Chapter 9

-Legion*** Taylor ***Legion-

The next morning I woke up as usual at 2:30, quietly dressed and went downstairs to the living room to get started on my studying. I picked out a text on AP Biology and started reading. At the same time, I reached out to all the creatures in range to enhance my multitasking and practice using their brains. For the most part, I let those that were sleeping, continue to do so, trying to use their resting brains without waking them. It worked fairly well, since I wasn't pushing myself too hard yet.

While I was studying I also spent some effort thinking about what Amy's sister had done to us with her aura and what we could do about it. I was pretty sure my Master power could help protect me, at least somewhat, if I realized it was happening, but what if I didn't? Or what if the other Master could make me like what he did to me, so I wouldn't want to fix it? This was going to take some experimenting, trial and error, to find out how to block any external influences.

Around 4:00 am I finished with my book, and when putting it away and picking out my next choices, it occurred to me that I needed a way to really leverage my multitasking and control. Picking out two entry-level books on computer and network security, I sat down on the sofa to read.

Even as I started reading, I thought of ways that I could interface better with my computer; extra monitors to display multiple sources of information, maybe I could use cats or maybe birds, to watch the screens; keyboards and trackpads that could be activated by my bugs. In fact, bug controlled electronics of every kind were possible, I suppose, but I was going to need cash for equipment and other materials, as well as a way to get them without being tracked.

The biological materials I was gathering I could claim to need for my coursework, as well as being a way to hide Amy's involvement in modifying diverse biology's into weapons and tools. In fact, I could sell coral cuttings for income, which would be the perfect blind for what we were really using it for.

At that point I realized that I needed some more information, because it occurred to me that making costumes out of spider silk would be a relatively inexpensive way to develop body armor without leaving a paper trail. I booted up my computer and took a few minutes to set up a virtual machine that would use one of the free ISP's that I had looked at, rather than my normal one. I couldn't ensure perfect untraceable browsing, but I should be able to keep it fairly anonymous, which I hoped would be good enough.

A few minutes browsing told me that my best bet for local resources was to use Black Widow spiders to spin dragline silk into thread and weave multi-layered cloth to use for our costumes. The sheer numbers that I thought I would need was shocking. At least 8000, preferably twice that number. I also looked into ways and methods for treating silk to hopefully improve its fire- and water-proofing, as well as how to dye it various colors.

"Damn. Where in the hell am I going to get that many spiders? And where am I going to keep them? I can't keep them in the house, or anywhere someone might stumble on them, that many territorial spiders would be lethal to anyone."

I took a moment to scan the surrounding houses and found two that were empty, but neither was truly abandoned, just empty and for sale. I need a lair or something nearby that I can keep under my control pretty much 24/7, or at least where I can isolate the Widows when they won't be under my control. That's the only way I can keep them from eating each other or escaping into the wild. Maybe Amy will have some ideas, I can ask her on Wednesday if I can't figure out a working option before then.

Turning back to my computer, I looked up the chemical composition for bullet ant toxin, Asian Hornet sting, and blue ring octopus toxin and copied them to print out later, after dad left for work. Hopefully Amy could work with this information, because I couldn't think of a way to get actual biological samples of them without getting PRT attention, or even arrested.

Around 6:00 am, I saved all my work, closed everything down and carefully cleared all my browsing and download history. Following one of the suggestions I had read about, I initiated a full disk defrag. I planned on looking into getting some disk compression and encryption software, as well as email encryption that Amy and I could use, but that was going to take some serious research to ensure I wasn't getting something with nasty Trojans or backdoors built in. I was also going to look into ways to hide any traceable links when I was online. For now, staying out of sight and under the radar would have to do; security through obscurity.

Once I was done with all that, I headed to the kitchen and started preparing dinner, figuring that I could have it in the crockpot before dad came down for breakfast, which would make it easier for me to get to the library early today.

Once the orzo soup was started, I decided to use up the last of the bread by making French toast, leaving only enough to make some sandwiches for lunch.

