Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Amelia, Ch 237- Victoria


"Okay, this is so unfair," Zach muttered.


"You're just angry 'cause I'm kicking your ass," I smirked.


"Of course you're kicking my ass," he sighed. "That's what your power is. 'How do I kick its ass? Parahuman edition.' There's no one whose ass you don't kick."


"Yeah," I agreed. "And to think, I used to think flying and punching things really hard was the coolest power ever. Also, it's not just how to kick ass, it's all kinds of other things. Speaking of which, did you try that little trick I suggested?"


"Haven't had a chance to," he admitted. "Khonsu. Even Emma was exhausted by the end of that. Fuck, even you and I were worn out and I didn't think that was possible."


How did he know that? "Are you sure you don't have a thinker power?"


He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow.


"Right, stupid question," I muttered. "Seriously, though, how did you figure that out?"


Sadly, my question wouldn't be answered, because the door opened, and Lily walked in. My bioscan powers don't really have an 'off' button, so I was flooded with information immediately. Sleep deprivation made sense, considering her circadians were all jacked up. Had been crying. Minor impact injuries on her hand indicated that she punched something. Harder than her hand, so definitely not a person. Had sex recently. Eww, stupid gross power. I tried very hard to ignore information about her digestive system, which was still in the process of getting used to solid foods again.


"Hey, Vicky?" she asked. "Can we talk?" I didn't need my powers to hear that she was upset.


"Sure," I responded. "Zach, girl talk time. Go spend some time with Emma, I'm sure she'll enjoy the distraction. She's been poking at Khonsu bits for hours."


"But..."


"Zach. Go. Plow. Emma." I emphasized every word.


"Fiiine," he groaned, getting up off the couch. "Kick me out of my own bedroom."


"Sorry, I didn't mean to-" Lily started apologizing.


"Nah, it's cool," Zach interrupted. "I was getting bored with having my shit wrecked like I'd never picked up a controller before in my life. I'll just pretend you're here helping Vicky with her repressed bisexuality."


"And I'll just pretend you didn't say that," Lily remarked back. And now she's forgotten to feel bad about chasing Zach out of his room, I observed. Seriously, are we sure the dumbass doesn't have a Thinker power?


There was no more fanfare as Zach left us alone, although I waited for a few seconds to confirm he didn't stick around to eavesdrop, and I simply waited patiently. Not a lot I could say that wasn't just stupid questions. There was a mounting level of embarrassment in Lily's emotions as things went from quiet to a little awkward.


"So... can I stay with you, tonight?" Lily asked. Correction, are we sure the dumbass doesn't have a Master power? The emotions spiked as Lily realized what she said. "No! I didn't meant it like that. You're hot and all, but..."


"Relax," I smiled. "Biothinker, remember? I know your feelings, or lack of them, toward me."


"All of them?" she asked, her fear switching from panic to more basic apprehension.


"Well, every one of them that happens when I'm in the room," I corrected. "And everyone else's, too. So, you've taken a few looks. I'd be more insulted if you hadn't. I know you aren't really interested in me. You love Sabah. I'm just some freakin' amazing eye candy."


"And yet so very humble," she added as she sat down on one of the loveseats. Zach's bedroom was more like a small living room than anything. Television. Computer. Video game television. Two loveseats, a couch, one of those rolling computer chairs, and two ordinary chairs. No actual bed in sight.


"Yup, that's me," I agreed. "So what's the story?"


"Well, Sabah and I went on a date," she started. "It was just perfect in every way. We came back to my place and, well..." she trailed off for a second, letting me draw the obvious conclusion so she didn't have to say it out loud. "After, I. I told her that I love her."


Oh boy. "And then?"


"Then nothing," she sighed. "She said nothing. Pretended not to hear me. A little while later, she got up and went back to her place. It's the first night she's done that since..." she trailed off again. Khonsu. For me it had been three days of fighting and now a couple days of rest. For Lily it has been almost six days' rest after half a year of fighting. "She didn't do anything wrong, I did spring it on her out of nowhere. I just need someone to stay with me tonight."


"No, I get it," I agreed. Your girlfriend has issues, and you just kicked all of them square in the twat. I liked Sabah well enough. She reminded me a lot of Amy, back before I had my glass-nap. Although Ames always shut down when I started talking clothes and shopping, while that's exactly where Sabah really came to life. Lily, on the other hand, was more of a tomboy, interested in sports and the various thrills of cape life.


"You don't mind?" she asked.


"Not at all," it was a half truth. Not sleeping meant I'd spend several hours laying around basically doing nothing. But Lily was one of my friends, one of the people I really trusted. This wasn't a big ask.


"Thanks," she agreed. Then she looked around sheepishly. "So, uh, how do we do this?"


