Mist of Shadows
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Taylor and Marvel Madness Part 3
🕑 Added 2023-07-25 07:15:16 +0000 UTC"Any luck?" Danny's unenhanced duplicate asked as he walked over to where Taylor was glaring at the computer screen.
"New Wave has a spam filter and apparently claiming to be a biokinetic and asking for help automatically blocks your email," Taylor grumbled, slightly annoyed that getting in touch with Panacea wasn't as easy as just sending New Wave an email.
"They probably get a lot of prank calls or requests for Panacea to heal people," the other duplicate pointed out from where he was watching the news on the couch.
"I'm starting to wonder if I need to resort to drastic measures," Taylor admitted.
"Define drastic measures," the duplicates ordered at the same time.
"I was thinking about copying Clairvoyance and using my Teleport Others ability to teleport a card in front of her with a PHO and my email and a request for help," Taylor admitted.
The duplicate near the computer shook his head. "Let's not drive our resident healer insane worrying about people teleporting things into her bedroom."
Taylor sighed as she realized that her dad's duplicate had a point. "What about teleporting a card to their front porch and ringing the doorbell with telekinesis?" she asked as she started swapping her emulated power from Panacea's to her Power Creation ability.
"That's probably more acceptable but you're probably better off posting something on the forums about being a biokinetic in need of help and see if Panacea bites," the enhanced duplicate suggested.
"It's worth a shot," Taylor mused as she opened the thread about getting an official cape tag on your PHO account. "Speaking of using multiple powers at once, I might have a solution."
"What type of solution?" he asked as he turned the news off.
"One of the powers I can hand out lets people copy powers by using the residue left over from power use. It's normally temporary but there's a small chance that it's permanent, sort of like my Power Creation ability which means I might be able to use it to get extra powers that aren't linked to my Duplication ability," Taylor explained as she used her Power Creation ability to give the unenhanced duplicate Residual Absorption.
"It's worth a try, what do you want me to do?" he asked.
"I want you to turn into a cat so we can see if the other duplicate can copy your ability," Taylor replied as she stood up and walked over to the couch.
"I can do that," the duplicate on the couch replied then snapped his fingers and turned into a fluffy black house cat.
'At least his clothes changed with him,' Taylor thought. "Do you still have your mind?"
The cat let out a weird sort of meow as he tried to reply then just nodded when he realized that he couldn't talk as a cat.
Taylor laughed. "I'll take that as a maybe."
"Give me a second, there's not enough residue," the duplicate complained as he walked over and tapped the cat's head with his finger, hoping a physical connection would help. "There we go." He flipped the new mental switch and copied the other duplicate's ability to turn into a cat, disrupting the ability and causing the cat to flicker and return to his previous form.
"That's unpleasant," the enhanced duplicate complained, finding the experience unpleasant and disorienting.
Taylor quickly used her Duplication power to copy the duplicate's Residual Absorption power, wanting to make sure she got it. "Please tell me that didn't break your ability."
"Nah, it just temporarily disrupted the ability," the duplicate assured her after checking and realizing that the mental switch was still there.
"That's good," the other duplicate said as he used his Power Detection to check his new power. "We might need a better way to learn the ability, I only have it for a week."
Taylor waited for the new ability to settle into a slot then quickly started swapping the new power so she could test it. "This feels like playing bingo, I'm hoping for the best and expecting the worst."
"Sounds about right," the duplicate agreed.
"Let's see if this works," Taylor muttered as she used her Residual Absorption power on the unenhanced duplicate, trying to copy the duplication power. She felt her heart skip a beat when she used up the 'residue' for the Self Duplication power and the duplicate popped, causing the robe he was wearing to drop to the ground.
"Was that supposed to happen?" the remaining duplicate asked, wondering if her power was dangerously unstable.
"Probably," Taylor admitted. "Each attempt uses up a decent amount of residue."
"And we're basically nothing but residue. I'll have to check with Danny in the morning to see if he got the duplicate's memories," the duplicate mused, figuring it could go either way if the power fueling the duplicate was absorbed. "Did you at least get the ability to duplicate yourself?"
