Parahuman abilities come in all shapes and sizes. From the 'flying brick' type, commonly referred to as the Alexandria-type after the most impressive Cape of that skillset, to the super science type, Tinkers, who can create wonders beyond modern technology.
Not all powers were awesome. Not all of them were powerful. You had hydrokinetics who could barely control a litre of water, pyrokinetics who needed already-present fire in order to use their abilities and other powers which were either weak or had a lot of limitations to them.
My own power was weak. I'm Taylor Hebert, and my power is the ability to read the past of anything I touch. Not much of a power in exchange for getting stuffed inside of a locker with biological waste, suffering a mental breakdown and blood poisoning and then being hospitalised for a fortnight, is it?
It got so bad that the hospital had to call on Panacea in order to heal me. She listed off a bunch of weird names in Latin that was apparently running through my bloodstream, looking quite angry. She offered to put my Dad in contact with Brandish, her mother, who was also a lawyer, so we could sue the school, which he accepted.
I was healed, but I didn't tell Dad or Panacea that I could read everything about Panacea's, Amy 'Amelia' Dallon's, history as she touched my arm. I knew she had fallen over and scraped her knee when she was learning how to ride a bike when she was much younger, that she was mentally bone weary and had been for some time due to her punishing healing schedule and that her sister Glory Girl's aura had been mindfucking her ever since she hit puberty.
It wasn't until I got home that I realised that my power had done something unexpected; it had copied Panacea's ability to read the health of someone I touched, which was frightening. Somehow, my power had read Panacea's own ability and copied it, incorporating it into my power.
I decided to do some research and, as Winslow was giving me a week off, decided to do the thing properly. At the library, I sat at a computer and trawled the web to discover what it was I could do.
Psychometry, the ability to see the information about an object or person. That was what it was called. My own version included retrocognition, the ability to see into the past of the object or person and tactile empathy, the ability to read the emotional state of a person by touch. I could also pick up emotions left in objects.
After absorbing all that, I trawled PHO and determined that I was a Thinker/Striker, and not what I'd call a powerful one. I'd be a big hit with the BBPD for my power, but catching criminals? No way.
The ability to recreate someone else's power was definitely under the Trump section, with Eidolon being the most famous Trump on the planet. I guessed it was still linked to my Striker ability, so it was useless as well. What kind of Cape would just let me walk up to them and touch them?
That put me in a depression for a couple of days before I discovered another facet to my power.
I was tidying up the old tool kit that Dad had; an old hammer, rusted saw, screwdriver, etcetera, when it happened. I picked up the hammer and had a vision of my dad using it. Curiously, I tugged at the image and I felt knowledge flowing into me on how to use the hammer as my dad had; how to grip it, how to swing it…everything.
This added a new facet to my powers. If I could absorb how to use objects that had been used, I could learn how to shoot and fight using them. I had to experiment with this.
Dad had never fired the gun in the house, but I guessed someone had to have test-fired it before it was sold, so I used the opportunity while Dad was at work to touch it. As I suspected, Dad had only ever picked it up, reluctantly at that, a grand total of once, when he bought the thing. Before that, the shopkeeper had test-fired it in the range he had in the back of his shop six times and before that even, the manufacturer had test-fired it extensively.
I absorbed the knowledge on ballistics that they had left on the gun, but it took some time, far longer than with the hammer. Was it because I wasn't related to the person who wielded it? I didn't think so. At a guess, it had to do with the length of time since those people had wielded the gun. Dad had bought it two years ago, the shopkeeper had bought it from the manufacturer two years before that and it had been made a year before that, so I was reaching five years back in time.
Still, Dad would notice if the gun went missing, so I had to think of something else. Martial arts would be good, but my body wasn't exactly fit. My newly acquired medical scanner power was telling me that I had almost no stamina and my muscles were not exactly at the peak of fitness either.
So I exercised. Running, push ups, sit-ups, the works. I used my scanner power to monitor my fitness to see what exercises were getting the best results.
