Safe For Work Worm Ideas thread

[embed=425,349]http://youtu.be/NCHq0m67lq8[/embed]

oOo​

Even with all the possibilities taken into account, from spontaneous combustion to unexpected arrival of bees, one of the less likely things to happen was walk into a bank to find that everyone had decided to take a nap.

I blinked then took another look at the situation and took a steady sip from my bottle as I tried to make the situation make sense. There were all those people on the floor, face down and given how they were moving they wren't asleep, so maybe someone had dropped a contact lens or something and everyone else was helping them?

Well, apart from the couple of people who were standing up. And those giant dog... lizard...whatever things which were standing their growling. All that raw flesh looked unhealthy, really...

"Have you taken them to see a vet?" I asked of one of the people who was by the wall... No, squinting a little I saw that it was just the one girl there after all. "I mean, they're all swollen up and they've not got a good coat... Is it mange or something?"

I was having a good day, not like those... girl... people.... whoever they were who made time at school so nasty, so I felt that it was okay to spend a little time talking to a wierd girl like this one.

I took another sip from my bottle, my precious happy bottle of amber joy, and felt that wonderful burn as it slid down my throat. The girl didn't seem happy to get asked questions, I knew I didn't when Dad asked me stuff I didn't want to talk about, so I took a moment to try to figure out it for myself.

"Oh, you're robbing the place." I said as everything clicked together, rewarding myself with a second swig of my own personal panacea. The real one was over there, out of costume and on the floor with the other customers, but she was she had too many hangups to really help me the way I'd want her too... "She's cute, you know."

There was a giggle from one of the people who were standing, a foppish teenage boy who was waving around what obviously wasn't a phallic representation of his desire for control over his relationship with his father, and he was cute so I favoured him with a subtle once over.

He was worth a look, even if he was not as muscled as I'd prefer, and that definitely not a codpiece there. Not bad at all and in the upper eight percentile of the population in terms of...

There was a cough and I looked to the side then abandoned my contemplations of the previous boy (probably a Master type and likely related to Heartbreaker now I thought about it) in order to devote my full attention to this.

"Why, hello there!" I said, trying to keep the delight out of my voice. It was hard though when I was confronted by such a nicely... muscled piece of beefcake, the biker gear and skull mask he had on doing nothing to hinder my appreciation, "So, you're the type who likes to wear leather..."

I did my best to stand up straighter, to push out what little chest I had, and to generally gain more of his attention. I could feel heat coming to my cheeks as he stood there silently for a moment as a laugh coming from the foppish boy and I resisted the urge to toss the bottle in the direction of the sound.

"Miss..." Mister Skull Mask trailed off, his tone hardly showing the uncertainty that his stance and the workings in the back of his brain easily revealed, but he tried again after a moment, "Miss, could you sit down with the others?"

"You want me to go down?" I felt my face warm again and the feeling of glass at my lips helped push away the embarrassed feelings as I swallowed a little liquid courage. "I mean, that didn't come out right... You want to have me down on the floor? ...huh, that didn't come out right at all."

In the background pretty boy was laughing and, as leather guy turned to glare at him as much as that was possible through the skull helmet, I tried to work out what to do next. The answer came to mind at once and, to ensure it worked, I immediately acted on it.

Yeah, the whiskey tasted good...

oOo

In Vino...
A Worm AU with issues.

oOo​

"You're not going to try and take my bottle though?" I asked, unconsciously holding it tighter. All sorts of people had tried to take the bottle, or its numerous predecessors, from me and that never had gone well. "It's mine... But if you want to a sip?"

"...no, I won't. If you just stay there." Leather guy said patiently, the grinding of his teeth not quite audible as he ensured that I was seated on the floor with what turned out to be hostages. "Just... just drink that yourself

Leather guy's name was Grue, or Brian actually, and whose powers was a sensory damping field with weak energy absorption properties. I tried to ignore how I suddenly knew that and, as always, a little mouthful of booze helped hush the little voice in the back of my mind.

Nice of leather guy to suggest that and so, in the spirit of being nice, I tried to ignore how sitting down put the level of my eyes devastating close to the level of his crotch.

Or, at least, not leer too obviously.

"Tattletale! Get out here!"

May I shouldn't have given him a pinch when he turned away? But it was a perfect opportunity...

oOo​

Author's Notes:
This... Well, this is headed firmly towards crack fic territory. That is the only way it can head as it is the tale of Tayor Heber who will eventually become reknown as "The Drinker".

Don't worry, she's generally a quite amiable drunk along with her good ol' drinking buddy who lives in her head. And if she's nice and durnk she can give some really good advice and suggestions which she doesn't really remember when sober at all.

She may or may not have, unknown to her sober self, taken over the Merchants and be in the middle of reforming them. Apparently Skidmark spilt her drink and things got Complicated after that.

The less said about her relationship with the PRT the better.

 

== Legacy (JJBA/Worm fusion) ==

2 February, 2000
Chicago

“I’m still not sure about this. It just . . . feels wrong.” The shorter man said. He was squat, and the fedora he wore was undersized for the roundness of his face. His eyes flicked to the apartment door, then back to the cardboard boxes he was helping to move.

His partner was taller, but only put half as much stress on the floors. “If I gotta explain this one more time ‘Fonso, I swear to God I’ll make you carry the rest by yourself.” He groused as he bent over. Flipping a box open, he revealed an assortment of knickknacks such as might be found in any home. Whatever. “Listen, the guy over there in the gold mask is my boss- your new boss, and he had one of his other guys tail Blue Bird back to his place, then bossman waited till he was asleep and filled the whole place with his pepper spray smoke. We went in with gas masks, capped the bitch, and now we get to sell his stuff on the market for big money. Aint like he’s gonna use it anymore.”

“Still feels wrong, Fred.” Alphonso muttered under his breath, but picked up the other end of the box.

A few minutes later, he piped up. “I mean, leaving aside that whole thing about going after him while he’s not in costume, are you sure he’s really dead?”

Fred grinned pridefully. “I capped him meself. That’s what this patch right here means. Now quitcherbitchin before bossman notices and thinks bad a me for vouching you in.”

As soon as they set the box on the table there was a heavy knock on the door, three heavy raps. The tall man looked at the fat one. “That’s the last one that’ll fit, so you get the door while I take inventory.”

Alphonso nodded and rubbed his sweaty palms on his pants to dry them, in the process replacing the sweat with grease. “Sure thing.”

On the way to the door he reached into a box, snagging a monogrammed handkerchief to get rid of the grease. After wiping, he unlocked the solid wooden door and looked out. Then he looked up, and up again, into a pair of hard blue eyes on a face that looked like it had been chiseled from smooth stone. He wore a white coat, and his black hair was topped by a short white pillbox hat.

The goon swallowed, but gathered his courage to speak with only a slight change in his normal voice. “Who are you?”

“I’m here about a job.” The stranger rumbled. “I heard about what your boss did last night, and I need somebody taught a lesson.”

Alphonso grinned. “Well I’d be happy to set up a meeting for you if you can convince me that it’s worth my ugk-“

Alphonso stopped talking.

-- -- --

8 April, 2011

Later, Jotaro Kujo slid his coat back on, careful not to get any of the crimson spattering the walls and floor on the pristine white fabric. Taking the key ring off the table, he left, locking up behind him. There were already sirens in the distance. Somebody must have called emergency services when they heard the screaming.

Wings as long as he is tall beat on the air, and a woman landed. She wore a black suit cut to come off in pieces. As her arms return to being human arms, she patted her pocket. “What took you so long?”

“This was the second time this year. I needed to make an impression.”

The woman shook her head. “It was supposed to be my job, this time.” The only answer was a grunt, and she pursed her lips in exasperation. “Misguided fool.”

Jotaro grunted again, and changed the subject. “You could visit her sometimes.”

“Like you do? Does she even know you’re there?”

“. . . I’m wanted for murder. I can’t bring that down on her.”

Contessa put her hand on Jotaro’s. “Only for murder. It’s Crimes Against Humanity for me.”

And then the PRT finally arrived in force, a black helicopter announcing the beginning of yet another escape.

But this time, they escaped together.

-- -- --

People liked to think there was a difference between how girls and boys solved problems. Boys fought, they found out who’d started their problem and punched them until they stopped being a problem. If someone picked on them they were supposed to either man up and beat his face in, or toughen up and get over it. Girls were supposed to either go on a diet or eat a tub of ice cream and cry.

According to pop culture the only social problems girls had came from either being ugly, or being fat. Apparently being taller than most grown men at the age of fifteen wasn’t a common enough issue to make it into the pages of Cosmo’s March issue, unlike four new pictures of New York’s most eligible bachelor, sans shirt.

As Sophia Hess buried her fist in my gut for the tenth time in as many minutes, I was glad they were wrong. She spat on the ground and danced back, forearms up. “Hands up Taylor. I go in for a hit like that and you should already be trying to knock my teeth out!”

I swayed back with the hit, grimacing as the dull sharp lance of pain told me that she’d hit the same spot that she’d been aiming for all afternoon. “Right.”

She advanced again, bare feet gripping the soft woodchips that made up the floor of the building she called her bachelor pad. I wasn’t sure if she were being serious or not about that or not. She turned in, but I caught her punch on my arm and hit her other shoulder, pushing her out of reach.

My mouth quirked up in quiet satisfaction. “Got you.”

Sophia seemed to flicker, and I looked away. “You’re doing the thing.” I said quickly. I knew she was one of the underage heroes in Brockton Bay, one of the junior Protectorate members that, unlike the adults, were forced by federal law to wear a mask while using their powers.

“Thanks.” She backed off, and the flickering outline faded away. Some powers manifested physically as a second shape that reflected your inner self, according to the publically available brochures. The Triumvirate were all like that, and so were the most impressive members of Brockton Bay’s Protectorate.

I didn’t know which of the Wards Sophia was. It would have been easy to figure out, but I didn’t want to know. After some reading I’d convinced myself that she could have been anyone from Aegis to Triumph. The people overseeing the Wards went overboard in creating disguises for their charges to use, and even though she had more curves than I did, you could hardly call Sophia a classical beauty.

“You’re getting pretty good, for an amature.” She said, and I took that backhanded compliment in the spirit in which it was meant, if not given.

I was sure she wasn't Shadow Stalker, though. That particular teenaged hero had spent too many Saturday evenings doing public relations stunts with small children to be my best friend. The image of Sophia Hess reading books to seven year olds in the hospital was too absurd to contemplate. I’d made friends with her by punching her in the face, and we were close now, but would I trust her around small, helpless, impressionable children?

Gimme a-

The radio Sophia had brought with her turned on before I could finish that thought. “Emergency. Emergency. This is not a drill. A lone parahuman was spotted twenty miles East of center thirty minutes ago, and contact was made by patrol officers. Identity of the parahuman has been confirmed as S Class criminal Star Platinum. All SHH-ds are to SHHHZK.”

The radio turned off, and Sophia set down her brick. “Anyone asks, and I was so excited that I knocked it over, and it fell off the table.” She said.

“I don’t like that gleam in your eye.” I said, even as my heart began to race. “You know it was going to say that you shouldn’t go after him.”

Sophia had her backpack on the table, and was unlocking a secret compartment hidden in the bottom. Studiously, she sneered. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Well I can’t let you go in alone. Star Platinum would just kill you too, along with whoever pissed him off and made him come here in the first place.”

I reached for my power, and felt the familiar shape of my body begin to move, to shift.

To unravel.

 

The world is Lying.

The Lie it tells you is "You are helpless". The lie is that there is nothing you can change things or matter in the end.

The Lie is that you do not really matter at all.

And, deep down, it's easy to accept it. That you are like that. That you can't do anything. That it's the fault of your upbringing, the government, the Endbringers, or God...

That it can't be your fault.

It is easier to die than to deeply, truly, accept and acknowledge that you can change things. Than to internalise that you are the master of your fate and so much of the world is your responsibility.

To accept that so much of what happens is something you let happen.

Yet you need to also acknowledge and accept that you are not a god. That you are not perfect. You need to see through the lie and know that while you can change things you must accept that you can not change everything.

Yet.

That is when things can change.

That is when you would see through the Lie and realise that you can change the world.

That is when you've opened your eyes and Awakened.

oOo

Under the Bodhi Tree ( Worm / M:tA )

It's time to wake up Taylor, the world is waiting for you.

oOo​

Spoiler

Author's Notes:
The above wasn't much of a start, but it was meant to be a "blurb" of sorts.

If I actually tried continuing this then I'd be dropping Taylor into a situation where she is an OCP who is using a mixture of the Ascensions/Awakening rules (leaning more towards the later). Initially she'd have, at most, one sphere/arcana at two dots and a few others at one which means that she'd have to work to leverage them properly. She'd have to learn what her limitations are, what her abilities were, and how those interacted with all the parahuman weirdness which is going on.

While this would likely be a story I can sort of see how it might work as a Quest instead, but then that would add yet another to my list of things to do... ^_^;

 

"You can't keep me here, you know?

I mean, eventually someone is gonna notice that I'm gone and they'll start to look and then where will you be? Up shit creek without a paddle, won't you, eh?

I can feel you in the back of my head just now so quit it, will you? Pushin' and pushin' and pushin' like that's not gonna get you anywhere now that I know what you're up to. Not like how you got me into this damned cage in the first place!

Look, everyone dies and it's not my fault!

I know it don't make it any better, that it don't help, but dead is dead and they were criminal sorts weren't they. I might not watch the news, but I heard what got said and I heard things where people don't think that anyone is listening.

Come on, just open this thing up and let me out?

I mean those 'Undersider' people are dead you know I saw the bodies and one when I see one when I see one. The black guy, the girl with those nice looking eyes, the girl with the dogs, the pretty boy, and even...

...oh.

Yeah, even her. The one in the middle of it all, the one why that big ol' hero type had to go get rid of the others, because of her. Had to come down on things 'cause she showed up everything and had to protect the reputation.

No! It's not that I agree at all! I just know how that sort of stuff goes when someone causes too much trouble. Trouble which is just small stuff compared to what you're getting into now.

There's RULES about this all. There have to be and I ain't someone in charge. I just got a job to do, to fetch and carry, so why'd you pick on me? I mean I-

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!

You're one of those cape types, don't you want to be a hero? How is this being a hero? It's not being one at all, right? I mean, if you know about me then you know there's not anything I can do. Not without reason. Done is done, dead is dead, and gone is gone for fucks' sake!

I MEANT IT! STOP GODDAMN PUSHING!

Okay, okay, okay get it. Say something, will you? You want me to look for her, but she's not around here anyone. And you heard one of the stories, one of the tales, so started looking until you found me?

Then don't you know that I can't just do what you want? That here's got to be something there, something more, and...

You want me to listen? Just listen? Then you'll let me go? Really?

I can do that.

I mean, I'm not promising anything, but you just need to... I mean...

...oh god, I can hear her. I can hear her and she's alone and it's horrible and I gotta go. I need to go, please? She's crying, crying and it won't stop, and she's screaming and it won't let her go.

I need to go get her.

I'm not lying, not having you on, so just open this damn door so I can help.

Please?"

oOo​

He stepped back from the small cage and, wordlessly, watched as the black feathered bird stepped out. It tested its wings briefly, glanced towards him, then hopped off the window sill. He watched, through his own eyes and that of the other birds, as it soared up and up and somehow kept going up beyond the sky.

In the back of his head, right up until it vanished, he almost tasted the trail it could follow. He could almost hear that sound which wasn't a sound. He could feel as it orientated on distant screams that no other bird could hear.

Aiden remembered how it should have been and, softly, he spoke the words which he had once been told.

"People once believed that, when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right..."

oOo

"Don't Look!"
Worm / The Crow

oOo​

Author's Note: Because if Alexandria hadn't been bluffing nor as easily taken down...

 

Tattletale: "Any you're sure you're ready down there if I fall?"

Genesis: "Gleep-glorp"

Trickster: "That means 'yes for the fifth time, now get a move on already!'"

Tattletale: "I'm perfectly capable of translating for myself!"

Skitter: "Quit stalling already."

Tattletale: "Alright already, I'm going."

Grue: "Kinda wondering who put this one in the suggestion hat."

Tattletale: *flailing about, trying not to fall off.*

Regent: "Wasn't me, I wrote Bondage Maid scene."

Ballistic: "Sundancer still hasn't come outta her room yet."

Grue: "She knows we're not actually gonna be putting that one out, right?"

Tattletale: *attempting to get into the right pose, while also trying not to make her trembling obvious.*

Ballistic: "We explained it to her, she's still not leaving. Although now I'm wondering who suggested this one."

Ballistic: "I mean, it's fucking hilarious seeing her like that."

Trickster: "I suggested it. I thought it would make for a pretty awesome picture."

Tattletale: "EEK!" *falls off and lands on Genesis who cushions the fall.*

Skitter: "Bad news Tattletale, we couldn't get a good shot, so you have to get back up on the rope."

 

With my other story segment done and sent to be betaed, I went and reworked a bit an old idea of mine (which was a rework of an older idea of mine). Should I continue this?

!Warning! Un-beated and crappy!

Prologue​

Taylor Hebert felt like she was living through one of the worst day of her life. Just not too long ago someone – that someone being Sophia Hess looked like a safe bet to make – shoved her inside her own locker. Which, while bad, it certainly wasn't enough to be labeled as “worst day of her life”; which said a lot about her life really. The kicker of the whole deal was that the locker had been stuffed with lots of used pads and tampons; fermenting pads and tampons.
The stench those things were letting off within the small confines of her locker was sickening, and soon it became very clear to her that nobody among the student population would lift a finger to help her; in fact they quite enjoyed her predicament given the laughter she heard.


As time passed and she saw everyone else going on with their day – completely ignoring her and the situation she was in – her mental state plummeted further and further, until it finally hit rock bottom. It was then that the despair she felt turned into rage against her tormentors and the apathetic Winslow students and staff; powerful enough that for a long instant she wanted them all dead by her own hand. It was simple human nature at play, anyone pushed hard and often enough would desire payback; damn the consequences and everyone around them. The last two years pushed Taylor long and hard indeed, and somewhere and some-when else that particular desire was forgotten when the sensory overload due to her triggering overwhelmed her; but in this case that desire to kill resonated with a particular shard passing close by.

The shard changed direction – her desire acting as a magnet – until after phasing through the walls of the school, it collided with her. That sliver of power fused itself with her very own soul, changing it and reshaping it, but a transformation like that is not easy on the target and as it took hold, she slumped down in breathless agony. It went on for just a couple of second, but it was enough to leave her on the floor unable to move and feeling like she just ran a marathon.

“What...” 'What was that?' still a little unsteady on her feet, she slowly stood up when a new wave of pain washed over her. It was less intense than the first one, but it still managed to send her on her knees.

'What is happening to me?' thought Taylor, fear starting to rise. 'No! Not the time for that,' she took a few slow, deep breaths as she tried to suppress the rising panic. 'Focus Taylor, get out of here and can get help.' Unable to find any other option she started banging on the locker's door with increasing strength, hoping to catch the attention of a school employee. She wanted to get out of there, she couldn't stay inside the locker a moment more, she needed to escape.

And her power responded.

In the blink of an eye a golden sheet appeared around her and shattered a second later, revealing a massive stone gate with a set of human-like teeth running in the middle. Frantic she wipped her head around, only to see an hellish landscape of deformed statues; floating volcanoes and slitted demonic eyes that were looking at her. At the sight Taylor did what every sane person would have done in a situation like that and panicked; she turned around ready to bolt only to freeze when she saw a small form floating not far from her

“Uh, hello?” a pint sized devil, complete with wings and horns said, sounding very unsure and wary. For a very long moment she couldn't stop staring at the mini-devil, her mind basically grinding to an halt as she tried to make sense of her situation.

“Hi?” Taylor finally said, unable to think of anything else. Strangely enough she did not feel threatened by the flying thing. “Who … who are you?” 'Oh God, what am I DOING?!' she couldn't help but think. 'Am I really making conversation with a devil?'

Said devil suddenly looked extremely pleased and happy, making even a small loop in the air. “I am the little butler for the great Bhaal, oh yes!” he said in a very chipper tone. “Or, I was… it has been very lonely for me. No more master to serve for a very long time. Until now, that is.”

'Is this for real?' Taylor numbly thought. 'Wait, what.? Did he just said…'

“What do you mean by 'Until now'? You have a new master?” 'If there is,' Taylor shuddered, trying not to look at the hellish landscape around her. 'I really don't want to meet it.'

“Oh yes!” The small devil chirped. “You are Cespenar new master!”

“Bwah?!”

 

I... I have no idea what I just wrote. It was intended to be a couple lines in a lead in to a "Prince" style Taylor with Fletchette's shard. But... this just kinda happened. So here's what I ended up vomiting out.




Once upon a time...

There stood a city of gleaming silver.
Nestled lazily upon the water
It was a city of Wealth and Beauty.

The people of this city were proud.
They grew fat and drunk upon their prosperity
and they sank into debauchery and sin.
And it's rulers, in their arrogance,
mocked the gods and fell to their gluttony.

In the Heavens above, watched the Herald.
She grew greatly disturbed at the lack of faith
and thus descended, into a neighboring land.
And there she whispered in the ear of their King.

The King, grew most upset upon hearing the words
Of the Angel, and called upon his Knights
To purge the city of it's sinners. And the nine descended.
After Thirteen days and nights the fires that raged died
and the entourage fled, the rot removed.

Peace came, and all was well for a time.
But the men once again grew complacent
and retrieved their swords and shed their neighbor's blood
And the women grew dissatisfied
And drew their own arms against the men.

In the Heavens above, watched the Herald.
And again what she witnessed disturbed her.
And thus she descended once more,
and upon her landing spoke with the Earth and Sea.

The two hear her request and Sea grew Angry.
For the sinners were of his domain he responded.
He answered his sister's will and attacked.
War begat, as the once kind waters rose and smote.

It was a one sided battle.

The soldiers, grown fat and slothful,
were no match for the Sea.
And the city's greatest knights were laid low.

Ramparts destroyed, champions crushed, and castle drowned
It was clear that the city was lost. And the citizens fled.
And the Sea gave chase.

To the men he met upon them deadly violence.
Of the women he caught, dragged below the churning waters.
And the children were consumed.

And from the storm came a savior,
Neither a Champion, a Warrior, nor even a soldier
but a child, off the street hated and mocked,

brandishing a branch before her like a sword.


Seeing the plight of her fellows she acted.
And fell upon the Beast of the Sea.
And act that some might call brave
but for most was lethal foolishness.

The Sea had tried to drown her
But the water was unable to grasp her.
The Sea had summoned waves to crush her.
And they broke upon her sword.
The Sea had rushed to crush her.
And recoiled as if burned by her flesh.
The Girl swung her sword
and stoney flesh parted and bled.

But the Sea is relentless and vast.
The onslaught continued
And the Girl's shield was at last broken.

And as the Sea stood before her

poised to deliver the killing blow
Light fell from the Heavens
and pushed back the Sea.

The Lord had seen the suffering of the citizens
and had witnessed the girl's bravery
so The Lord descended. And the Sea fled.

 

So this came about after a short discussion on SB about Sophia/Lilly. It started to get a little saucy so I decided to just go all the way and post it here instead.

Basic Attraction

A lot of people think that the graveyard shift was the worst time for monitor duty. Dennis had to disagree. There was always something happening late at night. No, if Dennis had to pick he'd say the worst time was 3-6 pm. Nothing ever happened. He spent most of the time completely checked out.

A giggle from the other end of the bench drew his attention. The Ward's newest transfer, Fletchette who was sent to replace Vista after the younger girl's family moved out West. Dennis liked Fletchette, between her nice attitude and her experience she made a great addition to the team. The one issue was he wasn't the only one to think so.

Shadow Stalker, the team's resident lunatic, took a shine to the other girl. Dennis didn't know if it had anything to do with the red head shooting her down or what but the two of them really hit it off. Was it any other girl Dennis wouldn't have thought about it, except for late at night in his bedroom alone. But this was Sophia and Lily. It was weird. He couldn't understand it at all. He was sort of morbidly curious.

“What do you see in her?” It took him a second to realize he asked that out loud.

“You mean Sophia?” Lilly responded.

“Yeah,” he knew he shouldn't let his curiosity get the better of him. Sophia would kill him if he pissed off Lilly. That is if Lilly didn't get to him first. “She's not exactly someone I could see wanting to be around.”

“I dunno,” the girl shrugged. “There are lots of reasons. She's not as bad as she likes to pretend. You just have to be patient with her. Besides she has her good qualities.”

Dennis doubted that, but he wasn't dumb enough to say it.

“Like what?” Though he could have his moments of stupidity.

“Well, you've seen her out of costume. An ass like that makes up for a lot of crazy.”

“Really? That's the thing you like most? Her ass?” That... wasn't what he was expecting.

“Well yeah. That and her legs that go on for miles. And her abs. Can't forget those.” She was starting to blush a bit. Not that Dennis wasn't feeling a bit hot around the collar.

“So she's hot. That makes up for the temper? The violence? All that good stuff?”

