It feels like I'm a different person now, ever since the locker. I'm more wary, less trusting. I'd like to think I'm more pragmatic now. All thanks to my lovely school, Winslow High, and the selfish people in charge who don't seem to care about anything but their reputations.

I don't remember anything about the trip to the hospital. Heck, I don't even know who found me and called for an ambulance in the first place. I only remember waking up some time later, my dad holding my hand.
He was crying and it was kinda embarrassing, but then I started to cry too, I felt so much relief. I was alive and my dad was there waiting for me. He looked so tired and frail, I wish I could have hid the bullying from him for longer, I didn't want him to worry about me. I hate that all the walls had come crumbling down around me, exposing me.

I ended up being in the hospital for a whole week, recovering from the attack. They tell me I would have died if I had stayed there much longer. I had a nasty infection from all that filth getting into my blood through the bug bites.

Once I'm discharged to go home, I'll have to take a lot of antibiotics for a whole month, and I'll have to resist the urge to scratch at my bandages as my skin heals. It's already hard to resist the urge, and the nightmares of insects crawling under my skin don't help either.

Dad of course had gone ballistic when I reluctantly told him what happened. I stupidly thought that this would be the final straw that forced the school do something, but it turns out that the principal was very determined to support her favorite three bullies. Apparently there were no 'concrete' witnesses, no 'evidence' of who had done this crime, and so on.

Dad wanted to pursue it in court anyways but I knew that Emma's dad, the high powered lawyer Alan Barnes, would quickly jump in once it was clear who one of the three 'suspects' were. We'd never win.

I finally told him to just take the schools deal to pay for the medical bills. I almost regretted it right away, almost took it back. He looked so defeated. After making sure that it was what I wanted to do, he nodded sadly. I think he knew deep down that we couldn't afford to get justice, that he could do nothing to help me. I'm sorry dad, we need the money too much. I don't want you selling our house, mom's house, just to get revenge.

I have powers now, I remember that part clearly. And that changes everything. Once I get home, I'll have to start planning and testing things.

Just like I saved myself from the locker, I'm going to save the both of us. Heck, I'm going to save the whole city if I can. I'm going to be a superhero one day.

Dad tries to be home more in the days that follow, but he still has to work since the bills never stop coming. The hospital expenses were only barely covered. The settlement we got from the school didn't actually help much, it only kept us from debt. But at least that leaves me with plenty of free time to practice with my new powers. I have a whole two weeks off school, doctor's orders, to recover, rest, and (secretly) train.

I start with the basics on day one. It's not like I had much else to do, and I was sick of spending all day in bed. I had slept enough in the hospital.

First off, what were my powers? It seemed like I had made another me. A clone? But I remember being both selves. So probably not a disposable minion that I've heard some capes could make.

So I tried to conjure up the same feeling I had in the locker, the same, odd balancing sensation. I try to remember what it was like to see the world through four sets of eyes, to stare at myself doubly, almost like a mirror but subtly different.

It all clicked into place quite suddenly, like falling on a hidden patch of ice. I suddenly was in two places at once, seeing two things, thinking with two minds. Everything got more detailed, I became more aware of things. I marvel at how this second me felt like just another limb to control, intuitive and a part of me, but standing in a different part of my kitchen and looking back at me.

Looking around, I notice that I can actually see most of the room if I turned my heads in opposite directions. 360 degree vision, wow. That is pretty cool.

After a few seconds, I feel that duality collapse. I was only one, not two. This was incredibly disappointing at first. I could only create a clone/self/minion for a few seconds? What good would that ever do? But I quickly stifled my disappointment. Patience, I counsel myself as I rub my bandaged arms, shivering with some strange combination of fear and excitement.

Until I had finished all the tests I had planned, and more that I had not yet thought of, there was no way to know if my power was a good one or not. Not everything would be obvious on the first try.

For instance, my senses seemed amplified when I was two selves. When I had been in the hospital trying to figure out what had happened, I had thought that it was merely a side effect of the stress and infection, a hallucination. But now I see that it clearly was a part of my power.

It makes sense, I now had double the eyes, ears, and so on. My mind seemed able to handle the expanded vision with no problem, plus I seem to think more clearly, remember details better.

Now to test the odd choice I seem to have at the end, of which 'me' to collapse into.

Another self is made and this time I try to end up as the one standing on the other side of the kitchen table. It ends, and I'm there, just as normal as can be. Only I never moved through the space between.

I suddenly realize that I have a faint smile on my face. Probably the first real one I've had all week.

So it's a temporary doubling of myself, but it's also some kind of teleportation effect when I wanted it to be. That is actually pretty cool, and would be very useful for getting around as a hero, depending on how far I could send out a self.