While I was doing that, Carol Dallon, Brandish, was on the warpath against Winslow and against Emma's father, Alan Barnes. After being presented with my bully diary, she had, metaphorically speaking, smacked Mr Barnes over the head with it and made him realise just how screwed Emma was. Having the reputation of being an active hero had opened people's lips and made them talk to her. Suddenly, the 'lack of witnesses' to my locker incident was turned around, with plenty of people coming forward to point the finger at Emma and Sophia…including Madison, who hadn't a clue as to what they had had planned for me until after it happened.
As you'd expect, Alan forced Emma to sign something similar to a plea bargain, confessing to her crimes and giving information about Sophia's in exchange for leniency in her sentence. She wasn't sent to Juvenile Hall, but she was sent to a shrink. She also lost her modelling job and was grounded until she graduated.
As for Sophia…she went straight to Juvvie; no passing go or collecting $200. I didn't hear much about her case on the news though, which was odd. Emma and Madison had been on it, but not Sophia. This made me suspicious, but I had far more important things to worry about aside from Sophia.
It took me three weeks to get up to a decent level of fitness, but when it happened, I signed up for self-defence classes. Every time I sparred with someone, I absorbed some of their skill with the discipline. I was also chosen to be the demonstration dummy by the instructors a lot, so I got a lot of it memorised quickly. I still went to classes, even after I memorised everything, because learning the skills with my talent replication wasn't the same as mastering them.
School was going on as well. After I had set Brandish on them, the staff at Winslow were wary of me and cracked down on bullying, which was time and past time that it happened.
Suddenly, bad news struck me; Sophia Hess had run away from the Juvenile Correction Facility and had left a note swearing revenge on 'the bitches who betrayed her and that fucker Hebert' behind. This prompted Dad to buy me some Mace and a retractable baton for self-defence.
Today, I had gotten home from school and started cooking dinner for when Dad got home when a slight creak on the floorboards at the entrance to the kitchen alerted me to the fact that I wasn't alone. I turned around quickly and gaped as Sophia Hess started to raise a crossbow at me. Recovering from my shock, I dodged to the side just as she squeezed the trigger, the bolt flying through where my head had just been.
"Fuck!" the former queen bee of Winslow snarled, "Hebert! I'll kill you one way or another, so stay still! Fucking pathetic prey should just bow to the predators!"
"Why the hell can't you just leave me alone?!" I shrieked back as I stood up and glared at her, "I didn't do anything to you that would deserve this! You took my friend; you tortured me for almost two years and for what? Tell me!"
"Because I'm a fucking predator and you are prey, bitch!" Sophia sneered back.
My anger boiled over at that point and I threw what I had in my hand at her; a vegetable knife. Just as it was about to hit her, she turned into a shadow, the knife passing through her as if it wasn't even there.
As she changed back, I was struck dumb for only a moment before I exploded in anger. "Shadow Stalker?! A mad bitch like you was a Ward?!"
It all made sense to me now…why Winslow had ignored my plight, why no complaint had ever so much as registered with them. It might also explain why my transfer request to Arcadia, back when my grades had still been good enough, had been shredded in front of me by the secretary. I had been a sacrifice to keep Sophia, to keep Shadow Stalker, happy and at Winslow in the event of gang-related violence going out of control.
The cold, hard logic made sense to my logical side, but my emotional side was ablaze with fury. How dare they do that to me?! How dare they treat me like…like…like a fucking animal?!
"Not any more, bitch." Sophia ground out as she drew a long curved knife from a sheath on her leg, "Once I'm done with you, I'll fillet those two traitors as well, then leave this shithole of a city."
I grabbed the baton that I had yet to take off and extended it. "Not if I have any say in the matter, Sophia!"
