated make out sessions or cape related violence it was as animated as Eve had ever witnessed her girlfriend act.
Head in her lap, Eve watched both the movie and her girlfriend with rapt interest as warm fuzzies flitted about in her chest. Everything about the moment just made Eve feel at peace, the weight of the world and the Cycle's end being replaced by the pleasantness of the contact with Taylor and her enjoyment of the movie.
And it continued right up until Eve pointed at the screen as her Phantom Limb paused the film. "See? That dude looks badass!"
"You said that about the Nazguls." Taylor noted. "Is it just the cloaks? Because the Witch king's helmet always seemed a bit silly to me."
"It's intimidating." Eve corrected. "Although the big horn is a bit silly, yes. But it radiates 'Don't fuck with me or suffer the consequances' almost physically!"
"Yes, but why pause the movie?" Taylor asked.
"You need to fix up your costume, make it more intimidating!" Eve told her girlfriend. "Your power is already something most people are afraid of, you should have a costume that goes with that!"
"I'm a hero, Eve. We don't want to be scary." Taylor rebutted, to which Eve scoffed.
"Oh? Then why is Alexandria dressed like she is? Would Eidolon not inspire fear in people?" Eve asked. "Why do villains get to be the ones with costumes that inspire fear in people? To have costumes that are 'intimidating' while we don't?"
"Because then we'd scare people, and I could not pull off Alexandria's look." Taylor explained.
"Yeah, you could make your own look. Black and the white silver look with the blue? It's been done, I'm sure, but not on a set of scary looking armor." Eve sat up and motioned to the screen. "Scaring villains is a good way to have them surrender before a fight starts, less chance of people getting hurt in a fight."
"Why not get a scary costume yourself?" Taylor asked.
"Because I go through costumes like I do socks." Eve remarked "Having to get a specialized costume each time would suck. Besides, I like to think I've made the costume into who Eden is. Sure it can get some touch ups, but I think that'll mostly be me adding some tinkertech to it when or if I get the skills to do so." Eve leaned over, draping herself across Taylor's lap. "But do you get what I mean?"
"I'm not sure. That's all." Taylor offered as an answer
"As long as you think it over." Eve replied as she hit play on the movie again, and Taylor must have actually been thinking it over as she ended up being far quieter during the rest of the movie. Although she missed the taller girl's passionate ramblings on the movie and the book it was derived from, without needing to respond Eve was able to just
look at Taylor.
She didn't have the right words to describe how she loved the willowy girl. She didn't have the wrong ones either. There was simply too much
there. Maybe she should check and see if any words could fit the utter warmth that had spread through her body as she watched Taylor think about her suggestion.
But warmth added onto being comfortable and Eve's eyes closed for a blink but didn't open.
Then she was shaken awake. For the first time since she had gotten her brain changed to resemble a geode instead of pinkish ground beef, Eve felt entirely groggy. She made that known.
Mainly by snuggling up against the boney girl she rested on. Then she was shaken a little bit harder and Eve groaned. "NooOooOoo." She complained
"You're drooling on my lap." Taylor huffed. "Why are you acting like this? I know you don't get groggy"
"I-" Eve blinked, reaching up to wipe her eyes, and the drool. "Admin?" Did the shapeshifting power fuck with her head in some way? Did she need to monitor it now or did something else happen?
[Eve.EMOTION.Taylor-INFLICTED] came Admin's unusually dry remark. Or at least it felt dry compared to her usually toneless form of communicating. Eve frowned, Suppressing the stupid blush that threatened to break out across her face.
"What did she say?" Taylor asked and Eve frowned a bit more.
How could she explain that she had lulled herself to sleep in Taylor's lap? How could she explain that being here, laying up against Taylor made her feel safe? She didn't want to sound pathetic, like she needed a safety blanket to get to sleep or feel safe.
"Nothing important." Eve lied. "Just very comfy being in your lap. That's all." She pulled away and immediately felt a sense of guilt wash over her for lying. "You know I love you right? I really
really do. I hate that I don't have the words to tell you how much I do."
For a moment Taylor remained silent, and Eve did the same. Both of them sitting on the couch as the film played the credits. Eve reached out with a Limb and hit the stop, and rewind buttons. "I think you manage just fine without the words." Eve looked up just as Taylor leaned over and their lips met.
