Wildbow owns Worm and the sequel (plus all characters therein).

This one-shot is a take on how a Power could make Taylor incredibly important without going down the "beats everyone up" path.

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Powers For Fun And Profit

"Let me out!"

The mocking laughter faded as the trio walked away and I tried to push against the door to the stinking locker that she had been trapped in. The sensation of being trapped rose and combined with the stench, I felt myself falling in a direction that didn't exist…

"…my gawd! What was she doing in…"

"…the hell happened to her! What is that stuff on…"

"…call the paramedics! Whatever this stuff is, there's no way it's sanitary! If it gets…"

"…aside, everyone! Stop gawking and get moving, don't you have classes to…"

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"Aaaah!"

I awoke with a yell, jolting into a seated position as the sheet that had been covering me slipped down. Panting, I tried looking round, but without my glasses, everything was blurry and…

"Ah, you've woken up."

A blurry shape held something out and I accepted it, finding that it was my glasses. Putting them on, the pale blur resolved into a nurse who was smiling at me reassuringly.

"Where am I?" I asked, looking round. It was obviously a hospital of some sort, but which one?

"You're at Brockton Bay General." The Nurse answered calmly. "I am Nurse Johnson, but you can call me Kate. Who are you?"

"Taylor. Taylor Hebert." I replied almost absently, looking out of the window with a frown. Had that skyscraper always been there? "How long was I out?"

"Two days."

I stiffened. "Oh hell! Dad! I need to cantact dad! Danny Hebert, he's head of hiring at the Docks… what?"

Call-me-Kate was shaking her head. "No, my brother is. I've never heard of Danny Hebert."

I stared at her in shock.

"…what?"

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I stared at the government official as he sat down and gave me a professional smile, one that gave me no hint at all of what he actually felt about me.

"You have been quite a conundrum, Miss Hebert." He noted as he pulled out a file and opened it. "Is this your father?"

I looked at the photo. Yep, that was Dad, tall, lanky and looking rather worried.

"Where is he?" I asked. "Why isn't he here?"

"He's safe and on Earth Bet."

That one sentence froze me.

"Earth… Bet?"

"This is Earth Aleph, Miss Hebert. When we sent a message through the Portal asking about you, the reaction was… complicated. While Professor Haywire managed to drive a small Portal between our worlds, you are the first confirmed traveller."

I felt my breath catch. If he was telling the truth, I was stuck in a different reality to my dad. I'd never be able to do more than send him the occasional, expensive, text message! I'd never see him again! And it was all thanks to those three bitches that I…

"Taylor!"

I looked round in shock at the familiar voice and found my father staring at me.

"Dad?"

"Taylor! You're back!"

I found myself engulfed in his arms and I hugged him back as tightly as I could.

"Miss Hebert." A new voice said and I looked up to see Armsmaster putting down a complex device. "I see that you have learned how to use your power. Welcome back."

…what?

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"So… you had me meet with Agent whatsisname in a place that matched to… here?" I asked, waving at the large room in which I was sat, complicated equipment festooning the walls. "The room I was in was… smaller."

"Correct." Armsmaster said as he tapped away at a small computer on his bracer. "We were uncertain of the margin of error your powers had. However, I can now say, judging from the two translations noted, that the translation itself is most likely geographically precise. Should you translate between worlds, you will emerge at the same longitude and latitude. I am uncertain as to whether geographical variants will adversely affect your power."

I blinked as I parsed his final sentence. "So… if I use my power in a building here that isn't there…"

"You may experience an unfortunate downwards acceleration due to gravity, followed by a sudden stop." Armsmaster agreed.

I rose from the chair and started pacing around the (temporary) hall, then I paused mid-step.

"What is it?" Armsmaster asked.

"I… I think that this is where the desk was… is…" I moved my hands, trying to get a feel for the not-shape I could sense.

"Fascinating." Armsmaster mused. "May I call in an acquaintance to aid in testing the limitations of your powers?"

"Erm… sure?"

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"Test seventeen." Dragon said, giving me a quick smile before she lowered her faceplate. "All sensors reporting full functionality and we have a link through the Portal. Miss Hebert, you may proceed."

I nodded, then as my dad watched, I reached out and laid my hand on the Container filled with various bits of Tinkertech and other equipment. Reaching out with my power, I could feel the matching pad on Earth Aleph and I shifted, pulling the Container with me.

As before, I caught several other echoes as I moved, but Aleph firmed around me and I looked up to see the Agent (whose name I still didn't know, dammit) make a note on the electronic clipboard he was holding.

"Arrival confirmed." He said, then he looked up. "Sensor readings uploaded and sent. Thank you, Miss Hebert."

I wiped the small trickle of sweat from my brow, then stepped back to Bet and family.

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"Alright." Dragon said, looking down at the hand-held computer. "Taylor, judging from the readings and extrapolating from them, I would advise moving no more than a dozen Containers a day and taking at least one day off a week. On the other hand, making the translation by yourself and carrying less than your own bodyweight seems not to drain you any more than walking a few paces."

I nodded. Moving the Containers had been slightly tiring, but just walking from one Earth to the other with a message disk? No problems at all.

"I think that is all for today." Dragon noted, then she glanced round and moved closer to me. "Taylor, you may be interested to learn that the three who pushed you into that locker have all been arrested and charged. The copies of your journals alone would have proven difficult for them to deny, coupled with their recovered e-mails and text messages? While you might be asked to testify, they're certainly not going to be walking free."

I smirked at the thought of Sophia in jail.

