Swordchucks
Experienced.
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It is. I posted the very barest of bones of the build a bit up in the thread.
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Upon This Star (Worm Semi-SI CYOA-based)
- Thread starter Swordchucks
- Start date
07
Swordchucks
Experienced.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2015
- Messages
- 3,139
- Likes received
- 139,739
"What, exactly, are we going to talk about?" I asked as I hopped up on the exam table of the nurse's office. Amy had led me there rather forcibly and let us in without another word. "Are we even allowed to be in here?"
"I have permission to use this room as I see fit," Amy grumbled and fixed her eyes on mine. She looked like she was perpetually tired, which fit with what my other-memories told me about her. "And I want you to tell me why I can't read you."
I blinked. The bit in the thrift shop had been a bit chaotic. At the time, I'd assumed she was aware that I'd read her memories, and had been avoiding touching others ever since. However, I didn't know that for sure, and now Amy was asking about something completely different. "Read me? Oh, you mean with your power. Do you just… go around reading everyone? That seems rude." Given what had happened when I touched her, that seemed hypocritical, but I wasn't going to confess to that.
"Not on purpose," she ground out. I was starting to realize that she was just like that. Perpetually sour. "It takes a few seconds for me to see anything more than a vague impression, which I don't do without consent, but I still feel something. When I touched you, there was nothing there. Are you even alive?"
My thoughts raced. Technically, I had died at least once - probably twice - so was that what was happening? On the other hand, many of the framing devices my other-memories knew of involved some level of protection from Thinker abilities, and her power's scanning function might count. Both paths apparently had the downside of outing me when certain powers came into play.
I decided to be blase about it. "I don't actually know. Are any of us really alive?"
She spent a moment staring at me incredulously, then her eyes narrowed. "Are you a cape?"
There it was. The question I had been expecting to come out first. There wasn't much point in denying it. I was the one person that just happened to be immune to Panacea's amazing biokinesis and I was a mundane human? That was even more unbelievable than the telenovela that my life had become. On the other hand, I gained nothing with an outright admission and someone might be listening in.
"That would seem to be a possible explanation for the facts at hand, but I don't really want to have that conversation in a public place," I said. "Running into you this weekend was just a coincidence. I'm not out to hurt you or anyone else, and I just want to get through school."
Amy's eyes stayed locked with mine before she let out a deep sigh and looked away. When she looked back in my direction, she looked a little guilty. "I'm sorry. I'm not used to the whole… identities thing, and I guess I might have overreacted a little," she admitted. "I don't meet a lot of- I mean, I don't just stumble into a lot of… special people by accident. It's usually only on purpose, and I usually get some warning first."
An odd thought bubbled out of my other-memories, but I pushed it aside. What even was a 'shatterpoint'?
It sounded dumb, but on second thought, the concept behind it did sort of fit even if I didn't like the term. This was a moment where my choices could potentially have far-reaching consequences.
Amy Dallon was a ticking time bomb, or she would become one pretty soon. Right now, she might be a grumpy jerk that acted before she thought, but that was just annoying. In a few months, after the pressure ground her down and the job was finished by an Endbringer and the Slaughterhouse Nine? She'd become a monster.
My memories were hazy on the exact details of that, but I knew that she'd broken her own rules, done horrible things to her sister, and then let herself go to the Birdcage in remorse. Her sister obviously didn't deserve that, either.
On one hand, it wasn't my problem. Not directly, anyway. Even if only because my actions would be different, future events would be different to some degree. Amy might not break at the same time or in the same way.
On the other hand, I could try to help her. One of the things that was killing her was her dogged insistence on helping people. She might be doing it for some of the wrong reasons, but the fact that she was doing it at all was worth consideration. Down that path, I'd have to deal with the fact that she was the victim of abuse in a situation where addressing that in any normal way wouldn't work out very well.
Even before that thought had finished forming, I knew I was going to try to help. I wouldn't be taking any of her shit while I did it, though. A mischievous thought hit me. The old Taylor Hebert would never have gone with it, but I wasn't exactly that girl anymore. It helped that I now realized that Amy Dallon couldn't use her terrifying powers on me while I could use my annoyance powers on her.
"Well, now I'm going to have to explain to people where we ran off to with you looking so intense. Was it so that you fell in love with me at first sight?"
Amy's look wasn't amused. "Maybe you could tell them that I had to fix your raging case of gonorrhea which was so bad that it was about to go airborne and I panicked?"
I snickered. "I like mine better." My attempt at flirting with Carlos might have ended in disaster, but Amy was definitely lamer than me. I could outdo her, especially using my secret weapon. Weapons.
The outfit I had put together that morning had a couple of layers to it and I pulled off the top one, leaving me in a very tight undershirt. "Come on, tell me you wouldn't want to date these-I mean me?" I took a breath and rolled my shoulders back slightly. Hot-Taylor powers, activate!
Amy's eyes flicked down and then back to my eyes. I could tell she was struggling a bit. "You're an unknown par-person that I do not trust. It would be insane of me to agree to that." Her eyes flicked back down and I could see just the faintest blush on her cheeks.
"Alright, if you really want," I said sadly as I pulled my overshirt back on, though I was inwardly very pleased with myself. The problem with my earlier attempt had definitely been that I didn't leverage my boobs enough. It was a distraction, at least. "We could get together and get to know each other better, though. Maybe build up some of that trust you don't have."
"That still sounds like you're trying to get me to go out with you," she said softly. She seemed a bit flustered and it was a tremendous ego boost. Old-me had never made anyone flustered. "This would have been easier if you were a robot assassin sent from the future to kill me before I could form the resistance."
It was my turn to blink. My other memories supplied some details and I took a wild guess. "Wasn't that a movie?"
"You've never seen The Terminator?" she asked, suddenly less standoffish. Apparently, she liked movies?
"So, you're asking me to watch a movie with you?" I almost chirped. "I thought you weren't interested, but now you're asking me on a date."
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she let it out.
"Okay."
"Uh… okay?" I asked, suddenly confused.
"Yes, okay. We can go on a date. You can come over to my house where my cape family will be nearby to murder you if you actually are there on a mission from the future to kill me. And I will expect you to reveal some of the things you do not wish to talk about in public." She opened her eyes and fixed them on mine.
I squirmed. "I never actually expected you to say yes."
"So you're backing out? All talk?" she said and a little smirk grew on her lips.
"No, I'm still in, I'm just… surprised." I was surprised and I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to date Amy Dallon. I had thought about it in high-minded 'help her stay a hero' terms, but the actual reality of it? I mean, she wasn't ugly and she seemed smart enough to carry a conversation, when she wasn't being a bitter little shit. Maybe it was my heroic duty to show her a good time?
Yeah, that sounded lame, even in my head.
"Good," she said as she straightened the collar of her shirt. "I'm surprising. You'll get used to it. Tomorrow night at seven. Eat first."
Then she was gone and I was alone in the nurse's office.
"Okay, then. That happened."
//\\o//\\
"So, how was school today?" dad asked over dinner.
"Fine. Peaceful. Except, I might have met three of the Wards, and I have a date with Panacea tomorrow night." I leaned into the absurdity. It was my only option at this point.
Dad snorted. "So nothing happened, then?" He obviously didn't believe me. Clearly, he still believed that reality made sense. How naive.
"Uh… no, I met three Wards and I have a date with Panacea tomorrow night. I don't actually think she likes me very much, though." I repeated more slowly.
Dad took his glasses off and put them on the table, beside his plate. Then he closed his eyes, leaned forward, and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I really wish I were joking," I offered, trying to sound conciliatory.
"Why do you have a date with Panacea if she doesn't like you that much?" He hadn't opened his eyes.
"Well, she's apparently a boob gal, and after I got my powers, mine-"
"Which we aren't going to talk about. I've spent days pointedly ignoring any possible changes to your appearance just as I have since you were nine. As your father, I have no desire to stop now in the absence of a pressing need on your part that I momentarily take notice after which I will promptly forget all about it. You will always be my little girl and no amount of growing up will change that."
I opened my mouth to push the matter, but decided I should probably let that one go. Dad had been through a lot lately. "Well, she apparently gets a vague sense of the biology of everyone she touches and when we met on Saturday, we accidentally touched. She couldn't see mine and was convinced that I was some sort of robot from the future sent back to murder her-"
His eyes popped open and he stared at me. "What, like in The Terminator?"
"I guess? Anyway, we had a chat and I told her I wouldn't talk about it at school, so now we're going to meet at her house and watch that movie together."
There was a long moment of silence. "You don't have to be on a date to watch a movie with someone. Also, I didn't know you were…" he trailed off, not really able to finish the thought.
"Maybe? I don't really know." I almost started talking about how I kind of liked boys, too, but decided dad wouldn't want to hear that. Plus, dating Amy Dallon was more of a public service than something that got me hot and bothered. "It's mostly just a cover story for why she hauled me off like that, though."
Dad let out a long breath. "Well, at least you can protect yourself if someone causes trouble over it. There are a lot of people that can't mind their own business in this town."
"I guess I really can't join the Empire now. Darn." I tried to put just a tinge of disappointment into my voice which was hard because I felt none. The Empire went after everyone 'other' and there was no faster way to being 'other' than to be gay. Well, for gay men, anyway. The way they treated gay women was equally disgusting but more complicated.
"Anything else I should know about?" Dad sounded tired. I couldn't imagine why.
"Oh, yeah, uh… I'm not cooking meth."
He closed his eyes again and leaned his head back. "Why is it important for me to know that you aren't cooking meth?"
"Well, because I'm going to be making something for my powers over the next few days and it kind of involves distilling a bunch of household stuff into something more useful. To the uninformed observer, the kitchen might… look like a meth lab for a few days." After school, I had stopped at that janitorial supply place and they did have almost everything I needed. I still needed a 'cartridge' I could mix the stuff in that would stand up to the pressures involved, but I had everything for the fluid itself.
"Just… don't burn down the house." Dad allowed with a heavy sigh.
"I'll try," I agreed. I don't think it filled him with confidence.
That evening, I spent some time trying to get a better grip - mentally - on spiders. Earlier that morning, my horrible headache had faded so quickly, it was like someone flipped a switch. It seemed oddly around the time I would have been shoved into the locker but one week later which probably wasn't a coincidence. I had been so busy and distracted that I hadn't even noticed it was gone until I had some quiet time during study hall.
Without the brain pain, I decided it was a good time to start working on my other power. Well, the other power I could use on demand, anyway.
Compared to what my other-memories said about my canon power, It felt like everything else had been greatly tuned down in order to expand my spider control powers. Whether it was part of being a Spider Totem or just a thematic coincidence, I had no way of knowing, but it did mean I wouldn't be choking anyone with biblical plagues of flying insects.
In most ways, it seemed like I was actually weaker because of the change. Spiders were cool and amazing, but having a more versatile swarm with bees and wasps and air-dropped spiders was much more versatile than just the spiders. On the other hand, if I really did have a full set of Spiderman powers, I didn't really need an offensive swarm the way other-me had.
My range for other bugs seemed to have been cut down to about a tenth of what other-me would have had. I could sense insects out to a range of three or four houses instead of three or four blocks. On the other hand, it felt like my range with spiders was much, much bigger. I wasn't entirely sure how much bigger because there were simply so many of them.
Progress was slow, but I felt like it was noticeable. I certainly wasn't going to be dropping a spider swarm on people, but spiders were very good at getting places and remaining unseen. Once I had a full grasp on the power, I felt like I would have a powerful information gathering network beyond just my more immediate danger sense.
Eventually, I turned in for the night and dreamed of a man with white hair talking to me about things I didn't remember the next morning.
//\\o//\\
My second day at Arcadia was completely uneventful, and that made me very, very nervous for a reason other than my upcoming 'date'. Amy had found me at lunch to make sure I knew her address - which I didn't - and reiterate that I should show up around seven.
After school, I realized I had absolutely nothing in terms of 'date clothes' to draw on. Not that I would have had anything suitable prior to my makeover, but I definitely didn't afterwards. I tried to figure out who I could call for help and came up blank. Well, after I discarded my initial terrible idea to enlist Madison's help. She did owe me, but I also didn't want to be anywhere near her. I was doing my best to be the bigger person, but there were limits.
In the end, I realized that I was overthinking things. I wasn't even sure if I was going on a real date, and even if I was, I wasn't sure if I cared about making a good impression. I picked my best school outfit - which was the one I had worn on Monday - threw it in the wash so it would be clean and tried to make up for my lackluster outfit by doing something with my hair and nails.
I hadn't bothered to paint my nails in years, but it had been one of the few skills I had learned from Emma that really stuck. I was pretty pleased with the result and it helped a bit with my self-confidence.
Hair was… well, I figured that braiding hair was a lot like building a web, so I tried having a bunch of spiders do the work for me. That was much more complicated than I expected because the spiders that were big enough to do the work were also more territorial so I had to suppress more of their instincts than usual. In the end, it took twice as long as if I'd done it by hand, but the result was probably better than I could have managed alone. Being able to - for short bursts - get a look at the back of your head was nice.
Makeup was another area where both mom and Emma had tried to get me to learn for years but I had never really seen the point. Now that I was older - and powers had given me a face worth showing off - I kind of regretted that. Still, I knew the most basic of basics and had some stuff that hadn't dried out so it only had to be washed off twice before I got something I was happy with. It really didn't take much to make me look like a completely different person, but in a good way.
As a final piece of the transformation, I decided to leave my glasses at home.
Dad still wasn't home when I took an apple out of the bowl on the counter for dinner and caught a bus across town to face my fate. The downside of having so much time to prepare is that I also had time to question what I was even doing. I was going on a 'date' with Amy Dallon that wasn't much of a date. I'd be lucky if she didn't punch me at some point - or have her sister do it. That was a bigger concern, though I was pretty sure I could escape if it came down to that.
Not that I wanted to be in a situation where I was on the run from New Wave. That just sounded like a-
"Hey, what's happenin'?" a voice said and I turned my head to find a guy - a bit older than me but not by that much - looming over me, trying to give a charming smile that wasn't working so well.
Oh, yeah. Bus harassment. Old-Taylor didn't have to deal with that. The perils of being Hot-Taylor truly knew no end.
"Going to see my boyfriend. He just got out of jail," I offered casually. Emma had told me a story about using this one and it was pretty clever. "They couldn't make the murder charge stick."
There was a long moment where he didn't look like he believed me. On one hand, if I was lying, I clearly wasn't interested. On the other hand, if I was telling the truth, he could be getting himself killed. His brain was probably trying to do the math where my hotness and the risk had to balance out. Finally, it came to an answer. "Yeah, have a good time, then."
Then he was gone and I was back to brooding and planning.
The trip to the Dallon house took a lot less time than I had hoped. I was a few minutes early so I took a quick walk around the neighborhood to get my bearings - and plan an escape route if needed. Gathering up a few excess spiders as I went also seemed like a good idea.
I took a long breath before I raised my hand to ring the doorbell, but the door opened before I could get that far.
Victoria Dallon stood there, her mouth hanging open as though she had meant to say something and forgot what it was.
"Uh, hi? Is Amy home?" I asked after the silence seemed to be stretching on entirely too long.
"Y-yeah, just a minute," she stammered and proceeded to shut the door in my face.
Was it something I did? I wondered. Regardless, it was a long five minutes before the door opened again with an agitated Amy behind it.
"Sorry about-" she started and then trailed off, too.
"This is getting weird," I grumbled.
"S-sorry, sorry, it's just… you look different. Different good. Really good."
I laughed as I realized what was going on. With great Hot-Taylor powers came great Hot-Taylor responsibilities. Plus a massive ego boost. "Thank you, you look very nice, as well, Ms. Dallon. May I come in?"
Amy looked down at the hand holding the doorknob as if she was just realizing how doors worked for the first time. "Oh, sorry, I-Come in, please. Can I take your coat?"
A few minutes later, I was sitting on a couch in the home theater in the finished half of the Dallon family basement. I only knew that part because you had to walk along the little hallway that led there was also unfinished.
There was a projector and some equipment behind a big leather couch with a couple of large armchairs to the sides and a big fluffy rug out in front. It was cozy.
"So, you're Taylor?" Vicky asked as she settled down beside me on the couch. She had recovered much faster than her sister and volunteered to show me downstairs. "I haven't seen you around, I don't think? Where do you go to school?"
"I started Arcadia yesterday," I said. "Before that I went to Winslow, which was pretty terrible."
Vicky winced. "Yeah, I hear stories."
I wasn't really making secrets about my school situation, so I divulged more. "The reality is probably worse than you've heard, but less blatant. It's not all open violence and drug deals - though there is some of that. I got a transfer because someone tried to kill me the first day after winter break and no one bothered calling my dad to let him know. He knows the mayor in passing and managed to call in a favor."
"Oh, wow, yeah, you won't have to deal with that at Arcadia, probably. There are some strict policies about violence. Still… how did I miss you for two whole days?"
I grinned. "You didn't? I mean, I've seen you at least three times in the cafeteria. I just… dress down at school so I look different."
She ran her eyes over me, frowning. "Yeah, I guess you could pull it off if you really tried. Just… I'm impressed that you did."
"Oh, I realized that on the way over when some guy started hitting on me on the bus," I revealed like it was a secret. "That doesn't happen normally." I paused for a beat. "I played the 'my boyfriend just got out of prison for attempted murder' card and the idiot still had to think about it!"
That got a laugh. "Oh, wow. That's a good one, though I get recognized a lot, so it won't work as well for me."
"I brought popcorn," Amy declared as she came in the doorway with a big bowl of popcorn and a handful of canned drinks. She settled them down on the low table beside the couch.
Vicky looked between her sister and me. "I'll just… go upstairs. Dean is going to pick me up in a bit so we can go bowling."
Dean was the one Ward at Arcadia that I hadn't met, which was probably just as well. If Thinker powers didn't work on me, he would probably realize something was going on with me as soon as he realized he couldn't see my emotions.
"Have fun," I offered with a little wave.
A few seconds later, the door clicked shut and I was alone with Amy. I had been having fun up until then, but this was the part I was dreading.
"Let me start the movie," she said, not looking at me. "We need to talk, but this should give us some cover."
I nodded. It was time for a very difficult conversation.
"I have permission to use this room as I see fit," Amy grumbled and fixed her eyes on mine. She looked like she was perpetually tired, which fit with what my other-memories told me about her. "And I want you to tell me why I can't read you."
I blinked. The bit in the thrift shop had been a bit chaotic. At the time, I'd assumed she was aware that I'd read her memories, and had been avoiding touching others ever since. However, I didn't know that for sure, and now Amy was asking about something completely different. "Read me? Oh, you mean with your power. Do you just… go around reading everyone? That seems rude." Given what had happened when I touched her, that seemed hypocritical, but I wasn't going to confess to that.
"Not on purpose," she ground out. I was starting to realize that she was just like that. Perpetually sour. "It takes a few seconds for me to see anything more than a vague impression, which I don't do without consent, but I still feel something. When I touched you, there was nothing there. Are you even alive?"
