Rot: A worm Fanfiction

Taylor Hebert is stuck in the locker and dies. Too bad for the rest of the world she doesn't stay that way. Let the world watch in horror as Taylor comes back from the dead.


This is really just a prologue. I don't know what I've written, but it feels more real when it is published here. I own nothing.

---

Larry the janitor has worked at this facility for some years, and it was a bitch n' a half to clean. From the putrid lavatories to the gang tags, it is almost impossible for him to do it by himself, almost. He had been called up by the office as several students had reported a foul odor in one of the halls on the second floor. He reached the second floor, hallway c, the one the students had complained to the office about, and he nearly gagged. He thought that it would just be a simple burst pipe, or maybe a rat had decided to kick the bucket behind one of the lockers. It smelled more like twenty rats had committed a mass suicide. The miasma was like a cloud of fog, all bitter iron and sickly sweet decay. Larry used to work as a custodian at a hospital so he was not a squeamish person, five years of plumbing and cleaning this grease-hole would harden most to the gross let alone his years of experience before this school. So, with all the eagerness of he can muster, he sets to work to find the source of the stench.

"No....not this one.....*hurk*, no but close....oh god....yep this is the one."

The locker before him has presence. It's practically alive with an odor which demands
the respect of the custodian, not just his attention. The locker is thankfully locked, which means he gets to walk away from it to go get his keys. He walks off to find his keys, but is back far sooner than he would like to.
The locker was squishy, almost like it was filled with something wet and moist. As he pressed into its door, a painful wet squirt sounded under his hand. The metal wasn't wet, but clearly something horrible lies on the others side. He really didn't want to open it. With a sigh, which was more shallow so as to keep the death fog from leaving a taste on his tongue, he open it. Or at least tried to, it was stuck. He yanked harder on the door, nothing. Getting really tired of this, the smell making his head start to spin, he puts his back into it.
"Splat!"
Larry takes a step back as though physically struck by the smell. A form falls out of the locker the disgusting wet noise originated from it. Larry looks down, and starts screaming. A grey face looks back up at him, its eyes open and milky with Death's blindness. The hands were skeletal, and the feet looked like the same. Her body is covered in black and the skin squirms with maggots. Larry hates this school, he also calls the police, but I thought it was important for us to know how he feels.

---

 

---

I don't know what is going on. Well that is not true I mean; I KNOW what is going on. After the arrival of the police, followed by me getting gathered up into a body bag, an ambulance ride to the hospital while my father sat unresponsive inside, before being handed over to the morgue, and onto the autopsy table. So yes, I am aware that I'm dead, in fact, I'm a bit disappointed that I somehow managed to get it wrong.

My name is Taylor, nice to meet you! I'm a bit sorry that it is on such a bad occasion, but look at it from my point of view. Here I am talking to myself, in the third person of all things. It kind of sound crazy, but I'm dead so I can get a pass on the whole 'sane' thing. I couldn't even get dying right so I think I'll take a pass on a few things. I mean sure I'm not suicidal or anything it's just well, I'm bored. I can't hear anything, or feel anything, I'm just floating here watching the coroner open my body up. Those bitches at school would probably make fun of me for some how fucking up my death, but they killed me so fuck'em. I'm really bored of death and I have almost all the say on whether it is a justified thing or not.

Not to say that my autopsy isn't interesting, watching my brain get weighed was neat, but I kind of want to move. But bodies aren't supposed to move... well yeah, but if I fucked this up some how I'm wondering why I am continuing to pretend... hey why don't we forget that I'm dead for right now, yeah. I mean if I really well and truly mess up my death, then maybe I can skip it? You guys don't mind me just going for a walk or something, right. I'm probably crazy talking to you, but my brain is currently in a pan so something is clearly wrong with me.

I sit up.

This is so weird seeing this in third person. My head looks weird with the back of my skull removed like that and my scalp pulled down over my face. I can really 'see' out of my own eyeballs right now, my spirit? Now that is a good question, I'm viewing the world from outside my body right now. Like I'm just hovering just behind my dead body right now. Am I a ghost? I can see around me, the coroner is kind of screaming at me, but I can't hear him. The morgue is pretty clean too. I'm not sure how I know that it is clean of things like molds and rotting stuff, besides some of the other bodies of course, but I know that they're there. They make me kind of hungry.

I reach back and grab my brain out of the pan. I slide it back into my head hole giggling like a loon, at least no one can hear me. Inserting the piece of skull with solid chunk and folding back my face. I almost think I feel something happen as I put that stuff back, but I figure it is just my mind playing a trick on me. Ha, get it?

…

Okay wow, tough crowd, or was it? I did laugh after all. I turn looking up at where I'm "at" with my ghost and I get to see how I look. Yep dead Taylor, wide mouthed and curly-haired, and super dead. I shrug and it somehow is relayed to my body. The coroner is freaking out, but I'm not really bothered by this. So, I turn to the opposing side and leap off the table. I didn't fall... okay that's not true, but I can stand! Interestingly my almost purely skeletal legs and feet can move without any muscle, cool. I start to walk. Hmmm...oh, shit I forgot about my organs. They fell out of my open abdomen. I quickly scoop them up and into their cavity, they don't stay. Tring again I press my skin flaps close together to make sort of a bowl, I look around there must be something to hold me together somewhere.

For the first time in maybe four hours, I feel something, and it really isn't my mind making things up this time, I look down to see that a small part of the seem has formed some scar tissue. Cool, I pick up my organs and place them on the next table which is sporting an elderly dead guy. Looks to be finished with his own autopsy. I then, starting from below my belly button to just at my ribs, pinch my skin back together. It takes a hefty amount of work, but as I begin to focus I can make the 'healing' process speed up. I pinch my skin all the way up to my exploded rips. With all of that done I just slide all my organs into their new pouch. I'm pleasantly surprised when I notice that not only had this happened with my head and brain, but that some body sensations, thank you brain, have told me that my organs are arranging themselves. And with that, I feel the second thing, mild hunger. It is different from before, apparently having a working body is different then having a ghostly one, who knew. It's not much, not even a little uncomfortable, but I decide to look around for what could satisfy me.

The autopsy room was stereotypical, it looked a lot like an surgery room like in one of those TV shows. It just had an office area, and more tables, and cabinets with the... Okay maybe it would look like more of a morgue on a TV show. Wouldn't know, didn't really like TV too much when I was alive, prefer a good book. It had jars of stuff on shelves too, I wonder if any of this is stereotypical? I'm not sure; but the dead bugs, preserved organs, and blood I sense in the drains are too close to the living human. He looks upset, he is just staring at me, and his breathing is weird. Food, focus Taylor. Well, barring the catatonic human being, which even dead, I know not to eat, I notice the corpse behind me. He 'feels' like I can eat him. I pull back the covering like I'm revealing that I've made the rabbit disappear, except all I did was expose I nude dead guy... okay no more crazy analogues. I'm sure that they are getting annoying to you, because talking like this is all just a side show act is messing with me.

I look at the cool stiff. The line of stiches looks really... fashionable? Why do I think that heavy stitching on a body is fashionable? Well I am dead myself, so maybe my sense of aesthetics is different. Whatever fashion aside I reach for the seam and cut them open with sharp skeletal hands. Handy, that in defiance of proper biology I can move my skeleton hands. The inside of the man looked delicious. Now I know what your thinking. Taylor you are an undead for maybe 5 or 6 hours, how can you not be grossed out by the thought of eating necrotic flesh. Okay well one, you can see how good those lungs and heart look behind those tasty looking ribs, and two... I reached up under the ribcage and snapped the zip-ties holding the ribs closed. Two the only other food in here is the coroner, and he probably doesn't want to die. Not to mention that he was super respectful to my body, top notch autopsy, 10 out of 10 would die again. The stiffs lungs looked blackish, and you would have bet good money that I would find something like that unappetizing. I rip out the left one. I bring it to my mouth and take my first bite. I could taste! It was spongy, and kind of crunchy on the inside, like cottage cheese and eggshell. The flavor wasn't really strong, but the texture was very yummy. I go in for some more.

At some point halfway through the lung I noticed my flesh repairing. I hadn't noticed it before, but as soon as I moved past the taste it was like my eyes were opened. I couldn't 'feel' it, but I could sense that I had more to myself if that makes sense. Still no eyes, ear, or nose, but I could direct the flesh to things like my feet and stuff. And isn't that weird. Having a certain level of control over your body is normal, having such fine control that you can direct and feel individual cells, that is not normal. Ha, normal like that applies to my situation anymore. I could see everything my entire biology laid out before me, it was mostly inert. Why did it function? Having finished my lung, I look back to the corpse, I think I'll have the heart next. Almost as I soon as I thought that my mouth had a strange sensation around my teeth. I turn to show myself.... fangs, maybe an inch long. Instant adaptation huh, I could feel my cell rearranging, but it seems that my subconscious body really like to eat. Well I think I know what my body is trying to tell me here.

I press my face into that chest cavity and bite. It is really satisfying, the biting, but it is nothing compared to what came next. When people die I'm told that blood coagulates, but no one told me it tasted SO GOOD! It was thick like a milkshake and instant cement, but that taste was pure savory and the texture...like velvet. I sucked until nothing came. I could imagine that heaven was like this. Is it weird that I wish I could bathe in it?

Coming back to myself I notice that my legs and feet are repaired, hands too. Also, the coroner had left, and now was back with what looks like security. How long had I been devouring the body for? They are yelling I can't hear them, but hey, I am sensing my biology really good right now so points for that right. I place my hand behind my ear, you know the universal signal for "what, I can't hear you." They briefly stop yelling, only to start up again. Whatever I walk back over to my missing organs, namely my esophagus and my right lung. I watch them as they slowly back up from my approach. Lifting both up, much to what looks like protest from my audience, decide which I want to eat. I've had lung so... come here you tasty tube. That didn't really go how I thought, as soon as my lips touched my missing throat pipe it squirmed down my throat. I nearly choked more out of habit than reflex, but still watching my body swallow something like that was disturbing. It's funny, but that has to be the only thing that has disturbed me so far. Well at least the living have stopped trying to talk to me, too busy planning to capture me or something. I decide to finish putting myself back together; lung here, heart here, fold and press flaps to ribs, and then...

"Crunch!"

I nearly jumped. I could hear it when I put my rib cage back, still can't hear outside my body, but maybe it is getting better. With myself back in one piece I decide to take stock of my body. I move my joints and find that I'm a little flexible, I test this by leaning back. I can touch the back of my heels! Okay I'm very flexible, good job Taylor if undead gymnastics ever become a thing you'll have a running start. In my self-inspection I noticed something else. I was full of creatures that were not me, I don't know how I know that, but I do know that I can "eat" them with little effort. Doing that doesn't seem to do much... wait, hold on I can read and understand what it was that I just ate...I can change things...I don't know if that is a good thing, but apparently I can change myself and make things inside me too? I'm beginning to get the nasty feeling that I'm not just dead.

---

 

---

That feeling just continued to get worse as, after munching on some spiders I found in the corner, I was confronted with the police. This language barrier, I guess I could call it, was starting to get really annoying and being deaf is getting old quick. I'm not entirely sure why my senses are even gone. I can still see through my ghost so it isn't like I need my physical eyes, so why do I need my physical ears. It's like some arbitrary restriction designed by someone just to make my un-life difficult. I inspect the ears, they aren't even fucked up! So why, why can't I use them! The police notice either that I can't hear them or am not paying them any attention and one of them, with some brains, pulls out a pen and paper. He starts writing something down. I look around from the corner that I ate the spider in, it kind of tasted like a rather sour sweet, I could eat more of the old man, but with the police here probably a bad idea. The officer turns the paper around, its English, that's all I can tell about it. Oh, I can see it even tell you their are maybe a couple words, but I don't understand what the shapes say. I shrug at the officer and make a gesture to have the pen. He gives it to me with the pad of paper, I try writing on the page, it is just scribbles. It isn't my hands, I can't think in English, am I? Can you not understand me? Am I not talking to myself in English. That is a little existential, I think my body is trying to translate what my ghost is saying, but my brain is broken. I hand back the pad and pen, if they catch my disappointment at my now inability to communicate I don't see it.

After the police figure that walking corpses is not their department a few of them stop tiring to talk to me and go get a doctor. One of them even was brave enough to bring me a hospital gown, he got a great big smile for that one. Although I think it was ruined by my arm falling off when he tried to comfort me if his hasty retreat had anything to do with it. I didn't even realize I was naked, I guess when you die modesty is lost somewhere along the way. I pick up my arm from the ground and reattach it, I notice that my body even though animate is still rotting. A quick change here and there and suddenly I'm not. I know it is stingy, but I like having a body that doesn't collapse on me.

…

It occurs to me that is a normal thing, but I considered a non-rotting body as weird.

Uhh …

Maybe more than a little things about my personality have changed. It would be really nice for my new existence to stop fucking with me.

So, a doctor arrived, weird robes. Wait is that Panacea? That's not a rhetorical question, I'm actually having problems telling people apart. Like faces, are kind of a mess to look at. I'm mostly just going by what they are wearing to tell them apart, but if that is Panacea. Uhhh… I don't think that this is going to go too great. I mean I'm super dead. It's not like it is too much of a problem I just thought she couldn't work on the dead. And even if she can should I let her? She is super serious, walking towards me like I'm some frightened animal or something... wait! I'm undead right? Am I going to have some crazed nutjob with a gun try to prevent the zombie apocalypse? I really don't want to get shot in the face. Well given what I know about my not-biology (because I would have to be alive to have biology) bullets, even in my brain, cannot really get rid of me, but I can see that getting old if every alarmist in the city decide they need to be humanity's savior. Makes me feel kind of bad for the undead. Imagine your just walking along, not really a threat to anyone, and then, Bam! Some asshole decides he doesn't like your looks and just blows in your face, you'd be pissed too!

I look over at the slowly approaching hero, just really taking your time huh. Okay you're in arms reach, just reach out and touch me. She is just slowly reaching out, staring me down like she is tiring to see if the feral zombie is going to bite her. God I am going to have to deal with idiots aren't I. I roll my eyes and just grab her hand. Bad move on my part sure everyone in the room; the police, security, that coroner moved towards me at once, and I would probably be more focused on that if something more interesting was happening with my un-biology. I could read her. Now that sounds bad, I just started out by saying that I could read the things I ate right, well as it turns out that that is an exclusive property of dead tissue. I can read living tissue without eating it, at least skin level. I guess it makes sense. Dead tissue is dead, but because living stuff is still doing stuff, you know cell stuff, I can read living tissue without eating it. I can also read the bacterial life on her skin which look suspiciously edited. It was a bit like the header information at the top of programing suites in school. Describing it like that make sense to me, but it is exactly not like that. It is more like you can tell that certain genes are hand picked, because they compromise the organism so completely it can't function in a natural environment. It is a bit more than that. The edits I've made are more like nature if nature wished to kill things to make them better than natural selection. Is it some how worse that I can edit all of the living stuff too. Even revert the edits too. Which doesn't make any sense, how do you recover genetic information that no longer exists? At least I know I can fix anything I mess up, which is cool. When did I learn so much about biology?

Anyways back to the human in front of me that I kind of have been ignoring. She is concentrating. Like really concentrating some veins are popping up. I can feel her grip on my cells, like slick plastic, slowly try to change me. I yank it back from her, and lock her out of it, after all I didn't give her permission to change my makeup and I am kind of liking some of the experiments I'm conducting in here. She blinks and just tries harder, turns out world's greatest healer is kind of useless against the undead. Score one for the Undead, zilch for the Living. Getting tired of this I slip my hand out of hers, which breaks her concentration, and look around for more things to eat. The others are yelling again, I can hear something, see something too! Having two perspectives is weird but not too disorientating, but that could be because everything looks and sounds underwater. Okay so my body does have a kind of repair function, but what did it repair for me to gain some senses back? Looking at what changed I noticed that my eyes and ears weren't connected before. I feel like smacking my head, of course I can't see or hear my senses aren't attached to my brain! Or wait, what? That still doesn't explain how brain damage is effecting how I view the world in my ghost body. Does the information, or lack there of, that my brain shares with me, change how the world looks? Am I two separate people? That's kind of scary, am I me when I turn my brain off is not something I thought I would think when I got up this morning.

Maybe it doesn't matter I'm getting better and eating helps. Well I just need the right material then, so I know what to eat next. I spot it from across the room sitting in one of the jars, sliced like a turkey. Nodding to myself I start to move over to the brain in the jar. A few of the cops move to intercept, I stop just out of their reach. The one on the right reaches out I bend under his legs like my limbs had their joints cut and dodge around the other. I can feel my muscles physical limits holding me back from what I could really do, but it is enough to flow right by my would-be captors. This is getting fun, I run to the jar my swift body feeling light as I practically pirouette around the others joining in. My body is super flexible. With my long limbs it looks like a spider crawling through fingers when I dodge around the cops and coroner. It was like dancing, if dancing was done by the girl from the Exorcist.

If I started to smile as I danced and cartwheeled over and around them for a bit longer than necessary, I'll deny it. The smooth motion I could do with my new flexibility and strength were kind of mesmerizing if I'm honest, it is almost like I was designed to outpace humans. I checked just to see if I had been subconsciously editing this whole time. I haven't, but I could always use a confirmation. Anyways fun over and three of the four guys getting tired, one backing off, I made it to the jar. Without ceremony I open and pull out nice thick piece of brain like a pickle. And let me tell you, brains are the best. If I had a working larynx or vocal cords, I would have probably moaned out loud. As mortifying as that would be it would be worth the embarrassment. I can't even describe the flavor, but maybe salty? No, it is too complex for that word. It was sort of waxy, but had a chewy feel that didn't make the waxy-like properties unpleasant. I can tell it would better if it wasn't for the preservative being so bitter. I expel that quick, it isn't hard for me to separate it out to waste I'll pee it out later, and won't that be interesting to see what comes out of me when I go to the bathroom. Survey says, uh... nothing. I apparently use it all, no biological waste. It is going to be a short pee.

I reach for more while I go about repairing my nervous system. Man am I glad that this was here, it would be harder for people to calm down if I started eating the last meals brain. Assuming I could even open up his head, I'm not super strong or anything after all. My brain slowly fills in the missing parts and I'm treated to the wonders of well a brain. It doesn't change much, but things I had forgotten I was missing were back. Temperature for example, I could feel it now. I was cold, comfortable and cold. I start on "hooking-up" my more important senses. It doesn't take me long to fix that with the right materials as it turns out I even found time to fix my muteness, while I finished off mister brain. The process of me 'digesting' cellular makeup is just weird. I can turn any cell into any cell I want, all dead but still functioning. It is just easier in I replace cells with new cells of the same type, it isn't a requirement just easier. Is it weird that zero chemistry is going on inside of me, but the ideas of what each cell did in life is what is making me function. My body makes no energy. I should be incapable of movement, but I move. It would be easier, somehow, on me if I started up some chemistry, but it wouldn't be life chemistry. I start it up just as I start to recognize language. " What... PRT seems like.... CDC....It doesn't appear too responsive, maybe it's a bio tinker's construct?"

They were talking about me and I really didn't like the sound of their options for dealing with me. However, that does beg a question of if I am a bio-tinker's pet project, but letting people with a lack of interest in me control me? That's what got me killed. I think I've had enough of people just deciding what should happen to me. "So, I've finally eaten enough nerve cells to reconnect my brain to the rest of my body," I say out loud, a bit scratchy but still normal volume, " I also fixed my vocal cords so that I wouldn't have to write anything down, my hands are still a bit numb."

I am happy with the silence I caused, " I also would like to testify to my murder if that would be alright."

---

 

I finished another chapter today so here is chapter 3, enjoy.

---

As it turns out, no, it wasn't alright. Apparently when you turn into a zombie people tend to look down on you. Well I for one will not stand for this oppression, equal rights for the Undead! Talking was actually the wrong move, imagine that! It is almost like my entire life was trying to teach me a valuable lesson or something, genius Taylor genius. So, for anyone who finds themselves in this position let me give you some advice on how to proceed so you can learn for my mistakes. One, never just start talking out loud people tend to think zombies are supposed to be stupid, any evidence that goes against that makes them jump to conclusions. Two, if you are going to have to talk, try to sound confused or upset with your condition, people tend to find sympathy with the undead if they are self-loathing because they can't imagine being dead as an okay thing. And thirdly, never casually talk about your eating habit to a room full of the living, it bothers them for some reason. Anyways if my joking around isn't enough to convince you, how about what happened next?

Panacea was the first to step out of her shock, " Are we speaking to Taylor Hebert or the bio tinker or master in charge?"

I blink, physically and metaphysically, "What?"

They all stiffen, one of the officers is thumbing his weapon and it is making the slow feeling of dread forming in my stomach get stronger. Oh, hello body emotion feedback how I haven't missed you. While most humans wouldn't get it, having some distance from your problems via emotional deadening is quite comfy. As a side note I can recognize faces again, now that my brain is wired back up together. The blur of a lack of understanding is more like a realization of some answer, rather than some change in my visuals. I just guess I now can understand faces again. Read too, their is an anatomy chart on the wall, I can read Femur from here. Back to the faces though, Panacea is sort of a mousey look her features are sharp, long nose. The coroner looks as little pale, his expressions say barf-y. The officers seem just uneasy. " Look I don't think you understand what's going on-"

" You can stop me from using my powers on your body, the only things I've seen do something even remotely close are breaker states and bio-constructs."

I frown. Well what about dead bodies that don't have your permission?

" Look," it was the coroner's turn I guess, " why don't you come with us, we'll find a nice room and run some test."

And wasn't that a red flag. " Yeah," an officer said, " just come with us so we can help."

This was not good; I do not have the best track record when it comes to authority "helping" me. I look at them, physically unable to keep myself from tensing, I see them getting ready. Fuck this, I need to get out of here. And there is no way in hell I'm going to let them catch me. This body is swift, let's see if it's fast. I leap over the table, my dual perspective's giving me the advantage of seeing the entire room in an almost three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view. I've leapt into the middle of the group, coroner dives to the door and Panacea seems to back up, all while the two guards and two police scramble to the offense. Alright three heavy set guys, and one who pulled their gun. I am glad that my body seems made for evasion, because dancing through fists and grapples makes it much harder for people to aim at you. I jump over the coroner's head before anyone can grab me and bolt down the hall. I am fast, and running fills me with glee. Man if I thought the whole doing gymnastics around people was fun, then running was a high. The halls on this floor were mostly empty, and I guess it makes sense. The dead don't need attending to all the time, the dead have all the time in the world. I start to head toward the elevator. My pursuers are really lagging behind me, I reach the doors clicking the up button. I look back. They've barely made it half way down the hall, by the time the elevator dings its arrival. I slip through the door, hitting the ground floor button without my body turning to see it. I stared back down the hall, they were getting closer... and closer... can't this thing work faster! Was I panicking, My legs were bouncing on the balls of my feet to the rhythm of my tapping finger on my thigh. Focus Taylor, we need to focus. I take an inhale that I don't need. They were nearly at the doors when they finally closed.

I let out the held air, again mostly on instinct rather than need. I examine myself as the elevator rises. With my eyes not my power. My limbs are fully healed, no more exposed bones and my chest was fully sealed. The scar tissue was still present from both the autopsy and... The Locker. I scratched up my fingers to bloody ribbons in that metal sarcophagus. I try to remove the scars, my powers do nothing. Strange I could remove other scar tissues on my body, like that scratch from that nail when I was 4. What made these scars different?

I didn't have time to properly find the answer to that, as the elevator opened. The hallway was a lot more busy than the one in the morgue. At least a dozen nurses, with everything from clipboards, IVs, and needles to gurneys and mop buckets. No one looks over at the opening elevator, but they are definitely going to try to stop me when they see the animate corpse running in nothing but a hospital gown. I only hesitate for a second before I'm sprinting across the hall. The shouts of alarm as I leapt, squirmed, and crawled down that hall in a dead sprint. Dodging through tight frames of passage that almost makes it look like the chaos of the hall was a choreographed dance sequence. It was almost instinctual, animalistic as I weaved around, over, and under peoples grasping limbs. I reached the reception, and burst out of the hospital's glass doors just as the fire alarm triggered.

---

So, I escaped the hospital, to the actual surprise of no PRT hero stopping me at the front door. And I go home. I don't really know what else to tell you. I mean I did get some rather strange looks on the bus ride home, but nothing interesting happened on the way there. The scenery was the same as every day, dreary, wet January in the decaying city of Brockton Bay. I was really just happy that they let me on the bus. Turns out looking like the walking dead is a great way of gaining pity points from some of the bus drivers, or maybe he was just a pervert. I got lucky with the fair too, found a twenty near the bus stop. I messed around with my powers over my body a bit, but other than learning that I really wish to change how my muscles and bone structure work ( if I'm going to have improved muscle shapes my bones are going to have to get stronger and have more anchor points) I didn't really do much. I learned I can smell cancer. Older lady near to the front, has a tumor on her liver the size of my big toe. I thought about telling her, but it wouldn't matter. No one believes you when you look crazy.

Anyways I arrive home, dad isn't here because his car is missing, get the spare from under the rock, and before I know it, I'm home. Home isn't much I'll admit, but despite its small size it is huge without...mom. I shake off that negative thought and decide to look around. Because I'm also hungry and nothing in the normal food is appetizing. I literally follow my nose to see if I can find something edible. It leads me to a sink in the basement, or more exactly the black mold under the sink. I really have no sense of manners if I can stick my surprisingly flexible tongue to the bottom of the sink, and slurp up all that tasty mold. I made noises...I'd be ashamed if I could feel that feeling still. It is sweet, but more importantly I can make more of it inside me which is really giving me some ideas. Snack consumed I head upstairs to take a bath. Warm water is good when your alive, but when you have no internal temperature it is heaven. I hadn't even realized how cold I was, but I must have been freezing. Well I guess there is nothing I can do to fix that as I don't have any real metabolism. I slip out of my bath and into some comfy cloths, bed sounds nice too. I don't know if I can sleep, but even if I can't it will be nice to rest. It has been a mentally exhausting day after all. Sliding under the covers I think of one last thing I want to try. I start coughing, soon a tiny spider falls out of my nose, it's me! Well one is never enough...

---

 

So I thought that I had a major plot hole coming up that I couldn't fix because I started the story in January, but as it turns out Worm takes place after certain events. SO here is something to tide you over, I don't know if the quality of these early chapters is good.

---

I may have over done it. I look around at the millions of small spider creatures flowing like a fabric across every surface. They were under my control so it wasn't like it was a mess. I watch as they move at the slightest touch of my mind on their dead flesh. Like waves on the ocean. It says something weird has happened to me as I cannot help but find the lake of fungal spore spider hybrids as adorable. If I am remembering correctly, didn't I die to a bunch of insects? Shouldn't I hate this? I swarm my, well, swarm over my body covering me head to toes. Nothing...

I flow some into my body and become frustrated, " Why aren't I terrified?" I made them go into my mouth, up my nose, behind my eyeballs, nothing.

I check over my brain, nerves, and endocrine system. It is all, while dead, functioning correctly. I mean yeah, all cellular activity is nonresponsive and simulant chemistry is taking place at the will of my subconscious, but I'm getting frustrated so I'm not sociopathic, right? I should be traumatized I'm sure, right? I realize that I don't really know all that much about trauma, so maybe I am and it's something else? I shrug, if these creatures don't cause me discomfort, I guess that I'm fine with it. I hide my swarm in my body and throughout my clothes and decide that my nap was sidetrack. With my body asleep I decided to make some more additions to my body, after all I'll probably got some time before dad-

I bolt upright. "Oh shit, I forgot about dad!" My mind was a scramble of activity as I got my body up. I need to change clothes, Is he still at the DWU? I should call to make sure; he cannot come home to his recently undead daughter just chilling with her spider army in his recently deceased daughter's bed. That would be a good way to give him a heart attack. Hoodie dawned; the phone is in the kitchen. I practically fly down the stairs. " Come on, come on."

"Dockworkers Union this is Kurt speaking."

"Kurt!"

"Who is this?"

"It's Taylor I was wondering if you knew where my dad is?"

"Taylor, I thought he would be with you he was supposed to be with you, he left for your school after they called."

"Shit, thanks Kurt."

"Hey is everything okay?"

Yeah, it's great Kurt I'm a talking corpse trying to find my grieving father, "everything is okay I just need to talk to my dad before it's too late."

"Wha-" *Click*

Okay, so not at work let's try the hospital. I try that, no dice. Okay Taylor think if I was Danny Hebert and just found out that my daughter died in a locker because said daughter didn't mention a two and a half year long bullying campaign that caused her death... Shit...He is going to be so pissed at me...But this is the doomsday scenario I had imagined would happen if he found out, he is already crushed by one death and I have the power to stop it from happening twice! Okay Taylor, no going back, if I really want to protect my Dad, he is going to need to hear my secrets. I exit my house, a photo of Dad I pulled from a frame, spider army to help me scout out clues, and hoodie pulled up.
Operation Suicide Hotline is a go!
…

Probably not the best name....

I worked my way across town from the docks to some of the other sides. Dad is not much of a drinker, but I know that he sometimes drinks when I'm not around and he is thinking about mom. So, armed with that knowledge I hit up every bar and liquor store I can find. The route I took was practically breakneck, a blur of building after building each of them a dizzying array of smells and colors. He wasn't at any of them, along the way I would, at every pay phone, call the house to see if he returned, no luck there either. I'm starting to get worried. My spores are actually real useful beyond being a smokescreen for escaping certain undesirables. I can sense things through them with quite a different set of sensors. I can see light but not in any real detail so I can't see through them, but a more impressive sensory suite of chemical composition sensors and electroreceptors. It made everywhere I went a bit overwhelming as I ran by, but I wasn't confused about where I was going.

The individuals of my spore cloud aren't too impressive, but together I can find anything. I don't know what my max range is with them but after finding, and eating, a few choice carcasses, mostly dogs and cats, my numbers reach the billions. It is enough to be a dense fog over an alleyway. The fact that with them I was picking up evidence for over a dozen crimes that have taken place in this one alleyway I say I got a good career as a forensics scientist. And that train of thought would be exciting if I wasn't turning up jack crap on finding my dad. It was getting late and I was starting to panic, I need to think. The buses had stopped so the bus stop was deserted, perfect for a zombie to hang out and think at. If he is not at a bar maybe he is somewhere else I never see? He isn't with his friends, unless it's Allen and wouldn't that be an awkward visit. He isn't at the hospital, but he could be at the police, or hell he could be at the PRT with Panacea involved in my little "resurrection." Well that's a no go even if he is, the PRT probably convinced him that it is just my corpse piloted by some tinker rather than what is actually going on. He could be at the cemetery...

"Hey, girly looking for a good time?"

The sneering voice, I can smell the chemically aftertaste of flooded dopamine receptors, the lingering dampness of urine. I look up to confirm, yep apparently, I forgot that being alone at night and a woman is a stereotype. Five of them three guys and a surprise two girls, well good to see that the Merchants were an equal opportunity employer. But joking aside this is maybe a bad thing; one it is five against me, two I was just in the middle of an epiphany, three they don't look like they would taste good. Okay that last one is not too true; they remind me of the difference between skirt steak and prime rib. Both can be equally tasty we all just have preference. They are walking this way...might as well see how this goes. I get up and stretch, fixing my spine with soft crunch. " Oooh, look at that boys looks like she wants to play..."

"Oh, will be sure to show her a good time."

I yawn, five more steps, welcome to my parlor said the spider to the flies.

"That is quite a mouth I can't wait to stick my-"

Foods here! They walked into range, and before the second one could finish that though, I stabbed my fist into his throat collapsing his windpipe. "Eddie!" I grab one of the girls and slam my heel into her ankle, snapping it like a pencil. Control over your adrenal glands is useful. Her shrill scream was deafening, but I ignored it in favor of catching a fist aimed at my face.

Or at least I tried to, all it did was mean that the back of my hand connected with face. I fall to the ground and they all start to kick me. It hurts me, my cells lacking the ability to form bruises to help heal. Good thing you can't kill something dead. I feel one of my bones crack, and one of my eyes bursts when I get hit with a heel. They are all yelling, and I am hungry.

I watch as the bitch who took one of my eyes pulls back her leg. I'm starting to move with the kicks, almost avoiding the damage at all. It's almost like the dodging, I just move with their moves. The other woman, with her broken leg, is just sobbing. I see her friend's foot come in for another kick to my face.

I am hungry.

Just as the heeled foot comes into a few inches of my face, I bite her ankle. Blood fills my mouth as my fangs extent into the boney flesh. It is sweet. It is warm. I need it. As my body heals from the meal, the tasty human tries to rip her foot out of my mouth, I'm like a vice. The others have stopped trying to kick me and were now just trying to help her. All except one, "Eddie" seems to have recovered and is kicking me in my stomach. I release the girl just as they were pulling they fall in a heap. At the same time I caught the heel of the kicker, and pulled up. "Eddie" falls flat on his back and I climb on top.

Straddling his stomach, I practically slam the top of my jaw into his shoulder. My two fangs puncturing his filthy army surplus jacket and tee-shirt. My eyes close as I drink his blood while he screams right in my ear. It is sweet, warm, dark, and mine. I pull away far too soon for my tastes, and open my eyes.

The merchant underneath me is unconscious, and isn't bleeding out. I look to the other ones, who are half caring half dragging their member with the broken leg. My food won't get far. The miasma of spores erupts from me and chases after them as I stand in one motion. I run into the cloud of black fog my prey clear to me as they try to run from the sound of my slapping feet. I aim for the more mobile ones, they had dropped their companions in favor of their own skin. I form dense parts of the swarm around their feet causing them to stumble.

This body may not be strong or tough enough to take a punch from these two so I just have to not get hit. I catch up to them and slide under the feet of the one on the right. He twist to face me, a swing already thrown for where my face is. I duck around the fist, slamming my head into his chin as I stand up. He is knocked back just as his friend throws his own punch. I grab his arm as it goes by my head, and pull his body over mine with my body weight. It works, and the merchant thug sails over my body as I spins to pull him during his fall. Yes, I fell on my face, but it flipped the gangster onto his back.

Right on the curb with a satisfying crunch. He wasn't going to get up from that, still alive too. The other bastard was standing over me his boot ready to stomp on the back of my head. I roll to the right, and back up to my feet with a spin. He swung out at me with a slap, I back stepped and countered with my swarm flowing down his throat. This was educational, but really I was hungry and they interrupted my thought. The Merchant was choking as I walked over to the others to round them up. After rounding them up I tied them together with some spider silk I forgot these creature still could do. That would have been helpful during the fight.

