Mist of Shadows
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Celestial Worm
🕑 Added 2024-11-02 07:34:45 +0000 UTCAn: Short detour...
"You put her in the morgue!" Danny snapped, barely resisting the urge to hit the 'doctor' that had misdiagnosed his daughter.
"I'm glad that she's alive but she wasn't breathing and she didn't have a heartbeat," the doctor told the man, trying to avoid getting hit over something that wasn't even his fault.
Taylor blinked a couple of times when she woke up and realized that she wasn't stuffed in a locker. She glanced at the closed door then focused on the teenage girl wearing 'familiar' white robes that was standing next to her hospital bed. "What happened?"
"You died and then you got better," Panacea replied.
"Great, Sophia managed to kill me," Taylor grumbled as she focused on the box floating over the healer's head. "Biokinesis: Incredible?"
"What?" Panacea asked.
"You have a floating…" Taylor trailed off as her brain caught up with what she was saying. "Can we ignore that?"
"No," Panacea replied dryly. "I'm curious and I already know you're a cape," she told her in a whisper.
"Are you going to tell anyone?" Taylor asked, trying to wrap her head around the idea that she was a cape.
"No but you were dead for ten minutes then you got better so there's a decent chance that the doctors already reported things to the PRT or the gangs," Panacea warned her.
"Shit," Taylor complained.
"What do you see?" Panacea asked, trying to help her get a handle on her powers.
Taylor briefly considered trying to lie her way out of things but she could feel the healer's curiosity and that she didn't have any intention of selling her out. "You have a box floating over your head like a video game that says you have Biokinesis at an incredible level and I know that you can make changes to organic life, it's weird."
"Do I have a health stat?" Panacea asked, sort of hoping that she was being pranked since the alternative meant Taylor was a walking breach of the unwritten rules.
"No, just a description of your power," Taylor replied as a floating window appeared with her own powers. "Huh."
"Huh?" Panacea asked.
"I was just wishing that I had a list of my powers and a box appeared," Taylor admitted absently as she stared at the rather extensive list of powers.
"Trump or thinker?" Panacea asked thoughtfully.
"Thinker…" Taylor trailed off when she realized that part of her power involved handing out powers to other people. "Maybe tinker? One of my abilities is listed as Hyper Invention but I'm not sure what Hyper Invention: Typical is supposed to be able to do, other than make me slightly better at inventing things."
"What else do you have?" Panacea asked, curious about the girl that had come back from the dead and hoping she had something that would let her defend herself against the gangs.
"Linguistics: Good, which means I should be able to rapidly learn up to eight additional languages before I lose track of one of them." Taylor focused on her Telekinesis ability and picked up the book that someone had left on the table, floating it a couple of inches off the table then setting it back down. "Telekinesis: Poor."
"Does it give you a weight limit?" Panacea asked, a touch envious that the girl's power came with an instruction manual.
"A hundred pounds, maybe two hundred if my life depends on it," Taylor replied absently as she stared at the description of her next power, doing her best to ignore the fact that she could hear some of Panacea's thoughts about trumps and grab bags now that she'd realized Telepathy: Feeble was on her list of powers. "Resist Mental: Monstrous which means I'm resistant to masters or at least that's what the description sounds like."
Panacea shook her head. "Having a description of your powers feels like cheating."
"It certainly makes things easier," Taylor admitted. "Teleporting Self: Good, means I can teleport up to 2,500 miles at a time and that I probably shouldn't use it in combat unless I'm using it to escape since I'll probably end up disoriented."
"That's most of the way across the country and that's only good?" Panacea asked.
"Apparently," Taylor replied with a shrug. She skipped mentioning her Residual Absorption power that had a small chance to give her permanent powers if she was reading the description correctly. 'At least it's not like the Faerie Queen, I don't have to hurt anyone to acquire powers.'
"That's a decent collection, anything else?" Panacea asked, curious if there was something that tied her powers together as it seemed like an odd collection of powers.