Can I end the doubled selves early, or did I have to wait the full duration? It seemed I could. My ashy selves only lasted at most five seconds according to my timer, but I could end a self at any instant. I could even move myself anywhere in sight and collapse the self staying behind at nearly the same instant, making it seem as if I teleported, only leaving behind a bit of ash.

Ash that seems to disappear after a few minutes I realize, as I notice my ash stained fingers become clean a while after I had investigated my ashy remains. Curious...

"Now, I seem to be able to make one duplicate of myself, but can I make more?" I ask a copy of myself aloud, tilting my other head in curiosity.

I figure it can't hurt to try. After quite a bit of experimental mental gymnastics, and a brief break to take a few pills when it hit noon, it seemed I could indeed. The trick was difficult to get at first, I had to ride three 'waves' at once. But after a half-hour of practice, it became pretty easy. Almost second nature.

It was kinda disappointing that my duplicates were so fleeting, so temporary. I could only experience this odd, wonderful expansion of my senses for a few seconds at a time. I finally went up to four selves after another fifteen minutes of experimentation, it was much easier to get the hang of it now that I knew what I was doing.

Or possibly I was smarter when I literally had more heads? It would make sense. I had a hard time just making three selves all at once from a 'cold start' of just being my single, lone self. But I found that if I had one or two already made, then it became much easier to reach my maximum.

Well, this power is starting to look better and better now. Four selves to fight with is much better than two.

I strike a pose with all four selves, raising my 8 fists and a few feet up in various silly kung-fu poses. One self starts to lose balance, but I reach out to stabilize myself, then giggle at how silly I must look as small puffs of ash float to the floor around me from my dissolving selves. Four seemed to be my maximum for now, after trying intermittently for another hour.

I feel like if I could just learn to 'balance' better, I might be able to get more. Alas, the right state of mind eludes me. I'll have to work on that.

"Note to self, learn meditation?"

You know, it's probably a bad habit to be talking to myself all the time, but at least with my duplicate selves it will look slightly less insane now.

Hmm... ok time for another basic experiment. How long can I keep making more selves? Is it infinite, or do I get tired? No-one knows where powers come from, or how they work. For all I know I can only use my power when the moon is full, or some crap like that. Well, that's probably only werewolves, but still. Who knows what rules govern these things?

So I sit down on the couch and turn the TV on to have something to listen to. This could take all day, or I might not ever get tired. Might as well not be bored while I'm testing. To see if there is a limit to how long I can keep making them, I keep up a rotation of selves. Every one and a half seconds (or so), a self would turn to ash, and I'd make a new one as immediately as I could.

There is always a small delay, but the gap between one going and one appearing does get a bit smaller with practice. That's good news, skill does matter somewhat. This means I can work to eliminate the gap.

Maybe one day I'll be able to make the new self appear seamlessly in the same spot as the old, at the exact moment that the previous one disappears. That would let me be two people at once, but one would probably look like they are constantly shedding ashes like some kind of horrible superhero dandruff.

I get bored of the news on TV after a bit, but flipping through channels reveals there is nothing else to watch that's not a rerun or horrible. Daytime television sucks, probably to punish kids who aren't in school.

I eventually give up and start to plan my future power tests. What items I might need to test some ideas, ideas that are too dangerous to test right now, or that I'll need help for. How much of my powers I should hide from others? How to hide this from dad?

After half an hour I finally stop, exhausted and ready for a late lunch. Looks like a fairly strong limit on how long I could do this for. It's not like physical fatigue, more of a mental one. Kinda an odd feeling, this mental fog. By the end of the test, the balancing act in my mind stopped being easy to do. I had to focus on each new self, and it took much longer to make each one.

I hungrily eat some leftover Chinese food. My body demands sustenance, and after the bland hospital food, I'm eager to obey. I also start to write down all my new plans, in case I forget them now that I'm only one self instead of four. One brain can probably only hold so much information.

I'll do more tests tomorrow to see if only having three selves up constantly is less tiring. Having four up for around thirty minutes is my current limit, which is not that great. I'm sure I won't be able to do more useful power testing today, not until I recover.

I wonder if there is a way to recharge my energy? If I had electricity powers, I'd try licking a battery, but how would I charge up teleportation/body duplication? I suppose if I ever notice a sudden increase in energy, I'll try to figure out what happened to cause that. Nothing else I could do until I figured out the rules behind my power.

So, how to think of myself, as a teleporter or a duplicator?

I check my augmented self's notes and decide that having people underestimate me at first might be best. Better to have the public think I'm only a teleporter, and only use my other selves in an emergency. They don't last that long yet anyways.

While I haven't heard about many teleporting villains, I know that lots of people who can make minions tend to go evil for some reason. Like that guy Spree who pretty much litters places with his mindless clones when he is causing trouble. At least my power cleaned up after itself when I was done.