Dad came down just as I took the pan of bacon out of the oven and started to transfer it to the serving plate.

"Well, you're up early today, didn't sleep well?"

I turned and handed him a plate of French toast and said, "Nope, slept fine, I just woke up early is all. Did some studying and then started on breakfast. Your lunch is mostly leftovers, is that okay?"

He took the plate and headed to the table, saying over his shoulder, "Sure, better than eating off the lunch truck anyways."

I just giggled as I brought the plate of bacon and my French toast to the table and sat down to eat. "Just don't let the other guys try any, I don't feel like feeding those bottomless pits every day."

Dad just smiled back and started to eat. It was nice to be able to talk with him, without feeling like I had to watch every word and gesture. And hopefully, I would be able to tell him that I had triggered soon. I was finding it entirely too easy to lie to him, and I wanted to stop, it just wasn't right.

A few minutes later, as I finished my first plate of breakfast, I asked, "Hey dad, do you know if anyone has some free weights for sale? Amy said I can start exercising more intensely and I thought that if we had some weights, I could start using them."

He looked at me quizzically then said, "I guess you're really trying to take advantage of the boosted metabolism while it lasts, huh? Sure, I'll pass the word around today at work, and see if anyone wants to get rid of some. Any preference for how much weight?"

"Um…no idea, really, but…probably more rather than less. I mean, I've got no idea how long this will last or how much I'll be able to do, so better safe than sorry."

He just chuckled and said, "Who knows, maybe I'll start lifting weights too." He patted his belly and said, "The way you've been feeding me, I better do something or I gonna put on a ton of weight."

I just rolled my eyes at him and said, "I doubt it, I'm the one who's eating all the food; you don't even take seconds most meals. Of course, that just means more for lunch and snacks the next day, I'll need to be careful when my metabolism slows back down so I don't explode into a baby killer whale."

Dad laughed again, which was a nice change from the way things had been for such a long time. Finishing the last of his bacon, he cleared his spot and put his dishes in the sink before heading for the living room to grab his jacket. I got up and pulled his lunch from the fridge and handed to him as I sat back down to finish my breakfast.

He dropped a quick kiss to the top of my head and left through the back door, heading for the car to drive in to work.

Once I finished breakfast, I cleaned up the kitchen and started my baking; once the bread dough was rising, I started on some desserts, just a couple of pies and a batch of oatmeal cookies. As soon as I finished preparing them, I preheated the oven, then started on my first set of exercises. 15 minutes later, I put the pies in and left on my morning run.

Thinking back to my thoughts this morning, I stretched out my senses as far as I could, specifically looking for where the Black Widows were lairing, so that I could gather them at a later date, once I had a plan for managing them. I varied my route back so I could check a different area, and found a total of about 2,334 Black Widows within about 5 miles of my house.

Walking into my kitchen, I checked the pies and saw I had enough time for my shower before I needed to take the pies out, so I ran upstairs and grabbed clean clothes and jumped into the shower. Even having to wash my hair, I still made it back down in time to take the pies out and slide the first batch of cookies into the oven. Although I sort of missed my long hair, I had to admit that it was a lot easier to take care of now that it was shorter. I set the timer for 12 minutes and went to get the library books that I needed to return and pocketed the list of books and videos I wanted to check out.

Checking the clock, I saw that I had more than enough time to finish my baking and still catch my bus to get to the Central Library as it opened. I went back to my shelves and grabbed my chemistry book and lab workbook, figuring I could at least plan my next labs for this afternoon; I did take a couple of minutes to record the results of my run and exercises before I started on my schoolwork.

Just as I finished reading through the procedure and laying out my lab record sheet, the timer went off so I stopped, removed the cookies and transferred them to the cooling racks. Putting the next batch in only took a few minutes, and I was back to working on my chemistry. I did this for the next 45 minutes until all the cookies were finished and cooling, before putting my chemistry books away and grabbing my jacket and purse and heading for the bus.