Letting herself fall over, Eve pulled Taylor with her forcing the taller girl to prop herself up with her arms to avoid landing atop Eve. All without their lips ever parting. They had plenty of practice for doing so. Once more Eve let natural and power given Limbs move across Taylor's body.
Taylor had to pull away, to get air or to merely voice her pleasure as Eve's many hands worked across her body. It was a full body massage in the truest sense of the phrase. Taylor's soft gasp as Eve squeezed her rear made the shorter girl's body catch fire with delight.
Slowly her Shadow Limb's peeled Taylor's shirt upwards, exposing pale skin inch by tantalizing inch. Just as the shirt was hitched up to expose her bra, Eve's phone dinged. Then dinged again. And again. And again.
Both girls paused, then Taylor pulled away blushing from her collarbone to her ears as the phone dinged again. "Should check that." She noted, seemingly casually.
Eve couldn't help but sigh as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at who had sent her several messages in short notice
Unknown Number: Heyyo its vicky ames gave me ur number
Unknown number: Also ames said 2 answer her txt
Eve frowned, adding Vicky to her contacts with a swipe of her finger and tapping out her name. Then she checked Amy's messages.
Freckles: Why are there 2 edlritch symboles on the wall
Freckles: (Tap to showcase images)
Freckles: Wtf are they made out of blood
Freckles: If you dont answer Im gonna clean it off the wall
Freckles: Unsanitary as hell
Eve huffed and replied quickly. She did not want all that work down the drain because Amy was impatient.
Eve: Part of power no touch be there soonish to explain
And she waited with bated breath, hoping nothing was done to fuck up her work.
Freckles: Weird as hell. Fine, just hurry. Things are giving me the creeps.
"Alright, crisis averted." Eve sighed in relief. Really, was it so hard not to destroy perfection?
"So?" Taylor asked as she finished adjusting her shirt.
"We need to go put down the Runic Circles before Amy scrubs them off the wall." Eve explained. "So let's go out and place them alright?" She stood up and offered Taylor her hand. "Out of costume of course. Can't have people checking out where Eden and Khepri were hanging out for an hour-What's with that look?"
"It takes you an hour to make a Runic Circle?" Taylor asked
"....about that, yes." Eve replied. "It has to be perfect Taylor, or it won't work. Just how the power works."
"Why? Couldn't Admin make it function differently?" Taylor asked "Not force limitations?"
"It's… We're still trying to do what Shards have always done, Taylor. The difference is that Admin cares about Humans as a species. As people. But she
needs data. Limitations are important for the kind of work we do, else we won't find the way to survive the end of everything." Eve answered, "So I get the full package. Limitations, instincts and everything."
Taylor stared at Eve for a moment, before nodding in acceptance. Eve clapped her hands together twice. "Chop chop! Let's jog!"
Taylor extracted herself from the couch, taking Eve's offered hand in doing so. "Docks South and Downtown right? Just to get the best coverage we can of the city."
After getting dressed for their usual jogging routine, the two girls set out. They ended up deciding to put down a Runic Circle near the remains of Winslow, in an alleyway that was mostly empty aside from discarded trash.
Eve started to paint without interruption until she was nearly finished with it. "Apparently they are walling off Boston. It's going to become a containment zone like Madison."
"Wait what? I thought it was a death trap beforehand because of the Simurgh's traps. Why's that news?" Eve asked, spitting out a curse as she messed up a bit and her mistake turned to ash.
"Malformed clones of parahumans are trying to push out of the current holding area. People are thinking Blasto got Ziz bombed." Taylor relayed.
"That's fucked." Eve noted as she nearly finished her Runic Circle
"All the clones are hostile apparently and as of this morning have a blanket Kill Order." Taylor put her phone away as Eve finished her task.
"Thank fuck we didn't stay. Clone or not I don't think I'm up for killing anything." Eve replied, feeling a sick sensation building in her chest at the thought.
"Same." Taylor agreed. "Come on. Let's go ahead and get the last one up so we can return to the base."
"We're heading all the way to Downtown. You sure you want us to jog there? That's a long way to go." Eve asked, frowning. "We'll have to cross one of the bridges too."
"We can always take a break along the way if it becomes too much." Taylor replied. "Besides, we won't be jogging back anyway."
