Synergy powers were amazing, and the synergies that different powers had just by themselves were immense. I used my previously gained Automated Deduction to create a Thought Program that would control my Automated Power Management. It would allow me to subconsciously be able to use my powers in the proper moment getting rid of even the minuscule time delay it took my current thoughts to activate them. At this point I could activate Divergent Fist in a way that wasn't just nearly instantaneously, it was instantaneously. Plus my rarely used Balancing Act could now be used more regularly. Things that were limited by the fact I needed both time to think of using them and the foreknowledge to set up a thought process for them. Now I could trust that any power I had that was of an automatic sort would work in the background. Right now that meant Divergent Fist would always double my blows unless I went for a purposefully delayed strike, Balancing Act would increase my mass at point of impact as well adjust it as when I was using my parkour to traverse the city, and I had even set up a program to command my independent cells to retreat to safety if I was ever knocked unconscious.
Everything was working to its absolute maximum limit, which I could now tell using Physical Profile.
I removed myself from my thoughts and looked over to Madison, still on her phone. "What're you even reading?" I whispered, more willing to speak now that it wasn't anything secret. If anybody heard the worst that would happen was Mr. Gladly pretending he was mad and then letting us off the hook because Madison was one of the cool kids. Wait. I was one of the cool kids now too. Fuck.
"Just scrolling." Madison showed her phone to me revealing some social media outlet I didn't know about. The only one I ever really used was PHO, and that was because I could get reliable cape info there. "Apparently Canary's trial is moving to court. I hope she gets off, I love her music."
Canary, the powered musician that Mastered her ex into tearing his own dick off. I wasn't entirely sure if that was something somebody could get away with. I didn't want to start an argument though, especially since if Gladly heard because he might decide to make it an entire class lecture like the time he heard two kids argue about if Legend or Alexandria would win in a fight.
In the end neither of them won. Instead all of us lost.
Madison continued to scroll and I decided to open our book to at least pretend to read. I had already memorized the entire thing by flipping through it but I was pretty sure I couldn't explain that to the school without there being consequences.
"Eep!" Madison let out a small squeal loud enough that everybody in the class turned to her, including Gladly.
"Madison, is everything alright?"
She looked panicked for a second before a look I recognized as her scheming face appeared. It was surprisingly not that different from her normal face, but I had gotten enough glimpses at it as her victim.
"Actually Mr. G…" Her voice warbled a bit, as if she was in slight pain and she put a hand over her stomach. "I think I need to go to the nurses office."
"Oh. What's wrong?"
She squirmed in her seat uncomfortably. "I…I kind of lost track of time and forgot what time of the month it is and forgot to prepare."
"Huh? It's the four teee-" Gladly trailed off. "Oh, of course. Go to the nurse and get whatever you need for your…You can go to the nurse." I honestly couldn't believe this walking stereotype. A full grown man being sent into a panic by a period. A fake one even, since I remembered Madison complaining about hers two weeks ago.
"The thing is, it's really bad this time." She grimaced and clenched her stomach. I wondered if it was my friendship with her or my Thinker powers that let me notice how over the top her acting was. "I don't feel safe going that far by myself. Oh!" She clutched her stomach harder. "Can somebody help me?" So that was what she was doing this for.
"Of course! Would anybody like to help Ms. Clements to the nurses office?" I raised my hand lazily, most of the class had either figured out it was fake or was a guy who was grossed out by girl blood. "Taylor, yes! Take care of your friend. And take your stuff with you, you might not make it back before class ends."
I grabbed both of our bags and then pretended to support Madison as we walked out of the classroom. The moment the door closed Madison straightened up and started moving in the opposite direction of the nurse. "You have to go, now." She pulled up her phone and showed me a post showing a giant motorcycle causing chaos in the middle of a street.
"What? Squealer?"
"Worse." She continued to scroll showing several different vehicles causing mayhem. "People are talking about how all over town people with her destruction derby rejects are tearing shit up. She must have emptied out her entire garage."
"A cornered animal." I whispered what Velocity had told me a few days prior.
"What?"