"I can hand out powers," Taylor admitted, leaving off the part where her ability was listed as Monstrous or the fact that there was a small chance that the powers she gave out would be permanent according to the description.
"That's definitely a Trump rating," Panacea mused. "Is there a Master component to it?"
"Not that I can see," Taylor assured her, rather relieved that she'd be able to use the ability on her father without worrying about twisting his mind into a pretzel.
"That's a relief," Panacea agreed, fairly sure the girl was telling the truth because of the look of disgust on her face. "Does it list what types of powers you can hand out?"
"It's a rather large list," Taylor paused when the door opened and her father and the doctor walked in. "Hey."
"I thought I lost you," Danny said as he crossed the distance and pulled his daughter into a hug.
"I'm still here," Taylor assured him.
"Is she stable enough to leave?" the doctor asked Panacea, wanting the patient and her father gone as soon as possible since the hospital had already agreed to waive the costs as long as her father didn't sue them over possible malpractice for sending her to the morgue when she was very much alive or talk about the incident to the press.
"I cleared up a couple of strains of bacteria, some abrasions and pulled muscles, she's in perfect health," Panacea assured them.
"In that case, you're free to leave," the doctor told them, then turned and left, wanting to get away from the girl's father.
"Aren't they supposed to keep me for observation?" Taylor asked, pretending like she hadn't overheard the doctor's thoughts about his girlfriend or the fact that he didn't actually care if she died as long as he didn't get blamed or have his date delayed.
"Not when you have a healer that is willing to check your health," Panacea offered, fairly sure the sooner the girl left the hospital the safer she'd be. She pulled a card out of her pocket and a pen and wrote her number on the back of the card along with her ID on PHO." She handed Taylor the card. "Don't spread my number around but feel free to call me or send me a message on PHO if you run into trouble."
"I won't and thank you," Taylor told Panacea.
"You don't have to answer since I'm not a cop but how did you end up in a locker filled with biohazardous waste?" Panacea asked, trying to avoid the girl ending up in jail for murder.
'I can't really blame her for wanting to find them before I kill them,' Taylor admitted, having caught Panacea's thoughts and her desire to help. "Someone filled my locker with the shit and Sophia Hess pushed me in then locked the door. I don't have any proof and the school ignored all of my complaints against her for the last year and a half."
"Sophia Hess," Panacea muttered, unintentionally closing her mind and blocking Taylor's ability to read her mind as she thought about Shadow Stalker and how she was going to need to talk to the Director about the bitch. "I'll make some calls, I know a couple of people at the CDC office in Boston."
"That would be fantastic," Taylor replied, relieved that someone cared enough to help.
"Stay safe," Panacea told her as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and headed for the door, wanting to make sure the director got wind of things before the school covered things up since the wards would owe her one if she could help get rid of Sophia.
"I brought a change of clothes and I'll be right outside," Danny told Taylor then headed for the door, wanting to leave before the hospital changed their mind about charging them for everything.
'How many powers can Othala hand out? Do they last for a month and a half or a year and a half?' Taylor mused as she worked on getting dressed. Her mind skidded to a stop when she noticed that her legs were far more toned than they should be and that the bit of extra weight around her stomach was gone. 'What the hell?'
She pulled her underwear on then took the rest of the clothes to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. 'What the fuck?' she thought as she stared at her reflection, a reflection that looked like someone had turned her into a hero straight out of a movie. 'B cup? C-cup? How the hell did Dad miss the changes?!'
'I could bounce a quarter off my ass,' she mused as she looked at her ass in the mirror for a couple of seconds before she realized that she could worry about the changes later. She quickly finished getting dressed then left the room after giving everything a quick once over to make sure her father hadn't left anything behind.
"Ready?" Danny asked, relieved that he hadn't lost Taylor and doing his best to ignore the urge to head down to the school and beat someone with a wrench until he got answers about why his daughter had ended up in the hospital.