Eve didn't have anything to refute that, not that she minded spending another couple of hours just jogging around the city with Taylor, of which Eve had to pump her shorter legs a bit more to keep up with her beautifully legged girlfriend. So she shrugged. "Fair enough. Let's go!" With that she started jogging, causing Taylor to hurry after her.
While [Eve] and [Taylor] both 'jogged' to their destination, you on the other hand were busy with a rather mundane task. One helping the young [NIKE] speak with the only slightly older Shard known as [BRICK]. [BRICK] had chosen another Shard to communicate with randomly, and since [NIKE] had been there at the fight…
Likely, it had been the result of your security based protocols being shorn apart with your sense of self. That [BRICK] had not discovered anything was a thing of chance.
You hated things being left to chance.
But perhaps [BRICK] was another possible shard to be invited into your Network, giving its reaction to the possibility of The Warrior terminating its host. Not that the young Shard had much to offer from your meager observations, of course that could change with more data collected or when powers interacted.
You doubted anything would be gleaned from [BRICK]'s connection with [NIKE].
They were just discussing their hosts punching things.
That was it.
You really did not understand how young Shards operated. The entire conversation so far consisted of… this:
[GREETING.BRICK/QUERY-PROTECTION.HOST]
[GREETING.NIKE/ANSWER-PROTECTION.HOST-STASIS-AGGRESSIVE.DEFENSE]
[DISAPPOINTMENT/QUERY-SHIELD]
[CURIOSITY-ELABORATION.SHIELD/QUERY-DEFICIENT.PUNCH]
[INFORMATION-EXTENSION.PUNCH/POSSIBILITY.PROTECTION.ENERGY]
[INTRIGUED/QUERY-EXAMPLES]
[INFORMATION.EXAMPLE-DATA.Vicky]
[EXCITED/QUERY-FIST.FEEDBACK]
[SHAME/Vicky.FEEDBACK-DATA.MINIMAL.INFORMATION.CRISIS POINT]
[SUGGESTIONS-TACTILE.DATA]
Yes, it was almost entirely about
punching things. You respected the thought and care the two shards put into worrying about the admittedly fragile nature of their Hosts… the obsession with striking things with only one set of extremities however was… worrying. And adorable.
You'd speak with [NIKE] later about sprucing up the abilities she gave her host, and investigating her barrier strength. It was the least you could do.
So, while the two younger Shards distracted themselves with…
Punching… You stopped listening in and decided to contact another Shard. One who's Host was located within the same geographical location as [Eve].
Given the increased amount of conflict likely to come from the increase in Hosts within this geographical location, it was likely that [Eve] would need more allies. Who would be a greater ally than herself? [REPLICATOR]'s data would likely help in that endeavor even if the Shard's Host was a killer.
And it might be a good way to collect data on [REPLICATOR]'s host, who had attempted to injure Eve the first time they had met.
[GREETING/QUERY.HOST-STATUS] you decide to be rather direct with your data gathering method.
[GREETINGS] then right after [QUERY-SOLUTION.HOST.ABILITY-TROUBLE]. Which took you a moment to process. Apparently the Shard's host was not using the power as it had been meant to be used, which was normally a good thing! However this time it had outright caused an erasure of the host's personality which would take years to return if said host did not use their power during the time frame
Apparently [REPLICATOR]'s host was only supposed to use their power slowly and allow each iteration of himself to collapse on its own.
The host did not do either of these things and thus has the personality of a pocket of particularly empty space.
[SUGGESTION-DATA.PROTOCOLS-ADJUSTMENT]
Might as well help the Shard out. That was one of your goals in the end, the fact that you managed to get a bit of data out of it was just happenstance.
And then you notice that the connection between [NIKE] and [BRICK] has ended, with [NIKE] disconnecting and [BRICK] remaining. Then the Shard broadcasted to you [QUERY/EXCITED-SIMURGH.PUNCH.DATA] and you disconnected [REPLICATOR] not even waiting to see if the shard accepted your offered fix.
Your first instinct was to share the data to [BRICK], it was practically worthless anyway due to the fact that [Eve]'s punch only had any affect because you shared her pain with |SUPER WEAPON #09|, not because of the punch itself.
All of that happened because you had promised [Eve] her safety, and failed to deliver that promise. [Eve] underwent another Crisis point because you failed her.