“And well one other thing” She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “you know that track thing? That's real. I thought it was just cover but she really runs all the time. Her stamina is unbelievable. I have trouble keeping up sometimes. It's like fucking a race horse.”

Ok so this officially hit TMI levels. Then at peak awkwardness another voice came over the coms.

“You know you guys left the radio on right?” The unmistakable voice of Shadow Stalker. She sounded pissed. “I'm heading back. Lilly meet me in my room. We need to have a talk about sharing. Then you're going to spend all night earning my forgiveness.”

Lilly for her part didn't seem too concerned about earning back her girlfriend's good grace. Dennis would even say she looked eager.

“And Duffus.” Dennis swallowed thickly at her tone. She managed to make herself sound even more pissed. “If I hear one word of this from the other morons I'm gonna um, what's it called when they cut off guy's dicks?”

“Castrate?”

“Thank you Lilly. I'm going to castrate you. Ya got it?”

“Yeah. Sure thing.” He said.

The teen vigilante shut her com off at that. The other two heroes sat there awkwardly for a moment. Then Lilly began to rise.

“I'm going to grab an energy bar and some Gateraide. If I'm lucky I can finish it before Sophia gets back. I have a feeling it's going to be a long night.”

Dennis nodded at that. She gave him one last smile before leaving.

'Well tonight's dreams sure are going to be interesting.' He thought.

 

Ok so this is going to be super rough. I'm really tired but I wanted to get this scene out. I'll edit it in the morning.

Basic Attraction 2

Lily guessed it must have been almost two in the morning. However she couldn't sleep despite the rather vigorous workout her bed mate and her just had. For her part Sophia was fast asleep. The sheets had become quite tangled and almost her whole back was exposed. Idlelly Lily's hand started to trace patterns on the other girl's back. Her lover's skin was deceptively soft but Lily could feel the tight corded muscle underneath. Occasionally she'd run a finger over a scar, moments from before Sophia had access to the kinds of body armor the Wards wore.

'What am I doing?' That question had been running in her head all night. It was one Lily still couldn't answer. She normally wasn't the kind of girl to jump right into bed, and her life didn't leave a lot of room for commitment. Still she had a few moments of closeness, but they were fleeting things. What she and Sophia had, or seemed to have, was wholly new.

Lily didn't have any real illusions. She knew how Sophia could be and knew that when this started that she saw Lily as a way to experiment. Explore something she really only started to know she wanted. Lily supposed that she should have turned her away, been the responsible one in all this. Still part of her wanted to be selfish, just this once. Sophia was everything that Lily wasn't. Brash and bold. All fire and passion. So much of that was misdirected. Her anger, the raw hate she seemed to have for so many. Lily was only now getting to know why. What made Sophia the way she was, and it broke her heart.

Maybe that was it? Some part of her felt drawn to Sophia as someone she could fix. Lily knew what it was to be lonely in a crowd. Sophia had so few lines left to keep her tied to people. The other Wards couldn't stand her, Lily had heard what they said behind the girl's back. And the girl Sophia loved, maybe even still loves. The teen knew a bit of the story and had seen it play out enough times to fill in the blanks. No freak outs, no declarations of hate. Just a little more distance. An invisible curtain between them now. Sophia needed someone, anyone, to help her hold her head above water. To keep her from becoming the kind person the two of them fought.

That much Lily could hold to. No matter her faults Sophia was a hero. She was even trying, Lily knew, to be the kind of person that she knew she could be.

And that's what scared her. Before Lily thought she knew where they stood. Just a bit of fun between the two of them. A chance for them to explore things about themselves. But this? This was starting to really feel like it meant something. The way Lily would catch Sophia stopping herself from saying something or doing something, the little glance after that the other girl didn't think she'd catch. Lily was changing too. She'd find herself hearing Sophia's voice in her head. Telling her not to back down or give in just to be nice. Would catch herself think about what Sophia would think about an outfit, or a hairstyle, or other little things Lily never used to worry about. All of this was starting to feel far more real than it was supposed to.

“That tickles,” Sophia mumbled into the pillow. Startled Lily drew her hand back.

“Oh, gosh sorry.” She could feel her cheeks redden. “I didn't mean to wake you.”

“'s fine. What's keeping you up?”

“Nothing, just thinking.”

“hmm well you should get some sleep.” Sophia buried her head back into the pillow.

Lily started to join her when a thought ran through her mind. It was silly and crazy...but if what they had was becoming real maybe they should try and make it real.

“Hey Sophia.”

“Hmm?”

“Ask me out.” Lily felt a giddiness rise in her chest.

“...what?” Her bed mate asked confused.

“Ask me out. On a date.”

“Umm...why?”

“Just do it. Please, for me? We've been, well together for almost two months now and we've never been out together.”

“We go out all the time.” Sophia insisted. This was starting to feel like a bad idea to Lily.

“Hanging out with your friends is not a date.” Sophia started to respond, “and before you say it beating up Nazis together doesn't count as a date either.”

“Sounds like the best kind of date.” The other girl smirked. Then her smile fell. “This is really important to you isn't it?”

Was it? It started as just a stray thought. Now though Lily could feel her heart raise at the thought.

“Yes,” she answered. “Yes it is.”

“...alright, um would you ah would you maybe want to get a movie this Friday?” Sophia's complexion darkened with a blush.

“Yes. That sounds great.” Lily felt a warmth spread from her chest outward until her fingers and toes felt warm.

“Right, good. I see you at seven?”

Instead of an answer Lily lightly kissed Sophia. It was unlike any kiss they had before. Those were pure lust, just animal instinct. This was something else entirely. If what they had becoming real meant every kiss would be this good then Lily wished they had done it sooner.

“Wow,” was all she could say when they pulled apart.

“Yeah that was, something.” Sophia shot Lily a mischievous glance, “but now I'm not sleepy. Any ideas on how we can fix that?”

“I may have a few.” She said leaning in for another kiss as Sophia pulled herself on top of the other girl's body. Lily would soon learn that kissing wasn't the only thing that got better.

 

Well, this is an omake from the Amuro Quest that I'm running, based on my notes for the opening if the crossover with Worm was selected. I'm thinking of expanding into a full-blown fic, eventually. Thoughts?​

A Newtype in Brockton Bay​

Amuro recovered consciousness slowly. He remembered crashing in that bay, the damage in Nu Gundam too big for him to do anything else, ejecting and trying to swim out to safety. His last memory was to mange to reach into a place that was near water level and lie there, cold and exhausted.

He didn't feel cold now. He was wrapped in a blanket, lying in a couch, clothed in his underwear. He moved, keeping the blanket and looked around. It looked like an office, an old one at that, given the furniture. There was a paper calendar in the wall, for god's sake!.
The calendar. According to it, it was January 2011. A.D., he guessed. . Whatever happened back there, pushing Axis, it had propelled him back in time, or worse. Over the desk, there was a newspaper, he looked at it, revealing the situation as even more strange. Parahumans? Endbringers?

'Not only the past, but an alternate past.' he thought. He would had remembered if people with such extraordinary abilities existed in the AD era.

So absort he was in reading the paper, that he didn't notice the door opening.

"Oh, you are awake." a male voice said behind him.

He turned to see a tall, gawky man with glasses and a receding hairline. He was carrying a tray with two coffee cups, and two beige cardboard boxes with a gold M on them.

 

Crossposted from Sufficient Velocity.

And yes; I should probably be working on my other stories, but my muse wouldn't let this one go.

Yes, I know it's been done before; that's never stopped my muse before (or fanfiction for that matter). So without further ado:

A Dimensional Stroll (Worm/MtG)

Prologue: Nowhere Near Kansas

Taylor woke with a start.

The first thing she noticed was that this was not her despoiled locker. Looking around to try and get her bearings, she noticed that she was lying on some kind of hexagonal stone pedestal or alter.

She had a moment of panic at the thought that she'd been kidnapped by some sort of cult, before noticing that there was no one else around.

She was standing in some sort of shrine, from the looks of it. There was no ceiling, and she could see the full-moon directly overhead, which illuminated where she was lying. Strangely enough, despite it being January (and apparently nighttime), the temperature was comfortable.

She coaxed her body into a sitting position, feeling surprisingly good considering the ordeal she remembered.

Looking at her surroundings, she noticed that the shrine itself was pentagonal in shape. If she had to guess, she'd say that the whole place was maybe 50 feet in diameter. Standing in front of each wall was a statue holding an orb about the size of a grapefruit, each one glowing a different color. She couldn't really make out any details from where she sat, but the statues seemed to be... calling to her, somehow.

Shaking her head, she Hopped down from the alter. She was half convinced that this was some sort of dream, and that she was still trapped in the locker. Still, a dream is better than going back to that hell. Curious, and having nothing better to do, she walked over to where the statue holding the White orb was.

As she got close, she began to make out the features of the Statue. At first she thought it was a statue of her mother as an angel (complete with the wings) and dressed in some sort of armored robe, but it was off, somehow. It wasn't until she was standing directly in front of it that she realized that it wasn't her mother's image, but hers. Older somehow, and smiling serenely at her in a way that reminded her almost painfully of her mother, and beautiful in a way she couldn't describe, but definitely herself. One arm held a shield, while the other held the orb out for her.

Behind the statue was a beautiful mural of gently rolling plains, that seemed so incredibly lifelike she almost felt that she could feel the gentle breeze coming off the field, bringing the smell of the golden grass with it.

Turning to the orb, she began to understand. The statue was offering her power. The power that this statue offered was that of protection and order, and to a lesser extent: light, equality, justice, healing, honor, peace, righteousness, and law.

Taylor couldn't help a small bitter feeling welling up inside of her (and oddly echoed from where the dark purplish orb was). Peace and justice had been denied to her for so long, yet her before her was practically the physical embodiment of her dreams of heroism. Her heart ached with mixed emotions as she looked at the softly glowing golden-white orb before her.

She forced herself to turn around and look at something else. Looking towards where the green statue was, she began making her way over to it.

The mural on this wall was a breathtaking forest, teeming with life. Taylor could almost hear the rustling of the leaves and the sounds of animals.

The statue was once again of an older version of herself, but instead of an angel, this one looked like some form of elf. Her ears were pointed in an obvious fashion, and was holding a spear in one hand, while offering the orb in the other. Her outfit seemed to be made out of animal hides sewn together, and on her face was a feral grin, full of confidence. A part of Taylor idly wished that she could have such confidence in herself.

Much like the white one, the green orb was offering her power. It offered her the power of life and nature, and with it: primal might, instinct, evolution, kinship with great beasts and plants, and the order of nature.

Taylor hadn't been out in the wild much (summer-camp that fateful year that Emma turned against her being the extent of her practical experience), but she knew enough to know that Nature was about survival of the fittest. Even with the ability to run in a pack, she wasn't sure she was comfortable with that kind of lifestyle.

Deciding to continue her circle of the room, she began making her way over to the red orb.

The mural on this wall was of a group of rugged mountains standing proud against the elements. The whole thing had a sort of energy to it, and she half expected to hear the howling of the wind as it blew through the cliffs.

As she expected, statue was her and as different as the others. This one seemed to be standing straight up, looking forward with her expression defiant. Her hair appeared to be made out of fire, and her skin was speckled with what looked like pebbles growing out of it. She was clad in light-armor that looked like it had been through it's share of battle. In her right hand appeared to be holding an orb of fire, in the other, the red orb was held out for Taylor to take.

The orb offered her freedom and chaos. It offered passion, creativity, fury, and the raw power of fire, lightning and earth. In it she saw herself free from the chains of school, free of the shackles that society had pressed upon her, free to express herself like she once did.

Taylor almost cried at the sheer amount of emotions running through her as she gazed upon the red orb. If the white orb signified everything she aspired to be, then this one was the embodiment of everything she desired to be. She once again forced herself away from the orb.

The black orb was next.

The mural on this wall appeared to be of a dark swamp, dank and dreary, but with a dark beauty to it.

The statue of her was clad in a dress that seemed to hug her curves in just the right way to give her a seductive appearance without going into the 'slutty' territory. In fact, her entire posture seemed to ooze temptation in a way that

Taylor couldn't help but envy. The only thing unusual about her appearance were the two fangs that peaked out from under her upper lip. She held the orb enticingly in one hand, while the other held a dagger that, upon closer inspection, seemed to be carved to look like a drop of something was dripping from the end.

The orb's deep-violet glow seemed to tease her. It offered her dark power, to corrupt and destroy those who would go against her, great power as long as she was willing to pay the price for it. Power enough to destroy all that would threaten her and what's hers. Power that could destroy the Endbringers themselves.

Taylor wrenched herself away from the orb and forced herself to take a number of deep breaths. Despite having 'Bad Idea' written all over it, she couldn't help but long for that power. The power to make a those who hurt her suffer, and to take what should be hers and-

Shaking her head, she forces herself to continue walking to the last orb.

The mural by the blue orb was of an idyllic island. At first glance, everything about it seemed fairly simple, but as she stared, she noticed hundreds of little details hidden in the work that the artist must have hidden in. Despite this, she could almost feel the salty wind off the ocean and the call of a gull.

Once again, the statue was of her. The difference in this one was that she appeared to have fins on her arms and legs, and upon closer inspection, had fins where her ears would be and unobtrusive gills on her neck. She was clad in a simple robe, that had been tied in such a way that it would not tangle up if she were to go swimming in it. The statue was giving a slight knowing-smile that Taylor would favorably compare to the one on the Mona Lisa. In one hand, she held a book that was slightly open, as if she'd been reading it. The other hand almost reverently offered her the blue orb.

The blue orb did not offer her power in the form of reason and trickery. It offered her knowledge, intellect, and the ability to confound and outsmart her foes. A part of Taylor couldn't help but flash back to her mother's lessons about the importance of a good eduction and the ability of humans to use our brain to solve any problem. How 'Knowledge is Power'.

Taking a step backward, Taylor turns around and begins walking back to where the alter is, as if in a trance. Sitting there on top of it were the 5 orbs, each arranged in their respective corner.

And Taylor Understood.

***

Taylor woke once again in a place she didn't recognize.

She was lying in a simple bed with rougher sheets than she was used to, the room was made out of stone, and she didn't see a lamp or light fixture anywhere. The only illumination was coming from the window.

Climbing out of bed (idly noting the simple nightgown she was in) she walked over to the window and looked around.

In her shocked state, her mind couldn't help but wander to that old quote from the Wizard of Oz.

Yes, nowhere near Kansas.

***

Author's note: for those of you wondering, she ended up in Innistrad.

Also, I really need to get a beta, one of these days.

 

Time for Tea? 0.1 (Worm/Doctor Who)

Two species occupy the world’s landmass, primitive they cluster with their own forming tentative societies. Precariously the societies teeter, conflict between the two sparking at simple matters.

Interest

Shards and hosts are selected, covertly passengers are hidden on uninhabited worlds away from hosts.

Entering the entities trail a multitude of shards as the red planet approaches, the twelfth from the systems star.

War again reigns as shards and host meet in bloody conflict, glancing at the future the entity is confused, the events unfolding are happening wrong. Radiation is increasing exponentially and the inhabitant’s biology changing rapidly as a species.

Intervene?

Nudge or with force the future predictions shifted without a visible source, corrections to the systems yielding more failure. Unchecked devastation covers the planet as lethal radiation for the inhabitants bombards the social centres, the second species has begun purposely accelerating the biological mutation, encasing their forms in metal shells. Shells build for war.

Concern

Damage to barriers to the shards worlds, only minute piercing but enough to penetrate, distracts the entity from the threat to the cycle. Death of the hosts is preferable to leaving the mystery affect unexplored.

Worry

Precedent from long ago memories, forces acting from outside the sun’s gravity well could affect it so.

Counterpart agrees.

On one and none dimensions a blue vehicle appears on the twelfth planet’s surface, bipedal dual cardiovascular the species approaches the ones who have entrapped themselves in technology. They are a technological species, turning the entity granted technology against the shard carriers.

As the blue machine disappears, the entity undoes the trap the creature had set for the hosts, residual electricity generated by the metallic city again powers the hosts.

Shaken they now look to the stars, fear of the outsiders rages in their hearts.

Satisfaction

The Daleks spread, the shards fat with information. Other races fall to the entity’s granted technology, diminished the duo cannot connect to the other species of the galaxy, however, a signal is sent calling for its fellows.

Agreement

Faint, the pair can determine the entrance of others of their kind. Tirelessly they search for the cause of the future obscuration, hints and teasing facts come from the blue and green planet. Countless invasions are repelled by the blue box.

Concern

Changes are occurring, planets and starts destroyed are whole again. Events that Entities witnessed have been scoured from the galaxy. Intervention from the precognition disturbance possibly the source. Each time the Daleks have been limited, set back by the changes in the past. As they rebound their technology grows more fierce, instead of two planets destroyed they destroyed the sun. Growing beyond what they were given, taking what they knew to new limits.

Confusion

Shards returning are older than they should be, diagnostics have them connected for centuries or millennium.

Clarity

Something is very wrong damage is propagating to the shards they are being unmade, there knowledge erased.

Confirmation

The cycle had been compromised, war raged across the galaxy nightmare made flesh consumed worlds and history whole and were themselves unmade in the blink of an eye. Entities screamed as their mass was halved a century ago, then remade as if it had never been destroyed.

Their original hosts encased in the entities technology now manipulated the very fabric of time as they waged war with Gods across time itself. Scars began to burn into history, entire species unmade, survivors fleeing through distorted Chronal doorways.

Fear

Escape

A/N: A reboot of sorts of my previous Worm/Dr who cross.

 

AN: Because why sleep when I can write?

And no, I will never let the Worm/Exalted crossovers die!

The Scourge of Brockton Bay. a Worm/Exalted Crackfic

Prologue: Freedom Lets Go

Five days ago Winslow High had been cordoned off by the PRT.

The incident had officially started when several students and teachers had reported strange harp-like music playing in the hallway before suddenly going silent. When a teacher went to check, they discovered a strange object in front of the locker of one Taylor Hebert. It appeared to be a cocoon-like object made out of hardened hair and large enough to fit a human inside.

Needless to say, the school was quickly evacuated and an investigation began. The open locker behind the cocoon was found to contain toxic waste and elements of someone struggling inside. The only student found missing was the owner of the locker itself.

For five long days, there was speculation; on the news, online, and merely word of mouth. What horrors could the cocoon contain? Would this be some sort of horrible, Crawler-esque cape that would burst forth to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting citizens of Brockton Bay? Would a new Endbringer hatch to do the same? Would any of Taylor Hebert's Humanity remain?

Finally, on the fifth day almost exactly 125 hours since its appearance, the cocoon began to crack and light began to stream out of it. The PRT guards and Assault (who had up until this point been relaxing and playing an exciting game of texas hold-em) scrambled for their foam sprayers.

As the cocoon finally gave way, there stood Taylor Hebert; nude, but looking mostly unchanged and causing the air around her to glow like some sort of demented Christmas-rave.

"Huh, well; that was a thing." She mumbled to herself as she stretched her limbs, a bit stiff from so long in one position. Looking over at the PRT troopers. "Hey guys. Um... I don't suppose anyone has some clothes I could borrow?"

The heroic troops relaxed; thinking that the danger was over.

Little did they realize that they would have likely been safer with an Endbringer.

***

An exhausted Armsmaster walked into Piggot's office late Saturday evening. "We've completed our testing of Miss Hebert's powers." He said with his usual lack of social grace; as he handed her the report. "Our Preliminary analysis is Mover 3, Brute 1, Breaker 2, Thinker 4, Striker 2, and Stranger 3."

Piggot paused in pursuing the report as Armsmaster listed the last rating to regard him with a look normally reserved for people claiming the Earth was flat and the Endbringers were merely trying to help humanity. "A Stranger rating? You want to give the girl who's glow can be seen from the other side of the city and leaves the surrounding area warped while she's doing it a Stranger rating? It took almost half an hour before her glowing subsided to the point that she was no longer visible from orbit."

"Yes ma'am. She has the abillity to almost completely negate any sound she could make and can extend it to a radius around her."

"But she glows." It should be noted that Emily Piggot wasn't normally this cranky (reputation aside) but she'd been having a particularlly tough weak due to a combination of finding out one of their wards was a vicious little psychopath (yeah, they weren't really paying attention there), her failing health, and a Korean telemarketer that would not stop calling her wherever she was. "What's the point of being silent if you glow like the fourth of July whenever you use your powers? We might as well hire ninjas wearing bright orange."

"Actually, in the proper lighting conditions an ora-" He stopped mid sentence as he noticed his boss getting a little mad. Of course, since this is Armsmaster we're talking about (the man who won the Mr. Oblivious award for 2007, 2008 and 2010 {Eidolon somehow managed to win the 2009 competition, but he'd made an amazing comeback last year}), this means that Piggot was close to triggering with the power to melt people into goo using her gaze (thankfully for Armsmaster's continued well-being, Piggot's passenger was trying to wait for the 'best possible time' to grant her his wonderful gift).

"Ahem, that is: she only glows when she uses her powers too much, and even then, she can force herself not to. It's all documented on page 37, third paragraph from the bottom."

Emily visibly took a minute to calm herself down.

Then another.

"Okay. Continue." She ordered

"Miss Hebert has the ability to run at 28 miles per hour for extended periods of time without tiring, along with the ability to run along almost any solid surface while doing so. She is also capable of jumping 12 feet into the air from a standing start and much more when running. She seems to have a natural affinity for weapons, and can use her powers to make herself super-humanly good at usuing them. She has a sixth sense for when she's about to be attacked, and while running can briefly enter a state where attacks phase right through her, although she's expressed that it takes a lot of 'energy' to do so. Finally, she's show the ability to make melee weapons disappear from her person, only to reappear when she goes to use them."

"So, a grab-bag cape themed around running?"

"For the most part, there are..." Noting the look on his boss' face again, Armsmaster decide to spare her blood-pressure by continuing on with his report. "-some changes that were made to her personality as well. Despite the year and a half of bullying, Miss hebert seems to be in surprisingly good cheer that our thinkers and my equipment believe to not be faked. She has expressed that she holds no grudge against her bullies and does not intend to demand any restitution."

Piggot boggled at that. A cape that wasn't holding a grudge? And about her trigger event? Such a thing was unheard of. "Did she have anything to say to explain her... disposition?"

"When asked, she simply gave a three-word answer that all of us believe sounds like a quote of some sort."

"Which is?"

"'Freedom lets go.'"

 

New little snip I had on SB. Crossposting here because I'm desperate for attention.

For Justice

Next>>

The service had been over for long time but I still hadn't left my seat. I was the only one still in the big attendance hall, most people left at the end of the service. I stayed though. I could feel a few bugs in the area, flies in the windows, and spiders in the vents. Distantly my power picked at that back of my head but I ignored it. There was no fight here. If there was one safe place in this city the PRT building would be it.

I shifted slightly in my seat, the dress I had for the occasion wasn't the warmest. Still I stayed. It was nice to get away from the crowds. It was almost a week since Leviathan hit Brockton Bay, and still there must have been dozens of out town heroes here. I suppose after today most will leave. The memorial won't be finished for awhile yet. Today was a way to honor the fallen heroes privately. Most of the names I hadn't heard before today, a few of the local heroes I could dimly recall. One name stood out though.

Shadow Stalker.

Sophia Hess.

My hands balled up thinking of it, a flash of something like anger flashed in my mind. Just a quickly though it vanished.
I was so spaced out that I didn't hear the footsteps until they were right next to me. Jumping slightly at the intruder I could feel my power reach out at what bugs there was to have. Forcing myself to calm down I reminded myself that I knew him. The red hair was at the very least distinct. Clockblocker, or Dennis now I tried to remind myself.

“Hey,” he greeted with a forced casualness. Out of all the Wards he was the one who hid he's issues about my betrayal.

I mumbled a greeting in return. I really wasn't up for talking. Still he seemed determined to talk.

“The others were starting to wonder where you were.” He told me as he sat down next to me. I doubt the others cared where I was. Unless they thought I was in the midst of some evil scheme.

We sat in silence for a bit, then Cloc-Dennis started up again. “What are you still doing here anyway?”

“Thinking.”

“About?”

I gave him a shrug in return. He sighed at that.

“Look I know that things have been shit after what happened, but you got to start treating us like a team. I know we're not going to be best buds but if we're gonna have each others backs you can't keep us at arms length.”

I...hadn't thought about it that way. It had been a long time since I could open up to people. Even back with the others I had to make sure to keep half of myself hidden. To maintain cover. What a joke that was.

“Whatever,” Dennis muttered starting to get up. “I tried.”

“Sophia,” I hadn't realized I said that out loud until Dennis sat back down with a questioning look on his face.

“What?”

“I knew her,” the words came slowly. “From before all this. Before I was a...a cape. We went to school. I hated her. Her and her friends would do...things to me. Made my life hell. And now I find out that whole time she was a hero. It pisses me off. To think she was like me.
Better even, because she didn't make the same mistakes. And now no one will care what she was. What she did. For the rest of the world she's going to be remembered as a hero. Someone who died to save people. I, I just can't take it. I hate more than ever. But...”