Riding the bus, I thought about what we would be able to do if we could actually meld our powers together. It gave me hope that we could at least give Amy some of the same enhancements that she had given me. If we could, I would definitely need to encourage her to push herself to maximize the benefits, just like I was. Maybe I could even convince her to start running a couple times a week, every little bit would help. Having some weights to work with would be a big help for both of us to achieve our max potential.

When I got to the library, I first returned my books then looked for the items I wanted to check out. Once I had collected the books and videos I wanted, I signed up for an internet pc. What I was looking for was some internet resources for computer security; white papers, ebooks, college articles, really anything that looked useful. I was also able to find and download 3 different programs for encrypting files and emails that were highly rated on different tech sites. Hopefully they would help me stay invisible, or at least unnoticed.

I left after two hours, getting back in time for lunch and to start baking the bread. As the bread was baking, I ate my lunch and started working on my computer studies, as well as transferring all of the files I had downloaded onto my computer, so that I could sort them and install the ones I wanted to use.

While I was working on the computer, I decided to work on a different aspect of my multitasking; I found a stray cat and brought it into the house so I could use her to help me with this experiment. I removed all of the parasites before bringing it in, both internal and external, and would ask Amy to check the cat over on Wednesday if this experiment worked, just to make sure she was healthy. I would set up some food and water in the basement, as well as a comfortable, locking cage to keep the cat in while I was out of range. I planned on letting the cat out regularly, rather than getting a litter box, though I wasn't sure if that would work out.

I set up two books on improvised book holders, the one on the right was my AP Biology text, while the one on left was a college level history book on the origins of the Islamic faith, specifically covering the century before Mohammed's birth and the 200 years after that. I was using the cat to turn the pages and read the Biology text, while I was reading the history book, and so far it seemed to work fine. I suspected that I could do a lot more, but I would need another animal for each book I wanted to read or ebook that was displayed.

Even with the cat helping, I could only read so fast, I couldn't read a-page-at-glance unfortunately. But even so, I had to call this a successful experiment. As usual, I stopped work around 5:30 to start dinner.

While dad and I ate, I asked if Amy could come over Wednesday afternoon, and possibly stay for supper. He thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "That won't be a problem, since I already had planned to visit with Kurt and Lacey on Wednesday evening after dinner, so that will work out just fine. I put up a couple of notices asking about any free weights and asked some of the guys to pass the word around as well." He paused to take a few bites then continued, "I also bought a second hand freezer and Kurt and another guy will be helping me move it in on Thursday, so it should be ready to start filling on Saturday, when we can make a big grocery run."

I smiled and said, "I'll start making sure the cupboards are ready, and clear a spot in the basement. Oh, is it an upright or a chest freezer, and how big?"

"I think it's about 18 cubic feet, and it's a chest style."

"Thank you so much dad, this is going to be great."

-Legion*** ***Legion-

When Wednesday finally came, I was practically jumping out of my skin waiting for Amy to arrive. She called me around 11:30 to let me know she was on her way and that the bus should get to my stop at 12:15 or so, and I told her that I would meet her there and walk her back to my house. I also let her know that I had already made lunch and that we could eat before we got started on our work.

I spent the next half hour running around the house, trying to make sure that everything was clean and ready for her visit until it was finally time to meet her bus.

Walking to the bus stop only took me about 5 minutes, and then I had to force myself to sit quietly until she got there. When her bus arrived and she stepped down, I still had to hold myself back from just running over and giving her a hug. I couldn't stop myself from standing up and smiling at her though and calling out, "Hi Amy, I'm really glad you made it." As I walked up to her, I went on, "Ready for some lunch before we get started? I made a beef stew and biscuits, I hope you like them."

She smiled back and hung her book bag off her shoulder and replied, "That sounds really good, especially on a chilly day. And definitely better than the tomato soup and grilled cheese they were serving today."