"I got something, I'm pretty sure it's Self-Duplication but I'm sure," Taylor replied. "Can you use your Power Detection ability to check? I don't want to swap back and forth."
"Sure," the duplicate replied as he checked her new power. "It looks fine and seems to be permanent."
"Yes!" Taylor squealed then dropped her voice back down to something that wouldn't risk waking her dad. "This is going to be fantastic."
"One step at a time," he warned her, trying to keep her from getting carried away. "It should let you create a duplicate within ten feet."
"Don't worry, I'll be careful," Taylor assured him as she focused on the hallway behind the duplicate and activated her new power, causing a naked duplicate of herself to appear in the hallway.
Taylor's duplicate quickly headed towards her room to grab some clothes, glad that it was the middle of the night and that she'd appeared behind her dad's duplicate. 'This is going to be awesome!' she thought as she started swapping her emulated power to Power Creation.
"Now I just need to give you the power magnification ability and you can boost my Duplication ability so I can get a better Absorption ability…" Taylor trailed off as her mind flashed back to something Greg had said about one of his video games that involved using enchanting and potions to make a recursive loop.
"Power magnification?" the duplicate asked.
Taylor started swapping her emulated power to Power Creation. "My power lists it as Power Control Magnify/Reduce. It basically lets someone boost or reduce a power's strength or intensity based on the strength of their Power Control. I can't use the power on myself but you should be able to boost my Duplication power which would boost my Power Creation ability."
"Letting you give another duplicate a better magnification power, which would increase your ability to hand out powers," he mused then shook his head. "There's probably a limit but it's worth trying, your power is strange enough that it might work."
"It's worth a shot. The higher I can boost my absorption power, the stronger my invulnerability will be when I copy it," Taylor said as she gave the duplicate Power Control Magnify/Reduce. "See if that works."
The duplicate focused on Taylor's emulation ability then flipped the mental switch on his new power and frowned when the power sort of slipped off her power. "No luck, it sort of slipped through my fingers."
"Try again?" Taylor asked, wondering if he'd just screwed up using the ability.
He tried and failed to boost her various powers eight times before his power failed to work and he realized that it wasn't a matter of the power failing so much as the power being unable to boost her powers. "It's not going to work, probably because it's a temporary power that you gave me which means it's basically your power."
"Let's roll the dice, I'll see if I can give you the ability permanently and if that changes anything," Taylor said as she worked on giving the duplicate a permanent version of the magnification power.
"What's up?" Taylor's duplicate asked a couple minutes later as she walked into the living room wearing a pair of sweats and a sweatshirt.
Taylor turned to look at her duplicate, wondering how long it would take her to get used to having a doppelganger running around. "I'm trying to give the duplicate a permanent version of the magnification ability because the temporary version doesn't work on my Duplication power."
"Try to boost my power," Taylor's duplicate suggested.
Danny's duplicate focused on Taylor's duplicate and tried to boost her power. "No luck, same problem."
"That's annoying," Taylor's duplicate complained as she gave Taylor Hyper Intelligence. "I boosted your intelligence, can you come up with anything else?"
Taylor gave her duplicate the magnification power. "Can you boost his powers?"
Taylor's duplicate boosted the other duplicate's Body Resistance. "That worked."
"Duplication shouldn't be immune to boosting which means we'll just have to keep trying," Taylor said as she went back to trying to get the power to sink in. She tried a couple more times before the power seemed to sink in. "Okay, see if that works."
Danny's duplicate smiled when his magnification power managed to boost Taylor's Duplication power without any issues. "That…" he trailed off when his power slipped because he wasn't concentrating on keeping the effect up. "It was working for a second."
Taylor smiled as she realized her plan might actually be viable. "It takes concentration."
"Let me boost the duplicate," Taylor's duplicate said as she focused on Danny and boosted his magnification power.
Danny's duplicate focused on boosting Taylor's Duplication power and flipped the mental switch.
Taylor smiled as she used her Power Creation ability to give her duplicate a better copy of the magnification ability. "Can you check her power?"