My thoughts raced. Technically, I had died at least once - probably twice - so was that what was happening? On the other hand, many of the framing devices my other-memories knew of involved some level of protection from Thinker abilities, and her power's scanning function might count. Both paths apparently had the downside of outing me when certain powers came into play.
I decided to be blase about it. "I don't actually know. Are any of us really alive?"
She spent a moment staring at me incredulously, then her eyes narrowed. "Are you a cape?"
There it was. The question I had been expecting to come out first. There wasn't much point in denying it. I was the one person that just happened to be immune to Panacea's amazing biokinesis and I was a mundane human? That was even more unbelievable than the telenovela that my life had become. On the other hand, I gained nothing with an outright admission and someone might be listening in.
"That would seem to be a possible explanation for the facts at hand, but I don't really want to have that conversation in a public place," I said. "Running into you this weekend was just a coincidence. I'm not out to hurt you or anyone else, and I just want to get through school."
Amy's eyes stayed locked with mine before she let out a deep sigh and looked away. When she looked back in my direction, she looked a little guilty. "I'm sorry. I'm not used to the whole… identities thing, and I guess I might have overreacted a little," she admitted. "I don't meet a lot of- I mean, I don't just stumble into a lot of… special people by accident. It's usually only on purpose, and I usually get some warning first."
An odd thought bubbled out of my other-memories, but I pushed it aside. What even was a 'shatterpoint'?
It sounded dumb, but on second thought, the concept behind it did sort of fit even if I didn't like the term. This was a moment where my choices could potentially have far-reaching consequences.
Amy Dallon was a ticking time bomb, or she would become one pretty soon. Right now, she might be a grumpy jerk that acted before she thought, but that was just annoying. In a few months, after the pressure ground her down and the job was finished by an Endbringer and the Slaughterhouse Nine? She'd become a monster.
My memories were hazy on the exact details of that, but I knew that she'd broken her own rules, done horrible things to her sister, and then let herself go to the Birdcage in remorse. Her sister obviously didn't deserve that, either.
On one hand, it wasn't my problem. Not directly, anyway. Even if only because my actions would be different, future events would be different to some degree. Amy might not break at the same time or in the same way.
On the other hand, I could try to help her. One of the things that was killing her was her dogged insistence on helping people. She might be doing it for some of the wrong reasons, but the fact that she was doing it at all was worth consideration. Down that path, I'd have to deal with the fact that she was the victim of abuse in a situation where addressing that in any normal way wouldn't work out very well.
Even before that thought had finished forming, I knew I was going to try to help. I wouldn't be taking any of her shit while I did it, though. A mischievous thought hit me. The old Taylor Hebert would never have gone with it, but I wasn't exactly that girl anymore. It helped that I now realized that Amy Dallon couldn't use her terrifying powers on me while I could use my annoyance powers on her.
"Well, now I'm going to have to explain to people where we ran off to with you looking so intense. Was it so that you fell in love with me at first sight?"
Amy's look wasn't amused. "Maybe you could tell them that I had to fix your raging case of gonorrhea which was so bad that it was about to go airborne and I panicked?"
I snickered. "I like mine better." My attempt at flirting with Carlos might have ended in disaster, but Amy was definitely lamer than me. I could outdo her, especially using my secret weapon. Weapons.
The outfit I had put together that morning had a couple of layers to it and I pulled off the top one, leaving me in a very tight undershirt. "Come on, tell me you wouldn't want to date these-I mean me?" I took a breath and rolled my shoulders back slightly. Hot-Taylor powers, activate!
Amy's eyes flicked down and then back to my eyes. I could tell she was struggling a bit. "You're an unknown par-person that I do not trust. It would be insane of me to agree to that." Her eyes flicked back down and I could see just the faintest blush on her cheeks.
"Alright, if you really want," I said sadly as I pulled my overshirt back on, though I was inwardly very pleased with myself. The problem with my earlier attempt had definitely been that I didn't leverage my boobs enough. It was a distraction, at least. "We could get together and get to know each other better, though. Maybe build up some of that trust you don't have."
"That still sounds like you're trying to get me to go out with you," she said softly. She seemed a bit flustered and it was a tremendous ego boost. Old-me had never made anyone flustered. "This would have been easier if you were a robot assassin sent from the future to kill me before I could form the resistance."
It was my turn to blink. My other memories supplied some details and I took a wild guess. "Wasn't that a movie?"
"You've never seen The Terminator?" she asked, suddenly less standoffish. Apparently, she liked movies?
"So, you're asking me to watch a movie with you?" I almost chirped. "I thought you weren't interested, but now you're asking me on a date."
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she let it out.
"Okay."
"Uh… okay?" I asked, suddenly confused.
"Yes, okay. We can go on a date. You can come over to my house where my cape family will be nearby to murder you if you actually are there on a mission from the future to kill me. And I will expect you to reveal some of the things you do not wish to talk about in public." She opened her eyes and fixed them on mine.
I squirmed. "I never actually expected you to say yes."
"So you're backing out? All talk?" she said and a little smirk grew on her lips.
"No, I'm still in, I'm just… surprised." I was surprised and I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to date Amy Dallon. I had thought about it in high-minded 'help her stay a hero' terms, but the actual reality of it? I mean, she wasn't ugly and she seemed smart enough to carry a conversation, when she wasn't being a bitter little shit. Maybe it was my heroic duty to show her a good time?
Yeah, that sounded lame, even in my head.
"Good," she said as she straightened the collar of her shirt. "I'm surprising. You'll get used to it. Tomorrow night at seven. Eat first."
Then she was gone and I was alone in the nurse's office.
"Okay, then. That happened."
//\\o//\\
"So, how was school today?" dad asked over dinner.
"Fine. Peaceful. Except, I might have met three of the Wards, and I have a date with Panacea tomorrow night." I leaned into the absurdity. It was my only option at this point.
Dad snorted. "So nothing happened, then?" He obviously didn't believe me. Clearly, he still believed that reality made sense. How naive.
"Uh… no, I met three Wards and I have a date with Panacea tomorrow night. I don't actually think she likes me very much, though." I repeated more slowly.
Dad took his glasses off and put them on the table, beside his plate. Then he closed his eyes, leaned forward, and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I really wish I were joking," I offered, trying to sound conciliatory.
"Why do you have a date with Panacea if she doesn't like you that much?" He hadn't opened his eyes.
"Well, she's apparently a boob gal, and after I got my powers, mine-"
"Which we aren't going to talk about. I've spent days pointedly ignoring any possible changes to your appearance just as I have since you were nine. As your father, I have no desire to stop now in the absence of a pressing need on your part that I momentarily take notice after which I will promptly forget all about it. You will always be my little girl and no amount of growing up will change that."
I opened my mouth to push the matter, but decided I should probably let that one go. Dad had been through a lot lately. "Well, she apparently gets a vague sense of the biology of everyone she touches and when we met on Saturday, we accidentally touched. She couldn't see mine and was convinced that I was some sort of robot from the future sent back to murder her-"
His eyes popped open and he stared at me. "What, like in The Terminator?"
"I guess? Anyway, we had a chat and I told her I wouldn't talk about it at school, so now we're going to meet at her house and watch that movie together."
There was a long moment of silence. "You don't have to be on a date to watch a movie with someone. Also, I didn't know you were…" he trailed off, not really able to finish the thought.
"Maybe? I don't really know." I almost started talking about how I kind of liked boys, too, but decided dad wouldn't want to hear that. Plus, dating Amy Dallon was more of a public service than something that got me hot and bothered. "It's mostly just a cover story for why she hauled me off like that, though."
Dad let out a long breath. "Well, at least you can protect yourself if someone causes trouble over it. There are a lot of people that can't mind their own business in this town."
"I guess I really can't join the Empire now. Darn." I tried to put just a tinge of disappointment into my voice which was hard because I felt none. The Empire went after everyone 'other' and there was no faster way to being 'other' than to be gay. Well, for gay men, anyway. The way they treated gay women was equally disgusting but more complicated.
"Anything else I should know about?" Dad sounded tired. I couldn't imagine why.
"Oh, yeah, uh… I'm not cooking meth."
He closed his eyes again and leaned his head back. "Why is it important for me to know that you aren't cooking meth?"
"Well, because I'm going to be making something for my powers over the next few days and it kind of involves distilling a bunch of household stuff into something more useful. To the uninformed observer, the kitchen might… look like a meth lab for a few days." After school, I had stopped at that janitorial supply place and they did have almost everything I needed. I still needed a 'cartridge' I could mix the stuff in that would stand up to the pressures involved, but I had everything for the fluid itself.
"Just… don't burn down the house." Dad allowed with a heavy sigh.
"I'll try," I agreed. I don't think it filled him with confidence.
That evening, I spent some time trying to get a better grip - mentally - on spiders. Earlier that morning, my horrible headache had faded so quickly, it was like someone flipped a switch. It seemed oddly around the time I would have been shoved into the locker but one week later which probably wasn't a coincidence. I had been so busy and distracted that I hadn't even noticed it was gone until I had some quiet time during study hall.
Without the brain pain, I decided it was a good time to start working on my other power. Well, the other power I could use on demand, anyway.
Compared to what my other-memories said about my canon power, It felt like everything else had been greatly tuned down in order to expand my spider control powers. Whether it was part of being a Spider Totem or just a thematic coincidence, I had no way of knowing, but it did mean I wouldn't be choking anyone with biblical plagues of flying insects.
In most ways, it seemed like I was actually weaker because of the change. Spiders were cool and amazing, but having a more versatile swarm with bees and wasps and air-dropped spiders was much more versatile than just the spiders. On the other hand, if I really did have a full set of Spiderman powers, I didn't really need an offensive swarm the way other-me had.
My range for other bugs seemed to have been cut down to about a tenth of what other-me would have had. I could sense insects out to a range of three or four houses instead of three or four blocks. On the other hand, it felt like my range with spiders was much, much bigger. I wasn't entirely sure how much bigger because there were simply so many of them.
Progress was slow, but I felt like it was noticeable. I certainly wasn't going to be dropping a spider swarm on people, but spiders were very good at getting places and remaining unseen. Once I had a full grasp on the power, I felt like I would have a powerful information gathering network beyond just my more immediate danger sense.
Eventually, I turned in for the night and dreamed of a man with white hair talking to me about things I didn't remember the next morning.
//\\o//\\
My second day at Arcadia was completely uneventful, and that made me very, very nervous for a reason other than my upcoming 'date'. Amy had found me at lunch to make sure I knew her address - which I didn't - and reiterate that I should show up around seven.
After school, I realized I had absolutely nothing in terms of 'date clothes' to draw on. Not that I would have had anything suitable prior to my makeover, but I definitely didn't afterwards. I tried to figure out who I could call for help and came up blank. Well, after I discarded my initial terrible idea to enlist Madison's help. She did owe me, but I also didn't want to be anywhere near her. I was doing my best to be the bigger person, but there were limits.
In the end, I realized that I was overthinking things. I wasn't even sure if I was going on a real date, and even if I was, I wasn't sure if I cared about making a good impression. I picked my best school outfit - which was the one I had worn on Monday - threw it in the wash so it would be clean and tried to make up for my lackluster outfit by doing something with my hair and nails.
I hadn't bothered to paint my nails in years, but it had been one of the few skills I had learned from Emma that really stuck. I was pretty pleased with the result and it helped a bit with my self-confidence.
Hair was… well, I figured that braiding hair was a lot like building a web, so I tried having a bunch of spiders do the work for me. That was much more complicated than I expected because the spiders that were big enough to do the work were also more territorial so I had to suppress more of their instincts than usual. In the end, it took twice as long as if I'd done it by hand, but the result was probably better than I could have managed alone. Being able to - for short bursts - get a look at the back of your head was nice.
Makeup was another area where both mom and Emma had tried to get me to learn for years but I had never really seen the point. Now that I was older - and powers had given me a face worth showing off - I kind of regretted that. Still, I knew the most basic of basics and had some stuff that hadn't dried out so it only had to be washed off twice before I got something I was happy with. It really didn't take much to make me look like a completely different person, but in a good way.
As a final piece of the transformation, I decided to leave my glasses at home.
Dad still wasn't home when I took an apple out of the bowl on the counter for dinner and caught a bus across town to face my fate. The downside of having so much time to prepare is that I also had time to question what I was even doing. I was going on a 'date' with Amy Dallon that wasn't much of a date. I'd be lucky if she didn't punch me at some point - or have her sister do it. That was a bigger concern, though I was pretty sure I could escape if it came down to that.
Not that I wanted to be in a situation where I was on the run from New Wave. That just sounded like a-
"Hey, what's happenin'?" a voice said and I turned my head to find a guy - a bit older than me but not by that much - looming over me, trying to give a charming smile that wasn't working so well.
Oh, yeah. Bus harassment. Old-Taylor didn't have to deal with that. The perils of being Hot-Taylor truly knew no end.
"Going to see my boyfriend. He just got out of jail," I offered casually. Emma had told me a story about using this one and it was pretty clever. "They couldn't make the murder charge stick."
There was a long moment where he didn't look like he believed me. On one hand, if I was lying, I clearly wasn't interested. On the other hand, if I was telling the truth, he could be getting himself killed. His brain was probably trying to do the math where my hotness and the risk had to balance out. Finally, it came to an answer. "Yeah, have a good time, then."
Then he was gone and I was back to brooding and planning.
The trip to the Dallon house took a lot less time than I had hoped. I was a few minutes early so I took a quick walk around the neighborhood to get my bearings - and plan an escape route if needed. Gathering up a few excess spiders as I went also seemed like a good idea.
I took a long breath before I raised my hand to ring the doorbell, but the door opened before I could get that far.
Victoria Dallon stood there, her mouth hanging open as though she had meant to say something and forgot what it was.
"Uh, hi? Is Amy home?" I asked after the silence seemed to be stretching on entirely too long.
"Y-yeah, just a minute," she stammered and proceeded to shut the door in my face.
Was it something I did? I wondered. Regardless, it was a long five minutes before the door opened again with an agitated Amy behind it.
"Sorry about-" she started and then trailed off, too.
"This is getting weird," I grumbled.
"S-sorry, sorry, it's just… you look different. Different good. Really good."
I laughed as I realized what was going on. With great Hot-Taylor powers came great Hot-Taylor responsibilities. Plus a massive ego boost. "Thank you, you look very nice, as well, Ms. Dallon. May I come in?"
Amy looked down at the hand holding the doorknob as if she was just realizing how doors worked for the first time. "Oh, sorry, I-Come in, please. Can I take your coat?"
A few minutes later, I was sitting on a couch in the home theater in the finished half of the Dallon family basement. I only knew that part because you had to walk along the little hallway that led there was also unfinished.
There was a projector and some equipment behind a big leather couch with a couple of large armchairs to the sides and a big fluffy rug out in front. It was cozy.
"So, you're Taylor?" Vicky asked as she settled down beside me on the couch. She had recovered much faster than her sister and volunteered to show me downstairs. "I haven't seen you around, I don't think? Where do you go to school?"
"I started Arcadia yesterday," I said. "Before that I went to Winslow, which was pretty terrible."
Vicky winced. "Yeah, I hear stories."
I wasn't really making secrets about my school situation, so I divulged more. "The reality is probably worse than you've heard, but less blatant. It's not all open violence and drug deals - though there is some of that. I got a transfer because someone tried to kill me the first day after winter break and no one bothered calling my dad to let him know. He knows the mayor in passing and managed to call in a favor."
"Oh, wow, yeah, you won't have to deal with that at Arcadia, probably. There are some strict policies about violence. Still… how did I miss you for two whole days?"
I grinned. "You didn't? I mean, I've seen you at least three times in the cafeteria. I just… dress down at school so I look different."
She ran her eyes over me, frowning. "Yeah, I guess you could pull it off if you really tried. Just… I'm impressed that you did."
"Oh, I realized that on the way over when some guy started hitting on me on the bus," I revealed like it was a secret. "That doesn't happen normally." I paused for a beat. "I played the 'my boyfriend just got out of prison for attempted murder' card and the idiot still had to think about it!"
That got a laugh. "Oh, wow. That's a good one, though I get recognized a lot, so it won't work as well for me."
"I brought popcorn," Amy declared as she came in the doorway with a big bowl of popcorn and a handful of canned drinks. She settled them down on the low table beside the couch.
Vicky looked between her sister and me. "I'll just… go upstairs. Dean is going to pick me up in a bit so we can go bowling."
Dean was the one Ward at Arcadia that I hadn't met, which was probably just as well. If Thinker powers didn't work on me, he would probably realize something was going on with me as soon as he realized he couldn't see my emotions.
"Have fun," I offered with a little wave.
A few seconds later, the door clicked shut and I was alone with Amy. I had been having fun up until then, but this was the part I was dreading.
"Let me start the movie," she said, not looking at me. "We need to talk, but this should give us some cover."
I nodded. It was time for a very difficult conversation.
CYOA Information
Swordchucks
Experienced.
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Since it comes up a bit, here's what you guys know about the CYOA build for this one:
Lt Ouroumov's Worm CYOA V6 found here: https://cyoa.ltouroumov.ch/viewer/
8mhz,trog,shvr,dstd,eqhz,9d7l,8tcr,q4jr,ee5n,d0mx,qpwm,uh4g,kb60,tu3i,yqih,m85g,ucs6,5aj3/ON#1,08kd,iatt,vkl0,swha,q6x8,4tfy
Meta:
You
Someone Else
Entities, what are those Entities you speak of? - There's a lot of room for interpretation here, though.
Difficulty:
Standard / Normal
Scenario & Setting
January 3rd, 2011
Canon Earth Bet / Brockton Bay
Character
Character-Insert
Beautiful
Taylor Anne Hebert
Perks
Cosmetic Shapeshift - Entirely to make her beautiful, which is a huge waste of points, really.
Blank
Fan Service - Even more points to make her hotter. Which is just annoying for her (but amusing for me)
Drawbacks
Half of Who I Am - this is why the SI is fragmented and a little liberty was taken to merge in with the insert more
Sick - This is why she felt so bad that first week
Trouble Magnet - Admittedly, this is the cheap version for how much I hammer her, but the next version seems like a little too much
Acclimation - Half a spidermans right now, full spidermans in six months, two spidermans in a year
Arbitrary Limitations (one power) - This is to adjust her Skitter power to be mostly spider focused
Worst Day Ever / Worst Day - This was the day she died to truck. The first time.
Shard
Shardless
Powers
Thinker (Quick Thinker) - This is limited to only kick in during life-or-death situations, but as a 1 point power, it's not worth taking the drawback for
Spider-Totem (Marvel) - Obvious
You
Someone Else
Entities, what are those Entities you speak of? - There's a lot of room for interpretation here, though.