At that we both started walking towards my house, just chatting about some of the local goings on, nothing of any real importance, saving those things for when we were more private. As we talked, I practiced my sensing abilities by monitoring everything around us, looking for anyone or anything that seemed to be watching us, as well as trying to push my range limit out past my current radius of about 300 feet.

When we got home, I took her coat and bag and gestured for her to take a seat. As she sat, I filled a bowl with stew for her and took the basket of biscuits that had been warming from the oven and brought them both to the table.

"What would you like to drink, we have water, juice and milk, is that okay?" I asked her.

"Milk please," She replied as she sliced open a biscuit and spread butter on both halves.

I served myself a bowl of stew and brought it and the carton of milk to the table before seating myself and starting to eat.

After a few bites, she paused and said, "You made the stew and biscuits both from scratch, didn't you. I mean, it's obvious that neither of these are from a can, they taste far too good."

I nodded and swallowed and then said, "Yes, I did. As much as I've been eating lately, we could never afford to buy prepared foods. It may take longer, but working from basic ingredients is a lot cheaper, and I think it's a lot better tasting. Plus I can try different seasonings and ingredients instead of what the recipe calls for, and it often ends up tasting better. At least my dad thinks so."

Amy nodded her head and said, "I would have to agree, my dad does most of the cooking for us, and I always thought what he makes on a regular, normal day is a lot better than what mom makes for her dinner parties and special occasions, she just mostly follows the recipes. And I've always felt that homemade is much better than the food we get served at most restaurants. It may not be as fancy or pretentious as some of the dishes served at the expensive places, but it's usually a lot more appetizing." She gestured at her bowl of stew, "Just like this."

I blushed lightly at her complement and said, "Thank you," as I got up to refill my bowl with more stew.

By the time we had finished eating, we had settled on a basic plan for our experiments for the afternoon. Clearing the table, Amy put the milk and butter away while I put the biscuits back in the oven, turned it off and then put the rinsed dishes into the dishwasher.

As Amy sat down on the sofa, I brought the cat up from the basement and explained what I had done with her and asked if she could check the cat and verify its health.

Amy held her hands out and the cat jumped up on her lap and settled down, letting Amy pet her. As the cat purred contentedly, Amy looked at me and asked, "Are you controlling her, or is she really this friendly?"

"A little of both, actually. I'm linked to the cat, but only slightly directing her, most of her behavior is all her, not me," I explained as I took my seat next to Amy.

She nodded and looked down at the cat for a moment then said, "Actually, she's in very good shape, no parasites or diseases, no injuries and her eyesight is decent." She looked around the room and then asked me, "Are you going to have her read a book while we work, or just wait until we're done?"

"I was planning on letting her rest, so that I can focus everything on our work. I don't want to risk any accidents until we are comfortable with this and sure that it will work." As I spoke the cat jumped down and ran across the room to the recliner and curled up there to nap in the sun.

We reached out and clasped our hands together, and started using our powers simultaneously. Amy began by checking on all of the changes and improvements that my body was undergoing, while I extended my links outward to touch all the animals within my reach. This allowed me to greatly improve my multi-tasking ability, which I would need so that I could try to follow along with her, as her power seemed to flit from point to point within my body. I found that while I could mostly see where she was going, I just couldn't understand what she was doing. Not only was she moving too fast, it was obvious that she could analyze and understand everything she was perceiving almost instantly, while I needed to first figure out what I was seeing, and then try and understand it. Since I really only had a high school student's grasp of human anatomy and biology, I was really left behind. On the plus side though, I had a feeling that, with how fast I could now read and comprehend new material, using my enhanced multi-tasking ability, which grew as I linked to more and more creatures in my range, that I would eventually be able to at least follow along with her, and possibly make suggestions for improvement. Only time would tell, though.

After a minute or so, Amy spoke up, "Everything looks really good, muscle and bone strength are even better than I had hoped, by almost 20 percent, you've obviously been working out hard, and all of the organ enhancements are right where they should be. If you're ready, I want to begin with the reactive organ sheathing that we had talked about. That should take about half an hour, at which point you're going to want to eat again before we move on," she looked at me for a moment before adding,

"Questions? Comments?"

