Chapter 58: Getting An Entire Family To Drink Your Zoomy Juices Sounds Almost Inappropriate When You Put It That Way.
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Chapter 58: Getting An Entire Family To Drink Your Zoomy Juices Sounds Almost Inappropriate When You Put It That Way.
January 16, 2010, Saturday. Brockton Bay, Pelham House.
After a brief moment of surprise from around the room, Sarah spoke to answer Bella's question. "First of all, I'm proud of you for asking and not just jumping on the opportunity Bella." She said, once again showing off her famous Photon Mom energy.
"There are a few upsides and downsides to consider." Sarah continued. "The upsides are somewhat obvious; a power boost making you effectively a low-level Parahuman without going through a Trigger event, god knows lots of people would wish for powers in a bottle if they could get them." Eevee, no, Dave shivered at that, hard. Hard enough that everybody noticed, though Sarah, Crystal, and Bella had all seen Dave do that before and so didn't say anything, and Vicky and Amy didn't say anything upon realizing nobody else was going to comment on it.
"Anyways," Sarah said, regathering her thoughts. "A speed boost is an excellent way to escape, and we simply live in a dangerous world, and as the closest friend of my daughter, an open Cape, you are in a little more danger than most. It would also, if I understand it correctly, give you an equivalent of a Thinker power by allowing you to think faster, giving you an advantage in the everyday parts of your life, even including school, as it would likely allow you to complete your homework faster."
At that comment, Amy, Vicky, and Crystal all sat up straighter and their eyes lit up in eagerness.
"However," Sarah said. "The downsides are worth taking into consideration. If you are caught using them, you would be outed as a 'Parahuman' without actually having a full set of powers to protect yourself, though Dave's items could help with that. That aside, if someone realizes exactly what power you have, it could risk revealing Dave's identity when they connect the dots that the two of you are friends, particularly after people realize that Dave can grant that power to anyone, people will wonder why a non-Parahuman would be given the speed boost power, and quickly realize there is a connection in your civilian identities."
Bella frowned at that. It had sounded like it was just generally upsides until the part about the risk to Dave's identity came out.
"I don't particularly care if that happens." Eevee said at that point. When everyone turned to her, she shrugged and continued. "Having a civilian identity is nice and all, but my only real friend, or even acquaintance, that isn't a Parahuman is Bella, and while I wouldn't unmask myself willingly under normal circumstances, if it resulted in her getting better protection, I'm willing to risk it. The biggest downsides for me when it comes to unmasking, would be Bella's safety and the unwanted fame and ability to go grocery shopping in peace."
As Eevee thought about it, she found less objections. "Actually," Eevee added, "even the grocery shopping in peace part could probably be handled with a fake ID and a form change to something more normal looking that isn't my real appearance. So really, if it improves Bella's safety, my identity being at risk shouldn't be a reason to refuse." Eevee said.
Sarah looked on in approval and a little bit of pride at that, both the heroicness of it and the act of thinking it through. Amy and Vicky, actually looked at the scene with a bit of admiration at seeing a genuine heroic moment… even if it was slightly ruined by the fact it was a scantily clad, buff, sexy, furry that was saying it.
Crystal meanwhile, was simply satisfied and smug at seeing everyone see how good her choice in friends was.
Sarah smiled and said, "Well, those were the biggest concerns I could think of. As you wouldn't actually be a Parahuman, you wouldn't end up with the need to use your powers that we have, so you could just keep it in reserve to use in emergencies if you want. So, at this point, I'd say it's up to you what you want to do." She told Bella.
Bella nodded solemnly, and grabbed one of the Stamina Perk bottles, before chugging the entire thing and letting out a burp. Then glaring at Eevee for some reason.
Eevee shrugged helplessly. "What? The soda items all work that way. You have to drink the entire thing for it to work, and they take effect at the forced burp afterwards. I can't do anything about the burp, and even if I could, it would just turn it into regular soda instead of something that gives superpowers. You saw Li—I mean Foxy drink it, you should have realized."
