Mist of Shadows
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Reroll and Rebirth Part 6
🕑 Added 2019-02-11 23:21:51 +0000 UTCParts... 1 to 5 are here
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12772304/1/Reroll-and-Rebirth
Taylor closed her eyes rather than stare at the ceiling over her bunk bed. She was still a bit surprised that Beth gave her permission to have fun and control her in her sleep. The fact that her sister trusted her that much was rather disturbing. She reached out and carefully took control of her sister’s body. She waited several seconds to see if her control woke her sister up then opened Beth’s eyes. ‘Okay, so far so good.’
She wiggled Beth’s toes and grinned when it didn’t wake her sister up. She briefly considered running some more tests including walking her sleeping sister around then decided that her sister needed her rest and she had other things to worry about. She closed Beth’s eyes then dropped her control. ‘I should have grabbed a bird from the pet store.’
She focused on the catgirls that were curled up together on the guest bed. She took control of the first catgirl tentatively named ‘Ginger’ and carefully extracted the sleeping girl from the bed and headed out of the room. She felt a little guilty about it but she’d asked if she could run some tests and they’d said yes before they’d crashed out. She snuck down the basement stairs and extracted one of the mice from their cage after taking control of it. ‘At least you don’t look tasty or anything.’ She brought the mouse over to where the spider was and took control of the spider and moved it over to the mouse so that it could use the mouse for transport.
The spider’s eyes were a bit annoying to see through but the hearing was easy enough to deal with considering her previous experience with her swarm. ‘Now if I can just get the mouse out of here without tripping off the house alarm. She smiled slightly when she saw the small window near the ceiling that led outside and the shelves under it that she could use to reach the window. It was a bit weird being short enough that she couldn’t just reach up and open it. She walked over to the shelves and climbed up being careful not to smash her mouse. She opened the door and had the mouse scurry outside then shut the window and climbed down.
Taylor sent the mouse toward the docks as she walked Ginger up the stairs and to the bathroom so that she could wash her hands. She finished scrubbing her hands then snuck back to bed and slipped under the covers with Crimson. She closed Ginger’s eyes and relaxed her control.
She focused on the mouse and spider as they headed toward the bad part of town. Her human body drifted off to sleep as she continued her hunt for information. Sixteen minutes later she sent her spider fleeing the dead mouse. ‘Stupid feral cats.’
Thankfully her mouse had gotten her spider pretty close to an ‘abandoned’ property that several men were using as shelter. A little exploring and she found a decent amount of cash and drugs. Taylor drifted off to actual sleep as someone swatted her spider.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Anne looked up from her cereal as Taylor walked into the kitchen. “How did you sleep?”
Taylor glanced at the two catgirls that were seated at the table eating cereal. They looked well rested and happy so it obviously hadn’t hurt Ginger to walk her around while she was asleep. “Decent enough, I tried scouting with one of the mice last night, it got eaten by a cat then my spider got swatted.”
Ginger said, “Cats like mice.”
Anne said, “No eating mice in your humanoid form, it’s icky.”
Crimson pouted. “Why not?”
“For one, you’re a bit more human and uncooked meat is icky and rats crawl all over the place and get into lots of nasty things.”
Crimson pouted. “Fine.”
Taylor started working on her cereal. “Did everyone leave already?”
Anne said, “Beth and Emma went to school, Danny had to go into work and Annette is teaching, that means it’s just us. Do you want come with us to pick out clothes for the munchkins?”
Taylor didn’t really want to spend the morning shopping but at the same time, she felt somewhat responsible for the catgirls considering they were turned into catgirls because she needed someone to test her magic on. Besides, it wasn’t like she had anything else to do. “Sure.”
“Thanks.”
“How many ‘heroes’ are just people running around with ‘magic’ items?” Taylor reached out and tapped Emma and Beth’s sight and hearing so that she wouldn’t miss anything at school then started eating her cereal.
Anne shrugged. “It’s hard to say, there are rogues that specialize in dungeon running that sell magical items on ebay but the more impressive the effect the larger the price tag which means that so called magic item capes are walking loot pinatas for villains.”
“I guess that makes sense.” Taylor went back to eating as she thought about how to acquire a decent enough collection of magical items to let her take the field without getting splattered or fighting from a distance like the last time around.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Taylor twitched as she saw a skeleton walking down the street. “What the hell is that?”
Anne sighed. “We’re on the edge of Skull and Bones territory which means undead.”
“How come the heroes haven’t cleared them out?”