I shook my head and said, "Not really. Though I think that when we start again after my snack, that we should see if you can make any changes to yourself using my 'echo' first, before moving on with my enhancements, so that we shift back and forth."

Amy looked a little unsettled by that, but nodded and said, "Maybe, we'll see how things go first. Simple steps, one at a time."

I smiled at her and said, "Agreed, so let's get started."

Amy took a deep breath and started working on my organs, building an interlocking mesh 'cage' of what I eventually identified as 'fast twitch' muscle fibers around my heart, only they seemed to be constructed more like tendons or ligaments, with long, overlapping cell chains, that I took a moment to memorize so that I could try to compare them to other substances. They seemed to remind me of something, but I couldn't quite identify it, at least not then. By the time I had finished memorizing the cell construction, she had already gone to work on the lungs and major blood vessels in my chest. It was fascinating to see not only how fast the sheathing was being completed, but also how quickly and efficiently she was converting the food in my stomach and the fat reserves under my skin into the cells that she needed. I quickly gave up on trying to understand everything she was doing, and just settled for watching her do it, and only taking a moment to memorize what she was doing, when it looked like something new.

By the time she seemed to have finished working on my chest and abdomen, my stomach was empty again, and when she let go of my hands, I immediately realized that I was hungry again. Very hungry.

Opening my eyes, I said, "Whoa! That was cool. And you were right, just about half an hour, and I am definitely ready to eat." I double-checked the clock, and asked her, "How about yourself? Are you hungry, you were doing a whole lot of work, in hardly any time at all? Are you tired? Would you like something to eat?" I asked as I got up and headed into the kitchen to serve myself some more of the left-over stew.

Amy followed me into the kitchen and got the milk and butter out of the fridge while I filled my bowl. I set it down on the table and got the lasagna I had prepared this morning out of the fridge and put it into the oven and turned it on, setting it to 400 degrees F.

When I sat down, I found that Amy had already poured me a large glass of milk, and split and buttered two of the biscuits. I smiled at her and said, "Thank you. Are you sure you don't want some?"

She just shook her head and said, "I'll just have some milk and a biscuit, you're the one who's going to need the calories. Speaking of which," she reached over and touched the back of my hand, and said, "There, that should boost your digestive system enough so that you'll be able to keep up with the work I'll be doing during the next session. Which will be to finish sheathing all of the primary and secondary blood vessels, throughout your body and then improve your lungs ability to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. After that I'll begin the tissue upgrades to all of your major muscle groups," she pointed at my bowl and said, "Eat up, you can listen while I talk."

As I went back to eating my stew, Amy buttered two more biscuits for me and went on speaking. "These upgrades are going to be like what I did for you in the hospital; prepping the muscles to change and grow as you exercise them. Although you won't have to worry about getting all bulked up and ripped, the changes are going to be a lot more subtle then that. Unlike the organ sheathing, the fast and slow twitch muscles are going to change over the next couple weeks, increasing your strength, speed and stamina to a very large extent. Another part of the changes is that the overall aerobic efficiency of your muscles will be improved. Your body will be able to convert oxygen and sugar to energy faster and longer. How much will depend largely on how hard you work on it." Amy refilled my glass with milk and pushed the biscuits over to me, then stood up and took my bowl back to the crockpot, refilled it and set it down in front of me.

"I did notice as I was working on building the sheathing, that you were observing me; just as you thought, I could feel an echo of my powers through you and back into my own body. Once I finish setting up your muscle upgrades, I plan on working through you to see if I can make any changes to myself."

As she explained this, I started to worry about what would happen if she made a change, and it went wrong because of me, but Amy anticipated what I was going to say, even before I got started.

"Don't worry, I plan to start very small, in a spot that no one would notice, and only make a change that, worse case, I can simple snip off with a pair of nail scissors," she explained in a calm voice.