I stop, my eyes stinging. I've wrinkled my dress balling the fabric up in my hands. Dennis is openly staring. After a moment he prompts me, “but what?”.

“I keep seeing her mom and brother's face from today. How hurt they were. I know what it's like to lose someone you love. So when I think about her and I get mad, I remember that someone out there loved her and now she's gone, and how much that hurts. It makes me feel, I don't know, cold inside. Thinking that I hate someone whose dead and left people. Makes me wonder what that says about me. The kind of person I really am deep down. That I can't let this hate go.”

If you asked me later I couldn't tell you what made me spill my guts like that. It felt good. To be open like that. Still all it did was replace the ten pound weight in my stomach with a five pound one. The silence came again. It looked like Dennis was about to say something before stopping himself.

“You want to know something?” He finally asked. I nodded. “I hated her too.”

Of all the things he could have said I'd never would have thought that.

“Not as much as you, and even some of the others would have better reason to, but I did. I hated her. She was a bitch. Like big time hall of fame bitch. I hear people tell me she was this big hero, the same way they talk about Carlos or Dean. I just want to laugh at them. I want to tell them about all the times she called Chris a retard or about the times she stole Vista's stuff.” He shook his head and gave a bitter chuckle. “But it's like death wiped that away for everyone. If I said that people would think I'm the asshole. Everyone wants to act like everyone that died is some saint. Like being an asshole is fine if you go out swinging.”

Now it was my turn to stare. I never thought she'd be like that with everyone. It was almost like she didn't have an off switch. Almost like Rach-Hellhound.

“What I'm trying to say is that I don't think it's a terrible thing that you still hate her. You have every reason to. Death doesn't mean you got to forget all the shit the person piled on you. So long as you don't go piss on her grave I think you can cut yourself some slack.”

Standing up he held out his hand. “Now come on, the others are waiting.”

I could feel a small smile pull at my lips as I reached out and grabbed his hand.

 

Here is part two of the Wards Taylor idea I had. I'm not totally happy about it. Sammy is sort of hard to write for me. I can never tell if I'm making her really unlikable. If people have an opinion let me know. Oh and if this idea is any good either. I'm not sure where to go from here.

For Justice
Part 2​

<<Previous

I looked at the office door with some trepidation. I had only been part of the Wardsm for a week now, but with the non-local heroes heading back home they wanted me to be ready to patrol as soon as possible. This was supposedly the last step before I was introduced to the public as a hero. The PR office.

It was strange to think that from now on a lot of what I was going to do woud have to be run by someone else. Still it can't be helped. I chose this so I have to see it through to the end. Taking a deep breath I knock on the door.

“Come in,” a voice from inside calls. I pushed open the door I stepped into the office. The whole space was filled with clutter. The walls was covered with sketches, most of them costumes for heroes I guess. I couldn't really recognize any of them. Pushed against the wall is what looks like a desk but with the top on a big slant. There is another desk in the room, one that seemed to be far more normal looking, and seated behind the desk is one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen. Her long blond hair makes me think of Lisa, but this woman had far more make up than Lisa wore. Almost like when Emma wanted to look grown up.

“Ah the new girl,” The woman smiled. Her voice was rough and her accent marked her as someone not from Brockton Bay. “I was wondering when we'd talk. Sit we got a lot to go over.”

She gestured to a chair opposite her. Taking a seat I wondered if I was supposed to say something. I was never good at talking to people. Especially in a situation like this. The silence seemed to stretch on forever. Slowly the other woman's smile started to slide off. God I hated this.

“Heh, right I'll start,” she said after a moment. “Let's start with basics Taylor. Can I call you Taylor?”

“Umm yeah that's fine, miss...” I realized no one had ever told me her name.

“Just call me Sammy.” I nodded, normally I'm not a fan of calling adults by their first names but I wasn't about to fight. “So the basics, we got to sign off on the costume and then we can move on to the story we're going to sell. With the city the way it is I wouldn't worry about press events yet but a few announcements and an online presence will be a good first step.”

“Costume?” Fuck, that's the last thing I needed. I had put a lot of work into it, I didn't need a bunch of people making me change it. I started to form arguments in my head.

“Yeah, I like what you got. It's fucking bad ass.”

Suddenly thinking became a lot harder. I blinked wide eyed. It felt like I was walking down the stairs and missed a step. “Huh?” Was my insight.

“Oh yeah, it's some hard core shit. Real terror of the night. It's the sort of thing I've been pushing for years. You and me kid are gonna start a fucking movement.”

“How? What are you talking about?”

“Well it's like this, the guys upstairs they are all old fashion. They're all about gleaming heroes and bigger than life. Thing is no one wants that bullshit. The public ain't buying it. Turns them off. And it's making us look like dorks. Ask the average person on the street whose the coolest heroes out there and they aren't gonna name a Protectorate. It's all independents these days. You know why?” I shake my head, “it's 'cause their cool. All dark costumes and attitude and shit. It's edgy as all fuck. I've been saying that for years. We were getting places with Shadow Stalker, she had all the tools, but well with her...gone we, we don't have her to work with. So that leads to you.”

“Me?” The thought of being compared to Sophia made bile rise in my throat.

“Oh yeah we're gonna sell the shit outta you and your story.” She smiled again, this time it seemed sharper somehow.

“What story?”

“Think about it, a former villain, reformed after seeing the downfall of her city. You went one on one with a god damn Endbringer. You got balls of pure fucking steel. You fight with wasps and spiders and shit. It screams attitude. And we're going to use that. See having you get to act cool and shit means that next time one of those fuckers roll through a few more villains might sign up, switch sides, and it might make a few problem kids who trigger think that being on our side can't be all bad.”

I cringed inwardly, I could see her point, but I don't know if I wanted to be held up as some role model. My story was hardly an impressive one, and I couldn't see myself being the person all the cool kids wanted to be. “You said something about my costume.”

“Right, sorry got off track. What you got works great, your file says it's home made, with spider silk.” I nodded feeling a bit of pride at her impressed tone. “It's great, even bullet proof which means we don't have to add in anything to meet the minimum safety standard for non-brutes. There are a few minor changes. Nothing major. Some of it is mine but some of it comes from on high.”

“First, we're gonna add some more carrying capacity. I'll kit you out with some belts once we get done here. Then it's a matter of finding what you'll need in a fight. With the...loss of the Wards' heavy hitters we got to look at keeping the rest of yous from getting fucked up due to lack of fire power. One thing though, we got to 86 the knife. Policy is that The Protectorate members avoid carrying lethal weapons. Now I think that's a crock of bullshit, but it's not my department.”

I silently agreed. It made some sense that they didn't want heroes running around armed to the teeth, but that knife saved my life a few times. Maybe I could think of something. I doubted anyone was in a position to care right now.

'I can just say I was getting into character if they catch me.' I almost giggled at the thought. Sammy shot me a smile like we were sharing a private little joke. I wondered if I was that that easy to read.

“Now on to the bad part. We got to redye your uniform,” She scrunched her face up in exaggerated disgust. “I wanted to keep it, or failing that my idea was fire engine red for the silk, and black for the armor sections.”

“My boss said no, 'It's got to be softer Samantha.'” Her voice took on a nasally quality, like she was mocking someone “'think earth tones. Greens and Browns, greens and browns.' So that's the plan. Forest green for the silk, dark brown for the armor. Keep it in the theme.”

Part of me wanted to protest. I knew deep down it didn't matter, it was just a color scheme. Still some part of me hated the concept. Felt like it wouldn't be me anymore. Then another thought came to me.

“Do I get to keep being Skitter?”

“Hmm?”

“Do I get to keep the name? Or will I have to change it?”

“That's up to you.”

“Me?”

“Normally we give reformers like you new names, new outfits, the whole shebang. With you we're thinking of a new direction. Unless you don't want that. Right now it'd be hard to hide who you were. But in a few months we can transfer you out, let you start fresh.”

“N-no I want to stay Skitter. It's, it's who I am.”

“Good, see here's the plan for us. We're losing the numbers game to villains. A lot of them are screwed up kids that make a few bad choices and soon they only see a way down. You're going to show them there is a way up. People are already talking about what you did in that shelter. We ride that momentum, show people that they can still be heroes no matter their past. You make for a good role model. No really big dust ups, no big crimes. A bank robbery and that shit with the mayor's ball seems like kids stuff. You helped to take down the ABB on that cluster fuck.”

I couldn't help but snort at that. Sammy raised her eyebrow.

“Sorry,” I told her embarrassed. “It's just, well, we didn't exactly make the papers with that.”

“Yeah well,” for the first time the woman's confidence seemed fade, but in a moment it was back. “I could go over the cost benefit analysis of giving villains press with you if you want. It's actually very fascinating research, but the fact is that more often than not when the gangs get into a big ass brawl like that it's mostly about territory. Sure they might make some effort to dress it up but at the end of the day it's about driving out trouble makers and splitting the spoils between the remainder. When small timers like you are involved? Well things fall into the cracks.”

That seemed like a convenient excuse, but I didn't feel like arguing. It didn't matter now anyway. From the sound of things I'd be on the news a lot.

“Look I know this sounds like it's going to be a lot but don't worry me and my team will be behind you all the way.” Sammy reassured me, or tried to anyway. “Tell you what how about we get out of here, get your stuff and I'll take you down to the armory. We can find you some new toys for your gear.”

“That sounds alright,” I said. “I've got a few ideas for what I might need.”

“Fucking A.” She said standing and heading toward the door. I wonder if it would be rude to ask about all the swearing.

 

Never saw Lost.

Just for you:

"Samantha we need to talk." A voice came over Sammy's computer speakers.

"Dragon? You're not part of my department." They only spoke once or twice when the Tinker was involved with an online marketing plan a few years back.

"I need you to stop hitting on Colin."

"I hit on all the guys. You and HR are just over reacting."

"I mean it. Stop or else I'll need to take drastic action." A burst of static signeled her sign off.

Sammy leaned back in her chair. A familar pull in her mind told her of another call.

'Hello Mother,' She thought.

'How goes progress my child' The Simurgh's did not talk so much in words as concepts. Samantha was perhaps the only creature on Earth that could understand it.

'Slow. He has proven resitant to my efforts.' Few men turned her down. While she was made for one man she found coupling to be far better than she anticipated. The boy called Aegis so far had proven to be the most delightful.

'He will give in. It is their nature to give in to weakness. And when he does I will be free to take the AI and show her pleasure greater than any human ever could.'

'Somebody's jealous.'

'I'M NOT FUCKING JEALOUS!'

Sammy clutched her now aching head as she felt her mother's touch fade.

"Tch, bitch."

 

Welcome to Canberra
---
"Hebert, Taylor?" A man with a deep voice called out.

I started at the sound of my name. I hadn't heard it almost two weeks. I'd gotten so used to being called case double-oh-four-four-eight-six that my own name held a slightly alien quality. "Here! Err, I mean, that's me." I said standing up from my spot in the new arrivals section.

"No need to be nervous," He said with a slight laugh. I smiled, but my eyes were automatically drawn to the small scar in the center of his forehead, just at the hairline. As soon as I realized I was looking I dropped my eyes and hoped he hadn't noticed. To my surprise he clapped me on the back and started walking away. I hurried to catch up. "We're heading to the Faretti Dorms, north side of town a bit out in the suburbs but we've got a mall only a quarter-mile away. You'll love it."

"Is that where all of the 'orphans' go?" I asked. I tried not to stress the term orphan too much. It hadn't really sunk in yet, the separation was too new.

"Not all, but it is a facility set aside for us. It's where I landed when I first got here back in oh-nine, now I work there. I'm Brian, by the way." He introduced himself with a charming smile. Only now did I notice just how hot he was; dark skinned and deliciously muscled. "You're not our first resident from Brockton Bay, not by a long shot. Faretti gets a lot of people from the New England Area. Not all, but a lot."

Before I realized what was happening we'd made it out to a jeep parked on the wrong side of the road. 'No, not the wrong side. Just a different side.' I reminded myself.

"We've only got a few rules at the dorms," Brian started again after we'd gotten on the road. "The first is no alcohol or drugs on the premises. That's just how it is. Second, if your going to be sleeping out for more than a few days give the super a call and give them heads up. We've had missing persons over for false alarms before, trust me that's fun for exactly nobody. Third, we take our occupants right to privacy very seriously. If you get caught spreading tales about the private lives of your dorm mates that can be grounds for your eviction."

I nodded and stared out the window. I wasn't sure what I was expecting really, broken buildings and raging cape battles was just silly. Still the view was just so... normal. Maybe there was only about a fifth of the traffic, foot and car, that a city this size should have, but otherwise it really could have been almost anywhere. Well almost anywhere that also had a massive tinker-tech dome for a sky.

After a few minutes of silence Brian switched on the radio.

"In a speech before the parliament this evening in Sydney, Prime Minister Albert defended his continuing support of the Canberra Initiative."

"I have received criticism time and again for the spending our nation has put forth on this initiative. Gentlemen I find this unacceptable. In the time since the initiative began there has not been even a single instance of an Endbringer attack. Need I remind you that we are a nation surrounded by the sea? Every year our harbors remain safe is a year proving the value of this Initiative. Every shipping vessel that makes port in our harbors is all of our costs paid in full! Indeed to what end do we collect the taxes of our people if not to pay for Initiatives like this and ensure their safety!"

He turned it back off again. "Sorry, I'm usually not driving this time of day. They have a killer morning show though."

"No, it's... It's okay," I replied, trying to mean it. "I mean they're talking about the safety of entire cities..." I trailed off for a bit but I could see I still had as much attention as Brian could spare from his driving. "I dreamed of being a hero when I was kid. Like Alexandria, you know? I guess... I guess if I look at this like that. Maybe I'm still being a hero..."

Brian was quiet for a long while. "I don't think you need powers to be a hero, Taylor. There are plenty of people around here who had powers and... Well it didn't change them for the better, that's for sure." He shrugged, "Just try and keep that feeling, we're all grasping in the dark a bit here." He chuckled a bit at the end, but it felt self-deprecating. I didn't really get what he found worth chuckling at but shrugged it off.

When they finally pulled up in front of a large building with a plaque reading 'Faretti Dorms' by the front door they weren't quite alone. There were three people, all teenage girls and two were clearly shouting at each other. The shouting pair were a freckle faced brunette that I would have thought largely forgettable if not for the rainbow flag tattooed on her neck and a statuesque blond wearing all white, she'd have been rather pretty if she weren't red faced from yelling. Standing awkwardly to one side was a platinum blond girl who seemed rather shy and retiring who physically flinched every time the other blond shouted. "Ah hell, it's Vicky again. Wait here a moment." Brian told me and practically jumped out of the car.

"--Abandoned you're family!"

"I needed space you mind-fucking bit--"

And then the Brian's door shut and I couldn't hear anymore. I watched as Brian interposed himself between the girls, mostly facing Vicky. It didn't take words to understand his message, 'Go home.' It took a long and tense few minutes but finally the taller blond relented. She didn't go without parting words however and they seemed to strike the platinum blond particularly hard. Brian came back to the car while the brunette held the shy girl close and presumably whispered something comforting to her.

"Sorry about that. Not the best first impression, I know, but Victoria's always been a bit of a force of nature," Brian tried to explain.

"Victoria? As in Dallon? Well I guess that makes sense. I mean I'm from the bay and at least when she was Glory Girl she was kind of always that way," I brushed it off as I got out of the jeep. Suddenly back out in the real world again I felt the need to hug my backpack and what little remained of my worldly possessions tight to my chest.

"Hi," The brunette's voice surprised me since I'd missed her approaching. "I'm Amy, you probably heard of me as Panacea. This is my girlfriend Elle, we're going to be your across the hall neighbors so we thought we'd say hi and help you get situated. Unfortunately Vicky decided to make today the day for her bi-weekly bitch-fest, so I guess our chance a good first impression is down the drain. Just... If you ever see her hanging around, call Brian or the Super. Or the cops. We're working on a restraining order but the lawyer in the family didn't exactly side with us so..."

I nodded, "I kind of get it I guess. My best friend's dad is a lawyer so if we ever wound up enemies for some reason..." I trailed off as I realized what I was saying. I reached up to wipe away the wetness that had suddenly developed in my eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I'm such a spaz. I mean do we even count as best friends anymo--" I couldn't even finish the sentence before I completely devolved into sobs. Surprisingly it was Elle who caught me in a light hug and helped me up the stairs. Soon I was in an unfamiliar room maybe a bit smaller than my room back home and lying down on a comfortable but unfamiliar bed. It was then that I learned true kindness is a stranger helping you take your shoes off as they put you to bed during a total breakdown.

"It'll be easier tomorrow, you'll see. Just one day at a time. One day at a time," Elle's soft voice reassured me as I finally drifted into off into a fitful sleep.

---

Spoiler: Idea Summary

Scion suddenly disappears in 2008. Thinkers no longer predict the end of the world in any time frame less than a million years. Cauldron flips their shit and makes a ton of backroom deals to burn their current secret identity and act to monopolize the production of heroes. However it's confirmed natural shards are still triggering and still driven to conflict. Bonesaw triggers and the end of the world comes back to under a decade.

Intent on solving the problem once and for all they begin a program of lobotomizing natural triggers, with the exception of a select few considered too influential to remove, i.e. Dragon. However this only works temporarily and then the power returns completely out of control. Working fast they modify the dome over Canberra to block the signals from shards and then start dumping their newly lobotomized parahumans there.

Now all of the natural triggers in the world are lobotomized and gathered at Canberra where they do the only thing they can do, live their lives.

What could possibly go wrong?

 

Just an idea that came to me. Will link other parts later. Too tired now.

For Justice part 3
​

'This is awkward' I squirmed in my seat. Across from me Glory Girl held her gaze steady. I could feel the heat of her stare even as I tried to focus on the video in front of me. Judging by the other looks in the room everyone found our one sided staring contest far more interesting than the tape. A few more minutes of nervous fidgeting later and the lecture concluded. I stood quickly and marched out of the room stiffly.

As I hurried down the hall I heard another set of foot steps following close behind. Swallowing my nervous feelings I turned and locked eyes with Glory Girl. I did my best to stand up straight and hold my chin up. If she wanted to fight, fine, I wasn't about to spend the rest of my life ducking at her shadow. I had enough of that in one lifetime. She drew up close, trying to make me back away. I stood my ground.

“I know what you're doing.” She told me.

“I was going to pick up my costume. I have patrol in a few minutes.” If she was going to try and mess with me I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of playing along.

“You know what I mean.” She accused glaring hard at me.

“I do?” Honestly I really only had a vague idea.

“Yes, you do.” She poked me hard in the chest. “People don't change. Especially not people like you. You may have gotten everyone else to play along but not me.”

“People like me?” I was actually getting lost at this point.

“Villains. Bad guys.” She said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Evil people don't just stop and become good people.”

“Evil?” I almost laughed, “I'm not evil. I may not be perfect, but who is?”

“You stole, you hurt innocent people, and you and your little gang attacked heroes. Real heroes. That sounds pretty evil to me.”

“I had my reasons,” I said in my defence.

“Your kind always does. Reasons, excuses, one dumb defence or another. It doesn't make what you did any better.” Scorn dripped from her tone.

“I admit it. I've made mistakes. I've done things I'm not proud of, but I've done things I am proud of. It's not always simple black and white.”

“And sometimes it is. There is right and there is wrong, and the difference between the two isn't hard to figure out.”

“I know that,” Now I was getting angry, I didn't need someone like her judging me. “I realize that I got a lot to make up for. That's why I'm here, fixing things.”

“Oh yeah I've heard all about you little 'redemption' plan.” She actually used finger quotes for the word redemption. “That's not justice. That's you escaping punishment. God they aren't even trying to hide it. They may as well give a free ride to every two bit punk who says sorry.”

“Sammy thinks it will encourage-”

“That Slut?” She snorted, “you would get along with her.”

“Hey!” Then I really got pissed. I can take insults, especially from the likes of her, but I wasn't going to let her tear down someone that wasn't here to defend themselves “Don't talk like that.”

“God damn, do you even know what that bitch is like? No, of course you wouldn't. When she's not ranting about being all edgy, her favorite pass time is getting too drunk to walk. That's not even getting into what she is like around the guys. Do you know how many times I caught her sniffing around Dean? All the times she had to 'refit his costume'? Or the way she was always touching him in public? He was 17! She's over 40! That's sick, but I guess to you it's one of those not so simple things, huh?”

I paused before answering, I couldn't believe that was the whole story. Would the PRT really keep her working if she was some kind of pervert? There had to be more to it. “I didn't know about any of that. How can you say I agree with that if I never knew about it?”

“Whatever,” She dismissed me with a shake of her head. “You're not worth the fight. Just tell me this, have you ever done anything to make up for your shit? Really do something? Not just patrol, not just do the bare minimum of helping. Something important?”

“I-” part of me wanted to tell her about Dinah. Tell her about the plan to save her, but I couldn't. 'Trust no one, tell no one.' Armsmaster ordered me, I wouldn't break that trust now. I wasn't going to let pride ruin everything. I didn't need Glory Girl's respect. Saving that little girl was more important than trying to be liked. So I held my tongue.

When I didn't answer Glory Girl smirked, “that's what I thought.”

With that she started to walk away, and I noticed something I hadn't before. I was taller than her. She tried to hide it but even in heels her eyes were level with my nose. It was a small thing but I latched on to it. She wasn't some goddess, or some paragon of virtue like she tried to act. She was just another person, a 17 year old girl, and she was shorter than me.

As she walked away Dennis passed her and they had a few words that I couldn't make out. Than Dennis started to walk up to me. I still wasn't allowed to go out alone, so he was my escort today.

“Hey,” he seemed nervous, I didn't know if he was always like that or if it was me.

“Hi,” I greeted back turning to head to the locker room. Dennis followed falling into pace next to me.

“So...” He started, breaking the silence, “I saw you talking to Victoria. Anything interesting?”

I just grunted in return. Of all the things that little spat was, interesting wasn't one of them.

“Yeah that was what she said too. You remember that thing I said about teams needing to trust each other?”

“She hates me,” I told him. They all did really. One way or another.

“I don't think she hates you. She's been through a lot. That's all.” I couldn't tell if he was lying to cheer me up or was that blind.

“No, she hates me. You all do.” I held up a hand before he could say anything. “Don't lie, I'm used to people hating me. I know what it's like.”

Dennis sighed, then ran a hand through his hair. “Look, I can only speak about me here, but I don't hate you. I don't like you, and I really don't trust you, but I don't hate you.”

“Well at least you're honest.” I said sarcastically. It was a little refreshing, I could deal with everyone hating me. It was the pretending like we were all friends that bothered me. I knew a lie when I saw one.

“It's not like you make it easy. You never talk unless someone talks too you. You never ask anyone about life, never act like you care about us. If you act like you don't belong then you'll never belong. My dad always said that. I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, even try to forget some of the shit in the past. All I ask is that you try to make friends. Deal?”

He held out his hand to shake. I looked at it trying to think of the trick. He could always freeze me when I touch him, or maybe the Wards would fake being my friends then laugh behind my back. Or, or, or maybe he was trying to be nice. Could I trust that? I didn't know if I had it in me. It hurt to much to hope anymore. Still, if it wasn't a lie, then could I really say no? I looked back at his face looking for the give away that it was some joke, and saw nothing. I would let myself hope, one last time, I reached out and shook. He gave me a small smile.

“For a second I thought you weren't going to shake it. That would have made me look like a total jack ass.”

“For a second I thought that you would freeze me.” I told him. Best get used to the idea of being honest. I was getting sick of always hiding something. If I was going to be a hero I would make myself be brave.

“Oh? Nah, that would ruin this whole moment thing I was hoping for. 'Sides if I was looking to get even I'd have to think of something so much more fucked up. N-not that I am or anything just you know.” He trailed off turning to look away.

“Get even?” I asked. 'I knew it wouldn't be easy.'

“For the bank,” I must have given him a look because he continued. “You know cockroaches in the mouth and ears and things. I still get nightmares.”

“Oh! Oh man, I-I didn't realize.” I started to panic. I remember that now. Why hadn't he mentioned it before? “I would have said something a lot earlier. I'm so sorry. I just needed to stop you. I-”

He put a hand on my shoulder. “Relax, really, if you asked me two weeks ago I'd say it was in like the top three worst things I've had to deal with. Now...now it wouldn't make the top ten.”

Dennis looked away, staring off not really seeing anything. I knew what he was talking about. I thought the city was bad before Leviathan hit. Now it was like trying to put out a fire with a water pistol, and someone kept stealing your water bucket. The merchants were the worst, but with Weld here Armsmaster said we can start to really work to take them down.

“Still,” I said. “I am sorry. I know it's not much but it's what I got.”

“Well, it's not nothing. Just send me a film of the next time you take down a bunch of rapist assholes with a swarm of hornets and we'll call it square.”

“Sounds fair,” I told him before the silence fell again as we headed down the hall. This time it was a lot less tense. Even nice, strangely.