"Nothing." I stuffed my backpack into my Bag of Holding and started to move. "I have to take care of this."
"Use the south exit. The security guard there does not give a shit." I nodded and moved out.
Let's Play
Once I was far away enough from the school I switched to my Shard outfit and pulled out my sketch of Squealer from my Bag of Holding. I had to figure out where she was first. If I could cut this off at the source…
My sketch gave me a rough direction and distance, but that couldn't be right. My power was telling me that she was deep in the bay. That didn't make sense unless.
I pulled out a second piece of paper and a pencil and began making a rough sketch. In the end it only gave me a direction but with everything that was happening I was pretty sure I'd be able to find her.
I flipped through the rooftops moving at top speed and quickly found what I needed to. Glory Girl was flying through the air trying to catch a large janky helicopter with two machine guns attached to the bottom of it.
Glory Girl was a fast flyer, and she could take any hit once, but machine guns were basically her kryptonite and she was limited in her mobility if she wanted to keep any civilians from being pulled into the line of fire. She was fighting on a tightrope, and chances were backup was too busy chasing one of the dozen of other vehicular monstrosities that Squealer had unleashed on the city. I had faith in Glory Girl to eventually defeat the helicopter of doom, but there was no reason for me not to help. I leapt across the buildings, moving to a better vantage point for one final leap to grab onto the base of both machine guns. I then moved the flow of my blood so the acidic bodily fluid burst out of my palms and began to melt into the metal holding the gun and vehicle together.
Soon enough the two guns dropped onto the rooftop below and so did I. Glory Girl could handle the rest.
And handle it she did. She started off by wrecking the tail rotor and destroying the helicopter's ability to stabilize itself and then she forcibly pulled the flying machine back down to the street. By the time I leapt down myself to where she landed she had already knocked out the Merchant piloting the thing.
"Shard! Thanks for the assist. I was worried I was going to have to throw a car at that thing. Trust me you never want to have to throw a car. Way too much paperwork." She was talking fast, faster than she had the previous times we had met. Like she was nervous.
I stifled a laugh. I needed to be professional. "Listen, I need your help."
Glory Girl's face turned serious as well. "What do you need?"
"I think all this is a distraction. I used the power I used in Canberra on Squealer and she's out in the middle of the bay. She's moving slowly but it seems to be with purpose."
"Shit."
"Yeah. I need a flier to get me there and cover my back. You in?"
"I should call my family for backup…" Glory Girl hesitated.
"Please, this is my fault! I need to do something about this now!" I begged.
Glory Girl looked me in the eye then nodded. "Alright. hop on." She knelt down so I could hop onto her piggyback style. I didn't hesitate but I really did need to get a flight power. This was only the second time I've had to hitch a ride and it was already getting old.
"Which way?" I gave Glory Girl the directions and she took off like a rocket.
"What did you mean?" She asked as we were flying. "About this being your fault?"
"I…I'm the one that arrested Mush and Skidmark. Squealer wouldn't feel like she had to do whatever this is if I hadn't cornered her. A cornered animal is more vicious." I echoed Velocity's words. "If I had been smarter we wouldn't have a bunch of Tinkertech enhanced road ragers in the city."
"That's bullshit." Glory Girl said plainly.
"What!?"
"That's bullshit. Sure you could have done things better in hindsight, but you don't make people do evil things. You ever hear about the Boston Games?"
I shook my head then realized I was sitting on her back. "No."
"Basically a few years ago the Protectorate in Boston made sweeping arrests and destroyed the existing gangs. It left a power vacuum and gangs rushed to the city to establish themselves. People blamed the Protectorate for what they did, making the void for new gangs to fill."
Like what I was responsible for disrupting the power balance in the city.
"But that's bullshit too."
"What?"
"The people the Protectorate arrested? Drug dealers, money launderers, murderers. The world is a better place with them gone. The people that showed up in Boston afterwards? Drug dealers, money launderers, murderers. They would have done what they were doing in Boston somewhere else, and nobody forced them to become criminals. The buck has to stop somewhere, and in my opinion it stops at the person hurting others for personal gain."