I took a deep breath, nodded my head and said, "Okay. When the time comes tell me then exactly what you're going to do, and what you need me to do, and I'll make sure it happens the way you want." With that, I went back to eating my stew and biscuits, finishing off that bowl and getting a third one. Even considering the size of the bowls and how many biscuits and glasses of milk I had consumed, when I was done, I didn't feel stuffed at all. No longer hungry, yes, but not like I had stuffed myself with a big Thanksgiving dinner; I didn't feel sleepy either. When I started to clear my dishes, Amy touched the back of my hand again, and then put the milk and butter away again, taking the last biscuit for herself, and headed back to the living room sofa again.

When I joined her on the sofa, she held out her hands to take mine, and went back to work. This time, since I was only observing her work, I found that I had fewer problems keeping up with her, I wondered if it was because I was trying to do less, or if it was because I was getting better at getting our powers to work together?

As she finished sheathing my blood vessels, I took a moment to check the veins near my elbow, right were a blood sample would be taken and saw that she had left a sort of gap or slit so that a needle could slide in without triggering a response, but would only leave a slight vulnerability.

It wasn't until she started making the changes to my muscles that I realized that I completely understand not only what she had done, but why she had done it that way, and how the mechanism would work. This was a level of understanding that was far beyond my own education and experience, which meant that we had actually managed to link our powers together on some level. As I thought about this, it made me much more confident in Amy's ability to use my powers to let her work on herself. By the time I finished that train of thought, Amy had finished her work on my muscle groups and I realized that even though I had not been paying attention consciously, I had still followed what she was doing, and again memorized the unique cell structures that she had built. Clearly, my multi-tasking ability was a lot more powerful than I had realized, just as her biological manipulation ability was so much more powerful and versatile than anyone had ever realized.

Amy was just sitting there with big smile on her face, watching me work through my conclusions, before she said, "That was pretty cool wasn't it? I've always wanted to be able to show someone just how amazing the human body is, especially the way I see it, but this is the first time I've ever been able to."

I smiled back at her and said, "It is, it really, really is. I don't think you're going to have any problems echoing off my powers, although I bet that the more creatures I am linked with, the easier you're going to be able to do it. One thing I noticed during this session was that I was beginning to understand what you were doing, even as you did it. And, Amy," I paused and looked at her very seriously, "I was understanding your work on a level far beyond my education, I believe that I was actually linking to your power as you worked. Which really makes me think this is going to work just fine."

She looked back at me for a moment then started to grin, "Excellent, after I'm done with the next session, I would like to try following you as you control some of your creatures, alright?"

Leaning back, I took a moment to twist and stretch my back, before reaching out and taking her hands again, "Absolutely. What change are you going to make and what should I do if I see a problem?"

She wiggled her left index finger at me and said, "The first thing I'm going to do is make my fingernail grow about an inch or so. Once that is done, and I'm sure the change is permanent and stable, I will reverse it back to the starting point. After that I will work with changing the color around and finally I plan to change the molecular structure to make it look normal, but much harder and stronger as well as very slow growing."

I frowned in thought and then asked, "Okay, but why? Do you have a specific purpose in mind? An end result?"

She nodded, "Yes I do. For one thing, if it works, I would have a weapon available at all times, it might only be a very sharp edge, but that might be enough to let me get free if I'm tied up sometime."

I nodded my agreement, but reminded her, "Very true, but then you would have to be extra careful not to cut someone or something by accident, which would reveal your hidden weapon. You are also going to need extra supports from the nail bed to the bone, so that your nail doesn't get ripped off or broken."

Amy just said, "That's absolutely true, but in addition to that, I want to use the same kind of mental switch I gave you for your boosted metabolism and digestive system."

I cocked my head in puzzlement, not sure of her meaning, and she went on. "Well, imagine if I could create a switch that could activate my power, in a very limited and specific manner, just as if I was 'echoing' off of you. The switch could be used to let me change my nails from normal appearing to a being a little bit longer and much sharper, but only when I want and need it."