"I want to go home and take a shower," Taylor replied, feeling dirty despite the fact that someone had washed the junk off of her.
"Let's check out and then we can leave," Danny told her, trying to keep his temper under control and not grill her about what happened so that he could try to 'fix' it.
0o0o0
Blackwell scowled when a well built man in a black business suit walked into her office without knocking. "You can't just walk into my office."
"My name is Albert Brightwell, I work with the CDC," the man stated, causing the principal to drop back in her chair. "I have a team trying to recover evidence related to a bioterrorism attack that you attempted to destroy and I've just spent the last twenty minutes listening to a pissed off medical employee rant about your stupidity." He shook his finger when it looked like she was about to interrupt. "Don't. If you're smart, you'll avoid annoying me with stupid, pointless and ultimately empty platitudes and find someone to toss under the bus, like the student or students responsible for the attack."
"I don't have any evidence," Blackwell replied, knowing the PRT would crucify her if she mentioned Sophia's name in relation to the Hebert girl.
"So, you're telling me that none of your security cameras work and that no one heard anything?" he asked, his voice thick with sarcasm.
"It's not my fault if no one wants to spread wild rumors and we don't have the money to keep fixing the cameras," Blackwell argued.
"Just to be clear, the victim died which means everyone involved is going to be charged with federal charges and will probably spend at least twenty years in prison. As it currently stands, you're guilty of tampering with evidence and gross stupidity because of your failure to report the incident and ordering the janitor to get rid of the evidence."
"You can't expect me to leave biohazardous waste in the school," Blackwell complained.
"You were perfectly happy to leave the shit in the school over break despite the janitor informing you of a god awful stench from the hallway that should have been investigated before you reopened," Albert replied dryly.
"What did Derek say?!" Blackwell demanded.
"A bit of this, a bit of that," Albert replied with a touch of amusement, not particularly surprised by the speed the janitor had started talking when he realized that Albert was looking for blood. "He was really quick to toss you under the bus and I suspect that the teachers will gleefully do the same once they realize they're facing criminal charges for their part in a murder."
"You can't expect that to stick," Blackwell complained.
"Against a random teacher? Probably not, against the principal of a corrupt school? They'll throw the book at you," he assured her.
"Do you have any identification?" Blackwell asked, hoping that he didn't so she could tell him to get lost.
"Of course," he replied as he pulled his badge out as the door opened, revealing a familiar man in armor. "Armsmaster."
"Brightwell," Armsmaster replied, a bit frustrated that things had just gotten complicated. "I'm going to need access to the site, we have reasons to believe that it's parahuman related."
"You can have it after my guys are finished collecting samples and documenting everything, whatever the hell was in the locker killed a girl so we want to make sure it's contained and figure out what we're dealing with in case the rest of the students were exposed."
"I have a device that should sterilize the area," Armsmaster offered.
Brightwell sighed. "Unfortunately, that means you're going to have to stay here or be escorted off the premises until such time as we're done collecting evidence due to the conflict of interest."
"Conflict of interest?" Armsmaster asked, wondering what he was talking about.
"Sophia Hess was accused of pushing the victim in the locker, which means I can't allow you to have access to the site until we've finished," Brightwell explained.
Armsmaster scowled when he realized things weren't adding up. "Give me a minute, I need to make a call and have her handler tossed in a cell."
"By all means," Brightwell replied, wanting to have things resolved in a way that didn't end up with him buried under a mountain of paperwork.
0o0o0
Taylor stared at the spider crawling on the wall over her bed, trying not to think about the inferno of rage she could feel from her father's room. "I need an off switch…" she trailed off when her Empathy turned off completely and the tapestry of emotions she could feel dropped to nothing.
"Huh, okay, apparently it comes with an off switch," Taylor mused as she flipped the mental switch in her head, turning it on and off a couple of times before she flipped it off as she didn't want to deal with everyone's emotions at the moment. 'Okay, that means I can start with phase one of testing, test one? First test?'