We locked eyes and a long moment passed before Sophia charged at me, knife in hand to cut me. Fortunately for me, part of the self-defence course I had been on was this exact scenario, protecting myself from someone coming at me with a knife while I only had a baton. Sophia's eyes widened as I leaned back and avoided her first cut, and then yelped with pain as I smacked the back of her hand with my baton, making her drop the knife. I tried to follow it up with a kick to the stomach, but she used her power to become insubstantial again.
I winced as she punched me on the shoulder when she became corporeal again, but it wasn't that sore. Sophia was again surprised by the fact that I hadn't dropped from that blow. I wasn't the same girl she had bullied over two months ago.
Slamming my baton into her stomach made her double over, wheezing in pain. Followed up with a knee to her face, breaking her nose, I threw her out of the kitchen, wailing in pain. I took the time to kick the knife away into the corner before advancing on her.
"You broke my fucking nose!" she shrieked at me.
"I'll do worse to you by the time I'm done with you, Sophia!" I growled back, "I have fifteen months of torment to pay you back for."
"You never had the balls!" she shot back arrogantly.
"No; I was just a better person." I snapped at her, "I knew that Highschool doesn't last forever, that anything you bitches could pull on me would ultimately be useless in the end. I refused to lower myself to your level, refused to strike back. Ultimately, I'm a stronger person than you are."
"Bullshit! I'm a-" Sophia started to say, but I interrupted her.
"You're a predator, yes; I got it the first time. Thing is, being powerful and being strong are different things." I said idly as she staggered to her feet, "You are powerful, physically, but your little prey/predator thing makes you predictable and weak. I may not have been physically powerful, but I was and still am mentally strong. I endured everything you threw at me, words, deeds and punishments, and have come out of it stronger than before. I am strong, you are just powerful."
Sophia let out a scream of fury and charged at me. She wasn't even thinking of using her power right now; she was wholly consumed with the need to punish me, to hurt me. I could see the wildness in her eyes as she drew closer. No sign of sentient life there.
I sidestepped her, tripped her up so she landed jaw-first on the floor and then slammed my baton down on the back of her head a couple of times to ensure that she was knocked out. After watching her for a moment, I grabbed some duct tape and proceeded to hogtie the bitch, ensuring that she couldn't move an inch before I picked up the phone.
"Parahuman Response Team, how can we help?" a bored voice said on the other end once I finished dialling.
I repressed the urge to snarl. "This is Taylor Hebert here. I have Shadow Stalker in her civilian guise here. She attacked me with intent to kill. I'd like someone to pick her up, please."
After a few terse moments as I argued with the man, he finally informed me that Miss Militia would be around to investigate my 'claim' shortly. I put the phone down, muttering to myself about bureaucratic assholes, before I got down to the better part of the night.
Sophia's weapons.
Self-Defence was all fine and dandy, but in order to fight the gangs, I'd need a larger arsenal of weapons. Knives and crossbows were not high on my list, but any port in a storm. The emotions on them were…awful. Anger, hatred, contempt, arrogance…nothing but negative emotions. It took me a while to get past them to the memories on how she wielded the knife and shot the crossbow.
It shocked me to see that she had fired it at a boy wearing biker leathers and a skull-like mask and motorbike helmet not long before she put me in the locker. She had almost killed him.
The PRT and protectorate let this kind of person become a Ward?! What the hell?!
Moving on to Sophia herself, I trawled through her past, highlighting skills I could use. These included Parkour, maintenance of her weapons and, although not a skill, the location of her hidden stashes of weapons and ammo she had dotted around the city.
I had just finished when a knock on the front door came. Hurrying, I looked out of the peephole to see a woman with a stars and stripes bandana tied around her lower face. Miss Militia.
"Hello." She greeted me, "Are you the one who called about Shadow Stalker?"
"Sophia Hess, yes." I said blandly, informing her that I knew who she was. Letting her in, I led her to the living room, where Sophia was just coming around and starting to thrash in her bonds.
"Oh my." The Protectorate Cape said as she took in this sight, "I'd better call the PRT."
"Tried that. The guy on the other end was a douche." I said with a shrug.