That…that actually made me feel much better. "Thanks. I still think I messed up, but that makes things a little better."
The rest of the ride was silent except for me adjusting her trajectory, and soon enough we were almost exactly where I had sensed Squealer over the bay. Except nobody was there. "What?" I reexamined the portrait I had but it said we were exactly where Squealer was. "She's supposed to be right here!"
"I mean," Glory Girl started. "I was thinking she was probably on a boat, but maybe it's a plane? Or a submarine?" That was a good point. We looked up and didn't see anything. It could have been cloaked but there would be at least some sort of indication since her specialty wasn't cloaking. So that must mean it was,
CRASH!!!
A giant arm rose from below the water and swatted at Glory Girl, who barely managed to avoid it. The arm was followed by a torso, which was connected to a head and legs.
"Oh come on! Every time we meet, Shard!" It was a giant robot, and based on the giant breasts attached to the robot's torso it was a giant woman robot. It was way bigger than the Simurgh, but still not tall enough to stand from the bottom of the Bay. I glanced at the legs and saw some sickly green glow. Maybe some sort of flotation function.
"I don't know how you cunts found me," A voice erupted from the giant robot, Squealer's I presumed, "But I'm not going to let you get between me and Skids!" The arm that was swinging at us stopped and instead several lasers popped up and began to fire.
"Fuck!" Was all Glory Girl got out before she began to fly evasive maneuvers. "This is a bad matchup!" She was right. Between us only I had ranged capabilities and in the middle of the Bay there was no cover for Glory Girl to take advantage of to close the distance. She just had to rely on speed and aim dodging. The only bright side was that the weapons were all focused on the arm, so if we stayed ahead of the arm we stayed ahead of the lasers.
"We need to retreat!" Glory Girl shouted as a laser grazed her and downed her shield. Not for long, but enough to know that another hit could end her. "My aunt or cousins are better equipped for this."
She was right, but could we retreat? Squealer seemed pissed and retreating would mean having to put our back to the giant laser shooting robot.
I activated my Bullet Time and time slowed to a halt. The robot was in plain view and I had to think of something. If I could launch my blood at it maybe I could melt through the armor enough to damage the machine, but with the erratic flying Glory Girl had to do in order to avoid the lasers my aim would be shot, even if I did buy the Deadshot power. It was almost completely overwhelming. What could I do?
No.
Stop.
It wasn't overwhelming. It was just a bunch of smaller problems that each had a small solution. First Glory Girl. She was a great flyer, but she couldn't keep this up forever. She was still human in reflexes and stamina so eventually she would flag and get hit more than once in a row. The solutions were to either get Glory Girl out of the situation or boost her abilities. I had two ways to do the latter.
Trump BestowalCost: 5 SPAt the cost of losing it yourself, you can give others any powers you have to another. If you can create/copy/steal powers, then you can give these powers to others. Temporary powers can also be given, but only last until their duration is up, after which the power will go away. You can also choose to split a power, dividing it equally between yourself and your target(s)
Party SystemNo hero can truly work alone. With the Party System unlocked you can now invite parahumans you have completed the unlock quests for to your party.
When a parahuman has entered your party you will gain access to an upgrade menu. There you can spend SP to boost your party members abilities, however the boost cannot exceed the highest tier you have access to.
I wasn't about to invite her to my 'party'. Both because I wasn't going to use an unknown part of my system in the middle of a fight, but also because my original decision in not using it still stood.
Bestowal though? That was revealing my hand in another way. I would be revealed as having the power to give powers, and that was a stone's throw away from figuring out that I could gain powers. It would be worth it to save Glory Girl though. I owed her for what she did in Canberra for me, risking her life like that. I could even give something relatively difficult to tell was affecting her.
Mover (Reaction)Cost: 1 SPIt takes a third of the time it would otherwise for you to react to stimuli. The average human can react in 0.2 seconds, with the fastest being 0.15 seconds. If you had average human reflexes, your reaction time is now 1/15 of a second or 0.067 seconds.