Difficulty:
Standard / Normal
Scenario & Setting
January 3rd, 2011
Canon Earth Bet / Brockton Bay
Character
Character-Insert
Beautiful
Taylor Anne Hebert
Perks
Cosmetic Shapeshift - Entirely to make her beautiful, which is a huge waste of points, really.
Blank
Fan Service - Even more points to make her hotter. Which is just annoying for her (but amusing for me)
Drawbacks
Half of Who I Am - this is why the SI is fragmented and a little liberty was taken to merge in with the insert more
Sick - This is why she felt so bad that first week
Trouble Magnet - Admittedly, this is the cheap version for how much I hammer her, but the next version seems like a little too much
Acclimation - Half a spidermans right now, full spidermans in six months, two spidermans in a year
Arbitrary Limitations (one power) - This is to adjust her Skitter power to be mostly spider focused
Worst Day Ever / Worst Day - This was the day she died to truck. The first time.
Shard
Shardless
Powers
Thinker (Quick Thinker) - This is limited to only kick in during life-or-death situations, but as a 1 point power, it's not worth taking the drawback for
Spider-Totem (Marvel) - Obvious
Kuroji
Know what you're doing yet?
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You know it's Brockton Bay when this doesn't sound so much like a "fuck off" as it does an actual scenario.
ShadowkingMS
Making the rounds.
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- May 28, 2020
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- 344
I have no clue why but this chapter has been added to my top 5 of all time. It just made me really happy reading it, thanks for the joy!
Adven
Getting sticky.
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- Dec 29, 2021
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- 99
- Likes received
- 622
This doesn't explain how she could survive dying 3 times though?
Catgc
Experienced.
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2019
- Messages
- 3,937
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- 14,148
That's because we haven't found out what her immortality is yet, just that she has it. Edit: And I have no clue based on the fact that we need to account for Acclimation and it probably including teleportation or some form of re-spawn, unless she has Tower of Power and it's Upgrade(Downgrade really) Nowhere To Go But Up, thus allowing it to be an Instantaneous Revive.
Last edited:
Adven
Getting sticky.
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2021
- Messages
- 99
- Likes received
- 622
Oh, so it's just the build as we know it so far?
Swordchucks
Experienced.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2015
- Messages
- 3,139
- Likes received
- 139,739
Yes, it is just the parts of the build that you know for sure. There is like 68sp and 65cp left over - plus anything from drawbacks which haven't been revealed.
08
Swordchucks
Experienced.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2015
- Messages
- 3,139
- Likes received
- 139,739
"I thought we were going to watch the movie?" I asked and laughed lightly. I was really nervous and doing my best to cover for it.
"That's the cover story," she said and flopped down on the couch beside me. "I still have questions. A lot of questions, but you do look very nice tonight."
I laughed again. "We will see if you still think so in an hour." I hesitated, all of the humor draining out of me and I pushed on. "First off, I'm a cape."
"I guessed that part," Amy said in a deadpan voice. It was good to see that she was still herself, even while she was blushing a little.
"I wasn't a cape… eight days ago? Nine days ago? Depends on how you count. Anyway, when I went to school - at Winslow - last Monday, I wasn't a cape." I gestured to myself with both hands. I did that little trick I'd seen Emma do from time to time and rolled my shoulders back slightly so my breasts were more prominent. The movement caused Amy's eyes to go to my chest and when she realized what she was doing, she blushed and pointedly looked away. "I didn't look like this, either. I mean, sort of, but this is like the old me turned up to eleven."
"Your trigger event changed your body? And you remember your life from before?" Amy's brow furrowed, as she thought through the implications. "It seems like there are Case 53s everywhere, but you don't hear about it too much otherwise. Then again, I've been asked to look at a lot of Case 53s, so maybe it just seems more common because of that."
I nodded. "Yeah, still have all of my memories. I'm pretty sure Canary didn't always have feathers in her hair, so it's not like I'm the only one." I was also pretty sure that Canary's power came from Cauldron, but that wasn't something I wanted to bring up. Alabaster might have been a better example, but no one was really sure what he looked like when he wasn't publicly being a Nazi "Anyway, I don't entirely remember my trigger event. Someone shoved me into a locker and locked it. They'd… prepared it with gross stuff, too, so I'm not complaining about not remembering that part. Then, on Friday, I woke up with powers."
"Friday? You were in there for the whole week?" she asked, obvious confusion on her face.
I shrugged. "I honestly have no idea what happened after that. I might have woken up on Wednesday, but that was… anyway, the next thing I am absolutely sure of is that I woke up in my backyard on Friday." I was about ninety-nine percent sure that Wednesday had happened, but it really didn't make for a coherent tale.
"Well, that sucks," she offered. "What… what power did you end up with?"
The way she asked made me think there was probably some cape taboo I wasn't aware of. I didn't actually care if she knew, but I wasn't going to spell out everything, either.
"Spiders, mostly. I can control spiders and I have the proportional strength and speed of a spider. Oh, and I can make some Tinkertech that lets me project webbing."
"That's… oddly well-themed for a grab-bag cape." Amy said and I could tell that she was relaxing a little. Spider powers had to be less intimidating than most master and stranger powers. "But how does the fact that I can't scan you fit into that?"
I shrugged. "No clue. How does the makeover fit in? I mean, I'm not complaining, but I have like three outfits I can actually fit into right now." I did the chest thing again and Amy blushed.
"It's very nice," Amy agreed, then coughed and covered her mouth in embarrassment.
I turned back to watch the movie for a moment. Some guy with an 80s haircut was being chased around a store by some cops, but I had no idea why or who anyone was. I was definitely stalling.
"Why would I be upset with you for any of that?" Amy asked after a while.
"Well, not for any of that," I admitted and took a deep breath. Here it went. "During that week, while I was unconscious, I had a vision. Well, a lot of visions, really. About the future and the past."
"Oh," she said and her expression grew troubled. "What did you see?"
"A lot of stuff. In those visions, you were a hero and you helped save the world."
"But?" she asked quickly. She could apparently sense I was leaving out a lot of things.
"But you did some bad things in the middle. There were some extreme circumstances and you made amends as best you could, but people got hurt."
Amy's expression grew stern and she frowned. "Not that I don't believe you… but I don't believe you."
There were a lot of things I could say to that, but I'd thought something like this over quite a bit. I didn't want her to actually try to kill me, but I would have to use information that was verifiable. "I know that you are adopted."
Amy huffed. "A lot of people know that, or at least assume."
"I know who your real parents are."
That caused her to freeze. "I don't want to know that."
I shrugged. "Then I won't tell you. It doesn't matter one way or the other, you are your own person."
She was silent for a long moment. "Tell me something else from your visions. Something… else."
"I know the identities of most of the capes in the city, but it seems rude to use those since it's possible to figure them out other ways." I thought. "Oh, wait, here's a freebie because he's the worst. Coil is a PRT consultant named Thomas Calvert. He was at Ellisburg with the current director before he got his power, which is to simulate two timelines and pick the one he wants. He uses alternate timelines to do very bad things and he thinks he's a villain in a movie complete with a secret underground lair which has a self destruct mechanism. He likes to blackmail and kidnap people into doing his bidding."
Amy frowned. "That doesn't help… but I'll remember it anyway."
I nodded. The obvious knowledge to share was right there. "Your power isn't quite what you tell people it is. You can heal people, but you are actually an unrestricted biokinetic. Your power can affect brains but-"
"That's all an open secret, at best," she interjected. On screen, someone was shooting someone. "I threaten to make people shit out of their mouths way too often for no one to guess I can do more than just heal. As for the other thing… I'm always specific to say that I don't mess with brains, not that I can't do them."
I stared at her for a long moment, very grateful that I seemed to be immune to her power. "That aside, I agree with you for not doing brains. Your power lets you do a thing, but it isn't going to create new information out of nothing. If you put someone's brain back together, but the data is gone, would that even still be them?" I shrugged. "Just cutting off that one type of treatment doesn't change the amount of good you can do and it gives you a line that you shouldn't cross because you know that when you start messing with brains, you're changing who that person is."
Amy fidgeted. "I'm well aware."
I wavered. I had considered the real bomb and had been trying to avoid it because I knew it wasn't going to go over well.
"A bigger secret is that you are nearly obsessed with your sist-"
I felt a hand placed over my mouth. There was a wild, slightly panicked look in Amy's eyes as she crouched beside me. I hadn't even really seen her move and my danger sense hadn't so much as tingled.
"That's a secret," she said, though it sounded brittle. I didn't try speaking for a moment, but when she didn't remove her hand after a ten count, I did the first thing that popped to mind. I licked her palm. She pulled her hand away, glaring at me. "You licked me!"
"It worked, didn't it?" I kept my grin small because I could feel how serious the atmosphere was.
"You can't tell anyone." It was a plea more than a command this time.
"I won't. I understand why you would come to feel that way, based on your childhood, and it's okay. It doesn't make you bad or wrong and it's something you can overcome with time and effort. As long as you don't act on it, no one even has to know."
There was a long, long moment of silence as she stared at me with unshed tears in her eyes. The panic was giving way to something else. "Fine," she said in a voice that said she really didn't believe me as she sat back, withdrawing to the farthest corner of the couch. "What do you want from me? Are you… are you going to blackmail me? Is there someone you want me to heal? I'll… I'll do it."
"No, I'm not blackmailing you. In my visions? I was a villain. I did worse things than you. My powers were different and I did what I thought was necessary, but I hurt a lot of people. A-a lot." It was hard to put a number on exactly how much harm other-me had caused in order to save the world, but it had been a lot. "I'm getting a chance to be better. To do better. I want you to have that chance, too. There's no one I want you to he-actually, I take that back. There is someone I want you to heal, but it's voluntary. I just want you to do it in a specific way."
Amy's pensive look intensified.
"The next time you see Clockblocker, I want you to hit him on the back of the head. I'll let you use your judgment on how hard, but I'd suggest very hard. Then, I want you to say to him 'What kind of a moron doesn't ask their friend, the healer, to fix their father's illness?'. I don't know exactly what is wrong with him, but I know he's needed at least one bone marrow transplant and I really don't think that's beyond your capabilities."
"Wait, really?" Amy's eyebrows furrowed. "He's never said - wait, how do you know… Oh."
"Yeah, I said I knew most of them and that includes the Wards. Think of this as your counter-blackmail on me. If you wanted to get me killed, just tell everyone that I know all the cape identities. I already told you Coil's, but that's because I hate him enough to risk it. In the visions, Coil knows all of the Empire identities and he releases them, framing the PRT for that. It causes absolute chaos, which is why I'm not going to breathe a word of that information to anyone. I doubt Lung would care much, but the Protectorate and Empire definitely do."
"Is this… is all of this why you 'ran into me' on Saturday?" she asked after another moment of digesting what I'd said.
"Not at all. That really was a coincidence. I had no idea I would be immune to your power and you're one of the most dangerous capes in the country if you decide to be. Even now, I'm risking my life and my father's life by letting you in on these secrets," I admitted. The stress was starting to get to me, too.
"Because I deserve a second chance," she said doubtfully.
"You do. You made some bad choices, but in the visions, you tried to make amends. You're a good person, deep down, and you are slowly killing yourself because you don't believe that you are. I can do more good for the world by helping you relax than I could by going out and beating up any number of criminals. Well, not counting Bakuda. I should probably do something about her," I trailed off as I realized there were a few pretty urgent things coming up.
"Who is Bakuda?" Amy asked, apparently just as distracted as I was.
"Oh, she's this new Tinker that Lung is going to recruit soon, and then… well, no, that would be different. Anyway, her specialty is bombs, including implanting bombs into people she kidnaps and turning them into suicide bombers. Really nasty, brings the city to its knees. However, she only got really bad because Lung wasn't there to rein her in, though she could probably take him out in time and it would all happen, anyway, just later…" I shook my head to clear the thoughts away. "Like I was saying, I wanted to give you a second chance. I don't… I can't work with the Protectorate. They'll want to shove me into the Wards, and one of them was the one that shoved me into that locker. I am not going to be joining any of the gangs, Faultline's group is only a half step above a gang, Uber and Leet are colossal assholes, and the Undersiders are secretly Coil's minions."
"That's a lot to take in," Amy said and stared at the screen for a while, watching someone chasing someone. "You know, you didn't have to put on the seductive act for this."
I coughed and I could feel heat rising on my cheeks. "I ah… it's not an act? I mean, it is, but only because I have no idea how to actually be seductive. I might have gotten a little carried away because you're cute and I wouldn't mind… uh… you know. Just seeing where that kind of thing goes?"
"We can be friends," Amy declared after what felt like a long time. "Or I guess we can be allies to start and see if we can become friends. If that's… if there's something else, later, we'll see."
I nodded. "Do you want to start the movie over? I think I missed pretty much everything."
That earned me a weak little grin. "Sure."
//\\o//\\
"So," dad said, drawing out the word as we finished up breakfast the next morning. "How was your date?"
"It went okay, I guess." I shrugged. At no point had she actually tried to murder me, and that seemed like a good thing. "It could have gone a lot worse, at least."
When I didn't jump to offer more information, he tried again. "Do you think you'll be seeing more of her?"
I sighed. "Yeah, I think so." Things had ended pretty well, all things considered. When the movie was done, she had driven me home in a battered but newish minivan that she referred to as the 'New Wave Mobile' - jokingly, I assumed. Calling it a date was a bit generous, but it had been an activity that two people engaged in together and those two people were, at least theoretically, capable of being attracted to each other.
"That's good. Just… don't feel like you have to get together with the first girl that asks. There are plenty of fish in the sea."
I chuckled and decided not to mention that I had done the asking. Repeatedly. "In the teenage cape sea? I think that's more of a puddle." If I avoiding the Wards and gang members, then the pool was even shallower. Not that I needed to date anyone, of course. I could just be single forever, which had an appeal of its own.
"You can go out with non-capes, you know?" dad suggested gently.
"I'll consider it," I said without really meaning it. After that first day, my life had calmed down from 'deadly chaos' to just 'weirdly eventful', but it was still more than I wanted to subject a defenseless non-cape to. I'd worry all the time that they were going to get kidnapped or worse. Even a cape with limited combat capabilities like Amy - until she built an army of monsters to do her bidding, anyway - could do a whole lot more to survive in those kinds of situations than a non-cape.
He reached out and ruffled my hair, annoyingly. "Aw, you're starting to grow up."
I swatted his hand aside. "Stoooop," I whined, though I was actually kind of okay with it. Interacting with dad since I'd gotten my powers had been strangely comforting. It was like a tension had released, probably because he'd spent a week thinking I was dead. Which I had been, sort of, but I got better.
School was fine, again, and I had no idea what that meant. Had the chaos really backed off? Was it just waiting for me to let my guard down like it had before?
There were still Wards lurking around every corner, but I was getting used to that. Aside from his first day duties, Dennis hadn't approached me again, but I saw both Chris and Carlos in classes. Chris was a sweet boy, but he needed to grow up a lot before I would consider him attractive. Carlos was definitely attractive, but after my flubs on the first day, I didn't really feel like trying again. The fact that I was theoretically something with Amy might have been a factor in that, too.
The only event that really stood out that day was seeing Amy, very briefly, at lunch. She seemed okay, which was good. We basically just said hello to each other and then went on about our business, but it was a friendly 'hello'.
That afternoon in study hall, I browsed the big binder that had all of the open placement options for students, but it was slim pickings. The only options that paid were the work-placement options, and they were all taken. I considered the others - mostly volunteer work - to be at best a lateral move from using the afternoon to study. Someone else might have called it boring, but I found it peaceful. I hadn't had the time to just sit and read at school since middle school. Emma had seen to that.
If nothing else, study hall gave me time to practice my spider control powers. Arcadia was relatively close to the PRT headquarters, and if I could get used to using bug-senses, I'd be able to spy on them with near-impunity. Assuming their exterminators missed some spots, at least.
It was a skill that was improving slowly, but I felt like there was progress being made. I suspected that I probably wouldn't end up using it as a primary skill in a fight, but there were successful heroes out there that had built their careers on less useful powers. Lots of them.
When I got home, it was time to check on my web-fluid meth lab which I had basically put on hold while I had my date the night before. I was getting close to the point where I was ready to make the cartridges, though that left me with a different quandary. My understanding of the science wasn't amazing, but the fluid, once mixed and cooked, would be under a lot of pressure. You couldn't just use a regular test tube to hold that kind of thing.
I was pretty sure Spiderman had ordered pressure vessels online in at least some versions, but Earth Bet was a very different place from any of the places portrayed by Marvel. I'd end up on a watch list and possibly under investigation under suspicion of making explosives if I tried to buy something like that.
That left me with the prospect of making the tubes myself. Given my strength, that was possible - bending steel with my fingers was trivial if I tried - but I still needed to experiment with how to bend things so that they would hold a seal and work with the web-shooter mechanism when my fluid got to the final stage. Ideally, I would wait till I would be home for a long time so I could monitor the progress of my experiment which meant waiting for the weekend.
Before bed, I practiced sewing a little more, though it didn't go particularly well. Being able to make my own clothes would have removed a major issue since I was approaching the end of my wardrobe after just four days. I was getting better at it by tiny increments, but not fast enough to actually help.
That night, I dreamed about sewing, which was much less frustrating in my dreams. In fact, I rather enjoyed it in my dreams, though half the work just seemed to do itself. There was a quality to the dreams that felt vivid. Alive.
In the morning, I felt like I had been exercising hard all night, with a deep burning of exhaustion in my muscles. Then I discovered that the scraps of cloth and ruined clothing that I had been practicing sewing with were gone, and in their place were three new outfits. They appeared to be of high quality and tailored to my exact specifications. Even more mysteriously, they were made of very nice fabrics unlike anything which had been in my practice piles.
"What the hell?" I asked myself and the universe at large.
As usual, there was no answer.
"That's the cover story," she said and flopped down on the couch beside me. "I still have questions. A lot of questions, but you do look very nice tonight."
I laughed again. "We will see if you still think so in an hour." I hesitated, all of the humor draining out of me and I pushed on. "First off, I'm a cape."
"I guessed that part," Amy said in a deadpan voice. It was good to see that she was still herself, even while she was blushing a little.
"I wasn't a cape… eight days ago? Nine days ago? Depends on how you count. Anyway, when I went to school - at Winslow - last Monday, I wasn't a cape." I gestured to myself with both hands. I did that little trick I'd seen Emma do from time to time and rolled my shoulders back slightly so my breasts were more prominent. The movement caused Amy's eyes to go to my chest and when she realized what she was doing, she blushed and pointedly looked away. "I didn't look like this, either. I mean, sort of, but this is like the old me turned up to eleven."
"Your trigger event changed your body? And you remember your life from before?" Amy's brow furrowed, as she thought through the implications. "It seems like there are Case 53s everywhere, but you don't hear about it too much otherwise. Then again, I've been asked to look at a lot of Case 53s, so maybe it just seems more common because of that."