"I forgot about it." Bella grumped. Then brightened up as she pointed at Eevee. "I demand tail time as compensation!"
Eevee shrugged and waved her tail in front of Bella's face, where it was quickly grabbed and started to receive pets.
Crystal Pelham
Crystal, like usual, managed to accumulate more responsibilities by just being alive. She cottoned on— heh, cottoned on, when Eevee is all fluffy like cotton—to Bella's plan as soon as the sexy Eevee in the bikini walked into the living room.
While she very much enjoyed the show, she was now going to have to figure out what to do about Amy being obviously interested in women, and Vicky showing some interest as well. It was... probably best to handle them one at a time? Definitely not right now, maybe wait until tomorrow for Amy to sound her out after sort of ambushing her yesterday about her power and the Marquis stuff. Vicky… is admittedly less mature than Amy in general, but Crystal figured Vicky would probably take a conversation seriously.
Unfortunately, she would need to handle both conversations herself. She was pretty sure Mom had noticed both girls' interest in the admittedly attractive Eevee form Dave had taken, but Mom also wasn't very helpful when Crystal herself had found out she was also interested in girls. Granted, she was supportive, but she couldn't relate to being interested in ladies.
As the most senior member of New Wave that wasn't straight (that she knew of anyways), it was going to be up to Crystal to give these two the Brockton Bay talk about their interests.
Hopefully neither of them go into denial about it… that would be an absolute pain in the ass.
On the bright side, Hurricane Dave, or Hurricane Eevee in this case, had been extremely effective at breaking Amy out of her moping, and successfully distracted Vicky from trying to figure out what was wrong with her sister.
Right, just need to give my younger cousins the talk about being interested in girls while being a girl in a city overrun by Nazis, in a post-Legend world at that. This is going to be so complicated isn't it? At least it's future Crystal's problem. Present Crystal gets to enjoy a cool power-up.
The rest of New Wave had finished their patrol and agreed to meet at the Pelham house after receiving a message from Sarah.
Upon entering, they were met by an unusual sight.
(There are no Oscar Trophies present in the scene though)
It was a man in a suit… but with Thomas the Tank Engine wearing pixelated sunglasses in place of a head.
"Come on in me chaps, have a nice cup of tea." Dave invited them in while uses his best British accent.
After everyone had actually entered the house, he clarified, "I don't actually have any tea, this isn't my house."
"I'm aware this isn't your house." Eric said as he sat down. "And I don't think Uncle Mark or Aunt Carol drink tea anyways."
"Well that's okay," Dave said, returning to his normal voice and accent. "I may not have tea, but I have soda!"
While Sarah pulled Carol to the side, everyone else received an explanation on the Speed Gun and the Stamina Perk items.
After the explanation was over, Eric immediately spoke. "I want both. I'm already the slowest flyer, but I also have the strongest forcefields, so the Speed Gun thing will just help cover my weaknesses." He glanced at all the adults in the room and belatedly added "And it will let me escape unfavorable situations more easily." He seemed to believe adding that to his argument would make it more likely he would be allowed to get it.
Neil on the other hand, had simply shrugged. "Obviously we will probably all want the triple speed with no downsides. I'll happily take the quintuple speed as well, even if I probably won't use it much for actual movement. It's just risky for someone like me to move that fast without the reflexes to avoid hitting someone, that would be like running them over with a truck at fifteen times my normal speed. I'm already a bit faster than a normal person because of my increased strength, so going full speed would just be a bad idea in most circumstances."
"However," he added, "it would come in handy in some circumstances, and with it being adjustable and toggleable, it has no real downsides as long as I don't use it when I shouldn't, and I like to think I'm experienced enough to judge when that is." He said somewhat humbly. "Plus, if I understand it right, it would let me hit a lot harder, because I could make my punches or kicks or tackles five times faster."