We stayed quiet until we reached the locker areas. I had only been able to patrol for the last week or so, my costume took awhile to dye just right. It drove me nuts not to be out there helping. Even working as dispatch didn't make me feel like I was making an impact. When I wasn't on duty I did what I could to take care of a lot of the pest issues that had popped up in the wake of Leviathan. Still now with my costume ready I was out on the street as much as I could be.

Thinking about my costume reminded me of something else Glory Girl had said. Turning to Dennis I thought about how to phrase it. If I said something wrong I didn't want it to get back to Sammy. If Glory Girl was just trying to be a bitch I didn't need to have the PR rep think I was listening to rumors.

“Hey, uh Dennis?” 'Smooth start so far' I chided myself.

“Yeah?”

“Um I was wondering something about Miss Hendrickson.”

“Sammy? If it's about the swearing, no she never stops. If it's about all the pouches she wants you to carry you can just tell her about it being hard to to fight in and she take some off. Poor Vista was half belt before she put her foot down.”

“No, it's not that. It's just, well Glory Girl said something about her coming on to Dean.”

“Oh, that.” Now he was the one that seemed nervous. “She's like that with most of the guys. I don't think she really means anything by it. It's just how she is. You should see her around the full Protectorate members. I almost think Armsy thought about getting a spray bottle just for when he has to talk to her. I don't mind really. Dean never did either, I think. Bothered Victoria a lot, but she didn't need to be jealous. Dean was really into her.”

It still seemed sketchy in my mind, but who was I to argue? He'd know better than I would. Giving Dennis a smile, I headed into the locker room and quickly pulled out my costume. Laying out the body suit and all the new additions I had to admit, it was a lot of pouches.

 

Heaven, Hell and Everything In-Between

Spoiler: image

Image from very early concept art for Bayonetta. Colette is based off the middle figure. Kathrine is based off the first figure.

"ABOMINATION!" Ramiel wheezed out as neon blue blood seeped into her lungs and out across the scorched dirt.

"I am what you made me, bitch." Colette said as she swaggered towards the fallen angel. Well fallen in the more literal sense. Somehow the bitch still held Heaven's favor. Wasn't that just a cherry on top of the bullshit-pie.

"We needed PE-" Ramiel choked on the very word she'd attempted to roar.

"Right, you and your false peace. Well, here I am. I am the results of your peace. Are you impressed now!?" Colette replied.

"Kaziel--" Ramiel's words were cut off by another bullet of light entering her gut.

"NEVER CALL ME THAT NAME!" Colette roared. "She's dead because of you! The Angel of Innocence, sent off to be raised by succubi! No! No... That name no longer has any meaning."

Ramiel tried to speak but choked on her blood. Instead she just glared at her killer with eyes filled with hate.

"Well, since you aren't much longer for this life I'll let you in on a little secret. This war you've started with your empty words and false peace, I'm not joining it. So you won't have to worry about me gunning down your sisters or anything like that. I'll be gone and you can have your bloodshed. So much I hope they all choke on it." Colette finished with a growl. "You know about that, now, don't you. Choking. It must be so hard getting from one breath to the next--"

She was interrupted when a bullet of light smashed into the angel's temple and their head exploded like an overripe melon. Her eyes blinked as she turned to the interloper. "Did you have to do that, I was having fun!"

"It was merciful." The new woman stated quietly. They were a study in contrasts, Colette's blond hair and open disposition to the others dark hair which hid most of her face. Colette wore eye catching patterns and a giant golden buckle on her gun-belt. Her opposite wore solid, dark colors and had only the glove locking in her entire left arm as ostentatious accessory.

"Yeah, yeah. Come on Kathrine, one last kiss before we blow this joint?" Colette asked her companion. The Devil raised by Heaven didn't reply with words but instead covered the distance between them in a quick hop and gave her a searing kiss. Neither much minded as they moved from mere kissing to heavy petting. It was only reluctantly that Colette broke the kiss. "Time to go, babe."

The Angel raised in Hell mimed pulling at her lips and a soft pink glow followed her fingers. She flung them out and a doorway shaped like a heart formed a few meters away from them. "I found a loophole to finally get us out of here. I just needed to aim for somewhere that could accurately be described as 'Hell on Earth'! And then filtered for places we won't be attacked the instant we step through the doorway of course. Everyone knows war is hell, but I've no interest in walking into one."

Kathrine nodded to her and held out her hand. Colette smiled and grabbed the offered hand in a grip that would have crushed a mere mortal's hand, the only outward sign of her nerves. Each took a deep breath and then they walked, together, through the doorway to their new life.

---

Taylor Hebert shivered uncontrollably as the temperature in the locker dropped. Without the active heating available during the school day the New England winter's chill was starting to seep into the school itself. She was already feeling tried and encrusted where she wasn't outright slimy. Thinking on it just made her shiver harder.

Suddenly she heard the sounds of boots tapping on the floor. "High school. Really, I should have expected this." A feminine voice stated in a cultured tone. "Ugh, what is that stench? I had expected freedom to smell sweeter."

"Your freedom, someone else's hell. Or have you already forgotten." The rebuke was soft but cut through the air like the words of a player on a stage.

She tried to scream out for help, but she'd already driven herself hoarse. Instead she merely rasped in a way that made her throat burn and weekly fumbled against the door.

"Did you hear that?" The cultured voice asked.

"Of course. Perhaps another suffers still." The soft voice replied. Only a single set of boots sounded against the floor, yet she saw two shadows pause in front of the slats of her locker. "NOT with the gun. You'll cause damage where it is not due. Honestly, have some delicacy."

The fingers of a gloved hand slid through the metal of her locker like it was nothing and tore out the locking mechanism entirely. "Delicacy is for the pleasure of maidens. I prefer to get things done!" Taylor fell forwards against the suddenly open air and was barely caught in the arms of a darkly clothed woman. "Ugh, more stench. How delightful."

"Your words are unnecessary and cruel, Colette. Be silent for a time, lest I find it needful to cure your voice of it's bite." The dark clothed woman said with her same soft strength. "Try not to flinch, my lamb, though it may appear terrifying it shall not burn."

Taylor was confused by her warning until she found herself consumed in a blue-white flame. She squirmed at first against the woman's strong hold, but then she realized that she honestly couldn't feel it beyond a comforting warmth that seeped into her skin. Soon the flames passed leaving only a faint scent of ash and sulfur but none of the mess she'd been trapped in for so long. In fact she'd never felt so clean.

"There, little lamb. You're safe now. Colette, repair the damage then we can get this little lamb home." The dark clothed woman said. Taylor felt the word 'safe' in her very bones and broke down crying in the woman's arms.

"Aww, but... Okay. But you owe me kisses later, Kathrine, deep, passionate, toe curling kisses!" Colette replied and then blew a kiss at the locker which suddenly cleaned and repaired itself as though hit by one of those repairing spells in Harry Potter.

"When the lamb is safe in bed, you hound. Now, little lamb, focus on home. The word, the concept, feel it in your very bones." Kathrine instructed her. "Good. Now we can go."

Once again the blue-white fire flared up. But this time when it disappeared all three of them were standing in her living room. They were not alone.

"Taylor!" Her dad, Danny, practically leaped towards them but then stopped warily as he noticed both of the strangers with his daughter were armed. Taylor released her death grip on Kathrine and instead practically tackled her father as she sobbed into his chest allowing him to finally relax a bit.

"I believe her throat may be injured somewhat. It would be best if you waited for the morning to ask after what events transpired. We know only that we found her trapped in a locker along with what can only be described as the vilest of filth." Kathrine stated in her soft, clear voice. "Now that we have that taken care of. I believe we shall take our leave."

Taylor suddenly felt a spike of panic. They were leaving. She hadn't even thanked them or anything. With a twist she shifted position so she could reach out towards them. Kathrine smiled and took her hand, rubbing against it comfortingly. Even Colette grabbed her finger tips and laid a suave kiss on Taylor's knuckles. "Charming as it was, we really must leave," Colette stated with a wry grin.

'I wish they'd never leave,' Taylor thought with surprising yearning. A pink spark from Colette and a blue-white spark from Kathrine suddenly jumped from their hands to hers. In an instant pink and white runes covered her entire left arm from finger-tip to shoulder leaving only a single circle empty of runes. Within that circle three naked figures were intertwined, though more iconic it was easy to tell that it was Taylor standing in the center with Kathrine, though horned and with demon wings holding her close while Colette with a halo and angel wings hung off her in very suggestive pose.

All four people in the room stared at the arm in varying states of shock and wonder.

Finally Colette broke the silence. "Balls."

 

Hum, still need to work on getting prompts done faster. Cross-posted from SB.

All Stations Passed
***​

She woke up to the sound of a whispering voice.

"Panacea, Panacea. Amy, wake up!"

"Um...What?" Opening her eyes was difficult as if she had slept for too long, and her arms were so tired that she couldn't wave off her interloper.

"We. Have. A. Problem." The voice seemed close, unfamiliar as she couldn't recognize it. Familiar bipping noises however started ringing from machines around the room and Amy forced herself awake.

"Hospital? I've someone to heal again?"

"We wouldn't be in the beds, then." Ugh. Too much light from the windows. Amy blinked away at the light, her arms refusing to budge and bring up the covers. She had to settle for turning her head away from the light, and took that opportunity to look at her neighbor. She didn't recognize the other girl, the stern eyes that stared half-blankly ahead, the far too long curvy hair, the pale face unused to working out. She did recognize her tone and whom recently had used it.

"Weaver?" Oh God, she was in the same room as the brainwashing Scion-killer. Who was the dump jerkass responsible for room assignment? Beside which, wasn't Weaver dead? She wasn't sane the last time either! Then again, Amy realized she was within Weaver all controlling range and nothing was going wrong.

The door slammed open and a nurse walked inside, distracting both Amy and the other girl.

"You're awake!" The sheer surprise in the woman's voice made Amy even more confused. Okay, she could guess that an accident had happened and she couldn't recall it right now. But why was Skitter beside her? Why was a nurse she knew was dead greeting them? "Thank Scion, we had lost hope."

"Sa...mantha?" The woman seemed to positively brighten at the recognition. It didn't make Amy less confused and she realized that like Skit...Weaver, she was having trouble talking.

"Hush dear. Don't force yourself, you really need to rest." Samantha thankfully shut down the beeping machines.
"Amy." The girl startled as she suddenly found the unmasked face of Weaver close enough from their linked bed's separation for Weaver's head to fall from her pillow. "Doctor is coming. Listen, don't... speak."

As if on cue a man in a white robe steeped inside the room along with a couple others members of the staff.

"Panacea... and miss Hebert. It's pleasure to see you back among the living. You've been missed." The words were clearly more directed toward Amy, but that only further confused the girl. Why her cape's name but Weaver's civilian one? Why wasn't there a PRT's squad or a single cape guarding the place? If she herself didn't deserve it, Weaver certainly merited one!

"What happened?" Amy asked, uncaring that Weaver bristled behind her. She needed information!

"Ah. Well-" The doctor paused from checking over her, he put on gloves before turning toward Weaver and seemed to need to gather his memories. "Miss Hebert was brought in comatose after an... incident at her school, I don't recall the specifics out of hand. You were called to look at her situation by the Protectorate, but soon after you touched her you went into a similar coma and have been ever since. Do you remember it?"

"I-" Amy did, the event was in her mind clashing with the rest of her memories. She remembered herself reaching for an unknown 'Taylor Hebert' who looked different and that she had never, but she had met Weaver before. "I do."
"Good." He turned toward Weaver who also nodded. "Your families are being warned as we speak. Miss Hebert's father should be here soon, and I'm sure your sister will fly there at full speed."

Her sister? She had to have misheard that. Amy started to ask for a confirmation, any confirmation, when Weaver spoke.

"How long?" Weaver's tone broke no deal, was filled with an undercurrent of tension, an uncertainty. Amy still almost snapped at her, hesitating only because she was fairly sure that Weaver imperative tone was meant for her. Going against the will of the Scion-killer momentarily stopped her, then she saw the Doctor's face twisting hesitatingly along with the nurse. A hint of dread started to build up alongside sudden hope.

"We're in 2013, twenty-fourth of June to be precise." Weaver didn't react noticeably, didn't seem shocked like Amy was. The twenty-fourth of June, today, the same day that they fought Scion. The doctor moved his hands in an attempt to reassure them. "Over two years, yes. That's why you need to stay in bed, your muscles are atrophied. Still you're remarkably aware for people who... slept for so long, that's a good sign."

"Any reason we're in the same room?" Weaver asked and Amy couldn't believe how much steel there was in damned Skitter... then she realized that was silly, Weaver's told her multiple times something was up. The girl's bugs probably gathered much more information than Amy currently had. Also... that was a good question, the Doctor looked really troubled by it.

"I am not sure if that's my place to say, but in favor of your two safety... Every-time we took a comatose Panacea eighteen feet away from miss Hebert, Miss Dallon lifesigns crashed. Hopefully this is no longer the case, but until that's certain I'd like you two to remain together."

Amy couldn't help but glance toward Weaver who returned a meaningful gaze. Eighteen feet, the range of Weaver's mental control after Amy altered her power during the battle against Scion. Seriously? There was no chance at all this was a coincidence! Weaver certainly seemed to agree.

"Amy! You're finally awake!" Then Victoria Dallon flew from the door at her and Amy was momentarily stunned as the form of her sister started to embrace her before carefully staying a distance away, probably saving her from a literal bone-crushing hug. Alive, not quite as Amy remembered her. Glory Girl looked older, more than two years by her -absurd, it was Victoria! childishness incarnate!- more mature posture. The costume had changed too. Still, beyond the fact that her sister was somehow alive and apparently not trying to kill or kiss her, Amy could only notice a single thing.

"Since when are you married?" Amy Dallon asked as she stared at the golden ring on her sister's hand.

*****

Spoiler: Prompt idea

Taylor and Amy lived through canon events to the end, then woke up from coma two years after Taylor Hebert triggered and Panacea went comatose trying to heal her.

 

Yet another experimental ficlette that started as one thing then just kinda went off into I don't even know. I'm not sure if this still even counts as Worm...

The Star Child

Steel, glass, and stone, ever growing, ever toiling, ever in motion without a moments rest. The city by the sea and the pearl of the bay that rested on the chilled shores of the north. In it's youth and still reaching and lengthening it's stride. It shined as a beacon and it's warmth filled the hearts of those who called it home as they made their way through their days.

In the cold foggy morn one winters day worked the man. Tall and strong, he held an inner heat that could not be extinguished, one that only burned far brighter in the city. Toiling away on the ships that rested at the dock that was the cities soul and hearth. He worked to keep that fire burning and the city alive. His effort repaid in the satisfaction of it's own achievement.

But while his body labored his heart was elsewhere. In city, in his home, his heart was with his wife. A woman of quiet beauty whom he loved more than anything else. A love that was repaid in kind. He was a man who was blessed, but he could not help but feel a void, one his wife too had noticed. For all the love they held there was still one final piece that could not be filled. A piece reserved for their child who would never be.

A sad smile came to the mans face. His heart ached, the wound still fresh. But the man went back to his toiling, eager to ignore and forget the twice cutting pain. But the day eventually ended as they tend to do, and the melancholy was delayed no more. With a sigh the man began his journey back to his home for the night. A smile came again to his lips, both sad and sweet at the thought of returning to his wife.

But his thoughts were soon cut short. The man came to a halt as he felt his eyes drawn towards the heavens and from the sky came a soft light, the same warm gold as the sun. His sight followed as it descended from the sky into the nearby woods. The man, about to turn and make his leave, halted his step as he felt a gentle tug upon his heart. He turned back to the woods, having known better than to enter but felt so strongly the need to enter. He shook with a fear that he could not identify and indecision, unsure to continue or flee.

After a time he could not track he had come to his decision. Jaw squared he gulped and left his vehicle for the unknown, lead by the still heart. He wondered seemingly lost, traveling a twisting path in the dark with no means of orientation. He jumped at every sound and felt as if his heart were to burst. But the man did not flee. He wondered until his legs grew to feel like lead but he did not rest. He wandered for such a time that the moon hung high in the night sky but he continued without heed. And there he found his destination.

A gentle glow came from deeper in the woods, and with what felt the last of his strength the man pressed on past the hindering overgrowth. In the center of the woodland he came upon a clearing and in the clearing carried in the moon's gentle glow was a babe. Heedless the man walked forward and knelt beside the child still being held in the embrace of the moonbeam. The child's only protection was a single blanket wrapped around it, a piece of the night sky cut free to shield away the chill. And as the man moved to hold her the moonbeam moved in kind to allow him. With the child gently resting in his arms the moonbeam retreated skywards towards it's own home.

As the man gazed onto the sleeping babe's face he felt a warmth overtake him, his fatigue gone. And as he brushed his hand upon hers she reached out with her own, and in that moment the emptiness that had lingered was gone.

With a smile the man stood, holding the baby close, and once again began his trek home.

----------

I might continue this, probably not. I saw this youtube vid and started writing because of the feels. Those feels man...

 

Unbeta'd, fresh off the presses, and probably in need of serious work, but I present to you...

Embrace of Steel
A Fate/Stay Night inspired Worm AU

---

Chapter One

Taylor Hebert was caught, with no retreat in sight. She had underestimated the opposing forces motivation, and was now mired in an untenable situation.

Emma had called, and was now chattering on to Taylor about fashion.

“Taylor, you ready?” called the voice of a savior, echoing up the stairwell of the Hebert house.

Taylor stuck her head out of her room and called back, “Just a minute Mom!”, then popped back into her room to end her friend’s seemingly endless parade of opinions.

“Yeah, we’re all heading out,” Taylor said, cell phone pressed to her ear. “Okay. See you Monday?”

Hearing an affirmative, she hung up and pocketed her phone with a sigh of relief. Emma was her best friend - close as sisters, it felt at times - but could be a real chatterbox when she got going.

Taylor had been searching her closet for a particular shirt when her phone had rung, and now couldn’t recall which one it had been. She huffed in annoyance and turned away from the closet, giving it up as a lost cause.

In doing so, she caught her reflection in the mirror. The silvered glass showed a girl of fifteen, slender and willowy, with impressive height for her age. She frowned at her lack of curves, and the too-wide mouth that emphasized her dour expression didn’t help improve her opinion.

She couldn’t help but compare herself to her friend, with her impressive proportions and attractive face. The only thing Taylor really felt she could match her in was her hair. Dark brown, curly tresses as compared to the fiery red locks Emma had, but no less well taken care of.

Taylor shook off her musings on her friend and finished getting ready for the evening. A simple white blouse over jeans and well-worn sneakers, with her favorite black hooded jacket for the night-time breeze. It would have to do.

It was a Saturday, and and for the Hebert family, that meant the Boardwalk. The three of them would pile into the beat up sedan and go for a drive on a family outing. Visiting the local shops - too pricey for them to shop in, but fun to browse - and on occasion catching a movie.

It was important to spend time together, as her father said. You never know when that time will be taken from you.

Taylor made her way downstairs, and met her parents in the living room. The pair stood at the front door, waiting on Taylor to leave, and smiled at her as she came into view.

“All ready?” asked her father, with a small smile.

Danny Hebert was a man that could only be described as ‘gawky’. Tall, reed thin, and balding, he was not what one would call attractive. His eyes were large, and the glasses he wore enlarged them even further, giving him a slightly surprised look at all times.

Taylor smiled back. “Yeah, got distracted when Emma called, but I managed to get away unscathed.”

Taylor’s mother, Annette, laughed at that. “That girl can certainly talk your ear off, can’t she?”

Her mother, Taylor knew, was speaking from personal experience. Emma had once dragged her into a half-hour explanation on why one brand was inherently superior to another on the basis that its manufacturer used materials from national sources, rather than lower-quality imports.

Needless to say, she had forbid Taylor from ever leaving Emma alone with her ever again.

“Yeah, but we love her anyway,” said Taylor with a grin.

Her mother gave another laugh, and smiled at her. “There’s no doubting that.”

Taylor noticed a bundle of red cloth in her mother’s hands. “What’s that?”

“Oh, I heard it was supposed to get a little chilly tonight, so I grabbed this.” She held the cloth up.

It was a long, knitted scarf. Annette reached over Taylor’s head and wrapped the scarf around her neck a couple times, and tossed the ends over her shoulder.

Done, she gently took Taylor’s shoulders and turned her to around, to face the hall closet and the mirror it supported.

“There, you look nice,” said Annette, beaming at her daughter’s reflection. Taylor had to agree, the red did look good with the white blouse and black jacket.

Seeing them together in reflection brought Taylor’s attention to their similarities - and differences.

Annette Rose Hebert was, much like her husband and daughter, tall. But where the rest of the family was gangly and uncoordinated, Annette was graceful, and slender in the way that actresses and models aspire.

If that was what she had to look forward to, Taylor was happy to wait a few years in adolescent awkwardness.

Taylor turned, and gave her mom a quick hug. “Thanks.”


“If we’re all ready to go ladies, let’s get a move on.” Danny pulled open the front door, and held it open in a display of gallantry for the Hebert ladies, who giggled at his antics.

Taylor watched as her mother stopped next to the passenger side, idly running her fingers along the mismatched fender and door, looking off into the middle distance and obviously lost in thought.

“Mom?” Taylor knew where her mother’s thoughts were, but was hesitant to bring it up.

Annette continued to stare at the car. “Hm?”

“You okay?” asked Taylor, biting her lip.

“Yeah… yeah. I’m fine honey.” Annette smiled softly at her daughter.

The moment broken, they piled in and Danny pulled the sedan out into the street, headed towards the Docks.

As they drove, Taylor observed the city around her.

Her home lay in one of the slightly better portions of town, near the Docks. But ‘slightly better’ still meant ‘rough’, compared to any other city it seemed.

Ever since the advent of the Boat Graveyard and the collapse of the local shipping industry, the Brockton Bay economy had gone on a death spiral, bringing the cities inhabitants with it.

Her father, as HR for the Dockworkers Union, had fought to revitalize the Docks, but had been shot down multiple times.

If it weren’t for the support of her mother, thought Taylor, he would like as not give up on his fight. Even now, he tended to come home from a long day of struggles with a defeated air, as he had once again been forced to tell his people that no, there weren’t any jobs.

Taylor dropped the depressing line of thought, and idly wondered at what her parents had planned for the night. Maybe they had enough to eat out for once?

Her thoughts were violently interrupted by an eruption of curses from her father, followed by the car swerving across the incoming lane and whipping Taylor into the door, stunning her.

With a tremendous crash and the sickening impact of collision, they stopped.

“Mom… Dad?” Taylor’s vision swirled and rocked, as reality stuttered around her. She fumbled at her seatbelt, trying to unlatch the infernal strap that held her in place.

She was interrupted in her valiant struggle by hands gently taking her own, and she looked up to see her mother, looking shaken but unharmed.

“You okay little owl?” she asked, as she unbuckled the seatbelt.

“Mmfine…” Taylor slurred in response, though she desperately wanted to say otherwise, and simply curl up against her mother’s comforting presence.

She heard her father speaking. “Annette, we have to get out of here before things get worse.”

“I think Taylor’s concussed, help me move her!” Taylor felt arms encircle her chest, and she was heaved to her feet.

“M’okay.” Taylor protested her treatment, but shuffled along obligingly.

They had only managed to travel a short distance, before they were once again sent reeling by a blast of concussive force. Unsupported, Taylor flopped to the ground in an undignified pile.

Blearily, she lifted her head and looked around to see figures a distance away, engaged in dance-like maneuvers and acrobatic displays. One of them had even turned into a wolf!

Wait, what?

Taylor shook herself, and sat up. She was still slightly dizzy, but had managed to shake off most of the effects of the crash.

With clear eyes - miraculously, her glasses had stayed on - she observed the carnage around her.

Multiple stalled cars, many with their doors hanging wide open in their hasty abandonment. There were cracks and craters in the asphalt, and more than one lightpole had fallen. Her family’s own car was up on the opposing sidewalk, having slammed into a row of newsboxes.

There was a five-foot column of metal embedded in the street not far from her current position. Tracing the path of the car, her father must have veered to avoid it, and hit the newsboxes instead.

Taylor glanced around, and saw Danny laying prone on the sidewalk a couple feet away. She crawled over to him.

“Dad?” She shook him roughly, as he groaned and blinked at his daughter.

“Taylor?”

“Dad, what happened? Where’s Mom?”

Danny blinked a few more times. “Annette…”

Taylor looked around wildly, searching for her mother. A frantic moment later, she spotted her further down the street, nearer to the cape battle raging nearby.

“Mom!”

Taylor’s mother was sitting up in the middle of the street, watching the cape fight in a dazed sort of confusion, bleeding from the head and obviously not all there.

Less than half a block away from her, members of the Protectorate were battling with what looked to Taylor to be both the Merchants and Empire Eighty-Eight. Though the two were often as not taking potshots at each other, making it a three-way battle.

Taylor propped her father against a the face of a nearby shop, and hurried over to her mother. As she limped towards the battle, she saw Armsmaster and Miss Militia as they worked together to fend off Hookwolf and Kaiser as Skidmark, Mush, and Squealer harassed them all from a distance.