“The heroes have tried a couple of times but the cape responsible just creates more of them. He doesn’t come out in public or if he does, he has other powers and no one has connected the undead to him. That and he helps keeps the Teeth out of the area which is a good thing.”
“If people don’t see him in public then how do you know it’s a guy?” Taylor asked curiously.
“We don’t, his screen name is Skeleton King which implies that he’s male or pretending to be.”
Ginger said, “Are the skeletons dangerous?”
Anne shrugged. “For the most part they’re safe enough as long as you don’t attack them.”
Taylor frowned as she studied the walking skeleton. “You said they were a gang, any typical crimes?”
“Beyond grave digging and everything that goes along with that, assault against rival gangs and murder of villains that come into their territory and cause problems. They accept money for protection but don’t damage places that don’t pay, they just don’t patrol those areas, still the price is cheap and it’s decent security.”
“What about the rest of the gang?”
Anne winced. “Less pleasant, the Zombie King reanimates dead people as revenants that work for him or collapse.”
“Revenants?” Taylor asked in concern.
“Basically human looking dead people, they can think and reason and are a lot stronger and more durable than they were in life.”
“Great, anything else to worry about?” Taylor asked warily.
“Crusader creates temporary ghosts of himself.”
Taylor nodded. “Fun.”
Crimson asked, “Can we get ice cream?”
Anne smiled at the two catgirls. “Considering you managed to behave at the junk store, we can grab some on the way home.”
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Taylor opened her door and raised her eyebrows when she saw Dennis standing on the porch. “Dennis, is this going to be a thing?”
Dennis shrugged. “You try waking up with a bunch of memories that aren’t yours and see how well you process everything, especially memories of a screwed up world where the Endbringers are freakishly destructive.”
“How much do you remember? I remember my old life but nothing from this world before getting knocked unconscious by a cattle prod.” Taylor opened the door and gestured for him to come in.
‘Better than being stuffed in a locker.’ Dennis stepped inside and glanced around. “My life here and my life there or rather lives. You used to be a villain and a hero and then a hero and now, I’m not sure…”
“Hero or at least that‘s the plan.” Taylor closed the door.
“Oh, good. Same powers or?”
“I still have my old powers and I picked up the ability to empower people with magic.” Taylor grinned at the look of disbelief on his face.
“Wait, not only are you still a walking plague waiting to happen, you can reroll powers and give people powers?”
“More like magic and spells but sure, let’s go with that.”
“That’s complete bullshit, you know that right? He raised his eyebrows. “How long does it last?”
“I boosted my sister and a friend yesterday and they still have magic. I have a feeling that it’s permanent.”
“Skitter OP, please nerf,” he replied with amusement mixed with a touch of jealousy.
“It gets worse,” Taylor admitted as she walked over and sat down on the armrest of the couch.
“How?”
“I can tap into the senses of the people I’ve empowered at range and use their senses. That’s the official version…”
“Please don’t tell me you can mind control them…”
Taylor shrugged. “Okay, I won’t tell you.”
“Fuck me…” Dennis trailed off as he tried to figure out to avoid his friend being sent to the Birdcage on trumped up charges.
“Little bit of a PR nightmare isn’t it?” she asked sarcastically.
“To say the least. I wouldn’t admit to being able to puppet people unless you want to be sent to the Birdcage.” He took a step back. “Just out of curiosity, what is the range on your enhancement power?”
“Relax, even if I used my touch ranged enhancement power on you, it doesn’t cause you to become my slave it simply gives me the option to puppet your body and or tap your senses. As for the range I can look through someone’s eyes, I’m not sure, I haven’t left the city yet.”
“Right, because that’s not scary as hell,” Dennis complained.
“You have no room to talk Mr. I can temporarily freeze an area in time then walk around in it and move things.”
“In addition to being able to being able to speed up a bubble of time and freeze objects,” Dennis added smugly.
“What was it you said before, OP please nerf?” Taylor asked with amusement.
“That about sums it up.” He walked over and sat on the far side of the couch.
“Okay, so… we’re here, now what?”
“I guess we figure out how your new power should work officially. Can you empower and control animals? That’s a lot more sellable than controlling people.”
“Mice, spiders, humans and catgirls so far which leads me to believe that I can empower most living creatures.”
“Objects?” Dennis asked curious about her powers.
“Not that I’ve noticed but there’s always a chance that I’ll find something I can empower.” She wasn’t going to out her mother which meant not talking about crafting magical objects.
“What does your so called empowering actually do?”