Mark had similar reasoning. "Yeah, that's about the same for me, except I'm not generally in close combat, and I might break my fist if I tried to punch someone at fifteen times speed, so I probably won't use it for that unless absolutely necessary. But, as Neil said, it being toggleable and adjustable means I can use my judgement on when to use it and to what extent. It's almost always better to have more options available. This is a little niche, but the Speed Gun thing isn't quite an exception to that."
Then he added. "Of course, the triple speed with the reflex boost and minor Thinker power is obviously something I'd be happy and honored to accept."
At this point, Victoria gave him her best puppy dog eyes, and asked "So… does that mean I can take both too?"
Mark looked at her thoughtfully. "You can drink the bottle, and after Neil and I, and your mother and aunt if they decide to use it, have experimented and trained with the Speed Gun boost, we'll see. You'll need probably need to do some training before and after though, just like with the Flopper, which you are almost ready to take I'd say. Just be aware that if you do decide to use the Speed Gun boost Vicky, that you will not be allowed to patrol until we are certain you have both the Flopper power and your new speed under control."
"What?" Vicky exclaimed. "Why?" She demanded.
Mark just looked at her dryly. "Because you would need to get used to both of them, and either one of them by themselves could easily turn a civilian into splatter if you aren't careful with it. Both could easily see you turning multiple civilians into splatter if you get even a little reckless."
Then, Mark went for the killing blow. "Your tendency to show off, like that stunt you pulled at school that we got a call about, could have easily killed at least one person if you had pulled that after having the Flopper and were going fifteen times faster than you were expecting to go and hadn't trained to get used to your new speed." He said, referring to the incident earlier in the school year when Vicky had cracked the concrete in front of the school by doing a dramatic landing on it.
While Vicky was gaping at the idea of facing consequences for her actions several months prior, Mark turned to Amy. "What about you, did you want the Speed Gun boost?" He asked gently. He wasn't sure what was up with her, but he could tell she had been feeling off since yesterday evening, and now that his depression was better, he was determined to do his best to be there for her.
Amy shook her head. "No, I'm not too interested in the other speed thing either."
Mark paused at that. "Are you sure? I won't force you of course, but it would make me feel a lot better if you could escape a bad situation more easily."
"I was still going to take it anyway," Amy assured him. "If only because Sarah theorized that it would help with schoolwork because I would be able to think, read, and write three times as fast as before."
"Still," Mark said. "I would encourage you to explore what it offers a little more. I've felt better about your safety since you started exercising and learning to use a firearm. If you're anything like me, you might find that exercise can help your mental state as well, which is particularly important since you have hospital work, which is famously one of the most stressful jobs in the world. If you want to take up running in the mornings with me, let me know." He said, and patted her shoulder.
"I'll think about it." She told him. Though, the burritos might also be able to give her a caffeine boost if she could finagle the right settings. Then, combined with the healing and nutrition, she might be able to actually handle mornings. Truly, the world had changed since Dave crashed into the life of New Wave.
Author's Note: Another Chapter down! Yeahya!...
Unfortunately, I'm going to have to announce that I will be changing my release schedule to 5 chapters per week for now. This chapter simply took a lot longer than I was expecting without ending up any longer in wordcount, and I don't want to burn out by trying to write at least one chapter every day. I did it pretty easily early on, because I was so excited to share the story that was in my head and explore it by actually writing it out.
I still am excited of course, but now that the initial burst of energy is gone, I don't want to try to force myself to maintain that pace. As funny as it would be to end up writing over 1 million words in a year if I did manage to keep it up… I don't think that's going to happen.
Depending on how things go, the release schedule will likely either remain at 5 per week, slow down to 3 or 4 per week, or move up to 6 or 7 per week. In any of these scenarios, once I finally get my stockpile to its goal, I will end up releasing extra chapters whenever the stockpile gets too large.
I just want to actually have my stockpile be at its initial goal for once dammit! I've never actually gotten the stockpile up to the 15-chapter mark that I had hoped it would get to.
For the chapter itself… I promise, next chapter, we will see a new Toy and Dave will visit the Firefighter Department. I'm afraid the rest of New Wave reacting to the dildo weaponry will have to happen off-screen however, just in order to keep things moving along.