Taylor focused on the spider, concentrated on the power she wanted to give it and activated her Power Creation ability, wanting to test it a couple of times before she used it on her father. She smiled as a floating window appeared over the spider's head. 'Body Resistance: Remarkable 35, Duration 460 days? That should make it durable enough that I'd need explosives to kill it or water since the brute rating doesn't come with water breathing.'
She grabbed the spider, causing it to try to escape. 'At least the resistance power doesn't come with increased strength.' She set the spider on her desk, picked up one of her text books and hit the spider. She watched the spider quickly skitter across the desk once she lifted the book up, looking none the worse for wear. She quickly captured the spider when she realized that the creature might be able to pass its durability onto the next generation.
"Sorry, not sorry," Taylor told the spider as she tossed the spider in her half empty glass of water on her nightstand. She felt slightly guilty as she grabbed a hairbrush and weighed the spider down so that it would drown, if only because it wouldn't be a quick death like squashing it would be.
Taylor flipped the switch on her Empathy, making sure that her father hadn't left his room then walked over to her desk. 'I'm going to need a better computer and better security but Panacea probably already knows my name, so I doubt sending her a message is that big a deal.'
She pulled Panacea's card out of her pocket then sat down, opened a new tab and pulled up the PHO website. 'I'm going to need a cape name, Magic Girl? That's almost as bad as Glory Girl, Power Girl? It's probably taken. Power Broker? That's a bit too on the nose for my account name. Warlock? They generally bargain for power. That could work, Warlock_Queen? Too close to the Fairy Queen, Princess of Warlocks? Warlock of the Bay? Close enough and it's probably not taken.'
She quickly created a new account and sent Panacea a message. 'Sorry to bother you but you gave me your card at the hospital, you said I was dead for a bit? Can you explain that or how I came back since that's not one of my powers as far as I can tell? I've managed to test my power on a spider, I gave it durability. I sort of need help and I'm spinning my wheels about where to start being a hero.'
Taylor reread her message then sent it before she could change her mind, wondering if she was making a mistake. She ran a search on the site looking for new cape help and started reading through the various topics that came up while she was waiting for a response. Thankfully it only took a couple of minutes for Panacea to reply because she'd managed to get a decent amount of conflicting suggestions for her trouble.
Panacea (Verified Cape): "Nice account name. Do you want help getting it verified? One of the doctors claimed that you were dead and you woke up in the morgue. They assumed it was a cape thing and called me in to heal you and make sure you weren't contagious. It's not particularly common but it has been known to happen. How long will the durability last on the spider?"
Warlock_of_the_Bay: "460 days, I tossed it in a glass of water because I didn't want the spider to escape and reproduce."
Panacea (Verified Cape): "Save the spider, I want to make sure the resulting spider can't breed. Is there any way you can get somewhere in town? It's important. I'll help you test some things."
Warlock_of_the_Bay: "I can teleport, where do you want me to meet you?"
Panacea (Verified Cape): "Library, ten minutes?"
Warlock_of_the_Bay: "I can do that, I'm logging off."
Taylor quickly pulled the spider out of the water and dropped it in an empty tic tac box that she had on her desk and grabbed her shoes. 'Hopefully, Dad doesn't flip out about me heading to the library.'
0o0o0
"Are you okay?" Amy asked when she saw Taylor walking up to the entrance to the library, a touch worried since it was closer to fifteen minutes than ten.
Taylor turned and looked at the mousey girl that was standing near the entrance in a heavy jacket holding a lollipop that was almost completely gone. "Yeah, I had to convince my father that heading to the library was safe and he insisted on driving," she explained as she walked over and handed the plastic box with the spider to the healer. "He's a touch waterlogged but he's alive."
Amy poked her finger into the box and touched the spider. "You'd probably need two modified spiders if you wanted to breed them but I'm not sure I'd want to take the risk. There's something a bit terrifying about having a spider that could survive getting run over."