Armsmaster deflected a lance of steel from Kaiser, and severed the shaft before launching it towards Skidmark at impressive speeds. Skidmark cursed fouly, and lay down a shimmering field.

The lance hit the field, and immediately reversed, flinging itself at speed back towards Armsmaster, who nimbly dodged out of the way.

Allowing the impromptu projectile to continue its deadly course, straight for Taylor.

Time slowed down, and she could only watch in horror as the spear inevitably drew closer. She couldn’t react, couldn’t even blink as she watched her doom approach.

And suddenly, she couldn’t see anything but a mass of dark curls. There was a blood-curdling shriek of metal on bone as an impact sent her flying, and she landed on the rough asphalt.

Unharmed.

Taylor stared in shock at the scene before her, unbelieving.

Her mother, the rock of their family, the unshakeable source of strength for them, was standing in the middle of the street, swaying slightly on her feet.

And protruding from her chest was a length of steel, dripping with her life’s blood.

“Little Owl…” she whispered, before falling to the ground in a lifeless heap.

Taylor couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe.

Her mother was dead, taking a blow meant for her, and it was all her fault.

-

DESTINATION

AGREEMENT

-

Taylor came to, and couldn’t remember what she saw. She knew it was important, but for the life of her, she couldn’t pull the memory to the surface. Like sand, it slipped through her fingers and dissipated.

What Taylor did remember, however, was what happened immediately before.

Her mother, and the lance.

A sob broke free, and Taylor had to struggle to keep from breaking down then and there.

The assembled capes had been knocked through a loop as well, and had regrouped into their collective factions. The fight restarted almost as if it hadn't been uninterrupted.

Taylor watched as the Heroes and Villains fought on, ignorant of the destruction they had caused, the complete annihilation of a family’s heart.

It made her angry.

Something within suddenly broke, and all Taylor could do was shake in barely restrained fury, rage and despair warring within.

She saw Miss Militia let loose with a barrage of automatic fire into the metallic body of Hookwolf, driving the caniform back with sustained fire. The rifle was quickly replaced with a cavalry saber as a thrust of steel centered in on her, and she parried the strike.

//Begin Synchronization

//Determining Creation Ideology

//Analyzing Composite Materials...Read Error

//Base Core not Located

//End Synchronization​

Taylor gasped as something shifted in her mind, and a sharp sting in her eyes made itself known. She blinked away tears, and focused on the closest fight, unnaturally drawn to the conflict.

She watched Armsmaster skillfully parry and deflect the spikes and lances of metal called forth by Kaiser with his Halberd, a weapon of unparalleled versatility and strength.

//Begin Synchronization

//Analyzing Composite Materials

//Determining Creation Ideology

//Understanding Forging Procedure

//Reading Accumulated History

//Sympathizing with Experience

//Projection Stored

//All Processes Complete​

The words came to her like old friends, as if she had always known them.

“Trace On.”

//Begin Projection

//Loading Projection ‘Halberd’

//Sympathizing with Experience

//All Processes Complete​

Suddenly within her hands was a copy of Armsmaster’s Halberd. It was perfect, down to every imperfection in the steel.

But it was hollow, an empty shell.

It would have to do.

As she handled the weapon, she felt the crystalline matrix of the steel, felt the rigid, ordered structure that gave it strength. She forced this rigidity onto her mind, and felt her fury and anguish dim.

Slowly, Taylor untied her mother’s scarf. It was long, and had survived the crash and her falls with ease. She took it and wrapped it around her head carefully, concealing her face except for her eyes and pulled her hood up over her hair, obscuring it from view.

She was calm.

She was Steel.

She felt the accumulated weight of years within the weapon, knew just how to hold it, the feeling of swinging it in hundreds of hours of combat and practice.

With the force of Steel within her, Taylor Hebert charged into the melee.

She was going to end this, here and now.

Next Chapter​

---

Basically, Taylor triggers with what is essentially Shirou's Reality Marble. The ability to read, memorize, store and project weapons in an instant. I tossed in a dash of Metalcrafting from Codex Alera for the Mind of Steel, but otherwise it's mostly the same. Annette obviously never died in the car crash, and Taylor never left for summer camp. Emma still had her experience, but instead of clinging to Sophia's ideology, she clung to Taylor instead.

*EDIT*


Taylor now has a scarf.

 

Moonlight on Broken Glass
Worm/Exalted​

“The pasta is really good tonight, kiddo.” Dad said. “Did you do anything different with it?”
​

“Nope.” I said, picking at my own bowl. “I just made it the same way as always.”

“Oh.” He said. “Well, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? Guess that applies to food too.”

“I guess so.” I said, very pointedly not voicing the comment in my head about having a lot of absence to be fond for.

Dad seemed to have figured out what was in my head and grimaced briefly, turning back to his food.

Dinners had been awkward between us recently. Not the least because this was one of the first times we’d seen each other in more than passing in…..weeks. All that time and a bit more since we’d sat down to have dinner together like this. Even this, we had to plan out a couple days in advanced and Dad was still late.

I tried not to blame him. Money had gotten uncomfortably tight for a while and Dad had to start working another job. Along with his work in the Union, it kept him very busy. But I wouldn’t deny that I was a bit bitter that I barely got to see him. He probably felt the same way.

At least between Dad’s two paychecks and my own…..subtle contributions, the money problem wasn’t really a thing anymore.

“So…..how’s school been? I mean-I know that things have been rough recently with the bullying and all.” Dad asked, stumbling over himself.

“Things have been getting better, actually.” I replied, struggling to contain a smirk at the expression on Emma’s smug little face today when she found her backpack drenched in orange juice. She always hated the stuff when we were kids.

“That’s good to hear.” Dad said, obvious relief in his voice. “The teachers been helping?”

“Oh yeah, they’ve been just going all out on the bullying thing.” I answered.

The hilarious part was they actually were. I make who knows how many complaints to what felt like every member of the staff at every level for months and get nothing but the same old platitudes. Emma has her homework destroyed and stolen a few times, Sophia’s bag of track equipment finds itself in a dumpster, and Madison discovers her locker vandalized one day and suddenly we get an anti-bullying seminar and teachers prowling around the hallways more than usual. Really, it’s almost too funny for words.

“Glad to hear they’re finally doing their jobs.” Dad said, nodding his head. This time, I couldn’t keep the smirk off my lips.

“What about you? How’s the new job been treating you?” I asked.

“Roughly.” Dad responded wryly. “They sure don’t pull any punches getting the new guy up to speed. Still, it’s not so bad. I’m getting used to everyone there. Heh.” He chuckled briefly. “I’ve even made a couple friends at the office.”

Anything further that might have been said was cut off by the sharp ringing of Dad’s new work phone. His face fell as I took a deep breath through my nose.

“Taylor….I’m…” Dad started to say, his expression mortified.

“It’s alright.” I said quickly. “They wouldn’t be calling you unless it’s important right?”

“Right.” Dad muttered, sounding tired and resigned.

I focused on my pasta as Dad got up and walked into the living room where his phone was. I heard him answer, followed by a quite conversation. For a moment, I entertained the idea that it nothing, a misdial or something. But then Dad walked back in the kitchen and one glance at his face told me all I needed to know.
“You have to go?”

“Yeah…I’m sorry, kiddo, I just-“

“It’s fine.” I cut him off. “Are you going to be home later tonight or….?”

Dad sighed.

“It’s gonna be one of those nights. You shouldn’t wait up for me.” He said

I didn’t mention that waiting up for him was something I’d fallen out of the habit of doing for a while now.
“Alright.” I did say. “Then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow……afternoon?”

“Somewhere around then, yeah.” Dad said with something of a grimace.

We then finished our awkward goodbyes and Dad threw on his boots and coat and stepped out of the house. I listened to the sound of the car start up and then drive away. After that, I finished up my dinner and wrapped up what was left of Dad’s and tossed it into the fridge.

I let out a sigh as I finished cleaning up.

“Well, if he’s going to be out all night, no reason I have to stay in.” I said to myself as I made my way up the stairs and to my room.

My room was as organized as it ever got and my closet door stood open, leaving the pitiful remains of my wardrobe that were left after the Trio had wrecked a lot of my clothes bare for all to see. I walked up to my closet and shut the door. I counted silently to five in my head and then opened the door again.

Where there was once just my tiny little closet and clothes was now a doorway, leading out to a reflection of my room. Or at least what looked like a reflection. The room beyond my closet was much bigger than my real room. A massive king sized bed stood where my normal bed should have, with an elaborate wood frame surrounding it. Directly across from me was a massive standing closet looking like it had come straight out of the Chronicles of Narnia. I knew from experience that despite appearances, it was a full walk in closet even though it really its dimensions were not nearly big enough for that. The ceiling fan moved slowly over head as soft silver light came in from the window.

I stepped across the threshold and my body rippled as I did so.

I felt myself grow taller, my limbs lengthening and filling in with tightly corded muscle. My mouth shrank and my nose readjusted ever so slightly. My eyes tingled slightly and then my vision turned blurry as my glasses became wholly unnecessary. I reached up and plucked them off my face even as I felt my hair lengthen until it reached my waist. My bust swelled up from the near ironing board it used to be to a respectable size for my new frame even as the rest of me filled out and curved in ways that would draw the eye of every boy in Winslow along with quite a few of the girls.

I laced my fingers together as I felt the last of the basic changes finish, my skin smoothing out as blemishes and scars vanished. I stretched my arms over my head and closed my eyes, letting out a pleased sigh as I felt my wings, large and as dark as my hair with silver highlighted feathers, slide their way out of my back. My power rippled across my clothes, altering and rearranging them to allow room for my wings to extend without tearing my shirt or bra.

I finished my stretch and opened my now amber eyes, a pleased smile spreading across my face. As pleasant as the physical changes were, and they were quite nice, they paled before the mental changes I experienced during my transformation. It was as though a haze lifted from my thoughts. My frustration with Dad and his new job, the bitterness I felt towards Emma’s betrayal and her little ongoing campaign against me, my own depression all washed away. I felt good, wonderful, in a way I hadn’t since Mom died. I felt happy.

I turned around and shut the door behind me and then moved to leave this grand reflection of my room, my hips swaying as I walked in a way they never had before all of this happened.

As I walked, my clothes flickered briefly. My shirt was replaced by a hefty Kevlar vest and leather jacket, my comfortable pajama pants by a pair of heavy and durable worker’s pants as a set of steel-toed boots adorned my bare feet. All of them were almost comically too big for me. That lasted all of a heartbeat before my power rippled out again and my new clothes became form fitting. Another heartbeat and they rippled again, shifting and merging together.

A skin tight body suit formed on me, looking somewhat like latex but feeling like silk. My boots smoothed and narrowed, the steel toe vanishing as the boots lengthened until they ended just before my knee. At my waist, a belt formed. Originally, I intended the buckle to be a symbol for myself, but I had never been able to settle on one and so it shifted with my mood for the day. My vest and jacket merged, a tight, long sleeved shirt ending with fingerless gloves formed. At my shoulders and neck, a mantle formed that hung low enough that it seemed to merge with my wings, giving the impression of a cape. Finally, a cowl formed over my head, open at the back to allow my hair through, and with a half mask covering the upper half of my face.
One of the numerous advantages to my power. With it, I was never without a costume and could get changed as soon as I had a spare moment. The only downside was that my new outfit would be no more durable than it originally was.

I walked out the door of my Not Room and into the replica of my home. Like my Not Room, it was larger than my real home. Exaggeratedly larger, almost stretched in a way. And that was leaving aside the rooms in this place that didn’t match up with my home in the real world.

I made my way through the reflection of my home and out into the streets. Like the reflection itself, the outside was much larger than the original. It had that same sense of being stretched out. High above in the sky, the moon shone large and bright. No matter what time of day I entered, it was always night here and the moon always seemed to dominate the skies.

I walked around my Not-House to the back yard that was far bigger than the real one. Once there, I headed for the back door that would lead back into the Not-House. Opening the door, however, didn’t lead into the Not-House, but back into the real world, several blocks away. I exited a basement door set in the ground.
It was a bit closer to my house than I was comfortable with, but there was a limit on how far away I could set the doors to my secret world. In any event, no one had lived in this house for most of a year. The bank evidently was having trouble selling it.

I still looked around briefly to make sure no one was nearby and watching. Satisfied that no one was, I beat my wings and took to the skies. With the barest flicker of my power, I changed once more. This time, shifting wholly from a girl into an owl. One larger than most of the ones in the area, but not so much to attract undue attention.

I spent a moment gaining altitude, circling around the neighborhood and pondering on my targets for the night. The Merchants maybe? I’d been hitting them quite a bit recently, I thought as I took off flying towards the Docks. I’d have to track down more of their store houses to make it worthwhile. That’ll probably take a while though. I’ll have to track down some of the main pushers in the area and tail them until they lead me to wherever they’re storing the drugs and money. Although with how much I’ve hit them recently, they’ll probably be on guard.

Well, I’ll figure it out later. For now, I’ll just see what trouble I can find.

Fifteen minutes later, I found that trouble I was looking for. Large clouds of darkness drifted lazily across a good chunk of the block that had found itself rather absent of all of the usual nightlife in the face of a running cape battle.

Let’s see, Darkness. I thought to myself as I circled overhead, looking for the cape responsible. What’s his name that does the Darkness? The guy that Uber and Leet got wrecked by a few weeks ago? Zork? No, wait that was the game. Oh right, his name’s Grue.

Yeah, that was the guy. Small time villain, did some bouncer stuff in between a variety of thefts here or there. Don’t know why he’d be throwing around his power in this sort of place though. I needed some more information on what was going on.

I swooped down and raked my eyes over the darkness. Nothing, I couldn’t see through it at all. I sent a bit of power to my throat and ears, rearranging them into a shape I had picked up from a bat back when I first figured out how I could acquire new forms. I let out a sharply pitched cry and listened intensely as the sound bounced back.

Sonar wasn’t exactly a precision tool and Grue’s Darkness evidently messed with more than just light given how garbled the images came back. But with a couple more sharp pulses of noise, I was able to pick out a vaguely human shaped blob at street level near the front of the darkness. Unless I missed my guess, he was running from the other person I picked up on sonar.

On the roof tops near the darkness, another cape jumped and shifted in a way that made her nearly invisible to my sonar when she did so. I recognized her, of course. Shadow Stalker the newest member of the Wards. There was a good sized little PR event when it happened. I don’t remember much about it other than a couple sound bites about why independent heroes joining up with the Protectorate is always a sign of good things to come.

Shadow Stalker kept bouncing from roof top to roof top, taking keen advantage of her edge in mobility to stay ahead of Grue’s darkness and his considerably more constrained movements. Now and again, she fired a bolt from her signature crossbow at Grue’s general area. More pot shots than anything, but if I had to guess I’d say she was trying to herd him to a place where she’d have better odds of getting a lucky hit.

Oh, if only birds could smirk. I lamented to myself briefly.

Then I once more gathered my power and this time, let if flood through my body. I expanded swiftly changing from an owl into a human sized harpy as a dozen small and not so small changes rippled across me, improving my senses, streamlining my muscles and skeleton, and more. Silver light poured out across my body as the tips of my feathers lit up.

I reared back my wings and flapped down hard, sending down a barrage of razor tipped feathers that flickered and curved through the air in unnatural patterns.

Straight at Shadow Stalker.

Whether through the instincts honed by her time on the streets, some tinkertech gadget supplied by Armsmaster or Kid Win, or even if she caught a glimpse of my light, she saw the attack coming. Moving nigh instantly, she jumped shifting to shadow form mid leap and crossing over from one block to the next.

Shadow Stalker landed on a roof top and returned to normal briefly, before flickering again into shadow, phasing through more of my feathers and counterattacking with a bolt of her own.

I tucked my wings in and dropped out of the way of her arrow, before spreading again and regaining lost altitude. I turned sharply through the air, whirling to avoid another arrow and saw Shadow Stalker leap to reposition herself.

On and on it went, my feathers and her arrows both finding neither of their targets. I took some solace in the fact that she had to phase through a good portion of my feathers whereas she wasn’t able to hit me once. In any event, this was getting tedious with neither of us able to hit the other.

Well, time to pull out a new trick.

I tensed in mid-air, after avoiding another of Shadow Stalker’s arrows, patterns of light forming across my body and my brow. Then with a flash of moonlight, I moved.

I have trouble explaining that one though. I didn’t move through the three dimensional space I normally did. There was paths behind the world and those were what I traveled along.

When I reemerged into the normal world, I was behind her. It was one of those moments where I wished that there was time for quips in a cape fight. Regardless of that annoying little fact, I kicked Shadow Stalker in the back. I didn’t kick her as hard as I could have since that probably would have broken her clean in two, but I send her flying off the roof top.

The hero flickered, transforming into her shadow state and turning what would have been a distinctly unpleasant fall into a somewhat graceful tumble to the ground. She whirled around, aiming her crossbow first at me, but then twisted around just in time to catch the massive blast of darkness just as it consumed her.

I watched from the roof top for a minute or two as nothing seemed to happen. Then the cloud began to disperse, revealing Shadow Stalker unconscious on the ground and Grue standing over her in his motorcycle leathers and skull faced helmet.

I smirked and jumped down, using my wings to glide down a few feet away from him, shifting into my mostly human form as I landed.

“Strix.” Grue greeted me with a nod of his head. There was a strange reverberation in his voice. “Thanks for the assist. Shadow Stalker was gunning hard for me tonight.”

“So I noticed.” I replied. “Any particular reason why?”

“My power interferes with hers.” He said, nudging the fallen hero with his foot. “So she’s made it pretty clear that she doesn’t want me in the Bay anymore.”

I let out a quiet snort of laughter.

“I’m guessing you’re not exactly going to let yourself be run out of town, now are you?”

“Not a chance.” He said. “So, what are we going do about her?” Grue asked, nudging Shadow Stalker again.

“I’ll leave her up on a roof.” I said, nodding my head at the building I’d just dropped down from. “That should keep her out of sight of anyone who might do something stupid.

“Cool.” Grue said. “Need any help getting her up there?”

“No thanks, I can get her.” I said, walking forward and bending down to pick up Shadow Stalker in a fireman’s hurdle.

“Right. Thanks again.” Grue said starting to walk away. “I owe you one.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I called back to him before jumping up on the building again.

I let Shadow Stalker drop unceremoniously as soon as I landed. Then I crouched down by her and rifled through the pouches on her belt. I extracted a set of zip ties and toyed with the idea of tying her up with them. I shook my head and set them down, she could probably phase through them if she woke up. Finally though, I found what I was looking for. A sleek smartphone with the Protectorate logo on the casing.

I played with it for a moment, but of course it was password locked. I smirked, letting silver light play across my lips, eyes, and finger tips and tapped out random sequence of numbers confusing the poor phone into thinking it was the right password. I thumbed through the contact list, finding numbers for Armsmaster, Director Piggot, and two more that said “Console” and “HQ.” I selected all four for a group message and sent a text out.

You should think about keeping her on a shorter leash. The next villain to beat her in a fight may not be as nice as I am.

-Strix

With that, I tossed the phone over my shoulder and took the skies once more, leaving Sophia behind me.


______________________________________

Hmm.....Not terribly happy with this piece.

I've had this idea in my head for a while now, but I could never really decide on a concrete plot, hence why I haven't written anything for it before now. But something a while ago got me typing things out. Unfortunately, I lost my first draft completely and had to start over again. By the time I had caught up to where I was before and had gotten a bit further along, I decided that I wasn't really feeling it.

But Sunk Cost Fallacy is a hell of a thing, and I've been trying to break a long spell of writer's block and so punched through and finished this snip.

I'm almost certainly not going to continue.

As for what happened.

Spoiler

Taylor Exalted as a Lunar not long ago.

At some point in the middle of the bullying, Taylor got an idea stuck in her head. You can't win if you don't play. The Trio weren't going to stop and no one was going to come in and help her. If she wanted them to stop, she'd have to do it herself.

So Taylor started up her own little counter campaign against them. Things started light, but began to escalate and make Taylor dig her heels in more and more until she eventually started thinking of the Trio as "the enemy."

And one day, she caught sight of Sophia using her power and figured out who she was.

Taylor had a lot invested in fighting back against the Trio and when she realized that Sophia was a Ward, a hero, well.

The enemy of a Hero is of course a Villain.

And then Taylor was a Lunar.

As for Danny, I probably wasn't too subtle the second time around, but yes. He did Trigger and join the Protectorate.

When the bullying and counter bullying started to escalate hard, with fiances being a consistent problem, and his job at the Union typically consisting of telling people he cared about that there still weren't any jobs and having to see them go and work for gangs because at least it put food on the table, he Triggered.

Danny's a Tinker with the QA shard. Most of his tech is fairly generic as far as tinkers go, but his specialty is in controls. Particularly, direct neural interface tech. With the help of Armsmaster, Dragon, and Protectorate funding, he's started to leverage this in the form of numerous drones of various sizes that are outfitted with all sorts of toys.

The problem, of course, comes in managing all of this. Danny has a minor augmented multitasking ability thanks to the QA. It's absolutely nothing compared to Canon Taylor's, but it gets the job done well enough for him to handle a dozen or so odd drones. More if they're all the same model.

 

Thoroughly unbeta'd as well, and the first time I've ever written a fight scene!

---

Previous Chapter

Embrace of Steel

Chapter 2

Fury propelled her, and grief motivated her.

But Steel guided her.

Taylor weaved through the field of blades left by Kaiser, passing within millimeters of rending herself open on the razor-sharp edges, but passed through without a single mark upon her.

She somehow knew, instinctively, where every bit of steel was. As if it were her own body.

She moved like a woman possessed, and zeroed in on the nearest target.

Mush, who had tried to circle around the Protectorate capes in the confusion, and left his back exposed.

Taylor held the Halberd in a two-handed grip, as easily and naturally as if she had done so a thousand times before, and swung, using the momentum of her sprint and her entire upper body to cleave through the trash-armored cape’s torso.

The Halberd bit deep, and met resistance that only managed to slow her an instant, before it continued out the front, unleashing a geyser of filth and gore.

Sensing a mass of metal on course to her side, Taylor spun with the momentum of her swing, and blocked the incoming collection of blades with the tip of the Halberd, bracing the base against the asphalt to absorb the blow.

The metal made itself known as Hookwolf, who had apparently not expected to be intercepted in such a fashion, as his metallic wolfs-head betrayed a surprised expression that bordered on comical.

The force of the collision folded Hookwolf over the Halberd, and shattered the asphalt below her feet as well as the Halberd in her hard.

She had expected this. It was merely an empty shell, after all. But that was okay.

She had reserves.

Taylor skipped back two steps, and immediately Traced another Halberd.

//Loading Projection ‘Halberd’​

Instantly, she had another empty, perfect copy.

She gave it an experimental twirl, and faced her opponent with a grim determination as she leveled the weapon at the downed cape.

“Stay down.” The order came out flat and toneless through her scarf.

“Fuck you.” Hookwolf spat back, and scrambled back to his feet.

Before duel could restart, however, they were interrupted by a growth of steel that attempted to skewer Taylor’s legs.

She easily sidestepped the attack, and dashed to one side in time to see Kaiser appear next to Hookwolf from behind a curtain wall of blades that obscured him from the remaining capes.

“Hookwolf. The rest of the Protectorate will be here shortly. We do not need to be here when they arrive.” The armored cape appeared perfectly calm, but Taylor knew he had to be feeling the pressure. They may not be in the Boardwalk proper, but they were close enough to make it unseemly for the ‘righteous’ leader of the E88 to be instigating brawls, not without taking a hit to his standing.

Taylor glanced over at where she knew the rest of the capes would be, and saw the two Protectorate heroes pinned down by a constant stream of bullets from a truckbed-mounted chaingun, fired by Skidmark as he laid down repeating fields to empower the ammunition, screaming obscenities at the heroes, their mothers, and the world.

Squealer had obviously arrived, and was even now hauling Mush out of his garbage pile and into the tinkertech truck.

Taylor noted that the wound she delivered had been sealed with what looked like a trash bag, of all things.

Suddenly, Taylor felt a subtle shift in the air, a gentle pressure that told her prepare.

She shifted her stance slightly, and saw as Armsmaster and Miss Militia broke apart, dashing in opposite directions. Skidmark hesitated on which to aim at, before his choice was taken from him as Miss Militia retaliated with an absurdly large rifle of her own, obliterating the chaingun and sending the Merchant flying in an explosion of debris and swearing.

The two Empire capes paused at the concussive sound, and turned to look at the source of the disturbance, giving Taylor the chance she had been waiting for.

She flung herself forward, keeping low until she was almost upon them, before wrenching herself upright in a vicious upwards slice that would have removed Kaiser’s right arm and most of his shoulder, had an obdurate column of steel not interposed itself and saved the man from being violently de-limbed.

Hookwolf growled in agitation, and attempted to carve her open with a claw. He was abruptly yanked off balance, however, as a grappling hook suddenly wrapped itself around the offending limb and pulled the villain to the side.

Taylor sidestepped a sudden thrust of steel from the column, and circled around until Kaiser was in her view once more. She felt a sudden presence at her back, and spoke without turning.

“Armsmaster.”