“It depends on who or what I empower. The spider gained the power to create a tiny cloud of purple gas, the mice various stealth related spells which I forgot to actually use when I was out scouting last night.”
“Oh?”
“It was snagged by a cat, damned thing came out of nowhere,” Taylor admitted.
Dennis laughed.
Taylor glared at Dennis. “It’s not that funny.”
He held up his thumb and index finger an inch apart. “Just a bit.”
“You try going from having thousands of expendable minions that you can just replace by walking around to having to care what happens to them, it’s weird.” While she could have used her swarm, it didn’t have the range she’d wanted.
“Almost as weird as waking up and having a bunch of extra memories?”
“Probably, at least the first time we just jumped backwards through time, probably.” Taylor walked over and sat on the couch.
Dennis shrugged. “I don’t know, I sort of like this world, no Scion, no horrible world destroying endbringers and having the first cape be a playful naked female exhibionist really helped with the nudist movement. Of course, she’s probably this world’s Scion, but at least she’s friendlier.”
“Speaking of, are all the capes kinky or am I imagining things? Because the internet is a scary place here.”
“You’re not imagining things, a lot of capes seem drawn toward perversion of one type or another rather than direct conflict.”
“Right, so what’s your issue?”
“I like big butts and I cannot lie,” he replied jokingly.
“Right, obviously you can,” she replied with a touch of amusement.
“I’m a teenage male and I was rather irreverent even before I got my powers, still if I had to guess, I’d say it’s my tendency to like kicking villains in the nuts while they’re frozen in time. I mean seriously, who does that?”
“Considering your cape name…” Taylor trailed off with a smile.
“Point.” He grinned. “But seriously, some capes are worse than others, Vista hates clothes, Lunari likes her dogs a bit too much and enough said about Heartstealer and his perversions the better.”
“Heartstealer?”
“He’s an independant villain, well rogue technically as the cops can’t make anything stick. He owns a nightclub with strippers and escorts.”
“Why is he a villain?”
“There was a group of high school football jocks that got rough with one of the girls at the club and some religious people protesting his club and keeping people from enjoying themselves, the next day,” Dennis shivered, “the cops found the football players and the priests fornicating in the street in front of the church. They kept babbling about serving the great salami god while they were being hauled away. Everyone ‘knew’ it was Heartstealer but no one saw anything and they couldn’t prove it as none of the ‘victims’ would testify.”
“That’s twisted, why does anyone go to his club?” Taylor asked in disbelief.
“Because of the hot naked waitresses and the escorts or so I imagine.” Dennis shrugged.
“Drugs?”
“Nothing other than alcohol. People that try to sell there typically end up at the police station confessing their sins.”
“Who runs drugs in the city?”
He scowled. “The Teeth for the most part.”
“How are they still functional?”
“They live in the sewers and have some rather nasty capes and monsters. The place is a maze and a death trap. If I’m careful I could probably walk down there chaining my time bubbles but the problem becomes finding anyone other than low level grunts and monsters. That and certain sections are filled with poisonous and corrosive gas which makes them a pain to deal with.”
Taylor frowned as she thought of possible solutions. “It sounds like I’m going to need to send rats down there to check things out.”
“It would be nice to have some help, we don’t have as many heroes as the other world did,” he admitted.
“Did anyone else come back?”
“You mean other than Panacea and you? Vista was giving me weird looks last night, Kid Win was distracted at school, not unusual but maybe a little suspect. Gallant seemed normal enough and Aegis was his normal self. Rune and Emma were off duty last night and they go to Winslow so I haven’t seen them since I got my alternate’s memories.”
“And the adult heroes?”
“Nothing too strange at least not last night. Armsmaster was working in his forge creating a magical sword, Miss Militia was patrolling and Dauntless was working on his gear which is normal enough.”
Taylor shook her head. “I’m not sure which is more disturbing, Armsmaster crafting magic items or the fact that the city only has three adult heroes.”
“It’s almost enough to miss Shadow Stalker,” he held up his hands at her glare, “I said almost.”
“I’m glad that she isn’t a cape in this world considering Sophia has a warped crush on me or rather my alternate self. It’s rather disturbing.”
Dennis shook his head. “Better you than me...” He trailed off as Anne stepped into the living room from the kitchen wearing nothing save a smile. “Ah…”
Anne flashed Dennis a smile as she walked in and sat on the chair opposite the couch. “Hey Dennis, what’s up?”