Taylor sighed. "Note to self, no more animal testing."
Amy glanced at a group of students that were walking toward them. "We should probably find a study room or start walking, I doubt you want to be overheard."
"I could walk," Taylor replied, figuring she'd have a better chance to have Amy test some of the powers she could hand out if they were outside.
"Were you able to test anything else?" Amy asked as they started walking toward the sidewalk and away from the group walking toward the doors.
"I thought about testing the Hyper-Running ability but I was worried about catching the spider," Taylor admitted in a whisper.
"Probably a good idea," Amy admitted, trying not to think about what it would be like to have insanely durable spiders running around. "Do you have a limit on the number of powers you can hand out?"
"I don't think I have a limit on the number of powers I can hand out but my list is static," Taylor admitted. "Do you want extra durability?"
"Like the spider?" Amy asked.
"Yeah, you saved my life, making sure you can survive a random idiot with a knife or a gun is the least I can do," Taylor replied.
"My mother is going to freak," Amy muttered.
"Is that a yes?" Taylor asked.
"Yeah," Amy replied, deciding that she might as well try it since there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the spider's mind.
Taylor focused and used her Power Creation ability on Panacea, giving her Body Resistance. "Body Resistance 35, duration 460 days, meaning you should be reasonably safe for a year as long as you avoid playing with high end Brutes or Blasters or an endbringer."
"I'll take it," Amy replied with a smile, more worried about random idiots with knives than she was capes since the capes generally knew better than to attack healers. "What else can you give people?"
"Officially or unofficially?" Taylor asked.
"Either, I can keep secrets," Amy assured her, not feeling any different than before but knowing that her biology had changed thanks to her power and that her tissue had gotten more durable in a way that was hard to explain.
Taylor relaxed slightly when she realized Panacea was serious about being able to keep secrets and didn't have any plans to betray her. "Do you want flight?"
"Yes," Amy replied, figuring she could lie to her sister about it since she didn't want her to stop carrying her.
Taylor used her Power Creation power and gave her True Flight: "True Flight Remarkable or about 225 MPR, don't fly into space, it doesn't come with the ability to breathe."
"I'll keep that in mind," Amy assured her.
"Do you want the ability to temporarily magnify and reduce powers or the ability to tinker or use Telekinesis?" Taylor asked, wanting to pay her back for the healing.
"Let me guess, you want me to use the power boosting ability on you?" Amy asked.
"Yep," Taylor agreed, relieved that she could feel Amy's excitement and amusement. "It would let me give you better powers and it would let me grab better powers."
"You're planning on being a hero, right?" Amy asked, wanting to make sure.
"Absolutely," Taylor assured her. "I just want to make sure that I can afford to tell the gangs to go fuck themselves when they show up to cause problems."
"Okay, let's try," Amy agreed, figuring the ability to boost or reduce powers would help.
Taylor frowned as her Power Creation ability slipped a couple of times before things lurched into place. "Huh," she muttered when she realized that Amy's new power didn't have a duration next to it.
"Huh?" Amy asked warily.
"Remember how I mentioned the ten percent chance of picking up a power? Yeah, you just picked up the ability to magnify, reduce and tweak powers permanently," Taylor explained.
"I can sense the power, what exactly does it do?" Amy asked, wondering how that would change things.
"The magnification ability basically lets you turn a weak power into a moderate one or a strong one depending on how it scales or change a moderate or a strong power into a weak power. I doubt it would do much of anything against an endbringer but against most capes it would be a hell of an ace up your sleeve. You can't use it on your own powers. The manipulation ability allows you to temporarily alter how powers work but you can't use it on itself."
"Do you think that would work on Tinkers?" Amy mused, not particularly surprised that the ability was Manton limited.
"Probably," Taylor replied with a shrug, not seeing why it wouldn't.
"If we found a second person to boost, could they boost my ability before I boost your ability to hand out powers?" Amy asked thoughtfully.