I had a shocked look on my face for just a moment, which turned into a positively evil smirk, and I said, "I can imagine a lot of other uses for the ability to turn your powers and modifications on and off. It would let you have a whole array of hidden weapons and tools, that don't even exist until you want them too, which means that they would be impossible to detect. You could even set up contingency switches that would take action, even if you were knocked unconscious."

Amy nodded and thought about that for a few minutes, imagining what kind of options she could set up, before realizing that she needed to test whether or not that type of mental switch would work to activate her powers in very limited and specific ways. "We're going to need a whole series of tests, even if the basic concept works. So let's do the first step, and try to make the switch, and then we can take it from there."

-Legion*** Amy ***Legion-

I took Taylor's hands again, and started carefully making my changes. The first thing I had to do was carefully look into Taylor, and try to follow her out to her creatures. It took almost 15 minutes of trial and error, with Taylor coaching me as to what I should sense, but eventually I began to clearly sense each of her linkages to her creatures. I found that the larger mammals were easier to sense, as the bugs tended to blend into a blur and the birds seemed to be hard to pin down and sense.

Once I had succeeded at that, I attempted to actively 'bounce' my powers off Taylor and back into myself. At first nothing seemed to work, until Taylor asked me if I was trying to use her or her linkages to 'bounce' my powers back into me.

As soon as I tried to use the linkages themselves, I felt my power enter into my body for the first time in my life. It was amazing! I was used to being able to see my biology, but for the first time I knew I could actually affect myself.

"Taylor, Taylor! It worked! I can do it! Thank you, thank you!" I let go of her hands and threw myself at her, knocking her back onto the sofa as I hugged her with all of my strength.

She just laughed and wrapped her arms around me and hugged me back, until I finally calmed down enough to let her go and sit back up.

"I told you it would work; I've just had longer to practice seeing you use your power. Now, calm down and fix your nails, okay?"

I nodded eagerly, took a deep breath, and reconnected to her linkages.

First I gave myself a perfect manicure on my index fingernail. Smooth, perfectly trimmed, it looked as good as if I had just left the salon. Next, I grew it a full inch longer, then changed the color. In fact, I got a little distracted with the different colors and designs I could create on my nail until Taylor coughed, getting my attention. Blushing, I returned the nail to its original appearance, before beginning the next experiment.

I first changed the structure of the nail to be similar to Taylor's bones, both strong and hard, then growing it a half an inch. I made the edge extremely sharp, far sharper than a razor blade, but because of the strength and hardness of the nail, I thought it would cut almost anything.

I tested this with a small pocket knife that Taylor handed me without even being asked. I opened the knife, and using my nail, I found that I could actually shave a thin strip right off the point of the blade, with hardly any effort at all. I set the knife down on the coffee table and went back to work.

Now that I knew the nail would meet my needs, I finished it off by creating links from the bottom of the nail down through the nail bed and into the finger bone. Next I began setting up two different states for my index finger nail; the first one looked perfectly normal, except that it was perfectly smooth and trimmed, as if I had just had a professional manicure. The second state looked much the same, except that the nail was a half inch longer and the edge was beyond razor sharp, and anchored directly to the bone. After a moment's thought I went back to the first state, and created the same anchors down to the bone.

The last step was creating the mental switch to shift back and forth between the two states. The switch was very similar to the ones I had created to let Taylor control her digestive system and senses in the way I could control it, but quite different in function. I had to figure out how to emulate the 'echo' effect in a very limited and specific way that would only control my nails. It took me about 20 minutes but eventually I finished what I thought was a functional mental switch, that wouldn't activate unless I wanted it to.

When I was satisfied, I let Taylor's hands go, and tried the switch again. It seemed to work just as I had designed.