One by one I drink some of their blood. It was maybe just a cup from each. What did you think I was going to kill them? Don't be absurd! I even called them an ambulance after taking it with one of their phones. I even thanked them for the meal, even if they were all unconscious for it.

I hightailed it out of there and made my way to mom. The thought I had before I was interrupted was that dad might be at the cemetery. He doesn't like going there unless it is the anniversary, but this was me dying. It was a pretty big event and I checked everywhere else I could think of. It was a bit of a walk but hey I was feeling refreshed after such a hearty meal. Dead tissue was good, but living tissue was king.

As I approached the cemetery, I could see dad's car, perfect! It was then just a simple hop over the fence, and a short jaunt to my passed-out father. Dad was just laying down in the grass next to the small headstone. He looked like he was cold. The bottle in his hand was nearly empty. I wince at that. I know I kept things from him to keep him from being upset, but I am beginning to think that was probably a poor decision. " Come on dad, time to get you home."

"Five more minutes Annie..."

I just smile. He is heavy. I can't pick him up, but maybe I can use that extra blood for something. A few modifications and a quick rearranging to my muscles, and ta-da! I can now lift my much heavier father. Man, this whole being undead and having strange powers is kind of neat. I lift my father into my arms. I look down at mom's grave, I really wish she was here. That's when I feel it a hand gripping my shoulder... not my body's shoulder... MY shoulder. I turn my metaphysical head...….

" Mom?"

"Hey, Sweetie."

---

 

Another chapter..... It is a bit short, like a lot of these early chapters.

---

Driving is hard. " Look out for pedestrians dear." Driving with your mom's spirit back seat driving while the families last living member is passed out in the back seat is probably harder.

"He'll be fine, and I wasn't going to hit'em!"

"I wasn't saying you were, honey just to be more observant."

I got off the sidewalk and onto the street, man I think this whole driving thing would be more fun if mom and dad weren't in the car. I doesn't help that before today I had never even driven. It is also probably bad that I have a deep seated trauma around cars in the form of my mother's death. I feel mom squeeze my metaphorical head to her metaphorical chest and stroke my metaphorical hair. I only say metaphorical because as it turns out ghost anatomy is a little fuzzy. It feels like she is stroking my hair, but it also feels like a head pat and a hand holding my cheek. She is also maybe giving me a hug, again it is weird. All I can really say is that mom is comforting me. God it is nice to feel this again. However, she has been doing it since we reunited, and as much as I am enjoying the correcting of my severely lacking amount of physical affection over the past two years...I feel her squeeze a bit tighter... I guess this can happen for a little longer.

"Don't forget your turn signal, Taylor." I smirk hidden away with my body that is actually doing all the driving. So, it turns out that I'm indeed not a parahuman. The evidence of my mom being here and knowing things that I cannot possibly know, like how she has been watching dad at work and me at school, but also monitoring the other going-ons that happen at the cemetery. It is pretty big evidence that I'm not projecting her, she knows things I can't possibly know about. So, I'm dead and somehow got a very abnormal afterlife. Mom says that she has never ran into any other ghosts, but the cemetery feels full is how she described it. There are rules it feels like, but it could be as simple as time or maybe my own knowledge, otherwise I would be running into the dead like crazy. There are more people dead than alive right. So, what am I?

" Be careful of that pothole sweetie, these tires aren't the newest."

I don't know. I swerve around the road hole we are almost halfway... I think...

"Hey mom if were both ghosts why aren't you a zombie?" It feels kind of silly to use the word, but hey I am a zombie so if anyone thinks it is silly I'm the one they can take it up with.

"I'm not sure," she whispers into my hair," but you smell strange."

I laugh, " I'll have you know that I took a shower before I went out on the town tonight."

She laughs, I've really missed her...I'm never losing her again. " Make a turn here Owl."

All in all, the realization of the afterlife, my death, the return of my mother, the driving... I'm still going to have to tell my dad about the bullying. "And you should," did I say that out loud? She continues, " It is absolutely deplorable that Emma would do such a thing to you."

" But mom, dad is going to be crushed!"

"Then that is his hurdle to overcome," she stated with finality, " It isn't right to hide hardship from those that can handle it."

"Oh yeah, dad could handle it with your death in the background," I talked back defensively.

"Taylor Hebert," She screamed in my ear, I swerve a bit, " that is an incredibly inappropriate thing to say!"

I quiet as she continues, " you clearly don't understand your father as well as I do, because if you did you would have known that he would burn the world for this family."

" But..."

" No buts; he would not put this family into debt trying to out sue a lawyer, he would not work himself to death for Arcadia or home schooling, and he wouldn't yell at you if you needed to just take a break from Winslow."

"What would he do," I ask cowed.

" He would find a solution," the confidence of that statement was practically bricks to all the ideas and fears I had about my father's state of mind. I practically deflated. Was I really so foolish to think that the strongest man I know wouldn't be back? Or did I really think that my father was an idiot. That thought hurt, he didn't deserve to be thought of like that. We drove in silence for a long time.

"I love you mom."

I can feel her smiling into my hair, " I know, I love you too Owl." And just like that with a few bloody tears in my body's eyes, we were home. I lifted my father upstairs and into his bed, he hadn't even flinched, he must be really inebriated. Hmmm... I put my hand on his forehead and read his body just to check to see if alcohol wasn't the only thing in him. Nope, he is clean, thank God I don't know how I'd feel if I learned my dad was suicidal. With dad taken care of me and mom, she hasn't let go yet, go downstairs to sit in the living room. Ha, living room.

"So, mom."

"Yes dear?"

"Do you want me to make you a body?"

She is quiet for a while before, " Honey I've already lived a life and-"

" It isn't hard, and my powers seem to be built around stuff like this."

" But Taylor, it wouldn't be mine and what would it be made out of?"

" To answer that first question, yes it would be your body apparently it is a part of whatever information your ghost is so I can read it," It really was, her ghost was full of information and not just on what made up my moms body, " and secondly I can make you a body out of anything biological."

" But it wouldn't be right, it wou-"

" If it wasn't right it wouldn't have been allowed to happen with me, or are you saying that my existence is wrong," It would kind of hurt if she thought the undead were wrong.

" No, never!"

" Then?"

She sighs, " Okay, but if it is dangerous or gross, I reserve the right to hate it." I smile into my mom's chest; we really are all so stubborn.

I wasn't lying when I said that there was "genetic" information on mom's ghost body, there was just more of it than could possibly fit in a human body. Some of it was esoteric, others were certainly from her previous body (it was almost like it was book marked for me), and others were well genius. It wasn't like I was reading one person it was like I was reading multiple possibilities for genetic structure.

It was cool. I first gathered the materials that I would need with my spore spiders (need a better name for those). I mostly gather insects, both dead and alive, from the surrounding area. My range was still not reached but I could reach several blocks in every direction. I also used several fungus and mold I found along the way as they resemble nerve cells quite well. And a tree, it was dead so I don't think anyone will miss it. With all the materials dissolved I brought them back home. Mom was kind of grossed out by all of the things I was going to be using to build her body back, but I started to explain what I was doing in detail and she started to just be really interested. It felt good to be good at something and have someone be interested in it.

As I went along the body began to take shape before our eyes, I was really glad that my powers just knew what was mom and what wasn't because this was a lot of data to go through. Although some of that Other data was interesting, even useful for solving some human structure problems. I asked Mom if she would like any of them, but sadly she refused. I made some information packets of the data within my own supplies to look through at a later date. The brain was the hardest part even with the blueprint, I had to 'run it' to see if it was correct. My mom had to help me to see if it was working correct, and as it turns out sharing my power was really weird but taught me on how I can actually get my mother bound to the actual body.

After a while I was done and a nude inanimate body that was a perfect copy of my mother was sitting on the couch next to me. I double checked that it was all correct, and then decided it was time to pour my mother into it. She was being clingy. " Mom it's not like you're not going to be able to be around me!"

" Five more minutes..."

" Mom it's been five hours its almost morning and Dad could wake up soon."

"Okay, okay, geeze they grow up so fast."

"MOM!"

"Hahahahahahaha."

The process maybe took a couple second, but it took her forever for her to "wake." Almost fifty minutes later when I was near to panic that I had just lost my mom once again.

*gasp*

Oh thank God, I was so sure that I had fucked something up. "Mom," I ask out loud.

She looks over at me, it takes a second, but she smiles, "Hey Owl."

---

 

---

Now that there are more of the undead in the world, we can start to look for similarities that they share. Although since it is just two, I don't think that it can count towards any scientific paper. One all undead appear dead, we don't look alive our eyes are foggy and unresponsive, skin has paled and greyed significantly. Two we don't really care for clothing. It's odd, but my mom is, standing next to me helping me make breakfast for dad when he wakes up, fully nude. I'd be embarrassed if I was alive, but dead, ehh … She hasn't even said anything about it. Looking at myself, although not visible on my dark hoodie, I'm still covered in some blood from those Merchants. I... I just now noticed it... Well I guess I'm going to have to take care of that. "Mom?"

"Yes sweetie."

"My clothes are ruined," I pause wondering how to phrase this before realizing if it didn't bother me in front of strangers too much to be naked, telling Mom she is won't matter, "and you're naked."

Silence...

My mom looks down. Her body much of the blueprint for my own adolescent growth if it weren't for stress holding it all back. I guess now with my powers I can get that back for myself, but honestly, I couldn't care less about looks. Being undead it doesn't really matter what I look like. I got my mom back, I'll take it. " Oh!" I smile she really didn't notice. A hasty retreat to my room revealed two things; one the blood on my hoodie was edible without destroying my cloths, and two I was simultaneously both taller and smaller than my mother. We joked about how dad is going to react to seeing her is such a tight shirt. It was nice, being with mom. When we are close, I can feel her spirit touch mine, like a hug or a kiss on the forehead. I don't care what dad says, I'll accept anything if it means that I can be with mom. Another thing that is strange about the undead is we still like food, but only if it is burnt or undercooked. We lost 3 eggs and 2 strips of bacon between us, the eggs raw and the bacon smoked. They were delicious and restorative, but finally we had a human worthy meal in front of us. And just in time too dad was running down the stairs. I guess we are supposed to be dead.

"I swear to god if you fuckers broke into my house just steal my bac-"

Both me and mom look over to see dad standing at the foot of the stair baseball bat barely in grip. He looked from mom to me, his brain practically hamster wheeling harder than I've ever seen. Mom decided to end that prematurely, " now Danny I thought I told you to keep that foul mouth of yours at work." Dad started to gape like a fish. " Yes, it is lovely to see you again dear," she said smiling her hands on her hips were a nice touch, " but please come and sit down, Taylor and I spent all morning trying to make breakfast for you." Dad just nodded and dropped the bat. We sat across from dad as he mechanically ate his food. It was almost fifteen minutes before anyone spoke. " Annette?" Mom just nodded, and dad broke down. Mom and I were swept up into dad's arms as he kissed and hugged us, he was crying so much that I was too. " How... Taylor was-"
"It's fine dad I got better, I fixed it."

After convincing dad to finish his breakfast, he looked hungover but that smile was endless, we moved the conversation to the living room. Dad was sitting with mom on the couch and I took one of the closer chairs to them. " So," Dad starts," How are you two still alive?"

" Honey were not."

"What!"

I took over for that one," dad, me and mom are still very much dead."

Dad look like he was on the verge of a panic attacks, " what..."

"Okay," I severely messed up with my explanation," dad relax, what I mean is that we're undead, I guess."

" How is that not being alive," dad was shaking now, but I think that is just some emotional whiplash from our terrible start.

" It's simple Danny," mom starts and really, she could be more of an expert she has been dead longer than I, " these bodies are just things Taylor built for our ghosts to pilot around."

" So, you're not really here," at least he isn't panicking anymore, but depression isn't much better.

I sigh, " dad it just means that we are in multiple places simultaneously."

Dad takes some time to digest this information, and to be fair it is kind of a stretch for the living to imagine. " Yeah for example when I was just a ghost, I was in four separate places; the DWU with you, with Taylor at school, here at home, and the cemetery," Mom expounded.

Wait, " You were at all those places at the same time?"

" Yes, I still am at them now," Mom further reveals, " Well except at the cemetery and home, I kind of already rejoined with those instances of myself."

" Huh..."

" Hold up," dad was kind of back from his almost morose shock now, and was holding the timeout pose, " does that mean that you both are parahumans?"

" No." " I don't think so."

Dad looks from mom to me at our different responses, " okay why not?"

" Well I've never heard of an undead cape, but I know that even the highest-level brutes can be killed if you destroy them completely," to be honest every cape I've heard of can still be game ended, it probably just takes some kind of a trick.

" Okay how does that explain it?" Really asking the hard questions huh dad.

" Simple I watched my death in full detail, including an autopsy of my corpse with my brain being outside of my body, the draining of all my blood, and seeing the inside of my chest cavity all from a silent third person perspective."

My dad's face is incredibly pale after that explanation, then mom put in her experience and all the two years she saw, and I think that cemented it to my dad that we were truly the undead. I mean describing in full detail that your corpse was essentially a puddle of black ooze at the bottom of your grave is pretty definitive on the whole dead thing. It is kind of weird, but mom didn't watch her death, she sort of just 'woke' up one day. With mom's explanation I decided to fill in what had been going on at school since that summer vacation after mom died. If I was scared that my father seemed to get progressively angrier every second I explained the horrible bullying campaign, mom was there to hold my metaphysical hand. When I got to the locker dad had to get up and leave to the basement. " You're doing great sweetie," mom placed a physical hand on my knee.

*smack*

"Are you sure," I say concerned, " Because I think that dad just punched the stone wall in our basement."

*smack* *smack* *smack*

"Oh, he's fine Taylor, he just needed to go handle his anger."

Dad comes back after, his knuckle on the left hand bloody, "okay, I'm fine, continue." I'm dubious on that fine status, but I continue. I tell them both about my adventures at the hospital and in the streets looking for dad. Dad at least looks guilty at me trying to find him, he is angry that I didn't call for help with the thugs but is mostly satisfied that they were punished. " How did you get me home; I hope you didn't walk."

" You may have a few red-light tickets coming in the mail soon."

Dad just put his head in his hands, " It's okay I helped," mom added cheerfully. Got a chuckle out of dad. With all that information divulged we waited for the last living member of the family to say something. " Taylor, you're grounded." I open my mouth, " not because you were bullied; but because you tried to parent your parent, drove the car through three red lights, lied to me for two years, and died." I shut my mouth at that. Dad looks up at me, he is smiling, a grin ear to ear, " I'm really glad you're both back." Mom hugs dad and I do the same. " So, how long am I grounded for," I ask from dad's chest.

"Forever."

---

 

Merry Christmas and to those that don't celebrate Happy Holidays!

---

Now if you're wondering if this happy little reunion was the end of our story, well I've got some bad news for you.

*Knock, Knock*

You see while I was out and about looking for my father, I had seemed to forget a simple plot point. "I'll get it," I say getting up from the chair. I was seen by at least seven people exiting the hospital, one which was Panacea, who was around when I got up from the autopsy. " Hell-" The armor was blue and filled the frame, a neat beard rested beneath an exposed frown. Shit, I close the door before he can even talk. Setting the dead bolt, I turn to the living room, " dad!" I can hear dad and mom getting up and coming over to me.

"What is Taylor," Mom asked.

"Armsmaster is here."

" What the Protectorate hero?" I Nod. Since it is probably apparent to you that being labeled a bio-tinker's construct by one of the most prominent healing hero in the world and having the PRT at your door is a good way to get killed. It wouldn't have been a problem if it was just me, I mean it isn't like not having a body is a permanent problem, but I included mom and dad in this. Sure, mom would be fine, but dad... The knocking was happening again, it was getting more insistent... Dad could get in trouble. Mom walks past me to the door, and me the coward I am can't stop her. I feel her spirit brush past mine, her hand holds mine, it helps with the rampant anxiety. Dad pulls me away from the front entrance and sits me down with him. I can hear the door open; mom is talking to the hero. Before long mom is coming back with Armsmaster and two PRT troopers. Anyone ever tell you that those masks the troopers wear make them look unfriendly. Armsmaster stands and mom goes into the kitchen to get something, I don't know I've been tuning everything out to try and get ahold of myself. Armsmaster stands in front of me, a scary titan of metal. I can't believe that I used to fan-girl about this hero, now that he is here I just want to throw up. "...Taylor?"

I start at my name being said from my father, " sorry could you repeat that I wasn't listening."

Dad smiles, " I was just asking if you were okay."

"I'm fine."

" Then maybe you could answer some questions," Armsmaster practically typewrites into the air. I nod after I realize that was a question not a demand. " Right," he starts, "where were you yesterday at 5PM."

"Was this before or after the autopsy," dad winces at my question, but honestly, I wasn't keeping track of the time.

" After, you were seen leaving the hospital," If Armsmaster was surprised at my lack of denying that I was dead, it didn't show.

" Ah, I was on a bus ride home."

" I see, and after that?"

" Looking for my father."

Armsmaster seems to be cocking his head just slightly, " Are you a Construct?"

Dad and mom tense up beside me, I feel dad put a hand on my knee and mom is practically wrapped around my spirit with hers. " No," I bite out.

" Are you sure," Armsmaster is really animated now almost like he is excited about the possibility of me being artificial, " do you have proof."

"Yes."

Armsmaster seems to almost shift in his stance, " well?"

" I don't want to tell you."

" Cooperation is encouraged, it would be prudent..."

Mom cuts him off, " I'm sorry do you have a warrant, it has been awhile since I've done this, so I forgot to ask at the door."

Armsmaster pauses, " No, this is just supposed to be a friendly-"

" Ah, yes you don't I was just checking," mom's grin was almost convincingly friendly,
almost.

Armsmaster looks like he wants to protest, but tilts his head instead, " are you a parahuman?"

Feeling more confident with my parents backing me up, I shrug, " sure."

" Are you willing to come in for power testing, we have a great facility-" I start to tune him out for this part as not only does it sound like a script, but Armsmaster clearly is just reading it out loud. In fact, why am I even telling you about this part, it's boring, and totally stressing me out. So, while I answer no to an increasingly more and more frustrated cape, let's look at some of the things I'm inventing in my body! Okay so ever since I made mom's body, I've been looking over the Other code for useful data. So far, I've found bones that can produce electricity when stress is applied, some eyes that are built for the undead to use, and a starfish like muscle structure that is ten times stronger than my current ones. This is just some of the interesting things I found that I can actually make. Some designs call for things that require stuff like metal cells or viral making immune cells, these things can't be made by me as the information for them doesn't exist. I don't even know where to start on some of them either. Like indestructible eye lenses for tunneling through high powered laser beams. I would need to invent an entirely new organic crystal cellular structures that works smaller than any cellular biology has any right to be. The cells themselves were possible, but the lasers... I mean there is making it, but the caloric consumption required to actually use it for that stuff... Not even possible. I am also having a hard time finding more and more excuses for where I learned all of this biology stuff, it is like I had the information dumped into my brain when I wasn't looking. Sure the chemical receptors in my swarm make it possible for me to 'see' chemistry in action, but I still don't 'know' how I learned all of these terms. Like where did I learn the word angiomyogenesis, and why do I know that it means the process of repairing heart cells?

Anyways thanks for listening, I guess I should get back to the conversation or something. Armsmaster was annoyed, clearly, he was trying really hard not to move. They were giving me the hard sell on being a Ward, but honestly, I was kind of done with teen things. Can you blame me? Teen things killed me. I don't care if their nice or if it comes with a paycheck, or even Arcadia. I've got mom back I can survive Winslow, just need to make sure that my killer gets caught. " Are you sure that I cannot convince you," Armsmaster practically looks defeated. I mean he looks the same as when he first walked into my house, but well he is every subtle with his body language and I haven't been blinking for awhile. "No," it feels almost rehearsed at this point. Armsmaster looks to my parents, " it is dangerous for new capes in this city, between being forced into a gang to outright assassinations, being an independent is dangerous."

Dad seems to be considering it, but mom beats him to the punch, " You know legally speaking the PRT is a branch of the United States Military, so signing her up against her will would be unwilling conscription." Ten points to mom. Dad seems to give that more priority. Armsmaster seems off put by that, " we are not recruiting child soldiers Article 6.7.a states-"

" Sure, sounds like you are," I stop him before he can continue," are you going to catch my killer if I give you names?"

" Are you willing to let that be a term to joining the Wards?"

" What," why would catching a murder have terms and condition, " a crime has been committed, you are a member of law enforcement."

" You misunderstand, we only handle cases involving parahuman crime. If you were killed, as you claim, then it would be the jurisdiction of BBPD, not the PRT as you weren't attacked by a parahuman."

" Well then I guess I can report to the police and unmask myself to a large public building," it is kind of obvious that being dead would have been quite well known to the police.

Armsmaster frowns, " We could take your statement and forward it to the police, but even then, you are not dead so it would hardly be murde-"

" I watched myself be cut open on the autopsy table," Armsmaster stopped talking when I started, " I then watched as they took out my organs from the opening." I pulled my shirt down a bit to show them the scars on my chest, " they started with my lungs and heart, it got as far as the removal of my brain, don't tell me I don't fit the definitions of dead." I was wondering if that would work at maybe moving this along. It had the desired effect though, several twitches out of Armsmaster and flinching from some of the troopers. The trooper next to Armsmaster was fidgeting from one foot to another, " okay, I understand you may have a case for at least attempted 2nd degree murder, what were the names?"

"Sophia Hess, Emma Barnes, Madison Clements."

" What was the first one, again?"

" Sophia, Hess."

Armsmaster nods and says his farewells taking the two troopers with him. I let out a sigh after I'm sure that they are gone.

With that unpleasant surprise from the local cape scene, barging into my home. In broad daylight no less! We had the unfortunate conversation about what am I going to do with my powers. " I don't want to go out and be a cape yet." I think dad was just releived to hear me say that, but it is true. That dream I had as a kid, where I go out and fight crime with... Emma... is kind of dead. I mean I'll fight if I find a need for it, but my powers are a little, crazy. Not to mention completely optional. I'm not a cape after all, being undead is different. If I did go out and become a cape I would be voluntarily inviting that life into my un-life. I'm not sure that it would be safe for my family to be even remotely involved with the cape scene. "Think it would be better if I just pretended to be normal?"
" I don't know honey," mom put her hand on my shoulder, " but if you don't want to fight, that's fine."

" You do however need to figure out what to do about the gangs," dad starts with his own sigh, " whether you want to fight or not, if the gangs find out that you have powers they are going to want something from you." I think back to last night, the Merchants that I fought. The gangs may not be the only one who wants something, their blood was tasty. " And we should definitely think about some self-defense courses too," mom continues interrupting my thoughts of consumption, " would you be willing to wait for something?"

"Yeah mom," it would be harder maybe but I'm still not sure if I want to be a cape yet, " with my power set, people are not going to like me very much."

"Then maybe you should keep the nibbling to a minimum, Owl," mom was smiling at me, how did she know that I was thinking that? Oh, yeah she is still holding my metaphorical hand. Getting a read on my emotions is cheating mom.

" But I'm hungry," I pout. Dad was cringing at that, but he was human so I guess talk of eating people would be uncomfortable. Mom thought it was cute at least, " you're just going to have to stick to carrion like me, well at least until you fight someone that doesn't mind some cannibalism."

"Okay as interesting as how the other side lives is," dad says getting up to clear the table and clean up, " I really would like to know who we're going to tell about you two."

I hadn't thought of that, " Well I guess just friends of the family."

"Not Alan though."

"Not Alan."

We spend the rest of the morning talking. I died yesterday so I'm not going to school, consider it a sick day.

---

 

Hey I've been holding out on this for too long I hope you enjoy this chapter. Also I've got a few questions: do you think that this should have PHO or interludes from other characters?

---

As it turns out forever lasted about 3 hours, I needed to collect material, so I excused myself from my family. Dad was initially against me going out, but mom said it was okay. I think she wanted to talk to dad by herself. It didn't take long in my walk to realize I was being watched, a van held some people with something electrical, okay maybe it was nothing. I can "see" for miles around with my spread-out swarm, and it was getting bigger too, but it is still hard to tell what somethings are. Not to mention as it was getting wider, I was starting to get blank spots in my vision. Like I could 'see' it all, but some of it was out of the corner of my 'eyes'. At this rate Brockton Bay isn't going to have any dead creatures left, I keep eating them via spider swarm. I'll probably look into gathering and growing some fungi and bacterial cultures. I am a walking ecological devastator at the rate of subsumed things join my swarm. The constant feeding of my swarm brought me into contact with many new species of animals, plants, and fungi. I was already learning a few things from some of the fungi I found in a greenhouse. A yellow parasol like mushroom, a minor irritant to humans if ingested. The bright yellow color comes from an alkaloid called birnbaumins, in high concentrations it can cause stomach ulcers hence the irritation. Could be useful, I also found some Fusarium mold structures on a poor rat, full body infection it looks like the bones were practically putty. Those were just some of the fungi I found, the dead rat cells were easily reclaimed by me just as were all of these; 253 dead squirrels, 58 dead dogs, 23,475 dead cockroaches, 125,456,807,345,590 living and various bacterial, Protista, and micro-fauna (it could have been more but I've been trying not to take too many creatures from the ecosystem), maybe 62 dead birds... I even found some anthrax, which see as how it is every where in dirt, not too surprising. What is surprising, what I can do with it. I could in theory redesign my swarm into a swarm of modified anthrax and make it airborne. I could also make it stay completely dormant for years before it activated...that is a bad idea...Let's stay away from modifying diseases that are a common bio-terrorism trope, it would send the wrong message. This was not meant to frighten anyone just more of an explanation of what I've found. I also could get genes that are recessive or even the junk stuff so when I find a species, I can extrapolate some of their origins. So, guess who just got bio-luminance. Yep I can now make my spores glow a soft yellow, I am having a hard time with pigments and colorations. If only I could get my hands on some chromatophores, then I could confuse my pre-, I mean enemies. I need to watch that; Humans are not food. Not really if I wanted to be technical, I would benefit much more from a mutual symbiotic relationship with humanity. Maybe not instantly but if human history has taught nature anything is that humans are better taught then eaten.

I really would like to go on with all the 400 plus species of Fungi, Molds, and dead animals/insects, some super sized viruses I found, but we would be here all day and I think you might get bored. To put it simply I have found ways of finding specific genes (Slime Mold is so cool), a way to transfer energy around my body (also slime mold), how to pretend to be an undead fairy, and how to seamlessly integrate the living and the dead (Mom). I'm not sure what that makes me. Anyways I'm headed to the Boardwalk, to fish. My swarm follows me in a circle with me in the center. I've never gone fishing before and I'm pretty sure that what I'm going to do doesn't count.

I take the bus again, as while I could run al the way there it would kind of out me. Climbing on the bus I receive some dirty looks, but at this point I'm kind of expecting people to be shitty to me. After all no one liked me when I was alive, so why should I expect them to like me when I'm undead. I took a seat near the back. The bus ride wasn't long so I reached the Boardwalk some time at mid-day, even if in January the cloud cover makes it almost impossible to see the sun. The Boardwalk is, in tourist seasons at least, one of the nicest places in town. It is home to most of the shops, cafes, and arcades that are not in the dreaded mall across town. I was here mostly just to stand on the beach, but I still think it is important to tell you what the place is like.
The Boardwalk isn't particularly busy today, but it looks like the enforcers are out. I wonder if some kind of event is going on. The enforcers look like PRT troopers, just on a budget and tougher looking. There not my problem as long as there is no one from school I'm safe. As I walk down the wooden slats, I feel like I'm missing something. People are giving me a wide berth, and I'm receiving not only dirty looks, but concerned ones as well. That is a rather big indicator that I'm doing something strange. I check myself over. I'm not missing any parts; I have my wallet and keys... am I barefoot? Yep that's it. That might be the reason people are looking at me, unless I'm missing something else. Oh, that's right it's winter. And it's cold and wet... And I'm wearing only a hoodie and some jeans. I should be freezing, but I'm only cold. I should say I am freezing, but it doesn't matter to me. I'm not uncomfortable. I shrug, let's go to the beach.

Fishing for me probably doesn't look like much. I just sort of stand there and use my spores to search the ocean floor. It was a pain to fix their legs into something more aquatic as I had to do it in recycled batches, one thousand members at a time coming to me getting changed and then going back out, but I manage. I don't really want to fish this way. I'm resisting the urge to jump in the water and catch them with my teeth. I just really want to hunt something. Maybe not even kill it just chase it, maybe catch and release? I don't know. I shouldn't have instincts, I'm dead. I'm so dead that my body is doing un-biology instead of decomposition. Although now that new members of the swarm have cycled back to me, I guess I'm now doing both biochemistry and the other chemistry too. Hmmm... I wonder if I can leave this body. I attempt to leave and it was almost like I set the body on autopilot; I didn't leave I just got introspective. I stopped receiving signals from my body and brain, now i was just floating here watching body me continue to function. It is kind of existential to think that my body will continue to do what is doing with out my mind present forever if I really wanted to. I reconnect as the feeling gets rather intense.

I made a body this morning, I wonder if I can make more bodies? Well of course I can. When mom's was being built, I knew that I could control it, but now mom oversees it. Seeing as my swarm was now able to reach the downtown area I start to build it in a sealed off room of an old warehouse. I was going to just make a copy of me, but I was bored by that idea quick. The body I built was inspired by some of the other code from Mom, a few choice mushrooms, and some experimental stuff that I was working on earlier. It took a lot of trial and error. Some of the setups weren't stable, or the undead organs weren't in chemical balance with some of the living tissues, and some cellular structure were just incorrectly supported. But soon I was able to make a body that had everything I wanted to do with it. I connect the brain to the body, a new structure that would support all the connections and senses. With the brain set up all was left to do was to was connect to it. When I was doing this with mom it was like I was holding her hand as she stepped into the body, so I try to replicate the same thing here.

" Hnng," I can't see the ocean, everything in my vision has gone blurry. I start whimpering as my body floods my nerves with activity, the sand of the breach reaching up to catch me.

" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH," the world is in two places as I watch my body collapse on the beach, and see the other body spasm in agony. I scream as the world around me melts and distorts between the two views, like my eyes have been stretched across the world.

I curl up into a ball on the concrete. The darkness around me burns and hates me. As the world tries to kill me with sound and smells, new senses that don't have words form in the haze of firing synapses, the hurt so much. I whine to make it stop even as I hear the snapping of glass as reality around me breaks.
I see all of me and the separations in between us. We can see all of us as we each start screaming in the pain we have caused. I feel our ghost stretch in unnatural ways as it starts to splinter at the seams. We quickly sever the pain centers in the new me. We fall separate as our connections become new and heal. I am once again Taylor, but I can feel the other Taylor standing beside the new me. I stand up on the beach and look around. Nobody came over when I collapse so I must have been only screaming in our heads. I check on the swarm as I had lost contact with every thing in that haze of torment. What was that? I know what the other me is doing right now, she is also asking the same question. I decide go on autopilot and watch through my other's ghost.

---

I watch my new body curl up on itself on the floor, I feel like a piece of shit. I hurt us with out even meaning to. Without the pain, I realize that it technical worked and that I just tortured myself. New me curled up tighter on the floor, I sent some comfort through our connection. I can feel her ghost interact with mine as she works through what went wrong. It is kind of weird comforting me. My awareness was in three and as I stood back up on the beach, I relaxed in the warehouse as my spirit fixed a poor grouping of nerve cells that caused the pain cascade. It was fixing some thing with the way its brain cells were connected, apparently the pain centers of the brain were connected improperly. This appeared to have caused a sensory overload. I decide to watch me some more.
I stand up once the pain of my creation faded, I had my own instance of ghost me just to the right of me. Odd I didn't seem to be in third perspective behind me but like I would walk with me. This is going to be confusing. I can see in the dark with this body, but it is absolute darkness in here, so it is at its worst. The fixes to my brain done, I decide I wish to see what I look like. I look along the walls to see if I can find crack or maybe a door. No such luck, I pout as I realize that the room was well and truly sealed against anything other than the spore spiders who brought my materials into the room. I use the swarm, to look around at the structure encasing me. I am fishing on the beach, I can feel myself their. She is me, I am her it is not as confusing as she thinks, as other me thinks. I find with the swarm some structural cracks in the wall. Perfect, I smile as I line up my fist. The first punch I throw at the concrete wall shakes it, the second cracks it, the tenth makes the hole wide enough...

Or it would if I was Taylor!

If I could describe Taylor body as flagpole (Thin and tall) then my body is a water tower (Curvy and Taller)! I eventually get my hips past the hole. It was bright enough to see and I looked myself over. Damn, Taylor what was I thinking when you made me? My skin was a grey green, with freckles of dark greens. I was tall my head was scraping the ceiling. My hands were covered in sharp bone colored exoskeleton that ended in points; my palms uncovered where bright red. The exoskeleton continued to the forearms, but after that was the huge muscle that was my bicep. I was ripped! My body had muscles and was... proportioned. I didn't have a bellybutton, or nipples, no sex organs, but I was decidedly female shaped. A little too proportioned, my hips looked normal on me I guess, but if you put them on Taylor body it would just look silly. Just along the ribs on my back I had gills that when I opened them were filled with mushroom like frills. My Hair wasn't hair, but tendrils that were speckled with lines of dark greens, I could move them kind of. I was also getting a lot of sensory input from them; smell, minor taste, electroreception, sound, and it all changed when I moved the tendrils in certain ways. More of that exoskeleton covered my chest with plates that gave me the sense I was wearing armor, like a chest plate. I didn't have boobs, but somehow adding the convex plate across my chest made it look like I was hiding some. Man was Taylor body horny or something? It didn't matter too much to me, as no I wasn't, the deposits insulating the body are not fat but a material that both cushions blows and distributes ener-. Yeah, no Taylor body was horny. It is weird that I can now annoy myself, having two brains (three?) is kind of odd. After looking myself over I decide to go look for a mirror as I want to see with my own eyes what my face is like. Spirit me came along it with me.