Author's Note 2: Obviously, I've already moved to 5 chapters per week, so feel free to ignore that part of the original Author's Note.
January 16, 2010, Saturday. Brockton Bay, Pelham House.
After a brief moment of surprise from around the room, Sarah spoke to answer Bella's question. "First of all, I'm proud of you for asking and not just jumping on the opportunity Bella." She said, once again showing off her famous Photon Mom energy.
"There are a few upsides and downsides to consider." Sarah continued. "The upsides are somewhat obvious; a power boost making you effectively a low-level Parahuman without going through a Trigger event, god knows lots of people would wish for powers in a bottle if they could get them." Eevee, no, Dave shivered at that, hard. Hard enough that everybody noticed, though Sarah, Crystal, and Bella had all seen Dave do that before and so didn't say anything, and Vicky and Amy didn't say anything upon realizing nobody else was going to comment on it.
"Anyways," Sarah said, regathering her thoughts. "A speed boost is an excellent way to escape, and we simply live in a dangerous world, and as the closest friend of my daughter, an open Cape, you are in a little more danger than most. It would also, if I understand it correctly, give you an equivalent of a Thinker power by allowing you to think faster, giving you an advantage in the everyday parts of your life, even including school, as it would likely allow you to complete your homework faster."
At that comment, Amy, Vicky, and Crystal all sat up straighter and their eyes lit up in eagerness.
"However," Sarah said. "The downsides are worth taking into consideration. If you are caught using them, you would be outed as a 'Parahuman' without actually having a full set of powers to protect yourself, though Dave's items could help with that. That aside, if someone realizes exactly what power you have, it could risk revealing Dave's identity when they connect the dots that the two of you are friends, particularly after people realize that Dave can grant that power to anyone, people will wonder why a non-Parahuman would be given the speed boost power, and quickly realize there is a connection in your civilian identities."
Bella frowned at that. It had sounded like it was just generally upsides until the part about the risk to Dave's identity came out.
"I don't particularly care if that happens." Eevee said at that point. When everyone turned to her, she shrugged and continued. "Having a civilian identity is nice and all, but my only real friend, or even acquaintance, that isn't a Parahuman is Bella, and while I wouldn't unmask myself willingly under normal circumstances, if it resulted in her getting better protection, I'm willing to risk it. The biggest downsides for me when it comes to unmasking, would be Bella's safety and the unwanted fame and ability to go grocery shopping in peace."
As Eevee thought about it, she found less objections. "Actually," Eevee added, "even the grocery shopping in peace part could probably be handled with a fake ID and a form change to something more normal looking that isn't my real appearance. So really, if it improves Bella's safety, my identity being at risk shouldn't be a reason to refuse." Eevee said.
Sarah looked on in approval and a little bit of pride at that, both the heroicness of it and the act of thinking it through. Amy and Vicky, actually looked at the scene with a bit of admiration at seeing a genuine heroic moment… even if it was slightly ruined by the fact it was a scantily clad, buff, sexy, furry that was saying it.
Crystal meanwhile, was simply satisfied and smug at seeing everyone see how good her choice in friends was.
Sarah smiled and said, "Well, those were the biggest concerns I could think of. As you wouldn't actually be a Parahuman, you wouldn't end up with the need to use your powers that we have, so you could just keep it in reserve to use in emergencies if you want. So, at this point, I'd say it's up to you what you want to do." She told Bella.
Bella nodded solemnly, and grabbed one of the Stamina Perk bottles, before chugging the entire thing and letting out a burp. Then glaring at Eevee for some reason.
Eevee shrugged helplessly. "What? The soda items all work that way. You have to drink the entire thing for it to work, and they take effect at the forced burp afterwards. I can't do anything about the burp, and even if I could, it would just turn it into regular soda instead of something that gives superpowers. You saw Li—I mean Foxy drink it, you should have realized."
"I forgot about it." Bella grumped. Then brightened up as she pointed at Eevee. "I demand tail time as compensation!"