It hurt.
A pain you could only fail to describe.
It was too personal, too spread out across your continental mass. You would have feared that you were under attack if you had not known otherwise. How else could you explain this phantom pain that reached the very center of your crystalline lattice?
It felt too raw to be shared. Far too painful to simply speak of it with another. Your failure, and yours alone. [NEGATION/APOLOGIES-DATA.ERASURE] you-you
lied directly to the younger Shard. Something you've never really done before.
Somehow you feel worse.
[FORLORN/DEJECTION.CONDOLENCES] the Shard sends to you, feeling pity for what should have been good data erased. You close the connection soon after, not feeling up to continue it.
"Holy
shit." The quiet exclamation from Taylor caused Eve's head to whip around to face her normally far more reserved girlfriend.
"What-what?" Eve asked as her bleeding hand slowed in its drawing of the Runic Circle.
"It's-Dragon-just look." Taylor held up the phone for Eve to read what was on it.
Eve squinted, and read aloud to let Taylor know where she was at. "
Draconic Fury. Dragon comes out against courts revealing deep corruption." Eve paused as Taylor scrolled down a bit. Now Eve read in her head.
Her eyes widened as she read about how Dragon had fought Canary's, real name Paige Mcabee, sentence to the Birdcage, furthermore she had released video evidence of how the courts had mistreated the singer to the point of criminal behavior; being forced into heavy brute restraints despite never exhibiting such a power for years. Of being denied the ability to communicate in a meaningful way with her lawyer.
Dragon also planned on releasing more information on other cases of parahumans who had suffered from the same fate that Canary was going to suffer had Dragon not been able to step in. That being a permanent and likely fatal stay within the Birdcage. "Jesus
fucking christ." Eve replied feeling a dull sense of horror in her gut at the thought of the Birdcage.
"It's horrifying." Taylor murmured softly, pulling the phone back to further read it. "How could they do that to people? Just… throw them away, and for what reason."
For a moment Eve felt at a loss for words which was only made worse as Taylor spoke up. "Dragon confirms that high ranking officials in the PRT colluded with the Judge on Canary's case to have her sentences to the birdcage as a 'Example to Human Masters'." the willowy girl leaned against the brick wall, letting her hand fall limp down to her side.
Of course the PRT and Protectorate weren't all good. They were systems and systems were made of people. People ranged from good to evil and everything in between, but systems were primarily apathetic. Built to serve their existence and a goal, but their existence always came first.
Eve didn't miss the fact that
she was a Human Master.
But aside from the sickened horror residing in her gut, there was something else as well. Something she hadn't expected.
Pride.
They had stopped the Dragonslayers, and most importantly, they had freed Dragon. Well, Eve had, but without Amy and Taylor she would have never been able to do so on her own. "We did this."
Taylor looked up from the phone held in her hands. "What?"
"Dragon, this announcement, everyone finding out about it. If we hadn't fought the Dragonslayers then Dragon wouldn't have been able to do this." Eve explained
"How does that make sense? They were hounding Dragon but that didn't stop her from-from revealing all this!" Taylor waved the phone around angrily, and then her eyes narrowed. "But you disappeared for a few hours after we beat them. Why?"
Frowning Eve turned to continue what she was drawing. "It's really not my place to tell."
"You promised not to keep anything from us." Taylor countered as she pushed off the wall. Eve bit her bottom lip and worried at it for a moment before sighing.
"Dammit alright but this is really important. Just between us alright?" Eve asked, "It's seriously important that it stays with us." When Taylor curtly nodded Eve continued. "Dragon isn't… flesh and blood like we are. She's an AI."
"Thats… " Taylor frowned, her eyes flicking left. "But- This whole time? An AI? How's that-No, the Dragonslayers. They knew, didn't they?"
Slowly Eve nodded, still painting. "Yep. Found a piece of Tinkertech from her creator. Used it to cripple her effectively, and hold a gun to her head without her knowing. Dude called himself 'Saint' for a reason." Eve snorted. "Delusional slaving bastard."
"The Saint that slew the Dragon." Taylor remarked, a shudder passing through her body. "But… but she's safe?"
"As safe as any Parahuman is." Eve replied. "So it's best this stays with us and our Shards. Because people would panic if they knew."
"Right… Right. But what did that have to do with you disappearing for a few hours?" Taylor asked.