"Probably, who are you thinking?" Taylor asked, having caught Amy's thought about talking her sister into helping.
"Glory Girl, she's grabbing ice cream and she could use the boosted durability," Amy admitted, figuring she'd notice the second she got within range so telling her wasn't really breaking a secret.
"Sounds good, can you tweak my Focus ability to just include my powers or to be under my control what I feed into it?" Taylor asked hopefully, fairly sure she could trust them since they were public heroes with a track record.
"Let me see," Amy replied as she focused on Taylor's powers, getting a rough idea what they were or at least what her Focus ability was since she knew to look for it. "I can tweak it so that you can feed it powers or attributes if you focus on an attribute but I don't think I can make it do both."
"Make it so I can boost one of my powers by feeding it my powers," Taylor told her.
Amy adjusted Taylor's Focus power. "That should last for fifteen minutes or until you use the Focus power."
"How long will it take to get to the ice cream…" Taylor trailed off as she felt a cape with a force field, an aura that caused fear or awe and flight enter her range. 'That's probably Glory Girl, probably just as well that I have a defense against mental powers, at least it's not actually mind control.'
"Maybe five minutes, I'll call," Amy paused when she saw Vicky flying over with an ice cream cone in each hand. "Never mind."
"Thanks for helping, I didn't want to start running around without durability but I wasn't sure how to grab everything I needed without trusting someone and that's sort of hard," Taylor admitted.
"Makes sense, especially with your powers," Amy admitted, having given the topic a lot of thought over the last couple of years because of her own power. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention the extent of my powers."
Taylor made a zipping motion across her lips and tossed the imaginary key over her shoulder.
"Thanks," Amy replied.
Vicky smiled as she landed a couple of yards away from Amy and her friend. "I have chocolate, do you want one?" she asked Taylor.
"Sure," Taylor replied, knowing that Vicky had already eaten hers thanks to her Telepathy and that she was honestly offering thanks to her Empathy.
"Thanks," Amy replied. "How do you feel about getting additional and possibly permanent powers?"
Vicky glanced between Amy and Vicky. "Why type?"
"The ability to boost powers and a brute package that doesn't depend on your force field to start with then we'll go from there," Amy replied with a smile as she accepted the ice cream cone.
"What do I have to do?" Vicky asked.
"Nothing," Taylor replied as she activated her modified Focus ability and boosted her Power Creation ability by 227 points and gave Vicky the Power Control ability. She stared at the power that appeared over Vicky's head in disbelief. "Twice in a row. Okay, that should give you the ability to manipulate powers and magnify them by 62 points or basically turn most capes into a normal person for an hour or make someone a really impressive cape or anything in between."
"That's slightly annoying," Amy complained, slightly annoyed that Vicky had picked up the better version of the power.
"What's annoying about that?" Vicky asked.
"Amy's ability is only at excellent rank which lets her increase or decrease powers by twenty five points," Taylor explained. "If Vicky can boost your magnification ability and you boost the remains of my modified Focus ability, my power should be recharged by the time I finish my ice cream cone and we can give you something else."
Vicky glanced at Amy then boosted Amy with her new power when she nodded, boosting her ability to boost powers by 62 points.
Amy used her boosted power to boost all of Taylor's abilities by 87 points for 87 minutes.
Taylor worked on her ice cream cone while she waited for her powers to recharge. 'Okay, that should be everything.' She focused on her Residual Absorption Power and absorbed the residue left behind by her modified Focus ability. 'Focus: Powers Only: 88 Unearthly: Duration 459 minutes. That means I'll be getting 88 points back every six seconds and I can boost my ability to give out powers.' She glanced between Amy and Vicky. "Body Resistance?"
"Sounds good," Amy stated.
"What is Body Resistance?" Vicky asked.
"It's your basic brute rating only without the strength," Taylor told her.
"Cool, hit me," Vicky replied with a grin.