"They'll listen to me. But first…" Miss Militia pulled out some odd-looking bracelets from her pocket and snapped each of them around one of Sophia's wrists. "There. That'll stop her from phasing into shadows."
While she got on the phone to the PRT, Dad arrived and I told him about what had happened. It took him fifteen minutes of cursing under his breath before he could calm down properly.
"Mr Hebert…you have the Protectorate and PRT's heartfelt apologies for this." Miss Militia said as troopers frogmarched Sophia Hess from my house, "I will promise you now that she will be forcibly equipped with far more resilient bracelets to prevent her from leaving the Correction Facility again."
"Just…keep her away from my daughter." Dad said, his voice still laden with undertones of anger.
"We will." Miss Militia promised him, "I must also ask you and your daughter to come into the PRT building tomorrow to sign a NDA, as Miss Hess revealed her identity to her and Miss Hebert here likely informed you of it. It's standard procedure after an incident such as this."
"So she gets thrown back where she belongs and my daughter has to cover her identity?" Dad growled. I winced here. That did suck.
"I agree that it is unfair, but if we don't get you covered by the Wards NDA, Chief Director Costa-Brown will get involved." Miss Militia winced, "She is…less that amicable when this sort of thing happens. If we get this sorted now, we might be able to swing you a few concessions as an apology. Protectorate Capes, especially Wards, are supposed to have a lot of scrutiny on them to prevent the sort of thing your daughter went through."
Dad looked as if her was about to snap at her again, so I placed my hand on his arm, drawing his attention.
"Dad…let's just get it over and done with." I said with a sigh, "I just want to put Sophia Hess behind me where she belongs. If keeping her Cape identity gets me that, I'll do it…so long as she never returns to Brockton Bay again."
"I can't promise that, but she will be sent to a west-coast correctional facility this time." Miss Militia told me, "A high-security one to boot. I think Director Piggot will insist on it."
"Good." Dad said with a sigh as he calmed down fully, "We'll come in tomorrow. Sorry, but my daughter and I could use some time to recover from our home being violated."
"Understandable." She nodded, "I'll collect the weaponry and be on my way."
She placed Sophia's knife into a bag, ditto for the crossbow and the bolt that had shattered the kitchen window, and then she asked for my baton. I gave it up reluctantly and was promised that it would be returned the next day.
Once Miss Militia left, I looked at the shattered window where Sophia had almost killed me with a shiver.
"I don't feel like cooking tonight." I said to my Dad, "Fancy ordering out for some pizza?"
He smiled back at me. "Sounds good, kiddo."
So, yeah. I thought to myself, what power is the least visible or useful in battle? I came up with psychometry. Those of you who have watched/read Zettai Karen Children and the Touch of Frost series by Jennifer Estep will know that it has a wide variety of applications that Taylor has yet to discover. I think it fits in with the mind-set of the Queen of Escalation, don't you think?
Striker/Thinker: 8 (Has the ability to read information on any object or person that she comes into skin-to-skin contact with. Has the ability to read the emotional state of the target if human and can pick up traces of strong emotions remaining on objects. Is able to read the past of objects or people she touches. Can fast forward to the specific time she is looking for if she knows it. Can learn the skills of people she touches as long as she knows they possess that skill. The original holder of the skill retains the original skill. Can learn how to use objects that have been heavily used, although the skill level she learns is dependent upon the skill level of those who used the object before her. These skill acquisitions are permanent. Able to view the health of other humans with a touch. She does not know understand everything about a person's biology by touch but what she understands is transmitted to her. Additionally, she fully comprehends her own biology.)
Trump: 6 (In combination with her Striker ability, Taylor can copy other powers from other Parahumans, although the criteria of those powers that are eligible for acquisition are stringent. In the example of Panacea's ability to read the biology of others, it was copied, but not her biokinesis ability because it was far too powerful in combination with everything it entailed. Additionally, the powers copied are almost always Striker-based powers that mesh well with her Thinker powers and they are all weakened somewhat.)