He stopped boosting Taylor's power and checked her duplicate's powers with Power Detection. "Looks like you managed to upgrade the ability slightly."
"Give me a minute," Taylor's duplicate said as she activated her Duplication ability and started copying the magnification power. "Give me a second to copy the magnification power, that should let me boost his magnification power more than the version you handed me."
"Makes sense," Taylor agreed as she used her Self Duplication ability and created another two duplicates in the hallway, figuring she'd want to see if they could chain things a bit more.
The new duplicates headed towards her room to grab clothes, looking forward to seeing how far they could push things.
Taylor's first duplicate smiled as the magnification power slotted into place. "Okay, let's see if this works." She used her magnification power on her dad's duplicate, magnifying his magnification power.
"My Duplication power certainly feels stronger," Taylor mused as she used her currently boosted Power Creation ability to give her dad's duplicate a better version of the magnification ability. "Huh, that felt like it sunk in, can you check?"
Danny's duplicate used his Power Detection ability to check his powers. "That's useful, I can compare the abilities and they're both permanent. The second ability is about two thirds more powerful, so we're moving in the right direction."
"Every little bit helps," Taylor's duplicate said cheerfully then turned to look at Taylor. "You should swap to the magnification ability so you can boost Dad's magnification power. Then I'll copy the power and use it on Dad's magnification power and you can grab a better version of the Residual Absorption ability. Then we can get started getting permanent versions of everything we want off our list."
"Like Invulnerability," Taylor replied cheerfully as she used her Duplication power to start copying the magnification power.
"How much better is the Invulnerability power than the Body Resistance power?" Danny's duplicate asked.
"Invulnerability is basically an upgraded Body Resistance power that comes with extra resistances to esoteric crap which should make it a lot easier to hurt us," Taylor explained.
"How come you gave Danny Body Resistance and not Invulnerability?" he asked.
"I was hoping I could boost my Power Creation ability with the magnification ability and I wasn't sure if I could update the power," Taylor admitted. "So I basically gave him something that should be good enough in the hopes that I could give him a much better power later."
"That's fair," he admitted as another duplicate of Taylor walked into the living room wearing a robe.
"Is there a reason you didn't bother getting dressed?" Taylor asked her duplicate.
"I'm wearing a robe," Taylor's duplicate replied as she walked over to the couch. "You already managed to pop a duplicate, I figured I'd make it easier for my replacement."
"Probably a good idea," Taylor admitted. "How long until the other duplicate gets here?"
The robed duplicate shrugged. "Twenty seconds, she was just grabbing sweats and a sweatshirt."
"Cool," Taylor replied as she created another duplicate in the hallway to give her other duplicate the Spray ability then started swapping her ability to Residual Absorption as her naked duplicate headed for her room to get clothes. She focused on her first duplicate. "You can boost Dad's duplicate, he can boost the duplicate with a robe and she can copy my attempt to copy the Spray ability from the other duplicate."
"What does Spray do?" he asked.
"It basically lets me shoot a spray of dust, mist or smoke out of my fingers or turn some of my powers into a spray. It's not particularly dangerous or flashy but it's useful," Taylor explained as she waited for her power to settle and her duplicate to show up.
"Can you change the colors?" he asked thoughtfully, wondering if it would be good for doing shows.
"Yes," Taylor replied as her other duplicate walked in wearing sweats and a sweatshirt. "Can you use the Spray ability, I want to duplicate it."
"Sure," the duplicate replied as she raised her hands and sent a small stream of mist out of her fingers, not interested in making dust or smoke in the house.
The first Taylor duplicate boosted her dad's duplicate. "We're good."
"Good," Danny boosted the robed Taylor's Duplication ability.
"Copying." Taylor used her residual absorption ability to copy the Spray ability.
The robed duplicate activated her emulated absorption ability and copied Taylor's ability, picking up a temporary version of the absorption ability that wasn't linked to her Duplication ability. "Can you swap to boosting my Residual Absorption?"
"Sure," he agreed as he swapped and started boosting her absorption ability. "Did that work?"