I nodded. "Yeah, still have all of my memories. I'm pretty sure Canary didn't always have feathers in her hair, so it's not like I'm the only one." I was also pretty sure that Canary's power came from Cauldron, but that wasn't something I wanted to bring up. Alabaster might have been a better example, but no one was really sure what he looked like when he wasn't publicly being a Nazi "Anyway, I don't entirely remember my trigger event. Someone shoved me into a locker and locked it. They'd… prepared it with gross stuff, too, so I'm not complaining about not remembering that part. Then, on Friday, I woke up with powers."
"Friday? You were in there for the whole week?" she asked, obvious confusion on her face.
I shrugged. "I honestly have no idea what happened after that. I might have woken up on Wednesday, but that was… anyway, the next thing I am absolutely sure of is that I woke up in my backyard on Friday." I was about ninety-nine percent sure that Wednesday had happened, but it really didn't make for a coherent tale.
"Well, that sucks," she offered. "What… what power did you end up with?"
The way she asked made me think there was probably some cape taboo I wasn't aware of. I didn't actually care if she knew, but I wasn't going to spell out everything, either.
"Spiders, mostly. I can control spiders and I have the proportional strength and speed of a spider. Oh, and I can make some Tinkertech that lets me project webbing."
"That's… oddly well-themed for a grab-bag cape." Amy said and I could tell that she was relaxing a little. Spider powers had to be less intimidating than most master and stranger powers. "But how does the fact that I can't scan you fit into that?"
I shrugged. "No clue. How does the makeover fit in? I mean, I'm not complaining, but I have like three outfits I can actually fit into right now." I did the chest thing again and Amy blushed.
"It's very nice," Amy agreed, then coughed and covered her mouth in embarrassment.
I turned back to watch the movie for a moment. Some guy with an 80s haircut was being chased around a store by some cops, but I had no idea why or who anyone was. I was definitely stalling.
"Why would I be upset with you for any of that?" Amy asked after a while.
"Well, not for any of that," I admitted and took a deep breath. Here it went. "During that week, while I was unconscious, I had a vision. Well, a lot of visions, really. About the future and the past."
"Oh," she said and her expression grew troubled. "What did you see?"
"A lot of stuff. In those visions, you were a hero and you helped save the world."
"But?" she asked quickly. She could apparently sense I was leaving out a lot of things.
"But you did some bad things in the middle. There were some extreme circumstances and you made amends as best you could, but people got hurt."
Amy's expression grew stern and she frowned. "Not that I don't believe you… but I don't believe you."
There were a lot of things I could say to that, but I'd thought something like this over quite a bit. I didn't want her to actually try to kill me, but I would have to use information that was verifiable. "I know that you are adopted."
Amy huffed. "A lot of people know that, or at least assume."
"I know who your real parents are."
That caused her to freeze. "I don't want to know that."
I shrugged. "Then I won't tell you. It doesn't matter one way or the other, you are your own person."
She was silent for a long moment. "Tell me something else from your visions. Something… else."
"I know the identities of most of the capes in the city, but it seems rude to use those since it's possible to figure them out other ways." I thought. "Oh, wait, here's a freebie because he's the worst. Coil is a PRT consultant named Thomas Calvert. He was at Ellisburg with the current director before he got his power, which is to simulate two timelines and pick the one he wants. He uses alternate timelines to do very bad things and he thinks he's a villain in a movie complete with a secret underground lair which has a self destruct mechanism. He likes to blackmail and kidnap people into doing his bidding."
Amy frowned. "That doesn't help… but I'll remember it anyway."
I nodded. The obvious knowledge to share was right there. "Your power isn't quite what you tell people it is. You can heal people, but you are actually an unrestricted biokinetic. Your power can affect brains but-"
"That's all an open secret, at best," she interjected. On screen, someone was shooting someone. "I threaten to make people shit out of their mouths way too often for no one to guess I can do more than just heal. As for the other thing… I'm always specific to say that I don't mess with brains, not that I can't do them."
I stared at her for a long moment, very grateful that I seemed to be immune to her power. "That aside, I agree with you for not doing brains. Your power lets you do a thing, but it isn't going to create new information out of nothing. If you put someone's brain back together, but the data is gone, would that even still be them?" I shrugged. "Just cutting off that one type of treatment doesn't change the amount of good you can do and it gives you a line that you shouldn't cross because you know that when you start messing with brains, you're changing who that person is."
Amy fidgeted. "I'm well aware."
I wavered. I had considered the real bomb and had been trying to avoid it because I knew it wasn't going to go over well.
"A bigger secret is that you are nearly obsessed with your sist-"
I felt a hand placed over my mouth. There was a wild, slightly panicked look in Amy's eyes as she crouched beside me. I hadn't even really seen her move and my danger sense hadn't so much as tingled.
"That's a secret," she said, though it sounded brittle. I didn't try speaking for a moment, but when she didn't remove her hand after a ten count, I did the first thing that popped to mind. I licked her palm. She pulled her hand away, glaring at me. "You licked me!"
"It worked, didn't it?" I kept my grin small because I could feel how serious the atmosphere was.
"You can't tell anyone." It was a plea more than a command this time.
"I won't. I understand why you would come to feel that way, based on your childhood, and it's okay. It doesn't make you bad or wrong and it's something you can overcome with time and effort. As long as you don't act on it, no one even has to know."
There was a long, long moment of silence as she stared at me with unshed tears in her eyes. The panic was giving way to something else. "Fine," she said in a voice that said she really didn't believe me as she sat back, withdrawing to the farthest corner of the couch. "What do you want from me? Are you… are you going to blackmail me? Is there someone you want me to heal? I'll… I'll do it."
"No, I'm not blackmailing you. In my visions? I was a villain. I did worse things than you. My powers were different and I did what I thought was necessary, but I hurt a lot of people. A-a lot." It was hard to put a number on exactly how much harm other-me had caused in order to save the world, but it had been a lot. "I'm getting a chance to be better. To do better. I want you to have that chance, too. There's no one I want you to he-actually, I take that back. There is someone I want you to heal, but it's voluntary. I just want you to do it in a specific way."
Amy's pensive look intensified.
"The next time you see Clockblocker, I want you to hit him on the back of the head. I'll let you use your judgment on how hard, but I'd suggest very hard. Then, I want you to say to him 'What kind of a moron doesn't ask their friend, the healer, to fix their father's illness?'. I don't know exactly what is wrong with him, but I know he's needed at least one bone marrow transplant and I really don't think that's beyond your capabilities."
"Wait, really?" Amy's eyebrows furrowed. "He's never said - wait, how do you know… Oh."
"Yeah, I said I knew most of them and that includes the Wards. Think of this as your counter-blackmail on me. If you wanted to get me killed, just tell everyone that I know all the cape identities. I already told you Coil's, but that's because I hate him enough to risk it. In the visions, Coil knows all of the Empire identities and he releases them, framing the PRT for that. It causes absolute chaos, which is why I'm not going to breathe a word of that information to anyone. I doubt Lung would care much, but the Protectorate and Empire definitely do."
"Is this… is all of this why you 'ran into me' on Saturday?" she asked after another moment of digesting what I'd said.
"Not at all. That really was a coincidence. I had no idea I would be immune to your power and you're one of the most dangerous capes in the country if you decide to be. Even now, I'm risking my life and my father's life by letting you in on these secrets," I admitted. The stress was starting to get to me, too.
"Because I deserve a second chance," she said doubtfully.
"You do. You made some bad choices, but in the visions, you tried to make amends. You're a good person, deep down, and you are slowly killing yourself because you don't believe that you are. I can do more good for the world by helping you relax than I could by going out and beating up any number of criminals. Well, not counting Bakuda. I should probably do something about her," I trailed off as I realized there were a few pretty urgent things coming up.
"Who is Bakuda?" Amy asked, apparently just as distracted as I was.
"Oh, she's this new Tinker that Lung is going to recruit soon, and then… well, no, that would be different. Anyway, her specialty is bombs, including implanting bombs into people she kidnaps and turning them into suicide bombers. Really nasty, brings the city to its knees. However, she only got really bad because Lung wasn't there to rein her in, though she could probably take him out in time and it would all happen, anyway, just later…" I shook my head to clear the thoughts away. "Like I was saying, I wanted to give you a second chance. I don't… I can't work with the Protectorate. They'll want to shove me into the Wards, and one of them was the one that shoved me into that locker. I am not going to be joining any of the gangs, Faultline's group is only a half step above a gang, Uber and Leet are colossal assholes, and the Undersiders are secretly Coil's minions."
"That's a lot to take in," Amy said and stared at the screen for a while, watching someone chasing someone. "You know, you didn't have to put on the seductive act for this."
I coughed and I could feel heat rising on my cheeks. "I ah… it's not an act? I mean, it is, but only because I have no idea how to actually be seductive. I might have gotten a little carried away because you're cute and I wouldn't mind… uh… you know. Just seeing where that kind of thing goes?"
"We can be friends," Amy declared after what felt like a long time. "Or I guess we can be allies to start and see if we can become friends. If that's… if there's something else, later, we'll see."
I nodded. "Do you want to start the movie over? I think I missed pretty much everything."
That earned me a weak little grin. "Sure."
//\\o//\\
"So," dad said, drawing out the word as we finished up breakfast the next morning. "How was your date?"
"It went okay, I guess." I shrugged. At no point had she actually tried to murder me, and that seemed like a good thing. "It could have gone a lot worse, at least."
When I didn't jump to offer more information, he tried again. "Do you think you'll be seeing more of her?"
I sighed. "Yeah, I think so." Things had ended pretty well, all things considered. When the movie was done, she had driven me home in a battered but newish minivan that she referred to as the 'New Wave Mobile' - jokingly, I assumed. Calling it a date was a bit generous, but it had been an activity that two people engaged in together and those two people were, at least theoretically, capable of being attracted to each other.
"That's good. Just… don't feel like you have to get together with the first girl that asks. There are plenty of fish in the sea."
I chuckled and decided not to mention that I had done the asking. Repeatedly. "In the teenage cape sea? I think that's more of a puddle." If I avoiding the Wards and gang members, then the pool was even shallower. Not that I needed to date anyone, of course. I could just be single forever, which had an appeal of its own.
"You can go out with non-capes, you know?" dad suggested gently.
"I'll consider it," I said without really meaning it. After that first day, my life had calmed down from 'deadly chaos' to just 'weirdly eventful', but it was still more than I wanted to subject a defenseless non-cape to. I'd worry all the time that they were going to get kidnapped or worse. Even a cape with limited combat capabilities like Amy - until she built an army of monsters to do her bidding, anyway - could do a whole lot more to survive in those kinds of situations than a non-cape.
He reached out and ruffled my hair, annoyingly. "Aw, you're starting to grow up."
I swatted his hand aside. "Stoooop," I whined, though I was actually kind of okay with it. Interacting with dad since I'd gotten my powers had been strangely comforting. It was like a tension had released, probably because he'd spent a week thinking I was dead. Which I had been, sort of, but I got better.
School was fine, again, and I had no idea what that meant. Had the chaos really backed off? Was it just waiting for me to let my guard down like it had before?
There were still Wards lurking around every corner, but I was getting used to that. Aside from his first day duties, Dennis hadn't approached me again, but I saw both Chris and Carlos in classes. Chris was a sweet boy, but he needed to grow up a lot before I would consider him attractive. Carlos was definitely attractive, but after my flubs on the first day, I didn't really feel like trying again. The fact that I was theoretically something with Amy might have been a factor in that, too.
The only event that really stood out that day was seeing Amy, very briefly, at lunch. She seemed okay, which was good. We basically just said hello to each other and then went on about our business, but it was a friendly 'hello'.
That afternoon in study hall, I browsed the big binder that had all of the open placement options for students, but it was slim pickings. The only options that paid were the work-placement options, and they were all taken. I considered the others - mostly volunteer work - to be at best a lateral move from using the afternoon to study. Someone else might have called it boring, but I found it peaceful. I hadn't had the time to just sit and read at school since middle school. Emma had seen to that.
If nothing else, study hall gave me time to practice my spider control powers. Arcadia was relatively close to the PRT headquarters, and if I could get used to using bug-senses, I'd be able to spy on them with near-impunity. Assuming their exterminators missed some spots, at least.
It was a skill that was improving slowly, but I felt like there was progress being made. I suspected that I probably wouldn't end up using it as a primary skill in a fight, but there were successful heroes out there that had built their careers on less useful powers. Lots of them.
When I got home, it was time to check on my web-fluid meth lab which I had basically put on hold while I had my date the night before. I was getting close to the point where I was ready to make the cartridges, though that left me with a different quandary. My understanding of the science wasn't amazing, but the fluid, once mixed and cooked, would be under a lot of pressure. You couldn't just use a regular test tube to hold that kind of thing.
I was pretty sure Spiderman had ordered pressure vessels online in at least some versions, but Earth Bet was a very different place from any of the places portrayed by Marvel. I'd end up on a watch list and possibly under investigation under suspicion of making explosives if I tried to buy something like that.
That left me with the prospect of making the tubes myself. Given my strength, that was possible - bending steel with my fingers was trivial if I tried - but I still needed to experiment with how to bend things so that they would hold a seal and work with the web-shooter mechanism when my fluid got to the final stage. Ideally, I would wait till I would be home for a long time so I could monitor the progress of my experiment which meant waiting for the weekend.
Before bed, I practiced sewing a little more, though it didn't go particularly well. Being able to make my own clothes would have removed a major issue since I was approaching the end of my wardrobe after just four days. I was getting better at it by tiny increments, but not fast enough to actually help.
That night, I dreamed about sewing, which was much less frustrating in my dreams. In fact, I rather enjoyed it in my dreams, though half the work just seemed to do itself. There was a quality to the dreams that felt vivid. Alive.
In the morning, I felt like I had been exercising hard all night, with a deep burning of exhaustion in my muscles. Then I discovered that the scraps of cloth and ruined clothing that I had been practicing sewing with were gone, and in their place were three new outfits. They appeared to be of high quality and tailored to my exact specifications. Even more mysteriously, they were made of very nice fabrics unlike anything which had been in my practice piles.
"What the hell?" I asked myself and the universe at large.
As usual, there was no answer.
fireball900
World Conqueror (not Overlord)
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Darn universe, always so unhelpful.
Lexin
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Might be just an effect of the CYOA; if she got costume in the item section and it had to be explained in universe for example.
09
Swordchucks
Experienced.
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"We need to talk," I whispered into Amy's ear as I sidled up to her at lunch. It wasn't lost on me how our roles were reversed from a few days before.
"Okay," was all she said before we vanished off to the nurse's office.
"I wanted to talk to you, too," Amy declared as she closed the door behind us and turned the little lock. "I talked to you-know-who and confirmed the thing. I'm going to take care of it on Sunday." She paused and took a deep breath. "I believe you and your crazy stories now."
I had almost forgotten about telling her about Clockblocker's father. Rather I hadn't put together that it was a crucial bit of proof that Amy would have wanted to check out. It was a relief that she didn't think I was crazy, at least, though maybe I still was. "Well, good. Because things keep getting crazier." I fished one of my new shirts out of my backpack and tossed it to her.
She fumbled a bit and caught it. "It's a shirt," she said in puzzlement and then her brain caught up with her fingers. "It's a very nice shirt. Wow, this must be expensive." She lowered it. "I, uh, I can't accept-"
I snorted a laugh. "It's not a gift. It's more weirdness. I made that. Last night. In my sleep."
Amy looked at it again, turning the shirt from side to side and admiring the quality. "That is weird. I didn't know you could sew."
"I can't. Well, I couldn't last night. Today, I'm like an expert seamstress, which is still weird, but not as weird as my overnight session." I huffed at the absurdity of it all. "I woke up this morning and I had somehow turned a bunch of cheap old clothing and sewing scraps into three complete outfits, and I mean complete outfits. Two tops, two bottoms, a dress, three bras, three matching sets of panties, two pairs of socks, a pair of tights, and three new sets of shoes. All of it looking like I knocked over one of those fancy places downtown."
Amy's look of puzzlement grew. "That's… improbable, at best."
"I know! And they all fit like a glove. Look at this!" I pulled up my shirt - the last of my old outfits - to reveal one of my new bras. It was like I was getting hugged by a cloud and felt amazing.
Amy's eyes widened and she froze. It took several long seconds before I realized what was wrong and I blushed a bit as I lowered my shirt. Still, validation that I was attractive left me feeling pleasantly warm. "Sorry about that. It's just… it fits so well that it's amazing."
"I, uh, no, it's fine. Sorry, you just caught me off guard." It was Amy's turn to blush and look at the ground.
"I wasn't thinking. It just… well, if I can figure out how to make stuff like this on demand, I'll make you one and you'll see what I'm talking about." I coughed. "Anyway, I felt like I had run a marathon when I woke up, but it's been getting better. Ever since, you know, I haven't really been physically tired, even after running for miles. It was weird."
"Does it…" Amy frowned as she thought. "Is there some relation to spiders?"
"In the vaguest sense, maybe? Spiders make silk, but they don't really make clothes out of it. It certainly didn't seem like I had any special gift with it before last night and the dreams, and I've been trying to sew off and on for a bit."
"Then I have no idea. Powers can be weird, though, so who knows?" Amy's blush intensified and she fell silent. "Actually, I wanted to ask you… tomorrow is Friday, and Vicky usually tries to drag me along on a double date with her and Dean. I usually say 'no', but I can only push her off so long and I figured maybe she'd at least get the hint and stop trying to set me up with random guys if i brought a girl, so, uh, maybe-"
"I'd love to go with you," I agreed. "I even have a dress that is worth wearing on a date, so that's good?"
Amy nodded, seemingly a bit distracted. "Y-yeah, that's g-good. I'll let you know where tomorrow and we can figure out how to get you there."
I checked the time on the big clock on the wall. "I guess we should go if we want to get anything to eat before we have to go… actually, where do you go in the afternoons?"
"Vicky and I both have 'work study' with New Wave. It's kind of stretching the rules, but I don't really care. Most of the time, I just go to the hospital and do some healing." Amy always looked a bit tired, but talking about healing really brought that out in her. It made me feel a little sad for her.
"As long as you set healthy boundaries. You don't want to be like the rainbow fish."
"Rainbow fish?" she asked, clearly confused.
"Yes, the children's book about the fish that was born with natural talents and then everyone pressures it to give them away, taking and taking and taking, until the rainbow fish has nothing left." It had been a topic mom had enjoyed. Children's books that clumsily taught lessons which were close to being good but somehow also ended up completely unhealthy were more common than one would think.
"Oh, I thought that was about sharing," Amy said.
"It is, but it's sharing without healthy boundaries. Just like the Giving Tree is about an ungrateful little boy that takes and takes and takes until the tree that loves him is nothing but a forgotten corpse. Little bastard probably complained about having to remove the stump, too."
That got a laugh out of Amy. "You have a unique perspective, but… thank you for caring about that kind of stuff. Just… thank you."
I smiled. Maybe I could talk her out of self-destruction at least a little bit?