The form at her rear shifted. “That’s an impressive copy. Can you handle it well enough?”

Taylor shifted her grip on the Halberd higher, and moved to a one-handed hold. She extended her free hand, fingers splayed, as a second Halberd appeared. “Just as well as you can.”

Armsmaster grunted. “We’ll see about that. Can you take him?”

She looked the leader of the Empire Eighty-Eight dead in the eye, and tightened her grip on her twin weapons. Kaiser’s eyes widened minutely, and his posture shifted to a defensive standing.

“I believe I can handle it.”

With that, Taylor lunged forward with straight thrust for Kaiser’s heart, intent on impaling the man. He batted the weapon aside with an armored hand, and quickly riposted her assault with a driving strike of his own, a blade growing from his other gauntlet.

Taylor shifted to the side, just enough to allow the blow to pass, and brought the second Halberd down on Kaiser’s shoulder. The Traced weapon struck true, but the awkward angle robbed it of most of its power and it only bit into the armor, lodging firmly.

Kaiser gripped the embedded weapon, and yanked, pulling it free and nearly dragging Taylor with it. She relinquished her hold, and allowed the captured blade to dissolve with a will of effort.

Kaiser blinked in surprise, and had to scramble aside to dodge the attack Taylor aimed at his head with her remaining Halberd. A shaft of steel erupted from below, but Taylor had already sensed it and sidestepped, slapping the butt of her weapon into Kaiser’s gut, and sent the larger man stumbling back.

Taylor pressed the attack, hoping to force him into submission, but was forced to retreat as blades erupted from all sides. She readied a second Halberd in her off hand, and prepared for a counter assault.

The attack came quickly, and without her steelsense, Taylor would surely have become a pincushion as lances of steel erupted from multiple points at once. The first shattered a Halberd as she defended her back and the next nearly took her hand, while the third, fourth, and fifth were evaded by a mere hairsbreadth each.

Kaiser merely stood back and observed her as she blocked, sliced, and dodged her way backwards to her starting position.

“Impressive,” complimented the villain, “but it’s not going to be enough, girl.”

Taylor nodded in response, breathing heavily. “You’re right.”

She could feel it already. Her body wasn’t built for this sort of intense, fast-paced action, and the effort was taking a toll on her. Another minute at most, and she’d be too exhausted to continue.

She couldn’t outfight the villain before her, and nor could she willingly retreat from the man who had instigated her mother’s death.

So she took a third option.

Gripping the Halberd in both hands, Taylor followed the subtle pressure that had been guiding her, and spun low, swinging the weapon with all her remaining might. She knew the two gatherings of steel were still behind her, locked in stalemate.

That changed in an instant.

As she spun low, she felt Armsmaster pivot as well and unleash his Halberd’s weapon systems over her head into Kaiser’s face. She didn’t have time to catch his expression, but sincerely hoped someone had been recording.

As she swung, she felt the power that had circulated within her since the moment she had awoken surge, and she directed it to the weapon in her hands.

//Begin Synchronization

//Reinforcing Composite Materials

//System Overload: Breakdown Initiated​

The Halberd erupted into a blaze of light, fractures running up and down the weapon as its structure overloaded with the force of power it had been infused with.

Right into Hookwolf’s chest.

//All Processes Completed​

The detonation shattered most of Hookwolf’s blades, and sent the cape careening off into a nearby storefront. Taylor was simultaneously blown away, and skidded along the pavement, leaving patches of cloth and skin behind until she slammed against a bus stop bench.

Agony wracked her body, and her hands felt as if they had been boiled in oil. Without the presence of Steel to give order to her mind, she was unable to cope with the overwhelming sensations.

As the sounds of sirens drowned out the world, Taylor Hebert pulled her aching body into a loose ball, and cried.

Spoiler: Pre-edit ending.

The last thing Taylor Hebert saw before succumbing to the encroaching darkness was Kaiser and Hookwolf being drenched in containment foam as PRT officers swarmed the scene.

---

Yes. That just happened.

Thoughts and opinions?

 

Because my muse is nothing if not fickle, I give you:

For the Love of Combat. (Worm/DBZ Fusion)

Taylor's breath came in ragged gasps, her muscles burned, she was covered with bruises, and a massive smile was on her face. She was somehow managing to stay in her rough fighting stance. The man across from her was nowhere near as tired as she was, despite being only half her height.

He dropped out of his own fighting stance. "That's enough, I think we're at your limit for today."

"I can keep going, Krillin Sensei." She protested between breaths.

Her sensei merely shook his head. "Of course you can, but you'll need a trip to the hospital afterwards."

"Yes Sensei." She breathed as she automatically began going into her warming-down exercises.

Her sensei turned and walked over to the side of the dojo, talking as he went. "One of the most important things about martial arts is knowing your current limits. As you train you'll slowly surpass those limits, but if you push yourself too far to fast, you'll only set yourself back while you recover."

Grabbing a towel from a rack and a sports drink from a shelf, he tossed both of them at his student (who fumbled a bit as she grabbed both items out of the air). "Now, all that said, have you been working on your meditation like I've instructed?"

Finishing a long pull from the sports drink, Taylor lets out a sigh of relief before answering. "Yes Sensei, I think I've got the exercises down."

"Show me."

Moving her tired body into a sitting position on the mat, Taylor closes her eyes and begins going through the meditation exercises that her she'd been taught.

Her sensei was only mildly surprised to see a visible aura appear around her after only a minute. A fond smile appeared on his face as he thought about his student's progress. In the two years she's been studying with him he's grown attached to his student, and not just for her determination. She was an honestly good kid and he enjoyed having her around.

Oddly enough, she reminded him of Goku, in that she seems to love a good fight. The few times that some of his friends came over to visit, she always asked if they could spar (in that adorably shy way of hers).

He was honestly beginning to think that she has a natural affinity to sensing ki, because even when his friends try to disguise themselves, she always seemed to pick out who the fighters were (granted, none of his friends were particularly good at disguising themselves, but still).

Coming to a decision, he clears his throat. "That's enough, Taylor."

His student's aura slowly disapates before she opens her eyes. "Did I do something wrong, Sensei?"

He just shook his head. "On the contrary, you've surprised me with how good you've gotten at it. I honestly wasn't expecting to have to explain this to you for another month, at least."

"'Explain'? Explain what, Sensei?"

"When you meditate, you can actually feel your ki flow through your body." It wasn't a question. "Many martial artists never even reach that point. You have a gift."

"I, er, thank you, Sensei." She said with a modest blush.

"So, let me ask you an odd question: are you familiar with Saiyaman out in West City?"

She blinked at the seeming non-sequitur. "The superhero with the helmet and goofy poses that gives Mouse Protector a run for her money?"

"Yeah~, him." Her sensei sounded strangely exasperated as he shook his head. "I actually know the kid. What most people don't know about him is that he's not a parahuman at all. He's a martial artist with a lot of ki and good control." Krillin decided to leave out the part about alien genetics, as it wasn't really relevant to the conversation. "Everything he can do, I can too, and so can a lot of others in our group." He stated simply.

Taylor seemed to be alternating between disbelief and astonished wonder as her sensei talked. "So that's where Saiyagirl came from! She must be his student."

"Something like that. Now, I bring this up for two reasons." He continued. "You've already been channeling your ki to be able to break those concrete blocks and toughen your skin when being hit." At her startled expression he chuckled. "What? Did you think it was normal for a human to be able to shatter large blocks of solid concrete like you've been doing? Without ki or some other kind of powers, anyone else would have shattered their hand, no matter how much training they'd done. Now that you've been able to consciously feel your ki, I'll be teaching you more advanced techniques, and these things will be obvious." he says as he casually forms a ball of energy in his hand and offered it to her for examination.

Taylor just sat their awestruck as she felt the ki radiating off of it. "Whoa."

Krillin chuckled at her expression. "The other reason, is that I can tell you've been wanting to go out and use your new skills to fight crime for a while, now. You want to be a hero, I can feel it on you. It's one of the reasons you train as hard as you do."

She blushed again as he said it. "Er- well, yes." She admitted sheepishly.

"Every so often we get kids in here who want to learn to be superheros. Most of them aren't willing to put the effort in to get to that point." He shakes his head again as he thinks back on some of the kids in question, before looking back up at Taylor again.

"You're different, though. You want to fight crime, but that's not the only reason you're training. You love martial arts; you love to fight." He looks her straight in the eye; studying her intently. "The reason I bring this up is because I don't want you to do any crime-fighting until I'm sure that you can take care of yourself. That means you wait until I say you're ready before you go putting yourself in danger. Am I clear?"

A hundred different emotions warred within Taylor as he looked at her, before she finally nodded with determination. "Yes Sensei. And... Thank you."

He just chuckled and walked up to her, patting her arm. "Good, now go shower; my wife's got dinner for us and Marron's been asking to see you again.

She chuckled herself at that. "You know I never pass up a chance to see her."

As she reached the door Krillin called out one more time. "Oh, and I'll be telling your father all of this."

Taylor froze in her tracks before gently banging her head on the door. "Damn."

***

AN: I blame my recent purchase of Dragon Ball Xenoverse for this (and maybe all the DBZ fanfiction I used to read )

The basic premise of this is that Danny signed Taylor up for martial arts classes with Krillin after she gets back from summer camp. After interacting with her for a bit, and noticing her good heart and dream of being a superhero, he decides to take her under his wing.

If I continue it, she's not going to turn into the super powerhouses that the Saiyans are, but a more tricky/resourceful fighter like Krillin became after Goku started surpassing him (destructo-disk, solar-flare, etc.).

And now, bed.

 

A pretty slow recovery snippet, probably going to rewrite it in the future, but I think it does an okay job of setting up Taylor's mental state and the damage done to her family.

Unbeta'd as usual.

---

Previous Chapter
Embrace of Steel, Part 3

Taylor Hebert laid on the sidewalk with her arms wrapped around herself, sobbing uncontrollably. As she curled into a ball, all she could think of was the look in her mother’s eyes as she stood in the street with a lance jutting from her breast.

‘Little Owl...’

Spasms wracked her body, and her sobbing was replaced by a hacking cough, violent enough to drive shards of new agony into her already tortured ribs.

Blood spattered the ground before her face. Her scarf had come loose at some point, and pooled loosely around her neck.

She heard shuffling at her side. “Taylor, oh god Taylor!”

Taylor lifted her head, staring blearily at the figure kneeling beside her. “Daddy?”

He turned away to shout down the street, “I need some help over here!” Just like her dad to run into a battlefield, she thought.

“Dad? You need...” Her plea was interrupted by another round of spasms, and she coughed up even more blood. “...to run.”

“Shh, shh, kiddo. It’s okay.” Her father placed one hand against her cheek, and gave her a watery smile. “You stopped them, they’re down.”

Taylor couldn’t help but press into her father’s hand. It was cool against her feverish skin, and the contact eased some of her ache. Danny shifted some to rest her head in his lap, and slowly stroked her hair, as she cradled her hands to her chest and cried tears of of grief and pain.

She felt warm droplets land on her head, and looked up to see her father crying tears of his own.

Taylor reached out and touched his hand, offering her own measure of comfort, and in doing so came into contact with Danny’s wedding ring. On reflex, she imposed the order of metal upon her mind, numbing the pain and washing away the fatigue.

The gold band was less rigid, more malleable, than that of the Steel of the weapons she had wielded, but it would have to do.

Taylor shifted in place, and sat up, replacing the scarf around her face. She watched the scene before her with cautious eyes.

PRT trucks had arrived, and were disgorging troops armed with containment foam, who swiftly emptied their tanks over the prone forms of Hookwolf and Kaiser, while Armsmaster and Miss Militia stood guard.

Ambulances were parked nearby, and Taylor observed stoically as a team cordoned off the area around her mother’s body.

The memory of her mother’s eyes flashed through her memory, and grief surged behind the Steel.

Her grip on her father’s hand tightened fractionally.

A pair of EMT’s arrived with a stretcher, and quickly began examining her and Danny while asking questions Taylor only paid partial notice to. The majority of her attention was instead focused on the approaching form of Armsmaster.

As the power-armored form of the local Protectorate leader drew closer, Taylor had to draw even further on the strength granted by her contact with the metal of her father’s ring. They may have cooperated to end the battle, but Taylor had not forgotten Armsmaster’s involvement in her mother’s death.

The hero stopped a short distance away. Further than the reach of his Halberd, she noted with dark amusement. ‘He’s right to be cautious.’

“That was an admirable thing you did,” he began, nodding towards the battlefield, “but incredibly reckless. You could have easily been injured beyond what you already are. Or worse.”

If Taylor hadn’t been regulating herself with her newfound power, she would’ve snapped then and there, and probably verbally assaulted the cape. Possibly even attacked him if she weren’t crippled by the pain.

As it was, she decided to stick to pointed remarks. “Somebody had to step in before you let someone else get killed.”

Armsmaster stiffened at that, frowning heavily. “That was… regrettable. I offer my condolences, but I couldn’t have known Skidmark would repel the attack like that, or that she was in the line of fire.”

“You could have let them go when they started dragging civilians into the battle,” Taylor shot back with a venomous glare.

“And let them run rampant? I could nev-” He cut himself off, and took a deep breath. “This isn’t the time. I am sorry, but there’s nothing to be done now. Are you alright? That was a powerful detonation.”

Taylor considered furthering the argument, but decided to let it drop. She was still furious, but the cool presence of Steel allowed her to think past her pain and grief. “I’m hurt pretty bad, I think. My… power is letting me ignore it though.”

She felt her father - who had been uncharacteristically silent during the argument - tense when she mentioned her injuries. She faced him, and gave him a small, reassuring smile.

Danny Hebert looked like hell. Blood had seeped from a light wound on his forehead, and had traced a path down the side of his face. One lens in his glasses had cracked, and the frame sat askew. Tears and holes spotted his shirt, and the man had somehow lost a boot.

But he was alive. Taylor knew it could have been so much worse, that she could have lost not only her mother, but her father too. Any number of things could have happened, but she still had him.

He smiled back, and squeezed her hand.

“A trip to the hospital should be enough, I think. Panacea is usually there right around now...” Armsmaster trailed off thoughtfully, before rooting around in his utility belt.

After a moment, he triumphantly removed.. a mask?

Taylor touched her improvised balaclava. “Uh, I don’t really need a mask right now.”

Instead of responding, the tinker instead passed it off to Danny. “Here. You’re obviously related to her, and your identity could expose her own.”

Her father blinked at the fabric, and took it after a moment’s hesitation. “Oh, uh. Thank you.”

It was a simple piece of white fabric, with an opening across the eyes. Danny removed his glasses, and awkwardly pulled the mask over with one hand, and replaced damaged frames on his face.

Armsmaster stood stiffly, and spoke once more.

“I understand that this has been a trying time, but please,” at this, he handed off a small card to Danny, who accepted with only the barest hesitation, “contact me after you’re recuperated. We have the resources to help you.”

Taylor didn’t deign to respond, but her father nodded slightly, and pocketed the card. Armsmaster gave an awkward nod, and walked off to join Miss Militia as the captives were taken away.

Free of the presence of the imposing Cape, the EMT’s prepped Taylor for transfer. Carefully, she was lifted onto the waiting stretcher. The loss of contact with her father’s ring caused her to gasp in shock at overwhelming sensations that had been held at bay, and left her groping wildly for the Steel she knew was near.

Her hand met the frame of the stretcher, and she once more blocked out the torturous pain with the cool rigidity of Steel.

As the stretcher was loaded into the ambulance, Danny stood by anxiously. “I’ll be right behind you Taylor, okay?”

Taylor nodded weakly.

The doors were shut, and the ambulance was soon making good time down the streets to Brockton Bay General.

The journey passed in a blink, it seemed to Taylor, and they were soon wheeling her down the hall and into a room. Carefully, she was transferred to a bed, and more questions were asked to which Taylor answered to the best of her ability until her father arrived and took over.

Taylor laid back in the bed, staring at the ceiling and focusing on her steelsense, feeling the location of every blade and edge in her range and using the metal frame of her bed to keep the world at bay.

She knew it probably wasn’t a good idea to be blocking out the world like she was, with new and unfamiliar powers that could have any number of effects.

But she didn’t care. She didn’t want to have to feel.

She was brought out of her disconnected haze by a hand, brushing against her forehead. Taylor blinked, and looked over to see her father staring at her worriedly, and smiled weakly. “Hey Dad.”

“Hey kiddo. How are you feeling?” He had removed the loaned mask, and Taylor could see the worry creasing his brow.

She shrugged, and removed her scarf. “Like I got hit by a truck, and dragged along through a mile of bad road.”

Danny grimaced. “Well, I’m told Panacea is in the building, and should be here soon.”

As if summoned by those words, Panacea choose that moment to enter the room, white robes trailing behind her. The door closed shut behind her with a soft ‘click’.

The premiere healer of Brockton Bay paused a moment, and appeared to take a deep breath, and strode across the room, clipboard in hand.

As the famed healer stopped at her bedside, Taylor thought to herself, ‘She looks about how I feel.’

Under the robe, Panacea’s shoulders were slumped, looking narrow and sharp even through the fabric. Frizzy strands of hair drifted out from under her hood and trailed along her face, occasionally to be blown out of the way. There were bags under her eyes, and her skin was the kind of pale you only see from stress or illness.

“Taylor…” she paused, and glanced at the clipboard, “Hebert?”

Taylor nodded, and Danny spoke up, “Yes. Thank you for coming for my little girl, Panacea. It means a lot.”

The cape turned slightly towards him, and gave a noncommittal shrug. “It’s what I do.”

She faced Taylor once more, expression serious. “Do I have your permission to heal you?”

Taylor nodded once again, and extended one hand. “Yeah, thank you.”

Panacea reached out and lightly touched the offered hand. Taylor didn’t know what to expect, but certainly not for the cape to immediately flinch and gasp minutely.

Taylor giggled nervously at the reaction, and asked, “What’s the damage, doc?”

“Three fractured ribs, multiple fractures in your right Humerus and both Ulna.” Panacea paused for a moment, eyes widening slightly in surprise, before she continued unabated. “You’ve sprained your right Supraspinatus and left Teres Major, torn your left Meniscus and multiple locations in your Latissimus Dorsi, and you have a series of first and second degree burns on both your hands and forearms.”

Taylor blinked, and looked to her dad. “Did you understand any of that? Because I only got about half of it.”

Danny was white as a sheet, and had the arms of his chair in a white-knuckle grip.

Panacea gave her a flat look. “Frankly, you shouldn’t even be lucid right now, the pain should have you incoherent.”

Taylor gulped.

“How are you...” Panacea trailed off, staring at the scarf still around her neck as realization flashed behind her eyes. “I see.”

A sensation of warmth swept over her, and Taylor felt her wounds mend, bones fusing together and muscles rebuilding.

“I had to use some of your body’s natural stores of fat, so you’ll be pretty hungry for the next few days at least. Get lots of protein and carbs, and drink plenty of water.” She spoke as if reciting a well-practiced speech.

Taylor nodded thankfully, and relinquished her mental grasp on the Steel.

The aches and bright points of pain were gone, but there was little to do for the grief and anger that even now threatened to overcome her. Exhausted, she flopped backwards into the embrace of crisp hospital sheets.

Dimly, she heard her father and Panacea talking, and a moment later heard the door open and shut once more.

A hand stroked her hair, and she opened her eyes to see her father standing at her bedside. “I’ve got to take care of some things with the hospital, you go ahead and rest, okay Taylor?”

Taylor nodded slowly. “Okay. Love you Dad.”

He gave a tired smile. “Love you too kiddo.”

Danny turned and exited the room, leaving Taylor to her thoughts.

The PRT had captured Kaiser and Hookwolf, but the Merchants were still out there, and Armsmaster had yet to answer for his own part in her mother’s death.

Taylor was going to rectify that. She had the power to do so at her fingertips.

She would make this right.

She would be an Avenger.

---

Not a hundred percent satisfied with it, but it doesn't do me any good sitting on my drive without critique. Next chapter is going to be from the Protectorate's perspective, and maybe a PHO interlude after that. Then things start shaking up as Avenger hits the streets.

*EDIT*

Armsmaster less of a dick, Taylor has her identity still secure (see first chapter for a small additional scene).

 

Whew, wrote most of this in one sitting, and haven't really done much polishing. I'd appreciate feedback on any aspect, but primarily character voice. I'm still trying to learn to write distinctive dialogue, and don't really know how I did.

Unbeta'd as usual.

---

Previous
Embrace of Steel
Part 4

For Colin Wallis, known as Armsmaster in his armor, the day had begun simply enough.

Though he had been awake late into the night working on a new project for his Halberd, he had still awoken early in preparation for the day. Something told him it would be significant, or at least eventful.

The day seemed to be anything but.

Much of the morning was filled with his Tinker work, and by the afternoon he was on duty at the console while the duo of Assault and Battery were on patrol accompanied by Dauntless. There had been some rumors of a big push by the ABB against the Empire, and the Protectorate needed to put a show of force out.

Nothing had come of it, and by the time it had been his turn for the evening patrol with Miss Militia, Armsmaster had been feeling his instincts were off.

He was quickly proven wrong.

“Armsmaster, we have reports of a running battle between Merchant capes and Empire in the vicinity of Washington and Meadow Circle.” The voice of Velocity came over the comms as Armsmaster patrolled one of the nicer neighborhoods near the Docks.

“Understood. Keep me updated on any changes.” He signaled Miss Militia, who nodded, and they diverted towards the location noted on Armsmaster’s GPS.

By the time they arrived, civilians had already fled the area, and superficial damage to multiple buildings had accumulated. Debris littered the streets, and more than one surface had growths of steel jutting outwards.

A block from their position, Armsmaster saw Skidmark and Mush working together to launch garbage at speed towards not only Hookwolf, but Kaiser as well.

The heads of the E88 and the Merchants, and their heaviest hitters? Armsmaster could feel the tension of opportunity here.

“Velocity, this is Armsmaster. We’ve located the Merchant and Empire forces. Skidmark, Mush, Kaiser and Hookwolf all present. We’re going to need backup.” Armsmaster spoke crisply and without hesitation, “There are civilians in the residences, and we are moving to engage.”

With that, he readied his Halberd, and with Miss Militia in tow, waded into the fray to put an end to the fighting.

“Attention! Cease your current activities, surrender, and get on the ground.” Armsmaster levelled his Halberd at the group, and delivered his ultimatum. “If you do not comply, we will use force to ensure cooperation.”

The reply, as expected, was not positive.

Skidmark let loose a flurry of curses, and launched a barrage of garbage supplied by Mush through his field. Kaiser, however, took the opportunity to withdraw behind a wall of steel, Hookwolf guarding his retreat.

Swearing under his breath, Armsmaster deflected the refuse, and directed Miss Militia to intercept the fleeing Empire capes. If they could contain them until reinforcements arrived, they could make an incredibly significant capture.

Cautiously, he advanced, keeping the the Merchants occupied while the sounds of weapons fire echoed to the side.

Miss Militia had caught up, it seemed.

Abandoning all pretense of defense, Armsmaster surged forward, dodging the projectiles with practiced ease as he drove the pair of addict capes to the field of blades left behind by Kaiser’s retreat.

Aware of his plan, Miss Militia had driven the Empire’s head and his lackey back into the fray. The two pairs nearly collided in their respective retreats, and soon were facing off against not only the Protectorate, but each other as well.

Kaiser attempted to skewer Skidmark’s legs, most likely in a ploy to leave the man as an offering for his own escape, but hadn’t accounted for the Merchant leader’s field. A shimmering field appeared and deflected the attack, sending the shaft of steel into the distance, where it presumably landed in the street.

Mush, seeing his boss in trouble, hefted a dumpster that had somehow been dragged into the street, and launched it towards Kaiser, but the bin was caught on Hookwolf’s spikes and tossed aside.

Armsmaster had not been idle during the scuffle, and had repositioned himself alongside Miss Militia, in preparation for another assault.

“If you can keep Mush and Hookwolf pinned down, I can disable Skidmark at the very least, until reinforcements arrive,” said Armsmaster.

“Understood,” she replied, and the response was punctuated by the formation of a rather large machinegun.

Armsmaster smirked. He could always appreciate firepower.

His companion opened fire, and Armsmaster launched forward, intent on landing a solid hit on head of the Merchants before he could react to the sudden charge.

He was suddenly intercepted by the appearance of Kaiser, armed with a blade grown from his armor. Two quick jabs drove him back, nearly piercing the armor around his waist, and Armsmaster had to awkwardly fall aside to dodge a follow-up strike.

A hollow ‘fwoomp’ sounded from Miss Militia’s location, and Armsmaster looked just in time to see a concussive grenade suddenly on course for the pair.

Kaiser must have noticed his shift in attention, and quickly turned to confront the scene behind him.

Armsmaster knew he would handle the shockwave with ease, but Kaiser would not be so lucky. Hastily, the Nazi batted the projectile away, redirecting it overhead, and into the street where it detonated with a dull ‘thunk’.

‘This is getting out of hand,’ thought Armsmaster, as he retreated to Miss Militia’s side.