"Okay, test one complete. Now for the next test." Glancing up from being focused only on my nail, I said, "I need you turn your power off completely, so there's no chance that I'm still 'echoing' off of you. Disconnect from all of your creatures, if you please?" As she did so, I could actually feel a slight difference, even though I wasn't touching Taylor anymore. It wasn't much, just a tiny change, like a soft, barely audible sound had stopped, that I couldn't quite identify. When I flicked the switch, my nail grew just like it was supposed to, when I tested it on the knifeblade, I had the same results as the first time.

"Test two complete. I think I need get outside your control radius and try again." I looked around for my coat, planning on walking back to the bus stop to ensure I was far enough away to ensure a fair test, when Taylor stood up and said, "I'll do it. Lend me your cell phone and I'll run down to the bus stop, make sure I can't see you or the house, turn off my powers and call the house phone to let you know to do the test. If it works, tell me so and I'll head straight back. Does that sound good to you?"

I pulled my phone out of my book bag, told her the security code as I handed it to her and said, "Sounds like that should work just fine. I'll be waiting for your call, so thank you very much."

She grabbed her coat, put my phone in her pocket and headed towards the bus stop at a run. As she left, I watched her new cat jump off the recliner and head for the basement. I watched it for a moment, before I realized that Taylor was putting the cat safely away until she got back.

-Legion*** Taylor ***Legion-

I reached back out to my creatures, taking a moment to send the cat to the basement, ordering it to eat and drink, then rest until I called it, as I ran at full speed and didn't slow down until my house slipped out of my viewing range. As I came to a stop I figured that Amy was at least 100 yards outside my normal range, and even when I tried my hardest I still couldn't reach any of the animals in or around the house. I pulled out her phone and dialed my house phone and waited for Amy to pick up the phone. As I waited, I realized that my breathing was completely normal and that I wasn't feeling at all tired, even after sprinting my fastest for over two hundred yards.

Amy picked up before the first ring was finished and said, "That was quick, are you ready to test?"

"Yep, you're at least 100 yards outside of my range and my power is completely off … now."

A couple of seconds later I heard her shout, "Yes!" even though she had put the phone down on the table while she tested her fingernail. Picking it she said, "It works perfectly, I tried it six or seven times, and it only got faster as I did it. Hurry back home, this is great!"

I laughed out loud with her and said, "I'll be back in couple of minutes, so see you soon." Then hung up her phone and ran back to the house even faster than I had coming out here.

Again I found that I wasn't short of breath or tired at all by the time I got into the house. Taking off my coat I hung it up and gave Amy her phone back. As we sat back down on the sofa, this time she sat down next to me, rather than facing me and leaned into me, closed her eyes and said, "This is all so amazing, I don't even know what to do next."

Looking over at the wall clock, I saw that it was almost four o'clock and I didn't need to do anything with the lasagna or dinner preps for at least an hour, since I had turned the oven down during our latest series of tests, so I just put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into relaxed hug and answered her, "First thing we do is modify all of your nails to be able to do that. That should only take a couple of minutes so–"

Amy interrupted me and said, "Done." Holding out her hand, she showed me that all of her fingernails looked as if they had just had a professional manicure, though without any color or designs added.

I blinked, "Oh, okay. Double check your switch so you can do any or all of them, then we'll take a break. We don't actually need to do anything else right now. All of our tests and experiments are done and I don't need to do anything about dinner for another hour. I would just as soon sit here and relax for a while. I figure the next test for you is to try it out once a day, probably at night or first thing in the morning, and make sure it keeps working, so again, nothing to do right now."

"That sounds pretty good to me, almost as good as the lasagna smells," she replied with a cute little smile on her face, even though her eyes were still closed. "Wake me up when it's time work on dinner, otherwise I think I'll just take a nap right here."

I laughed quietly and said, "That makes a lot of sense to me, I don't plan on moving either." With that I set my internal alarm for an hour, flipped my little metabolism switch and dozed off right there, sitting on the sofa, leaning on Amy as if she was my own personal pillow.