Eevee shrugged and waved her tail in front of Bella's face, where it was quickly grabbed and started to receive pets.
Crystal Pelham
Crystal, like usual, managed to accumulate more responsibilities by just being alive. She cottoned on— heh, cottoned on, when Eevee is all fluffy like cotton—to Bella's plan as soon as the sexy Eevee in the bikini walked into the living room.
While she very much enjoyed the show, she was now going to have to figure out what to do about Amy being obviously interested in women, and Vicky showing some interest as well. It was... probably best to handle them one at a time? Definitely not right now, maybe wait until tomorrow for Amy to sound her out after sort of ambushing her yesterday about her power and the Marquis stuff. Vicky… is admittedly less mature than Amy in general, but Crystal figured Vicky would probably take a conversation seriously.
Unfortunately, she would need to handle both conversations herself. She was pretty sure Mom had noticed both girls' interest in the admittedly attractive Eevee form Dave had taken, but Mom also wasn't very helpful when Crystal herself had found out she was also interested in girls. Granted, she was supportive, but she couldn't relate to being interested in ladies.
As the most senior member of New Wave that wasn't straight (that she knew of anyways), it was going to be up to Crystal to give these two the Brockton Bay talk about their interests.
Hopefully neither of them go into denial about it… that would be an absolute pain in the ass.
On the bright side, Hurricane Dave, or Hurricane Eevee in this case, had been extremely effective at breaking Amy out of her moping, and successfully distracted Vicky from trying to figure out what was wrong with her sister.
Right, just need to give my younger cousins the talk about being interested in girls while being a girl in a city overrun by Nazis, in a post-Legend world at that. This is going to be so complicated isn't it? At least it's future Crystal's problem. Present Crystal gets to enjoy a cool power-up.
The rest of New Wave had finished their patrol and agreed to meet at the Pelham house after receiving a message from Sarah.
Upon entering, they were met by an unusual sight.
It was a man in a suit… but with Thomas the Tank Engine wearing pixelated sunglasses in place of a head.
"Come on in me chaps, have a nice cup of tea." Dave invited them in while uses his best British accent.
After everyone had actually entered the house, he clarified, "I don't actually have any tea, this isn't my house."
"I'm aware this isn't your house." Eric said as he sat down. "And I don't think Uncle Mark or Aunt Carol drink tea anyways."
"Well that's okay," Dave said, returning to his normal voice and accent. "I may not have tea, but I have soda!"
While Sarah pulled Carol to the side, everyone else received an explanation on the Speed Gun and the Stamina Perk items.
After the explanation was over, Eric immediately spoke. "I want both. I'm already the slowest flyer, but I also have the strongest forcefields, so the Speed Gun thing will just help cover my weaknesses." He glanced at all the adults in the room and belatedly added "And it will let me escape unfavorable situations more easily." He seemed to believe adding that to his argument would make it more likely he would be allowed to get it.
Neil on the other hand, had simply shrugged. "Obviously we will probably all want the triple speed with no downsides. I'll happily take the quintuple speed as well, even if I probably won't use it much for actual movement. It's just risky for someone like me to move that fast without the reflexes to avoid hitting someone, that would be like running them over with a truck at fifteen times my normal speed. I'm already a bit faster than a normal person because of my increased strength, so going full speed would just be a bad idea in most circumstances."
"However," he added, "it would come in handy in some circumstances, and with it being adjustable and toggleable, it has no real downsides as long as I don't use it when I shouldn't, and I like to think I'm experienced enough to judge when that is." He said somewhat humbly. "Plus, if I understand it right, it would let me hit a lot harder, because I could make my punches or kicks or tackles five times faster."
Mark had similar reasoning. "Yeah, that's about the same for me, except I'm not generally in close combat, and I might break my fist if I tried to punch someone at fifteen times speed, so I probably won't use it for that unless absolutely necessary. But, as Neil said, it being toggleable and adjustable means I can use my judgement on when to use it and to what extent. It's almost always better to have more options available. This is a little niche, but the Speed Gun thing isn't quite an exception to that."