Taylor fed her abilities into her new and temporary Focus ability and boosted her Power Creation ability, using it to give Vicky Body Resistance. "You have Unearthly durability for 460 days. Give me a minute and I'll give you something else."
"I'm not in a hurry," Vicky replied, willing to stay up all night and do some fairly questionable things if it resulted in getting more powers.
Taylor waited for her powers to recharge then used her boosted absorption ability to try to absorb the residue of her modified focus ability, hoping that she could get it permanently. She smiled when she checked her power and realized that the temporary version had been replaced with a permanent one. 'Rank 88 Power Only Focus, that's a step in the right direction.'
Taylor focused on her absorption and tossed everything she had at it then activated it and absorbed Amy's magnification effect, picking up the ability for six and a half hours. "Can you renew the magnification effect? I tried to eat it and it wasn't permanent."
"Can you boost Vicky's Magnification power first?" Amy asked thoughtfully.
"Right," Taylor replied as she used her new power to boost Vicky's magnification ability by 252 points so she could use it on Amy. 'Shouldn't the power have diminishing returns or something?'
Vicky used her boost on Amy, boosting her ability by 313 points.
Amy used her power and boosted Taylor's powers by 339 points. "That should do it."
Taylor used her Power Control ability and gave Vicky Unearthly Body Resistance, reapplying the effect until it worked and covering her with sparkles that were showing up to her Power Detection as potential. "And that should give her Unearthly Body Resistance which means you can probably survive getting hit by most capes or having a building dropped on you."
"How long will that last?" Vicky asked.
"It's permanent, I kept applying the effect until it stuck," Taylor replied, rather happy with the effect.
"Amy's next," Vicky told her.
"Permission-" Taylor smiled when Amy said yes before she even finished. She twenty seconds reapplying the effect until it sunk in. "And Amy should be able to take a bomb to the face without getting hurt."
"What else can we get?" Vicky asked eagerly.
"Martial combat skill of an insane amount?" Taylor offered.
"Yes!" Amy replied, happy to get the skills without putting time into getting tossed around on the mat or having to touch people.
Taylor kept giving her the Martial Supremacy power until it stuck then used her absorption ability to try to absorb the 'residue' that was around Amy, eating through most of the residue before she managed to pick up the ability permanently. '313 Martial Supremacy, unless I'm mistaken about the rank, we're probably the best in the world by a considerable margin.'
"I'm going to need a sword," Amy mused, looking forward to testing her new skills and blowing off some steam that had been building up before she'd run into Taylor.
"Do you want Hyper-Running? It boosts your ability to run fast and your endurance?" Taylor asked.
"Is there any reason not to?" Amy asked, fairly sure Carol was already going to blow a gasket over the fact that she'd willingly let an unknown cape use her power on her.
Taylor shook her head. "Not really, you're an open cape so you don't really have to worry about accidentally moving too fast while you're getting used to things."
"In that case, hook me up," Amy replied, figuring she might as well get the most out of things.
"You should give her Flight," Vicky suggested, looking forward to having someone to fly with.
"Sure," Amy agreed, slightly annoyed that she wouldn't be able to have Vicky carry her places but not having a good reason to refuse without causing Vicky to look at her strangely because she'd claimed to really like flying on multiple occasions so that Vicky would carry her.
Taylor gave Amy True Flight until it stuck then used her absorption ability to absorb the residue until she got lucky and picked up the power permanently. '313 True Flight. I'm going to need Body Resistance if I want to avoid splattering if I hit a goose or a plane.' She used her modified Focus ability to push her points into her temporary magnification ability then boosted Vicky. "Reapply the magnification buff."
Vicky boosted Amy and Amy boosted Taylor, wondering when the other shoe would drop since the girl's power seemed insanely powerful.
"Thanks," Taylor replied as she absorbed the residue from the last magnification effect, managing to get a permanent version on the first try. 'Control Magnification and Manipulation: Class 1000? How the hell? I could probably kill an endbringer with this or at least give someone with a decent power the ability, how the fuck is that legit?'