"The government has also contacted me." Dragon continued. "Apparently your power would be perfect for the Witness Protection Program…"

I held up one hand and Dragon stopped, her helmet slightly tilted to show that she was waiting for me to speak.

"Dragon, what do you think the chances of me transferring to Winslow are?"

Dragon's confused silence caused me to start laughing while Dad, who had followed my thoughts, grinned widely.

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Of course, life couldn't actually get better. I growled to myself as I glared at the Agent.

"He's my father!" I hissed. "Do you really think I'm just going to stay here and do nothing?"

"We have evidence that the Gesselschaft are behind the…"

The Agent's voice vanished as I translated to Aleph. The watchkeeper in the booth looked up from his book as the alert sounded, telling him that I had come across to my other office (or warehouse… or whatever…)

"I need some help." I stated. "The E88 have crossed a line. They've kidnapped my dad."

He was very well informed due to the briefing-upgrade discs I brought across the reality divide daily and he didn't even hesitate before picking up the phone.

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"Goddammit!" Kaiser hissed as Hookwolf looked up in confusion, one hand rubbing at the newly-acquired bruise on his head where Kaiser had back-handed him into the wall. "What the fuck did you think you were doing?!"

"Hey, we get Crossover working for us, we can bring across drugs and reinforcements by the truckload and no-one can stop it." Hookwolf grumbled as he pulled himself to his feet, one hand on the wall for support. "You've seen the public releases, right? We grabbed her dad and now if she wants him to live, she does as we say. Simple."

Kaiser stared at his lieutenant, his fists clenched and his armours spikes slowly extending further as he fought to contain his rage.

"You. Fucking. MORON!"

Hookwolf stared at him.

"You… you… goddamit, Hookwolf!" Kaiser just managed to keep from calling him by his real name as the man tied and blindfolded in the corner listened with a slight smirk. "Look, follow my logic. Hebert can cross from Bet to Aleph and back again. Yes?"

Hookwolf nodded slowly.

"Communication is possible without her power due to Haywire's Portal, but everything that goes through is examined on both sides. Right?"

"…uh-huh?"

"So, to all intents and purposes, she has an entire fucking PLANET to hide out in if she wants, a planet where not only can we not get her, we have no fucking idea what she's doing there!"

"..so we get one of our men across first?"

"BOTH FUCKING PLANETS IDOLISE HER!" Kaiser screamed before he could stop himself. "She's been carrying container-loads of trade-goods between realities! She carried the fucking President across to meet with his Aleph counterpart! She's the richest fucking cape in America right now!"

"…she is? Great, we can get a cash-boost…"

Kaiser's gauntleted palm slammed against his helm as he contemplated his underling's inability to see the bigger picture.

"Goddammit…"

Kaiser's exclamation was cut short when the front of their secondary base (Hookwolf had at least had enough intelligence to not drag Danny Hebert into the Medhall building) suddenly shattered and imploded in a manner he had seen before.

"…Faultline." He shook his head disbelievingly. "She hired Faultline…"

A blur slammed off Hookwolf, embedding him in the wall even before he could deploy his metallic blades and Kaiser half-turned to see Glory Girl and Shielder landing beside Mr Hebert, Shielder's force-fields already forming around them as Glory Girl began freeing Mr Hebert from the chair he was tied to.

"You're on your own." He snapped at the dazed Hookwolf even as his blades sliced through the floor beneath him. "Don't expect a rescue, you moron!"

As he finished his statement, Kaiser let himself fall through the floor, landing on the next floor just in time for a white-clad seven-foot-tall man to deliver a punch that sent him through a wall and spiralling into darkness.

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"Dad!"

"Taylor!"

I heard several people chuckle as I caught Dad in a hug, one that he returned with interest, then a throat cleared and I turned to face the welding-mask-wearing woman.

"The mission is complete?" She half-asked, half-stated and I nodded.

"Yep. Dad's safe and the bastard who took him…"

I paused as another figure appeared.

"Manpower." I said in greeting, then I paused as I took in his grin. "Did something happen?"

"Your information was perfect, Lady Faultline." The publicly-known Hero said with a nod verging on a bow. "Kaiser tried to escape by going down."

"He's done it before. Several times." Faultline replied. "You mean…?"

"I got to punch a Nazi." Manpower confirmed, grinning widely. "Any day you get to punch a Nazi is a good day."

"Any day you get paid is a good day." Faultline countered before turning to look at me again. I nodded and pulled out my (one-of-a-kind, specially-made-by-Dragon) phone.

"Dragon, success." I said, leaning against my Dad. "Send the funds. With a bonus, Dad didn't even get a scratch."

"I am glad to hear it, Taylor. The funds are being sent now."

Faultline pulled out her own phone, then nodded in satisfaction.

"Pleasure doing business with you." She said, then she turned and walked off, waving for her crew to stop piling up the knocked-out gangers and follow her. Manpower watched her leave with a wry smile.

"She could be a great hero." He commented. "I'll deal with the police for you."

"Police?" I asked, then I heard the sirens. "Ah, yes. I'll get Dad home."

"Hookwolf kinda demolished it." Dad said and I shook my head.

"Okay, I'll get you to my home-away-from-home in Aleph. Dragon?"

"I've already contacted a trusted building company." Dragon replied since I hadn't deactivated the phone. "I'll add some extra security as well, if you don't mind."

"That would be great. Thanks, Theresa." I switched off the phone, then caught Dad's curious look. "What? It's her name."

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Edit - Regarding the school transfer, just remember that Winslow Bet and Winslow Aleph are different schools...