"Your place or mine?" I asked, smiling a little. If I were Zach, I might have added a little humor to this. But whenever I tried to pull shit like that, it just made me feel weird. No idea how he did it, and my power didn't include pulling off bad jokes.


"Yours," she said immediately.


Weird pick, but okay. I stood up. "It's a bit of a trip, hope you brought your walking shoes."


"That's okay, I could use the exercise," she agreed.


....


Mom's up, I realized. A quarter before seven, my alarm clock informed me. Use of my power made it easy enough to get out of bed without waking Lily and then sneak out of my room. Bad jokes weren't on my list, but stealth was way up there. I went downstairs. I'd see if I could con a nice, home cooked meal while I was here. Amy's stock was nice and all, but sometimes I needed to bite into something made from actual meat.


"Hey, Mom," I smiled at her. Hmm, she's nervous about something. "How's my favorite lawyer?"


"Vicky," she spoke, going motherly. "You know I try to be open minded about these things, and I can't do a whole lot to stop what your sister does in her place. But I would appreciate it if you don't bring your girlfriends over to stay the night in my house. I know, Christmas night, so I'll ignore it this ti-"


Oh. I started laughing. Mom just looked at me with a combination of annoyance and disbelief, which made things even funnier. "You have the totally wrong idea," I told her. "Lily's not. We're not dating. At all. She's a friend. Plus she's already taken. Plus I'm into guys. She's having a rough time and I was helping her out."


She visibly relaxed. "Good. I was beginning to worry that I'd never have grandchildren. Not. That you should take that as encouragement to start now."


I smirked. "Y'know, I don't think that would be an obstacle. I mean, Amy creates new life on a daily basis. Compared to that, allowing same sex reproduction is nothing. She's already turned one girl into a boy. He's pretty hot, actually, if you like the tall, dark, and trying way too hard to be all brooding and male." I watched the various emotions run through Mom's body, and couldn't help but smile in anticipation. "And with my powers, I might be able to do it all myself."


Her face scrunched up. "Okay!" she exclaimed, bringing up her hands in defeat. "That's more than I wanted to know. I would have settled with 'don't worry, I just need to find the right guy'."


"What happened to being open minded?" I asked.


Her face was a blank stare. "My seventeen year old daughter talking about getting herself pregnant goes well beyond being open minded. Now let's get back to the girl sleeping in your bed."


"That's Lily, a friend of mine," I informed. I skipped on mentioning her status as a teammate. Mom no doubt suspected, of course, but talking about her cape identity would have been rude. "Like I said, she's having a rough patch. So I kept her company while she slept."


"Company?"


"Yeah," I shrugged. "I don't sleep, remember? So I basically just spent the whole time running combat simulations." Seeing her still blank look, I continued. "Pretty much, I just use my power to find the best ways to fight me, and then the best ways to fight me fighting me. It's a lot like having the world's best combat tutor teaching you the best martial art that can possibly exist."


"If your power already tells you how to fight, why are you using it to teach you how to fight?"


"Because I nearly lost my fight with Lilith," I answered. "My armor saved my life, full stop. Precog on precog combat gets messy, and there are others out there a lot stronger than her. Then there's anti-precog powers. My powers don't do anything useful for Endbringers. Then there was this woman... at the Khonsu battle... my power's idea of how to win in a fight with her was trying to find a way to talk her into letting me win. I still don't even know if she's really that scary, or she just has some kind of weird Master-Stranger power. My power didn't consider her a real threat to me in my armor, but that's not saying a lot. And my power doesn't even see Eidolon when he's right there in front of me."


"That..." she sat down. "You know, every so often I'm reminded how my girls are in the big leagues. I'm still caught up in a world where we had to worry about when Hookwolf would smash a liquor store for having an owner with a tan, or not paying protection money, and arguing with Armsmaster over jurisdiction. Now Class S threats and the Triumviate come up in casual conversation."


"Speaking of S-threats," I smiled. "The PRT's about to use their new toys to remove Nilbog sometime early in the New Year. Like the fifth or sixth, I wasn't paying much attention at that meeting. But that's classified, so I didn't tell you about it. We coulda done it ourselves, but we have our own announcement. The twentieth is when Avalon goes public. Woulda been sooner, but, Khonsu. Oh, and Alexandria's showing coming to our Christmas party tomorrow. That's not classified. In fact, you're encouraged to let it slip. We kinda want people to know about that one."


"Is it too early to break out the scotch?" she asked.


"It's five o'clock somewhere," I shrugged. "Don't worry about pouring me a glass. Waste of perfectly good alcohol."


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A/N- Didn't have enough material to make a normal chapter, so this is pretty much two small chapters.