I'm pretty sure that I had not gotten any increases in strength, speed, or durability. I still felt weak from the hospital, so no healing factor either. Sure my reflexes and awareness seemed to get better when I was duplicated, but that won't help me much. It would still be me fighting criminals. Skinny, rail thin, gloomy, geeky Taylor. Even if there was now four of me? That didn't change the fact that I was still just a teenage girl.

I make another self to talk to, "Another note to self, or selves? Learn to fight. Martial arts and weapons for sure would be useful combined with teleportation."

At least I'm making good progress. One day in and I'm already starting to map out the edges of my power's limits. I figure that once I hit all the edges, I could start to figure out neat tricks within the limits. My powers are not that great, but it just means I'll have to work harder and be creative.

Step one of my new plan would thus be to go out for a walk after my dad gets home. I might be able to teleport places now, but I have to build up my fitness somehow with no weights or gym membership. I'll have to improvise. Walking, jogging, then running once I'm not as weak as a kitten, that ought to help.

I lounge around the rest of the day, reading my textbooks and studying. My augmented selves had remembered that homeschooling was a thing, and I might want to look into that later. While my current grades were crap, I used to be quite smart.

I can't help a full body shudder as I think of Winslow High. I don't want to go back. I know that Emma and her flunkies have not gotten punished, they will keep on going, worse than ever now that they know they can get away with this kind of thing.

I don't have to go back to school to get an education. I shouldn't have to! My original plan of going to school, keeping my head down, and waiting the bullying out? That had almost killed me!

I could learn at home from now on, which would give me more time for being a superhero too. Then I'll go to University, get a job, and live a wonderful life that involved never having to interact with the 'terror trio' ever again. Maybe it was running away from the problem, but what else could I do? Teleport in and punch them? Sophia was a star athlete and could probably beat up five or six copies of me. I only had four.

My alarm suddenly goes off, cutting short my moping and anger. That means my dad will be home soon, so I start up a fast but tasty lasagna and stuck it in the oven just before I figure he'll get home.

He comes home a bit late, but with an armful of groceries. Restocking the fridge time I suppose. He probably had been surviving on take-out food the last week or so, given how there isn't much fresh food left in the house. I greet him with a real smile on my face. "Hi Dad! Let me help with those."

Today had gone pretty well, and I want to make sure he knows that leaving me home alone all day is a good thing. I grab a bag and look back up at him. I think it must have been a while since I last smiled for real, because he looks kinda funny for a moment before grinning back at me and asking, "So, how was your day?"

"Great! I did some studying, I read a bit, and I made us a lasagna with random mostly canned ingredients. Now that you're home, I think I'm gonna go out for a walk."

"A walk? So soon?"

"Yeah, the doctors told me that the sooner I did physical stuff, the faster I'd recover. I only waited till you got home so you wouldn't get home early, find me gone, and freak out." I tease him gently.

"Well, I'm just worried is all. You won't go far?" He replies more somberly. Tentatively trying to convey that he won't stop me, he just wants me to be safe. I'm touched of course, but have to make sure to nip any thoughts of accompanying me in the bud.

"Course not! Actually I was thinking that once I get better, I want to take up running when the weather is nicer. I'm gonna scout out a few nice paths nearby and plan a workout thing. Get some fresh air and just enjoy the chill of winter. I'm gonna be back just in time to eat. So you go ahead and shower, de-stress from work, and take the food out when the oven beeps?" I silently hope he gets the hint that I need more space, more time.

It seems to work as he nods, puts down the rest of his bags, and starts to take his shoes off. "Ok, if you end up being serious about this running thing, I'm not gonna stop you. I get it. After... You want to be stronger. It's a good goal. Just... Be safe and don't push yourself too hard."

I want to roll my eyes at his dancing around the subject, but he does have a valid reason to worry about me, as annoying as it is. The neighborhood around here is not the best after all. Plus it's not like I've told him that I can just teleport out of danger. To him, I'm his little girl, one who got badly hurt. So instead I nod, grin, pull on my coat and shoes, and walk out into the snow.

As I plan my future running paths, seeing which places have less snow and are better maintained, I come to a small park at the top of a hill. It's not the highest point of the city, just a slightly higher spot that has a good view of the bay. I can see the shipping containers lying like scattered toys, grey choppy water beating up against them. I wonder if I can teleport to anywhere I can see, or if there is a range limit. I impulsively decide that now is a good time to try.

No one walking nearby will even notice a thing as long as I don't ash the self that is standing here. Plus I'm bundled up from the cold, so if anyone does see me appear out there, they won't see much. Not enough to identify me.

I focus and reach out to a blue shipping container on the water. It's a bit obscured by distance and sea spray, but I can make out the broad details as I picked one that isn't too far from shore.