I am Taylor it just feels like I'm also more, and new. It is really hard to explain. I had just found some dead fish next to some more dead algae, but I was simultaneously searching for a place to look at myself across town. I wonder if dad and mom will like me? I really want to meet them, after all I want to show what I did today! I giggled at the idea of being taller than daddy. I get to see his bald spot when he is standing! I giggle at the beach too. I eventually found a pool of water that was clean enough for a reflection. I had one eye. It was big with a red iris, and a pitch-black sclera. I had a mouth that wasn't really visible, but I could feel it. I smile, my mouth stretches into the right shape, revealing shark-like teeth that zigzag across my smile. I open my mouth to reveal a purple interior with a long-pointed tongue. It is then that I try opening my mouth even farther. It doesn't stop until my eye has been closed by the lower lid. Well enough of that, I close the mouth like a bear trap, its sounds like I slammed two steel plates. I look back to the water, I have no nose just more space for the soft ball sized eye ball, and apparently it is just the main eye as four slits just at the top of the hair line opened to reveal smaller identical eyes. Quad ocular vision is barely a problem for me considering all the senses I have as Taylor Hebert but having much higher field of view plus my new ghost instance is not a bad thing. I take one last look at myself in the reflecting puddle, I nod, yep I'm beautiful. Conformation of this from all of me shouldn't feel like anything, but it does. Done with my vanity for right now, I decide to look around see if anything interesting is worth looking at, I also decide to run around in here I like running in Taylor's body wonder what it is like in this one?

---

I will try to keep the schedule regular as possible, any comments on how this is going would be helpful....

 

This doesn't look like a consistent schedule... I'm still on the fence about other interludes. This isn't the kind of story where if flips between multiple characters a lot, and I always considered PHO to be kind of "filler-y". Maybe I'll go back and add a whole bunch of other character views of events, there aren't any written right now, but it wouldn't hurt... Anyways here is another chapter.

---

I smile to myself at the fun I'm having in the warehouse. It seems we like running no matter the body. I had taken a break from the "fishing" as my urges to go for a swim was getting intense, so in order to sate my instincts I went to one of the cafes on the boardwalk. It seems that new me didn't really explain all of the things going on in that body, and I don't really feel like telling you everything either. To summarize she has: carbon fiber bone and body armor capable of withstanding high pressures and breaks along the crystal latus, those eyes can see in the dark and are made of that indestructible crystal cellular lens stuff from Mom, super strength, super flexible like me, and at least 35 common senses that are finer tuned than any of the 21 humans have. So yeah, she is pretty inside and out. I'm actually happy about the work I put into her. It is almost a shame I can't give her sex organs, people would already get super scared of an intelligent bio construct, but a replicating one? Forget it. Besides it's not like I can't give her that opportunity later in her life. It is kind of weird thinking about that stuff for what is essentially me so I'm going to stop now. People watching was good too, I didn't get to actually go into the café. No shoes remember. So, I was just chewing on a piece of fish and sitting down on one of the benches. People were giving me wide birth and odd looks, but no one was confronting me about it so....

The enforcers were looking for something. It kind of took me a while to figure that out, but as I kept looking at them I noticed that they were passing over people after a single glance. Maybe it was a specific person, they keep stopping at people with long hair or blonde hair. I search the field for any candidates. I notice a blonde, she is beautiful. Her clothes look ratty and she hasn't showered, but her eyes are bright and.... panicked? Why was she panicking? I look around it seems like a lot of the traffic has cleared out, just the enforcers. I decide to use some of the swarm to investigate. I look through the blonde's pockets and a lot of the enforcers. All that's in the blonde's are wallets, quite a few of them. I relax at that; the enforcers are probably just cracking down on pickpoc-. Why does that one enforcer have a hypodermic? I "taste" the fluid on the inside is an anesthetic. Shit, this isn't a sting.

The blond is walking towards a café and is still looking around, keeping track of what is looking more and more like kidnappers, the enforcers. I watch as the enforcers become aware of blondie. Blondie notices too and goes through the café to the back, a block down I notice that the one with the hypoderm is doubling back to an alley behind the café. That alleyway is only got one exit and she is going to walk right into him. I can't do nothing. I know I said that I didn't want to be a cape, but I can't let this happen. I won't let this happen. I am hungry. I stand up, okay it's now or never Taylor you want to be a hero, save the girl.

I pull my hood up and sprint down an alleyway that my spores show me takes me to the woman before any of her stalkers get to her and hypo guy waiting down the way. I'm filled with the euphoria that comes with the running but push it to the side. I need to focus. A fence blocks me off from the next alley way over. I crawl up it and leap into the alleyway. Landing right in front of blondie. She is dead stopped right before where I would land. "You are not with them," the question isn't what I'd ask in her situation. "No."
She is thinking I hear the others approaching, " Will you help me?"

"Yes, I plan to," she grabs her scarf and thrust it into my hand, " What is this for?"

" Your new," it seems like a question, but she nods to herself before continuing," It's to hide your identity."

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. I can hear the scuffs of boots now they're close. I quickly tie the scarf around my eyes as they are more identifying, and I really don't need them when I got my spirit to guide me. Did that sound as corny as it felt to think? Whatever fight time!
The enemy rounds the corner and stops, clearly, they were expecting a single person. I tense up I don't know really anything about fist fighting, I'm just hoping that my spores can harry them while I get her out of here. After the last fight with the Merchants, I kind of know my limits when it comes to fighting. Getting my shit kicked in while they escape with their victim is not an option. They pullout batons and start to close in. I blanket the alleyway in spores. With them crying out from inside what counts as sometimes my stomach, I grab the startled woman and run towards the exit to this alleyway. Right to hypo guy, he is blocking the exit and looks like he knows how to handle himself. I stop with her before we crash into him, he is giving me a wary look. Blondie is slower than me otherwise I could fold around him and bolt. I lower to a knee, " you're too slow-," without prompt the woman just climbs on. Okay mister kidnapper sir, time to blow your mind. I stand up sprinting, he is just bracing. The alleyway is small and he can touch both walls. I slam my foot into the wall and start to run up the alleyway using the walls as foot holds. I ascend to the almost the roof before taking a jump and clearing out of the alleyway over a busy street almost a story up. Freefall was fun! Landing on hard sidewalk with a not light person on your back was knee shattering. Literally, my knees shattered, causing me to fall to them. hypo guy was waiting patiently for a lull in traffic so he could cross. Blondie was starting to get up from me, " Hey thanks for the help, but I can handle it from here." I sense around with my swarm. I get the impression that several more of the enforcers are getting into hot metal boxes. Cars, there getting into cars. My knees were almost done, she was walking away, and hypo had a lull in three minutes. I grab her leg before she can get too far, " seven cars, thick windows, they will be here soon." My knees restore just as the traffic subsides. Without asking I grab the woman and lift her over my shoulder, and book it. Her protest was ignored in favor of getting out of here. I outrun the hypo guy almost immediately, the cars however.

---

I had run quite a few blocks and the cars were chasing still. I was almost corralled into the boardwalk area, as every time I try to put some distance one of the cars would cut me off. It was getting frustrating, and the protests from the woman had stopped after the first time it happened. " Got any ideas, " I ask over the sound of wind rushing past my head. We are out running cars, I am not sure how fast I am, but that should be telling. " Can you make it onto one of the roofs?" I nod and repeat the same trick from earlier at another alleyway. On the roof I let the woman down and catch my unbreath. " So, what are you called, the alleyway bandit?" I look up she is still scared I can 'smell' it, but she isn't showing it. Now that I can see her better her eyes are green, a line of freckles go across her nose, she is so pretty. Great poker face too, " I... uh haven't picked one, you?" "Lisa," said Lisa. Finally, it was getting aggravating just mentally calling her blondie or the woman.

" Ok, nice to meet you Lisa," fuck it, " I'm Taylor."

Lisa nods, " Okay are you some sort of hero?"

"Yeah, something like that," I was going to continue but I finally noticed something, new me wasn't in the warehouse anymore. " So, any idea why they are following you," I ask scrambling to see where she went, if spirit me was giggling at body me for making my thoughts so independent then I ignored it.

" No, I just arrived in town."

I am baffled that I can somehow lose myself, " Maybe you stole from the wrong person." Lisa grins like an unfriendly cat, " I don't know why you would think that." I laugh. " I can smell the different leathers in your pocket, and cash is very filthy," found her, " so filthy the bacteria on it is practically a fingermark."

" So super endurance, regeneration, and super senses," she lifts a finger with each power, " anything else?"

" Nope."

" Awfully trusting aren't you," she still has that grin, but it seems sadder, " what if I'm a villainess?"

I look at her, what if she is a villain? I would be open to repercussions if she let lose my identity, and it would risk my parents. The PRT could better pressure me into the wards, oh shit, they could make claims of guilty by association! I look at Lisa, she hasn't stopped grinning that sad grin that I think is supposed to be intimidating or maybe irritating. I look to her body language. She is cold, on the defensive, and is resigned. I was always blamed as the one at fault for my bullying, people said I was making it up. It forced me to the edges of the microcosm of school, is being a villain any different? Even if she is a villain it doesn't matter, she needs help, I need to help her. " I don't really care if you are."

She blinks twice, the grin twitches up and looks softer, " Look as fun as this conversation is the guys after me look dangerous, you should get out of here."

"Nope I'm almost here and if you think I'm fast what till you meet me."

"What?"

A green blur slams into the corner of the roof.

 

I wrote some more stuff in my buffer chapters today, I'm pretty happy so here is the next part... it is a bit short.

---

I arrive to where Taylor body is located, with my second favorite movement method. Jumping is so much fun, almost as fun as running! I spot Taylor and Lisa, and surprisingly recognize spirit me, on the other side of the roof. I walk over to them; they are so small and cute! As I walk over, I notice Lisa try to back away to where Taylor is standing, it is quite weird to see myself in person. And I knew that Taylor body was horny! My hips are perfect, I'm not bad mouthing my design, in fact I love our bodies. " Taylor who is that?"
Taylor body is right, Lisa is very pretty. I wave, " Hello."

Lisa and we cringe, okay that sounded rough, I cough a little to clear some of that up. With every cough glowing red spores come out of my gills (you know it isn't gills for breathing right?) " So that's how you physically emote," I - Taylor says to me, " I know I put them in there, I was just expecting something less showy."

"Oh, there we go," better my voice was deeper, but it didn't sound like a car crash, " Hello!"

" Wait Taylor you built that!"

" Yes, I built me, or we built us?"

I try as well to phrase it, " we are more than Taylor, but we are Taylor?"

" I still don't get it..."

I can hear spirit body laugh in stereo, I try to explain again this time in unison, " we are Taylor, we have two bodies, two brains, two sets of consciousness, we are the same, but mentally incongruent."
Lisa looked between us from Taylor to me, " why did you make a second body?"

Taylor opened her mouth to speak, but I beat her to it, " To see if we could!"

Taylor gave me a scathing look, was the arms raised in the air too much? Lisa just laughed, you know the kind of overwhelmed laugh. I hope she is not afraid of us I would love to be her friend. I shifted my tendrils at the sounds of people coming up the stairs, stomping boots they were coming. I shifted stance to defend Lisa. I could feel Taylor ready up her swarm too. I was leaking yellow spore spiders of my own into the air, I upped the yellow pigment to max and added some of my own designs to it. Burning/paralyzing/death cloud is a great deterrent after all. The door to the roof shook as it swung open and a dozen dead guys walked out. I readied myself as they stopped short seeing me. My eye was squinting with anger, my tendrils were ridged with agitation, and my claws lengthen. I could smell at least one guy had pissed his pants. Tough crowd, I could see a heavy shadow form behind me as Taylor had summoned the local swarm. We could blanket this rooftop in a six-inch snow fall of black if we wanted to. They weren't coming to us, but one of them came forward. " Look we are just here for the girl," his voice was reasonable his requests were not, " our employer is paying us a good price, we would... be willing to negotiate some of that as payment."

I peeled my lips back the sharp zigzag clearly displaying what I thought of his bargaining.

" You don't want to cross our emp-"

"Quiet," the growled word was harsh to the ears, Lisa flinched from behind Taylor body, " I don't give a shit who your employer is or his money if you don't want a fight then you're going to have to fuck off!"

I started walking toward, the swarm flowing with me just itching to overtake me and get a bite. The one guy starts backing up, but that's it. They were going to fight, some of them were getting out batons, one guy had a taser, and main guy had a gun. Last warning, my secondary eyes opened each singling out one guy from the crowed, and the main guy gets the main eye. Not backing down, well shit I guess trial by combat was good enough practice. I am hungry. I charged at the main guy, I'm much faster than humans so he didn't even get his gun up before I decked him with my knee. As he stumbled back, I punched him center mass breaking some of the body armor they all were wearing. I then followed through with a clumsy push, oh it did a lot, but that was mostly strength not skill. In the ten seconds that took, the swarm finally reached me and, like flies on a rotting corpse, descended much to the horror on the others. Main guy was able to get up somewhat shakily, but with gun in hand. I zipped over and smacked it out of his hand. He punched back, right into my stomach, it hurt but I could get over it. I lean out of his second punch and throw my own. It launches him across the roof and to the next one. I feel a baton hit my side, I flow with the hit and clothesline two of the attackers. I was much taller and beefier than the enforcers. I took hits but they lacked the power to do any major damage. The swarm was working on tripping them up, and me throwing punches, slowly started to hamper them. I really need to learn how to fight. This was taking to long! I started to just grab the little shits an started to slam them together. That worked a whole lot better, and soon they were all down.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
I call back the swarm and turn to Lisa to check to see if she is okay spirit me is also checking her over for any damage. " Are you okay Lisa?"

"Holy shit, are they alive?"

She was looking over my shoulder at the men on the ground, "oh they're fine I didn't really go too hard on them."

"Is other you okay?"

I look over at my other. She has some bruising from a few of the batons, but her undead-ish immune system is repairing and sealing the damage up, " yeah just some minor bruising."

" Good," Lisa is silent for a while, probably thinking about the stuff going on, " Look Taylor?"

" Yes," Me and new me respond at the same time.

"... okay is their some name I can call you and her to help with the whole hive mind thing you guys have?" I look back at new me, " it is getting confusing internally, but I can't think of a name yet." It's not just the lack of creativity on my part I'm having trouble thinking that me and new me are different. " Then maybe just a cape name for a stand in," Lisa says this after seeing me struggle, " If it is hard to think about each other as separate entities then maybe it would be better to just use aliases."

I nod that makes sense, maybe, " Gorgon?"

New me perks up and walks over to me. " No, that sounds too much like a villain name," Lisa then cringes, " you're not going for a villain rep, are you?"

"No," says new me a nice smile on our face. New me crouches down and starts to wave its tendrils over Lisa's head. " Uh...."

" Yeah new me what are you doing?"

" Well you and Ghost got to check Lisa for injuries maybe I want to."

" Wait, Spirit," Lisa questioned. she starts looking at new me's eye, really inspect it, I don't preen. " Uh... Not important," I backtrack so much is going on, and new me is hungry, so am I, " how about Oculus?"

Both Lisa and new me look at me and my floundering. " Really Latin, you want to be one of those heroes," Lisa look of distain is palpable.

"No."

" How bout Newme," new me actually looked pretty proud of that one.

" How bout no," I started, before reconsidering, " well wait that could be a good one, how does Nimi sound?"

"That is not a bad idea," Lisa says poking one of the tendrils. They are still wrapped around her face, doing their own poking and prodding. She continues, " it isn't taken, and it does bury the lead on what exactly your powers are, and it is short enough for people to think you aren't human."

" How is that a benefit?" I have to agree with other me there. How does appearing as nonhuman help with public relations?

" Simple if people think that you are a case53 no one will think you're a construct, thus the public won't be afraid of a new bio tinker, instead they will just think that your just a poor case53, that's not too scary."

" What's a case 53," Nimi says, the name is growing on me.

" It's the PRT designation for monstrous capes."

" Well then," Nimi stands and holds out her hand for Lisa, " Hi, I'm Nimi."

---

Wine, Women, and Song by Harvey Danger is a nice song

 

Was feeling pretty down so I wanted to post the next chapter ahead of "schedule"...

---

With the bad guys taken care of and emergency services called, we talked about how to contact each other if something like this happens. I gave the home phone as I don't have a cellphone, Lisa just nodded as though she knew the why and was nice enough to not ask. I wonder how she knows these things, maybe she was setting me up? I don't know how I feel about someone knowing my secrets. That was how Emma could hurt me the most, my secrets. I didn't really care too much about the physical bullying, but it was Emma, standing there waiting for her turn, to deliver the final blow. Not with words, but with my secrets.

We parted ways before the authorities could show up, I'm new and haven't decided on how I wish to be viewed by the police. They at least showed up to my murder, which is more than I can say about most adults. With a final goodbye Lisa left, and climbing onto Nimi's back, I leave too. I hope our parents are okay with meeting my 8-foot-tall tank body. We mostly kept to the roofs, but as soon as we were on a sidewalk, we ran into … " Lisa," Nimi's question was good one what was she doing back here, and how did she know I was going to land here? This is like four blocks away from where we parted. " Hey so my apartment was burned to the ground," she said like she was talking about the weather, " now I'm homeless was well as being hunted, can I stay with you guys for a few days to get back on my feet?"

"I'll have to see if my parents are okay with it," I respond looking around the street, mostly empty just a few cars and one or two pedestrians starring at Nimi. They were avoiding us, but that is better than men with guns in hot pursuit. Nimi just seemed excited to hang out with her new friend, " okay I can carry you!"

I know that Nimi is supposed to be me, and for a lot of it she is, it's her personality. I'm not that happy...It sounds bad when I say it like that, but it's true. Maybe she is just what I'd be like if I never had the locker. Maybe she is my own attempt at cheering myself up, I crack smile at the yelp Lisa makes a Nimi bundles her up bridal style in her arms. I like this me. " I-Is this s-s-safe, woah!" Nimi took off like a bolt, giggling like an idiot, she really likes running. I look down at Lisa from my place clinging to Nimi's back. Well I try too but I realized that my disguise, the scarf that I forgot to give back to Lisa, was wrapped around my eyes. Nimi was too fast so I couldn't see through spirit either, it was lagging behind us by a couple feet. Interesting and potential a problem if someone fast picks me up. Need to defiantly strategize for more fights. I was going to just didn't think I was going to get into a fight so soon. I haven't even started for crying out loud! I pity any cape where this is just how their careers start, get powers immediately get into fights. Then again it could be just this city, I tuned out a lot of the sales pitch/intimidation from Armsmaster's pathetic attempt at playing human. I could even do it better than him, I think I even made a friend. I pull my " mask" down over my lips instead of my eyes. Nimi is really moving! I can't even see where we are going, streets are just flying by. I look down at Lisa, she doesn't look so good. She looks like she's is going to throw up. Nimi slows down as that information is shared. We stop to let a now sick Lisa down out of Nimi's arms. It is getting late in the afternoon now it will be dark soon. At least we are out of the docks. Lisa was heaving a bit on her hands and knees as Nimi profusely apologized while stroking her back.

We decided to walk back, me next to Lisa, Nimi walked behind us still feeling sheepish. My swarm had finally reached the outskirts of Brockton Bay. Congrats me, I can "smell" and "see" my whole city. Lots of stuff was going down, on the streets, thankfully I wasn't in any of the buildings. It was kind of hard to see through it all with just the streets. Plus, humans, while tasty, are gross with their habits. Well satisfied with my semi-omniscience on the ground, I guess the only thing next is the sky. Lisa was quiet as we walked her eyes shifting about even while she held her stomach. She knew somehow that something bad was going to happen to her earlier. I wonder how she did that, but I double down on my own surveillance around us if it looked like the ground was darker due to some "fog" well I don't think anyone will notice. We were walking for some time and it was night now, Lisa looked even more paranoid now. We were close to my house, and I was thinking about how to hide Nimi from surveillance by the PRT, but I think that door has long since closed. Maybe I can just separate her from me. Like have her leave my house to go look for some warehouse to sleep in. I look back at her... she looks so unhappy at that idea. No, she is me, I am her, we will sleep where we want. Nimi looks up at me and smiles, big and toothy. Lisa pushes me out of the way as white blur impacts with Nimi's chest.

" Nimi," I bolt to my downed self, ignoring the blonde woman trying to stop me, " get out of my way."

" What I just saved you from that villainess," Lisa dodged around her and made a bee line for Nimi, " Hey wait!"

This girl who I now realize is Glory Girl, wouldn't let me past. And that emotion thing she has on is annoying. " Lisa how is she," if my voice sound panicky, it's because I'm panicking. " What are you talking about the villain," Glory Girl is thick headed.

" She is breathing, it's choppy, but she doesn't seem too bad."

The tension in my heart lessens, the tension in my body however just gets tighter. I can't hear my double, and it is making me worried. " Why the fuck did you do that," I pushed Glory Girl and it was like pushing a brick wall. I realize picking a fight with Alexandria Jr. is a bad idea, but I'm too pissed to care. Lisa could see where this was going but was busy looking over Nimi, " Hey mayb-"

" What why did you push me," Glory Girl was now shouting at me, " all I did was save you from-"

She didn't get to finish as I punched her as hard as I could in the face. She stumbled out of her hovering on her back foot. It was satisfying all up into the returning punch. It caused pain, but it was just body pain I could stand it-... She fucking broke my neck! Jesus, she needs to learn some restraint! What kind of hero just outright breaks your neck because you punched them. I reach back and snap my head back from it hanging in my hood. Glory Girl is now readying herself for another punch. I can't let her punch me, again. I ready myself bringing up my fists to try and hit her again, but I end up just mostly dodging in that almost dancing way. She's fast, she is also a hell of a lot stronger than me, some of those punches would put holes through me. This is not good, it was stupid of me to just punch her like that. " Hold still you little freak," a punch flies past me as I use its momentum to spin me around my shoulders, making me land a punch to her temple. It didn't hurt her, but it was inspiring. I started to use my dodging to gain momentum for my swings. My punches were wild for a while, but soon I was landing solid hits. They were getting stronger too. It was almost like I was using her attacks to both move myself and make blows. She throws her fists, and I swing my body with the punch to bring an elbow across her jaw. She stumbles at that, I see Lisa get up to try and defuse the situation, " hey guys I think we all need to take step-"

Her punch was fast, faster than I could dodge. My chest cavity caved in as my not-heart and un-lungs ruptured. I felt like I was in slow motion as I flew across the street and into a brick wall. I am in some deep shit with this body repairs are going to take forever, and I don't want Nimi to get taken away from me. I need to repair myself before- " TA-," Lisa's cut off there had me up before my chest could even think about repairing. That emotion thing that was coming off Glory Girl was back. I watched as Lisa was backing away from an approaching Glory Girl. The power-aura-thing was bumping up the fear chemicals in my brain, but I ignored them Lisa was in trouble and I am hungry. This is my body bitch; I am in control of it so you can just fuck off! I reached for my swarm; it had thickened in the shadows subconsciously reacting to the fighting Taylor body was doing. Now it lifted to fill the air all around us. Glory Girl stops going after Lisa as the black fog fills the air, I get walk out of the bricks. My depressed chest cavity clearly visible it wasn't a good look on me. I need to be smart about this. If I can't be faster than my opponent then I need to some how make it harder for her to hit me in some other way. Glory Girl starts to float over in my direction. Okay brain think, I need to make it harder to hit me. My thinking was interrupted by a fist punching through my shoulder. I try to eat through the hand that was now inside my body, but it was blocked by a barrier of some kind. I pull myself off of the arm and back up before dodging a fist aimed at my head. " Oh I get it your some villain too," Glory Girl snarls at me as I dodge. My fog was dark and it was causing some of her hits to miss me, but I needed more than that. Okay what can I do with my fog; spider silk, make it solid in large quantities, bioluminescence ….wait what if I?

I flush the entire area with red pigments and cause the swarm to glow. The previously dark street was now an almost blinding red. It instantly caused the hero to cover her eyes, I backed up away from her, far away. I was now standing between her and my friends. This could work, I watch as Glory Girl shakes off the bright lights and starts to float towards me, or not. I can still see myself is the red fog as my clothing is dark, I need to be better camouflaged if I want to survive this fight. I paint the fog with layers of red and black, the swirls being big and dense enough to obscure a lot of the scene. I then add glowing swirls to my body having it match the patterns all around me. Glory Girl stops even as I move forward. She starts to swing wildly in all directions. I dodge under a right hook and hit the back of her head with a ball of swarm. Confused she swings backwards, I punch the side of her head with my fist. She blindly swings faster, I dodge faster. I am hungry, if my prey is going to speed up then so was I! I throw punches and condensed balls of swarm faster and faster. Her body is impervious to attack, I'm just going to have to exhaust her. Or maybe confuse her? I start making dummy shadows, soon Glory Girl isn't facing one enemy now she is dodging twenty. The shadows are just good distractions, but I time their 'punches' with mine so it looks like my attack could come from anywhere. I duck under a swing that moves seamlessly through some dummies. I throw a ball at the back of her head just as I punch her stomach. Skin, I feel flesh, give! I am behind her having swung under her legs at her retaliation, I can't see her face but I can smell her panic. Suddenly she turns around and runs right into me pretty hard. I watch as we both surprise each other. My head is pulled forward as my teeth hit the barrier just around her neck and then I feel her flesh under my mouth. I don't have time to react as my body surges forward onto her neck.

---

I lower my swarm's presence in the area, as the hot delicious blood flows into my mouth. The glowing swarm files upwards and defuses into the sky above me as I take in huge gulps of blood. I didn't mean to bite her; I just wasn't expecting her neck to be right in front of me. It's been many hours since I ate anything, and I was damaged. She was so warm, and I could feel my body relax. I lowered Glory Girl to the ground and continued to drink. I moaned as her heart fluttered, I wouldn't kill her, but it was great having something living become a part of me. My swarm cannibalized itself into me, and soon I was all repaired. I needed to make sure that the warm human wouldn't die so I sealed the bite mark and licked up any leftover blood. My long tongue relishing the taste of the now sealed, but still slightly blood covered, flesh that pulsed warmly. I felt wonderful. I lifted myself to seated and looked up my swarm had turned all sparkly in the night sky. I giggled quietly in my head as warmth filled my body.

" Uh... T," Lisa was so pretty, " you know your straddling her right." I snap into focus and look down. Glory Girl is a pretty blonde with the body like a super model, I look up to see Lisa had a shit-eating grin on her face. I stumble off the downed hero, " I'm so sorry I-I didn't," shit, " I'm not-" "This isn't-" I didn't cry, " I'm sorry for drinking you!"

" Phrasing," Lisa your cute but I swear. Oh god, I can feel blood, Glory Girl's blood, flush me. Oh god that's just like presenting. Was I presenting? I mean she is cute... fuck, NO! Bad horny zombie girl! Glory Girl was just looking at me, " did...you just get off on that?" My head was getting dizzy with the amount of blood rushing in it. " NO," I politely say at the top of my lungs.

My legs feel weak. " Riiiiiight," the dragged out "I"'s in her voice remind me of her heavy blood loss she just suffered, " are you going to kill me?"

"What," that pulled me up short.

" No, you idiot," Lisa was practically yelling at her too now, " you attacked us we were walking... to T's house."

Glory Girl sort of just lay there, " but what about the mon-"

"Nimi is not a monster you inconsiderate bitch!" That outburst from me was a bit more heated then I wanted, oh shit, " Nimi!" I run over to check her over. Her body is motionless but she is fine. The middle chest plate is cracked, and her pumping organ is bruised, but she is unalive still. I collapse across her in my relief, " …ow."

"Nimi!" Lisa came over at my yell and sat next to me. Nimi's eye looked sleepy, " hey guys I miss something?"

I start repairing the damage to her body, sacrificing some of my swarm. " You got hurt," she moves, " don't get up I'm fixing it!"

With the repairs finished I asked Lisa to call for an ambulance, I took about maybe a fifth of Glory Girl's blood that is not an insignificant amount. Nimi moves over to Glory Girl and pulls her into a hug. " What are you doing," Glory Girl sputters from Nimi's lap. " Keeping you warm and from going into shock," Nimi's smile was as genuine as it looked. Lisa's snark and grin were a little less so, " still want to hit her?" At least the hero looked a little embarrassed. Together we waited for the ambulance to arrive. " Are you guys really not villains?" A trio of "No," made her keep her mouth shut until the ambulance and police arrived.

---

Apparently when the police and paramedics arrived and saw that it was some capes in need of assistance the PRT was called. Joy... At least when Nimi started to explain that Glory Girl needed a transfusion of some type O, the paramedics were professional about it and rushed Glory Girl away. Is it weird that I can tell what type of blood someone has by drinking it? The old guy I had at the morgue was AB, and two of the Merchants were B-. It all had a sort of 'flavor'. The police get their statements from us, and our alias's seeing as we are capes. Well Nimi gave her alias, and Lisa was in her civilian clothing, so it was just me who had to come up with something. Or I would've if Nimi didn't just blurt out one of her own, " I'm Nimi and that's Frankie." Frankie? The thought of 'like Frankenstein' floated to my mind. Okay sure it will work for a cape name, at least it's accurate. Well as a cape named Frankie, I gave my statement of events to the police. As I was finishing up the low drone of a motorcycle was closing in. My swarm had seen it for a while it appeared to be Armsmaster coming here. I don't really feel like talking to Mr. Terminator right now. " Hey Officer," I approach the officer who had just finished up talking to Nimi. My voice is a little muffled from behind the scarf, but I was still audible. " Yes?"

"I was wondering if we could leave before the PRT get here."

The officer was immediately on the defensive, " it is protocol sorry ma'am."

I nod, " Oh I see will you try to stop us?"

The officer had to resist the urge to touch her weapon, " Technically no, we have orders to stay out of cape fights, but I really must insist you stay on the scene."

That make sense, I nod again, " sorry for making you nervous, just have had bad experiences with the PR in PRT, what with being Independents and all that."

She relaxes a little, " Ah, yeah I've heard that the PRT can be pretty persistent with their sales pitch."

" Yeah last time was Armsmaster," I elaborate, " I think I ticked him off."

She smiles at that, " yeah that guy has no people skills, never seen him angry though."

"He gets more mechanical."

" Yeah that sound about right," she smiles bigger, " look if you guys really want to leave, I can just claim that you were in a hurry."

" Thanks, I that would help a whole bunch."

She nods. I wave to her and get Nimi to gather Lisa. We are on our way before Mr. Motorcycle can even get here.

---

I don't remember what state I was in when I first wrote this chapter, but I know that I was tired when I rewrote it a week ago....

 

My life is full of failures, have a random chapter...

---

I am happy. Taylor defended me, it is strange to think that I wouldn't save myself. I am not the original, I know that, but it is nice to have know that I'm also not expendable. Your not expendable, we are not expendable. I smile at the back of Taylor's head, is it strange to love oneself like a sister? I know I'm different than her, the brain in my head is not an exact copy and while our spirits are linked, it is ours. A continuation of our soul not a copy. We are more. Like the ends of strings are still the same string. I hope mommy and daddy like me. I'm nervous about that. We were just now entering our street, we had elected to risk a bus ride as I was still tired, kind of hungry too. I would go hunt something, but Lisa was still out in the open and I don't want her to be scared of me. The bus ride was thankfully devoid of most people, just the bus driver who stared at my hips until a blood covered Taylor started growling at him. It was uneventful as we road the bus to our street.

The house was in front of me, I could feel my tendrils curl in as I fret over what my parents will think. " Do you think that your parents will be okay with sheltering me?" Lisa's question is one I'm asking myself too. " Yeah I think they will be fine with it, it just needs to be phrased right." They were here, daddy's car was in the drive way. Our house was the same as I don't remember it. Lawn kind of shaggy with yellow grass, a rotten first step, kind of compact, but it has some side lawns. I hope the ceilings can fit me. Taylor finds the spare key and unlocks the front door. Lisa and Taylor go in first. I hesitate at the door, I can see the warm glow of a home I have never been in. I don't know if this is a good idea. I turn to go, but Taylor snags my wrist and pulls me inside. " Don't even think about it, you go I go," the seriousness in her eyes practical burn mine, " besides I think at least mom will recognize your me." She could her spirit will definitely notice that I'm a Taylor. I still don't know why it is to the right of me, Taylor's is behind her head just over her shoulder. Maybe if they are other, they have other rules. I wonder where mommy's is. Also, Taylor calls them mom and dad, why is it that I'm calling them something different. I guess I am a child, what else am I to call them. " Mom, dad I'm back!" Two pairs of feet were running from the kitchen, " Taylor Hebert, I thought I told you to be back befor-" daddy walked around the corner to see Lisa, Taylor, and I standing in the entry way. " Sorry dad, I had a long day." Mommy walked around the corner, and Lisa stiffened up next to me. I wonder what's wrong?

It took some time for us to explain what all happened today. I think that Lisa's eyes bugged out at the pure info dump Taylor made about all the things she had ate/absorbed/found out with her swarm. Mommy and daddy sort of just nodded along with all the various species of fungus Taylor was talking about. Then she told them about me. " So, this is Nimi," Taylor started very casual, mommy and daddy were giving me suspicious looks. " She is also me," very casual. " Wait what," daddy gave Taylor a look like she grew a second head. I mean technically... " I. Mean. We. Are. Both. Taylor," the whole finishing each others sentences is effortless, we don't always know what we are thinking of but when we focus it is like we are thinking together. A bit like tuning radios to the same stations. Daddy's head was watching a tennis match when we did that. Mommy was just looking at me with a contemplative stare, wish she'd hug me. " I made her, she made me, we are new," I was talking like Taylor for a second there, " sorry I'm told that it's very confusing to the outside." Daddy nodded but didn't look like he understood, " yes that is very confusing, mind trying again."

"Uh... Maybe a recounting of the events would help," Lisa ever the voice of reason.

" And who are you," mommy was distracted from her starring to looking at Lisa. I watch Lisa physically move back from her attention.

" Well get to that mom," Taylor sighed, " She happened after Nimi's creation."

Daddy and mommy sat back and listened as we explained the rest of the day.

---

Mom and dad took Nimi's existence pretty well, she even got a hug from Mom. I think she was a little too happy about the hug, but mom confirmed that Nimi is a new me. It was when we explained Lisa's plight, that they were concerned. Dad particularly at how I had trouble fighting effectively. After explaining the fight with Glory Girl, mom and dad were looking me over for any wounds. Mom also checked over Nimi's chest plate. Dad I think was on the fence on Nimi I hope she doesn't take it too hard. With everything explained mom and dad decided that it was too dangerous for Lisa to be out on the street. Nimi, Lisa, and I had a late dinner of raw eggs and some ham sandwiches. Raw eggs for Nimi and I, the ham sandwich was ate by a bewildered Lisa. Maybe it was because mom was also having a snack of some raw chicken breast? Lisa looks at me her eyes confused and looking for answers. I shrug at her plead for sanity. We make up the spare bedroom and get her one of the replacement tooth brushes. I decide to take a shower, I didn't say no when Nimi decided to take one too. Maybe I should have been more careful with what I accept. Nimi meant a shower together at the same time. Nimi may not have any parts to be embarrassed about, but I did! So now I was standing in my underwear in front of a eight foot tall woman whose hips turn heads fast enough to snap necks. I felt so unattractive next to her, "Look I think we mistook what I said earlier."

