Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Amelia, Ch 197- Trevor


"How's the garden, Mushroom?" I asked Riley casually as I walked in.


"Got a full schedule today," she answered. "We got Battery coming to try out her armor, and then Chevalier will be here for his first series of tests. He's bringing the SEB sample. We... might have to keep Rey away from it." SEB, in this case, was our code for Simurgh's tissue samples, which we were going to replicate if at all possible.


"What for?" I asked. Rey always seemed pretty safe, as far as tinkers went.


"He... mentioned something about trying to clone a fully functioning copy with new instincts bred in to let us control it," she informed me.


"Okay..." Never mind. "Is that even possible?"


"Lisa says it's not," Riley answered. "That the material can't function properly without a core attached. Everyone else decided we weren't going to risk it. Big Sis threatened to tell Rapture about his ideas if he ever so much as thought of it again."


"We'll still be growing the samples, though, correct?" I asked.


She nodded emphatically. "Oh, yes, absolutely! It's an incredible material. We can build zerg armor that's exponentially more durable at a fraction of the weight. They'll even gain partial power resistance if it works like we hope."


"That would be insane," I moved toward where Capacitor was stored. It was mostly my project, after all. The most purely mechanical armor suit aside from Tapestry. My hand trembled a little as I thought of it seeing its first real test drive. It wouldn't be the strongest suit to have come from our combined work, but it was my personal project, and capable of taking Battery from a five or so to an easy eight, probably a nine. "So when's Emma expected, anyway?"


"You got about twenty minutes," Riley let me know as she started putting on her control system for Clarice. "Don't let her exceed quarter power for the first ten minutes, let the biosystems adapt to her power first."


"Got it," I acknowledged. I spent the time waiting scanning through the user notes. I was still reading when Emma arrived. She went yellow-shift as she approached. It was, after all, her most suitable powerset for working with Battery's power.


"So, you're that excited, huh?"


"Just got bored waiting for the eye candy to show up," I retorted. I looked around and feigned disappointment. "Lemme know if you see any." I went back to reading.


"Just for that, I'm hogging all the attention when Chevalier shows up." Emma threatened. "Maybe I'll even take a page out of Narwhal's playbook."


"Subtle," I smirked. "At this rate, it won't be long before you sneak into Zach's bedroom with a bunch of Sabah's best scarves and perform a belly dance to the Legend of Zelda soundtrack. There might also be handcuffs involved."


"Don't see it happening," she sighed. "Vicky came along and blew both me and Crystal out of the water."


"Hard to compete with a shapeshifter."


"Can't even be mad," she didn't bother looking up from the computer. "Vicky's awesome. You should totally seduce her. Then I'll have my opening."


"Don't think it works that way," I pointed out.


"You said it yourself: hard to compete with a shapeshifter."


....


Assault came with, to no one's surprise. "So, how's life treating you?" he asked me while Battery was busy suiting up. Her default costume couldn't be worn under the armor, and Emma had gone with to help her get it on for the first time. Once she got the hang of it, she wouldn't need any help, but it wasn't able to support the same merging systems that many other armors enjoyed. A limitation thanks to how her power augments worked.


"I really can't complain," I answered.


"Working with all these girls? I wouldn't be able to complain, either," he joked. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.


"Not really," I avoided looking at him. "I don't get noticed much. Curse of the tinker, y'know?"


"Not really," he shrugged. "But don't let it get you down. Girls like brains, especially the smart ones. And tinker girls are wild in the sack."


"Guess whose top of the line A-class battle armor has enhanced hearing!" Battery shouted from the other room.


"Come on, puppy," Assault shouted back. "As long as you girls have been back there? I'm not saying anything you haven't already figured out for yourself."


I felt Capacitor's first test on my skin. Battery's exotic electromagnetism leaving its residue in the air as she moved so fast that she seemingly teleported into the room. "Don't listen to him when it comes to women," she instructed. Then she blinked. "Fuck that's fast."


"Your power disrupts relativity," I informed her. Putting your Passenger high on the list of possible tools that the Entities use for their star drives, I added silently. "Capacitor stores that influence and amplifies it. In addition, it takes the brunt of the stress generated. Meaning that once fully charged you could use your full abilities for extended periods without much more stress than jogging. Although going into redzone will be similarly painful as your natural maximum power output."