The Empire capes had regrouped, and the Merchants were even now gathering the garbage and debris that had accumulated as further ammunition.

It had been bare minutes since the battle had begun, and already things were going sour.

“Sir, reinforcements are ETA seven minutes,” announced Miss Militia. “Do you think we should keep this up?”

Armsmaster scowled. “We just need to keep them contained. Play them off one another, and we’ll have four captures by the end of the night.”

She nodded. “Ready when you are.”

With that declaration, Skidmark fired the opening shot on the second act of their fight, and cued Kaiser and Hookwolf in for another assault.

Miss Militia peppered Hookwolf with her heavy machinegun, and Armsmaster once more squared off against Kaiser.

A lance of steel erupted from the earth, and Armsmaster snapped his Halberd up, severing a foot-long section, which he promptly batted towards Skidmark.

The cape cursed, and deflected the lance right back at him, and Armsmaster deftly sidestepped, allowing the spear to carry on it’s course past him.

A moment later, just as he was preparing a decisive counter-assault, the world went black.

-

“And when you awoke, you say this new cape entered the scene?”

Armsmaster nodded, as Director Piggot went over his written report. It contained the answer to that question, and more, but her decided to answer her regardless.

“Yes. After a few moments time after we all recovered, this new cape entered the fight from behind the Merchants, heavily wounding Mush and stopping Hookwolf in his tracks.”

Piggot hmm’d as she flipped through the report, leaning back in her over-large leather office chair. “And you say she did this with a copy of your own weapon?”

Once more, he nodded, humoring the question. “Yes. It was a perfect replica from what I could see.”

“This wasn’t equipment you had previously discarded, or lost on patrol?”

“No. She seemed able to generate copies of the Halberd I was using at the time, at will and multiple times.”

Piggot hmm’d again. “Miss Militia agrees with this report?”

Suppressing a frustrated sigh, he replied evenly, “Yes, as she states in her own report, everything I have reported is factual to her knowledge.”

Piggot gave the report one last look, before she set it aside. “So you mean to tell me, that through your own negligence, a civilian was caught in the crossfire of your fight, and killed in front of her family. One of whom presumably Triggered from the trauma, and can now copy highly dangerous tinkertech weaponry at a whim?”

She had spoken calmly and evenly, but Armsmaster could see the boiling anger carefully held in check behind her words.

“I-,” he began, but Piggot cut him off.

“And not only,” she continued, “did this fiasco occur under your direction, you then proceeded to incite an argument with an obviously traumatized child, by calling her reckless and claiming it wasn’t your fault?”

During her seemingly relaxed speech, Director Piggot had stood up, and placed both hands on her desk and leaned forward, staring him down the whole time.

Even behind the protection of his armor, Armsmaster felt more than a little nervous.

“What do you have to say to that?”

Cautiously, he responded, “I admit I made mistakes. I apologized to her, and gave the man with her a mask of his own to protect their identities, and sent in a request to Panacea for a session with them.”

Piggot was silent a moment. “That,” she said slowly, “is the only reason I’m not recommending a greater reprimand for you than you are already assigned.”

She returned to her chair.

“As it is,” she said coolly, “you will have your performance inspected, and your status as head of the Protectorate ENE reviewed.”

The words came like a punch to the gut, leaving him cold.

“I understand,” he ground out, and though he wanted to deny it, he did understand it could have been so much worse.

Silence reigned in the office, as Piggot pulled a file from the stack on her desk.

“Now, about this new cape,” began the Director, as if the previous threat hadn’t just occurred.

“I’ve labelled her ‘Mimic’ in my report.” Armsmaster interjected, already tired of referring to her as ‘the new cape’.

Piggot quirked an eyebrow. “Isn’t that claimed?”

Armsmaster shook his head. “Surprisingly, no.”

“Hm. Regardless, this ‘Mimic’ would be an incredibly valuable asset to our cause, with her ability to replicate tinkertech.”

Armsmaster recalled the fight, and how Mimic had handled the weapon with skill to match his own. “She also seemed to be able to copy my style as well, either through some Thinker-based observation or skill mimicry.”

Piggot hummed contemplatively at that. “And your report says that when you fought together, you felt a ‘guidance’ that led you through the battle? That it let you anticipate her setup with Hookwolf and Kaiser that disabled them?”

Armsmaster nodded an affirmative. “It was strange, like I knew exactly what she was planning, and how to cooperate to make it happen.”

“Low-level Master, perhaps?”, she murmured to herself.

He shook his head in a negative.

“It wasn’t a compulsion, as such. Just a general notion of what she was going to do next, and how best to help,” he clarified.

“Still. I say we put ‘Mimic’ down as a Master 1, Thinker 3, and Striker and Tinker 4. Better to be cautious than to go in unprepared.” She scribble into a file folder as she spoke, and set it aside.

“Understood.” Personally, he felt the ratings were high, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

“You say she has your contact card?”, she asked, as she returned her gaze from the stack of folders on her desk to his masked face.

“The man I presume to be her father took it, yes,” He said impatiently. Armsmaster’s fingers itched, and he already wanted out of this office and in his workshop. He had gotten some new ideas during the fight.

Piggot nodded to herself. “If they should contact you, let me know immediately.”

“Very well.” He hated PR work anyway.

“Unless you have anything else to report, you’re free to go,” she said, dismissing him.

Armsmaster turned on his heel, and left the office.

He had work to do.

---

A bit of the battle we didn't see from Taylor's point of view, and Piggot chewing out Armsmaster. The ratings are from what Armsmaster and Miss Militia observed, and as applied to a potentially hostile cape, so I'm all for recommendations for changes on that front. I know the extent of Taylor's powers here, but I'm frankly terrible at ranking things.

Next part will have Avenger hitting the streets to mop up the loose ends.

 

First time posting on these boards, and like some of these ideas. I have been writing a few fics for my own use, mostly because they really are not that well written, and decided to post the first chapter of one I think I will focus on and try to write more for. The plan would be to write and post an arc as a sort of mini novel rather than chapter by chapter like a few other fics that have alot of cliffhangers. So here is a snippet of the first chapter to give idea of writing style. I know I need to improve, but kind of wanted to see thoughts before I start editing first arc which has 8 chapters, and an interlude to be written. Its very rough though, and I need to expand and rewrite alot. Will probably need to look for a Beta though according to others that takes quite a bit of time. Quick question, how long do you think is a good chapter?

My watch rang, and I sighed. An hour was barely enough time to do anything useful during lunch.

I quickly made and ate a sandwich, while chugging a cup of coffee. The SX-1 tightened a bit around my waist as I ate. Too much caffeine was bad for a growing body, but I had been staying up too much lately. I had an hour to look over my preparations for the SX-2 and finish creating the venom they would develop. Afterward, I had to get back and upload the school assignments I had finished weeks ago. After today I will have finished all the assignments for the rest of the school year. Then have a three hour power nap before I made dinner for Dad and me. I would go to the basement after he was asleep and start growing the SX-2 until I found a form that met my needs.

Next year could not come fast enough when I could finally test out of school and focus on my Tinker work. I knew I shouldn’t be complaining. School was a breeze now that I didn’t have to worry about Emma and the others stealing all my assignments. Just being able to focus on my lessons and reading had caused my grades to soar without the side benefits of being a Tinker. I had always done well in English, and having more free time to read made up a little for the lack of social interaction. Biology and Science were so easy now that having to do the assignments seemed like pointless busywork. I had already checked out and read most of the biology and animal science books in the library anyway. I could teach the class better than the teachers had at Winslow.

Now that I think about it, that was a good idea for earning some extra money. I pulled out my ideas notebook, volume 2 and wrote Tutor by the hour next to moneymaking ideas. I needed some extra money for future projects, but I felt guilty asking dad for more after he gave me so much already with a large allowance. When the settlement money from the lawsuits had come in, I though we would have enough to meet all my needs for equipment and materials. I sighed again as I finished cleaning up and started to disinfect my hands, thinking of all the lab equipment I wanted. I hadn’t realized how expensive and hard to get basic lab equipment was. Everything that was sold was carefully tracked because the equipment could be used to cook drugs and worse by others. I had an idea of taking on a job at the hospital that would let me watch patients and doctors to their work. But I would have to convince dad first.He wouldn’t like the idea of me working late at night. But that was when the hospital needed people to watch patients in their rooms, and paid the most.

Glancing at my watch, I unlocked the door to the basement and turned on the light. I had cleaned up the basement a bit, but it was still filled with old boxes of mom’s stuff that dad couldn’t bring himself to get rid of. I moved a few boxes, and crawled under through a little tunnel to the hidden alcove where I stored my lab equipment. I picked up the pheromone bottle that attracted the SX-1 and the glass terrarium. It immediately began uncurling from around my waist and went down my arm to rest under the sun lamp.

I couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride looking at it, despite it looking rather ugly. I had spent a whole day growing it from my the second seed I had made. I had never grown a Lasus before, and my impatience was the cause for how weird it looked. It was a darkish green color, about 3 and half feet long, and looked like a unusual snake. Though the differences became rather obvious after a second look. Its eyes were way too small for one thing. It looked blind at first glance, but it did have tiny eyes both on the left side of its face. The body proportions were a little off compared to other snakes. The most obvious difference was the rattle, which was a bit too over sized compared to a regular rattlesnake. It rarely used the rattle when threatened, even when I sprayed the attack pheromone. I wasn’t sure yet why it never rattled it as a warning like I intended. I didn't yet know if most of its instinct came from it’s base form of a garden snake, or the rattlesnake dna I added to it to the seed it was grown from. I wouldn’t find out until I examined its brain after it died and compared it too the brain of a normal garden and rattle snake. That might be a few weeks off based on how healthy it was at the moment. It had lasted much longer than I predicted based off the crappy quality of the materials and the seed I used to make it.

The poor quality did have an effect on its behavior. It still bumped into things, and would lunge suddenly at the air. The first time it did that made my flail and fall on my butt. While I knew it was friendly, I had removed its fangs and venom sacks almost immediately after that. While the pheromones kept it docile around me and dad, I didn’t want him to freak out if he found it.Trying to explain that I had another new hobby besides the vegetable and flower garden in the backyard would be unusual enough. It involving taking care of weird snakes would be a red flag besides the giant fangs.

I walked over to the cage nearby and pulled out a mouse to feed it. It was enough of a plant that it got part of its energy needs from UV rays, but it still needed to eat regular mice. The MP-3 forms were self-replicating, and the clones would breed fast once I activated that sequence in them. I could save money by not having to buy more mice to feed the future SX models I would grow.

I was dying to make more and determine how different the size could be grown based off the baseform for future experiments. I really needed to grow a creature to a sufficient size before I could use it as a baseform for larger creations. I couldn’t just buy monkeys, farm animals, and bears from the pet store after all. So the plan was to grow young versions of base forms and manipulate it to grow quickly. But that could take weeks of trimming the seed forms, and I didn’t have the time yet in my schedule until I finished the rest of the schoolwork for the year.

I had to be very concise in my schedule to do all of the schoolwork ahead of time, eat, and tinker while moving things around to sleep and work when dad was not at work or asleep himself. For once I was glad that he was so busy that he had to work late all the time. Things had been so busy and hard for him ever since the economy had started tanking. Brockton Bay had benefited greatly when Boston had been sealed, but things were still pretty bad despite the extra benefits from the ships at the dock coming in. Dad usually ate dinner and talked with me when he got home, spent an hour relaxing or watching TV, than went straight to sleep. The lawsuit money had improved our finances dramatically but he still pushed himself to work hard to try and help the workers as work got harder to find.

I walked to the small clear aquarium where my next batch of first generation seeds was being grown. I almost had enough seeds to grow what I wanted. Being a Tinker was a little weird in that I could visualize exactly what I wanted/could make already without experimentation. The problem was figuring out how to backtrack and make the idea work with what I had. I pictured having a half dozen SX models wrapped around my body that I could hide under my clothes. I would give a pheromone to attack, and they would move away from me to deal without whomever I sprayed. Though I would put the pheromone into a breakable paper ball instead of a sprayer for long range. They could also rattle and make noise to scare off anyone who tried to mess with me. Hopefully they would think I could grow snakes out of my body.
That way everyone would guess I was a master rather than a Tinker when I made my debut.

Of course I had no intention of going out as a hero yet. The snakes were just for self-defense when I went out at night to gather materials, and build at my lab. Brockton Bay was dangerous at night, and I wanted something to defend myself before I snuck out. All my other ideas of lusus with night vision, and something I could ride to escape trouble had to wait. I just didn’t have the equipment or materials yet to even begin something like that. I had to go slowly and stay under the radar for as long as possible.

I had done the research on Tinkers and it was pretty depressing. Most didn’t last long by themselves. They were forcibly recruited by gangs, killed to keep someone else from recruiting them, or affiliated in some way with the PRT though they had a lot of restrictions. Only a very few actually seemed to join Toybox, and it was a much smaller organization that I had first pictured. I really didn’t want to work under the PRT, at least not yet. I would have been required to join the wards, and I had enough teen drama when I was at Winslow. This wasn’t getting into the fact that my specialty would scare people with how similar it was to what Nilbog could do. They would be suspicious of and restrict anything I made if I joined them, and I knew that could make a difference in the city.

I had been both excited and filled with apprehension when I figured out my specialty. I can literally create life from raw materials. Fashioning homunculus from stuff I could buy at the garden and drug store. I decided to call my creations lusus naturae, which was latin for whim of nature. I had a million ideas for Lusus to protect people walking the streets at night, and specially made farm animals that required little to take care of them and would help feed people.

I knew how the PRT felt about self producing creations, but they would surely be okay with helping to feed the world. I’d take numerous precautions and I wouldn’t mention the self-replication until I was a trusted hero. To do that I would hide that I was a Tinker until I had enough power to defend myself, and create something useful to sell to the PRT. Researching capes had made me very cautious about not going out until I was ready. There was a grand total of two independent Tinkers that had lasted longer than three years in the United States right now. Though both were villains, and I was going to be a hero.

Void was a tinker in New Orleans whose specialty was a variety of short ranged teleporters. He had lasted so long by being hard to catch, and rumor on PHO was that even his lab moved around. His MO was a high tech thief, teleporting into rich people’s houses and various tech places to steal what he wanted, though it was reported that he had quickly became used to the finer things in life based off the fact that not everything he stole was fenced. He seemed to become more versatile the more familiar he was with an area. He wasn’t as effective outside his territory, and a local group of hero shifters had been his main rivals for years. He was seen as strictly small time until recently when he gained a very high blaster rating. It seemed he had devised a way to teleport a portion of a person away and had killed a powerful local Brute. He had started charging protection for parahumans who entered his territory and tried to assassinate anyone who didn’t pay.

Overmind on the other hand was some type of hive mind tinker in Seattle, with drones and implanted henchman. There was a lot more information on her. She had started as a prostitute called Leshawna Wilson before triggering and being forced to join a local street gang called the ballers almost immediately. The gang had very quickly risen in power with its members becoming similar to commandos, and acting amazingly coordinated against rivals and cops. It seemed they could share skills, communicate information between each other, and had improved reaction times with drones acting as spies and mobile defense platforms. They had quickly taken over the local projects and gangs, swelling in membership and being led by a low level Thinker called Three C. Many local teens had started piercing once side of their forehead with gold jewelry to copy the old implants that weren’t internal like the higher-level members. Despite their power they didn’t really try to expand their territories or operations because of other powerful villains in the city.

No one knows if it was because they weren’t expanding anymore, or she just didn’t like not being in charge but Leshawna, now calling herself Overmind, had simply notified every member of the network that she was now calling the shots. When people tried to fight her, she simply lobotomized or fried the brain of anyone who didn’t follow her orders. Scarily enough there were also rumors that she had control of the motor abilities of those she killed. Under her control, the gang had started to aggressively expand and she was fond of siege tactics that were hard to root out. She had become such a nuisance that the PRT had moved team members around to create a custom team to deal specifically with her, which was starting to prove effective at ousting them.

Luckily I didn’t require as much mechanical equipment as other Tinkers since I worked with biological material. Clumps of earth, distilled water, some drugs from the drug stores, and a custom computer that I bought parts for and managed to put together myself. My main issue had been lab equipment, and a machine shop to build stuff. It had taken me two weeks of carefully mixing a few things with some samples to make my first seeds. While the seeds were amazing they had a lot of flaws and all my lusus simply would not last longer than a few weeks. I didn’t have the tools yet to create the next generation of seed, and it would take money and time to build the basic equipment I wanted to really get started.

I had stolen my basic lab stuff from Winslow, after the principal had refused to take action against Emma and Sophia. It was weird but I felt horribly guilty not at the fact that I stole from the school, but that I didn’t feel guilty at stealing from them. The school had completely failed in its duty to protect me, but it wasn’t like that excused stealing. Dad had raised me better than that, and mom would have lectured me but I just couldn’t feel bad about it. I promised myself that once I was a trusted hero with plenty of sponsors I would pay them back with interest.

And finally things were starting to come together on the start of my equipment to build what I needed to be a hero. It was almost torture to not immediately grab the equipment and materials I needed and start making what I wanted. I had a million ideas for lusus, but learned my lessons from studying Overmind and Void. I took my time gathering materials to not arouse suspicion, trusted no one, would try to hide what I was capable of whenever possible , would take advantage of familiar territory, and would not go out until my equipment was ready.

Once my snakes were grown, I already knew what my first stop would be. I had spent the first week after my trigger just wandering around and taking notes of my tech tree, and what it would take to build up to it. I had carefully made a note of things I could use, and I remembered an old hospital that had closed down on the north end of town a few years ago. I had read about it in a local haunted places of Brockton Bay book, and based on my research they had to have some neuro imaging equipment that I needed to help build something to help “program” my lusus.

The information I could give them right now was very limited, and was sort of like teaching rats how to run a maze but done in a few seconds after creating them. I couldn’t reprogram minds already “programed”, so I had to create brand new snakes to program them to curl around me, and come when I gave a signal. I couldn’t be a good hero if I couldn’t control my creations, and there was no way I would create intelligent ones. I was also hoping to find some copper wire to salvage in the walls, and would teach the snakes to move into and gather it without making holes. I really needed the money for materials before I could build my first human sized model. I had an idea for getting around not having a human sized base for it after watching a documentary on the future of food and scientists efforts to grow meat in a lab. While I needed something living for my current seeds to work, the next generation should hopefully be able to get over that limitation after some work.

I carefully poured the distilled water into the tank, and spent the rest of the hour organizing my samples and materials. I had the seed carefully suspended in the large former fish tank, and checked on the portable generator I had made from a car battery. I looked at a slide of the venom I had extracted from the SX-1, and compared it to other genetic samples of snake venom and drugs on my computer and I researched on a few medical databases that didn’t have good security. I needed venom that would stop a person, but there was no such thing as a perfect tranquilizer for every person. Too little and it did nothing, but too much could be deadly. I had spent almost a week but I had finally thought I had something that would paralyze the nerves without causing pain, but wouldn’t have another other side affects.

Now I just had to create the template for the venom, and copy it in the right place of the DNA of the seed and a copy of the SX-1. Unfortunately I couldn’t yet directly create or modify something from the start. That wasn’t until the very end of the tech tree, and could take years to build up to. Right now I would be stuck using trial and error, while carefully trimming the biological growths of the seed as they developed until I had a form that used that venom. I had a pair of very sharp knives I had turned into scalpels to remove the growths I didn’t want and would put later bury into the garden in the backyard. Luckily the Lusus were enough of a plant that there wouldn’t be unusual dead animal smells to rouse suspicion from the neighbors.

Since the SX-1 forms were not that big, it shouldn't take long to grow and trim forms. But will probably take awhile before I had a form that had the right makeup of venom and would meet my purposes. I could slow the seeds growth but couldn’t stop it from splitting and growing once I started. I would start it tomorrow after dad left in the morning. I had already completed the rest of the schoolwork for this month, and should have sufficient time to grow the right form. Then I could simply clone some more seeds and clone at least half a dozen more SX-2s to defend myself with when I started to go to the lab proper I had spend time making hidden. I was so excited to finally being able to make what I imagined. I’m going to change this city for the better. I know it.





So this is story where Taylor gets Blasto’s shard. Blasto was a character with a lot of wasted potential. His main issue was his lack of control over of what he made, and that he was kind of an crazy. Blasto by word of god was more of villain scientist/researcher than a warlord. Taylor in contrast wants to be hero and this will greatly change how things progress for her. She has more morals that Blasto did, which will limit her in some big ways compared to him. She will be severely limited at first because she refuses to make sentient creations, or make creatures that she can’t control because she wants to be a hero. Though she is far more creative/strategic than Blasto, and this will push her down paths that Blasto would never have thought of. My favorite part of worm had been when Taylor had been a warlord, trying to help people and making tough choices. So this fic will detail her rise as a warlord of the city though with heroic intentions like in canon but much earlier in the timeline, and interacting with the other powers of the city as a powerful independent that is equal to other factions of the city. Similar to worm canon I wanted Taylor to start as a normal person, and will look nothing like she did at the end.

The main difference in this universe is that the Endbringers attacks were in different order, and a few different places. The Simurgh chose to attack Boston when Taylor was little pushing The Teeth and Accord to Brocton Bay. Brockton Bay benefited from the business that went their way after Boston was sealed, and it happened early enough that the Boat Graveyard wasn’t created by angry workers. So there is more work, and the docks are open. Though the world is still slowly being destroyed by the Endbringers causing a depression. The Butcher and Accord’s presence has changed Brockton in several ways. Both the Empire 88 and the ABB have a few more parahumans as the Butcher and Accord have hit the others hard. Lung in particular has a sort of bodyguard to protect him while he bulks up after nearly dying twice to the Butcher and Accord’s ambassadors. The Butcher in particular has changed things drastically for many characters, though that will be shown in future chapters. Accord is allied with Coil and they have a non-aggression pact with their powers greatly benefiting each other. The merchants have been absorbed into the Teeth, and they hold more territory, and Coil’s hold on downtown is much more stable. So despite the fact the Empire and the ABB have more capes, they actually hold less territory than in canon. Though Lung has recently had success pushing the Teeth out of the docks since the Butcher is trying to expand in another city. Cauldron is not experimenting in Brockton Bay since Accord doesn’t want such a thing in his city.

Taylor has a ways to go before she becomes a warlord, but she will be a long time enemy with the other gangs in the city, and Coil will loathe her as an arch enemy before the story is over. Still haven’t thought of a good cape name for her. Well I could see her calling herself Blasto, I think she would pick something else. I know the writing is rough, but any constructive feedback is appreciated. This arc involves Taylor at the first stage of her tech tree, and trying to figure out a way to be a hero with Blasto’s power, and Taylor starting to develop a hypothesis about parahuman powers.

 

So, I just discovered the (NSFW) General CYOA Thread that we have here, and I was struck with an Idea. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

Choose your Own Adventure! (A slightly-meta Worm omake)
Episode 1: Taylor Hebert

I startled into awareness as my vision was assaulted with bright colors and loud music. Considering the last thing I recalled was the dark and disgusting inside of my locker, I was understandable confused at the sudden change. Also, was that... cheering?

As my Eyes adjusted, I noticed that I seemed to be standing in front of some sort of colorful stage that, for all I could tell, seemed to be floating in a sea of blackness.

"Thank you, thank you." Huh, the voice sounded exactly like Alex Trebek. "And welcome to the first ever episode of: Choose Your Own Adventure!" The cheering perked up for a bit before settling down. "I'm your host; ROB, and today we're going to be bringing you a very special guest: Taylor Hebert!"

A spotlight suddenly shone down on me as the invisible audience once again burst into cheers and applause. I only had a a moment to freak out before a glowing figure who I'm guessing was the host gently (but firmly) pulled me toward a raised podium next to some sort of prize-wheel that I'm certain wasn't there a second ago. After placing me on the podium, he continued down front so that he was facing both me and the 'audience'.

"Taylor here comes from Brockton Bay in the dimension known as Earth Bet." My thought process, which was finally beginning to catch up with what was going on ground to a halt at that. If he had to mention the dimension... "For those of you unfamiliar with it; Earth Bet is a world populated with both regular humans and beings known as parahumans who used to be normal humans, but underwent a traumatic event and gained superpowers." Crap, I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore.

I did my best to keep from hyperventilating as 'ROB' continued. "Taylor here, after getting betrayed by her best friend and emotionally tortured for over a year and a half in a way that was almost certainly designed by her tormenters to psychologically break her completely,"

Wait, what? Oh. Oh shit, that made way too much sense. Not for the first time I wondered what the fuck is wrong with those girls. Oh! the host was still talking.

"-Bug control powers, and would use them in a series of unfortunate events which would end up saving not only her world, but countless others." I was a bit to emotionally numb to react to that, even though I had a feeling I would later. "Yes, folks; Taylor here is a real diamond in the rough." I idly noted that the crowd had once again burst into applause.

"Today, we're giving Taylor the choice to change her destiny and Choose Her Own Adventure." I could hear the title drop as the crowd once again burst into applause.

...Wait a minute.

"I have a choice?" The words leave my mouth before I could think better of it.