" Oh, I only need some help around my back I can't get into the gills."

I sigh, " No I just don't want to be-"

" Naked around yourself," she looks at me with her single open eye, a sad grin on her face, " your not ugly." I feel embarrassed and look at the ground. A large red palm fills my view and lifts my head up to her gaze, " You are pretty Taylor Hebert." I huff at that, me pretty yeah right I was bullied because I was a gangly, big mouthed frea- Nimi lifts me into her lap as she sits down on the edge of the bath and points into the mirror, "you see that lady with the pretty surgery scars?" I look up, it's just me; a little more muscled, a little more pale grey than is normal, too big eyes, too big mouth. " I see a lovely zombie." I blink at that, " isn't that the same as ugly human?" I can feel and see Nimi's head shaking, " No think of all your beautiful features; long dark hair that spills like a slow bleed, pale as teeth skin, the absolutely elegant autopsy scars, ripped as all hell!" I giggle at that last one she had some good points, for a human I was average but as the undead... "Plus that just on the outside, the way you accent yourself with both living and dead cells makes you look like a piece of artwork." Feeling a little better I wonder if other people will think I'm beautiful, " what about Lisa, do you thing she thinks I'm pretty?"

" I don't know about others, but I know that you certainty aren't ugly."

It is weird, Nimi is me or maybe a better explanation is another side of me. How can she almost be someone new... or old, I think back to what I was like before Winslow, before mom. Yeah I was a quiet kid around strangers, but I really opened up around people I knew... I can see it. It's good to know that past me loves future me. I spent along time hugging her.

The shower was still awkward, but I came out of it clean, both of us did. Now came the next problem, sleeping. I know, I know we don't need to sleep, but it has been a long day and I- we are tired. I'll probably do some work on my body, maybe strengthening, with my ghost body. I wasn't fast enough for that one punch Glory Girl threw that caved in my chest. I can take infinite damage sure, I am undead and therefore deathless, but still it isn't good if I have to rebuild my body every fight with capes I get into. Since I'm basically going to be a hero now, it could get civilians hurt, it could get allies killed. I know I don't have to worry about Nimi, she is just as deathless as me, her own ghost body is her template, it's her soul. And isn't that weird, I was having a hard time telling us apart earlier. It wasn't till we started talking to each other did we realize that we are two, instead of one. This is a bit heavy before bed. Nimi wasn't having any of the whole split the bed and just grabbed me. The sheet just barely fit over me as I lay spooned up against the much bigger woman. I tried to wake her up but she was already asleep. I huffed, but eventually fell asleep much to my embarrassed ghost self.

Here it was clearer what we are without the feed back of our bodies. Nimi's side of my spirit was actually a true statement. Think of it like a long library wall, Taylor on one side Nimi on the other and the books are our spirit. Nimi's side has certain books that she can access really easy, I on the other side have my own set of easy books. We can access it all with ease so none of us are missing anything, it is how its prioritized that lead to the changes. My spirit was growing too, in the analogue it kind of falls apart. A bigger shelf isn't what's happening, maybe denser. I don't know if that really makes sense to anyone but us. I spent the night coming up with ideas and restructuring Taylor body with my other half. It was incredibly comfortable. So was Nimi, all of us agreed that Nimi body was a cuddler's paradise. Even with the chest plate, its rounded curve was comfy in a solid chair way, but it was restricting her movement. She should be super flexible like Taylor body, so it needed to be updated. What we went with was a heavy sponge like frill that should absorb that punch that Glory Girl gave her, it has a internal structure like similar in composition to blubber except it's made of super tough abalone layers. I was lucky to have found some of the stuff on my fishing trip. It looked like the chest plate from before, except rougher and squishier. Other me didn't like it, said it made her look less female. I point out that Nimi body doesn't have a physical sex. I didn't know that I could huff inside my head. I caved eventually the new form was thinner and denser around two rather large fluffed out parts that were just as tough but bigger. The entire thing was covered in skin to form a uniform chest. There she has boobs now, happy?

The happy nod from the other side of the library tells me all I need to know. I look it over to see that I haven't messed any of it up. Well despite breasts that are as big as Taylor body's head all good in Nimi body, now Taylor bod... Hey other me did you make some changes? The feeling of looking up, no I just turned on some hormones to help with the changes. I look through the endocrine system, okay it isn't too bad but Taylor body is going to experience some of her own growth spurts soon. I sigh and consider the conversation we had in the bathroom, Taylor is really depressed and while she is already a gorgeous undead work of art, her learned behavior is one of her thinking she isn't. A little confidence boost in exchange for some body fat is worth it. Besides it isn't going haywire, it was already a possible genetic outcome just as the current one is a result of stress and some interactions with salts in the water. I decide to leave it alone and I wind down with the actual changes to my bodies with some relaxing genetic experimentation. Other me helps, and has their own ideas they want to test too, it was a pretty goodnight.

---

I snuggle the top of my head into my super soft pillow. They are warm, and kind of heavy, but oh so squishy. I feel a hand on my back, huh? Before I can think to escape I'm press into a wall of flesh in the form of my bedmate. " Nimi, sto-" Nimi's giggling rocks my squishy world, " I figured something out that we may have not noticed last night." I struggle to escape the pillows of death my face was mashed into, as I try to think what she could possibly be talking about. The fact that I didn't know meant that I was 'far' from where the info was stored. Like my other was holding it up out of my reach. I grunt, " please get off of me!"

The giggling increased as I struggled hard to get some air, " we like girls."

…

I think my brain stopped, I don't know what to say about that. I... I'm not gay, I don't remember being gay... what is she talking about? I mean there is nothing wrong with being gay, Legend was gay and he is so cool, I just- " I was thinking about everything we did yesterday," Nimi continued,
" and about how I was built." I thought back through the day before yeah all I did was hangout with girls, but that doesn't mean I'm-

" We called Lisa beautiful."

I... well.

" I got a smoking hot body that we both find attractive."

It was designed to-

" and you straddled Glory Girl while drinking her blood, lie to me that you weren't thinking about kissing her as you took her breath away." I had used up all the living blood on changes last night so I wasn't flushed, if I had blood I would be beet red.

"Nimi," I whine as I realize that I'm totally gay.

---

Thank you to Felius for their help with placing this story in the right forum...

 

I rewrote the the Endbringer fight today, it was too... something, it just felt wrong. Here is a new chapter for you though so I think that works some what...

---

Lisa awoke to a quiet room. No next door neighbors, or downtown traffic, it was nice.

[The ambient sound levels are around 10 decibels, the temperature...]

Yeah I know that, Lisa frowns it was a whole ten seconds of silence. Lisa would never admit to disliking her powers, no on the contrary she thought they were one of the better ones to get. I open my eyes to stare at the ceiling.

[constructed in the early 1980's out of wood, plaster, and...]

I mostly ignored it or tell it to shut up, when it got like this. It has behavior in the sense that sometimes it only tells me what I need to know. I shift under the bed sheets, they are scratchy in the unused kind of way.

[Sheets made of cotton with a 300 thread count haven't been washed in three...]

And other times it tells me every thing about anything. I mentally tell it to shut it, when it gets to some stains. It never really turns off, a constant run-on of information, but it does get 'quieter' every now and again. Yeah my powers are awesome and by far the only thing that is keeping me alive a lot of the time, but they aren't perfect. I think back to the fight last night I grimace. I almost got myself killed, because I started panic talking. I need to get better with working under pressure if that happens again...

[your bladder is full and needs to be emptied, the contents of your bladder are as follows...]

Well better get up.

On the toilet, I attempt to ignore all the information about another families health and hygiene, and thinks about yesterday. My powers were telling her all that morning to prepare for a threat. It wouldn't tell me what threat just that I was being threatened, which is about as useful as telling me nothing. No I guess that's unfair if it hadn't have warned me, I wouldn't have kept such a close eye on my surroundings. It also wouldn't have told me that the smoke I saw in the distance was my apartment, and that there was a threat that way. So thanks power for making me paranoid, I guess. I also wouldn't have run into Taylor. And speaking of Taylor and my power, Taylor was odd. My powers told me she had an abnormal organic structure, but other that it being organic nothing else. [ErrorCode#52-jt:LOGICRETURNERR], honestly that result made my brain itch to receive. A logic error, that would seem to suggest that Taylor was an incorrect input in some computer code or something. My powers didn't even pick up that she was coming to help me when she fell right in front of me. I stopped for falling debris, I got a weird cape instead. Kind of terrifying, my powers got a little farther on her second self, Nimi. [Height: 8'1", Weight: 432lbs ,lighter than normal construction suggests bones replaced with carbon [ErrorCode#52-jt:LOGICRETURNERR]]. Same error, which is weird. I can tell certain things about Nimi, but only for a little bit. I focused on her individual parts on the bus ride last night. If I focused on like her hands or where her organs are, and I can get more info, but eventually it ends in the error code. If anything though it is at least showing me a little about how my powers work. Finished on the toilet I gently flush and decides to brush my teeth.

[sodium fluoride 0.243% cetylpyridinium chloride water...]

Shut it. I can even tell some of Nimi's likes and interests. Like I know that she thinks I'm attractive, which is weird as she doesn't have the sex organs needed for mating behavior. I'm flattered of course it is much nicer than some stranger with a gross fetish that I'm forced to know all about, simply because I looked at them. But it was awkward too. Nimi is Taylor, I cannot get anything about Taylor's likes except when she throws me a bone and talks vaguely in that direction. The only evidence I get from Taylor is through conversation, but I am also getting it from Nimi. Does Nimi liking me mean Taylor is interested? Am I interested? No I don't think I am. While the opportunity to not know your partners deepest secrets is nice, okay a desperate need, I don't know her all that well. I don't even know if she is in to girls.

[yes...]

… Oookay, mystery solved on that one. I guess all the evidence was there I just wasn't using it for that. That made me kind of sad, have I really written off dating entirely. Yeah I'm not a fan of sex... but still relationships can still be asexual right? I mean the only big secret that Nimi has for physical intimacy was holding my hand. And isn't that the most sugar sweet view on intimacy you've ever heard. Its pretty much a common one really, but to be the only thing, that's the strange part. However that's just Nimi, Taylor is a package deal and judging from that little display of blood drinking I'm pretty sure that side of Nimi is less innocent. I spit into the sink.

[blood contains 1.2% less sugar than the national average...]

I wash the sink of my spit, and a bare fraction of blood, Jesus Christ powers! Then there is her family. Danny Hebert head of hiring at the Dockworkers Union, a tough guy maybe somewhere in his early 40's. He is also is totally normal. Annette Hebert however, was dead. I don't know how and my powers weren't getting any errors from her. She is just deceased.

[subject: Annette Hebert died may 10th 2009, no brain activity, zero cellular activity, movement caused by ambient energy, body signals disappear at source. not original body , body little over a day old...]

I don't know how that is possible, the body is built, but it lacks changes that would make it possible to be, well, alive. I don't think it is bio-tinkering, but their is something controlling it. My powers can't get any information on how it is receiving or sending signals, so I can't tell what is really going on. Taylor and Nimi both see her as their mother, and she does share similarities to the undead woman. Namely some of that abnormal structures are caused by dead tissue. Could it be that Taylor was a biological curiosity before her powers, or is Taylor the single most dangerous tinker on the planet. It doesn't matter much to her, Taylor wants to be a hero and is an idealist going so far as to help criminals out of harms way. I think the world can relax once it submits to the idea of Taylor's existence. I should probably leave before this powder keg gets hot, but it might be a bad idea to leave such an unexperienced cape with such scary potential. Well if I did team up with them I'll have to see if I'm on a registry, I kind of liked Tattletale it would be a shame if I had to rebrand. Although Tattletale, Frankie, and Nimi doesn't really fit a theme, maybe a new name, like a real name?

---

I wish I had my laptop. I had convinced the Hebert's to let me use their computer so that I could look up my bank info, as well as looking at my cape status. It was a pretty funny morning all in all. Nimi walked down the groaning steps sporting some huge breasts causing Danny to pale up and put his head in his hands. They didn't look too big on Nimi's body but Nimi is big so really they where massive. Taylor came rushing down the stairs later, her face an odd green flush. It took them a while to realize what was wrong with this picture. Danny and I could see it if his groaning into a second cup of coffee was anything to go by. I laughed as Annette finally realized that Nimi was essentially naked, and with that Nimi was rushed back upstairs with Taylor and Annette. I don't know what they will do to cloth her, but I'm sure it will be hilarious. " Is it always this exciting here," I grin at Danny from where I'm sat at, a small alcove office. Danny gives that chuckle of a man forced to see his daughter naked and fear for her life. Anyways the slow computer eventually loads the website that has the international cape registry, if your a villain you're on it. Tattletale did finally return a result, I was on the list with a full physical description. Great looks like I'm rebranding. I look around some more to see if any name I want is already taken. Sherlock, no 14 of though are in the United States alone. Sleuth has less but doesn't fit the theme of real names. Pinkerton, Schindler, and Burns are out people either won't get the reference or will think the wrong things. Jacqueline and Conlon are good picks so is Marcel Guillaume. Jacqueline is out villainess in Connecticut, Conlon spells too close to colon. There are twenty results for Marcel in France, but only three for Guillaume. Hmm do I want to pretend to be of French origins? No... What about Izzy Einstein or his partner Moe Smith, they are American detectives and were quite sneaky about it too. Moe isn't a bad choice, but Izzy is better. Moe two matches.... Izzy zero matches. Well Izzy it is! I can wear a hat and trench coat, just like the detective movies, I smile as the frequently forgotten child in me is excited.

Nimi eventually came down. A blanket wrapped around her shoulders, I nod it makes sense. While almost all of the Hebert's are tall, they're twigs compared to Nimi. If they are going to go out were going to need costumes. Mines easy and Taylor's will have challenges but they will be the normal ones. Nimi will need a custom suit if it is just a bodysuit let alone regular clothes. Hmm... unless Taylor has some way of making clothing, that will require funds. I have some breakfast with the Herbert's, the standard small talk, how was the bed and such, but we eventually got to real subjects. " So Lisa what are your plans going forward," Danny was kind even if a small part of him had reservations about me.

[thinks you might be a bad influence on Taylor , is also concerned for Nimi, will give you the a chance to explain...]

" I don't think it will be as easy as skipping town, I was pretty well hidden from people," I start Taylor's parents don't know I'm a criminal so I have to watch what I say, " I wasn't in town for very long, but I only really use cash and had a burner."

A raised eyebrow from Danny and a concerned stare from Annette. These were good people, they actually cared about my well being. " Why all the precautions," Nimi looks at me with curiosity in her big eye. Well I'm not telling them that it's to keep my parents from finding me, " I just don't like people finding information about me."

Nimi believes it, Taylor doesn't look like she does. Neither parent believe it either, but no one decides to fight me, " Anyways I looked online to see if any of my assets were stolen, you know my banking stuff."

" Yeah and," Danny seems more invested in the conversation than previously, he is testing me to see if I'm a criminal running from the law, I am but he doesn't need to know that. " It seems that several attempts on my accounts were attempted, and now I'm broke." Not technically a lie, many of my public and some obscure accounts were drained of funds, but not all. Still not good news I didn't have that much to begin with and now I had even less. " I'm not sure how they got into some of the accounts I have, they were government level accounts and it didn't set off any alarms when they were breached."

Danny back downs at that, alone and cashless was more pitiable than I have money in offshore banking. The whole improper terms makes me sound like a kid. Never been so happy to be underaged. " Where are your parents," Annette's mention of parents makes my internals cringe I have schooled features so it doesn't show. " I'm emancipated from them after I got my GED."

" Are you sure they can't help?" I turn to Danny he is concerned, but didn't want to say that I can be someone else's problem. I laugh, it isn't funny, " they're not even able to help themselves."

Danny stops thinking about me as someone else's problem. I blink at that. These guys really are good people. Annette is resisting the urge to hug me, and more disturbingly hunger for my parents. So, cannibals in addition to undeath. Oh, shit is she... a zombie cape too? This family is weird. " Well dear, you're free to stay here until some living arrangements are made."

Taylor nods, " And me and Nimi can keep you safe even if some people track you to here."

Some more lighter topics later, and I was in Taylors room. She had some posters on the wall of some of the local protectorate. " So, like Miss Militia?" Taylor is cute when she is flustered... oh no. " Yeah she is so cool," Nimi blurts out, " She has done so much just with guns and knives!" Taylor is trying desperately shut her other half up. I grin, despite having the sinking feeling of thinking that the cannibalistic undead girl in front of me as cute. I cover my dread well, " yeah I have to admit her track record is impressive." Nimi releases some pink glowing spores when she is embarrassed and happy, good to know. " Anyways uh... you wanted to talk to us," nice segue Taylor real smooth, " what was it about." I sit down on the floor I had been thinking about this since yesterday, " I want to team up with you guys."

" Uh, that's nice but you don't have any powers right?"

I look between Nimi and Taylor, did they really not notice, " I may have not been too honest with you guys."

They lean forward, " I'm a thinker who went by the name Tattletale."

" You a rogue?"

I shake my head, " I am a thief, but you already know, I mostly just pickpocket people at the boardwalk."

They are both listening intently almost in sync with their mannerisms, " I have a pretty strong powerset, nothing like what you guys have got going on, but still."

" What is it," Taylor has a calculating look on her face.

[will listen to what you have to say before making decisions is used to people betraying her has problems with trusting ,lonely Error...]

I seem to get more information when she talks to me. This at least gives me some idea of what to say next, " it is information extrapolation, given a small amount of information I can gather information through correct guesses."

" So you can tell what I am?"

" No, my power is having troubles with you Taylor, less so Nimi, but I know that your mom is dead."

Taylor just nods at what I thought should have more impact, " what is that all about by the way?"

" Oh, me and mom are undead."

And doesn't that just answer everything, Jesus Taylor, " okay....what does that mean though?"

She started to tell me her tale. It sounded like a Trigger event, but she didn't seem at all bothered by it. It also bumped Taylor, Nimi, and their mother up on my threat scale. If Taylor could actually resurrect the dead, and makes claims of an actual afterlife, that is a crazy power to have. I'm almost relieved when she tells me she can't just raise anyone from the dead, just those she is close to. Good, no one should have that power, and I can never tell anyone that she can do it. I also realize that I have some value to them, with that swarm Taylor could give me enough information to have info on everything going on in this city. " Could we have a practical example of your power," Nimi had been mostly silent, but sure I can do that. I look around the room before getting up and looking out the window. Some cars are parked but mainly the street is abandoned, except for a suspicious looking van." That van is watching the house," I point it out to them as they come over. " Really," Taylor doesn't know? " What does your swarm sense tell you," I asked. Can she not tell?

" Four people (two males, two female), one is drinking something that must be coffee with all the aerosolized caffeine, they are all in front of something with high electrical outputs," she then listed a list of chemical processes that told me everything from where their clothes were bought to what brand of toothpaste they used.

" Okay, so with all of that I can tell you they are PRT, and I can also tell you where they live, how their sex life is going, what pets they have, and everything they had this week for food."

" Woah..." " Wow..."

I kind of preen under there amazement, " but seriously that is an insane amount of information that you had from your power, how did you not know all of that already."

" I know the chemistry of what is going on in the that van and all across the bay, but I don't know what is what," Taylor explained, " as for not picking up on electricals being what, I can't just shift through it all at once, if I try I just always miss something."

That makes sense her brain is only one brain, or well maybe two, it would probably have other things to do then sift through everything. Still, " what are you currently using it for right now?"

" Eating mold."

" What?"

---

If you are wondering why I wrote Lisa's powers like a run-on sentence from Wikipedia, that is just how I imagined it would work. I know it isn't like that in the story, but this is crack so... I've taken "some" liberties

 

A short one but I finished a new chapter so here is the next one...

---

Lisa wasn't that impressed with my hobby, kept shaking her head in her hands muttering about situational awareness. Have I been missing things? I take stock of my surroundings: bed check, desk check, closet with cloths check. Yeah everything is the same as when I left for school to die. I guess looking at pretty fungi wasn't as productive as it could be, but I now have so much inspiration for working with genes and my own not-biology. Think Nimi has some of her own too just from working with her own body. I agreed that teaming up with Lisa, who is going to go by Izzy as a new cape name for some reason, is probably a smart move. If she can use me to scope out an area with my powers and teach me to recognize things by chemistry alone then I'm all for it. " Hey do you guys have costumes planned out?"

" I can't just fight naked," sometimes I really hate Nimi. " No, you need more than just a costume you need clothes," The sigh leaving me in an aggravated huff.

Nimi pouts and lowers the blanket down her shoulders, " I want to show off my new armor."

" Your boobs are not armor," I screech lunging for the cloth. Instead of grabbing the cloth Nimi grabs me! A trap! I am quickly bundled up next her chest, " Aw I though we agreed you liked boobs." My cheeks don't flush, I have no blood. My cheeks don't flush, I have no blood. My cheeks don't flush, I have no blood... I can see Lisa laughing at me in the corner. Oh god I am flushing, " Traitor!" I try to push her, but she just snuggles me closer. Unlike me, Nimi's body has a body heat this means she is warming me up and I am relaxing, " No bad body!" But it is too late and I go limp. So warm, I feel like falling asleep. "No, no, you don't get to escape embarrassment by going unconscious," Nimi shakes me awake and, like the cruel person she is, dumps me out into the cold. Lisa is laughing, it is a nice laugh. When she stops she decides to burst Nimi's bubble.

" But seriously you need cloths Nimi," Nimi sags at Lisa's statement. " Where could we even get cloths for me?"

"We could take your measurement to a tailor, I know that Parian has a shop at the boardwalk," Lisa suggests.

" Do you think she could help us?"

" Well she is a rogue, and she won't help us with costumes, but she could be convinced if we asked her for normal clothes," Lisa explained, " but it wouldn't be cheap."
I am a bit concerned about that. We can't just ask my parents for the kind of money I fear this sounds like, " how much?"

" Could be a couple thousand dollars, but I suspect that we want simple materials and nothing fancy, so it should be a decent start to a closet."

I can probably help with some things too, " I think I can make a pair boots for the whole shoe problem too."

Nimi smiles at me, " thanks Taylor!"

I smile back, "sure no problem."

" Okay so we have a plan for what we are gonna do about civilian cloths, what about cape costumes?"

" Well I plan on emulating detective movie tropes, so we can just get the stuff from a coat store," Lisa seemed to think some more before continuing, " what exactly can you make?"

" I had some ideas for some swarm suit from last nights fight with Glory Girl, as for what I can make," hmm... I probably could make something that acts like body armor, and slime mold would make a excellent base for a latex like material, or I could just make some thing that grows fabrics into a weave, " everything would take some time, but I should be able to make a bio suit in a few days, also a creature to weave cloth out of produced fibers."

" Your powers are bullshit," Lisa is giving me an exacerbated look, " but those are good ideas, could you make weapons?"

I nod, " it really would be easy. Bone that grows into a knife or baton, chemical sprays that can cause pain or knock someone out, I could even make a gun that fires a bone shard by pressurizing air. What were you thinking?"

---

As it turns out, making my costume was easy. It was a slime mold sheath, skintight but thick so as to not be so obviously skin tight. It was perfectly see through for me, but for anyone else it like a glossy black liquid. Had no symbols, no eyespots, but it was full of spore spiders that I could make glow red or yellow. It was a cool design really, I made a spiral of red and black on my body that moved whenever I did. " Okay that is really cool," Lisa's praise felt good, glad they can't see the blush on my face, " still bullshit."

In the corner Nimi was making some of her own designs, she couldn't build anything with the swarm as we lacked the materials for some of the stuff, so she was just messing around in her body with genes. I try to talk, " do think it will work?"

"What?"

Hmm... a design flaw, in an effort to make it air tight, it was sound proof. I quickly modify it to allow air through the membrane, " How bout now?"

" I can sorta understand you, but it is still quiet," Lisa said, " Does it need to be featureless?"

I shake my head and add a thin line opening that wrapped around my head, " how's this?"

" Woah," she looks closer at my mask, " hey talk some more."

" Okay, what is so interesting," did I do something weird? " Every time you talk the line shifts like a sound wave, it's a neat effect," Lisa explained while poking at my face. Nimi was done with her tinkering and came over to see what we were up to. " Looks good, you plan on using it with the red fog thing," Nimi said. I nod, " yeah it should make it easier to confuse people if I don't have to hide my body among doubles."

" I'm done with what I want my outfit to look like," Nimi then proceeds to cough up the blueprint into her hands. The protein package is an oval shaped shell full of gene and non-gene info, essentially the worlds biggest and weakest virus, about the size of a egg. Nimi lays it into her hands carefully with her long purple tongue. Lisa was grossed out by the regurgitation, but I think she was blushing when the egg-like packet was unwrapped into Nimi's hand. " Here you go!" Nimi places the slime covered egg into my hands. I take a second to look at it. I then swallow it down my own throat before I think about. " Okay Nimi, that was gross, but Taylor what the fuck," Lisa's face is a confusing mix of emotions. I just shrug. I eat corpses, how is this any grosser really? " I got to look through this so I'm going to go sit on those boxes over their." My sheath costume removes itself and sits in a plastic tub while I get comfortable on the floor of the basement. " Be good you two."


"Okay!"

"Come on Nimi lets go steal some sweets."

I roll my eyes at the antics.

---

 

I sort of just wanted to drop something like this for awhile as it fleshes out the story with some explanations some what....it's quiet short too...

---

From the associated work of Undead by Dr. Amon Morgan...

Of all types and species of undead, their are few that can match inanimatus praenuntius. There is very little known about this manner of undead, but we at the society have discovered remains as far back as the Paleoproterozoic era, with the subject being a single multicellular fossil from a time before multicellular organisms existed. Interestingly enough the specimen, here dubbed T-236178 or T-178 for short, comes from a DNA lineage that was around before the introduction of oxygen on our planet. Its age and subsequent resurrection was some time during the Great-Oxidization Extinction(GOE) event places it at roughly 2.4 billion years old. Other specimens of inanimatus praenuntius have been discovered across the globe with most appearing as populations of a single undead to the rare few cases of two being present yet geographically distant. T-178 expired most likely at the very beginning of the GOE which is in line with most what we at the society term successful extinctions. The other famous successful extinctions include the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction(C-P) and the Triassic-Jurassic extinction(T-J). These events and all other extinctions that the world has undergone have had an instance of inanimatus praenuntius to appear, this has lead to the Jamison-Hirokawa theory. The theory states that anytime inanimatus praenuntius appears another extinction event will occur that will kill most life on the planet. The theory is however untested and has some significant evidence against it as we have found specimens that appeared outside the coinciding extinction event. For example Minervina Passarelli(T-234106)(T-106), an Italian woman from the 13th century Italy, she died in 1335 revived in 1347. According to the theory and time period, Ms. Passarelli(T-106) was brought back because of the black plague which was at it's height in Europe. This would suggest that the black plague was in fact an extinction event that would have wiped out most life on the planet. This is dismissed as the plague, while devastating to humanity, did not meet the requirements for an extinction event. However given that for all occurrences of mass extinctions inanimatus praenuntius has always been present, it has been suggested that there were possibly extinction events that failed to "go off" as it were. We at the society call these failed extinctions.

Regardless of whether the theory is proven or disproven, inanimatus praenuntius remains one of the most interesting example of un-life that the society has seen. Since its discovery, which proved the words of Resource Moryt(T-1), researchers have been finding examples of its taxological and historical influence through out our studies. Simply put the creature is the origin of all nonstandard undead. It has no species preference, we have found specimen that had origins form Neanderthals to Tyrannosaurus-rex. It also lacks a complexity preference as suggested by T-178, which was assumed to be a single celled organism at time of death not some unknown multi-cellular creature from the era. Inanimatus praenuntius also appears to belong to both categories of undead, corporeal and incorporeal, as explained by Resource Moryt(T-1) and later observation of Ms. Passarelli(T-106) in her hiding place of the Paris Catacombs. With her permission we were allowed to watch her animate skeletons, which if you read report HL-0023b-MR, Resource Moryt(T-1) explains that animate skeletons are of incorporeal origins. The characteristics of inanimatus praenuntius are most like that of elder vampire (vampiris sanguis) in regards to how the older they are or the more they eat the stronger they get. However unlike vampires, inanimatus praenuntius will only eat when the environment they inhabit is overtly hostile. As observed by Ms. Passareli(T-106), she only consumes food when we asked her to and when asked what she was hungry for she told interviewers that she didn't need anything. Like vampires and their Chinese cousin jangshi (vampiris vigor), inanimatus praenuntius consumes both flesh and spectral essence usually at the same time. This consumption is much like how many undead view the idea of eating, a sort of absorption of ones food rather than destruction. The physical characteristics of inanimatus praenuntius are largely extraneous as they are frequently shapeshifters. The distinction between other shapeshifting undead such as ghouls(siccus praesaepultus), deals largely with how completely inanimatus praenuntius can change to appear as anything or anyone they want. It also breaks away from the shapeshifting of vampires by have the ability to create something new. A good way, if simplified, to describe is that inanimatus praenuntius had the unique ability to control the individual dead cells that make up its body and all new dead cells that it adds to it. Another of its characteristics is the ability to manipulate its own spirit into an active state, but it is unclear to what extent this ability can manifest....

---

As for an editor or proofreader, because it has been mentioned twice now, maybe? I don't know who I would possibly inconvenience for that, especially since this is just a bit of fun... I wrote this today so it isn't a part of my bulk text, but I hope that someone likes it.

 

Now I'm just over compensating for the last two chapters being short. Note: the idea for Lazarus tables came from another fanfiction, A Late Night Walk by Slider (TemporalKnight). This is a fantastic fanfiction of worm on AO3 I believe. I only discovered it a few days ago, but it already feels like a good story. I used the Lazarus table as it is a solid idea for world building, and fits the theme of Worm as a whole...

---

As it turns out, making a bio-suit would take longer than two days. I had gathered the materials for Nimi's design and built bio-constructs to make some of the inorganic supplies. The constructs were slower than my powers but the designs needed inorganics and I can't use my power on those. The designs themselves were complex, Nimi had designed a flexible bone matrix that could be used as plates that were ridged when needed and could bend and flex. It also had a dress for the lower part made of an undead material that I use for my joints. The material is pretty much indestructible to blunt damage but it can still be severed. Here Nimi overcame this problem by weaving Kevlar fibers and joint material together. The pauldrons and upper arm armor stopped before her natural exoskeleton, it was made of a type of abalone shell a lot like her replacement natural breast armor. This one was super charged, the calcium carbonate bricks in it's brick like structure were instead replaced with bricks of dentine and tooth enamel layered on top of each other, the protein layer that holds abalone together was also replaced with a layer of hydrogen bonds. It was insanely strong and was scattered all over the design. The bones in the bone matrix were the stuff. The designs for her boots were just my own ideas I had when I was going to make her boots, a bone plated boot with a muscle "sock" system to help put it on and make it stay. Under the dress her hip and pelvic area was covered in a shock absorbent skin tight foam, should be good enough to stop some bullets. It was a complex design, from top to bottom it made Nimi look like a knight. The dress will have splits all down the sides with more layers of material on the inside, pretty but also had good mobility. The cracked look of the bone matrix chest piece will be cool to see mixing reds and whites. The pauldrons will have a simple curved design to deflect blows. It's gonna take forever...

In that time we had other problems to deal with. As it turns out when someone comes back from the dead the world doesn't come and congratulate you, me and mom are still considered dead and thus cannot hold a job or go to school. Now I was fine not going to school, Winslow is a shithole, but mom and dad cannot afford to send me to school elsewhere and homeschooling is looking less and less like a suitable alternative.

I would give Winslow a chance just to see if my bullies got punished. Armsmaster was a dick, but I don't think he would ignore a crime like what those bitches did. Huh, I haven't thought about them since that conversation. Good to know that my tormentors have lost some power over my thoughts.

But still being undead has some problems. Problems that three days later Lisa helped solve. The plan was simple, first we paid off the cemetery workers at the place mom was buried and Lisa, mom, and I went and dug up her grave. " Are you sure that you don't want me to come?"
I opened the pickup door and climbed into the center seat, Lisa hopping in after me. " Yes Danny I'm sure," mom leaned into her hug with dad, " I can still remember how much me leaving hurt you." I try not to look at my father as he teared up a bit. It was much better at home now that mom was back, still didn't mean that I forgot what it was like before. " We'll be back in a few hours," mom opens up the driver side door waving to a nervous Danny. " It will probably be closer to five hours," Lisa sighed next to me, " we still have so much to do."

" It will be fine I'm more worried about being caught by the cemetery workers," I look back at my house disappearing behind us, I hope that dad and Nimi will be okay. " Its not so simple as digging up the body we are still on a hefty time limit," Lisa looks out the window as we start to turn off from our street. " We have a time limit, for what?" Mom is deadly focused on the road and asks the question without looking over. " It all has to due with how the state government deals with death certificates," Lisa turns to look at me, " This more applies to Taylor than you Annette. A death certificate can be invalidated if certain details in the investigation are left blank, however it can be declared valid in a time period of around 120 hours if proof of life is not presented."
Mom and me are quiet as Lisa explains several state statutes. " So, since Taylor's autopsy wasn't completed the certificate of death could be simply thrown out without it ever reaching a court date," she continued. I nod, " so assuming that I'm still under the time limit I can avoid publicly appearing before a judge."

" Exactly," Lisa looks over to mom, " If we fail any of that their is also other options for Taylor that we are going to try with you Annette. " Mom cocks her head at the mention of her plan, " please remind me what we are doing about my death certificate."
" Sure, we are going to be exploiting cape laws, specifically title 50 chapter 63 of federal laws on cape healing factors," Lisa smirks in that foxlike manner, " the title is a bit complex, but section 7119 essentially states that any individual or group of individuals that can medically prove that they are not dead, can have there death certificate invalidated if cape intervention via healing powers or regenerative powers are involved."

" Okay so what are the other stipulations," mom's question is also what I have, the law seems way too convenient for a cape law. " There are a few snags in the law," Lisa had our full attention or well at least mine. " One of these snags is that the law only pertains to capes that are legally recognized by the federal government i.e.: the PRT must recognize you as either a US citizen with cape powers, a member of the associated cape organizations such as the Protectorate, or as a legally registered independent hero or group." I have to think about that. What do they mean by... "wait I have to be recognized as a cape by the PRT, aren't I already?"

Lisa gives me a sad smile, " Technically they don't have to legally register that you exist even if they do know about you. The law is more of a strong arm tactic to have certain capes out themselves to the government."