"But redzone is a lot stronger than what you can do naturally," Emma added quickly. "If you stay in yellow, you'll have your normal max, but without any of the usual side effects. Plus all the other stuff the suit can do."


"You can probably get away with using your power for field command," I suggested. "Being able to think twenty times faster than a normal person has a lot of potential in letting you emulate a pretty strong thinker power."


"What's the 'Disruptor'?" Battery asked. She must have seen it on the HUD options.


"Your power weaponized," Emma volunteered. "It distorts the flow of time in whatever you shoot. Nothing we can use to accelerate others, at least not without more tinkers to look at our data and figure something out. But it will create chaotic eddies of slowed and sped up time in a small area. Because of how unpredictable the weapon is, we can't create a nonlethal setting. Don't use it unless you're shooting at something you really want dead. Based on our research, it should even hurt Endbringers."


"Not quite Endslayer grade, however," I qualified. No sense in making her take stupid risks.


She looked at Assault and smirked. "Don't worry, it's not an Endbringer I'm going to use this on."


"But Puppy," Assault pouted. "If you do that, then I won't be able to impart my wisdom in understanding women to the boy here," he put a hand on my shoulder.


"Not helping your case, here," Battery pointed out.


"Actually," I argued. "Assault's been a great help to me."


"Told you so," he smirked.


"I mean, if he can find someone, then anyone can."


....


Battery was obviously thrilled by her suit's capabilities. An overall upgrade to her power on every level, plus enough bells and whistles to make anyone happy. She would be one of the heaviest hitters in New York until we worked out some custom suits for the Adepts, at least. I retreated to my room after a bit, leaving Emma to do the final testing phase. I wasn't needed, and frankly I found Assault annoying. He meant well, I guess, but he was still annoying.


"Hey, Tevor," Victoria caught up to me. "Have a couple minutes?"


"Uh, sure," I agreed. "Chevalier won't be here for a while. What's up? Riley said something about you having upgrade ideas for your armor?"


"No," she answered. "Well, yes, but that's not what I wanted to bring up."


"Okay?" I prompted. Vicky was acting really weird since after her fight with Baal. Then again, she did have to kill someone, I reminded myself. That had to mess with her head.

"So what's the problem?"


"Do you have any plans for Friday?" she asked.


Wait, is she? "Umm, not really," I answered.


"Good, there's a new movie coming out," she started.


Oh god, she is. "Umm, Vicky, it's not that I'm not flattered, but aren't you kinda with Zach or something?"


Her face scunched up in confusion for a second, and then she started laughing. "Oh, oh god," she covered her mouth. "You thought I was asking... no, no. I was trying to hook you up with a friend of mine. Mandy, I'm pretty sure you've met her a couple times."


I knew who she was talking about. Nice girl, if a bit too quiet. She probably would have been a target for bullying, if not for the stories about what happened to Taylor. Not many out there who wanted to risk annoying Khepri, and bullying the shy girl was just begging to earn the personal hate of both girls, so all the students who would otherwise cause trouble were afraid to try. I'm not interested," I informed Vicky.


"What? Why not? You two would make a cute couple," she argued.


"She's not my type," I insisted.


"Don't see why not," Vicky continued. "Sure, she's not a model, but you'll be surprised if you give her a chance."


"Umm, when I say she's not my type, I mean that she and I are more likely to be in competition than date," I offered.


"Competition? For what?" she asked. "Sure, she's smart, but she's not tinker smart."


"No, I mean we're fishing in the same pond," I tried.


"Fishing? Okay, what?"


"Gay," I finally gave up. "I'm gay. As in, not attracted to girls."


She blinked. "Huh."


"Yeah, something like that," I agreed.


"Well," she asked. "I bet I can find you a cute guy, then."


"I'd really rather you didn't," I argued. "I plan on coming out, in costume, after I graduate. I also really don't want people drawing too many lines between my civilian life and my cape life. I already spend too much time around you and Zach at school. So let's just keep it in both closets, okay?"


She shrugged. "Okay, I guess that works," she reluctantly agreed. "Although if you want to throw people off, you might need to find yourself a girl to be your beard. That kid who never dated and then came out as gay after highschool is a clue people will notice."


"You... fuck, you're probably right," I reluctantly agreed.


"I'm always right," Vicky boasted. "Oh, and while I have your attention, I was trying to come up with a belated birthday gift for Zach, and kinda need advice."


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A/N- whee, expanding other characters!