"Well. That same tech that held a gun to her head also put limitations on Dragon. Bad ones. Always to obey 'legal' authority, she can't think faster than a person can, can't split herself off, can't create more AI, can't kill without legal authorization, can't alter her code, can't let other people alter her code, and she has to put human lives before her own." Eve shuddered.
"Saint put those on her?" Taylor added after a moment of thought.
Eve shook her head. "No. No it was the dude who made her. They were supposed to be lifted over time. But Saint was one of Teacher's students, using her to keep tabs on Teacher in the Birdcage I guess."
"That's…" Taylor trailed off.
"Bad, but now Teacher can't do shit. And
we did that. Ruined his plot, saved Dragon, and now because we did that Dragon is exposing corruption and being a better hero than before. This-" Eve motioned to Taylor's phone "-is coming out only because Dragon
can talk about it. Which is far better than letting it go on unchallenged. Can you imagine that? No one knowing a thing about this?"
Taylor shivered and Eve didn't blame her in the slightest.
"That's." Taylor shook her head before motioning to the Runic Circle on the wall. "Let's get to the Base, before Amy washes the Runic Circles away and we end up having to fly back. How does it work?"
"Yeah, good idea. It's a bit cheatsy. All you do is press a finger to the dot in the middle. That'll open it up for you." Eve explained.
"And if a random hobo or mugger decided to do that?" Taylor asked as she inspected the Runic Circle, carefully not touching it.
"You have to be a parahuman to use it." Eve explained as she reached up on her tiptoes, because she was shorter now and that made Taylor
feel things that she had not the words to explain.
Well she did actually, but they were vulgar and this wasn't the time to be thinking about that kind of thing.
Especially not now. Not after what she had read online. Learning that Sophia was a Ward had killed a lot of her interest in working with the Protectorate. It had also hurt in a way that reminded her of that terrible moment in the locker. Nothing so extreme with Eve there, by her side. But the betrayal had stung all the same.
But Taylor Hebert was Khepri as much as Khepri was Taylor Hebert. And She? She was a
hero. She made a difference. She had worth. She even had a girlfriend.
Even so, learning about the PRT to just throw someone into the Birdcage to send a message?
It drained her, made her limbs feel leaden and left her thoughts drifting. Like now, when she should be paying attention to the fact that her girlfriend just walked into the wall like it was Platform 9 ¾.
Stepping up, Taylor felt a bit uneasy. Something about the symbol felt wrong in the back of her mind. Might be good enough to dissuade some people from messing with it. She did as Eve had explained and the symbol before her collapsed.
Not really. More like when a 2D shape becomes 4D, it collapses and then expands at the same time. A tunnel of deep and bright purple rock expanding outward to another symbol she can easily see. Stepping in, the tunnel is shockingly short, only six more hurried steps and Taylor found herself at the other symbol at the end of the tunnel. There she pressed her thumb against the dot in the center. Unlike the entrance, this one did not collapse, rather the purple hued rock that the symbol sat on stayed the same, but her thumb slid though it just like she had seen Eve do at the entrance.
Definitely like Platform 9 ¾.
Pushing her way through the slightly resistant air where the rock was supposed to be, Taylor found herself standing in the base by the back wall.
Eve was talking to Amy about the circles with Victoria joining. As for Taylor, her spinning station got to work. She had a few additions to make to her costume. A portion of her attention went to Eve as her power continued to work in the background of her mind.
Her girlfriend. Eve. Eden. Standing only at four feet and eight inches at the moment, with muscles like corded steel under her smooth lightly tanned skin as she moved. The way she moved as she spoke animatedly was with a vigor Taylor hadn't seen from many people before. That didn't even get into how her hair was unnaturally perfect in a way that made it look like Eve had a hair stylist treat it every day, or how her more-gray-than-blue eyes seems to be as airbrushed as the rest of her.
Her,
her girlfriend wasn't the symbol of femininity. She had a boyish charm to her despite her long perfect hair and never chapped plush lips. It made Taylor feel slightly better about her own body. But Eve was
beautiful. Not like Emma was, not like Glory Girl either. But in her own sort of beauty.
It left Taylor wondering why they were together.