//\\o//\\
I was straight up not having a good time.
After my magical clothes-making on Wednesday night, I'd had another bout of magical Tinkering on Thursday night, resulting in a pair of web-shooters that were much more streamlined than my crude attempt to do by hand. Included was also a series of cartridges pre-loaded with the web-fluid and ready to go. How, exactly, I had gathered up all of that material in my sleep was baffling, but I had dreamed of hammering, forging, and brewing things all night. It had to be related.
That led to Friday night's double-date, which I knew, intellectually, was just a 'friend' date, but the reality was more grating than that. I knew I was hot in my new dress. The looks I got from Vicky, Dean, Amy, and even random passerbys said I was hot. However, that didn't stop Amy from spending most of the evening staring wistfully at her sister.
Intellectually, I knew we were just friends. We were two people that had agreed to be allies and maybe leave the door to dating open at some point in the future. Intellectually, I knew that Amy was fighting against a multi-year infatuation and a quietly abusive childhood. That wasn't just going to vanish because someone claiming to be from the future told her it was a terrible idea.
I knew all of that intellectually, but emotionally, it still hurt a little to have her effectively snub me for the girl she shouldn't ever have.
It was also the first time something hadn't gone to plan, more or less. Sure, I kept getting random surprises and weirdness, but outside of that first day - which was seeming to be more and more the exception and not the norm - things were mostly within certain boundaries of sanity and had been going my way. Mostly.
"So, how's it going?" Dean asked when the sisters vanished somewhere together. We were at a bowling alley of all places, between games. I'd begged off actually bowling because I wasn't sure I could avoid putting a ball through the ceiling.
"It's fine," I said, though I didn't really feel it. Dean was nice and actually a pretty good guy, from what I had seen. After a few weird looks which I guessed meant he realized he couldn't read me, he'd just kind of rolled with it.
"So, you and Amy…" he trailed off, leadingly.
I shrugged. "Not really. We're just friends."
"Ah," he said and turned to watch a young woman, maybe twenty, celebrating a strike in the next alley. She looked like she'd just come from her job cleaning somewhere. "I just assumed."
I straightened my dress. "I just wanted to get dressed up a bit. I don't… I'm just coming out of an ugly duckling phase. It's nice to have something to show off, you know?"
Dean laughed and smiled, reminding me that he really was handsome. It was like the universe gave him a lackluster power in an attempt to balance some sort of cosmic scale. "Oh, I know. I was five foot even through most of middle school, then the summer before high school, I gained ten inches. It was like a whole new world opened up for me."
"That's a lot," I agreed. Two inches had been enough to throw off almost all of my clothes, but I'd also gained inches in other places that Dean probably hadn't. Then again, he did have a pretty broad chest, though his build could probably be best described as 'lean'. A beat of silence passed. "Do you ever think about the future?"
"Who doesn't?" he replied. "I'm a senior, so that's pretty much all I'm thinking about."
I remembered something about his family wanting him to go to college and eventually take over the family business but he wanted to go into the Protectorate. Glory Girl was planning to follow him or something, too. If Leviathan hadn't done his thing, there would have been a different set of explosions in the Dallon and Stansfield households.
"I guess that's true. I just realized earlier than I was looking at afternoon programs and I wasn't even considering the university classes. My mom was a professor, and I didn't even think about continuing with my education." It really had been bothering me. Even before I had been shoved into that locker, my dreams of being able to leave for college somewhere far from the Bay had been slowly drifting away as my grades got worse and worse.
"You don't have to go to college," he said with quite a bit of passion. "There are good, important jobs that you can do without a degree, despite what a lot of people think. Firefighters and police officers, for instance, don't have degrees and they are some of the most important-"
"Miss us?" Vicky interrupted as she flopped down on the other side of Dean. Amy looked sheepish behind her.
"More than you can imagine," Dean declared with an over-the-top sigh. He threw his arm around her as she giggled. That just led to Amy cutting an annoyed look at the two of them before she came to sit beside me.
"Everything okay?" I whispered to her softly, blocking her face from the view of the other two by moving around a little.
"Yeah," she grumped, though her expression said otherwise.
I nodded. "It's okay," I said as I leaned back, stretching. Louder, I asked the group a question. "Are we done bowling or do you guys want to bowl another game?"
"I think I'm done," Amy grumbled.
"I could do one more, but I'm starting to get hungry." That was Dean.
"Feed me, kind sir," Vicky oozed as she leaned more into his embrace. No wonder Amy hated seeing them together. With that realization, I suddenly felt like a jerk for being annoyed that she wasn't drooling all over me - respectfully. The path to a better future did not, in fact, rest within my pants and I was an asshole for thinking that it might.
"Sounds like it's time to go get something to eat, then," I chipped in. Dean caught my eye and nodded. I was mildly annoyed that I liked him. It seemed so cliche, but he really was likable.
A bit more than an hour later, I found myself crammed into the area that Dean's car jokingly considered a 'back seat'. Technically, it sat four, but it was clear that the emphasis had been on the front seat passengers, performance, and then everything else. It was fine, no longer than I was probably going to be in the car, though it was a little uncomfortably close with Amy after my recent thoughts and realizations.
I had seriously considered catching the bus, but Dean had offered to drop us off back at the Dallon household and I kind of wanted to talk to Amy before I headed home. I was thinking through that conversation when my danger sense blared at me.
"Look out!" I managed to scream just before there was a horrible crunching sound and then the world tumbled into chaos.
//\\o//\\
"Alpha target secure-"
My world throbbed. Everything hurt and there was a ringing in my ears that seemed impossibly loud. I was upside down, too, which didn't help.
There was another tremendous crash and I felt my world lurch a few inches to the side. Everything rocked. Someone female screamed.
"Bravo target present."
Everything smelled like smoke.
"Neutralizing. Prepare for capture."
Another scream, then an electrical crackle.
"Bravo target secure."
I tasted blood.
"Charlie target?"
"No time. We have to move."
I managed to get my eyes open and memories pulsed at me. Dean's car. I remembered being crammed into the back of Dean's car, but it had certainly looked different before. Now, the roof was even lower and irregular - crushed in by whatever impact had flipped the car. Or by the impact of being flipped. The turn indicator was stuck and kept signaling a left turn that we were never going to make.
Dean and Victoria were both gone, Victoria's entire door ripped away from the car while Dean's looked like it was pried open.
I looked to the side and saw Amy, still hanging limply in her seatbelt, just like I was.
"Thank goodness for seat belts," I slurred. After mom's accident, I had been religious about using the things. Then again, my entire left side felt like it had been shattered and I couldn't move my arm without a ton of pain.
"Fuck," I hissed as I fumbled with the belt. It wouldn't release, so I broke the buckle with a twist of my wrist and fell onto the jagged roof of the car. I hadn't exactly thought that through.
The roof of the car - now the floor - was jagged and crumpled and scattered with shattered glass that cut into me. I regretted my decision, but felt the need to get us away from the car. Movies had taught me that crashed cars would blow up, and I knew that my danger senses didn't always kick in with enough warning for stuff like that.
"Amy, wake up," I whimpered as I tried to shift around and get off my left arm. Something was definitely damaged - badly sprained if not broken - and the fact that I was immune to Amy's healing touch suddenly seemed like a double-edged sword.
Amy didn't wake up. She didn't even stir when I gently patted her cheek.
"Don't… don't move someone…" I struggled to remember details from a first aid lesson from long ago. I failed. It wasn't even really a class, just a brief thing at nature camp which spent most of the time talking about poison ivy. I should have made some first aid training a priority.
"Fuck," I grumbled and tried to force myself to focus. I needed to get Amy free of the car. Coming up with a plan - a bad plan, but the only one I had - I shifted around as best I could before releasing her buckle.
Dead weight hit me and I screamed as my left side made it clear that it did not approve of that treatment. However, I had cushioned her fall, and that had to count for something.
The next few minutes were hellish. I managed to crawl out of the overturned car with Amy on my back using just one arm while getting sliced up by broken glass and jagged metal.
I made it about five more feet before tipping her to the side and rolling onto my back, weeping from the entire experience. Every part of me coursed with pain. "Amy? Are you… are you okay?" I asked.
She didn't answer and after a long moment, I managed to roll onto my side.
The car had gone off the side of the bridge and crashed into a storm culvert that led into the bay. There were only a few of those in town - a relic of a works project to reduce flooding during storms that hadn't quite caught on. The fact that we'd somehow ended up getting knocked into one was terrible luck.
Memories from when I was groggily hanging in the car came trickling back to me. It hadn't been luck. Someone had planned it.
"Amy, wake up," I whispered and managed to get up enough to check on her now that we were sprawled out on the ground. I could already feel the lancing pain fading a little - Spiderman had a strong healing factor, I remembered distantly, so maybe my Amy-immunity wasn't that big of a problem.
Amy didn't answer and I realized with some horror that she wasn't breathing.
"No. No no no no no," I babbled. I had no idea how to fix this and Amy wasn't supposed to die in a ditch. This hadn't happened in that other world. How? Why was it happening now? Was it my presence? Did I change something?
Had my idiotic insistence on 'fixing' things made them so much worse?
"Please, no, please don't be dead."
The sirens seemed so far away. They weren't going to be able to fix this even if they arrived immediately.
Reality flickered. I remembered my hands, covered in blood.
No, they weren't my hands.
I remembered a prayer. A begging plea.
Moving my hands as those hands, I started to say the words. They should have been gibberish, but I could feel their meaning.
"This soul has not finished its time. Return this body to life."
Nothing happened, but I felt… something.
Mentally, I reached for that feeling. It was like trying to scoop out liquid flame with my bare hands - only it wasn't my hands doing the scooping but my brain. It hurt so very, very much, but I pushed on.
"It is not time for this soul to depart. Return this body to life."
A trickle. I managed to catch a trickle of that liquid flame and it burned its way through me in an agonizing pathway from my head to my hands.
"It is not time for this soul to depart. Return this body to life."
More of the flame flowed. The pain was unbearable. I thought I had known agony before, but that was nothing. It was a pale imitation of the coursing fire inside of me. I coughed and when I wiped at my mouth, it came away sticky with blood.
Going on was almost unthinkable, but the thought of stopping was worse.
"It is not time for this soul to depart. Return this body to LIFE."
Somehow, there was yet another plateau of pain that I had yet to step upon. That was where I stood for one long moment, frozen between one moment and the next. The liquid fire poured out of somewhere and through me, tracing a line of misery between my brain and my hands.
In its wake, I felt cold and ached with a bone-deep pain that made me regret everything.
"T-taylor?" Amy gasped, and I looked down.
It had worked. She looked confused and injured, but she was alive.
"W-why are you n-naked?" she asked groggily.
I looked down, seeing that my chest was covered in crimson and nothing else. My nose was bleeding and I was cut up pretty bad.
"Not again," I moaned as the exhaustion made my brain swirl with confusion.
Mercifully, I passed out a few seconds later.
"Okay," was all she said before we vanished off to the nurse's office.
"I wanted to talk to you, too," Amy declared as she closed the door behind us and turned the little lock. "I talked to you-know-who and confirmed the thing. I'm going to take care of it on Sunday." She paused and took a deep breath. "I believe you and your crazy stories now."
I had almost forgotten about telling her about Clockblocker's father. Rather I hadn't put together that it was a crucial bit of proof that Amy would have wanted to check out. It was a relief that she didn't think I was crazy, at least, though maybe I still was. "Well, good. Because things keep getting crazier." I fished one of my new shirts out of my backpack and tossed it to her.
She fumbled a bit and caught it. "It's a shirt," she said in puzzlement and then her brain caught up with her fingers. "It's a very nice shirt. Wow, this must be expensive." She lowered it. "I, uh, I can't accept-"
I snorted a laugh. "It's not a gift. It's more weirdness. I made that. Last night. In my sleep."
Amy looked at it again, turning the shirt from side to side and admiring the quality. "That is weird. I didn't know you could sew."
"I can't. Well, I couldn't last night. Today, I'm like an expert seamstress, which is still weird, but not as weird as my overnight session." I huffed at the absurdity of it all. "I woke up this morning and I had somehow turned a bunch of cheap old clothing and sewing scraps into three complete outfits, and I mean complete outfits. Two tops, two bottoms, a dress, three bras, three matching sets of panties, two pairs of socks, a pair of tights, and three new sets of shoes. All of it looking like I knocked over one of those fancy places downtown."
Amy's look of puzzlement grew. "That's… improbable, at best."
"I know! And they all fit like a glove. Look at this!" I pulled up my shirt - the last of my old outfits - to reveal one of my new bras. It was like I was getting hugged by a cloud and felt amazing.
Amy's eyes widened and she froze. It took several long seconds before I realized what was wrong and I blushed a bit as I lowered my shirt. Still, validation that I was attractive left me feeling pleasantly warm. "Sorry about that. It's just… it fits so well that it's amazing."
"I, uh, no, it's fine. Sorry, you just caught me off guard." It was Amy's turn to blush and look at the ground.
"I wasn't thinking. It just… well, if I can figure out how to make stuff like this on demand, I'll make you one and you'll see what I'm talking about." I coughed. "Anyway, I felt like I had run a marathon when I woke up, but it's been getting better. Ever since, you know, I haven't really been physically tired, even after running for miles. It was weird."
"Does it…" Amy frowned as she thought. "Is there some relation to spiders?"
"In the vaguest sense, maybe? Spiders make silk, but they don't really make clothes out of it. It certainly didn't seem like I had any special gift with it before last night and the dreams, and I've been trying to sew off and on for a bit."
"Then I have no idea. Powers can be weird, though, so who knows?" Amy's blush intensified and she fell silent. "Actually, I wanted to ask you… tomorrow is Friday, and Vicky usually tries to drag me along on a double date with her and Dean. I usually say 'no', but I can only push her off so long and I figured maybe she'd at least get the hint and stop trying to set me up with random guys if i brought a girl, so, uh, maybe-"
"I'd love to go with you," I agreed. "I even have a dress that is worth wearing on a date, so that's good?"
Amy nodded, seemingly a bit distracted. "Y-yeah, that's g-good. I'll let you know where tomorrow and we can figure out how to get you there."
I checked the time on the big clock on the wall. "I guess we should go if we want to get anything to eat before we have to go… actually, where do you go in the afternoons?"
"Vicky and I both have 'work study' with New Wave. It's kind of stretching the rules, but I don't really care. Most of the time, I just go to the hospital and do some healing." Amy always looked a bit tired, but talking about healing really brought that out in her. It made me feel a little sad for her.
"As long as you set healthy boundaries. You don't want to be like the rainbow fish."
"Rainbow fish?" she asked, clearly confused.
"Yes, the children's book about the fish that was born with natural talents and then everyone pressures it to give them away, taking and taking and taking, until the rainbow fish has nothing left." It had been a topic mom had enjoyed. Children's books that clumsily taught lessons which were close to being good but somehow also ended up completely unhealthy were more common than one would think.
"Oh, I thought that was about sharing," Amy said.
"It is, but it's sharing without healthy boundaries. Just like the Giving Tree is about an ungrateful little boy that takes and takes and takes until the tree that loves him is nothing but a forgotten corpse. Little bastard probably complained about having to remove the stump, too."
That got a laugh out of Amy. "You have a unique perspective, but… thank you for caring about that kind of stuff. Just… thank you."
I smiled. Maybe I could talk her out of self-destruction at least a little bit?
//\\o//\\
I was straight up not having a good time.
After my magical clothes-making on Wednesday night, I'd had another bout of magical Tinkering on Thursday night, resulting in a pair of web-shooters that were much more streamlined than my crude attempt to do by hand. Included was also a series of cartridges pre-loaded with the web-fluid and ready to go. How, exactly, I had gathered up all of that material in my sleep was baffling, but I had dreamed of hammering, forging, and brewing things all night. It had to be related.
That led to Friday night's double-date, which I knew, intellectually, was just a 'friend' date, but the reality was more grating than that. I knew I was hot in my new dress. The looks I got from Vicky, Dean, Amy, and even random passerbys said I was hot. However, that didn't stop Amy from spending most of the evening staring wistfully at her sister.
Intellectually, I knew we were just friends. We were two people that had agreed to be allies and maybe leave the door to dating open at some point in the future. Intellectually, I knew that Amy was fighting against a multi-year infatuation and a quietly abusive childhood. That wasn't just going to vanish because someone claiming to be from the future told her it was a terrible idea.
I knew all of that intellectually, but emotionally, it still hurt a little to have her effectively snub me for the girl she shouldn't ever have.
It was also the first time something hadn't gone to plan, more or less. Sure, I kept getting random surprises and weirdness, but outside of that first day - which was seeming to be more and more the exception and not the norm - things were mostly within certain boundaries of sanity and had been going my way. Mostly.
"So, how's it going?" Dean asked when the sisters vanished somewhere together. We were at a bowling alley of all places, between games. I'd begged off actually bowling because I wasn't sure I could avoid putting a ball through the ceiling.
"It's fine," I said, though I didn't really feel it. Dean was nice and actually a pretty good guy, from what I had seen. After a few weird looks which I guessed meant he realized he couldn't read me, he'd just kind of rolled with it.
"So, you and Amy…" he trailed off, leadingly.
I shrugged. "Not really. We're just friends."
"Ah," he said and turned to watch a young woman, maybe twenty, celebrating a strike in the next alley. She looked like she'd just come from her job cleaning somewhere. "I just assumed."
I straightened my dress. "I just wanted to get dressed up a bit. I don't… I'm just coming out of an ugly duckling phase. It's nice to have something to show off, you know?"
Dean laughed and smiled, reminding me that he really was handsome. It was like the universe gave him a lackluster power in an attempt to balance some sort of cosmic scale. "Oh, I know. I was five foot even through most of middle school, then the summer before high school, I gained ten inches. It was like a whole new world opened up for me."
"That's a lot," I agreed. Two inches had been enough to throw off almost all of my clothes, but I'd also gained inches in other places that Dean probably hadn't. Then again, he did have a pretty broad chest, though his build could probably be best described as 'lean'. A beat of silence passed. "Do you ever think about the future?"
"Who doesn't?" he replied. "I'm a senior, so that's pretty much all I'm thinking about."
I remembered something about his family wanting him to go to college and eventually take over the family business but he wanted to go into the Protectorate. Glory Girl was planning to follow him or something, too. If Leviathan hadn't done his thing, there would have been a different set of explosions in the Dallon and Stansfield households.
"I guess that's true. I just realized earlier than I was looking at afternoon programs and I wasn't even considering the university classes. My mom was a professor, and I didn't even think about continuing with my education." It really had been bothering me. Even before I had been shoved into that locker, my dreams of being able to leave for college somewhere far from the Bay had been slowly drifting away as my grades got worse and worse.
"You don't have to go to college," he said with quite a bit of passion. "There are good, important jobs that you can do without a degree, despite what a lot of people think. Firefighters and police officers, for instance, don't have degrees and they are some of the most important-"
"Miss us?" Vicky interrupted as she flopped down on the other side of Dean. Amy looked sheepish behind her.