"Of course; all contestants have the right to refuse to play, in which case they're sent back to their lives with no memory of this."

"I see. So this... game?"

"There are countless worlds in the omniverse." He explains. "Some of them need help, and some of them have people in them that need help. What our show offers is the chance to go on an adventure of your choosing, on a world of your choosing, with advantages and disadvantages you choose ahead of time; all guided by our wonderful Wheel-Of-Adventure." He said as he motioned to the object I was standing next to. "Anything from a quiet life with a couple perks, to adventures that save entire multiverses."

Shooting me an award winning smile (that I could still make out, despite not being able to see any of his features), he continued. "So, Miss Hebert, do you want to give it a spin?"

Some questions immediately sprung to mind, "You said that I was part of saving the world." And countless others. "What will happen If I go?"

"Don't worry, Miss Hebert; someone else will get the job. Rest assured, Earth Bet will be safe. Also, any family you you wish to bring will accompany you on your journey, with their memories altered to make their new life appear normal to them."

For a long minute I stood there before finally coming to a decision. Moving so that I'm facing the wheel, I raise my hand (to much cheering from the audience) before giving it a hard spin.

For an agonizing minute, the brightly-colored wheel span before finally settling on a panel. A bell went off and flashing lights lit up as it did.

"Congratulations, Miss Hebert; You've won the meta-option of Immortality!" Six statues of her appeared on the other side of the wheel, each of them dressed in different outfits. "Meta-options grant you bonus perks in addition to anything else you'll pick wherever you go." He explained as he lead her over to the statues. "Take your time, and select whichever one you want."

I studied the statues for a while. I quickly disregarded The Little Girl; dealing with any of those things for eternity sounded like torture (although the porno one was kinda tempting, considering the lack of consequences those tend to have on things like pregnancy and STDs).

Genie was right out, also; I wanted some control in my life, dammit.

Vampire had a certain allure to it. Although I was never that much of a fan of the vampire craze that seemed to be sweeping the country, I couldn't deny the attractiveness of the thought. Bad sunburns and the need for blood would be a bit inconvenient at first, though.

Reborn sounded kinda handy, but a bit creepy.

As for Eternal Woman; I don't know If I want to be 50 forever.

Nova, on the other hand, sounded very handy if I wanted to be a superhero. From the sound of it, I made a pretty good one in the original timeline (or whatever it's called), and this could literally make me unstoppable for the 100 years I'd live. I was a bit leery on the 'Take Another Spin' clause, though.

So, Vampire or Nova. Both of them had powers and drawbacks. In the end, I walked up to the Vampire one and placed my hand on the bat motif on it (because I want to be able to fly, dammit).

"The winner is Vampire!" 'ROB' announced, followed by a resounding cheer from the audience. "And now, let's spin the wheel again.

I did so. As the wheel spun to a stop, the pointer lands on something called "Little Schoolgirl". Even as the Trebek sound-alike announced the result, I couldn't repress the grimace on my face; thoughts of my most recent school experience flashing before my eyes.

The announcer must have seen it too, because he immediately spoke up. "Don't worry Miss Hebert. Like I said, this is Choose Your Own Adventure." He explained as he lead me to the side of the stage, where more objects had appeared. "You get to pick what kind of experience you'll be having in your new school at whichever world matches your selection. Also, if you complete your task within a year's time, you'll have the option of returning to Earth Bet with any friends, abilities, and items you want to bring with you." That did console me somewhat, but I was still a bit leery of the whole thing.

After taking a deep breath to settle my nerves, I walked up to examine my options.

For Age, I decided to stick with 15. No sense making things overly-complicated.

After that I was given 20 golden-star tokens to use to make selections.

First up was selecting a challenge, which took the form of paintings of different scenes that I instinctively understood the meaning behind.

I wanted adventure, so I dismissed the easier options pretty quickly. The horror one sounded rather intriguing, I'll admit. Then again, Emma was the one who got freaked out at horror movies, I usually enjoyed them. The war one sounded like my best bet to be a hero, but this would be an actual war, not superheros against supervillains. The one about the food-thief sounded intriguing, but there had to be a reason it was so cheap, compared to the others. The one about busting the bullies, I dismissed outright after reading the title. If I wanted to deal with bullies, I'd have stayed on Bet. I finally decided to go with 'Something in the Dark"; after all, as a vampire, I was uniquely suited to working at night.


Making my decision, I moved on to the choice of what kind of world I wanted to be sent to. It looks like there were a bunch of worlds that fit the criteria, but only one of them took place in the modern world, and that was in Tokyo. Looks like no matter what I choose I'll be out of my element. ...Odd, there are a bunch of different schools from different time periods throughout history. From what I remember, though; public schooling only really became a thing fairly recently.

There were also some more fantastic worlds including some with elves and other fantasy creatures, a bunch worlds with futuristic technology, and even a few with both. None of them sound all that appealing, though... wait a minute: this one is a modern-day magic-school (still in Tokyo, though). If I learn magic, I can go back to Earth Bet at the end of my time and teach others! The possibilites were endless!

3 stars later, and I was effectively registered for magic-school, my family having immigrated to Japan a year ago. I checked with ROB confirmed that I'd be able to speak Japanese with only a little accent.

After that, I got to play around with my appearance a bit. I made myself a bit shorter and curved, but I didn't change much aside from that. I'll admit, it was tempting to pick the 'beauty' option, but the rational side of my brain stopped me from wasting four stars on what I knew was a frivolous perk. Besides, despite what Emma and her friends said, I still held some hope that I'd be as beautiful as mom, one day. I'm also able to fix my eyesight for free, something I'm insanely happy about.

Next was... seating? Really? Well, I might as well take the front-row seat if I'm going to be learning magic and stuff, and it's only 1 star.

The next part was rather odd, since the paintings disappeared and were replaced by seemingly ordinary items. Interacting with them put the lie to that, though. The items represented perks and minor powers that she could use to enhance herself.

The chef's hat is tempting, and I resolve to pick it up if I have any stars left; as a treat for dad, if nothing else. I pass on the energetic candy, but the snow-globe sounds useful, so I pay the two stars for it. The staff was tempting, but if I'm already learning magic, it'd be a bit of a waste of stars. The glasses are also tempting at first glance, but I just fixed my eyesight, so why would I want to make it worse again just for some magical binoculars. The little steel blade... no; I can feel the blood-lust coming off of it. I pass on the headband, also; I can already shape-shift. The black teacup looks like it would go well with the vampire thing I have going, so I grab that as well. The safety razor... no. The teddy-bear is tempting, but I already have the snow-globe and the teacup; besides, I don't want to abuse my cuteness like Maddison did. I also decide to pass on the broom and pebble.

I stop as I get to the section about home-life. There are pictures of us moving to Japan. Picture of me with my mom and dad. Both of them. I break down crying tears of joy as I realize that, no matter what happens, I'll get my mother back out of this. It takes me a few minutes before I manage to compose myself from that.

Moving to the next section with a new spring in my step, I start looking through the list of friends and family they offer. An adopted sibling was definitely tempting; I've always wanted a sister. I decide to pass on any extended relatives. All six options for friends look pretty awesome, and since I have 12 points to spare, I decide to grab all of them.

Okay, since I have 6 stars left, I decide to grab Athleticism for 3, Mayumi and 'Uncle' Kojiro for one each (again, always wanted to have an older sister, and Kojiro sounds useful to have around, especially for dealing with whatever is haunting the town), and... the chef's hat.

Finishing up, I turn to address ROB. "Done." I state simply.

There's a cheer from the 'crowd' as I do. "Excellent! Good luck in your new adventure, Miss Hebert." With that, he claps his hands together, and the world slowly fades out, catchy show-tune music playing all the while.

***

This was oddly fun to write. I'll have to do it for more characters.

A lot longer than I thought it would be, though.

In case anyone's wondering, I rolled randomly to see what kind of CYOA she'd get. I took a few creative Liberties with the Little Schoolgirl CYOA in order to help it fit.

Edit: Made some quick changes to help with the flow, but it still could probably use some work.

 

How Taylor stopped worrying and became a magical girl! Hehehehe. (Worm/Kaleidostick Ruby)

Warning: Contains crack and magical girl shenanigans.



There are many different dimensions out there with many different universes, each reflect the infinite choices that are made day by day by people living in them. This is the story of one of the silly times Zelretch visited a city named Brocklen bay. Yes... Zelretch arrive on Earth Bet. But this time he is going to HALP!

At ten years old, Taylor knew much about the world and how it worked. The super hero's beat up bad guys, the Super Villains are jerks, Alexandria can fly, Her mother teaches English and her best friend always turns red every time Taylor hugs her lately. That last one worries her that her best friend might be getting sick, poor girl almost fainted the last time Taylor checked her temperature by placing her forehead against hers.

Anyway, the ten year old Taylor knows much about the world and she prided herself on it. But no where did she ever hear of a flying balistic hitting her on the head in her own backyard. Complete with playing cards scattering all over her.

So Taylor, after holding her head in her hands saying ow repeatedly, finally got up to meet her destiny
.
"Hiya!" A cheerful voice, coming out of a pink circle with a star in it center that is somehow flying with wings.

Taylor Hebert, knowledgeable ten year old girl and soon to be magical girl, promptly did what any other ten year old would do in her situation. She met the ground again in a dead faint.

Ten minutes later, Taylor woke up with a start and stared at the winged thing that was poking her.

"Hiya!" The thing repeated. Causing Taylor to really stare at it. "Hiya?" The thing animated a sweat drop in response of the intensely staring ten year old girl.

"Are you some sort of tinker-tech toy?" The girl asked.

"What? NO! I am not!" The thing exclaimed.

"Reaaalllly?" The girl questioned and continued her intense staring, causing the thing to really start to animate sweating.

"I am the great, the magnificent Kaledostick Ruby!" The girl continued to stare at Ruby as it did some silly poses. "I was made and sent here by the great Wizard Marshal Zelretch himself to-"

"So the tinker named Zelretch threw you at my face, I will remember that." Taylor interrupted with a slightly menacing tone, for a ten year old. Let it not be said that Taylor Hebert does not know how to hold grudges.

Meanwhile at Fugly Bob's, a certain 3000 year old vampire had a chill run down his spine. He shrugged it off and started to break the record for Fugly Bob's challenger. Chubuster is going to be pissed.

"Zelretch is not a Tinker! He is a wizard!" Ruby shouted, completely ignoring the menacing tone Taylor had taken when she said Zelretch.

"Magic isn't real." Taylor said, her voice filled with disbelief.

"It is! Just because your world has super hero's that run on space whale bullshit does not make magic any less real!"

"Space wha-" Taylor started to say before she was interrupted.

"And another thing, what happen to the fantasies of a child?! If I said magic a normal child would have gotten excited!" Ruby continued to rant.

"What spac-" Taylor tried again.

"God damn, my Master just had to be one of those science twits that think they know everything about the universe! Whats next, a kid is going to gain electromagnetism and call herself Railgun?!"

Meanwhile in Japan, a certain 14 year old girl sneezed and then was glomped by a teleportor.

"Are you done?" Taylor asked with an annoyed tone.

"Yes..." Ruby said breathing heavily," yes I am."

"Why did you call me master?" Taylor asked, forgetting about the space whales during the long rant that was conveniently cut short.

"Oh, yeah." Ruby clears her non existent throat. "You have been chosen to be a magical girl! To right wrongs! Fight great injusti- where are you going?"

"No." Taylor continued to walk away.

"Wait!" Ruby Shouted.

"What is it?" Taylor asks and she stops and turns around.

"At least let me wipe the blood from your nose! Your mom and dad might worry if you come in with a bloody nose after all!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Ok..." Taylor said, not noticing Ruby gleam a little.

"Here you go." Ruby wiped the blood away from Taylor's nose. "Would you mind also picking up those cards for me? I don't have hands."

Taylor looks at Ruby suspiciously and then shrugs. "Sure."

Taylor reached down only to grab Ruby's rod end.

"Contract established! We will make the best magical girl out of you yet my master!"

"WHAT?!"

Taylor's world became filled with bright light and evil laughter.

-----------------------------------FutureClockblockerskips------------------------------------------

"Ruby..."

"Yes Taylor?" Ruby learned better to call Taylor any form of master or mistress.

"Why are we at the boat graveyard?" Taylor questioned.

"So I can can teach you the fine art of the magical girl!"

"Ok...?"

"Starting with beam spamming all of your problems away!"

"Oh."

"Now get suited up! It is SHOW TIME!" Cheesy magical transformation music starts playing everywhere.

"Do I have to?" The music abruptly stops.

"Yes, Taylor."

"But.."

"I know Taylor."

"The..."

"We had this discussion before Taylor."

"How.."

"Magic will disguise you to anyone who isn't your love interest Taylor."

"Why..."

"Do not know why it works like that but it just does Taylor."

"That..."

"Its magic Taylor, it is not supposed to make sense."

"Ok."

"Right, it is show time!" Cheesy magical transformation music starts playing out of no where.

This time Taylor is in engulfed in a bright light. Doing poses, twirls and everything magical girls do during these spectacular events that any word descriptions of would only be inferior to it being animated.
When the bright light died down, Taylor was transformed! Armed with a pink, backless blouse where the end it meets the white skirt she has looks like flower petals, with a huge pink ribbon on her back and a white cape that turns pink at the tips.Wearing white gloves with sleeves that are not attached to her blouse! Pink white feathers in her long light brown hair, and pink stylish knee high boots, ten year old Taylor Hebert is now the very definition of innocent magical girl!

And she shall hate Zeltrech forever for it.

"Ah, the magical girl transformation sequence. It brings a tear to my eyes."

"You don't have any! Besides, I hate this outfit."

"Nonsense! Looking like a cute innocent girl allows you to get away with genocide of any forces of darkness you will be forced to face!"

"What?" Taylor glared down at Ruby.

"Nothing!" Ruby said quickly.

"We will talk about this later." Taylor said quietly in a tone that gave Ruby chills.

"Now, now Taylor! Look around you, what do you see?" The kaledostick asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Junk."

"Always with the short answers with you." Ruby sighs," you are wrong, what I see is acceptable targets!"

"Still junk."

"Shut up and hold me like a baseball bat."

"Like this?" Taylor proceeds to do so.

"Yes! Now imagine a ball in front of you."

"Got it."

"Great! Now see that wreck over there?"

"Yes."

"Now take a swing and imagine the ball hitting it."

Taylor did so, causing a pink beam of death to shoot out hitting the wreck, making it explode brilliantly with much fanfare and CG graphics.

"That was good for a first try, Taylor." Ruby stated.

"Taylor?" Ruby questioned.

"Taylor?!" Ruby exclaimed!

"Whoa," Taylor eloquently said, snapping out of her awe. "I do not care much for the beam color but that was pretty awesome!"

"I know right?"

"I am going to do it again!" Taylor exclaimed excitingly
.
And so, our hero started to enthusiastically rain pink death on the boat grave yard.

'She is growing up to be a fine magical girl.' Ruby thought with a sniff as Taylor started to fly without realizing it.

Taylor paused in her one woman quest for boat destruction as her enhanced hearing picked up a motorcycle coming her way.

"CHEESE IT, ITS THE COPS!" Ruby yelled, causing Taylor to react on instinct and fly away from the scene of the crime.

"Wait... why did I run away?" Taylor asked as she made it home.

"Government officials frown on property damage and are the bane of magically girls everywhere." Ruby calmly stated.

"RRRUUUBBBYYY!!" Taylor shouted with anger and started chasing after the winged circle.

It was just another quite night in the neighborhood.

-----------------------------------FutureClockblockerskips------------------------------------------

It was a scene of mass destruction. Groaning men and women lay around everywhere, the buildings are nothing but rumble. Our young hero finds herself being questioned by Armsmaster again, but this time it was caught on the news!

"Kaledo Ruby... how did this even happen? And how is no one dead?" Armsmaster questioned Taylor carefully, as he learned pissing her off was a bad idea.

"Weeelllll..." Taylor started the immensely long tale that I do not feel like writing about how she ran into some merchant mooks and ended up raining pink beams of death on all the Merchants.

Armsmaster nodded at the right places as she did.

"And then they insulted my mother." Taylor said in a quite, menacing tone she developed after months of hanging around Ruby.

Armsmaster paled. During Kaledo Ruby's debut, the PRT and Protectorate learned how to handle the delusional young parahuman girl who was rated a blaster 12. That included finding out her berserk buttons and leaking them so the girl does not accidentally nuke the city in a berserk rage.

The Merchants apparently did not get the memo.

"And that is why they were all punished!" Taylor finished cheerfully.

"Thank you for giving your statement, please be careful to minimize the collateral damage in the future and fly safely." Armsmaster stated.

"I will and thank you!" Taylor looked at the news camera and gave a cheerful wave and flew off.

"Don't see why we can't force her in the wards, her fights always leads to a lot of collateral damage." A man that looked like he came from Rome said as he walked up to Armsmaster.

"Dauntless, you know Director Costa-Brown had stated herself that we do not interfere with her and all of our thinkers agreed."

"She thinks she is a magical girl."

"Delusional or not, letting her free actually reduced a lot of crime rates. Probably more so than if she was in the Wards."

"Is the destruction really worth it?" Taking in the scene before him.

"We can only hope so." Armsmaster stated quietly.


-----------------------------------FutureClockblockerskips------------------------------------------

"Taylor! OMG! Are you alright?! Did the Merchants do anything to you? Do I need to get my knife?" Emma continued to ramble on as she hugged Taylor to death.

"Emma... air." Taylor managed to choke out from the embrace.

"Woops, sorry!" Emma let Taylor go.

"The Merchants did nothing to me so don't worry. They just insulted my mother... I mean I am not Kaledo Ruby!" Taylor exclaimed.

"Oh, I know." Emma gave Taylor a sly grin.

"Why are you in my room Emma?" Taylor asked quickly changing the subject and noticing the red head wearing cute panda pajamas.

"Remember we were going to have a sleep over today? Silly Taylor." Emma stated cheerfully.

"Oh, right... how did I forget that?" Taylor questioned herself as Ruby started to snicker.

"So, how is it like to fly and beat up bad guys?" Emma questioned as she sat down on Taylors bed.

"It is actually very fun and stress relieving." Taylor answered as she sat on her computer chair. "I mean I am not Kaledo Ruby!" Taylor shouted as she noticed her slip up.

"I know you are Kaledo Ruby, Taylor. I saw you wave at the news-camera."

Ruby started to snicker louder.

"Wait, how did you see me? The mag- stranger rating I have should prevent anyone but my love interest from recognizing me in costume!" Taylor exclaimed as Ruby started to float by her head and snicker even louder.

Taylor then noticed Emma's face light up in a brilliant shade of red. Then she thought back to all of the hugs and the way Emma would blush at the contact and even if her face got close to hers.

"Oh." Taylor said as she stared at Emma shifting awkwardly.

Ruby started to laugh.

"Shut up Ruby!" Taylor exclaimed as she slapped Ruby to the ground.

Ruby only laughed even harder.

-----------------------------------FutureClockblockerskips------------------------------------------

"Mom, dad, I am sorry I have to do this!" Taylor yelled over the blaring sirens that signaled the coming of an Endbringer.

"Taylor Don't go!" Taylor's dad exclaimed.

"Taylor get down here right this instant!" Taylor mom yelled, tears started welling up around her eyes.

Taylor looked down at them and showed them a resolute expression.

"I am Magical Girl Kaledo Ruby, I am the champion of Gaia. It is my responsibility to destroy these abominations." Taylor stated softly. "I will not allow them to do as they please any more!" Taylor yelled and started to fly away at full speed.

"TAYLOR/TAYLOR!" Taylor's parents yelled after her in vain, her mother started to cry.

"You are the best master I could have ever hoped for Taylor." Ruby stated softly as they made their way to where the hero's meet up.

"Shut up Ruby," Taylor sniffled, "stupid rain."

Ruby wisely kept silent for once.

-----------------------------------FutureClockblockerskips------------------------------------------


Hero's were being incinerated left and right, Behemoth decided to stop playing games after taking an Excaliblast to the face. While the broken girl could only look in horror at the carnage before her. Legend was dead, so many had fallen. And it was her fault for causing the Endbringer to be reduced to a skeleton.

"It is all my fault..." Taylor said softly and coughs up some blood.

"Taylor! It is not your fault! You couldn't have known it was holding back all this time, that they were all holding back all this time!" Ruby started yelling, trying to get Taylor back in the game.

"No... it makes sense in the long run. They were just playing with us, slowly causing us to go extinct." Taylor started to say as she struggled to get up.

"We never had a chance... but that changes today!" Taylor yelled as she got up.

"ARCHER INCLUDE!" Taylor roared!

Taylor's clothes changed into a more feminine version on the Counter guardian known as EMIYA.

"I may not be able to call myself a hero after this." with a soft trace on, Taylor started to gather as much prana as she can. "I may not even be able to consider myself human anymore." Taylor stated as a golden sword sheaf started to form in front of her. "But I do not care." Taylor grafted the imitation of Avalon to her soul and flooded it with prana, forcing it to heal her completely.

"I have the lifetimes of all the heroes and villains I have been, Grafted in my soul so their legends will live on in the modern day."

Taylor traced her bow and loaded an arrow. "Caliborn II" Taylor fired and the arrow exploded on Behemoths face, causing it to pay attention to her.

"I walk a path shaped by many lives. Whether good or ill."

Taylor traced two Excalibur's in her hands and charged the Behemoth and it shot lighting at her. She deflected it easy without losing any of her speed. Absolutely glowing with Prana.

"Forged by the kaleidescope, shaped by Gaia."

Taylor deflected more lightning bolts, the hero's that witnessed this day will say that the Behemoth started to panic as Taylor got closer.

"Hero, villain, god, demon it does not matter. I am one, and I am all."

Taylor finally made it to Behemoth and glared at him.

"For this is the requiem of my soul, of the infinite potential I now bear." Taylor finished softly.

Both her and Behemoth were engulfed in a brilliant light.

They found themselves in a Brocklen Bay that is in perpetual night with a full crimson moon in the night sky.

"So Behemoth, you think you can handle me? You do not have enough lives." Taylor stated calmly to the abomination as they were surrounded by many different versions of Taylors. Taylors wielding included heroic cards as well as Taylor who looked like they belonged to the night. Infinite possibility all shown.

When the reality marble faded only Taylor was left standing. Holding on to a dormant Ruby, looking at her sadly.

The hero's and villains cheered at Behemoth's death.

-----------------------------------FutureClockblockerskips------------------------------------------

Mini-Interlude 1- Piggot.

You mean to tell me the delusional parahuman girl not only did something that knocked out every precog in the world and gave all of the thinkers severe headaches, killed Behemoth and is returning to Brocklen Bay with a revealed civilian identity?

"Yes." the person on the other line of the phone said.

"That is what I thought you said Chief Director." Piggot said calmly as she hung up the phone.

Piggot stared at the ceiling in silence before deciding something. She pushed a button on the intercom.

"Yes ma'm?" Her secretary asked.

"Get me an appointment scheduled with that new healer called Panacea. I am to sober for this shit."

Mini-Interlude 2- Zeltrech

"Well this worked out pretty well." The old man said silently as he loomed over the sleeping form of Taylor.

"Even given what she achieve today, she is still sad." Zeltrech looked at the dormant form of Ruby Taylor was clutching in her sleep.

"Ah, I see." The old true ancestor said as he gently took Ruby from Taylor's grasps. "She manage to overload Ruby with that stunt." Zeltrech smile sadly.

"This will be my last gift for you Taylor. May you find happiness in your life and give this world the true happy ending it deserves." Zeltrech stated as he fixed Ruby.

"Zeltrech?" The newly awakened Ruby asked.

"Keep an eye on her Ruby, your job is not done yet."

"I will!"

"Farewell Taylor Hebert. Who knows, we may meet again soon. The Kaleidescope has infinite possibilities after all, and I haven't seen it all yet."

Zeltrech opens up a portal and starts humming a tune he did for when Taylor was little as he walks through it.

----------------------------------------------------The End--------------------------------------

Omake

-5 years later-

"Ruby."

"Yes Taylor?"

"Why does my body still look like it is ten?"

"Think it happened because of the Behemoth all those years ago, like when you flooded Avalon with infinite prana or it might be Gaia's doing. I think you might age like a dragon. Gaia liked them after all."

"Does this mean that I would be going through puberty for at least one-hundred years?"

"I believe so."

"GOD DAMN IT!"

---

Well, I finished this oneshot because honestly the damn thing kept getting stuck in my head. If someone wants to adopt this and actually make a story out of this go ahead. Remember this is crack, it is meant to be silly and over the top. That is why this Taylor is one of the most powerful Taylors and why Taylor and Emma are acting the way they are.

As for Emma, well, apparently Magical girls can only have yuri relationships or be shipped with girls.

As For Zeltrech. The reason why he did this was actually half entertainment and half wanting to see Taylor get a happier life. She kinda grew on him when he became her grandfather figure.

Grandpa Zeltrech is best Zeltrech.

The reason why she didn't recognize his name is because He went by the name Robort Oh' Baily.