"Is something the matter?" Amy asked, having noticed the look on Taylor's face.
"I'm just trying to wrap my head around how my powers work," Taylor replied as she read the description of her new power. 'I could boost every cape within a mile and a half to the point where they could obliterate countries with the wrong power, at least it has a single target version.'
"It takes a bit to figure out all of the tricks," Vicky offered, fairly sure the girl's power was beyond anything they'd seen before, except maybe Scion but he wasn't running around giving people powers so it was hard to say.
Taylor waited until her powers recharged from using her focus then used her modified Focus ability and poured everything into her magnification ability and boosted Vicky's magnification ability by 1934, wanting to avoid boosting the rest of her abilities. "Once more since I just boosted my Magnification power."
"Powers aren't supposed to work like this." Vicky shook her head then boosted Amy by 1996, wondering if the girl was stronger than Scion. "It shouldn't stack or there should be diminishing returns."
Amy boosted Taylor with her ability, increasing all of her powers by 2022. "Stop complaining."
"Do you want Remote Viewing taste or Clairaudience or Clairvoyance?" Taylor asked.
"Why would someone want remote taste?" Amy asked.
Vicky smiled as she thought about being able to savor flavors without actually licking them. "You could taste cookies in the bakery from range and no one would notice."
"You can also check substances without sticking them in your mouth," Taylor offered, more interested in having extra ranks to toss into her Focus ability than she was in having the ability to taste things at range.
"I'll take all three if you're offering," Amy said, looking forward to being able to watch Vicky in the shower without her noticing and being able to spy on some of the doctors to see what they were saying behind her back.
Taylor used her Power Creation ability on Amy and Vicky until the powers stuck, creating a decent amount of residue from the 'failures'. "Three powers at 350 which means you should be able to see anywhere in the solar system."
"Anywhere in the solar system?" Vicky asked in surprise.
"That's what my Power Detection ability says," Taylor replied with a shrug, trying to pretend like she wasn't over the moon at the idea of being able to poke around the solar system or spy on villains. "Can you test the abilities a bit so there's enough residue so I can copy them?"
"Sure," Amy replied as she focused on one of her favorite actresses, who happened to look a lot like Vicky, getting a nice view of her in the shower in her apartment in L.A. "It's a bit annoying that you can't keep one eye focused on what's in front of you and one on your vision."
"Have you tried modifying the power?" Taylor asked thoughtfully.
"Good idea," Amy replied as she used her power to modify the Clairaudience power so that she could pick which ear or ears she heard the sound coming from so that she could keep track of her surroundings then activated the power so that she could hear the sound of the shower the actress was taking with her left ear. "This would make your ability to Teleport a lot easier to use."
"That's the idea," Taylor replied as she worked on copying the remote sensing abilities, looking forward to being able to find villains and teleport them into PRT holding cells from the comfort of her own home. 'Screw it, Dad can't complain if I'm sitting in the living room.'
0o0o0
Comments
Mist of Shadows
I used the old Advanced Marvel hero games and rolled the character randomly, trying to get the idea out of my head... then I looked at the powers I'd rolled and realized I had to write the story.
Jasruv Lundux
I'm curious, did you use one of the old marvel games for this or something else? The rank names with the power numbers seem very familiar, but a few of the other elements seem to be from something else.
Bable Zmith
Okay that was cool
Mist of Shadows
Yeah, I had to fix a few typos.
Chichi son
Vicky glanced between Amy and Vicky. "Why type?" What type?
Mist of Shadows
Now and then, yes. I was writing it on Halloween while I had too much chocolate.
Mist of Shadows
Yeah, some of the combinations in that game are something else...
Mist of Shadows
Amusingly enough, I rolled the powers and was like... okay, why not.
William Stepp
Pure power fantasy, but I love a good curb stomp.
ZeroLink21
Lol that's how you end up with overlady's tftc
chxenocide
Curb stomps can, occasionally, be quite fun!