"More than you can imagine," Dean declared with an over-the-top sigh. He threw his arm around her as she giggled. That just led to Amy cutting an annoyed look at the two of them before she came to sit beside me.
"Everything okay?" I whispered to her softly, blocking her face from the view of the other two by moving around a little.
"Yeah," she grumped, though her expression said otherwise.
I nodded. "It's okay," I said as I leaned back, stretching. Louder, I asked the group a question. "Are we done bowling or do you guys want to bowl another game?"
"I think I'm done," Amy grumbled.
"I could do one more, but I'm starting to get hungry." That was Dean.
"Feed me, kind sir," Vicky oozed as she leaned more into his embrace. No wonder Amy hated seeing them together. With that realization, I suddenly felt like a jerk for being annoyed that she wasn't drooling all over me - respectfully. The path to a better future did not, in fact, rest within my pants and I was an asshole for thinking that it might.
"Sounds like it's time to go get something to eat, then," I chipped in. Dean caught my eye and nodded. I was mildly annoyed that I liked him. It seemed so cliche, but he really was likable.
A bit more than an hour later, I found myself crammed into the area that Dean's car jokingly considered a 'back seat'. Technically, it sat four, but it was clear that the emphasis had been on the front seat passengers, performance, and then everything else. It was fine, no longer than I was probably going to be in the car, though it was a little uncomfortably close with Amy after my recent thoughts and realizations.
I had seriously considered catching the bus, but Dean had offered to drop us off back at the Dallon household and I kind of wanted to talk to Amy before I headed home. I was thinking through that conversation when my danger sense blared at me.
"Look out!" I managed to scream just before there was a horrible crunching sound and then the world tumbled into chaos.
//\\o//\\
"Alpha target secure-"
My world throbbed. Everything hurt and there was a ringing in my ears that seemed impossibly loud. I was upside down, too, which didn't help.
There was another tremendous crash and I felt my world lurch a few inches to the side. Everything rocked. Someone female screamed.
"Bravo target present."
Everything smelled like smoke.
"Neutralizing. Prepare for capture."
Another scream, then an electrical crackle.
"Bravo target secure."
I tasted blood.
"Charlie target?"
"No time. We have to move."
I managed to get my eyes open and memories pulsed at me. Dean's car. I remembered being crammed into the back of Dean's car, but it had certainly looked different before. Now, the roof was even lower and irregular - crushed in by whatever impact had flipped the car. Or by the impact of being flipped. The turn indicator was stuck and kept signaling a left turn that we were never going to make.
Dean and Victoria were both gone, Victoria's entire door ripped away from the car while Dean's looked like it was pried open.
I looked to the side and saw Amy, still hanging limply in her seatbelt, just like I was.
"Thank goodness for seat belts," I slurred. After mom's accident, I had been religious about using the things. Then again, my entire left side felt like it had been shattered and I couldn't move my arm without a ton of pain.
"Fuck," I hissed as I fumbled with the belt. It wouldn't release, so I broke the buckle with a twist of my wrist and fell onto the jagged roof of the car. I hadn't exactly thought that through.
The roof of the car - now the floor - was jagged and crumpled and scattered with shattered glass that cut into me. I regretted my decision, but felt the need to get us away from the car. Movies had taught me that crashed cars would blow up, and I knew that my danger senses didn't always kick in with enough warning for stuff like that.
"Amy, wake up," I whimpered as I tried to shift around and get off my left arm. Something was definitely damaged - badly sprained if not broken - and the fact that I was immune to Amy's healing touch suddenly seemed like a double-edged sword.
Amy didn't wake up. She didn't even stir when I gently patted her cheek.
"Don't… don't move someone…" I struggled to remember details from a first aid lesson from long ago. I failed. It wasn't even really a class, just a brief thing at nature camp which spent most of the time talking about poison ivy. I should have made some first aid training a priority.
"Fuck," I grumbled and tried to force myself to focus. I needed to get Amy free of the car. Coming up with a plan - a bad plan, but the only one I had - I shifted around as best I could before releasing her buckle.
Dead weight hit me and I screamed as my left side made it clear that it did not approve of that treatment. However, I had cushioned her fall, and that had to count for something.
The next few minutes were hellish. I managed to crawl out of the overturned car with Amy on my back using just one arm while getting sliced up by broken glass and jagged metal.
I made it about five more feet before tipping her to the side and rolling onto my back, weeping from the entire experience. Every part of me coursed with pain. "Amy? Are you… are you okay?" I asked.
She didn't answer and after a long moment, I managed to roll onto my side.
The car had gone off the side of the bridge and crashed into a storm culvert that led into the bay. There were only a few of those in town - a relic of a works project to reduce flooding during storms that hadn't quite caught on. The fact that we'd somehow ended up getting knocked into one was terrible luck.
Memories from when I was groggily hanging in the car came trickling back to me. It hadn't been luck. Someone had planned it.
"Amy, wake up," I whispered and managed to get up enough to check on her now that we were sprawled out on the ground. I could already feel the lancing pain fading a little - Spiderman had a strong healing factor, I remembered distantly, so maybe my Amy-immunity wasn't that big of a problem.
Amy didn't answer and I realized with some horror that she wasn't breathing.
"No. No no no no no," I babbled. I had no idea how to fix this and Amy wasn't supposed to die in a ditch. This hadn't happened in that other world. How? Why was it happening now? Was it my presence? Did I change something?
Had my idiotic insistence on 'fixing' things made them so much worse?
"Please, no, please don't be dead."
The sirens seemed so far away. They weren't going to be able to fix this even if they arrived immediately.
Reality flickered. I remembered my hands, covered in blood.
No, they weren't my hands.
I remembered a prayer. A begging plea.
Moving my hands as those hands, I started to say the words. They should have been gibberish, but I could feel their meaning.
"This soul has not finished its time. Return this body to life."
Nothing happened, but I felt… something.
Mentally, I reached for that feeling. It was like trying to scoop out liquid flame with my bare hands - only it wasn't my hands doing the scooping but my brain. It hurt so very, very much, but I pushed on.
"It is not time for this soul to depart. Return this body to life."
A trickle. I managed to catch a trickle of that liquid flame and it burned its way through me in an agonizing pathway from my head to my hands.
"It is not time for this soul to depart. Return this body to life."
More of the flame flowed. The pain was unbearable. I thought I had known agony before, but that was nothing. It was a pale imitation of the coursing fire inside of me. I coughed and when I wiped at my mouth, it came away sticky with blood.
Going on was almost unthinkable, but the thought of stopping was worse.
"It is not time for this soul to depart. Return this body to LIFE."
Somehow, there was yet another plateau of pain that I had yet to step upon. That was where I stood for one long moment, frozen between one moment and the next. The liquid fire poured out of somewhere and through me, tracing a line of misery between my brain and my hands.
In its wake, I felt cold and ached with a bone-deep pain that made me regret everything.
"T-taylor?" Amy gasped, and I looked down.
It had worked. She looked confused and injured, but she was alive.
"W-why are you n-naked?" she asked groggily.
I looked down, seeing that my chest was covered in crimson and nothing else. My nose was bleeding and I was cut up pretty bad.
"Not again," I moaned as the exhaustion made my brain swirl with confusion.
Mercifully, I passed out a few seconds later.
If you're 100% sure you've figured out the powers, feel free to ask for confirmation in PMs so the game isn't spoiled for others 
Oathsblood
Getting sticky.
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2018
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- 63
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- 53
I agree, I also have no idea what this power set is. Any chance I could either get a hint or the build? I'll take a PM or something.
Cadaverin' New Groove
Noble Rotting Corpse
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- Dec 23, 2022
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I can certainly recognize Garment or Weaving as Tinker specialties from this chapter but otherwise, you give nothing way lmao
I'm ready to be spoiled on the PMs lol
I'm ready to be spoiled on the PMs lol
Dur'id the Druid
Know what you're doing yet?
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2019
- Messages
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- 629
.... yeah no idea. Who has healing powers like that, madam web? The Beyonder? Dr. Srange? Are we even using Spider man and Marvel as a source?
ArbC2
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2023
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- 3,411
Nah. Just picked "worst day" drawback. People really need to think twice before getting that in a worm cyoa
Swordchucks
Experienced.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2015
- Messages
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- 139,739
I thought it would be amusing to take one of those "you'll have to work hard to survive" drawbacks and then just have the MC not survive the experience.
So... you're saying it would have been better if she had wood?
Jao
(Verified Lemon Drop Addict)
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I am assuming that this doesn't show any spoilers?
Heres my take on it with yours as a base. You had 50 Shard Points, and 50 Character Points free, so I used those, I didn't add any new drawbacks or remove anything. I also tried to keep it mostly to be themed around Spooderman and Taylor's Taylorness
(I am assuming the leftovers are for what else you had but left out of it to avoid spoilers)
udrw,8mhz,trog,shvr,dstd,eqhz,9d7l,8tcr,q4jr,ee5n,d0mx,ffrg,mf05,qpwm,uh4g,42jg,tyrb,w0ll,pjir,kb60,5r67,bylb,akq3,brz4,lvrj,z4tj,paqn,tu3i,yqih,m85g,ucs6,5aj3/ON#1,08kd,iatt,e2an,u6hz,mv7e,dy7h,ojin,vkl0,p6py,kpwp,sfkh,e00q,a1ys,npez,swha,xggv,0w4c,57je,i2nw,0vds,wz0u,q6x8,4tfy,btqv/ON#1
Text version only shows the new stuff I added.
Olympic,
This makes your body be peak human, but not enough to be considered Parahuman levels.
Rapid Learning,
Learn better and faster
Mental Barrier,
Sanctity of The Mind,
These two make it so you cant be mastered, the second is basically the tier two version that blocks everything, first tier doesnt block everything, first tier is a requirement to have the second tier
Trumped the Trump,
Makes it so you cant have your powers stolen/copied/disabled
All Seeing Precognition,
Spidey Sense and adjacent powers might be blockable by anti thinker powers, this stops that
Invictus,
Infinite Will Power.
Well-Adjusted,
Basically makes you not have any mental conditions, though I am forgetting if this is a permanant thing or if its only one time.
'Plot' Armor,
TBH if you are making a story with using the CYOA this is mandatory, SI!Taylor isn't going to trip on some glass bottles and crack her head open on a sharpend corner of a piece of metal and die permantly by accident in your story right?
Holding Back,
Basically ability to not crush door handles by accident, like what Peter Parker experienced in the Spider Man movie when he first got his power.
Comic Book Physics,
Basically supportive power that for example woud make it so flying at insane speeds woudnt set the atmosphere on fire.
World Clean,
QOL, makes it so any filth magics away.
Sixth Sense,
Expansion of Spidey Sense
Mover,
This basically decreases your reaction time by 1/3 iirc, Super OP imo, only 1 SP, especially if you already have your reaction time decreased a lot. This power is especially very powerful in builds that make you an AI.
Brute (Lung),
No this does not give you the Powers of Lung, it basically makes your lungs better/super human. (Why did they name it like that??)
Tinker,
Very minor tinker power, doesnt make tinkertech I think. It just fills the gaps in a design/blueprint, it relies on things you already know.
Blaster,
Perfect aim, perfect for aiming the web shooter, aim can still miss stuff if someone is messing with you.
Thinker (Multitask),
Its Taylor...
Thinker (Gut Instinct),
Basically a very nerfed version of tattletales power, its like the tinker one, it can only supply answers based off of what you already know. And only answers in vague yes's/no's
Trump,
Tbh I forget what this one does, import the build code.
Stranger,
Makes people assume she is weaker than them and can be defeated by them easily.
Will increase the amounts of fights, but will make it easier to fight people cuz they wont take you seriously
Striker/Brute,
Thinker/Mover,
Tbh, I forget for both of these, import the build codes to find out.
Perfect Condition,
Basically keeps you at peak conditions.
Rule of Cool,
Why not? Makes anything thats cool but unpractical, practical
Parkour,
Needed skill to be spooder man
Banter,
Spiderman is known for his witty banter. This also even gives you a sense of humor.
Bullshit Spinning,
Also needed to be spooder man
Spatial Awareness,
Also needed to be spooder man
Bagel,
Free shipment of a lot of bagels, is monthly, you never know if you are gonna end up homeless or something, its Worm.
+1 CP -2 SP(Taken 1 Times)
Needed to afford bagels.
This makes your body be peak human, but not enough to be considered Parahuman levels.
Rapid Learning,
Learn better and faster
Mental Barrier,
Sanctity of The Mind,
These two make it so you cant be mastered, the second is basically the tier two version that blocks everything, first tier doesnt block everything, first tier is a requirement to have the second tier
Trumped the Trump,
Makes it so you cant have your powers stolen/copied/disabled
All Seeing Precognition,
Spidey Sense and adjacent powers might be blockable by anti thinker powers, this stops that
Invictus,
Infinite Will Power.
Well-Adjusted,
Basically makes you not have any mental conditions, though I am forgetting if this is a permanant thing or if its only one time.
'Plot' Armor,
TBH if you are making a story with using the CYOA this is mandatory, SI!Taylor isn't going to trip on some glass bottles and crack her head open on a sharpend corner of a piece of metal and die permantly by accident in your story right?
Holding Back,
Basically ability to not crush door handles by accident, like what Peter Parker experienced in the Spider Man movie when he first got his power.
Comic Book Physics,
Basically supportive power that for example woud make it so flying at insane speeds woudnt set the atmosphere on fire.
World Clean,
QOL, makes it so any filth magics away.
Sixth Sense,
Expansion of Spidey Sense
Mover,
This basically decreases your reaction time by 1/3 iirc, Super OP imo, only 1 SP, especially if you already have your reaction time decreased a lot. This power is especially very powerful in builds that make you an AI.
Brute (Lung),
No this does not give you the Powers of Lung, it basically makes your lungs better/super human. (Why did they name it like that??)
Tinker,
Very minor tinker power, doesnt make tinkertech I think. It just fills the gaps in a design/blueprint, it relies on things you already know.
Blaster,
Perfect aim, perfect for aiming the web shooter, aim can still miss stuff if someone is messing with you.
Thinker (Multitask),
Its Taylor...
Thinker (Gut Instinct),
Basically a very nerfed version of tattletales power, its like the tinker one, it can only supply answers based off of what you already know. And only answers in vague yes's/no's
Trump,
Tbh I forget what this one does, import the build code.
Stranger,
Makes people assume she is weaker than them and can be defeated by them easily.
Will increase the amounts of fights, but will make it easier to fight people cuz they wont take you seriously
Striker/Brute,
Thinker/Mover,
Tbh, I forget for both of these, import the build codes to find out.
Perfect Condition,
Basically keeps you at peak conditions.
Rule of Cool,
Why not? Makes anything thats cool but unpractical, practical
Parkour,
Needed skill to be spooder man
Banter,
Spiderman is known for his witty banter. This also even gives you a sense of humor.
Bullshit Spinning,
Also needed to be spooder man
Spatial Awareness,
Also needed to be spooder man
Bagel,
Free shipment of a lot of bagels, is monthly, you never know if you are gonna end up homeless or something, its Worm.
+1 CP -2 SP(Taken 1 Times)
Needed to afford bagels.
If you have any questions on my logic please ask me. I want feedback and shit.
Also I am sleep deprived, my sleep schedual is all fucked up, so I had to not sleep in order to fix it. On Tuesday I didnt go to sleep until 9 am of Wednesday, I woke up at around 5:30 pm on Wednesday. I need to go to sleep today at like 8/9pm so I wake up in the morning on friday, as I have stuff to do. Its 11am rn for reference, so I have been up for 18 hours. So my posts might not be as lucid or whatever.
Swordchucks
Experienced.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2015
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Without spoiling stuff, some selected commentary. I'll admit to two of the ones you got right (you got a few other minor things right, but they're spoiler-y). You were right on a few other things which weren't taken as explicit items because they're baked into other powers (multitasking, some of the spider-man basics like spatial awareness, parkour, etc.).
All Seeing Precognition - Because of the nature of Spider-sense, this isn't really necessary. The only thing that can really foil spider sense is whatever the Inheritors do, and there are none of those around (or are there?). Anything else would more likely cut off all of her powers before it could specifically cut off the spider-sense.
'Plot' Armor - This is actually somewhat weaker than most people assume "plot armor" to be. She definitely has it, but all it really means is that someone has to intend to kill her for them to kill her. Outside of the Worst Day drawback which tends to overwhelm perks like that (she was hit by a car, after all). So correct guess on this one.
Comic Book Physics - I'm fiddling with this one right now in future chapters. In order to use superhero strength, you basically have to have this. Otherwise, strength past a certain level just doesn't work (like your hands go through the thing you're trying to lift). You can't even jump between crumbling old buildings without it or you'll end up falling through them half the time. So correct guess on this one.
'Plot' Armor - This is actually somewhat weaker than most people assume "plot armor" to be. She definitely has it, but all it really means is that someone has to intend to kill her for them to kill her. Outside of the Worst Day drawback which tends to overwhelm perks like that (she was hit by a car, after all). So correct guess on this one.
Comic Book Physics - I'm fiddling with this one right now in future chapters. In order to use superhero strength, you basically have to have this. Otherwise, strength past a certain level just doesn't work (like your hands go through the thing you're trying to lift). You can't even jump between crumbling old buildings without it or you'll end up falling through them half the time. So correct guess on this one.
The other thing I'll say is to reiterate something I've said before. Spending all the points on a single theme is very difficult and Taylor's powers are actually built on two themes. The spider-totem stuff is obvious, but there's a second theme, too.
EDIT: Also, you have my sympathy for the sleep deprivation. I've been running at a deficit all week and it's been killing me a little. Also, just got back from the dentist, so that's fun.
10
Swordchucks
Experienced.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2015
- Messages
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- Likes received
- 139,739
The white-haired man didn't seem as annoyed as usual, though my ability to remember our conversation was just as fragmented as usual.
"-of course, the other one didn't-"
"-paltry trick, but I suppose it is a start-"
"-even without a shred of that troublesome-"
When I finally woke up, I felt much better than I would have expected. I was in a darkened room, alone and naked under soft sheets. I felt like I'd worked out very hard and had several aches and pains, but otherwise I felt fine.
I shouldn't have felt fine because I also remembered the events of the car accident and my subsequent… actions clearly.
We had been attacked by someone. Someone that intended to kidnap Gallant - no, not Gallant. They had intended to kidnap Dean Stansfield and had tagged Glory Girl as a secondary objective and Amy as a tertiary objective. That order… made absolutely no sense from a cape perspective. It made a lot of sense from a non-cape perspective.
Dean was valuable. His family had money and certainly enemies. Glory Girl was considered to be a powerhouse of a cape and the most likely one to rush in to rescue her boyfriend. Taking her seemed like a risk, but New Wave wasn't likely to go in guns blazing, either. Panacea had likely just been a target of opportunity and a victim of chance. I couldn't see them really wanting to kidnap or kill her if they were concerned about retaliation since she was well liked amongst both capes and the general public.