Dennis decided staring at the attractive redhead might cause Skitter to object. “Amy mentioned Taylor’s memory loss, figured I’d come over and see if I couldn’t jog anything loose.“
Taylor sighed. “It’s not like I wanted to forget a bunch of random chunks of my life. I was just explaining my powers.”
“Oh?” Anne asked, wondering how much she’d actually explained.
“I’m still not sure how bug control ties in with the ability to empower people or the fact that I’m a walking cape detector.”
Dennis pulled his gaze off of Anne’s breasts. “Hell if I know, powers are weird. Either way, I’m looking forward to having some help dealing with the Teeth.”
Anne scowled as she thought about the group that had killed her parents. “I wish I had more combat focused abilities so I could help.”
“I have a feeling the Teeth won’t last all that long now that we have a Skitter.” He was looking forward to seeing how the Teeth dealt with a biblical plague of insects chasing them out of the sewers.
Anne shook her head. “Skitter sounds a bit villainous. Why not Eldritch Arachnid or Ladybug?”
Taylor shook her head. “I’d rather not be stuck using ‘friendly’ bugs and I’m still trying to figure out if I want to use two different identities, one for my heroic persona and one for my rogue persona that can upgrade people with magical abilities.”
Dennis snickered. “Nothing wrong with keeping your options open as long as it doesn’t include glow in the dark spiders of doom.”
“I might be able to pull that off with Panacea’s help and some magic,” Taylor mused, a little annoyed that she hadn’t been able to find any evidence of the Travelers this time around.
Dennis shivered. “Shit, forget I said anything. Speaking of names and capes, you should come in and register as a hero at some point.”
“As soon as I finish my costume,” Taylor assured him. “Emma needs to tweak the material and I need to add some shock absorbing gel and some trauma plates but it’s getting close.”
“She does good work,” Dennis agreed, happy that the new version of Emma was a lot saner than her alternate. “What are you thinking for your alternate identity’s costume?”
“I’m not sure,” Taylor admitted. “I’m open to suggestions.”
Dennis pulled a notebook out of his pocket so he could make some costume sketches and take notes. “It depends on how tongue and cheek you want to get.”
“Why do I have a feeling I should stick my fingers in my ears and not listen to your suggestions?” Taylor asked with amusement.
“Probably because his taste in cape names is suspect,” Anne replied with amusement.
“Nothing wrong with Clockblocker. How about Faust?” Dennis asked jokingly.
Taylor snorted. “I’d never get anyone to agree to a deal.”
“I’m fairly sure you would, there are a lot of idiots in the world,” Dennis pointed out as he sketched a girl in robes in his notebook.
“Still no,” Taylor replied, not wanting to give people a reason to see her as a villain this time around.”
“What about Arcane Broker?” Anne asked, figuring it got the point across without screaming villain.
“Seems a little long, is Broker taken?” Taylor asked, not sure how claiming a name worked in this version of the cape community.
“Not that I know of which means you should be able to get away with using it though you might want to check the unofficial list on the boards.”
“Worth a shot,” Taylor agreed as she looked at the half finished sketch of a girl in robes that Dennis was drawing. “Robes?”
“They’re fairly popular because of Myrddin and they do a decent job concealing your identity which is sort of important considering your power.”
“Authentic or fake runes?” Anne asked as she looked at the drawing Dennis was working on.
“I was thinking Norse or maybe elvish,” Dennis replied after a moment of thought. “It depends on if we’re trying for deal maker or scary ass magic user?”
“I’d rather save the heroics for Skitter or Weaver.”
Anne nodded. “In that case, let’s go with Norse.”
‘At least I have help this time around,’ Taylor mused to herself as she listened to the two capes toss ideas back and forth.
Comments
Patrick Sandhop
No argument here. Periods of boredom punctuated by terror is for protagonists.
Mist of Shadows
There are plenty of things that are 'interesting' that wouldn't be fun in person, yeah.
Patrick Sandhop
Well, it's Worm or a variation thereof so trauma is almost hardwired in. Besides, creepy stalker powers would be interesting to see. Interesting to me, not so much for Taylor I suppose.
Mist of Shadows
As for the world hopping.... As for Sophia's potential to trigger, maybe yes, maybe no. :) But yeah, it would require some type of trauma.
Patrick Sandhop
Interesting. I'm interested in the world/time hopping mechanism but I'll hold off on theories for now. I wonder if Sophia has trigger potential here. Of course she'd need some sort of trauma but hey, can't make omelets without breaking eggs.
Mist of Shadows
It was nice to get back to it.
Robert Buniff
I was hoping this would be continued. Thanks !