Suddenly I'm there.

I'm still standing safely in the park, but I'm also on a slippery, wet, and tilted metal container. It's coated in lots of ugly rust, metal ridges, and rivets. I see now that what appeared to be darker patches in it are actually holes eaten away by salt, rust, and time. It was hard to tell from the hill just how bad it was out here, and I can't stop from sliding towards the edge as the slightly tilted, ice coated surface refuses to give my feet any purchase. It's all I can do to stay standing, then time runs out and I'm suddenly in one place again.

My heart is pounding harder from the sudden thrill of it all, the secret glee that no one noticed, no one knows that I just did that. I've also learned that I can teleport out pretty far away. Next time I think I'll see if there is a limit, then see if binoculars will extend my range past that.

I briefly wonder if a very familiar location might also work, but no amount of visualization of my bedroom does anything. Looks like imagination and memory is not enough.

I sigh as I keep on walking. I figured it would be like that. From what I've read, most teleportation capes are limited by sight somehow, whether it's photographs, vision, some freaky sensing power, or else they have some way of setting points that they can go to even without looking at it. Each one seems different and many kept the details to themselves, so it's hard to figure out what types are the most common.

The trick will be finding out if I'm one of the ones limited by pure eyeball vision, or if I can also go through camera feeds. That could be useful, since it seems rare. I already know that I'm not the kind that used an extra sensory power, touched people, or anything like that.

I start to daydream about the cool possibilities if I was able to go through cameras. I could team up with a Tinker to make me electronic devices. Drones for camera feeds, and a visor to display it, that would be handy. I could send them out to cover the city, and as soon as I saw a crime, bam! I'd be there to stop it.

Of course, Tinkers are rare, their goods high in demand and needing constant maintenance. I doubt it will ever happen. Even most capes in the Protectorate didn't get Tinker gear unless they paid lots for it, or were best friends with one.

But no point in planning with no way to test it. If I could afford a video camera, I'd have used it to videotape my tormentors and make them stop. If I didn't have to keep replacing stuff they broke or stole, I'd have long ago been able to get the evidence I needed to end the petty feud they seemed to have with me.

It's such a depressing line of thought that I lose all my joy from testing my powers out successfully. I decide to head home and drown my sorrows in cheese.

I arrive with not much time left before the food is done, so I head up to the shower. By the time I'm done showering, I'm pretty angry and frustrated with the whole situation. It all leads back to money, who has it, and who gets screwed by a lack of it.

Dad seems to sense my mood and conversation over dinner is halting, limping, and awkward. I decide to tell him about the homeschooling idea tomorrow, when I'm in a better mood and have planned out how to convince him. No point in bringing it up now. Eventually we separate to do our own thing, falling easily back into the habits and patterns we've developed in the last two years.

The first day of the rest of my life is over.

I think I can do this. I hope I can do this. I need to get better, but I'm going to have to work at it. I will find a way to get money, since money seems to solve most problems in life, and I will find a way to be a hero.

And one day be happy.

As I fall asleep I briefly wonder, should reconsider telling dad? No, I decide. Not yet. He'd stop me, he's too worried about me, thinks I'm too fragile. I've endured everything life has thrown at me, I can endure this too.

AN: Taylor's main strength is her creativity, so I'm keeping that strong. She won't have Oni Lee's Tabula Rasa degradation. As you can see, her power is subtly different, she is all of the clones at once, and her mind is actually boosted a bit from the extra brain matter.

Obviously if she takes damage to all the selves at once, then it will stick, including mental damage like a concussion, but since she can pick which self to be, she can at least always pick the least damaged, better positioned one.

I did give her a minor downgrade to compensate. Oni Lee threw a knife that remained embedded in Skitters mask even after the clone ashed away. I decided that having any object persist is a bit too powerful, since she could just grab a bit of gold, chuck it while cloned, and build up a huge stash that way. I suppose its a good thing that the original Oni Lee was not able to be creative, or else he might have realized how useful that could be, ditched being in a gang, to live a life of luxury. :P

Oni Lee will be known as Kumo Yokai, since he needs a bug themed name to replace the old one. He will still have the blank slate, tabula rasa thing going on in a modified form, as part of his his personality is spread out into the swarm he controls, and thus he loses bits when the bugs get destroyed, slowly making him into the same blank, cold assassin we all know and love.

I figured that for his power to have such a drawback in cannon, either he took a vial so it was a broken/dead shard, or else something about his trigger event made him not want to feel emotions, not want to think, not want to be in control, or something along those lines.

I hope this answers any power questions you have, and feel free to ask if you have more. I'm trying to keep this very faithful to the original, and using many references and official Wildbow posts to figure out the bits not actually in the story, but that I still need to use for mine.