So, someone had kidnapped Dean Stansfield, snatched his cape girlfriend, and left anyone else in the car behind because they needed to make their escape. It had obviously been planned, then, and planned fairly well. I wondered if they understood how much damage ramming Dean's car at just that moment would have caused? They killed Amy and they probably came close to killing everyone in the car with that stunt.
What concerned me most was that this series of events didn't match with any of my other-memories, and I had no way of telling if that meant they hadn't happened in that timeline or if they had happened differently because of my presence. Maybe it hadn't happened at all? Maybe Amy had begged off the double date and Vicky and Dean hadn't done the same things, leading to a failed attack? Maybe it still happened, but Vicky had saved the day?
It wasn't worth worrying about because I had no way of knowing for sure which one was true. I had to focus on what had actually happened in my current reality and what I was going to do about it.
I took further stock of my situation. As my night vision adjusted, I vaguely recognized the room. It was the guest room in the Dallon house. I had seen it in passing during my previous visit but there were really only so many candidates for where I could have ended up.
Deciding that it was probably safe to get up, I clicked on the bedside lamp and immediately noticed the chair which had been put between the bed and the door with a pile of clothing on it and a note on top of that.
"Best I could do. Put on the mask and come downstairs. A." I read softly.
The clothing turned out to be a set of gray sweatpants and a matching sweatshirt along with underthings, a pair of flip-flops, and a half-hood mask. The underwear was apparently stolen from Victoria since it almost fit and we had similar builds. The rest was oversized - apparently for a man about my height but a good deal broader - but not the worst. The half-hood wouldn't do much to hide my identity from anyone that knew me, but it was better than nothing. It was certainly better than those cheesy domino masks they sold to tourists on the Boardwalk.
I got dressed and headed downstairs barefoot. The flip-flops didn't fit right and I decided I was better off without the slapping sound following me around.
The Dallon family dining room was transformed from the room I had seen before. There were chairs pulled in from the kitchen and a whiteboard taking up one side while the table was piled with maps, file folders, and binders. Most of the Dallon and Pelham families seemed to be in the room.
The adults were clustered around the table, sending text messages or talking on the phone or reviewing files. Eric was wrapped up in a sleeping bag against one wall, looking tired and worried while Amy was fretting over her phone. I don't think she even really saw the screen of it with her zombie stare. The only ones missing were Crystal - who I believed was off at college - and Vicky - for obvious reasons.
"You're awake," one of the women - Sarah, I assumed, since the other older woman had the stronger resemblance to Victoria - stated and got up to walk across the room. Everyone turned to look at me and I suddenly felt very on display. Amy gave me a little wincing smile that lasted for a second before she let it go. I took it as an apology and gave her a little nod back. "I don't believe we've been introduced."
"No, I-I don't think we have," I agreed. I hadn't even met Brandish and Flashbang even though I was pretty sure they had been home when I had visited Amy's house on previous occasions. "You can call me" - don't say Spiderman -"Sk-" not Skitter, either - "Uh… Weaver."
"It's good to meet you, Weaver." She then proceeded to introduce everyone in the room by their cape names. "Panacea tells us that you two know each other and you pulled her out of that wreck, getting pretty hurt in the process."
From a certain perspective, those things were true. "Y-yeah, There was a lot of glass and stuff. I got pretty hurt."
"She also told us that she can't heal you, but she managed to cover for you with the police after she realized you were healing on your own. It's been-" she looked at the clock "-four hours and you look fine, so I guess he was right."
"I'm kind of a grab-bag cape. I have a degree of Thinker immunity and a bunch of other stuff that's related to spiders. Part of it's a brute package which apparently includes rapid healing - which I didn't know about until, well, now. Part of it is that I can control spiders." I again decided it was better not to talk about coming back from the dead or raising the recently dead which was a thing I could apparently do now.
"You have a master power?" Carol - Brandish - cut in.
"Mostly just spiders. I can sort of do other bugs, but they have to be really close by for that to work and it's harder." I cringed inwardly. Master was something of a dirty word, even when it wasn't a power that controlled people.
"Do you just control them, or can you use them for scouting?" Brandish drilled in more intently.
"I can see through them if I really concentrate. More than a second or two gives me a huge headache, and most of them don't have great vision." Jumping spiders and wolf spiders had, so far, been the best little scouts. They just weren't as common as the other kinds.
The adults shared a series of looks that I took for an unspoken conversation. "That might be useful," Sarah - Lady Photon - said after a moment. "First, is there anything you can tell us about the actual crash or the time after?"
I related what I had heard before cutting my seatbelt loose. "And then they must have left. I managed to get Amy and myself out of the car and then I passed out."
The last part got a few looks - I assume because my story didn't include how, exactly, I had ended up naked - but they let it pass. I honestly had no idea why I had ended up naked, either. I barely even remembered that part because of the roaring everything-ache I was experiencing at the time.
"That helps confirm what we already know. Not long after the 'accident', Dean's father received a ransom demand for fifty million dollars. He is stalling them because he really doesn't have that much available money, much less in the form they're demanding. We're afraid that the kidnappers are going to get antsy before then or after they get the money, they may decide to just split after making sure there are no witnesses."
I grimaced. It seemed plausible, if terrible.
"Fortunately," she continued, "We have something on an understanding with Faultline. As long as she doesn't take jobs in town and keeps the rest of her work to mostly property damage, we ignore her presence in the city. She either realized that this one is going to lead to us kicking in doors all over town - including hers - or she has a personal score to settle. It doesn't matter much which one it is, but we will take it because she sent us this information."
She handed me a folder with a series of faxed documents inside. I flipped through them and found them to be profiles on two capes along with a list of about a dozen locations on the outskirts of Brockton Bay.
Lockdown, real name unknown, was a power nullifying Trump with a minor Thinker power that made him an exceptional shot with ranged weapons. He could shut down the powers of a single cape, and the effect lasted for a while, but if he used it on a second cape, the first one got theirs back almost immediately. The file indicated it was likely that he had at least some military training because of the way he had handled previous jobs.
The second file was for Stockton, real name James Abner, who was a mid-tier Brute with more straightforward powers than Lockdown. His public identity was known because he had a fairly public trigger. He had been a police officer in Kansas City up until some sort of altercation that led to him being gunned down on the street in broad daylight. He had gotten up, after, and gone on a revenge spree that left him on the other side of the law.
The two of them had apparently been partners for several months and had performed a number of kidnappings and assassinations. Sometimes they worked as a duo and sometimes they worked as a small team with other mercenaries.
"Why are you showing these to me?" I asked carefully.
"Because you can collect information through your power, and we don't know which of those locations they're actually being held at." That one was Carol, cutting in agitatedly.
"I've been a cape for less than two weeks," I admitted. "I don't know if I'll actually be able to help much."
"You're still the best hope we have. None of us have abilities that are useful for covert operations, and the Protectorate has to requisition out of town resources for a delicate operation like this. It could be days before they are ready to go and the longer things drag on, the less likely we are to get everyone out alive."
I nodded. It wasn't even really a question of whether or not I would help. I barely knew either of them, but Vicky and Dean had been nothing but nice to me. If I was willing to risk my life for a snarky, bitter shrew like Amy, then I would risk it for them.
"I will help any way I can," I declared. "Can I get Amy to drive me by my house so I can tell my dad and get a few things? I don't want him to worry more than he probably already is."
Brandish looked like she was going to object, but Lady Photon gave the answer. "Of course. Just… try to be quick."
//\\o//\\
Up close, Amy looked even more tired than I was used to. She always had a bit of 'racoon eyes' going on, presumably from her poor sleep schedule, but it seemed especially bad as we got into the van.
We were on the road before either of us spoke.
"What-"
"Why-"
We both paused as we tried to talk over each other. "Go ahead," I suggested.
"Okay. What happened after the crash? Why did you end up naked? Why were you bleeding everywhere? Not the cuts, but everything else, I mean."
"The crash happened pretty much exactly the way I said it did, but you were hurt. Really bad. You were - I didn't think you were going to make it." I corrected myself before I said she was dead. I wasn't certain that she had actually been dead, just that she had stopped breathing. There was a bit of a window there between the two things. "I used something I haven't tried before and it kind of hurt me in order to heal you. I think. I have no idea how it actually worked."
"I…" Amy trailed off as she paid attention to the road for a moment. "I think that explains some of what I felt. It wasn't-That just explains it. The only thing I don't understand is how your clothes vanished."
I laughed nervously. "That's kind of a side effect of my powers, sometimes. I have no idea why it happens, it just does."
"That kind of sucks," she offered with a touch of sympathy.
"It is far from ideal." I agreed. "Now… why did your parents - well, all of New Wave - just accept what I was saying? I would have expected them to be more forceful with a new cape that just happened to be hanging around their daughters when something like that happened."
Amy looked like she was collecting her thoughts for a moment before she answered. "You didn't see yourself when we got you home. I had to burn some favors with the BBPD to pull that one off, by the way, and you're probably going to have to make a statement in a few days. To the PRT, too, once they get their investigation really moving."
"See myself?" I asked. I knew I'd been naked and a bit cut up, but that was about it.
"Yeah, you were covered in blood, like all over. Since I didn't have any injuries and there was a big bloody smear on the ground from the car to where we ended up, it's pretty clear that you sliced yourself up pretty bad getting me out." She took her eyes off the road long enough to swat me on the shoulder. It wasn't very hard. "You tore yourself to ribbons, you idiot. Did you even know you could regenerate when you did that?"
"I kind of suspected I might heal fast, but not as fast as I apparently can."
She huffed. "I'm used to this from Vicky, but I can put her back together when I need to. I can't even see how hurt you are. If I hadn't noticed your cuts sealing up on their own, I would have had to let the paramedics take you, and then where would you be?"
I shifted uncomfortably. She was right. If I'd healed like that in a hospital, I probably would have woken up to a PRT greeting party.
"You're right. I'm an idiot."
Amy rolled her eyes, though she was still focused on the road. "Yes, you are." She paused for a moment. "But you saved my life, so thank you."
A few minutes passed and we got closer to my house.
"So, if I was covered in blood, who cleaned me up?" I asked innocently.
"Me, but it was strictly in a clinical capacity." She was still blushing a little, though.
"Okay," I teased, but decided to let it go for the moment. There was always time for teasing when lives weren't on the line.
Eventually, we pulled up to the house and I glanced at the clock. Four twenty five. Dad was going to kill me.
"You want me to come with you?" Amy asked after a minute when I didn't move.
"It… might be a good idea. Dad wouldn't kill you, too."
Amy chuckled tiredly. "Alright, come on."
Dad was again in his armchair with the phone pulled across the room. He must have been waiting up when he fell asleep. At least there weren't beer bottles everywhere this time.
"Dad, I'm home," I whispered as I shook his ankle.
"Tay-Taylor? Where have you been?" he asked groggily.
"It's complicated, but New Wave needs my help with something. Glory Girl was kidnapped and I think I can help find her. Panacea came with me so we can get some stuff from my room before we go out to look for her."
That took some of the heat that was about to come out of his rapidly awakening mouth.
"Hello, Mr. Hebert," Amy offered softly and I momentarily directed a look in her direction. She had sounded… polite? Nice, even? I wasn't aware that she could be anything other than abrasive, even to the sister she was apparently in love with. Maybe she thought that was part of her charm?
"Oh, ah, hello. Oh, your sister's the one… yeah, okay." He fixed me with a look. "Taylor, do what you need to do, but we're going to have a long talk when you're done."
I fidgeted from foot to foot. That didn't sound fun at all. What I actually said was not what I was thinking. "Okay, dad. Sorry for not calling sooner." Before he could say anything else, I turned and hurried up the stairs.
"I'll just… go see if she needs any help?" I heard from downstairs as I stepped into my room.
It didn't take but a second to find my web-shooters which were stuffed into the bottom drawer of my dresser behind a rumbled Easter dress from when I was six or seven. Then I went to my closet and pulled out one of my new outfits, but I hesitated. It wasn't much of a costume.
My eyes lit on the sewing kit and the rest of the 'dispose of' pile of clothing from before. I still had a bit left over, and it was about what a costume would require along with the skills to do the work. What I didn't have was the time.
Then again, I'd managed to make three full outfits including parts that weren't really 'sewable' in a single night. In the morning, I'd just felt exhausted in a way I was slowly realizing felt like I was feeling after healing Amy.
Was it related?
I reached out a mental 'finger' and found that liquid fire waiting for me. It felt much closer than before, almost eager to be drawn on.
"What are you doing?" Amy asked as she stepped into the doorway. I'd already picked up the needle and thread.
"I'm just going to try something. If it doesn't work right off, I'll worry about it later, but I want to try."
Amy hesitated. We were in a hurry, but a few minutes couldn't hurt, right?
I focused on the scattered fragments of my dreams about sewing as I mentally felt for the mental fire. Something shifted and then things became a blur.
//\\o//\\
"I'm naked again, aren't I?" I asked as the blur finally resolved itself into reality.
"Yep," Amy declared, a note of exhaustion in her voice. She was sitting in the rickety chair in front of my desk with an unlit cigarette between her lips. She wasn't even blushing.
"How long…"
"How long were you whirling around naked, grabbing stuff and then making reality kind of weep for itself as you turned it into something else? About half an hour."
I looked down at the pile of material in front of me. It was exactly what I had been picturing when I started. Basically, a version of Spider-Gwen's costume with the white replaced with a slate gray tone which was more practical for sneaking around. "And you watched me the whole time?"
"I was a bit worried about you when you ignored me trying to talk to you, so yes, purely for clinical reasons. If you want to repeat that sometime when I'm not worried sick about my sister, I'm game, though."
I immediately felt bad. Amy was kind of a jerk, she was also worried for Vicky. I'd just taken a half hour to make a costume when there really wasn't any time to waste. I would have been embarrassed by being naked in front of Amy, but it was frankly becoming normal by that point. I was finally starting to understand how some of the other girls acted in the locker room, I realized.
My disappointment in myself was tempered by the fact that the costume itself was amazing. It was perfectly cut and stretchy in all the right places. It was also thick enough to wear outside in January while still looking like it was painted on. Somehow.
"Sorry, I had no idea it would take that long, I just… it was vain of me. I'm sorry." I genuinely meant it. I hadn't expected the creation of my costume to take that long, but I should have. I'd just been so excited to try a new thing that I had forgotten we were in a rush.
Regardless, I couldn't help but feel a bit of excitement as I worked my way into the new costume. It was sinfully tight, even with the padding, and made me look amazing. It also made me look a little indecent, really, but that was the price all spider-people paid for the enhanced mobility of a form-fitting outfit. Once I had the side of the suit zipped up, I fit the sleek web-shooters into place and put the spare cartridges into little pockets cleverly hidden by the costume.
"It is what it is, I guess. Let's just get going."
Five hours later, we had visited and dismissed eight of the locations on the list. If I had a good idea of the area I needed to check on - mostly by being able to see the outside of the building - it was fairly simple to scan the spiders inside each to guess the conditions. All of the locations provided by Faultline were being maintained to some degree and that meant enough heat that all of the spiders hadn't died off to the cold. No wonder other-me had waited till March to make her debut - the number of living bugs in the Bay in January was kind of pathetic. It definitely wasn't 'Biblical plague' levels.
It was late in the morning - nearly to noon - when things finally changed.
"I think I've got something," I gasped as I let the link drop for a moment. Looking through spider eyes was intense, but it was getting easier and easier the more I did it. Necessity was the mother and all of that.
"What did you see?" Manpower asked from the front seat of the van. He had taken over a shift driving me around while I scanned places.
This one, in particular, was an old machine shop that had once made chains for ship anchors. The rust on the sign outside made it clear how long that particular industry had been missing from the Bay, but someone was keeping the heat on judging by the number of bugs inside.
"There's a garage area with one big SUV inside. Dark color and tinted windows, I think. Then there's a kind of cage set up in a big open area. I could make out two figures lying down and not moving."
"Are they…" he trailed off, not willing to ask.
"I don't think so. There were weird stands beside them, so maybe they're sedated? Give me a few minutes and I'll try to get a better look." My head was hurting, but I'd had worse - I'd had worse in the last twenty-four hours, even.
"Please. I think I saw a motel a couple of blocks away. Can you look from there?"
I nodded. "Yeah, once I get to 'know' the spiders I'm using, we can go… I don't know exactly how far, but two blocks shouldn't be a problem."
A few hours later, I was 'relaxing' on the bed in a motel room that smelled faintly of alcohol and stale cigarette smoke as I repeated the last few details of my exploration for the team. Someone had hauled in the white board and a pretty accurate layout of the building was described there, including points of entrance, the current positions of the four people guarding the captives, and the captives themselves.
"Alright, I'm convinced we're in the right place," Lady Photon declared. "We need to call Armsmaster and request Protectorate support."
"Um," I interjected and kind of lost what I was going to say when everyone looked at me. "That… may not be the best idea?"
"What do you mean?" Flashbang asked, though not unkindly.
I didn't know that Coil was involved with this - though I was pretty sure that everything in the Bay was a Coil plot until proven otherwise - but he was far from the only person that could bribe the PRT or the cops. "I just mean, can we trust them? Stockton is known for having police ties and they seem to have planned everything. Do you think…"
That got frowns. It was Brandish that finally answered. "We have to make the call. There are certain agreements in place, especially for things like this," she said, though she didn't sound happy about it. It occurred to me that she was probably talking about Gallant's status as a Ward. The Protectorate would be chomping at the bit for an operation to rescue him. "However, we can request that it just be a Protectorate response."
That got some grunts of agreement and I had to agree that it at least reduced the risk. I felt like I could probably pull off the rescue part - most Spider-people were exceptional at stealth - but I was aware that I had never actually done something like that before. If nothing else, it would be a hard sell for the group.
Ten minutes later, my spiders told me that there was a lot of movement going on inside the building. They were packing up in a hurry, but hadn't gotten to the hostages yet.
"Shit, they know something is up," I declared and got to my feet. "We need to go, now!"
"-of course, the other one didn't-"
"-paltry trick, but I suppose it is a start-"
"-even without a shred of that troublesome-"
When I finally woke up, I felt much better than I would have expected. I was in a darkened room, alone and naked under soft sheets. I felt like I'd worked out very hard and had several aches and pains, but otherwise I felt fine.
I shouldn't have felt fine because I also remembered the events of the car accident and my subsequent… actions clearly.
We had been attacked by someone. Someone that intended to kidnap Gallant - no, not Gallant. They had intended to kidnap Dean Stansfield and had tagged Glory Girl as a secondary objective and Amy as a tertiary objective. That order… made absolutely no sense from a cape perspective. It made a lot of sense from a non-cape perspective.