"Feels like it," she replied as she copied his Power Control Magnification/Reduce ability. She frowned slightly when she tried to boost the duplicate that was boosting her dad's duplicate and it failed. "So much for stacking things, we still count as Taylor."
Taylor shrugged. "Makes sense."
"I'll take over boosting Dad's duplicate," the robed Taylor said. "Who are we boosting next?"
"Me," the first Taylor duplicate said as she worked on swapping her power to Residual Absorption so she could copy the magnification power at a higher level.
0o0o0
Danny froze when he walked into the living room and noticed that Taylor was passed out on the couch and that another Taylor was reading something on the computer. He walked over to the computer so that he wouldn't have to raise his voice. "How much sleep did she get?"
Taylor's duplicate checked the clock on the computer. "About three and a half hours, she had a hell of a time getting a permanent version of her absorption ability and everyone was feeling a bit fuzzy and tired so we grabbed temporary copies of her anti-scrying and Invulnerability powers and she passed out."
"Absorption ability?" Danny asked.
"One of the powers she can hand out lets the person copy powers by using 'residue' left over from someone using a power," she explained.
"Is that why I only have one duplicate active?" Danny asked, having noticed when he woke up that he was down a duplicate.
"Yeah, absorbing the 'residue' popped the duplicate, thankfully it wasn't the enhanced duplicate. On the upside, it means that Taylor has the ability to pick up extra powers which means she doesn't have to worry about the basics."
"When you say invulnerability, are we talking actually invulnerable or just a high level brute?" Danny asked, trying to figure out how much he had to worry about his daughter running around town fighting villains.
"The Invulnerability package comes with a bunch of resistances but you're not actually invulnerable, just extremely durable. We haven't had a chance to test her durability but I doubt that she'll have to worry about any of the locals other than a ramped up Lung and we can teleport him into space if he gets to the point where he can hurt us," she said cheerfully.
"That's oddly reassuring," Danny admitted, trying to ignore the fact that his daughter's go-to plan for dealing with problematic villains was teleporting them into space. "What do you consider the basics?"
She shrugged. "Invulnerability, Telekinesis, Flight, Absorption: Slugfest, Power Detection, Mental Invisibility, Resist Emotions, and Invisibility. Power Detection makes you a walking cape detector and Resist Emotion and Mental Invisibility should keep us safe from most masters, if only because they won't be able to target us."
"That makes me feel better about Taylor being a cape," Danny admitted as he looked at the PHO page that looked like a list of the local capes and a brief and most likely inaccurate description of everyone's powers. "Research?"
"I'm trying to get some context for what my Power Detection ability is telling me, it's weird," she complained.
He yawned. "What do you mean?"
She glanced at her notebook where she'd written down her own notes. "The powers I can sense don't always match what the boards say, Hellhound's power doesn't actually involve controlling her dogs, tinkers are basically mad scientists because their powers shouldn't work and Oni Lee is basically killing himself every time he teleports."
"Is that because of the clones?" he asked.
"It basically makes a clone in the location he wants to teleport to then disintegrates the original after a couple of seconds," she explained.
Danny winced. "Let's avoid copying that particular power."
"It's not on my list of powers I want to copy," she assured him.
"How does your teleport ability work?" Danny asked.
She shrugged. "It pulls your target into another dimension then pulls it back out at the target location."
"That's better than cloning people and destroying the original," Danny agreed. "I should get ready for work, I have a feeling it's going to be busy considering the missing cargo ship. Can you grab the journal for me?"
"It's on the kitchen table, I already grabbed it," she replied as she used her Power Creation ability to give Danny telepathy. "Just in case you need to call or deal with lying bastards, you can have telepathy."
"Thank you and thank you for the power." Danny shook his head. "I'm pretty sure actual telepathy is supposed to be impossible."
"My powers are bullshit," she replied with a smile. "You should be able to reach us anywhere in the city."
"Good to know," Danny replied as he headed for the kitchen, relieved that he had a way to contact Taylor that didn't involve a cell phone and that she had enough durability to survive getting hit by a truck or a good sized bomb.