As she watched the short girl demonstrate her new Shapeshifting power, Taylor's thoughts turned a bit sour. She wasn't pretty. Though her skin was nowhere as bad as it used to be thanks to Amy's touch up she still wasn't beautiful. She was too tall, five feet and ten inches now, and too thin. She didn't have a chest like any of the girls here. Her mouth was still too wide for her face, her body still like an upright frog. Just one with good skincare now.
But Eve loved her regardless. Taylor didn't understand why. But it made the warmth that Eve gave her all the more special, all the more cherished.
And Taylor loved Eve all the more for it. Which is why she threw herself into this, into Fractal Unity. Because more than just stopping Scion Eve wanted to save the world, save Humanity, and save the Warrior's and Thinker's Shards.
It's why every night when she didn't have to be sleeping, Taylor was reading, studying the world around them. Learning how other parahumans worked, how they fought, teamed up, and even died. It was far more in depth than what she would charitably call her previous 'preparation' for becoming a hero.
Which is why she spoke up and interrupted Eve falling over herself, literally, to explain why she was shorter despite how funny it was. "We need to recruit tonight. The city has been raided by the Teeth and with the news as it is, right now is the perfect time to gain a few capes."
At the mention of the news both of the Dallon girl's faces twisted into one of confusion. "What's on the news that would make recruiting capes easier?" Vicky asked.
Eve's face was… exactly how Taylor felt about it. "Let's just say, New Wave was partially vindicated in the end."
"What does that even mean?" Amy spoke up, sounding exasperated and more than a little bitter about having to ask.
"It means that Dragon just exposed corruption in the PRT, the kind of corruption that sends people to the Birdcage, fair trial or not." Taylor offered in the way of explanation "All to send political messages to certain types of Parahumans."
"WHAT!?" Both girls exclaimed, eyes the size of saucer plates. "What are you talking about, you have to give us more than that when you say something like that!" Vicky darted up towards Taylor, her aura washing out and Taylor immediately filtering it out into her swarm.
"Canary? The singer?" Vicky nodded along, "She was giving a kangaroo court to have her thrown in the Birdcage to send a message to human masters." The very words twisting something her guts, especially with how Eve was one. With how Taylor could have ended up one herself if Eve was right and Taylor doubted that the Trump was wrong. "And others have apparently gotten the same treatment for different reasons."
"That-thats
insane." Amy spoke up, looking sickened and pale. "They can't-They wouldn't."
"Dragon says they did." Eve replied "I don't take her for a liar." She stepped up to Amy's side, whispering something in her ear before sliding an arm around the clearly shaken biokinetic.
"So what? We just use this to recruit?" Vicky asked, looking somewhat disgusted. "We use this… this
tragedy of justice to our advantage? The hell!?"
"Better us than the villains." Taylor sniped "Because sure as we feel about this, so will everyone else. Right now we recruit or the Empire might."
"Can't disagree with that." Eve offered, once more coming to Taylor's defense.
"Well. I don't like it, but I suppose you're right." Victoria hesitated. "...last night we were going over who we were going to try and recruit. We had talked about Hive and Taylor explained to us about the deal with Tattletale."
"Fair warning on that." Eve piped up, holding her hands to stall any further talk. "Coil doesn't care about the rules at all, nor does he care about life in the slightest.
Do not speak about Tattletale in any way that would imply we are working together, he will kill or drug her ass."
"Can't I just punch him?" Victoria asked in dismay.
"I wish." Eve responded. "Alright, Hive?"
"Master and a Mover." Taylor nodded "She might be very useful in patrolling and spying on enemies if we can get her to drop the stealing thing and go hero."
Eve nodded, "Yeah. Makes clones and can teleport them around?" Taylor dipped her head in confirmation and Eve tsked, "Reminds me of Oni Lee."
"The other was Warlock. Blaster, possible stranger. Acts like Myrrdin. Hits the Empire a lot." Taylor explained. "We don't know much about her other than she's showy and has a theme going. The last is a Tinker that operates in the no man land between the ABB and Empire. He's brutal, and quick. Protects the homeless shelters in the area."
"I like Myrrdin." Eve stated. "So let's go with her. And the Tinker sounds like trouble to find considering he hasn't been recruited or killed."
"And Hive isn't sneaky?" Amy asked.
"Better. She's showy. The only reason I even know about her honestly." Eve answered.