" That incredibly unethical," mom turns into the cemeteries drive almost hitting a mailbox as she swerved, her disgust in her voice is clear, " what right does the government have to invade someone's privacy like that?" " To be fair to the government, the slowest regeneration time of any cape was 28 hours," Lisa's smirk is a less predatory one now, " we are kind of breaking that recorded by 2 years, it will be difficult but not an impossible con." We stop at the front reception and after maybe fifteen minutes Lisa had successfully bribed the cemetery guards. Mom and I retrieve the large suitcase from the truck bed and then the three of us head over to mom's headstone.

" If I or mom out ourselves to the government won't they try to force us into the PRT," I don't like the idea of being know by those assholes let alone legally known. We arrive at the mom's grave it is dark out so Lisa pulls out a flashlight. " Normally you would be right," Lisa leans against the stone, " however our plan is to pose both of your powers as only regeneration, no super strength or laser vision. If it is just regeneration with out much application, they will be less inclined to bother someone with a less than spectacular power." Mom and I bend down and start to dig with our hands, we wanted to bring shovels but Lisa said that it would look wrong. " So we are severely down playing mine and Taylor's abilities," mom is got that mad gleam in her eyes as she continues to dig. " Extremely down playing, we are going to have to convince the worlds greatest healer that your powers are just regeneration, so still not an easy task," Lisa holds the light steady as mom and I continue to dig. I think mom is giggling to herself, she looks like she is having fun.

---

After maybe and hour or two of digging we finally reached mom's casket. Mom and I were about to bust through when Lisa told us to stop. " What why can't we just break it," both mom and myself were kind of really into this digging for the body thing. I could feel my body practically vibrate, and mom was smiling with her own mad glee, her left foot doing nothing but tapping. " Look it has to look like it was broken from the inside, so we can't just..." I flood the inside of the grave with as much local swarm as I could, I was looking for cracks in the casket to see if there was a way inside the box. I eventually squeeze the swarm around to the lid, with the avenue open I flood mom's casket and then burst the lid from the inside with pressure. " Okay I was going to come up with a clever way to do that, but sure that will work," I smile up at Lisa who smiles back before she starts cringing back from the hole. The sickly sweet and dark scent of decay rises out of the hole like a bouquet of the finest scents. Mom's corpse smelled delicious. " Oh God I hate looking at the two of you right now," Lisa was getting green in the face and was slowly backing away from me and mom. I turned to see what she meant. Mom's grey eyes were fully dilated she had a huge toothy grin and her expression was one of hunger. Mom slowly turned to me for a second but was back down the hole before I could blink.

With the coffin lid burst, all we had to do was rip a hole into the wooden box. Between my zeal and mom's hunger it didn't take long to extract mom from her grave. I honestly don't know what we were going to do to mom's old body when we finally got to it, but we both stopped when we saw her. The bloom of intoxicating smells now rose freely from the hole. Judging though from Lisa's gaging, mom didn't smell to good to human noses. Mom was mostly gone from liquification, a slick black sludge of her desiccated soft tissues left behind a pure white skeleton. " She's beautiful," my mom's voice was breathy and I could hear some tears, " why is she so white..." I was inclined to agree with mom, she did make a very pretty corpse. It was such a contrast from the last time I was here. My hand clenched in my fathers fist as we both watched helpless as mom was taken from us by the earth. I feel mom's hand on my shoulder as a few cold tears trace down my face, " Its okay owl, I'm never leaving you again."

After me and mom finished hugging we set about removing the "body." Since we didn't bring buckets I to go ahead and repair the body until it was whole. I turned all of the slime into a black glass-like membrane that enshrouded her body. She now looked like a tinted glass statue of my mother with her skeleton placed inside. Mom lifted it out of the grave, it moved like a human corpse did so it was pretty easy to carry jelly mom. Lisa looked like she was going to be ill, but she still helped us put it into the prepared suitcase. We lined the thing in heavy plastics and taped up the seems so that nothing could get into it or out of it. Black jelly corpse Mom was really flexible so we just folded her into thirds and she fit!

With the body removed Lisa helped us set the scene. First we filled the grave up half way over Mom as she got into the casket. Mom then mock burst out of it, before crawling her way out of the dirt, followed by mom clawing at the ground around the hole. We did this three times before Lisa was satisficed that it would fool forensics. With the last few touches of a bare foot prints leading away from the grave that we covered with wet dirt, it was finished. We got in our car and headed home.

" This is entirely too surreal," Lisa was sitting in the middle seat this time. I looked back at her from staring out the window, " What do you mean?" Lisa gave me that look, a look that I've been getting from her almost daily since she started living with us, a plead for sanity. " I'm currently sitting in a truck, having just helped dig up a body, which is being driven by the person who used to live in that body," Lisa face is scrunched, but her eyes are almost dazed. Mom chuckles from the drivers seat, " I think this is supposed to be another weird living thing Taylor." Lisa looks almost pained, I place a hand on her knee. I'm consoling her, I don't really know why, but it looks like she needs it.

---

Daddy and I sat on the couch as we waited for the others to get back. We are watching some TV, a game I think football, that's what's it called, right? I check with Taylor's side of the memories. Yeah that's right. Daddy is sitting far away from me, I wish he would get closer. Daddy was still uncertain about me, sure he does recognize me, but he is kind of distant. I pull the blanket tighter around me, is this how Taylor felt? Is this what it was like for her when mommy was dead dead?

" Do you know how they're doing," daddy asks out of the corner of his mouth, he was nervous about the plan Lisa came up with all day. " Yeah," I said checking in on what Taylor was doing, " they just opened the coffin up." Daddy cringed but looked like he still wanted to know something, " how... how is it... I mean, how is Annette looking?"

I look at him, he is trying to focus on the TV, trying to pre-emptively ignore something hard. " She is still beautiful," it was more of a hazarded response, the living have a hard time with the dead, let alone the undead, if Lisa's response to seeing mom's corpse were anything to go by. Daddy looks up at me, he wasn't expecting that. " What," he looked like he didn't believe me. " The grave didn't take as much as it gave daddy," I sigh, I don't think I can explain it to him, " mommy is still beautiful, and mommy also looks like she is having fun so everything turned out okay." He looks a little better, " I should have gone with." I reach over and pull him into my side, he looks startled by that, but he soon relaxes into my side. " I think it is better for mommy to do this," I smile down at him, I get rewarded with one of his own, " it looks really cathartic." We spend the rest of the time waiting for them to come back, but at least he put an arm behind me. Good enough of a start.

---

Back at the house we moved the corpse from the trunk to the house. " We're back," mom sing-songed, as she and I carried in the suitcase. Dad and Nimi were sitting on the couch, watching some TV. " Oh, hey how did it go," dad gets up upon seeing us walk in with the heavy suitcase, " you didn't have any trouble did you." Mom and I set her down on the kitchen table, dad looks greener for some reason. " It went fine dear, honestly was kind of fun," mom's smiled at him. Lisa had walked in closing the front door, she had helped in the whole making sure we weren't spotted caring the case by our not so secret surveillance. It wouldn't do to have the PRT knowing that we moved a body.

Dad looked at the case on the table, he had whatever Lisa had not too long ago just it looked worse. " I- so, what are we going to... put it," dad was not taking it well, mom came over and started to rub his back. Lisa just didn't want to intrude it looked like and went over to sit on the couch, Nimi grabbed her up into her lap. Didn't even yelp like she had every time before in the past few days. I look at mom, she seems to be thinking about it, it's her body she can put it where she likes.

" I think I'll put her in the basement," she nods, it seemed like a good enough place to me, " maybe where my stuff used to be." Dad had kept a lot of mom's things, including some of her clothes which is why she is wearing fitting clothes, in some boxes in the basement under the stairs, but now that she is back that stuff was moved back out. Mom went out yesterday and got herself and Lisa some clothes, I came with to protect Lisa, Nimi had to stay at home during the day as she has no clothing still. We even looked for stuff in the extra large sizes, but it was all too short. I help mom and dad, who after crying a little with mom comforting him, take the body down stairs. Shift a few boxes and voila! Perfectly hidden dead body, or at least good enough.

---

The hospital was much like a I remember it, or it would be if I hadn't spent much of my time here on the slab. " A doctor and PRT representative will be with you shortly if you three could wait here that would be appreciated," the nurse directed us to an empty patient room, and mom, dad, and I took up the offered space. Unfortunately my death certificate was fully completed which means that I have to officially out myself to the PRT along with mom. I am nervous, my hands are shaking with the anxiety. Mom grabs my hands in hers, " It will be okay owl, right Danny?"
" yeah it is going to go great," dad tries to smile, but even I can tell that it is forced. He was not too happy about the cape law that Lisa mentioned, had been muttering about privacy laws all morning. " Besides Taylor, we spent all morning preparing for the examination," mom is really trying here, but I am still unconvinced. This morning was spent mostly researching into what exactly are the physical characteristics of cape physiology. As it turns out posing as a cape is kind of easy, or at least it is easy for me to fake. The primary physical trait is the presence of two small brain structures, the Corona Pollentia and it's inner substructure in the Pollentia called the Gemma. It is a relatively non-complex bit of brain tissue, it is also virtually useless until it is in an active state. The active state is only physically different from the connections that the normally golf ball sized lobe gains upon a trigger event. It took very little effort to give myself and mom a similar structure with just enough variance to look like like two different structures rather than two copies. The harder change I had to make in our bodies was a convincing simulation of our dead cells becoming living slowly. It is kind of uncomfortable to have so many living cell in my body, it makes me hungry...

The door opens and a doctor walks in, " Hi, I'm doctor Conrad, are we waiting on someone else?" Dad and mom shake the doctor's hand as we explain what we are exactly in here for. " I see, well that is rather... unusual, are you sure you want to go through this," Dr. Conrad's voice is serious, " there are no laws stating that a cape must give up their identity, the legal protections to capes are pretty clear on that front." I think I like Dr. Conrad, he seems to genuinely care. " Unfortunately being declared dead is kind of put us between a rock and a hard place," mom sighed, " we can't wait for a public court hearing where we could be publicly outed in the news, and the federal laws have pretty clear strong arm tactics built in." Dr. Conrad's face doesn't change, but from his voice we can tell he is sympathetic to our plight, " yeah resurrection laws for capes can be hard, usually it could be fast tract if an autopsy report is done on a Lazarus table. The tinker tech was pretty much designed around detecting slow healing factors."

" Wait they have a technology like that," I am really hope I wasn't on on of those, it would make it impossible for prove that I was "alive". " Yeah it exists, still pretty new, but they're already using it in legal cases for similar stuff like this," Dr. Conrad has taken a seat on one of the hospital bed, glancing at his watch and the door before turning to us again. " Why wasn't something like that used here," dad's question seems a bit pointed, but it doesn't look the doctor took it bad. " Simple, hospital administration can't budget for it. It's a pretty new tinker tech device so I guess it makes some sense, but I still think that it could be a smarter investment, save them some lawsuits," Dr. Conrad shrugs, " ultimately it is not up to me to make that decision."

At that moment the door opens and in walks two PRT troopers and one cape wearing a spartan outfit. I'm trying to remember what his name is when he introduces himself, " Hi, I'm Dauntless of the Protectorate, I will be representing the PRT as legal with the two troopers behind me as witnesses along with the doctor." Dauntless had the air of some one who didn't take things too seriously, it was only made more clear as he leaned against the wall while the two troopers stood ramrod straight. " Okay now that the government is here, we can begin," Dr. Conrad looked through the clipboard that the nurse handed dad on our way in, " Okay first off we need to relate dad to daughter then daughter to mother, this will prove family relations at least as far as we can. Then we will get a brain scan for the associated structures assuming you have normal ones." Dr. Conrad turns to the Protectorate member, " do you want me to get Panacea to confirm the tests, she is here today." I try not frown at the mention of the healer, I'm going to have to let her change my cells...that's going to go over poorly. " Only if she agrees to do it," Dauntless shrugs, " it probably won't hurt their case."

" Uh, is it possible to not have Panacea confirm it," I almost cringe back at the cape and doctor both look at me. " Why wouldn't you want her to examine you," Dauntless was pretty on guard now, it was like his whole body shifted. " I uh, didn't have a good experience with her when I woke up last week," not to mention I drank from her sister's veins not too long ago. It was even more awkward with that memory now floating around in my head. " Wait, last week," Dr. Conrad interrupted the cape before he could question further, " your the corpse girl, the one that woke up in the morgue!" My dad gives the doctor a glare that makes him flinch a bit at his lack of tact.

"...it was mid-autopsy actually," I can feel the false blood in my body rush to my face at my embarrassment. Now it was Dauntless's turn to flinch, his whole body shifts out of that ready state only to collapse inward. His voice is strained as he talks, " I- I see, well you don't have to get checked out by her if it brings up bad memories, but it will make this process a bit smoother."

"...I'll think about it."

---

The test took about 5 hours with blood being taken from each of us including dad. The brain scans were mostly the quickest with the blood test just taking a long time to get the results back even with some tinker tech equipment on loan from the PRT. Panacea was still called after all the test came back with inconclusive results. As soon as Panacea arrives she stops to stare at me. " I was asked about a paternity test," Panacea doesn't take her eyes off me, her eyes say that she is tired, but her limbs have a tension in them. Dr. Conrad looks up from his continued attempts to find a heart beat on mom, much to both mine and mom's amusement. " Ah, yes Panacea, we are running into trouble with the blood work as well as we need you to identify some certain brain structures," the doctor gave the PRT people the stink eye with that last one.
" Are they consenting to the examination," the healer's scowl moves from me and mom to the Protectorate cape. " Hey don't look at me kid they were the ones that requested this not us," Dauntless seemed to shrink as the "kid's" scowl deepened. The healer turned back to us and began to walk over. Panacea was a person that can simultaneously look both resentful and tired in equal enthusiasm. I could read several signs of fatigue on just her face, and while I doubt that anyone in the room could really notice her breath smelled of cigarettes. Stopping in front of us she looks from me to mom. " So what was wrong with last week," Panacea seems wary of touching me, " it would have been easier then waiting until now."

" People were throwing around the word bio-tinker and bio-construct," I try to give her my best unamused look, " I also woke up in an autopsy room, which was an... in depth demonstration of my insides."

Panacea's eye only twitched at the directed barb, Lisa would be disappointed at my lackluster insult. " Yeah sure, look do I have permission to touch you," her voice says impatient, her body language says reluctant. I'm nervous about this too, last time that Panacea touched me she tried to manipulate my cells and couldn't. That was back when I had mostly dead cells making up my body. In order to sell the story that me and mom were some kind of slow regenerator, I had to make a gradient pattern of living and dead tissues in my body. The dead stuff was easy it was just me, it was the living stuff that was the hard stuff. I had to individually copy some of my dead cells and then make something that resembles my own biology before it was undead. Mom might raise a few alarms her body is mostly undead with only a few living brain cells to sell it as some kind of life. I gulp a bit as I hold out my shaky hand. I watch as her face blanks out, as I try my hardest not hold on to my cells too tightly. It becomes harder to concentrate on not moving my cells as I start to feel her make changes. It feels like fingers crawling under my skin, it felt violating.
" It will be okay dear," mom strokes my back as she tries to comfort me her ghost wrapping around the shoulders of mine, " it can't be as bad as the few times I woke up buried." Panacea's touching stills as her face hazes back in to look at my mother, " buried alive?"

My mother looks at the healer with the same look a mother bear gives someone near her cubs. " Oh, no no," mom fixes Panacea with one of her famed "friendly" smile the sharpness of it a razor, " just reforming from the primordial soup as it were." The healer just barely touches mom rather than the exhibition my body got.

" And we couldn't have done this Wednesday," she reminds me a lot of Lisa, same pleading for sanity look

"I needed to think about it, and got distracted by Mom."

She nods and then holds out her hands for both me and mom. The examination took maybe a few minutes and Panacea looked mostly confused for most of it. " They're related, and their Corona Pollentia's are dead but active," she almost looked disappointed, " their bodies are showing signs of cellular activation and it is very slow, so I would hazard a guess that their regeneration is what is causing it." She then compared dad to me showing that we were in fact related as well. " Well that is good enough for me," Dauntless had an easy smile on his face, before pulling out some paper work, " this paper work should be read and signed, it will get the process rolling, the legal status of you two being alive should be cleared up in maybe a few days give or take the weekend. The paper work should be summited to the city court house before the invalidation date." Dad took the paper work from the hero, and with that the PRT leaves and after saying our goodbyes to Dr. Conrad (and getting the bill) we leave as well.

---

with me and mom now considered alive in the eyes of the law, I unfortunately have to go to school again. I start Monday, but until then I have five days to goof off. I guess I'll spend it with Lisa and Nimi...

---

Check out the writer Sliders aka Temporal Knight, they write really great stuff!

 

Hello, I'm back! I still haven't brought up the idea of beta reading with my friends yet, but I will eventually work up the nerve. I edited this chapter and it took me a while to do it. Also I plan on releasing two more chapters soon, today or tomorrow.
In other news I finally got a job, thus ending my almost year long search for employment after graduating last spring... I am terrified. This mean that the chapters are probably going to be a bit slower from now on, but I have solid plans for the future and I am stubborn enough not to quit! I hope you enjoy the chapter!

---

The previous two weeks that I spent with the Hebert's was a nice break from living alone. " What do you think of this one?" I look up from the coats in front of me. In Taylor's hands was a black trench coat. I didn't realize how much I missed people, living alone is not what I consider comfortable.

[public response will be negative due to dark color, significant part of the population will associate you with Jack Slash due to style, pockets too small for wanted utility...]

The first few days that I spent with Taylor and Nimi was mostly locked indoors, I lasted about three days before my powers drove me up the wall. " No it looks too...villainous, look for something in tan," I try to avoid reading Taylor with my powers as I watch her go back to looking through the thrift shop, " and make sure it has deep pockets." I was almost embarrassed when I asked, begged, Taylor or Nimi to take me somewhere, anywhere. I spent the days running around with Taylor, looking in strange corners of the world that seemed devoid of life; I spent the nights with Nimi looking a stars or hunting for what she calls "treats". I smile to myself at the memory of Nimi smiling at me after eating a bunch of dead flowers, the petals all stuck in her teeth. I was kind of surprised at Taylor's ability to find places that people are just missing from. It was mostly in the boat graveyard, but she still could find empty places that have been left that way for years. "How is this one? "

I look up at the tan coat in front of me. It was a bit shorter then the trench coat style I was looking for, but...

[public response is over all positive, makes your persona look younger and thus less dangerous, pockets are large enough for expected supplies, cute...]

"It would work, let's keep looking I still need a hat," I'm thinking bowler or a wide brimmed hat, " I think I saw some over by the discount electronics." My time with the two hasn't been as strange as I thought, I mean sure the undead are kind of... different. I didn't just explore with them for the fun; Taylor, Nimi, and even Annette had "activities" that they did that most would find inhuman. I've gone on a few of them with Nimi and Taylor. It is mostly what you would expect from the undead and was almost exclusively based around... "food". Almost... their were other things, like the star gazing that could transfix Nimi for hours. With Taylor it was mostly waiting for something. For example, I once waited with Taylor inside a phone booth for three hours. What were we waiting for? Mold, we sat huddled together in the dead of night and stared at a tiny fuzzy spot just under the coin-fed machine. It was bored waiting for something, and Taylor didn't tell me what we were even doing. I was bored for those hours; or I was until it happened. The slightly grey mold flowered instantly turning pink with spores, a flash of biology, but that wasn't what was interesting. After three hours of silence just the hum of the electrical lights, Taylor turned to me her eyes were glazed over and she began to speak.

"Life is a lot like death," Taylor's eyes had black tears fill them as they start to speak, " before you are you, you are nothing; after you are dead what remains is the negative of what was, but is that you?" I stare as the girl I had made friends with, shows herself. A scrap of something hidden an extension of trust, a secret.

[ fears secrets, fears their power, had trust betrayed, ERROR...RESETTING]

I want to wince again as my power becomes sharp like glass, but I know how important what she is saying is right now. She speaks again looking at the now pink grey spot in front of us. " Little grey smear, now pink with motes of life, now itself dead as it spawns one final time before its end." I stare from her to the spot, a grey fuzz on the wall, a graveyard covered in little pink infants. " A funeral," my voice scratchy as the cold air of the night was harsh, " you wanted to show me a funeral?" My powers continue to try and dissect the words as she speaks, but the powers feel heavy and a deep ache starts to build. " Yes, I brought you here to witness death, but also to save the dead's new children," I watch as she wipes her tears away, " this species is new around here, and it seems to have a resistance to extreme temperatures."
" Is that why it is spawning now," Taylor is kind of obsessed with decomposers, specifically molds, so she has taught me quite a bit about them, " it only spawns in the cold." I watch Taylor's head shake, " No, this is rare, the mold knew it was dying and that if it did before it bloomed its children would be lost too. It stored all of the energy it had left and died giving birth out of season."

[ views the mold as symbolic of herself..... cares for its problems...…. wants to protect them...ERR-]

I am silent as Taylor reaches out with her swarm and gathers up the pink spores one by one. " I-," what do I say to something like that? My head hurts, " what do you plan to do with them?"

" I have a spot that they will be safe in," Taylor grasps the small dead grey fuzz with her fingers and pries it from the booth phone, " don't feel too bad for it." I watch, my stomach both rolling and fluttery, as Taylor consumes the dead mold with care, a long oily black tongue wrapping delicately around the desiccated fungus. She swallows, " they would understand the trade as they called out to me, I am after all the ultimate decomposer."

I shudder at that memory, turning a soft brown felt fedora in my hands before placing it back for another hat. Often times Taylor treats the idea of death as if it can't touch her, but sometimes I see stuff like that. It makes me realize that Taylor is suppressing something important, it probably makes her feel a bit more in control. My powers gathered that it is some kind of trauma, but even I could tell that. Whatever it is, it's going to hurt her when it eventually works its way back into her life, but at least she'll have Nimi or her parents their to make sure she doesn't break. God I hope she doesn't break. Ignoring that Taylor and Nimi's combined might could probably destroy the world, I know that Taylor would hate herself more if she couldn't contain herself. I would hate myself if I couldn't stop it from happening to her too. It would end up destroying her...

Well I will just have to be there for her, I nod to myself. I haven't known the Hebert's for a long time, but they are good people. I look up at Taylor to see her staring at me, she ducks her head almost as soon as our eyes meet. I smile, I haven't known Taylor for long at all, but she is a good friend.

" I think I'll go with this one," I lift a tan wide brimmed fedora, it is just off color from the coat, but that just made it look more homemade, " and I think we will go with that coat too." I look forward to spending time with the two later tonight, got to check up on some mold after all.

---

Nimi's costume was coming along smoothly, I could now grow a lot of the abalone into shapes. Lisa needs armor of her own so I built plates to be placed inside the coat she bought. It also helped work out the whole bioprinting task which Nimi had to help me in processing.

We tried a few forms for knives made of the material, but at a certain thinness the material fails to preform within significant tolerances. Turns out that abalone is really weak if its edges aren't thick, which means that any blade will snap if you apply even grip force. We were able to make a rather hard set of knuckle dusters, but I don't want Lisa to get that close to the action. I eventually decided to just hand make a living dart gun. It wasn't too hard with my swarm and it was fairly simple. The bone white gun compressed air through a set of spiracles on the side. It then takes the air and uses it to power strong muscles to "spit" a three inch long bone dart that delivers a strong muscle relaxer. The bone regenerates but it takes a while, it has three shots. It doesn't have too great range, but it should stop someone at about 15 yards. Lisa seemed disappointed that it didn't hold more ammo, so I added a cartridge that could be pushed through an orifice in the back. This made it so she could still carry it as it was small enough to, and give there a way of having more ammo should she need it quickly.

I was still unsatisfied that my friend had a limited number of clips, but the back pack that makes more clips is still in the blueprint stage and the Bio suit was still taking a lot of materials. I had set up breeding zones for insects and molds all across the bay, as decimating the ecosystem was last week, time to let it recover. Good thing I seemed to not destroy it entirely, but it will need a few days to recover. It wasn't cutting into production of my swarm or any equipment, but it may some day and I'm not sure how to solve that beyond making new species of fast growing flesh trees. That would probably cause us some bad PR, we are already going to have it, best not to make it worse.

Another thing I'm noticing is that me, and by extension Nimi, were getting hungrier. Mom is fine, in fact she is starting to eat less and less. Her body doesn't need food really all that much as she doesn't use it to power her body, her ghost is doing that. But me, and Nimi, are growing and changing we need food, a lot of food. Living tissue would be nice, especially human, but it is sort of a non-solution. To counter it I've started growing a garden of fungi inside of an abandon warehouse across town and once it is done I can feast, but for now I go hungry.

---

This was a bad idea. I had started regretting it as soon as mom dropped me off, she wanted to make sure that I was okay so she has the car for today. The school looms above me, it's brick walls in an uninteresting box construction has more the feel of what a correctional facility than a school, just had more windows. I died here, I can almost feel it like it is a physical smell, or maybe a sound just resonating with my bones. I don't like it, but that isn't why this is a bad idea.

I was hungry. I was hungry and Winslow stood before me. My grey lifeless eyes roved over the tasty students walking around me and into the front of the school. Student that did nothing as I was shoved in the locker, a cruel voice in the back of my head whispers, acceptable targets. I pull my hood tighter around my skull trying my best to block my view. The vent it forms just makes the smell more pronounced. I can smell the blood rushing through the bodies as I walk past, the wet slap of meat as they speak and breathe. I'm faster, and stronger than them. It would be all too easy to grab a few and... No! Bad Taylor! I startle out of my slip into something predatorial. Okay keep calm Taylor it doesn't matter how much blood, sweat, and flesh is around you. You can't eat any of it, just don't cave...I stop at the steps as I try to gather myself. I look up, the steps loom before me and I am some how reminded of the Aztec, the great pyramids to there gods had steps leading to there holy chambers. I felt like a sacrifice, or worse that I was here for one. My mind racing with the scent of the living. It normally wouldn't be this bad, I only occasionally want to eat Lisa, but that's normal, right? Yeah, it's normal so I'm sure you can afford some leeway Taylor. Just a nibble, wouldn't even hurt.....No! I startle out of that internal dialogue, I've been stopped on the steps just staring into the distance. I was looking at someone who was walking into the school chatting animatedly with their friend who walked beside them. Just normal humans, but the scary part was that I couldn't recognize them as people. Food, food is all I see. How long had I been staring? Did I lose track of time, did someone notice? I give myself a mental shake, and start back into the school. Some people clearly recognized me even if I fail to recognize them back. Some do double takes, but no one stopped me as I climbed the steps. My ghost could see some hanger-ons whispering in the corner, they some how are extremely recognizable. I ignored them. I had more important problems right now, but that sinking feeling was starting up. You know the one, that feeling that you've made some unredeemable error, that something has been made permanent. I start whispering to myself...

I must not cave.
I must not cave.
I must not cave.
I must not ca-.

I was trying hard not to think about the fleshy, bloody humans (food) all around me. They were giving me wide birth as I made my way through the halls, thank god I don't think I could handle it if I was closed in by them. The smell was already overwhelming. I wish I was home with Nimi and Lisa, I whine in my head, they were testing equipment and readying for tonight's raid of a scouted out merchant cash house. Planning that out with my swarm sense would be so much more fun than walking through this sinner's paradise. I arrived at my locker, it was clean, but I remember it. My baptism by shit and insects, a holy place of my creation, through hell. I'm not sure why I worded it like that, it just felt like how it is you know. I am flung back to twelve days prior to today, I felt so alone and powerless then, but I can overcome everything as I am no longer alone. Mom, Dad, Nimi, and even Lisa stand with me, my legions of spores have conquered this bay in all but name. I hate this place. And I know that my thoughts sound crazy to you right now, they sound crazy to me too. A view from the corner of my eye tells me I am going to need to try and stay calm, if that means my thought are strange so be it. Armsmaster is a lying liar who lies...

"Oh hello, Taylor~."

I had spotted them long before they reached me, my ghost was great for this. It was all of them, they got away with it...again. They bought some of their faceless crowd to back them up. At least five or six of them. " Oh Taylor~." The singsong voice belonged to the stupid one, Madison, a student so bad she needs me to even pass classes. Her bulling is little more than childish pranks and stealing my homework, she isn't worth mentioning much more about. "Think she's deaf as well as dumb now?" A hanger-on chuckles at their passible pun, sounds like one of them has something approaching a brain. A nice delicious brain, mmmmmmmmm. I can feel my cells shift with unease, they want more and I'm not giving it to them. Poor babies, I want food so bad I'm personifying my undead not-biology. I am hungry...

" Bitch, Taylor fucking face us."

I had lost a few minutes there, and Sophia decides that she doesn't like that. The shove barely pushes me, dammit I'm supposed to act normal! I can't think, all I can hear is the rush of blood and all I can smell is the decadent stink of the living. So many emotions in the air, so many hormones that cause my body's 'stomach' to bite with its perceived starvation. In my head all I can hear is Armsmaster talking, saying nothing over and over and over and ove-

*CRUNCH*

My neck practically snaps itself, as I grind the bones in it from underneath my hood. Fuck, I didn't mean to do that, but I am hungry. I feel like my brain is on fire, and I can sense everything. The flies in the corner, their wings are beating with a pressure I can feel across the exposed skin of my hands. The lemony cleaner that the floors were cleaned in burns my nose even in its diluted state and I hear the crawling in the walls of insects unknown and unseen. All of these sensations have nothing on the absolute focus my senses have on the humans in and around me. The hall was flushes with fear now, everyone who was ignoring my bullying before was paying attention now or slowly backing out of the hall. I can 'feel' Madison urge wet herself. I stare blankly into the locker, I can smell the blood, the shit I was marinated in. The waste that I was disposed of in. I'm not scared, I'm not depressed, I'm not angry. I am starving.

I turn around my body, my tall body, it looms over the food. I can't eat them, this makes me hungry. I can't feel myself pretending to breathe. " Oooh, Taylor was that supposed to be scary," the dark meat says to me, I can hear its blood. The other morsels are flushed with fear, the two closest are just full of stress. That will spoil their flavor. Not like Lisa, Lisa would taste lovely, one day I will get to tell her how hungry I am. " I thought you would have learned after last time you got uppity," the red meat talks to me, " what would your mother think, oh yeah." Mother? I quirk my head at that, the movement is too subtle to the food. Mother wants me to be happy. I know what could make me happy. I pull back my hood, I grow tried of torturing myself with the collected smells of food I can't eat. I take a second to look at myself; my hair long and black, spills out like a warrior's hood, my eyes are the milky grey of the decomposer, and my smile has its teeth bared glinting a pure white. I look beautiful just like my other told me.

…

" Ew, look at her face, it looks like a corpse," red is now more fear than the stress from before, and dark is not far behind. I can feel it, beneath my skin the ribs shift out of position as the sternum dissolves. The hole where the main pump, now eaten and repurposed, is huge and lined with teeth. I can feel it, my maw gnashing away. I wish I could show it to them, peel back the 'Y' shaped scar on my flesh and introduce them to the beauty. I wish to show them the organized flesh, to show them the kaleidoscope of living and dead, I want them to be part of it. I want it badly.

Don't bite.
Don't bite.
Don't bite.
Don't bite-

The annoying mantra at the back of my skull is telling me exactly what I already know. I roll my eyes. " She would be proud of me Emma," Red meat's name smoothly rolling off the tongue, as I stare unblinking into the crowd of would be attackers. Like they could seriously hurt me, I'm dead, I don't care what the living think. Just dad and Lisa. " Who would be proud of an undead crack whore looking bitch like you," I smile at dark meat's insult. Crack whores, as she so eloquently put it, are only "ugly" because they are living. It is only in death that one can indulge the strange forms and be aesthetically pleasing. If she wanted to insult me, she should have worded it better. I smile wider, " are we done yet, I'm getting bored." I watch the fist impact with my stomach in slow motion, I don't even bother fake flinching. The minimal damage was almost a subconscious repair. I yawn, " yeah, were done I have better things to do, and hanging around your desperation is giving me allergies." I walk through the crowd, people that thought they could stop me ( cough, cough, Sophia) were almost bowled over as I walked through her. If she responds with anything I don't recall, too busy finally noticing something that I haven't for the some twelve days I've been undead. I don't have my glasses on.

…

Also, Taylor what the fuck was that?

---

I am hungry. After Taylor went to school, with mom driving, Lisa and I decide to plan out our first ever raid. It was exciting, but mom would be out most of the day looking for work. So it was just me and Lisa, and I am so hungry. Normally when it gets like this Taylor, or mom, would go out during the day and hunt for me. It was only at night that I got to hunt for myself. I can't do that here. Lisa has been on some of the less violent hunts with me or Taylor the last few days, so it wouldn't be too weird if I asked her to come with me hunting. Again those were at night, which was mostly for a public decency thing as I still lack clothing. Plus if I left myself that would leave Lisa alone and unprotected. At our house sure, but I don't want anything bad to happen. I like Lisa, I've known since Taylor has known about herself and Lisa. We've all hung out in close proximity to her for the last almost two weeks, we spent all our time with her. We like her so much we want to eat her! I'm not sure how she would feel about that, but we are willing to wait to make a move and more importantly wait for a response. Lisa is the first friend that Taylor and I have had in over two years, we don't want to scare her off. It will probably have to be explained in more detail to her if she finds out, I'll have to think about that.

But with me home alone with Lisa, who can sniff out any secret with her power, I'm scared that she will see how hungry I am and get scared. " Hey Nimi, you okay," I look down at Lisa, sitting in my lap. " Yeah," My voice is bubbly, if deep, but underneath all of it suppressed so far I can almost not feel it... I wish the blanket wasn't separating us. She doesn't see it, I hope. " Good, you were looking kind of space-y there," Lisa said her grin friendly, " how is Taylor doing?" I focus in on my other... odd, " she is... kind of weird right now."

" What do you mean?" Lisa looks up at me from my lap.

" Well she was hungry before, but now I'm getting just a blank spot."

" Can you see what she is doing?" Lisa now is fully paying attention.

" Yeah, but she would notice and she asked for privacy today."

" Oh, okay," Lisa nodded, and then looked back at the map spread out in front of us, " I think I've chosen the perfect store house to hit for tonight, but we need a better look at the inside. Can you direct the swarm over to this building and tell me what is inside?"

" Sure," I grin even as I repress the urge to hug her to my chest. I hope Taylor is having a better time than I am.