Then he added. "Of course, the triple speed with the reflex boost and minor Thinker power is obviously something I'd be happy and honored to accept."
At this point, Victoria gave him her best puppy dog eyes, and asked "So… does that mean I can take both too?"
Mark looked at her thoughtfully. "You can drink the bottle, and after Neil and I, and your mother and aunt if they decide to use it, have experimented and trained with the Speed Gun boost, we'll see. You'll need probably need to do some training before and after though, just like with the Flopper, which you are almost ready to take I'd say. Just be aware that if you do decide to use the Speed Gun boost Vicky, that you will not be allowed to patrol until we are certain you have both the Flopper power and your new speed under control."
"What?" Vicky exclaimed. "Why?" She demanded.
Mark just looked at her dryly. "Because you would need to get used to both of them, and either one of them by themselves could easily turn a civilian into splatter if you aren't careful with it. Both could easily see you turning multiple civilians into splatter if you get even a little reckless."
Then, Mark went for the killing blow. "Your tendency to show off, like that stunt you pulled at school that we got a call about, could have easily killed at least one person if you had pulled that after having the Flopper and were going fifteen times faster than you were expecting to go and hadn't trained to get used to your new speed." He said, referring to the incident earlier in the school year when Vicky had cracked the concrete in front of the school by doing a dramatic landing on it.
While Vicky was gaping at the idea of facing consequences for her actions several months prior, Mark turned to Amy. "What about you, did you want the Speed Gun boost?" He asked gently. He wasn't sure what was up with her, but he could tell she had been feeling off since yesterday evening, and now that his depression was better, he was determined to do his best to be there for her.
Amy shook her head. "No, I'm not too interested in the other speed thing either."
Mark paused at that. "Are you sure? I won't force you of course, but it would make me feel a lot better if you could escape a bad situation more easily."
"I was still going to take it anyway," Amy assured him. "If only because Sarah theorized that it would help with schoolwork because I would be able to think, read, and write three times as fast as before."
"Still," Mark said. "I would encourage you to explore what it offers a little more. I've felt better about your safety since you started exercising and learning to use a firearm. If you're anything like me, you might find that exercise can help your mental state as well, which is particularly important since you have hospital work, which is famously one of the most stressful jobs in the world. If you want to take up running in the mornings with me, let me know." He said, and patted her shoulder.
"I'll think about it." She told him. Though, the burritos might also be able to give her a caffeine boost if she could finagle the right settings. Then, combined with the healing and nutrition, she might be able to actually handle mornings. Truly, the world had changed since Dave crashed into the life of New Wave.
Author's Note: Another Chapter down! Yeahya!...
Unfortunately, I'm going to have to announce that I will be changing my release schedule to 5 chapters per week for now. This chapter simply took a lot longer than I was expecting without ending up any longer in wordcount, and I don't want to burn out by trying to write at least one chapter every day. I did it pretty easily early on, because I was so excited to share the story that was in my head and explore it by actually writing it out.
I still am excited of course, but now that the initial burst of energy is gone, I don't want to try to force myself to maintain that pace. As funny as it would be to end up writing over 1 million words in a year if I did manage to keep it up… I don't think that's going to happen.
Depending on how things go, the release schedule will likely either remain at 5 per week, slow down to 3 or 4 per week, or move up to 6 or 7 per week. In any of these scenarios, once I finally get my stockpile to its goal, I will end up releasing extra chapters whenever the stockpile gets too large.
I just want to actually have my stockpile be at its initial goal for once dammit! I've never actually gotten the stockpile up to the 15-chapter mark that I had hoped it would get to.
For the chapter itself… I promise, next chapter, we will see a new Toy and Dave will visit the Firefighter Department. I'm afraid the rest of New Wave reacting to the dildo weaponry will have to happen off-screen however, just in order to keep things moving along.
Author's Note 2: Obviously, I've already moved to 5 chapters per week, so feel free to ignore that part of the original Author's Note.