"You're welcome," she replied as she went back to reading through the cape descriptions while she waited for Taylor to wake up so she could vanish or get some sleep.
0o0o0
Taylor sighed when she woke up and realized that she could still hear the infernal typing from her dream. She turned and looked at her duplicate that was typing on the computer like a possessed lunatic. "What's up?"
"Angel_Wings57 was wrong about Vista's power, I'm correcting her," the duplicate replied without even looking at her.
"Right, did you bother sleeping?" Taylor asked as she sat up and swung her feet around, knowing that she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep now that she was awake and feeling halfway reasonable considering how late she'd stayed up.
"I don't need sleep, I have regeneration," the duplicate said, sounding a bit manic.
"Right," Taylor replied as she dismissed the duplicate, picking up half a day of extra memories and information and causing the duplicate's clothes to drop on the chair. "Yeah, note to self, regeneration doesn't cover a lack of sleep."
Taylor started swapping her emulated power to Power Creation then spent half a minute mentally reviewing her duplicate's memories, making sure that there weren't any gaps. 'Okay, my duplicate came up with some good ideas before she went crazy,' she mused as she used her Self-Duplication power to create another duplicate.
"Give me the abilities and we can get started as soon as I get dressed," the duplicate asked as she walked over to the computer to get dressed.
Taylor used Power Creation to give her duplicate the Power Detection, Clairvoyance, Mind Probe, Shapechange-Others and Teleport Others powers, having to try three times to get Teleport Others to stick. She created another duplicate. "Go ahead and hit her with the shape changing power so I can copy it."
"This is why we have unions," the new duplicate complained.
"Last I checked, you haven't joined a union…" Taylor trailed off as the first duplicate used the Shapechange-Others power to turn the naked duplicate into a nymph, causing her features to improve like she'd gotten airbrushed and causing her stomach to flatten and her breasts to increase two cup sizes.
"Damn!" the duplicate sputtered when she looked down and noticed how much larger her breasts were. "What did you turn me into?"
"A nymph," the first duplicate admitted as she stared at the nymph, her ears going red as she realized she liked what she was seeing. 'Damn, a couple of tweaks and some breasts and I look damned good.'
Taylor pulled her attention away from her duplicate's breasts. "Do you think Dad would notice?" she asked as she walked over and poked her duplicate's stomach with her finger.
"He just wears glasses, he's not blind," the duplicate replied as she used her Clairvoyance to check on Emma, if she was already back at school.
"Better question, do you think he'd object?" the nymph duplicate asked thoughtfully.
"Not sure," Taylor admitted as she used her Residual Absorption ability to copy the shape changing power, rather surprised when it sunk in on the first attempt.
"Huh, weird," the duplicate muttered when she 'saw' a pissed off Emma Barnes sitting in a jail cell.
Taylor pulled her attention away from her nymph shaped duplicate and looked at the other duplicate. "What's up?"
The duplicate laughed. "I just checked on Emma, it looks like she's in jail."
Taylor stepped over and placed her hand on her duplicate's head and activated her Residual Absorption power, picking up Clairvoyance. She focused on her ex-friend and used her new power, letting her see Emma and the cell as if she was near the ceiling looking down at her.
"Hopefully the journal is enough to keep her there," the nymph version complained as she looked over her shoulder at her butt. "We can probably get away with a toned down version of the nymph transformation, half nymph?"
"Or we can talk to Panacea and figure out how to make a couple of changes, she'd probably trade tips if we could turn her into a nymph," Taylor mused as she stopped using her Clairvoyance power.
"Did you get the Clairvoyance to stick?" the duplicate asked.
"It didn't sink in but it felt pretty solid, we can worry about it after we grab the rest of the powers," Taylor replied, figuring she could always stop and try again later if they got unlucky and completely fed up with trying to get everything permanently.
"Sure," the duplicate replied as she tossed a Mental Probe at Taylor, having nothing better to do.
Comments
Mist of Shadows
That is a valid response.
Bable Zmith
Sorry, still distracted by the shape of the Nymph's butt...