---

I head to my first class, the hungry is still present. What happened back there in the hall? I just sorta stopped being me, but as soon as I was away from there it all came back. That was dangerous, I am dangerous. I am soooooo hungry, I can feel my body whine with need. I want Lisa; she is smart, and pretty, she would know how to take the need away. I have lived with her for almost two weeks and she is the best, but even still the hunger is there when I'm with her. I shouldn't be around her like this, but it is only worse when I'm not there. Ms. Knotts class is my first class so at least I don't have to deal with people I deserve to eat, those three would be so much happier if they were in my 'stomach'. No, bad Taylor, I know you are hungry, but no humans no matter how fun it would be to have them inside of you.

…

Wait... No.... No! Bad Taylor, you cannot seriously be so hungry your turned on. I log into my computer so glad I cannot blush any more. I hate my body right now, boring programing save me! I launch into my work, it is easy work, but I keep rewriting it. Solving the coding problems in as many ways as I can think of just to distract me from thinking... about nothing, it is just nothing Taylor. Don't think about your bullies, or Nimi's 'armor', or Lisa's lips- My typing is reaching furious levels as I start to write line after line of code. The typing becoming almost white noise as my brain starts to over heat again. I hit execute on my finished program, and watch as the turtle starts drawing a mosaic. I stare at the mesmerizing movement. I'm not "feeling it" by the time it finishes, good. The bell rings and I walk out of my class, leaving the intricate drawing of Lisa's face behind.

…

Dammit...

---

I forgot the brackets on Lisa's power way back in chapter 11 or 12 so I will be fixing that soon...

 

The other part of school day 1...

---

Second class, third class, and fourth come and go. The trio doesn't really get up to more than the usual. Did you know that I can digest pencil shavings and glue? Well guess what I can! It was honestly pretty funny watching them freak out at my complete lack of response to just about anything they do. Well it would be if I didn't have a much bigger issue. I am HUNGRY. It has never been this bad. You could solve this very easily, I can hear my voice whisper to me at the back of my skull, see that dumb girl at the front of the class? "Yeah," I nod as I look at the back of Madison's head. Eat her, is this what I sound like when I'm hungry? If you eat her she'll stop being so stupid, the voice is curling up around my neck as I stare at the back of meal at the front of the class, she'll become just another part of us... My brain then proceeds to give me some very graphic imagery of what I want to do to the stupid doll child. Put simply, I want flesh so bad that I'd kiss Madison's stupid little girl face just to bite her tongue out. I have got to find out a solution to this and soon, because I don't know if I can go any longer without hurting someone.

Mercifully the bell rings meaning I can go to lunch. I have to walk through the trio to exit, but I've got better things to do than listen to them until they get bored. I don't barrel past them so much as I part the sea as soon as they see I am not stopping. I guess they learned just how unstoppable I can be from this morning. Sure now they are following me around, slinging insults that can't sting me any more, but I need something dead to eat now. I stop at one of the intersections my nose lifted to the air as I try to sniff out something, anything. Just one thing dead that's all I need! I follow my nose as I catch the whiff of something. Behind me I can feel my neutered tormentors, follow my scent based search. The hanger-ons have left, but the trio is still following me. There, I can smell something sour and pungent on the floor above just wafting from the stairwell down to this floor. I head up to the food with excitement brewing in the pit that was my stomach. Taking two or three steps at a time. The trio follows me and sure, I don't want to lead them to what I am definitely going to eat on the third floor, but I'm so hungry. I'll figure it out when I get there.

I eventually find it after walking down a few halls. It is in a classroom of some kind, and the room is empty and unoccupied. The classroom was more of a storage room for desks, and was missing the teacher's computer. These were all good signs that I would be left alone once I get rid of the annoying humans. The smell is coming from one of the cabinets, so at least it will be easy to get to. It would be harder to clean up my evidence if I was to break through a wall to get at a dead rat or something. Now I need to get rid of the trio. I stop and think about that, they have been following close behind me for a bit now. They were behind me right now in fact, still just talking to themselves out loud in that annoying way people do when they want to be heard without acting like it. I always hate that. I'm not really paying attention to them now though, it is the only way to keep myself from eating them. So I decide to stand and wait, after all I know what food I'm going to eat, I just need the privacy.

…

They're not leaving... Guess I'm just going to have to respond some way. I think about how I could get rid of them faster before I just go with something honest. " Hey, you guys have something planned right," I query them without turning around. Honestly I don't know what would happen if I did turn to face them, I don't know if I could control myself. " Wouldn't you like to know Herbert," I think that was red, the fact that I can't tell is worrying. I feel myself nod, that checks out, " Okay so that's a yes, I was just wondering if you were going to do it before or after you stopped taking forever."

" Oh, look she is learning her place, how nice," possibly Madison said in response, it seemed like bait to get me to disagree or agree, both are putting me in a negative position. I am Hungry, but I am also enjoying being seemingly indestructible to them. " Whatever get your rocks off more," I wave dismissively, honestly I don't think I would mind them seeing me eat at this point, but... I take a chance and turn to look at them.

…

Why is it so hard to see them? The humans at the front of the classroom are defiantly three people, but their faces are unfamiliar. It looks like the world has streaked across any features. I'm so so hungry. The blurry faces speak. Sophia, (I'm sure...she was black, right?) says something I can't hear it. the red head is now talking, giggling, but I can see the ever so subtle glance at me. I can't recognize them again, they are nothing but strangers from a crowd. I don't know what they see on my face, but I can smell their discomfort. They soon make their excuses and go to lunch, they look satisfied? It is hard to read the expressions that they are making on their faces. They smell frustrated, stressed, and scared.

Whatever, with them gone I go and inspect my food. I walk to the back of the class towards the heavenly aroma of decay. It was coming from one of the cabinets that was locked, but I broke it with ease as I apply some strength. I opening the treasure chest and gaze upon my prize. Inside is beautiful, an entire colony of dead ants. The smell of pesticides can't hide the sour and savory stench of decaying insects, the insects are all clumped together in a giant mound. I reach in and grab a handful, their smooth surfaces feeling good with the many legs, on my hands. They are in my mouth before I even get a proper look at them. The crunch of them in my mouth excites me as their bodies burst with flavor. My body gets to work right away 'digesting' them into new cells for my growth. I slam my head as my body, no longer restrained, devolves into instincts. My eye rove over the world of black shiny chitin that fills my view, my head trying to shove itself deeper into that pile. My mouth opens and I swallow, head spinning as I consume the dead ones mindlessly. The mound of bitter flesh shrinks in seconds. There is still more, my mind burns with that thought as I look at the insect guts sticky and tacky, we need all of it. My mouth rips itself open as tongues pour past my spilt jaw. The oily black tongues sport fleshy spines, and scoured the cabinet clean of anything that could possibly be used as food.

I come back to myself and sit back, my body has a goofy grin on its face. That was delicious. I need to remember to pack a lunch next time, a big nice serving of ants with a side of chewy water mold, maybe a raw egg to wash it all down, mmmmm... Nimi and I have food preferences, she likes dead flowers and mushroom caps; me, I like bugs and molds, so this was a great meal.

---

I did end up licking that cabinet clean. Pesticides and all, the burst bodies of the ants and all the useful information they had were now a part of my knowledge. Even the pesticides were being broken down by the unliving parts of my body, after all anything could be useful. It really was a good meal...

…But...

I am still so hungry.

I want to cry. I curl up on the floor by the decimated colony as my hunger burns through me again. My swarm across the city is now responding to my hunger, I can feel it. The shadows across the Bay are lengthening hours before schedule. Instinctually I dived a bit of it into the sewers. I need to keep myself from accidentally hurting some one. In the sewers my swarm hunted for something to snack on. I caught scents of flesh and blood, and decimated a small nest of rats. Good, I felt my instincts relax as I let go of my control of the swarm, hopefully that will...It didn't even help! I throw my hands up in the air, what the fuck. I get up from the floor as start to pace around the room, that was half way across town of course it didn't fill me. It had nothing to do with this body's hunger! I could feel my senses opened to full, looking desperately for something else to eat, anything. Anything but the rooms filled with blood, bones, and brains talking and chatting. I heard some giggling on the stairs, I could smell them before I heard them. Is it weird that I can smell the trio good enough to identify them? They smell delicious...

They enter the room just as I finish absorbing the bug guts around my mouth. They have something for me, I can smell something sweet and rubber. I watch as they quickly pull out some water balloons, filled with a juice or maybe soda. I think about the sugar content in them, as they fling them at me. I wish I was a plant, then I could grow my own food. I watch as they fly at me in slow motion. If I was a producer then I could just make new food from the sun and harvest the sugar on the fly...

Wait...

I reach out and grab one of the balloon letting the other two impact with me. I ignore the giggling meats as I brought the balloon to my mouth. My teeth extended through the membrane and I drained it dry. I helped with some of the few living cell in me, but did nothing for my dead ones. It did however give me an idea. My bullies leave thinking that I was humiliated, I just absorbed the juices on my cloths and in my hair with the small piece of swarm in and on by body. It left me clean and dry, so point to me. I head to class at the bell already working on the food problem, and the idea I have.

---

I mostly ignore the next two classes, as I was coming up this the solution to my food problem. You see my idea was to make certain cells divide in my body I can eat the new crop almost infinitely. My current living cells won't work for that however. In the interest of being energy efficent, not because I had to be but because I didn't want to decimate the ecosystem, all of the living cells in my body are functionally immortal. I can get away with this because I have the perfect immune system, can't infect what isn't alive so my undead cells keep my living cells safe by eating anything that can possibly infect them. It is so clean of germs in my body that you could preform a surgery within me. Of course I would have to be bigger to accommodate the surgery but... this analogue sucks. Just know that my living cells are immortal and don't divide enough for my plan.

These new cells are different. I created the new cell colonies on my skin, they were symmetric black dots going from my left hand up my arm over my shoulders and down to the right hand. Each dot was a quick and dirty super producer, it makes food for itself out of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and sunlight. I breath in the gasses and bring it to the cells via my dead circulatory system for no energy lost, because moving dead flesh is just my ghost. When they reproduce, I cull the excess thus keeping competition down and feeding myself potentially indefinitely, or however long it takes to lock away all the nitrogen in our atmosphere. That would be a lot of food, I don't think I need that much, for my growing. I mean technically I could release all of the nitrogen, I don't need it inside the dead cells, in fact I don't need alot of the living stuff. It is just energy efficient right now. The cells reproduce like crazy when they are active, and will go dormant when I want them to by hiding them deeper in my skin.

Thankfully today was PE. I need to expose each dot to a sufficient source of light, I say to myself in the locker room. I look down at the grey shirt in my hands. It is short sleeve so it will leave my arms plenty exposed, but it hides the ones on my shoulders so it is no good. I stare at the penny sized dots on my arms. The dots themselves look a bit like really dark tattoos, and are arranged in a line with them growing from penny sized ones on my forearm and wrist, to maybe four inches diameter on my back. I looked at the markings from the view of my ghost. I knew that this was not a good idea to sport anything like tattoos at Winslow, but between this and maybe accidentally eating a student, I'll take the trouble. Besides they don't look like any particular symbol or anything, and standing here with my shirt off, it is probably my autopsy scars that will draw more eyes. I fold up the tee shirt and look around the locker room. Maybe there is some one I can trade with? Lots of the girls in here are minding their own business, thankfully none of Emma's ilk are here. I spot a girl pull out a white tank top, she is wearing a lacy bra. That is not going to work she needs something to cover it or she'll get in trouble, after the gym teacher is finished ogling it. Thankfully it looks like it could fit my frame, or well just barely I'm going to have a bit of stomach showing. Acceptable losses, I say to myself and walk over to her, " here, trade you."
"Uh... I'm fine I'll just-," the girl looks almost anywhere but at my chest or face.

" Going out their in that bra is a bad idea and you need one or your boobs will be all over the place," I point to her full chest and then to my own meager chest autopsy scars on full display, " I don't have that problem."

" I... Thank you." I nod as she puts on my shirt and I put on the tank. Like I suspected it showed a bit of my skin as it didn't fully reach my pants, but all spots are visible so it will work. The PE teacher was not happy at the full display of "tats", as he called them, I got across my back, but there are enough E88 gangster wanabes that he doesn't raise his voice too loud. As I stepped outside into the light, my little food factory activates.

…

Oh god I love sunlight. I have trouble keeping myself from crying as the first thousand cells are culled from each of the twenty seven spots. Even if it is cloudy and winter, it is enough. I practically skip with joy as I feasted while running laps around the track. By the time we went inside I was full. I deactivated my new favorite 'tattoos' making them dormant and slightly greyer as they sunk a bit into my skin. Gym class was much better than the previous few classes. It was still just random ball games, but I was full of new cells to grow with so I was happy with the useless games with balls. I almost wished that we could go back outside so that I can feast again, but the class ended far too soon. In the locker room the girl I gave my shirt to came up, " Hey thanks again for the shirt, but you should keep the top."

" It's okay I'm not going to tell you know who about it being originally yours."

She nods a silent thank you. I would probably hate her when I was alive for not standing up for me, but I'm so full of food right now that I give her a smile. The smile gave the other girl a grimace, but I don't really mind.

---

My first day back was rounded off with a case of detention which was fine by me. My 'tattoos' in addition to working extremely well, also got me sent to the principal's office. Weird I don't see anyone else with obvious tattoos here. Guess they only punish you if your not in a gang. Blackwell didn't like that observation, but it was worth it to watch her vein pop out.

The rest of school passed by in a breeze, I was hungry again in detention though. I just took off my hoodie and rested my back by an open window. It was so nice to have a stable food source. I was growing too, my breasts were now an A cup! I guess that I really will start having growth spurt again. I think back to the night last week, where both me and Nimi accidentally triggered my hormones, during one of our nightly ghost sessions. It was just a triggering of a old suppressed growth cycle, I sigh to myself as I rested my exposed back to the open air, I won't be too bad for me. The transformation was faster than normal due to it being so belated. At the end of detention Mom picked me up. " So how was your day Owl?"

I told her everything as we road home.

---

 

I have written new chapters, in other news one of the school's that I applied to for grad school...denied me! Yeaaaaaaaaaay! Have a chapter, a fun one...

---

When I got back home, I was greeted by an adorable sight. Lisa and Nimi had fallen asleep surrounded by their plans for tonight. Nimi had dragged Lisa into her lap and was cuddling. Oh I wish I had a camera, this would make such a cute picture. I looked over the plans that they got while I waited for them to wake. It was mostly guard rotations and a floor plan. It showed both the cash and the armory, the building was an old warehouse, probably is full of garbage if the smell I got from last weeks fight with some Merchants was anything to go by. I really hope that isn't how all of them live, sure they are gangsters but I know just how poor their health is going just from the filth they are living in. Well then I best save them from it by destroying the gang! Ever since the locker room I've been more and more excited about being a hero. Helping someone out even if it was just a fair trade, felt cathartic. " Hey, your back," Nimi said before looking down at the sleeping human. I smirk, " enjoying your teddy bear?" Nimi just pouted and pressed Lisa's head deeper into admittedly fantastically soft boobs, " your just jealous we are nice and warm over here." I do wish I was with them, warmth is something I took for granted. " It is rather pleasant," Lisa called out from between Nem's tits, I can practically see the shit eating grin on her face, " How was school?" I groan as I flop on my bed, and tell them about my day.

" That is seriously fucked up." I nod at the blonde's statement, " I can't believe that Armsmaster would go so far as to break the law just because he doesn't like me."

" Anything I can do to help." Lisa's request is tempting, but..." I'd rather handle it on my own." Not to mention I don't want her to put herself out there, she is supposed to be hiding. Advertising to the world that my problems were solved by a "random" thinker is a good way to connect her with my house.

" I can go to school in your place," Nimi's hungry gleam reminded me that she needs food too, I hope she didn't have it as bad as I did. " No Neems that's a bad idea, besides what did you eat today?" Nimi seemed hungrier at my mention of food, " all of the bacon and eggs in the fridge." She was fidgeting her eye flicking between me and... Lisa. Oh dear, today must have been hard as hell. Lisa stiffens in her lap thinker powers probably making it obvious that Nimi is struggling. Lisa leans a bit farther to be down wind as it were. I nod, " Okay, Lisa stay here I've got to go feed Nimi and teach her some tricks we'll be in the back yard if you need something from us."

After teaching Nimi the new way to feed, the night went a lot smoother. Nimi apologized to Lisa for unintentionally scaring her, Lisa gave her a big hug as we smelled her anxiety recede. We plan on going out tonight as a team, with myself as the distraction and as a secondary combatant, Lisa as intelligence and coordination via some walkie-talkies we found in the basement, and Nimi as the tank. Dad arrived home from work late. He was pissed that nothing was done to help my situation. I thought he was going to punch one of the walls again, but fearless Neems just wrapped him in a big hug. He eventually calmed down and hug her back. I need to buy a camera my other is just a magnet for cute going-ons. Mom was also pissed, but she got that cold anger that told me how badly she wanted to rip a few minors' heads off. In the end a solution was shelfed for tonight, but I could feel that it was still going on when we dawned our disguises and left for our raid.

---

" Radio check, over," Lisa's electronic voice sounded inside my suit making my mouth slit vibrate. " Check, over." "Check, over~!"

" Okay the radios are working, Frankie are you in position, over," Lisa was on a roof top at least three buildings over crouched down in her trench coat and hat. Eyes hidden by a gossamer slime that made her look like she had on blinders. Lisa was hesitant about using one of my creations as a mask, she was also queasy about me changing her biology too, but when I pulled out the vaguely silk-like strip of 'fabric' she caved as it was much cooler than one of those cheap paper ones. " Yeah I'm in position, " my swarm was gathered inside the building as I approached the back just out of sight of two armed guards, " over."

" Good, over, Nimi how is it looking, over."

Nimi was across the street ready to jump all the way across through the sky light on the roof of the warehouse, " Ready for the jump, over!"

" Okay Frankie, take out the outer guards and wait to enter, over."

I make the swarm outside release an anesthetic and watch as the two guards I can see collapse, the rest of the guards are resting at a lower heart rate then before, " done did I miss any, over?"

" Good job, and no, proceed to wait at the back door when you here the signal move to step two, over." " Nimi start your jump, over."

---

I crash through the window into a room full of gangers. Some where so high they just glazed over at the loud noise, others panicked. I heard the rush of guns as I stood to my full height, my armor was still being made but I really couldn't care about clothes. I'm not hiding after all. The room fills with a red fog that makes those that could get their guns up start shooting wildly into the post void space. I moved. I targeted the ones with guns first as I could smell the gun-smoke much easier. I slammed into the first guy and watched as he crumpled to the ground, then kicked his friend through some dry wall. Two down nineteen to go. I felt my tendrils flex as one got me in his sights. I crawled down onto all fours and leaped at him slamming him with my mass. It put me right in the middle of a group of six, I swept with my legs and watched as they fell. It wasn't a permanent down, but I quickly made it so with a few well placed kicks. I walked through some melee with a wide sweep of my arm. Taylor...Frankie burst in and rolled over my shoulder kicking in the face of a gunner that was aiming for my face. I grabbed a guy with a pipe around his head and through him into a group of three that were getting up. thirteen down six left. Frankie threw a pipe at a ganger who had pulled out an electronic device, he went down quickly. The remaining five were stoned, they surrendered.

We tied up the gangsters with some strong tendons, and got to work. The cash supply in this building was in a formerly locked room in the back. " Izzy how are we, over," Frankie asked over the radios. " Looking good, no renforcement coming, over," I pick up my own radio, I'm naked so it's just taped to my back. " We had gunshots, will we be expecting any law enforcement, over?"

" It was reported, but these are the docks, the only law here is us, over."

Frankie pulls the duffle bag from here shoulder, and empties the cash store into it. I scan the room as it was no longer red, we had heavily scouted out this place so we should be good. It probably help that most people don't know our goals in this city, were new, but we haven't made waves or anything. I was still tense, it felt too easy to just walk into this store house and take out everyone. But Lisa vetted it thoroughly it was built to test our skill and to get currency not get into a hard fight. So why does it feel like something is here. A trash pile shifting is the only warning I got before I'm flung through the wall.

---

Shit, Mush wasn't supposed to be here! My powers told me that none of the capes in the Merchants would even be close to here. How did he hide from me? It doesn't matter, I think as I run down the fire escape towards the cape fight. I can see Nimi in a small crator she was getting up from across the street. Mush was stepping through the hole he made with a really pissed Frankie on his face trying her hardest to cave his head in. I pull my own weapon, the dart gun practically purrs in my hand. I only have two clips, so nine shots I need to be smart. Mush throws Frankie off of him, but Nimi catches her and throws her right back on his face. It is super scary to see them both fight at the same time, they almost complement each others moves. I watch as Nimi blocks blows to Frankie, and vice versa. They move like this fight is more of a dance than a fight. I stalk closer to try and get a better shot.

[Projectile incoming...]

I immediately dodge to the side as a dozen rebars pierce the road where I was a second ago. " Welcome to Brockton Bay cunts!" And now we have Skidmark to deal with.

[PRT inbound: six minutes...]

Fuck me, this is quickly turning into a shit show. At least Mush is quickly regretting his decision to get up this morning. Nimi punches are actually connecting with Mush's actual body and he is really starting to slow. I dodge as a car flies past me aimed at her. Skidmark's smile quickly drops as Nimi just catches it and swings it around through Mush's legs and flings back at him faster. Mush falls to his face dazed, and Skidmark catches the car with one of those acceleration pads, just barely. Nimi catches Frankie out of the air almost without looking. I fire a dart into Mush's side just as he starts to get up, he drops like a sack of potatoes as the powerful muscle relaxers do gross things to his bowls. Fucking power, I don't need to know that Mush shit himself!

Nimi starts walking towards Skidmark catching rebar out of the air he is pulling from a quiver and dropping onto his acceleration pads. The rebar starts to get too fast to see and so do Nimi's hands, but soon they are getting faster. I hold my breath as one hit her eye, only to watch incredulous as it flies upward at a right angle. A few hit other parts of her body and sink in, but only penetrate maybe a couple inches.

[extreme speed projectile incoming...]

I barely get to blink at a sonic boom before I see a piece of rebar strikes Nimi's breast. I watch as a second later the rebar bounces off back to the source also making it's own crack as it shoves aside air.

[projectile reflected at 5% energy increase...]

Those tits are OP! Skidmark dodges to the side as the metal heats up with friction and becomes a molten bullet leaving a gouge in the street. " Motherfucken' shit what are those tits made of bitch!" Skidmark was clearly pissed, but he was quickly thinking of running. Yes, thank you powers that is useful information. Nimi looks pissed too and starts to dead sprint at the hobo cape. Shaking off the shock of seeing boob-fu, I race over to where Frankie was tying up Mush. I regret it because of the smell, but it is safer here away from the goddess of breast's fight with a human rail cannon. " How are you doing Frankie," Taylor looks up at me before nodding. " Good shot with the gun, I think I made the muscle relaxers too strong though."

"He going to be okay?"

" Yeah it's fine he just will be out of it for a few days, but it hasn't harmed his liver or anything," she sighs, " but whether he can survive the embarrassment, I don't know."

I giggle before hearing the sound of PRT sirens, " you ready to be official?"

Taylor's mask is impossible to see through, but I can tell from her posture that she is tense, " how's Nimi?"

I look over my shoulder to see her shaking Skidmark like a ragdoll, " What the hell did you say about my tits!"

" Spirited," I said casually as Frankie lost her fight with her laughter. With Skidmark and Mush disabled I looked around to see if Squealer was going to show up.

[Skidmark was unable to call for back up...]

Well that takes care of that, we tie up Skidmark after he goes unconscious, and drag out the gangers we busted up in the store house. Now we wait.

---

Don't feel bad for me about my education. I'm crying a little, but I'll get over it...

 

Yo...…Have a chapter.

---

We didn't have to wait long. A familiar engine and an even more familiar blue armor approach us from further down the street. I am really not looking forward to this. The last time we were out, I choose to avoid meeting with the PRT at the scene. I really hope that doesn't put us in a bad light, I honestly just didn't want to mess with Armsmaster, but it looks like it is inevitable. I see Lisa pulling out her phone... Izzy, on the job her name is Izzy. I see Izzy pulling out a phone. " Who are you calling," Nimi asks from where she is sitting. Nimi had sat down on the curb she still was almost as tall as Izzy. " The police," Izzy replied.

" Why, the PRT is already probably done as such," why would calling the Police twice help?

" If we want to appear independent to the PRT, then we need to not except their help without us asking for it first," Lisa's so smart.

L- Izzy was just finishing up her phone call when Armsmaster arrived. He seems tense, stopped a tactical distance from us. His halberd is out next to him, " state your business." I frown under my mask." We are apprehending criminals, we would like transport for Skidmark and Mush," Izzy's smooth voice is cool under the clearly hostile greeting that the senior hero just gave. The fact that he had pointed the weapon at Lisa when she talked, pissed me off. I kept my mouth shut though, Armsmaster over there has heard my voice, and while the slime suit does disguise my voice a bit I don't want to risk that he could be recording me.

Armsmaster stands down after we confirm that we indeed have the mentioned capes. He just nods and calls in the transport. It was awkward, the silence and I didn't like how he was staring at Nimi. " Are you a case53?" Nimi looks up, she is transmitting her nervousness but I don't think you need a connection with her to tell that she's nervous. " What's it to you," I just couldn't help it could I, well so much for keeping my mouth shut. Armsmaster turns to me, I'm standing there my red and black swirls are twisting and getting more complex, Izzy's right cool effect. " Was simply asking a question, and was about to explain some of the services..."

" Couldn't wait five minutes before trying to poach one of our teammates, huh Armsy," Izzy's got that shiteating grin on, " we have our own 'services' thanks."

" It was not my intention to imply that the offer would not extend to the whole of the group," he really just couldn't turn it off could he, " the wards hav-."

" No."

My decline of his 'generous' offer, is met with a smile from Nimi and a quick nod from Izzy. Armsmaster looks like he would like to continue his offer, but gains some self control with a tilt of his head, " well can you please explain the incident and give us you cape names." This was a much better path of conversation.

The police and PRT containment squad arrived just as we were finishing up the statements. Armsmaster was impressed by the the huge crater, a big molten line in the street that was still glowing hot at the center, what Izzy was calling the 'Boob Shot'. Armsmaster's flat line of a mouth even twitched upwards when he heard about what Nimi did to Skidmark after that. Well maybe he isn't too bad, just mostly. I can feel my body relax at the even minor display of humanity. The PRT boys cuffed up Skidmark, but just foamed Mush and from the way they carried him I could tell that the smell was coming through. I'm hungry so I hope we could hurry up I really want to get home. The PRT left whenever they got the villains hauled. Armsmaster seemed to be more relaxed as time went on, I can smell his cortisol levels and he seems to get more stressed in conversation. I can pity him there, I'm not the greatest at social situations, but come on he still lied through his teeth about my very serious claims. He eventually left handing Izzy a card.

The police were much easier to handle, at least for my stress levels. I know it is probably irrational, but I was afraid of losing Nimi to the PRT. If they find out what she is she'll be terminated. The thought rises in my skull, Nimi in a large chamber of fire... I would never live it down. Now your probably asking me, " but Taylor you can just rebuild her she isn't gone gone." And maybe your right, I can raise the dead, but Nimi isn't the dead. She was born Undead, I don't know what happens when Nimi's body is destroyed. I'm almost certain that her part of our spirit is permanent, but I'm not a hundred percent certain. It is too much of a risk, I need to come up with a solution. The police explained how rewards work, which was kind of the reason for this mission, the fact we did some actual good by catching two of the leads of the Merchants is just the blood on the heart. I'm really getting hungry, I'm starting to avoid contact with the officers. We would be paid half of what the drugs were and any loose cash was all ours if we already collected it. Lisa gave the overall loot to be around ten thousand dollars. This will really help with us paying for the specialty clothes for Nimi, and I'm super interested but... I need to hunt. " Well thanks for the information officer, this is the teams bank details just use that other than us picking it up at the station."

" Hey, Izzy can I talk to you," I try to keep my voice casual, but even to me it sounds jittery.

" Sure, Frankie," She shakes the officer's hand and walks over to where I was next to Nimi.

" What's up," Lisa looks cute with her hair tucked up in that bun she is keeping under her hat.

" Do you mind taking Nimi home?"

" Huh?"

" Well I'm getting hungry again," she is tensing a little, I can see her veins in her neck beating, " and I need to hunt down something to chew on."

" Are you sure that's a good idea, I mean what will you be... hunting."

Her hesitation hurts, and I want to... bite her. I suppress the urge, if I can go a whole school day without munching on anyone I hate, I can stand not eating someone I like. " I'll probably go down by the docks for some fishing." She relaxed a bit more. " Can I come," Nimi's question forces in some cheeriness, " I've never had fish before."

" If you come L- Izzy will have to come along too," I don't know if I'm ready to be hunting around her, " It will be pretty boring and-."

" I don't mind."

I turn to Lisa. She is giving me a serious expression through that slime mask, " I think it will be fun for Nimi."

Does... does she want to see? I can feel the pump I'm using stutter in my chest, "O-okay."

---

I have only so many days until I start my new job, I'm going to make the most of them!

 

---

From the associated work of Undead by Dr. Amon Morgan...

…this leads us to the discussion of undead mating rituals, specifically courting rituals. While not every undead species possess a desire for companionship and in fact very few undead can breed at all, cases of partnerships are not an uncommon sight. These partnerships have many variations and even more rules and rituals.

As an example, most incorporeal undead have some level of courting instincts. Whether this is caused by the unlikeliness of incorporeal to even be aware of each other, or an expected outcome of recognition from beyond the grave, is uncertain. However most incorporeal have the same common name for the act of partnering, the most common word being the Meld. With traditional ghosts, which we have had the pleasure of talking to, the process involves the intersection of anima from two or more subjects. Instantaneous share of information is likely the result. Another such ritual happens with animate skeletons, it however is called the Trade rather than the Meld. An exchange of bones between members, either from a hoarded stash or directly from their person.

With corporals and those possessing mostly corporeal bodies, the names have much more variation. With vampires largely calling theirs the Feed, dullahan the Pact, ghouls the Partnership, revenants the Circle, excreta excreta. The many names and rituals of undead romantics is further explained in later chapters of this book and won't be explained here. However as an introduction to the concepts I will be giving a few examples.

The nature of each of these partnerships or rituals is not always romantic in setting. In fact several of them seem to be more for the idea of better hunting strategies. As stated in previous chapters, ghouls are a highly territorial undead that will attack any other ghoul, or creature it views as a challenge, on sight. If the resultant battle for dominance has either ghoul win, the loser is eaten. The cannibalistic nature makes ghouls largely dangerous to approach. However, if neither parties in the resulting territory dispute can defeat the other, they become life long mates. As mentioned ghouls call this the Partnership, and it is exactly as stated. The relationship is one of being hunting partners. Neither intimacy or comfort are common out comes of these relationships, but considering that most ghouls try to eat each other on sight it is still considered a mating ritual.

On the contrast, vampires are almost completely sexual in a very traditional sense. The courting rituals are complex and are closely resembling of aristocratic gestures and gifts. At least that is what we at the society could learn from the last vampire in Europe, it is largely unknown if this information is an outlier or an accurate depiction. The Feed however is something that is very well documented. It consists of two or more vampires drinking blood from each other, this is the physical matrimony between parties. The resulting behaviors that are consistent with both resources and records, state that members behave in much the same way as humans. With members working together to both hunt and provide moral support. They, like ghouls, mate for their entire lives, with new members added if agreed upon.
While most undead are based on humanity, instances of human and undead relationships are rare. The most common undead to form relations with humans are vampire, wights, poltergeist, and gestalt golems, but it is not impossible that all others could have outliers. Reasons for its scarcity are mostly to due with differences in lifespan. Not every human will become an undead, and contrary to the myths vampirism is entirely genetic. It is important to state this, if you are going into the field of undead anthropology, do not try to date or become one of the unliving. It is almost universally a bad idea and has lead to the real deaths of many students of the field, both dead and living...

---

I sigh and rub my eyes, replacing my cracked glasses back on my face. My words, they stared back at me, my younger self sending me daggers through time. I look across my desk, past the stacks of damp papers of notes from my collogues and students. In a small frame my late wife smiles back, her smile radiant in spite of looming death. In spite of her missing hair. God I miss her...

" Professor Morgan." I look up as my door swings open to reveal my student, Kitty Dole. Smart girl, a little too interested at time, but his profession here at the Sawtooth Society did attract the morbid. " Yes Ms. Dole, what is it," my voice sounded old even to me. When did I get old?

" Moryt is asking about you," the gleam in her eyes when she said its name was concern worthy. Maybe she should read the book sitting on my desk instead of me. Who am I kidding it would just motivate her more. " He seems to have calmed down from this morning's, "incident"."
I sigh again and rub my jaw. " Okay, I'll be down in a minute, tell one of the guards that I'm coming," I pause, " and I want you to go back to your classes, I know that Dr. Hirokawa had some thing planned." Ms. Dole's disappointment was a good thing, and she left without protest.
I look around my office as I sit back, with the way thing were it might be the last time I see the place. My office was small, the walls lined with bookshelves that started with an empty bottom shelf, and continued full to the ceiling. My desk, a perpetual mess of papers and tomes, was squeezed between shelfs with just barely room for me to get around to my seat. The air was damp, but that was to be expected, it is always damp...now.

I take it all in. " Well, better not keep the bastard waiting," I reach down and check the seal on my rubber boots and then make my way down to the underground.

---

I slosh though the ankle high water. The facility, much like the rest of wall off London, was not in the best state of repair. The society has almost always been poorly maintained, so the addition of hundreds of gallons of water was not too much of a challenge for us. In fact with the attack on London by Leviathan back in 2004, the society has been doing considerably better. No contact with the outside meant that the various science communities largely forgot about them. " Good riddance," I huff under my breath as I made my way to the holding cell.

The night wars that happened after the demented angel attacked in the same year, were less beneficial. I reflect on just how damaging to his field the introduction of not just Endbringers but superpower as well. It completely undermined any work that we put out, and only four years after the society was even set up! I huff, " we didn't need superheroes acting like an explanation to a perfectly explainable phenomenon."

I arrive at the glass wall of the holding cell, and there it sat. The creature's grey flesh was harsh looking in the bright incandescent bulbs. Its hollow face and features, the last grey tuffs of hair upon its head stubbornly hanging of dried flesh. " Ah Amon, glad you could come down to greet me," the cold dead eyes of a shark sparkle at my appearance, the grin of grey teeth still reddish, " tell me, tell me, how is she I want to know."

" How is who," I have a sour suspicion.