Dean was valuable. His family had money and certainly enemies. Glory Girl was considered to be a powerhouse of a cape and the most likely one to rush in to rescue her boyfriend. Taking her seemed like a risk, but New Wave wasn't likely to go in guns blazing, either. Panacea had likely just been a target of opportunity and a victim of chance. I couldn't see them really wanting to kidnap or kill her if they were concerned about retaliation since she was well liked amongst both capes and the general public.
So, someone had kidnapped Dean Stansfield, snatched his cape girlfriend, and left anyone else in the car behind because they needed to make their escape. It had obviously been planned, then, and planned fairly well. I wondered if they understood how much damage ramming Dean's car at just that moment would have caused? They killed Amy and they probably came close to killing everyone in the car with that stunt.
What concerned me most was that this series of events didn't match with any of my other-memories, and I had no way of telling if that meant they hadn't happened in that timeline or if they had happened differently because of my presence. Maybe it hadn't happened at all? Maybe Amy had begged off the double date and Vicky and Dean hadn't done the same things, leading to a failed attack? Maybe it still happened, but Vicky had saved the day?
It wasn't worth worrying about because I had no way of knowing for sure which one was true. I had to focus on what had actually happened in my current reality and what I was going to do about it.
I took further stock of my situation. As my night vision adjusted, I vaguely recognized the room. It was the guest room in the Dallon house. I had seen it in passing during my previous visit but there were really only so many candidates for where I could have ended up.
Deciding that it was probably safe to get up, I clicked on the bedside lamp and immediately noticed the chair which had been put between the bed and the door with a pile of clothing on it and a note on top of that.
"Best I could do. Put on the mask and come downstairs. A." I read softly.
The clothing turned out to be a set of gray sweatpants and a matching sweatshirt along with underthings, a pair of flip-flops, and a half-hood mask. The underwear was apparently stolen from Victoria since it almost fit and we had similar builds. The rest was oversized - apparently for a man about my height but a good deal broader - but not the worst. The half-hood wouldn't do much to hide my identity from anyone that knew me, but it was better than nothing. It was certainly better than those cheesy domino masks they sold to tourists on the Boardwalk.
I got dressed and headed downstairs barefoot. The flip-flops didn't fit right and I decided I was better off without the slapping sound following me around.
The Dallon family dining room was transformed from the room I had seen before. There were chairs pulled in from the kitchen and a whiteboard taking up one side while the table was piled with maps, file folders, and binders. Most of the Dallon and Pelham families seemed to be in the room.
The adults were clustered around the table, sending text messages or talking on the phone or reviewing files. Eric was wrapped up in a sleeping bag against one wall, looking tired and worried while Amy was fretting over her phone. I don't think she even really saw the screen of it with her zombie stare. The only ones missing were Crystal - who I believed was off at college - and Vicky - for obvious reasons.
"You're awake," one of the women - Sarah, I assumed, since the other older woman had the stronger resemblance to Victoria - stated and got up to walk across the room. Everyone turned to look at me and I suddenly felt very on display. Amy gave me a little wincing smile that lasted for a second before she let it go. I took it as an apology and gave her a little nod back. "I don't believe we've been introduced."
"No, I-I don't think we have," I agreed. I hadn't even met Brandish and Flashbang even though I was pretty sure they had been home when I had visited Amy's house on previous occasions. "You can call me" - don't say Spiderman -"Sk-" not Skitter, either - "Uh… Weaver."
"It's good to meet you, Weaver." She then proceeded to introduce everyone in the room by their cape names. "Panacea tells us that you two know each other and you pulled her out of that wreck, getting pretty hurt in the process."
From a certain perspective, those things were true. "Y-yeah, There was a lot of glass and stuff. I got pretty hurt."
"She also told us that she can't heal you, but she managed to cover for you with the police after she realized you were healing on your own. It's been-" she looked at the clock "-four hours and you look fine, so I guess he was right."
"I'm kind of a grab-bag cape. I have a degree of Thinker immunity and a bunch of other stuff that's related to spiders. Part of it's a brute package which apparently includes rapid healing - which I didn't know about until, well, now. Part of it is that I can control spiders." I again decided it was better not to talk about coming back from the dead or raising the recently dead which was a thing I could apparently do now.
"You have a master power?" Carol - Brandish - cut in.
"Mostly just spiders. I can sort of do other bugs, but they have to be really close by for that to work and it's harder." I cringed inwardly. Master was something of a dirty word, even when it wasn't a power that controlled people.
"Do you just control them, or can you use them for scouting?" Brandish drilled in more intently.
"I can see through them if I really concentrate. More than a second or two gives me a huge headache, and most of them don't have great vision." Jumping spiders and wolf spiders had, so far, been the best little scouts. They just weren't as common as the other kinds.
The adults shared a series of looks that I took for an unspoken conversation. "That might be useful," Sarah - Lady Photon - said after a moment. "First, is there anything you can tell us about the actual crash or the time after?"
I related what I had heard before cutting my seatbelt loose. "And then they must have left. I managed to get Amy and myself out of the car and then I passed out."
The last part got a few looks - I assume because my story didn't include how, exactly, I had ended up naked - but they let it pass. I honestly had no idea why I had ended up naked, either. I barely even remembered that part because of the roaring everything-ache I was experiencing at the time.
"That helps confirm what we already know. Not long after the 'accident', Dean's father received a ransom demand for fifty million dollars. He is stalling them because he really doesn't have that much available money, much less in the form they're demanding. We're afraid that the kidnappers are going to get antsy before then or after they get the money, they may decide to just split after making sure there are no witnesses."
I grimaced. It seemed plausible, if terrible.
"Fortunately," she continued, "We have something on an understanding with Faultline. As long as she doesn't take jobs in town and keeps the rest of her work to mostly property damage, we ignore her presence in the city. She either realized that this one is going to lead to us kicking in doors all over town - including hers - or she has a personal score to settle. It doesn't matter much which one it is, but we will take it because she sent us this information."
She handed me a folder with a series of faxed documents inside. I flipped through them and found them to be profiles on two capes along with a list of about a dozen locations on the outskirts of Brockton Bay.
Lockdown, real name unknown, was a power nullifying Trump with a minor Thinker power that made him an exceptional shot with ranged weapons. He could shut down the powers of a single cape, and the effect lasted for a while, but if he used it on a second cape, the first one got theirs back almost immediately. The file indicated it was likely that he had at least some military training because of the way he had handled previous jobs.
The second file was for Stockton, real name James Abner, who was a mid-tier Brute with more straightforward powers than Lockdown. His public identity was known because he had a fairly public trigger. He had been a police officer in Kansas City up until some sort of altercation that led to him being gunned down on the street in broad daylight. He had gotten up, after, and gone on a revenge spree that left him on the other side of the law.
The two of them had apparently been partners for several months and had performed a number of kidnappings and assassinations. Sometimes they worked as a duo and sometimes they worked as a small team with other mercenaries.
"Why are you showing these to me?" I asked carefully.
"Because you can collect information through your power, and we don't know which of those locations they're actually being held at." That one was Carol, cutting in agitatedly.
"I've been a cape for less than two weeks," I admitted. "I don't know if I'll actually be able to help much."
"You're still the best hope we have. None of us have abilities that are useful for covert operations, and the Protectorate has to requisition out of town resources for a delicate operation like this. It could be days before they are ready to go and the longer things drag on, the less likely we are to get everyone out alive."
I nodded. It wasn't even really a question of whether or not I would help. I barely knew either of them, but Vicky and Dean had been nothing but nice to me. If I was willing to risk my life for a snarky, bitter shrew like Amy, then I would risk it for them.
"I will help any way I can," I declared. "Can I get Amy to drive me by my house so I can tell my dad and get a few things? I don't want him to worry more than he probably already is."
Brandish looked like she was going to object, but Lady Photon gave the answer. "Of course. Just… try to be quick."
//\\o//\\
Up close, Amy looked even more tired than I was used to. She always had a bit of 'racoon eyes' going on, presumably from her poor sleep schedule, but it seemed especially bad as we got into the van.
We were on the road before either of us spoke.
"What-"
"Why-"
We both paused as we tried to talk over each other. "Go ahead," I suggested.
"Okay. What happened after the crash? Why did you end up naked? Why were you bleeding everywhere? Not the cuts, but everything else, I mean."
"The crash happened pretty much exactly the way I said it did, but you were hurt. Really bad. You were - I didn't think you were going to make it." I corrected myself before I said she was dead. I wasn't certain that she had actually been dead, just that she had stopped breathing. There was a bit of a window there between the two things. "I used something I haven't tried before and it kind of hurt me in order to heal you. I think. I have no idea how it actually worked."
"I…" Amy trailed off as she paid attention to the road for a moment. "I think that explains some of what I felt. It wasn't-That just explains it. The only thing I don't understand is how your clothes vanished."
I laughed nervously. "That's kind of a side effect of my powers, sometimes. I have no idea why it happens, it just does."
"That kind of sucks," she offered with a touch of sympathy.
"It is far from ideal." I agreed. "Now… why did your parents - well, all of New Wave - just accept what I was saying? I would have expected them to be more forceful with a new cape that just happened to be hanging around their daughters when something like that happened."
Amy looked like she was collecting her thoughts for a moment before she answered. "You didn't see yourself when we got you home. I had to burn some favors with the BBPD to pull that one off, by the way, and you're probably going to have to make a statement in a few days. To the PRT, too, once they get their investigation really moving."
"See myself?" I asked. I knew I'd been naked and a bit cut up, but that was about it.
"Yeah, you were covered in blood, like all over. Since I didn't have any injuries and there was a big bloody smear on the ground from the car to where we ended up, it's pretty clear that you sliced yourself up pretty bad getting me out." She took her eyes off the road long enough to swat me on the shoulder. It wasn't very hard. "You tore yourself to ribbons, you idiot. Did you even know you could regenerate when you did that?"
"I kind of suspected I might heal fast, but not as fast as I apparently can."
She huffed. "I'm used to this from Vicky, but I can put her back together when I need to. I can't even see how hurt you are. If I hadn't noticed your cuts sealing up on their own, I would have had to let the paramedics take you, and then where would you be?"
I shifted uncomfortably. She was right. If I'd healed like that in a hospital, I probably would have woken up to a PRT greeting party.
"You're right. I'm an idiot."
Amy rolled her eyes, though she was still focused on the road. "Yes, you are." She paused for a moment. "But you saved my life, so thank you."
A few minutes passed and we got closer to my house.
"So, if I was covered in blood, who cleaned me up?" I asked innocently.
"Me, but it was strictly in a clinical capacity." She was still blushing a little, though.
"Okay," I teased, but decided to let it go for the moment. There was always time for teasing when lives weren't on the line.
Eventually, we pulled up to the house and I glanced at the clock. Four twenty five. Dad was going to kill me.
"You want me to come with you?" Amy asked after a minute when I didn't move.
"It… might be a good idea. Dad wouldn't kill you, too."
Amy chuckled tiredly. "Alright, come on."
Dad was again in his armchair with the phone pulled across the room. He must have been waiting up when he fell asleep. At least there weren't beer bottles everywhere this time.
"Dad, I'm home," I whispered as I shook his ankle.
"Tay-Taylor? Where have you been?" he asked groggily.
"It's complicated, but New Wave needs my help with something. Glory Girl was kidnapped and I think I can help find her. Panacea came with me so we can get some stuff from my room before we go out to look for her."
That took some of the heat that was about to come out of his rapidly awakening mouth.
"Hello, Mr. Hebert," Amy offered softly and I momentarily directed a look in her direction. She had sounded… polite? Nice, even? I wasn't aware that she could be anything other than abrasive, even to the sister she was apparently in love with. Maybe she thought that was part of her charm?
"Oh, ah, hello. Oh, your sister's the one… yeah, okay." He fixed me with a look. "Taylor, do what you need to do, but we're going to have a long talk when you're done."
I fidgeted from foot to foot. That didn't sound fun at all. What I actually said was not what I was thinking. "Okay, dad. Sorry for not calling sooner." Before he could say anything else, I turned and hurried up the stairs.
"I'll just… go see if she needs any help?" I heard from downstairs as I stepped into my room.
It didn't take but a second to find my web-shooters which were stuffed into the bottom drawer of my dresser behind a rumbled Easter dress from when I was six or seven. Then I went to my closet and pulled out one of my new outfits, but I hesitated. It wasn't much of a costume.
My eyes lit on the sewing kit and the rest of the 'dispose of' pile of clothing from before. I still had a bit left over, and it was about what a costume would require along with the skills to do the work. What I didn't have was the time.
Then again, I'd managed to make three full outfits including parts that weren't really 'sewable' in a single night. In the morning, I'd just felt exhausted in a way I was slowly realizing felt like I was feeling after healing Amy.
Was it related?
I reached out a mental 'finger' and found that liquid fire waiting for me. It felt much closer than before, almost eager to be drawn on.
"What are you doing?" Amy asked as she stepped into the doorway. I'd already picked up the needle and thread.
"I'm just going to try something. If it doesn't work right off, I'll worry about it later, but I want to try."
Amy hesitated. We were in a hurry, but a few minutes couldn't hurt, right?
I focused on the scattered fragments of my dreams about sewing as I mentally felt for the mental fire. Something shifted and then things became a blur.
//\\o//\\
"I'm naked again, aren't I?" I asked as the blur finally resolved itself into reality.
"Yep," Amy declared, a note of exhaustion in her voice. She was sitting in the rickety chair in front of my desk with an unlit cigarette between her lips. She wasn't even blushing.
"How long…"
"How long were you whirling around naked, grabbing stuff and then making reality kind of weep for itself as you turned it into something else? About half an hour."
I looked down at the pile of material in front of me. It was exactly what I had been picturing when I started. Basically, a version of Spider-Gwen's costume with the white replaced with a slate gray tone which was more practical for sneaking around. "And you watched me the whole time?"
"I was a bit worried about you when you ignored me trying to talk to you, so yes, purely for clinical reasons. If you want to repeat that sometime when I'm not worried sick about my sister, I'm game, though."
I immediately felt bad. Amy was kind of a jerk, she was also worried for Vicky. I'd just taken a half hour to make a costume when there really wasn't any time to waste. I would have been embarrassed by being naked in front of Amy, but it was frankly becoming normal by that point. I was finally starting to understand how some of the other girls acted in the locker room, I realized.
My disappointment in myself was tempered by the fact that the costume itself was amazing. It was perfectly cut and stretchy in all the right places. It was also thick enough to wear outside in January while still looking like it was painted on. Somehow.
"Sorry, I had no idea it would take that long, I just… it was vain of me. I'm sorry." I genuinely meant it. I hadn't expected the creation of my costume to take that long, but I should have. I'd just been so excited to try a new thing that I had forgotten we were in a rush.
Regardless, I couldn't help but feel a bit of excitement as I worked my way into the new costume. It was sinfully tight, even with the padding, and made me look amazing. It also made me look a little indecent, really, but that was the price all spider-people paid for the enhanced mobility of a form-fitting outfit. Once I had the side of the suit zipped up, I fit the sleek web-shooters into place and put the spare cartridges into little pockets cleverly hidden by the costume.
"It is what it is, I guess. Let's just get going."
Five hours later, we had visited and dismissed eight of the locations on the list. If I had a good idea of the area I needed to check on - mostly by being able to see the outside of the building - it was fairly simple to scan the spiders inside each to guess the conditions. All of the locations provided by Faultline were being maintained to some degree and that meant enough heat that all of the spiders hadn't died off to the cold. No wonder other-me had waited till March to make her debut - the number of living bugs in the Bay in January was kind of pathetic. It definitely wasn't 'Biblical plague' levels.
It was late in the morning - nearly to noon - when things finally changed.
"I think I've got something," I gasped as I let the link drop for a moment. Looking through spider eyes was intense, but it was getting easier and easier the more I did it. Necessity was the mother and all of that.
"What did you see?" Manpower asked from the front seat of the van. He had taken over a shift driving me around while I scanned places.
This one, in particular, was an old machine shop that had once made chains for ship anchors. The rust on the sign outside made it clear how long that particular industry had been missing from the Bay, but someone was keeping the heat on judging by the number of bugs inside.
"There's a garage area with one big SUV inside. Dark color and tinted windows, I think. Then there's a kind of cage set up in a big open area. I could make out two figures lying down and not moving."
"Are they…" he trailed off, not willing to ask.
"I don't think so. There were weird stands beside them, so maybe they're sedated? Give me a few minutes and I'll try to get a better look." My head was hurting, but I'd had worse - I'd had worse in the last twenty-four hours, even.
"Please. I think I saw a motel a couple of blocks away. Can you look from there?"
I nodded. "Yeah, once I get to 'know' the spiders I'm using, we can go… I don't know exactly how far, but two blocks shouldn't be a problem."
A few hours later, I was 'relaxing' on the bed in a motel room that smelled faintly of alcohol and stale cigarette smoke as I repeated the last few details of my exploration for the team. Someone had hauled in the white board and a pretty accurate layout of the building was described there, including points of entrance, the current positions of the four people guarding the captives, and the captives themselves.
"Alright, I'm convinced we're in the right place," Lady Photon declared. "We need to call Armsmaster and request Protectorate support."
"Um," I interjected and kind of lost what I was going to say when everyone looked at me. "That… may not be the best idea?"
"What do you mean?" Flashbang asked, though not unkindly.
I didn't know that Coil was involved with this - though I was pretty sure that everything in the Bay was a Coil plot until proven otherwise - but he was far from the only person that could bribe the PRT or the cops. "I just mean, can we trust them? Stockton is known for having police ties and they seem to have planned everything. Do you think…"
That got frowns. It was Brandish that finally answered. "We have to make the call. There are certain agreements in place, especially for things like this," she said, though she didn't sound happy about it. It occurred to me that she was probably talking about Gallant's status as a Ward. The Protectorate would be chomping at the bit for an operation to rescue him. "However, we can request that it just be a Protectorate response."
That got some grunts of agreement and I had to agree that it at least reduced the risk. I felt like I could probably pull off the rescue part - most Spider-people were exceptional at stealth - but I was aware that I had never actually done something like that before. If nothing else, it would be a hard sell for the group.
Ten minutes later, my spiders told me that there was a lot of movement going on inside the building. They were packing up in a hurry, but hadn't gotten to the hostages yet.
"Shit, they know something is up," I declared and got to my feet. "We need to go, now!"
Kuroji
Know what you're doing yet?
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I wonder what effects it'll have later, once they realize that these out of towners somehow had support from within the Protectorate. Knowing they've got a notable information leak and that leak is connected to an event like this is the kind of thing that should sound the brown note in upper management.
passislisk
Know what you're doing yet?
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TFTC - very enjoyable. Looking forward to more plot development and some action.
DaCoolEntity
Getting sticky.
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Within the PRT. The Protectorate's the hero one, the PRT is run by normals.
But, yeah, this might bite Coil and any other mole in the ass. After all the bad luck, this and meeting Amy are good luck occurances.