As for stamina, that was something I already had an answer to. In my bag of holding I kept an extra stash of potions in case I lost the ones I kept on my belt, including one that was meant to help me keep running past my limits. It would help Glory Girl get a boost and reduce both her physical and mental fatigue. In fact if I timed it right I could disguise Reaction as an effect of the potion. That helped solve Glory Girl.
Next problem. I needed a way to hit the giant woman robot. I didn't feel confident in my ability to hit a moving target from a moving target. The solution to that was actually simple. I just needed to get close enough that my aim doesn't matter. I eyed the spots where the arms and legs attached to the torso. It was slightly open. Not enough space for a normal human to get into, but it was larger than the size of my head and Contortionist meant I could slither in there. Once inside it was just a matter of producing enough blood and bursting it out of my body to melt the giant robot.
I reset my perception and began moving again at high speeds on Glory Girl's back. We were moving fast enough that it was difficult to open up my bag of holding and grab my potion, but not impossible, not for me.
"Glory Girl!"
"Kind of busy here!"
"This might help!" I held the arm holding the potion forward, doing my best not to block her vision.
"Is that a sippy cup!?"
"It's so it doesn't spill! Listen, I made it, it'll help you. Do you trust me?"
"Right at this moment, no!"
"Just drink it if you don't want to get cut in half by a laser!"
"Fine!" She grabbed the potion and started to drink it. As she did I pushed Reaction into her with Bestowal. The result was immediate.
Where before Glory Girl was suffering from close calls and near misses now her body was moving more in tune with her mind. Add in my Tinkertech brew that would restore her stamina and she should be good for however long against Squealer's machine.
"Holy shit this is amazing! Sorry I ever doubted you, Shard!" Glory Girl let out a laugh.
"Good! That was part one."
"And part two?"
"Throw me at Squealer!"
"What!?"
"I can melt that machine with my blood, but not from here. I need you to get me in close so I can get past the armor plating and to the gooey center."
"First Fenja, then Ziz, and now this. You are absolutely batshit. I hope you know that!" And without hesitation she grabbed the arm I was using to hold onto her as leverage to swing me right at the giant machine.
If this was the me form just two weeks ago I probably would have ended up splattered on the robot's chassis, or slammed into the water and turned into sea sludge. Instead I instantly reoriented myself and caught onto the robot's extended arm, popping my arm out of the shoulder blade in the process. Which did sound bad, but at this point my body treated a dislocated shoulder like I just bumped into a chair.
"What! Get off of my mech!" The other arm came up to try and swat me off but I was too fast, going right for the spot that would get me into the machine's torso. The fit was tight, probably only meant to give clearance to allow for maintenance and cables to run to the extremities, but I could wiggle through.
"The hell are you doing you bitch!" I could barely hear the speaker over the whirring of the machinery in here. This wasn't a clean and elegant design. No this was messy and crass, just like its creator.
I felt the giant robot rock, probably Glory Girl taking advantage of Squealer's distraction. Now was time for the not fun part.
My body was able to produce an insane amount of blood honestly. Just from my biological enhancements from Type: Humanity and its prerequisites alone I could give blood every day for the rest of my life and be fine. However, Cells at Work meant that my body would be able to dedicate even more resources to replacing any blood I shot out of my body, then Favorite of Landstiener would increase blood production the stronger my heartbeat. All that to say my body was able to project my acidic blood the same way a waterfall could with water. However just shooting it out from between my knuckles or the palm of my hands wouldn't be enough. Doing it that way let me increase the force and range of my blood but limited the volume. Instead I charged up my heart to the point my blood was a raging current in my veins. Then I let that current escape from my body by any means necessary.
If I hadn't acquired Painkiller I probably would have screamed in the most unbearable pain I could ever imagine. Instead it just felt like a full body itch as my entire body exploded into a fountain of blood.
I could almost imagine that it looked disturbing from the outside, blood oozing out from all the small holes in the mecha, leaking down the openings in the arms and legs.
"What the hell is that! What are you doing!" I realized that the yells weren't from a speaker, but they were from somewhere close. I must have been close to where the cockpit was. "Eject eject eject!" The robot around me began to collapse and very quickly I was surrounded by sea water.