" Oh don't be coy Dr. Morgan, my lovely guard," the shark eyes are dull, a predator's hunger the only thing present, " spare no details I want to know everything."

This morning, Moryt attacked one of its guards biting through the side of their face. She will live, but without modern medicine, it will never look the same again. " She'll live, but you almost killed her when she started to choke on her blood," I grimace at the mounting excitement of the demented creature behind the glass.

" Almost," Moryt practically purred. I watch the shark eyes practically glow. Oh god no, I stare at the "lovestruck" ghoul from behind the glass. " Moryt, I hesitate to ask but I need confirmation," I sigh looking at the two very uncomfortable and pissed guards at the sides of the glass, " why did you attack Heather, I thought you two got along." Got along in the sense that they weren't usually prone to violence, Moryt hasn't had a bout of such violence for over five years. Why now?

Moryt stares at me, probably reading between the lines, as the Americans would say, he is a smart fucker. " Something is coming," Moryt's eyes are stone at his sudden seriousness, " I can feel it, and more are rising I've decided to be the first to raise the banner as it were."

" What do you mean by raising the banner, what is coming?" Moryt dodged the Heather question right out. Smart, fucker. " Something important, important enough for the undead to form rank, I elected to offer the society as a sort of staging ground," the playful smirk was back, " hope you don't mind."

Part of me dreads the idea of undead coming to us rather than the other way around, but the facility is large enough....no, no, no that is a terrible idea. " I don't think that the staff will like this idea."

" Oh it will be fine, the Sawtooth Society is very well know to the afterlives of Europe, the incorporeal will be the first to arrive they know us well," Moryt is being serious, how is that suggestion serious.

" Do you at least know what is causing this gathering," I refuse to say army, please don't be an army. The necromancer of '67 was not a good experience.

" No clue, something across the pond."

America? Well I guess that makes sense America still has a decent undead population. Back to the Heather question, " and Heather?"

" I had to stake my claim before some upstart tried to steal her," I watch it pause before it continues, " plus she's pretty, prettier now even." The guards at both sides of the cage shift, I just watch as the ghoul's grin gets sharper.

I grimace at the truly detestable creature. Siccus praesaepultus or ghouls are almost always violent, but in Moryt's case he almost always does it in the most unpredictable of times. For even less predictable reasons. " Do you know how many are coming?" Best to ask the pertinent questions.

" Lots, a few will be powerful in their own right others after that will be new, some won't be human in origin."

Well it will be at least interesting. I nod to the guards and leave to talk with command. " Wait, Amon!" I turn to look at the creature now pressed against the glass, " yes?"

" Will you tell Heather....I'm sorry..." I watch a brief glimpse of humanity in those dead eyes appear before disappearing back into the black orbs.

" I'll think about it."

---

Second chapter yep....

 

So due to some unforeseen consequences, I will be starting work next Monday and not this Tuesday. Which is good I can work on this fiction for the intermission. In other news I ran the numbers for the bulk chapters yesterday. Last week I wrote a total of eleven chapters, three were ultimately discarded. Also the story's events was entirely reworked so a lot of my previously written bulk was culled as a sacrifice to the gods. As I lifted the dagger above the still beating heart of my previous work, I brought it down with my conviction to the elder gods.... Ahem... Anyways, I stopped myself from being a lazy writer with this new stuff, I want to keep the idea of "horror fluff" going... I'll mention more about this when we actually post the chapter... Also I am working on getting a beta to read it, it is one of my friends so it might not be for awhile, currently I'm rereading through the chapters as I post, seeing what I missed and trying my hardest not to read between the lines as these character's thoughts and actions are in my head first before they are written down. Thank you for being patient with me, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

---

We went to the boat graveyard for the "fishing". This is a bad idea, but at this point my hunger is winning the battle with my butterflies in my stomach. I've never hunted something "bloody" around someone I know and live with, besides mom or Nimi. Sure I've taken Lisa on hunts for mold and dead bugs, and there was that one time that I found a dead rat. This is different, the fish were living. There will be blood and this, at least temporarily, could go really bad. It's one thing to keep it down, the hunger, when I'm around others it is another thing entirely to "let loose" around someone I could hurt. Could want to hurt. I know it is not like I totally lose myself and go feral. I'm still somewhat there, but I and my body do a lot more without thinking. I look back at Lisa, she's looking around at the various ship carcasses while we stand at the water's edge. I'm hesitate to use my swarm right now, can't let it get out of control. " Nimi watch L-Izzy for me, we'll do this one at a time," yeah and if I come after her be here to stop me. I step into the cold black of the ocean and go for a swim.

Underwater I let go. The sharpness of hunger gives way under the release of some tightened mental muscle. I swim, my suit keeping me dry, but cold still seeping in. It just makes me more awake and aware as I use my chemical sensory to track a school of fish. The slime mold of the suit has lengthened my arms and created a webbing between the tips and my feet. I probably look like some giant red and black manta ray. As I approach the prey I use the new appendages to wrap around a chunk of the school. They didn't even hear me coming, I now had a bubble of fish, maybe twenty or thirty, connected to my suit. I press my head through the membrane to put my mouth before the feast. I don't need to eat with my mouth, I technically can eat with just my skin. My instincts that shouldn't exist are why when I open my mouth: when I extend my now barbed and considerably lengthened tongue, and spear a fish, it feels right. The water turns bloody and the fish begin to panic, my mouth launches a second tongue, then a third...

a fourth... a eighth... fifteen... thirty-one.

I drain the blood of my prey though the hollow openings in the barbs. Fibers spilling forth from each tongue to consume the blood and microbes in the water. It is filling, it is satisfying, it takes off the edge of my hunger. Not enough I need more...

I press my chest in the bubble of dying fish, and open my suit to it. The water is cold on my bare chest, but my insides grow colder as water rushes into my opening body. My autopsy scars have become the seams of a great mouth. My ribs were replaced by huge shark teeth, and a hole leading deep into my core, covered in nub like teeth, yawned and flexed at the center of my display. I rip my tongues out of the bubble leaving the barely alive fish floating almost in pieces. Using my suit I force water out of the membrane, crushing the bubble down over my chest. Soon there is just hard mass of dead fish in a ball that my maw is happy to eviscerate. I enjoy the feeling for a little while longer as I just eat. I wish I could eat Lisa...

do I want to kill Lisa.....

no...

then what do I want.....

My meal finishes as I ponder the disturbing in the dark. What do I want to be with Lisa. A hero I guess... but what else? I think about Lisa; warm, funny, friend, understanding... Beautiful... Tasty... Host. I know that human Taylor wouldn't be thinking... that, but I'm not human. I am an undead... something. Mom doesn't have these problems, but she is different from me. Nimi is me, but she is also different. Grow, we grow, I grow, she grows. Into what? Will I cease to be recognizably me? Will Lisa except my... inclinations to have her be... host? I know I said a while ago that the most beneficial system I could have with humanity was one of a mutualistic origin, but I was thinking more along the line maybe being paid in bio waste or something. Did I come up with that idea, or was it a part of these instincts to seek a host in some demented form of parasitism? It feels too pure a feeling, too innocent to be demented...

I swim up to the surface, the hole sealing back up as I made my way back. I don't want Lisa, (desperately wish for her), to see that. I don't think I like the ocean, too dark, too cold, and too tempting. As I emerge on the beach, I see a green blur rush by and hear a whoop of joy. I smile despite my dark mood, my other is always so happy and excited, I wonder if she thinks the same dark thoughts as me. Or if those thoughts are even dark to her. I hope that when it finally comes to light, Lisa will at least not reject our friendship.
" Hey how was your swim," L-Izzy has a grin on her face, it is only slightly strained. I grow some hairs on the suit to remove the water still clinging to the outside of my suit.

" Cold," I sigh as I slump against her warm, warm body.

" Jesus," She yelps as she tried to push me off, " get off I don't wanna get cold too!"

I extend the hairs until I'm unbearably fluffy. A fuzzy and grey coat of delicate hairs; I wrap my arms around her protesting warmth. " Well just be glad I got this coat," Lisa's face is red, her cheeks with there hidden freckles doing nothing to hide her embarrassment, " and your soft." I chuckle weakly resting my head on top of hers.

We watch the bay, as a giant green woman flies out of the water like a shark, a big fish between her teeth.

---

We return home late in the night, avoiding the van that was watching the house by going through the back door.

" You're late."

Mom is sitting in the living room flicking through a book. We all tense as she looks up her face impassive. Mom is not the one to fly off the handle like Dad so it is a little hard to tell when she is upset. And that flat unimpressed stare from her pretty greyed out eyes was making me nervous. I gulp, and she breaks into a smile, " so how did it all go?" If we all sighed with relief at her tone shifting, I wasn't going to poke fun. We regaled Mom with our adventures into the life of cape hood. Mom was happy that we were safe, and looked like she wanted to rip Skidmarks throat out when Nimi started ranting about his language. She was all smiles again when she told her about the fish she caught, you can practically hear the gears turning in the background. Skidmark better stay in jail if he wants to continue to live. All the while Mom's ghost was wrapped around me and Nimi.

We went to bed after that, I have school again tomorrow, joy. We would have to wait till the weekend to go see Parian about some clothes as Lisa shouldn't go to the docks alone. Nimi and I took our shower as had become just our habit. My body has grown again, breast a little fuller and some increase in muscle mass, but I shouldn't get too excited because that was it. I was taller too, which is strange and wasn't on the list of predicted changes. The most startling thing was my hair, it was brown before and it had been getting darker recently, but it wasn't black like it is now. Looking at it in the light of the bathroom I could see that it was almost iridescent with a super dark red as the shine. If my hair wasn't like a blood flow before it is now, except it almost looks like instead of blood I'm topped with a flow of satin shadows. It was pretty and looked nice with my new muscle that had developed. I think it was longer too. Weird, is my hair unlife? Does that count? I not sure if I want to think about stuff like that...

We rested in bed, long ago come to the arrangement that we sleep together or we don't sleep. Still wish that the bed was bigger. As we went unconscious, our ghosts began the nightly ritual of information trade.

I was hesitant to share what Taylor body's views on Lisa were, but my other was understanding. We both puzzled over what it could mean and looked to see if it was something in our own blueprints. No such luck even if we did find the source, what would we do change it? We both agree that would be the wrong thing. Having found nothing we focused on fight performance. Nimi body performed as expected, with the armor she should be even better protected. The breast simulant's interaction with the projectile rebar was unexpected, but we both agree pretty cool. All of it preformed excellently, but we seriously lack some ranged capabilities. We worked over a few ideas, but nothing seemed to work out in sims. We could work on it later as besides making a creature for fire support we couldn't really add a entire new system to these bodies. They would start to get too big.

Looking at the changes to Taylor body revealed that with out our input her accidental growth spurt is going to take some very unpredictable paths. What's more concerning it is unavoidable. Normally we would just change it back to what we want, but with the way things are going we would have to be constantly changing it back nonstop for the foreseeable future. That would get in the way of our powers functioning if we had to change our body every few seconds. It was still not bad changes and they did have an end goal, which at least mentally wouldn't make us too far from humans, but physically it was unknown. For now we'll see what the next change will be and maybe work from there.

---

Sorry for writing a book at the header...

 

This one took awhile to edit, and half way through I just went and rewrote the thing. I hope that the drama is subdued and not overbearing. I'm going for a mix of horror, romance, and fluff. I've never written romance before, but I guess I've also never written horror or fluff so it is all kind of an experiment. I hope you enjoy it anyways...

---

School the next day was much of the same as the first. The pranks were there, but a certain wariness by the Trio. I can tell that I'm scaring them. My lack of reactions from when I was alive are gone, and what has replaced them are inhuman ones. I certainty smile more often at school. It was like this for the rest of the week, and towards the end of it Madison seemed to be completely checked out. One down two to go, Sophia and Emma are still going strong. Sophia with her sneers that my new "attitude" cause her to storm off in anger, and Emma my former friend using our friendship to attack me, twitching when insults fail to reach the person I'm no longer. I have other secrets now, secrets you will never be told. I have a new friend bitch...
It was very satisfying to watch them be desperate, I didn't realize how much I was to propping up their egos. Who needs who now?

The rest of my school schedule was mostly the same, except I was outside more during lunch. Usually some corner where I won't be watched, even though it is usually with an audience of jeers from what remains of the Trio and some hanger-ons, those too dropping out of the two's games. I have to do it though, the sun bathing, My hunger is too great now and I'm scared of what could happen if I wasn't careful.

The tattoos were subject to quite a bit of scrutiny by both my parents and the student body. Besides the obvious of my bullies, I also was approached by the gangs. Mostly the Merchants and E88, thinking that tattoos were the universal sign "for come bother me I want your attention". A recruiter from the E88 wanted to congratulate me on fighting back against the wrong race, like standing up for myself was some kind of test. The punch I gave him knocked him on his back and, judging from the blood, broke his nose. The gangs stayed away from me after that, still got nasty looks from the E88 side.

Dad and mom were concerned about it until I explained what they were, mom got it immediately and just asked if I needed more food in my pack lunch. Dad took a little longer to explain, but once Lisa explained their mechanisms and what they did in a little less detail then what I was trying, he got it. Lisa was still living with us after she told my parents that she was a cape and we explained our plans to be our own hero group. Mom and dad weren't happy with the deception, but a few horror stories from Lisa about the dangers of being a lone thinker, that four week deal was rescinded. Mom and dad are not about to let Lisa get kidnapped and forced into servitude.

---

" Jesus, fifty-eight point eight inches," Lisa flicks the measuring tape closed, " well Nimi it is official, your boobs are insane."

Nimi smiles and helps Lisa down from the stool she stands on. " Look you want to explain why that is a crazy number," I write down the number on the list of measurements, " I only just reached an A cup this week." The list of measurements is for mine and Lisa's activities this Saturday. Now that the three of us have got some decent cash we now have to make a purchase. In other words clothing that Nimi can fit in.

" Well bra size is based on the difference between bust length and back length, right?" Lisa places the tape measure in the sewing kit we found in the basement. I'm told it came from dad's parents, my grandparents. I've never met them and dad doesn't talk about them.

" Yeah, so seven inches, that's not too bad..."

" Well that puts Nimi in a G cup," Lisa gives me a look. I still don't get it, I mean sure it is big but so is Nimi. " Taylor, that is completely inhuman size, those numbers in front of that letter on your bra only go up to forty-six. There isn't a non-custom bra that Nimi could possibly fit in."
" Bow before boobzilla mortals," Nimi's grin stretches her face, as she poses with her hands on her hips. I smile and Lisa just grumbles under breath, something about luck and artificial genetics. I pat her on the head as she pass by me. " So what else needs to be measured now?"

Lisa and I have been measuring my other for the last three hours, so both of us are really familiar with Nimi's body... almost too familiar. " We are done, now all we need to do is take these to Parian's shop and hope she'll do it," Lisa waves the list of numbers and information as she walks back up the stair out of the basement. I watch as Nimi starts to pout.

" I still wanted to show off some more, she didn't even get to look in my mouth!"

" I don't think that has enough to do with clothing Neems," I smile even as my other frowns.

" Oh!" We both turn as Lisa appears back at the top of the stairs, " I almost forgot." Lisa leaves again, what did she... A camera?

" We need to take her picture, come up stairs there is better light." Why do we need to take a picture, I look back at Nimi. She looks excited at the chance to "show off" some more. I shrug, if she is having fun I'm not going to deny her that.

---

The pictures were apparently proof that we weren't lying when we go to the tailor cape's shop. It actually took quite a bit to get Nimi to let us leave. Every time we took one she would pose, adorably. Strong-man's, Thinker, plenty of peace signs and other very cute things. We ended up with twenty pictures, we only planned on four...

I eventually had to mention the mushroom garden that I'm building across town in a warehouse and how it would be a shame if she couldn't see it when it bloomed. It was expected to occur in the day, if Nimi wants to see it, dad is going to need her to have clothes for day time hunts. She was still confused so I brought out the big guns, once she has clothes she can take Lisa out on daytime hunts. We were rushed out immediately after that...

The bus is quiet, it is early just before noon. I look over at Lisa next to me. She was kind of anxious about being near the boardwalk, you know, after she was almost kidnapped there. I feel my fist tighten, never going to happen... I could have left her home, but Lisa had been inside almost all week except for some nightly hunts that we went on with her. It was kind of something I'm learning about thinkers, or well capes I guess. Lisa has trouble sitting still.

I would say that it is just nerves, but it isn't as simple as fidgeting. It has more to do with what she does to relieve herself, Lisa needs to talk and use her power. Mostly it is me or Nimi, but she has held long conversations with both dad and mom at regular intervals. It could be just Lisa, and if it is I always enjoy her talking even when it is just rambling. If it isn't though, maybe it is a common trait among all capes? Or maybe just thinkers?

I look up as I feel a hand on my bare shoulder, " hey this is our stop come on." I look over to see Lisa getting up and I follow after.

It was a cold day here on the boardwalk, but even still there are quite a few people enjoying the shops. It also means that a lot of people are staring at me. No, I didn't forget my shoes again... Nimi reminded me of that before I left.

No, people were staring at me because despite the fresh snow from yesterday, I am wearing just a tank top and some pants. It probably looks weirder that I have my superproducers out to absorb the sunlight, in spite of cloud cover. Lisa has my hoodie. I look down at her, she is using the large size of my hood to help hide her from interested parties. I was cool with it, this way Lisa stays hidden and I get to grab a light snack....Stupid pun.

Plus she looks cute in our clothes, my traitorous thoughts whisper. Shut up, we are just here on business I don't need-

I jump as I feel a soft grip on my hand. I look down...Lisa is holding my hand? I-, the hoodie around her is huge and the hood hides her face. She looks like a little kid... is she scared? I stoop lower to try and see her face.

Lisa turns to look at me, her grin foxlike. I can feel my ears fill with blue blood as I blush at her teasing. I am hungry. Lisa drops my hand and starts to stride a head of me. I narrow my eyes as I stare back at her, two can play that game. I grab Lisa's shoulder before she gets to far, " Taylor?"
I look up as Lisa stares back, her grin still fixed, but wavering. I grin back, a nice and toothy grin, " I'm cold..." Lisa eye's widen as I start to pull her in. " Ah that is better," I look down at Lisa's face now pressed against my chest. I'm much taller than her so with her in my bear hug, her feet are not touching the ground. I lock my arms and start walking.

" Taylor, wait I-" Lisa tries to break out of the my locked arms.

" Nope you wanted to play Lisa, I'm now encouraged to as well," I smirk down at her, the freckles across her nose standing out from the blush of her face. I'm pretty cold, and she is much warmer than me. It's like holding a space heater to my chest. Lisa's nose brushes against my autopsy scar...

She is right in front of your mouth, I stop walking.

What do you mean?

I feel the world drop from my view as I focus on the warm Lisa on my chest. She is resting across them, the great seam, my yawning chasm, the maw. My preferred is here and now, she can't run from me. All you need to do is ask....

I look down at the human, my human, in my arms. Her expression changes with my silent view, the struggles become more intense. She cannot escape, I don't need to worry about catching her. All I need is her permission, and then she can be with me. I am so hungry...
I watch as Lisa, covered in my clothes smelling like me, gets scared.

I shake my head as I try to come back down from myself, what was that?

I let go of Lisa and watch as she stumbles back from me, she is looking at me like the doctors did at the hospital. She is looking at me like I'm some sort of animal. I am looking at myself with my ghost, I do look like an animal..." I-, I'm sorry, I didn't, I wouldn't," I would, I want to, Host.

Lisa slowly creeps back towards me, " It is okay Tay, just calm down yeah, take some deep breaths." What is she talking about? I check over myself. My hands are shaking, I didn't even notice. My breathing, which is just more for the black spots on my skin than me, is short and shallow. If I was alive I would be passed out from lack of oxygen, I take a deep breath. My pump which is keeping the flow of materials in me going, slows reflexively as I pull in more materials. The acid in my brain burns less and less as I just stand there breathing.

Lisa just saw that, Lisa the thinker who can tell where you've been just by the dust on your shoes, she just saw me. She just saw my hunger, she could see my desperation. What is worse is that she knows now just who I'm desperate for. I wish I wasn't here, I wish I was just a ghost. " I'm sorry Lisa I didn't mean to do that."

" No, it's okay I started it," Lisa's words hurt, it isn't her fault, " I shouldn't have lead you on like that, I'm not ready for...relationships?"

I flinch at her wording. The fact that it is a question, that what I just did wasn't viewed as some form of romantic proposal hurts the ball of instincts at my core. Good, it shouldn't have been a moron and jump the gun like that. " No no, it is my fault I'm just getting too...attached."

Now it was Lisa's turn to flinch. The lie burns me, I wish I was just getting attached. Attached is more human than, Host. Lisa smiles at me, it looks more like a grimace, " I'm not saying no, I'm just saying too soon, okay?"

I nod and we start back up towards our goal. I walked a head of Lisa for awhile, but she did eventually start walking next to me again. We walk the rest of the way to Parian's shop in silence. How can I be such an idiot, I know that Lisa is smart and her powers make uncovering secrets easy. I wish it went right, but maybe it is better if I let go of it. I don't even know if Lisa likes girls, I'm not sure if what I feel is a crush, but it is physical attraction. It isn't normal for humans though, humans don't want to eat the ones they like...

We reach Parian's shop while I continue to kick myself internally over Lisa. " Lisa?"

Lisa stops, her hand on the door, " yeah..?"

" Do I scare you?"

Lisa looks back at me, she looks like she feels guilty, "...sometimes."

" Sorry, I don't mean to be scary."

Lisa steps away from the door and comes towards me. I stiffen as she pulls me into a hug pressing my head down until my mouth is on her neck. The smell is intense, but I can feel myself relaxing after the first minute. " I trust you more than that Tay."

Her words are more important than the heat and smell, and I feel relief, " thank you."

---

To Gryphalcon, what makes you so scared for Lisa and Danny

 

I honestly don't like this chapter, nothing important or character build-y happens. It introduces Parian, that's it...

---

The inside of Parian's shop reminded me of my basement. Like mine it was full of materials, and unfinished dresses. I was almost inspired to change some things about the skirt portion of the bio armor. What really makes it feel like a workshop however, was all of the many blueprints. The designs of dresses litter the place, practically covering the walls. I could even see a few stapled to the ceiling.

There is no one manning the desk at the back of the store, but there is a bell. Lisa walks up to the counter while I start to look around, the sharp ding of the desk bell sounds as I go off. Now we wait, I want to talk about what happened before, but I don't think this is the place for it. I know that whenever we have it I'm going to have to explain, not looking forward to that.

I pass by some color full dresses, reds, oranges, and yellows. I can almost see my other in them as look around. " Nimi would love this, all the bright colors," Lisa looks over at me as I speak breaking the silence, " she's hanging out with Dad playing a board game."

" Don't worry," I look over at her consolation, " I'm sure that Parian can help us and then we can all come out here."

I nod and feel someone coming down stairs. "Hello may I help you?"

Parian was small, that is the first thing I noticed. Her curly blonde hair is also a wig, it doesn't smell like hair but the porcelain mask is pretty like teeth. I wonder if she would like one made of much stronger abalone, never thought that I maybe do have a way of barter.

" Hi," Lisa is better at talking to strangers, " we were wondering if you would do custom clothing."

" Yes I can make custom dresses if you don't mind getting measured." The cape's voice is cutesy and put-on, almost like it isn't how she would normally talk, an act. Well a disguise is only as convincing as how you sell it, maybe I should try something like that...

" Well the clothing is not for us, it's for a friend of ours," Lisa explained," but our friend is a little...big."

" Do you have her measurements," Parian didn't seem as sure that we were normal customers any more, " or maybe a picture?"

Lisa hands over a list of measurements, " Our friend is a bit different, but is having trouble finding clothes that even fit without breaking." We both watch as the cape skims through the list of numbers.

" I- are these, are these a joke," Parian said her voice skeptical as she waved the list of numbers, " I mean a bust size of fifty-eight, a height of eight feet, who is your friend an amazon?"

Lisa hands over her phone with photos of Nimi, " Our friend is a cape, a case 53."

Parian looks through the images, going back and forth, making some small amused noises at her poses. " Well I can see what you mean by big," Parian giggles, " she's cute, but what exactly are you looking for?"

" She wants five sets of clothing that she can wear, pants, shirts, and a zip up hoodie." I speak up from behind Lisa, reading off the things that my other is asking for.

" So, just normal every day clothing?" Parian looks between the two of us.

" Yeah she really just wants to get out of the house, we would need a deep hood or maybe a cloak to help hide her face, but other than that, the make and color should be simple," I continue, Lisa helping me discribing what she wants, " also we would like to know how much it will cost."

Parian nods, " I don't usually make anything other than dresses, but this is more of an need rather than a luxury. However this is still custom clothing from a seamstress. It isn't possible for me to make inferior clothing so what she is getting will be of durable make, they will last for a really long time if she takes care of them, make sure she understands that." We nod, unbeknownst to the cape in front of us, telling me Nimi knows now too.

" For the shirts and pants I would need a thousand for all of them if I use cotton, it will cost more for stuff like liners or other materials," Parian pauses to gauge our reaction to that price tag. Seeing our lack of panic she continues, " the hoodie is much of the same but considering it is a comfortable fleecy cloth it is seven hundred fifty on its own."

Lisa nods, " we'll take the pants with cotton and liner of either Viscose or Cupro, the shirts can be cotton tee's, and as long as the hood is deep and the fabric is dark it's fine."

Parian goes over to a calculator and starts punching in numbers, " any preferences on the colors of the pants and tees?"

" Mostly dark colors, but I think she would like a set with bright colors, probably reds," I say, I can see a dark green dress in the corner, I can almost see Nimi in it, " she likes mushrooms and dead flowers."

I blush off color red at my slip of talking about her favorite snacks. Parian smiles at me, but continues her calculations. " Okay so for what your asking; a set of five shirts and pants cotton with liners, and a custom hooded coat," Parian seems a bit more happy, " the price will come to just around three thousand, can you do that?"

Lisa nods, " We knew it would be expensive and have made arrangements."

Parian nodded and we worked out the details on where and when we pay.

---

 

An explanation of the word Hosting and Taylor's emotional thought process.

---

For these past two weeks Lisa and I have been using Taylor's swarm to locate criminal operation centers as well as look for who could have tried to kidnap her. It's been fun playing with our powers together, her sitting in my lap as I explain some chemicals that we come across. We had a sizable map of all the gangs and where their territories are with the Empire taking much of the upper town, the ABB mainly sticking around downtown and china town, and the Merchants mostly operating in the docks. We would need to start invading buildings to get more information, but I'm pretty sure that people would start to notice if the buildings started to fill with moving swarms of shadows made of black spiders.

I check the basement. The armor is adhered to the wall almost finished, just a few more hours. I'm so excited! While Lisa and Taylor are out, me and daddy played monopoly. Daddy was off today and mommy was out doing stuff. So, daddy told me that we had the house to ourselves made us some grilled cheeses, mine was burnt black just how I like, and played some games. It has been fun, I think at the beginning I scared daddy, but now he is treating me like his little girl. I know I'm not, I'm just a bit more of Taylor's kid side than Taylor is. I think he misses when Taylor was younger." Oh, d-darn," daddy has been trying so hard not to curse for the past thirty minutes, " how much do I owe you?"

" Well since I have a monopoly there, two-hundred-thirty please!"

I smile as he starts cursing under his breath as I take most of his money. " How is your sister?"

Daddy still thinks of me and Taylor as separate, and honestly to the outside observer it can certainly seem like that. I think calling us sisters is just easier for him. " They just finished up I think, and are now going for a walk on the beach."

Daddy seems to think about that, " do I need to have the talk with Lisa, you think?"

I just grin at him, " I think that Taylor and I should get that first, daddy."

It is fun watching him choke on his water, daddy forgets a lot of the time that Taylor is old enough to have thoughts like that, so am I. I roll my dice and land on my new land plot, " how much is Atlantic Avenue?"

" one-thirty."

" And that's another monopoly for me!"

" What," daddy double checks the board, " aw shi-ucks."

I giggle at his floundering, this game is fun! " Do you think Taylor likes Lisa like... that," daddy's ears were turning red.

" You sure you want to know?" I sometimes wish I had an eyebrow, I want to wiggle mine...

" If my little girl is gonna date anyone I want to know," he is tensing up like he thinks the idea of Taylor dating is a bad thing, " I've got to make sure that she is safe after all."

" Lisa's hot, daddy." He practically throws the dice across the room as his head whips up to meet my eye.

" What," daddy's voice squeaks.

I shrug, " Taylor and I have thought that since we met her."

He is flustering, but I'm not done. " Unfortunately I don't think that Lisa is all that interested."

" W-why?" Daddy's face is pale.

" I think she knows that dating Taylor and myself would be... different than what the living are used to."

" What why, me and Anne get along fine despite her not being really... alive any more... is it because there are two of you?"

" I think that's part of it, but the other part has to do with different motivations for... intimacy."

" I feel like I shouldn't ask, but what do you mean by intimacy," he has his head in his hands and his ears are bright red now.

" I mean things like being physical, hugging, kissing, hand-holding, etc.," I continue a smirk on my face at his paling features when I said 'physical', " essentially there are some things that humans might be nervous about as they sound... bad."

" Okay, like what?"

" Well Taylor calls it Hosting, think trust fall but with your blood stream."

" I don't understand, but please tell me it is not a sexual thing." he says "sexual" like it is a curse word.

" It isn't, it's more like a kiss but for zombies," this is rather easy to explain as I don't nearly have as many hang ups as Taylor does, " how it works is that one zombie bites another zombie that they like, and they sorta mix spirits while consuming blood from each other."

" Is that safe, I mean Taylor is undead, but Lisa..."

Daddy has this wonderful quality of being serious about those he cares about when it is absolutely necessary. " Yeah the mechanics of it should be fine, our blood would never willingly attack Lisa's blood so it should be fine for her to consume."

" Okay so what do you mean by motivation, how are those different," genuine curiosity, as my father looks down at the monopoly board.

" Hunger."

"So you like Lisa because she makes you hungry?" Daddy's face is scrunched, " I can see why she would be hesitant, that's not exactly the greatest thing to here from a zombie."

" Yeah I figured that that was what was going so wrong with our flirting attempts, but the desire to connect to another being is much more. It doesn't require a lot of physical blood or anything, but I can see how humans might view it as baseless hunger."

Daddy thinks about that for a bit, clearly he is taking me seriously, good it is important. " So Taylor is afraid that her undead versions of... intimacy," it is fun watching him cringe at that word, " that it will scare Lisa away?"

" Yep, my other is totally hopeless when it comes to explaining things like feelings to people," he blinks at my statement of Taylor's social ineptitude. I'm no better, but being childishly frank with people seems to work better than her awkward floundering. " Lisa is fairly smart with that power of hers as little more than a crutch, she probably knows some of it and with Taylor's luck it is more the intensity or what the feeling is, rather than what the act is."

" Sounds a bit like when I was trying to date your mom," he chuckled a wistful look on his face, " for the longest time I thought she was just looking for a friend, it took her asking me out to finally get any traction."

I nod, " As far as I'm concerned Taylor and I will try to date Lisa on our own, so honestly Taylor will just have to navigate the first part of zombie-human dating by herself."

" I see, so your going to try dating Lisa too."

" Of course, Lisa is attractive, fun, and smart," I said giving a big grin as daddy's humor seems to die, " If we are successful Taylor and I will be Lisa's girlfriend, and people will be sick at how cute it will look."

Daddy retrieves the dice shaking his head, " I think you are too young for a girlfriend."

" I'm genetically the same age as Taylor," I pout adorably, I don't see what's the big deal.

" She is too young too," he chuckled a smile on his face. He rolls his dice and swears loudly as I break into a toothy smile.

---

Lisa and I decide to enjoy the beach a little longer after we got done at Parian's shop. It is cold, I couldn't feel it, but Lisa looks like she can. The conversation from before is still fresh in my mind as we walk down the snow covered beach.
I was embarrassed first of all, but mostly just disappointed. Lisa didn't seem interested, and I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. The living is disturbed by the dead, no matter how much I wish they weren't.
The ocean is cold and blue in the sunlight, the clouds overcast the sky looked thick and heavy. I thought back to the night before, to the thoughts I had in the dark. The hunger I felt there was different than the hunger that I felt at the school, and it is even still a stranger to the hunger I'm feeling now. Are these my emotions? Is this just how I view the world... I just eat my feelings I guess.

I look at Lisa, she is just walking beside me, cold, but enjoying the fresh air. We're not attracting any unwanted attention, so we are pretty much left alone on our walk across the sand. I'm hungry, the whine for food in my head is almost petulant. Why is that my super producers are not enough anymore, it was fine before in the shop, why now? I look at Lisa some more, my ghost self practically following her even if it should really be behind me.

" So," she startles me out of my head with her sudden talking, " about that conversation we shelfed earlier." I gulped, I don't want to talk to her, she might see what's in my head.

" Yeah," if my voice is hesitant I'm sure she notices too, " what about it?"

" You like me, right?"

It was a question and I think that the confused look on her face told me that she didn't know something. " I-," I stop pretending to breath as my emotions decide now was the time to bombard me, all of them a confusing mess of hunger. I need my full focus for this so I need to label these emotions even if everyone of them is hunger. Looking at Lisa is a constricting hunger, it pulls me into knots, nerves, " yes..."

She nods and looks past me at the ocean, " you want to eat me though, right?"

A silky cold hunger, it makes me feel twitchy, like a live bug inside my stomach, panic. I want to explain, I want to tell her what I am feeling. Of the complexity behind the hunger, but I can't it is a rock lodged in my throat. I instead just nod.
We are no longer walking, now just standing and staring out into the ocean. My ghost leaves me and is now wrapped around her shoulders. The pause between stretches long and I feel a hunger like my stomach is upset, awkwardness and longing...
" You asked if I was scared of you," I flinch, I feel like the world is trying to swallow me, fear," should I be?"

"No," my ghost clings to her I wish that I could share my feeling with it, but that seems to be impossible, " I'd never hurt you." Unless you gave me permission. I felt dirty thinking that, but...Host.

Lisa nods, " Your telling the truth, but why do you look so hungry all the time?" She was probing my mind, I knew that, but I didn't want her to be scared. I didn't want her to run away, to escape.

" That is just the default emotion for anything I feel strong about," I look away from her, she doesn't need to see me get hungrier. I feel Lisa's hands pull me down to her level, into direct sight. She stares into the grey lifeless eyeballs, that occupy my sockets. She is serious and her skin is touching mine. I am hungry.... and she is beautiful. Overwhelmed, I am hungry, but I don't have a name for what I am feeling.