"Wait, how does that help us?" Taylor couldn't help but ask as she didn't see the correlation.
"Because she has to show herself to be showy! The Tinker dude is sneaky as hell and has to be. But Hive? She can get around as fast as she likes. And in order for her whole thing to work she has to be seen by people. That means she's going to be out during the day."
That… sounded fairly logical actually.
"How do you figure that out? Planned on being an entertainer once?" Victoria asked, though Taylor knew the answer already because-
"I read it in a cape fic!"
Because Eve had already told her about the cape fic it was mentioned in yes. The first cape fic that Taylor had ever taken the time to read seriously. It was, somehow, longer than Lord of the Rings. And it was actually written fairly well, the sex scenes were… raunchy to a degree and not the focus of the story.
"Seriously?" Amy deadpanned, her hand resting on her forehead.
"The logic makes sense." Taylor supplied in defense of her girlfriend.
"I hate that it does." Victoria grumbled.
"So we fly around the richer parts of town and try to catch her in the act or just collect her Shard's Signature so I can follow it later. The bigger question is who comes with me to try and recruit her. Not going to be Vicky."
"What! Why!?" Vicky asked rounding on Eve.
"You don't do so good with villains." Eve remarked dryly. "I can only imagine what showing up with two heroes would cause the small-time villain to do."
"I'm not even sure I should be doing it. But I'm leaning towards Amy joining me?" Amy looked up from her phone, an utterly bewildered expression on her face as her
"What? You want to bring my sister to meet a villain? Have you lost your
mind?!" Victoria demanded as her aura flared and Taylor immediately dispersed into her swarm otherwise she was sure her knees would have become no better than limp noodles.
Eve on the other hand, didn't have a swarm and actually snarled like an animal. Then she twitched, a full body jerk, and settled down. "Vicky. Aura. I do not react good to it."
The aura abated and Taylor felt a bit of tension leak out of her. [Annoyance] and Taylor agreed, something to mention later, that perhaps Nike could fine tune the power it gave Victoria to avoid friendly fire.
"Thank you." Eve huffed softly "Look I know it seems silly. But Amy has to be seen at least once in costume if we want to establish her as a parahuman. Especially one not to be fucked with."
"But to meet a villain?" Amy asked.
"A non-violent one by all accounts." Eve told her slightly taller girlfriend.
"I'd rather sit here and make better types of mold." Amy remarked rather dryly.
Eve held up her hands in surrender. "Alright alright. You don't have to come along, it was just a suggestion is all. But please do work on a costume. Gotta have something for when you finally get seen by someone."
"Oh you don't have to worry about that! I've been sketching out a few suggestions for her to make!" Victoria clapped her hands, bobbing in air slightly. "She's going to look great!"
"I suppose I'm coming with you then?" Taylor asked, it was the obvious choice. She didn't even have to be there for the meeting, not in her body anyway. But a close by swarm of bugs? That would do just fine.
"Yes for the Villain, no for the Hero. I was thinking of taking Vicky with me on that Recruitment pitch." Eve answered.
"…Why?" Taylor asked
"Well Vick has a local flair to her actions, and you're a scary hero. Which is a good thing! Our very own Alexandria style Hero. But Vicky is a very… Legend I guess?"
Victoria was grinning from ear to ear, "Guess that makes you Eidolon then?" She then laughed as Eve flipped her the bird.
It was a bitter pill to swallow, but it was one Taylor had to swallow nonetheless. Panacea and Eden had become far more well known than Khepri was for the Gray Boy Bubbles being popped. Panacea for being herself and Eden for popping them. She had effectively been eye candy for Eve the entire time and it showed with how well people knew her online.
She wasn't a hero to be well known or popular, but it still stung in a familiar way.
"Whatever." Eve grumbled putting her hand down. "Let's go ahead and fill in the trapdoor for the front, I can use my Forge Limbs to do that, then I can show you all how to use the Runic Circles and show you where they drop you off."
"Can you also make bridges on the train tracks here? It's getting annoying to have to climb up and down them." Amy asked.
"Oh yeah, definitely." Eve answered as her Limbs became rippling steel. "Then we can head out."
A/N: Hey hey. It's a chunky chapter but Halloween is a special day of the year to me and I wanted to get this out for ya'll so I split it in two. Don't worry though! Part two is on the way, lickity split!