"Blegh!" My blood was still pumping, coming in contact with the water and turning it into steam. I quickly took control over my blood flow and kept it in my body. I also lowered the acidity of my blood, not wanting any stray drops that slipped out to hurt the environment. Well any more than it had already been hurt by both me and the city. I also needed a way to not drown while I got out of here.
Brute (Water Breathing)Cost: 1 SPYour lungs now possess the ability to filter water entering them in ways that let you breathe water as if it were air, both fresh and saltwater. Breathing water automatically takes care of the liquid requirements of a healthy diet.
Polluted/contaminated water is still dangerous to you. You can also handle water pressure fifty percent better than the average human. You also no longer have a gag reflex for liquids.
I started moving through the now much wider space inside the robot and wiggled my way back the way I came. Before I heard a giant tearing sound above me in the water and I saw Glory Girl tearing the remnants of the robot in half before picking me up and flying us up.
"Are you okay? Can you breathe? Do you need CPR?"
"I'm fine. Where's?" I turned and saw Squealer lying unconscious on what looked like a speed boat, but with the motor torn off. That was probably the result of the eject button, plus some Glory Girl modifications.
"Um." Glory Girl started speaking and I turned to her. Her face was incredibly red. "I see your suit wasn't acid blood proof."
I looked down and realized the consequences of my actions. "Don't look!" I moved to cover myself up, both body and face, and thankfully Glory Girl moved her eyes away from me.
"My, uh, my cape detaches. You can use it to cover up." She hovered with her back to me and while it took some finangling in the end I got the cape off of her and around me.
"Thank you."
"No problem. Just…Let's keep this out of the report. Okay?"
I nodded. Then looked to Squealer who was crying in her attempted escape boat. "Listen. I think you should take Squealer to the PRT by yourself. I am not looking to show my face around town, and I don't have a backup on me. I'll swim to shore."
"Yeah. I one hundred percent respect that Shard. But are you sure you don't want me to at least fly you to the shore? The water is freezing and we're way off the coast. I can also fly home quickly and grab you a change of clothes."
I shook my head. "No, no. My best friend knows who I am and we have a spot on the shoreline we meet at. She can help me out and Squealer needs to be in custody yesterday." An absolute lie but I wasn't about to say that I had a pocket dimension that I stashed a few changes of clothes into. "Plus I can regulate my own body temperature and I don't get tired. Perks of being a biokinetic."
"If you're sure." Glory Girl didn't sound convinced, but she respected my decision. That was nice. She helped me onto the boat Squealer was unconscious in and then picked her up to fly her to the PRT.
I sighed as I saw the shore of Brockton Bay. It was going to be a long way back. I wish I had learned how to swim.
As I leapt into the water though I was smiling. I did have something to look forward to when I got to shore.
Defeated Mecha SquealerGained:
500 EXP
+2 Loose SP
1 Cape Power RollLevel Up!
Level 13
Name: Taylor Anne HebertGang Buster LVL 13SP Cap9Loose SP5Tier 1 Powers(14)Mover(0)Shaker(1)Brute(3)Breaker(1)Master(2)Tinker(1)Blaster(0)Thinker(1)Striker(1)Changer(1)Trump(2)Stranger(1)Tier 0 Powers(57)Synergy Powers(13)Power Upgrades(4)Power Roll Available
Note: March 14th
A.N.
And so the Merchants have fallen. Also yes, Squealer made a giant woman robot just because I wanted to make a third giant woman joke. In the original draft it was a submarine. We also get to see a continuation of Taylor's main attack method being leaping inside people and just messing them up.
This is also the beginning of Taylor starting to make serious waves in the city. The next 'arc' that is going to happen is going to really show those changes. I also wanted to show the changes to the timeline with the Canary mention. Wildbow made a note that a large factor in the trial was that the heroes had a large and public loss against the Simurgh. Since they instead won the battle the trial is a little more fair. She's not going to be let off scot free but she will not be getting the Birdcage because the political landscape isn't as against her now.