She leans forward, her nose almost touching mine now that I'm hunched down to her level. She speaks and her breath flows over my face, she has my full attention, " Taylor, I can figure out anything from anyone just by looking at them. It has been a long time since I was even interested in relationships, having your partner's kinks shoved down your throat is not a nice thing. I like you, but I want time. Can you control yourself for long enough for me to figure it out?" I nod. " Good, now do you think you could explain what it is you mean by "I want to eat you"?"

I nod again she pulls back and sits down on the gravelly sand. I sit with her. " I don't want to consume you, exactly," Lisa stiffens up as I talk, but motions me to continue after I stop, " It is more like... I want to be a part of you or maybe you to be a part of me?" She waits for me to continue while I try to explain it better, no, more completely. " Yes, I want to eat you Lisa, but that is just how it feels it isn't like I think you are food. I don't know, it's not like a lot of my other instincts are all human anymore. I get sad, I'm hungry, I get angry, I'm hungry, I like someone, I want to eat them." Lisa almost looks a little pale at the amount of things I'm saying, but I almost bulldoze through it all because it felt good to talk. " I want what is normal in relationships I think, it is just that..."

" It is just that some of them are undead related," Lisa looks almost solemn, " does that mean that you are just settling for me in favor of my corpse?"

" No!" The animated gesture, with the practical disgust I project out at the thought of Lisa being a stand in for some other thing was gross, surprises me.

" I like you Lisa, just you, I don't think of you as some second place prize or worse a compromise!" Lisa's silent look just made me ramble on, " Nimi and I like you, we are interested in a relationship with you, and we can both wait to see if you accept or deny us."

I feel firm in this and Lisa looks well... thoughtful was better than scared. " Will the "not-eating" be on the table if I was interested?"

" Not if you are uncomfortable," I say nodding, before smirking, " but don't be surprised if one of us says "I'm hungry" and means "I love you"." My brain halts as those words slip out. I can see that I'm blushing from my view over her shoulder. " I didn't mean to say that out loud," I watch as I deflate from how hard I just cringed.

Lisa's laughter is beautiful as it rings-out over the beach.

---

We decided to go out on patrol tonight after we test the bio armor that Taylor and Nimi built in the basement. It probably won't get us any points with the public, but maybe Nimi's natural kid-like nature will win hearts instead. We technically haven't even come out yet beyond the PRT making the statement that we exist as a maybe hero group. We need to take Frankie, Izzy, and Nimi out on a day patrol for some publicity, but until we finish Nimi's armor we can't. I can totally see the news having a field day if Nimi started walking around in the buff.

I thought back to the conversation back on the beach. I got quite a bit of information during it. Taylor is romantically attracted to me, and blood definitely is her turn on. She is constantly hungry and she really eats her feelings. I even learned that she has different instincts than I do, even has some courting rituals that I don't even think she is aware of. She can eat people, and she wants to eat me. Why do I always attract the crazies, I smirk from under the hoodie that I'm still wearing. They will give me space to figure it out on my own, and I have no words for how nice that feels. The cannibalisms aside, they were definitely good choice of people to have as friends.

We arrived home just in time to hear, " so why don't you try Hosting with mommy?"

Taylor beside me, who had just opened the door to that question, slams it closed. I can hear her father laughing out loud, while I get stuck on that word. Judging from the horror on Taylor's face she knows what it is. " Hosting," I ask looking for her clarification. She just starts sputtering and looks like she is getting hungry.

[ hosting is most-likely the term for the error's non-eating ritual, the changing of the error's face color suggests embarrassment, the term itself lends credence to the idea of you becoming a part of the error. Most likely activity is a blood exchange...]

My powers fill in the details pretty quick, I want to roll my eyes at my power's name for Taylor, it is almost afraid to look at her. Embarrassed huh, I can work with that. I feel the smirk stretch across my lips before I even open my mouth.

" Oh, that's what that means." I look in amusement as Taylor tries desperately to pretend to be more dead. " Well it's weird, but not as horrifying as you made it out to be," I said trying to get my friend to move again.

" B-but, it's..."

" Yeah I know, and I'm still not sure about things like that, but at least I know you won't eat me in my sleep."

" NO, NEVER!" Her entire face flushes with random colors as her body tries desperately to pretend to be normal.

I chuckle at her outburst, and move past her to enter the house, " exactly why I trust you." I'm rewarded with her entire face getting flushed with finally a warm color of heat, as she just gets hungrier. It would take some getting used to, but now that I know what that hunger means I can learn. I walk into the house and see Danny sitting in the living room smiling with that big grin of his. Nimi and him are no longer playing Monopoly it seems, a game of checkers seems to be going poorly for red. Nimi is red, not that her own big grin says it matters.
Taylor walks in beside me, " did you time that just to embarrass me?"

" Yep," Nimi says chipper as ever sticking out her impressive purple tongue.

" Looks like I'm gonna have to give you and Taylor the Talk," Danny was smiling with the beer in hand brought to his lips.

At Nimi's giggling I tell her the "unfortunate" news, " he was talking about you too Nimi." Her giggling died as she released pale glowing spores. I sit back and watch the show from the stairs as Danny, full of smiles and schadenfreude, embarrasses his kids with the Birds and the Bees.

---

 

Well these past two weeks have been fun, but I start my job next week so the posts are going to slow down for a while. This last three chapters have to be released like this so I hope you enjoy...

---

That was embarrassing. After dad had given me and Nimi the Talk, with Lisa present and giving little nuggets of wisdom here and there. We both agreed to never speak of what was discussed ever again. In the basement Nimi and I went to see the bio armor which was just about finished. It still needed to be assembled, but once that was done it it was technically one piece. Nimi and I worked in silence as we assembled the plates and gathered the sheets of biofabric.

" I'm sorry for having said that out loud around Lisa," I look up from stitching with my swarm to Nimi, she has a sheepish look on her face.

" It's alright you did a better job explaining it to dad then I did with Lisa," I shrug, " if anything at least Lisa isn't scared of me."

We get back to working on the assembly after a few nods. Before long it stood, suspended from pipes, bone white armor with a skirt red like blood. The boots pop out of the wall behind me just on time too. The armor is awesome, the bone white pauldrons gleamed and has spikes like spine seashells, the chest plate is a super abalone that looks cracked with red flexile armor between its ridges. The skirt is almost regal with a spider web of veins from when it was being built. The abdominals are protected by a hefty plates segmented to allow free movement. The boots are also bone plated around a muscled 'sock' with the heels and pads made of a solid squishy like bone. It also fit perfectly, all the reds and whites and blacks, complimented Nimi's green skin and red eye. It was perfect battle armor.

" It's too scary," I spun around to view Lisa standing at the stairs.

" What do you mean," Nimi in her excitement had just put it on, " is it not pretty?"

Lisa shakes her head, " yes it is pretty, but people will think you are a villains if we go out on patrol with it."

I look over the design. I can't see anything wrong with it, but then again Lisa is the smart one when it comes to people, " what can we do, it took forever to build?" Lisa walks down and inspects it, walking around Nimi who can't help but pose.

" Remove the abdominal plates and the chest plate."

" What, why?"

" One Nimi's chest is already super armored, she doesn't need more, and two all the armor makes her appear too militant."

I remove the chest plate armor, as Lisa walks over to an extra bit of biofabric, " Okay can you wrap this over her chest?"

The end result looks like a sleeveless blouse that showed off my others impressive cleavage. " Well now it is entirely too lewd."

" I'm not done." Lisa takes another piece of bio fabric and wraps it over her shoulders like a cloth of a priest. It naturally connects when she asks me to connect it to the blouse. She then grabs one of the smaller ab plates and places it over the remaining cleavage. The plate stays with a little fusion between it and the fabric.

" There, now it is sexy, but not too sexy," she put her hand on her lip as she goes around Nimi, a blushing cloud coming from her exposed back, " can you change the color of the armored parts?"

" Yeah," I was beginning to see what Lisa is going for, and decided that pearlescent would be a good look for the shoulder armor, " how's that?"

" Good, can you make the veins look symmetrical and a little less like veins."

" Done," They now almost look like a pattern that is slightly organic, " I'm gonna make the bodice a darker color."

" Yeah that will look nice, Nimi do you have any suggestions?"

Nimi was really liking the new rainbow on her arms, " can you hand me the chest piece." Lisa lifts it surprised at how light it is, and hands it to her. Before our eyes, Nimi molds it until it resembles a corset, changing the color of the red and white brick work into more pearlescent flavors. It
looks like a collage of colored porcelain shards. We help her lace it up with some modified Kevlar I made to stitch the armor together.

When we are done it is less like an armor and more like a mixture of a wedding dress, princess armor, and undead priestess garbs. It is also blood red, flowy, and very pretty. Nimi stretches in the suit to see how much movement she can pull off. It is like she isn't even wearing it. Lisa and I giggle as we bring our undead priestess upstairs.

" Well what do you think daddy," Nimi is spending way to much time around Lisa, that grin is way too familiar, " does it look good."

Our father looks pale, " y-yeah, but why is it missing a back?"

Lisa just shrugs, " she is less scary when she shows off."

Dad nearly had a heart attack at those words.

---

Most of the crime takes place near the docks and downtown, but rather than a standard target like last time we opted to just patrol the town and look for crimes in progress. Simple plan right?

" Did you see him," Izzy is panicked as we spin around looking desperately for our attacker, " I can't tell where he went, search the rooftops!" I feel something pop in behind me, just between Lisa and I. I barely have time to react before a large knife is sticking out of my throat.

Let me back up.

We are downtown right now, just on a rooftop, prepping for our patrol trying to figure what path we should take. " So I think this circuit will be good for stopping some small crimes," Lisa tracks out a section of map that will have us walk through multiple disputed territories of most major
factions, " it also would be the most public which is good for us as we are kind of nobodies."

I haven't used PHO in a long time, too busy working with molds and finding genetic curios, but Lisa has supposedly been keeping up to date. " Do you think the public will be scared of me," Nimi asked nervously.

" Eh, fifty-fifty right now, but if we can get you in front of a camera at a later date, you could probably turn the public favor for us," Lisa says.

" I don't think that will work," Nimi is looking around.

" Nimi I think you're the scariest, until you open your mouth and start talking."

I giggle as red spores fill the air around my other.

We eventually decided on a path that would walk us through mostly E88 and ABB contested territory. Keeping to the side walks and alleyways, we began our patrol. It was quiet as we made our way past shops that were closing up for the night although we did pass by some stores that stay up over night. Even visited some, much to the horror of their shop keeps. Bottled water is important though on the job or at least it is important for Lisa. People became much less tense, as expected, when Nimi opened her mouth and started to gush about things that she has never seen before. I started giggling when she complimented one bored teenager working at a convenience store on his metal band shirt. The blush mixed with his terror made the poor kid practically sway on his feet. It was only funnier when she did the same thing to another teen later only this time on her hair. Nimi was really happy that people weren't being scared of her. Even if she was essentially becoming several crushes to everyone she complimented. By our fifth store Lisa and I had matching grins and even if no one could see mine through the mask, I know that Lisa
knows.

It was about around half way through our patrol when we ran into our first crime. Some ABB, looks like they were threatening a shop. It was only three thugs and we took them down easy. Extortion, the old man was a pleading mess until we came to save him. The ABB probably targeted him because he was Asian, more likely to be targeted by the E88 and thus easier to sway to purchase protection. Nimi was joyfully tying up criminals with some organic binding we built. Then the car showed up and it all became havoc. Lung was a big guy, but Nimi was bigger, I had just enough time to grab the old man and Lisa before the fireball engulfed the front of the store. I didn't see Nimi join us but I could feel her fight back. Lisa, the shopkeeper, and I were in an alleyway just to the side of the now blazing store. " Izzy, Nimi is keeping Lung busy," I yelled over the roar of flames, " what is the quickest way out of here?"

" We need to- LOOK OUT," Lisa screamed as she lunged to grab the old man. I turned just in time to see him fall to the ground dead, a knife sticking out where his heart would be. Oni Lee disappearing in a cloud of ash. I grabbed Lisa's hand and pulled her deeper into the alley away from Lung. Away from the masked monster.

And now your caught up. I twist my head around the knife in my neck and slam the back of my hand across Oni Lee's face before he can disappear. He flies back down the alleyway dissolving to dust. I rip the knife from my neck and grab Lisa's hand. " Any idea on how to track him," I yell through my shredded windpipe, " his dust is mostly just carbon."

" I'm working on it, can you tell if the dust is particularly old or not," Lisa yells back, " or if it- DUCK!"

I dodge down pulling Lisa with me as I slide under a swing that would have decapitated me. We are up and running just as another cloud of ash marks his departure. " He needs line of sight to teleport," Lisa blurts out her powers working overtime it looks like, " when he pops in again blind him!"

I gather the swarm around the area, a lot has been lost due to the fire and battle going on across the street. Nimi wasn't doing too hot fighting Lung. She isn't fire proof after all, at least she is consuming more of the swarm than Lung can burn away. That's only making him angrier though. I ready the swarm to blanket the area in a red fog just as soon as the knife wielding psychopath shows up. With a puff of smoke he arrives swing his dagger down at me. I rush to meet the point with my head throwing off the masked killer. I flood the alley with red light. Got him!

Oni Lee is blindly looking around, before running away down the alley. His hand to the wall as a guide. I took off after him giving Lisa a trail of glowing orbs to follow as she can't see either. I pulled the knife from me and just as I reached the blue masked villain, slashed at him. I aimed for debilitating not lethal, what I got was his Achilles tendon. Oni Lee drops like a sack of potatoes, rolling just out of the alleyway. he was still trying to crawl away when I got to him, a sharp press of the knife to the center of his back makes him reconsider his position. I cover his mask with spore spiders to obscure his vision and call away the fog. Lisa runs up to me, fog no longer there to obscure her too, " How is Nimi doing?"

" Not good, she is suffering too much damage from the flames."

" I don't get it," Lisa's frown underlines her confusion to a tee, " First the Merchants have their capes at that store house when they shouldn't be there, now Lung and Oni Lee are at a small time extortionist job, something doesn't make sense."

" What should we do?"

" Get Nimi to start-"

A van pulls up to us before Lisa can finish her sentence, and before I can react the doors open and Lisa gets pulled in. I rush at the open door just in time to see, Lisa get injected, and a flaming bottle to impact with my chest.

---

 

This chapter is the last of the old chapters that was prewritten, it has gone through quiet a few versions. It is also the cut off point in a previous version of this story, a version I hated...

---

My world explodes into pain, and my local swarm fails to respond as bottle after flaming bottle scorch the area. I can't see through my ghost with all the flames, but even through my burning suit and hair I can hear the van squeal off into the distance. I need to get to it. I stand to my feet the smoldering corpse of Oni Lee filling my nose as I try to orientate myself with my weakening senses.

There it went that way, I start running after the car only to fall to my knees as Nimi's torso flies through the now crumbling store and into the street. Nimi lays near me, skin burned black, legs a mangled mess, and her body failing to heal properly. I look back through the burning building. Lung walking calmly through the fire, as I sit up. My skin is dark with fire, and my hair was gone. My suit was destroyed except for a thin layer across my face. Lung was speaking, but I hear nothing through the roar. My charred corpse of a body picked itself up on legs like twigs, Nimi was in my head repeating...

Where is Lisa?
Where is Lisa?
Where is Lisa?
Where is Lisa?

I look at her, only her main eye is animated, its frantic searching as it flicked all over the burning streets. I turn back to Lung, he smells amused.

I hate him.

I can feel myself slip into that empty state. I hate him and I'm starving.

I look at the remains of Oni Lee. I open my chest, the flesh now fused by fire, and expose my gaping maw. I can't hear Lung laughing as I expose the undead mouth. Tendrils of bone and scared flesh pierce through the crispy sack of meat that used to be a terror, a person of malice that people feared reduced to little more than food as I pull it deep inside of me. Lung is growing and powering up, and I am hungry. I funnel my meal into my muscles, cannibalizing my organs that are unnecessary as I pour my body into my speed, into my strength, into my hunger. I bulk up quick and I can feel my speed come to me, even as the flames around me die.

Lung is now eight feet tall and metal, he looks delicious.

I hate him.

He runs at me just as I finish cannibalizing my heart. He brings his claws down on empty air, as I bring my fist in an uppercut that breaks his teeth.

Lung staggers back a half step, but it is not enough to faze him. He steadies himself in a second, just in time for me to dodge out of the way of his fireball. I spin outside his lunges with those sharp claws, traveling up to his shoulders along his arm. He tries to grab me, but he is much slower than me. His body ignites, destroying my cells faster than I can replace them, quickly changing my arms back to charred flesh. I need to stop this quickly, my body has the same weaknesses of Nimi's body. I dodge under another claw over his shoulder, it brings my covered face
close to his plasma soaked flesh.

FOOD!

I feel my mask rip open as my jaw unhinges into a maw of razor like teeth. I bite and internally panic, I just broke all my fucking teeth! In my animalistic mind I couldn't give a shit about some shredded dental bones, I start growing new ones by absorbing the broken bits. This is bad my body is barely responding to me, it just keeps trying to eat the inedible, I need to come up with a way to get through that armor and fast. I barely flinch as my arms and legs are broken as Lung slams his back into a wall. I let go as my finger stop receiving signals. I try to stand up my body having trouble getting my bones back into position, and then my world was fire.

I couldn't see, the immolating fire was too dense for my senses to penetrate and my ghost could only see the fire. My flesh was going fast, my limbs broken and burned to a crisp, my mask seared to my face as all my flesh runs together. I need to get out of here, my body can not last like this. I force all of my attention to my legs and jump, right into Lung's face. A blast of fire was just barely dodged, as I flipped over the now snouted face of my opponent.

Okay brain think! His skin is made of an inorganic alloy of metals, from what my failing chemistry senses gathered before losing them. It is extremely non-reactive, so I can't burn through it with acids.

I dodge a fire ball only to be hit by a swift slash of a claw.

The scales are too tight to slip some cells into, if I could just get something out of him I could start to deconstruct his genome, I just need a weak point.

I dodge over his shoulders kicking off his back just out of reach of his backward thrusting claws. I land funny as my ankle snaps due to lack of materials.

Shit!

I roll out of the way of a fire ball only to be kicked across the street.

I need to finish this, Lisa is getting farther and farther as this goes on, I don't know how long it has been, but after as certain amount of pain it feels like a long time. I get up and look as Lung just casually walks towards me. God I'm such an idiot, why did I ever think that going out as a hero was a good idea, my guilt feels like a rock I'm trying to swallow. Lisa wouldn't have been kidnapped if I wasn't so selfish, my scorched tear ducts fail to produce my tears as I feel my missing heart sink, I'm going to lose my first friend in forever and it is all my fault!
I stare into the eyes of my new murderer, he looms over me a crooked grin on his inhuman face. I feel my insides coil as though the internal maw is biting air. I see the fire building in his own mouth, he wants to be sure this time. His eyes glare at... me... eyes...

Eyes?...

Eyes!

I feel my insides react to my idea ahead of my decision making, and my face splits open as my esophagus is repurposed. I can feel the micro seconds count down as my perception flows slower, the bones in my body are reused as I lose all of my lower ribs and most of my mid-ribs. I watch as Lung blinks in slow motion, and he tries to react, even as my body's brain is flooded with psychotropics and adrenaline to alter my perception of time. I can see it both in real time through my ghost and in fractions of seconds in my chemically desiccated brain. I line up the shot, and fire the eight foot long barbed tongue faster than Lung's claws could even reach. Bullseye is all I think as the world both speeds up and slows back down.

Lung roars as he stumbles back, pulling me along as I am still connected to my entry point.

What the fuck was that, I've never had my body just react so violently like that. I pull back the razor tipped tongue, even as my body floods itself with endorphins to try and counter the practical embalming that my brain just went through.

Food! Food! Food! Food! Food! Food! Food! FOOD!

I need to be quick, I snap myself out of my shock and get up from my prone position, rolling backwards from Lung's attempt to stomp on me.

Okay, okay, okay; the metal is a inserted part of his genome and held together with what is essentially the genetic equivalent of sticks and mud.

I dodge and weave under his limbs as my body moves in to try and bite him again. My body really almost thinks for itself when it is fighting doesn't it, I'd find that scary if I already wasn't busy, I'll think about that later.

Okay so Lung's powers are making his bullshit work, but I'm better than his bullshit. I can't just get the metal from nowhere however, I lunge out into a head long bite into his back legs. I can however take their structural principles and apply them to bones, like my teeth. Worth a shot.

I clamp my jaw filled with now shark-like teeth, around the truly huge calf of Lung, and penetrate. I don't just penetrate the scales, I slice right through the muscle like a punch. It breaks all of my teeth again as my jaw slams shut, but I now had a solid chunk of metal dragon in my mouth that my body was practically disintegrating with how fast I was converting it. I jump back, far back, all the way over next to Nimi, as Lung's roar sound more like a scream with how shrill it is. I almost blindly speed read through every new type of cell for just one, even as my teeth harden into a metal stronger than steel.

That one! Low conductive epidermis cells that keep Lung from being roasted inside his metal scales. Lung is rising from his crouched position, I don't have long to do this. I quickly recover my body with the new cell type on my skin to help with the burns. It will take a minute so I just need to stay out... I look up just in time to see nothing but white hot fire fill my vision.

Shit...

---

 

This chapter was written last week. We made it, we are now in the new stuff!

---

The van rocks and sways as I try to keep my nausea from over taking me. The bag on my head was not helping. I need to get out of here! I try to move my hands, but they feel like lead. If I can get the dart gun, I can-

[ they have our weapon...]

Shit, I try to move my legs, damn they are just as bad as my hands.

" Did we lose it?" The panicked voice is male and seems to be coming from further in front of me. I move my neck, it was numb but still I could move it.

" I don't know," this voice is gruffer and is coming from the right, " where are the decoy vans, we were promised this would be easier."

I feel the car swerve as it took a sharp corner. Okay so knowing Taylor and Nimi, I'm pretty sure that they are chasing after the van, I can work with this. Okay Lisa, time to work your magic. I try working my mouth. It is numb-ish, but considerably less so than the rest of me right now.

" Shit I see it!" I feel the van swerve and smell gasoline.

[ Molotov, was effective at stopping ally ERROR... the one at front is the most panicked from his voice, their are four people present, they believe you are unconscious…]

I feel myself smirk under the hood. Scared you say...

" Your all going to die you know," my voice is weird, but it is solid enough for this to maybe work.

"Shut up," the panic in driver dude is perfect.

" Don't listen to her, drive dammit," the gruff voice seems familiar but I can't seem to place it, " you, do you have a decent shot."

" Not yet, hard to aim at sentient death cloud," left and to the front, sounds young.

" Fucking do it, we know it is weak to fire," left of me, the hiss of a canister plus the smack of his hand followed the new voice's words.

" I just saying, my partners have a bit of a mean streak," I repress the urge to giggle as I flashback to Nimi being the sweetest thing to some moths on their front porch, " both are cannibals after all!"

I smell some urine, gross.

[ driver has urinated, if you describe the dead rat incident to them he will defecate as well...]

Ew, gross I did not need to know that power! First Mush, now my kidnappers, what is with you and peoples bowl movements?

" I told you to not listen to her," I feel the impact to my face just barely, " and you shut up." The punch was solid from mister gruff voice was a good one eight out of ten. I'm gonna have a black eye, but it was worth telling me how scared the aggressive man is. Couldn't even feel it, man these are some aggressive tranquillizers.

The crack of a bottle and a curse tell me that young voice missed. " Shit, keep the car steady."

" Sorry." I then feel my insides drop as we make a very sharp right turn. I'm elbowed in my side as someone loses their seating.

" So who's bright idea was it pitting the three of the most invincible capes of this city against each other," might as well fish for some information, " can't have been someone smart, or maybe you guys are just expendable."

The kick to my stomach was worse than the punch, 2/10 do not recommend. The steel toed boot probably bruised something serious, the Taylors are not going to be happy about that.

" Hey careful with the merchandise," I wish they could see my smile from under the bag, it was sharp enough to cut glass, " you wouldn't want to damage the forbidden fruit, after all I'm the one my partners want to eat the most and she is awfully territorial about her food."

"Didn't we tranq her?" Good question. I can feel some movement in my left hand, and the left toe is starting to feel. Still no pain in my face though so small bonus. Lets try wiggling my wrist out of these restraints.

The double entendre was fun! Maybe it is time for me to gush a bit about my undead stalker's crush a bit. In the right context it will be hilarious. " Say I never got your name, but you sound familiar, we met before," I shift my head to the gruff voice as much as I can from my position on the floor. It helps hide my hands from the one paying attention.

" I am going to enjoy breaking you girl," he has leaned forward to grace me with fishy breath. Gross, but not as gross as your thoughts fish for breakfast. Also fingers now fully back.

" Well anyways it won't really matter, my girls are probably very hungry given that the just fought Lung," I feel my smirk soften at the thought of the two, " there won't be anything left of you four." My left foot is bound to my right, didn't notice before because I couldn't feel them, but hey I know now.

The van lurches forward, a loud bang coming from where my feet are touching the wall. " Dinner time," I cheer. I kind of regret that when I smell the shit.

" Fuck this," the guy just to my left stands and walks to the back of the van, " keep it steady I'm gonna fry the fucker." I hear a latch open and the noise of rushing wind. I hear the clicks of a lighter and then...

*Foosh*

[ man is armed with a flamethrower...]

Thanks power for stating the obvious. The sound of the flamethrower's spray is loud, even as the noise of swerving vehicles and crashing compete for that spot. Over all the noise I hear the sound of a faint gurgling rumble. " You idiot," the gruff man is standing up, I can smell his leather boots, " the boss wanted this quiet, shooting off a flamethrower from the back of a moving van is not quiet."

Still haven't heard a name yet for this supposed employer, but I'm pretty glad that his plan has gone off the rails. " Fuck him and fuck you, how is that not also a big blow to cover?"

Man I wish this potato sack wasn't on my head, some of what is going on sounds like it could be cool to see...

Something slams into the van from the right, it sticks. I can feel the van swerve at the added weight, a smack of something fleshy falls off the side of the careening metal box. " Shit one got through." The gurgling roar gets closer, and I get one of my hands free from the rope that was binding me. I quickly reach up and grab the sack from my head, throwing the material out the open door of the van. It lands in a black ooze that fills the view out the back of the vehicle.

" Frankie?"

The angry death cloud was more like an angry death soup. It clawed after us on a million hands and arms. A black ooze of flesh, full of eyes and mouths at random angles and filled with teeth. The two men in the back of the van with me turn to see my uncovered face, but just as quickly go back to the ocean chasing us.

[ traveling at 65 mph, weight is fluctuating wildly from 28 to 31 tons, contains the ERRORs, Lung is being dragged behind it...]

I try to see behind the tidal wave of hungry, I can just barely see a shiny creature at the back. So slug Frankie and Nimi, Fimi as it were, are chasing me down as a giant sentient slug monster, dragging Lung behind them to act as a sort of flesh battery. Okay I was right, this was cool to watch.

A boney hand punches through the left side of the van. The gruff man, who I now realize is the enforcer dude from the beach when I first met Taylor and Nimi, pulls out a taser and stabs it into the hand. A gurgling roar comes out of the moving mass behind us. A second hand pierces the metal, then a bone spike fires through fish man's shoulder impaling him to the van door that is currently swinging in the air outside. " Get me off this fucking thing," his gruff voice going shrill when a black arm almost gets him.

I sit up, oh hello pain in my gut, glad that you could finally show up. Please leave now thank you. " Hey Frankie, Nimi, could you stop playing cat and mouse, get me out of here." A purr like an earthquake can be heard over everything else as the metal between those bone white hands is ripped apart.

" Hey Izzy," Taylor face pops into the new hole in the side of the van. Her voice is cheery, but her face is not masked. Glowing white irises in black pools stare out of their face. Her dark hair trails behind her as the wind whips it from the speeding car, the hair is full of teeth and eyes. She is smiling her teeth sharp and shark-like. Nimi-esque…

" Frankie, your face is exposed," I can't look away. When did my friend become so shockingly pretty. Sure she was cute before, long limbs and gangly gait, but now...fuck me brain, now is not the time for this! The flamethrower wielding maniac is turning to my friend!

[ left foot is off balance, is standing on the edge of the door...]

That, is useful information! I shove my body forward and kick flamethrower guy in the knee. The man tumbles out of the moving car taking fish breath with him and they are both trampled by the ocean of pissed off hunger that was my partners.
" Thanks Izzy," Taylor climbs into the vehicle much to the horror of two remaining of the remaining passengers. " It's fine about the mask, I don't really have a hidable face anymore."

The ooze ocean spits out a black glob at the open door. It forms in mid-air into a second bone spike.

" A harpoon," I watch the spike bury itself into the center console, the vehicle begins to slow down as it is dragged by a fleshy tongue at the end of the spike starts to pull it backwards. Taylor comes over to me and rips the ropes from my legs with ease. Her face is close to mine, I feel her arms bring me into a hug. Her hair is wrapping me up, it feels thick like a giant flat sheet of flesh. Little teeth comb through my own hair that came lose from my bun. I can see eyes in the darkness. Should be gross, but it feels nice. The van shifts as the flesh mountain docks to the now ripped apart backend.

" Let's get out of here," Taylor picks me up with the hug, my legs tucked up on her chest. The van was pick up and we slid back into a purring black ooze.

---

A lot of these chapters are short, but hey we got to February in story. It took 26 chapters, but at least it is coherent...

 

I have no sense of self-control, here is a chapter....

---

The black tidal wave of shadow arms, crawled into the abandoned warehouse. We purred around our tiny blond package. The reluctant loss of our flesh battery in the form of Lung was necessary. Usually we would have turned them into the police, but for now we just left him in a ditch somewhere.

I disgorge us, separating our gestalt mind into it's members. We also deposit Lisa, but we keep a hand in hers.

" Okay Taylor," Lisa looks down at Swarm's hand, " talk, what the fuck was that?"

Nimi has Lisa's other hand, I try not to be jealous, but its not fair. My two others get to hold Lisa's hand, why am I left in the cold? I wrap my shadow hair around myself, " well we made a new body."
Lisa looks from Nimi's hand to the dark shadow hand holding her other hand and then back to Nimi's. Nimi, like myself, is different now too. Her head tendrils have become long tentacles, she no longer is a dark forest green now she is a shiny iridescence of blacks and greens. Her
indestructible eye is now her only eye, with the five pilot eyes on her crown gone. Grey bone gauntlets have replaced the old ones, they are tougher and got a bit more power behind her punches with them. More or less she was still the same, boobs and all.

Swarm however, " technically speaking it isn't a new body it is just a whole lot of tiny bodies thinking together." Lisa fixes me with an unimpressed stare, that gradually drifts down...I look to where she is staring...shit am I naked! My ghost looks at my body, yep totally naked...in front of my crush. I slap my chest and other areas so fast I think I gave myself welts. My hair wraps around my body like a blanket fully covering me.

Nimi gives me a thumbs up while Lisa starts to lose it. Lisa is laughing, but I can see her red face from here, " Okay so the swarm became sentient, is this going to happen every few weeks or..."

" Or what?"

" Or am I going to have to get used to new yous every few weeks."

I blush grey, as the black liquid in my body rises to my ears. Lisa's grin is shiteating. " Actually if we wanted to," Nimi starts her eye giving me a playful look, " Swarm could form about five hundred separate human sized bodies and you could get to greet each and every one of them."

" Oooh, Taylor if I start dating you do you want to have an-."

" LISA!" I practically fly across the room and slap my hand over her mouth. The giggling of my two others ringing out inside the empty warehouse, deep to my left and multitude to my right.

---

I laid back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Lisa had taken me, Nimi, and Swarm to a motel just near the outskirts of town. Her reasoning is that who ever tried to kidnap her tonight and at the beach a few weeks ago, knows who we are. It isn't a bad assumption to be honest, how they knew that Nimi and I were weak to fire was concerning. We didn't know we were weak to fire!

I sit up at the sound of the shower turning off. We aren't now, weak to fire I mean. When I was standing there digesting Lung's cells I got vaporized, so did Nimi. Our ghosts with nowhere left to go transferred to the only "us" around, my swarm. I became we, and we knew Lung's cells. So as a fire proof tidal wave of black swarm, Nimi, Swarm, and I slammed into the dragon cape with the full force of the entire swarm, you know the thing I covered the city with. We then used Lung's regenerative capabilities to turn him into a kind of flesh battery. Eating just enough to not kill the cape and to power our growth three fold.

I turn to look at the other bed. Nimi sat on the end and was looking through channels for something to watch. Swarm, or at least a piece of Swarm, the rest had dispersed over all of Brockton was sitting at the top of the bed relaxing after eating all the bed bugs in the room and walls. Currently Swarm's form is that of a multiarmed Taylor, solid black like space. Her construction was mostly just swarm spiders gluing their arms together, but several of the individual members are in charge of thinking instead of just locomotion. It was a neat design.

Swarm isn't like Nimi or me, she's different. I can feel both my ghost and Nimi's as her starting point, but I couldn't tell you how she came to be a new us. What I do know is that the swarm of before is now even more useful. Swarm doesn't have the problem of focus that I do when I use the swarm to look around. Swarm "sees" it all, everything at once all of Brockton Bay. Sure it is still just electro sensory and chemical sensory, but I'm sure that the three of me can come up with some solutions to those problems.

Lisa walks out of the bathroom, a towel the only thing she has on besides some underwear. I can feel my eyes look anywhere, but at her. I've had enough of embarrassing myself today. The image of me picking up Lisa from the back of the truck, almost a bridal carry. In front of two bad guys. I place my head into my hands and groan. " You were naked then too," I turn to Nimi with a scowl at her little insight into what I was thinking.

" I thought that I would be the one to wear the pants in the family," Lisa's smirk can be seen out of the corner of my eyes, " I guess I'm still the one to wear pants, or any clothes for that matter."

" Lisa." My others fail to support me in my time of embarrassment.

" Hey don't look at me or Swarm, your the one with genitals."

"Nimi!"

" Hey I don't mind that you prefer to be nude Taylor," Lisa pokes, " nudism is in style I hear."

"Lisaaaa..."

" Yeah, clothes are weird anyways right Swarm," Nimi speaks joyfully to her which Swarm shrugs and goes back to idle.

" Well fine, the showers free come on Nimi I'll help you with your gills," I fire back. Nimi bursts with red spores, and stomps after me into the bathroom.

" You too don't have too much fun in there," at Lisa's word it was time for both of us to be embarrassed. The bathing was much more awkward then usual.

---