The Junkshard
Chapter 1
9 May 2010
Lauren was in pain. Not surprising, given that she just fell from the stairs. However, the pain was not what terrified her. The lack of any feeling in both of her legs was what filled her with panic and utter terror. She had been part of the track team during her middle school career and despaired at being unable to walk for the rest of her life, let alone run.
Lauren briefly blacked out, seeing a vision of a pair of gigantic creatures, before she continued panicking, the vision immediately forgotten. She then felt something weird.
Power type: Striker
Threat level: 0
Duration: 10 hours
Synchronization: 58%
Wiki article: Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience
Power: Host is able to observe the brain of anyone she touches (including herself) in extreme detail and knows instinctively if there is something wrong or unusual with the brain. She can identify parahumans and diagnose any type of brain disease. However, she is unable to make any changes to the targets brain, making this power useless in combat.
And realized she was a parahuman, with a working Gemma in her Corona Pollentia, and that her brain was producing a ridiculous amount of stress hormones. Like she couldn't have figured that out without the stupidest, most useless power in existence. Was this the compensation for losing her legs? She would rather have even one working leg than this useless as shit power. She started crying even harder before getting a familiar feeling:
Power type: Trump/Changer
Threat level: 4
Duration: 2 hours
Synchronization: 89%
Wiki article: Mena, Arkansas
Power: Host is able to change her body into Manganese, either solid or liquid. This makes her 8 times as heavy when transformed, although she is rather brittle due to the intrinsic properties. When pieces of her break off, those pieces turn into liquid form and move back towards her. She can use the transformation to recover from any non-lethal wound by changing into liquid manganese and reforming her body. A side effect from this transformation is that other powers are not able to see her as a living human being when transformed, confusing thinkers and bio strikers, but leaving her vulnerable for Manton-limited powers like Vista's.
And immediately stopped crying, happy as she was with her unexpected second power, although she had the weird feeling that this power would last shorter than her previous one. Did this mean that all her powers were temporary? Without thinking any further, she transformed into her liquid Manganese state. The pain disappeared immediately and she felt parts of her lower back flow back together. Once she felt that her new body was no longer shifting, she changed quickly into her solid form, and then her normal human form. She was about to let out a cry of joy before she saw the shocked face of the bitch who was responsible for her injury in the first place, her stepmom.
She was so stupid, she should have downplayed her injuries and waited until the bitchmom left before healing herself. Now she was going to report Lauren to the PRT and force her to be a useless shiny ward who did nothing against the real monsters in the city. The monsters in human form who killed herr mother just because she had a different skin color. The so called protectorate heroes who weren't there to safe her. Who weren't there to stop Hookwolf from breaking the culprits out when de BBPD finally managed to identify and capture her murderers. Who also weren't able to keep that true monster inside of their so-called prison even though they captured him twice. She felt her own brain producing even more stress hormones when suddenly.
Power type: Master
Threat level: 4
Duration: 2 hours
Synchronization: 86%
Wiki article: Prison Nurse
Power: Host is able to make any criminal or bully she makes eye-contact with regret their actions, even if the person in question is a sociopath. The criminal will feel emphatic to their victim and will never be inclined to do the same type of crime again. However, a bully is not less inclined to steal from or murder people, and vice versa. (This would be the perfect power to use against Nazis, making them regret doing hate crimes and discrimination. Too bad this is temporary, although it is still perfect for this situation. Lauren is extremely lucky!).
And there was the perfect solution and revenge for this situation. Lauren takes back everything back she said about her power at the beginning, she loves her power! When she locks eyes with her stepmother again, she activates her newfound master-power and sees the tears and guilt appearing on the face of her stepmother. Sophie Porter runs down the stairs and tries to give Lauren a hug. Before she can react, she is enveloped by her stepmoms arms and hears her sobbing and muttering "I'm so sorry" in repeat. Lauren feels a small amount of guilt about mastering a member of her family, but she feels that Sophie deserves it. Even if she was not responsible for Lauren falling down the stairs, she still slapped a 13 year old child for the stupid reason of being a little late with doing her chores and talking back when ranted at.
After more than a minute, Lauren finally escapes Sophie's hug. Her stepmom is still muttering apologies and promising to never hurt her again. Lauren then speaks: "Sophie, I know you saw me use my powers to heal myself just now. Could you please not tell anyone about them? I don't want to join the wards and it would be horrifying if the gangs know about me being a cape." Even after living together for 2 years, Lauren still has not started calling Sophie "mom", and after this incident, was not planning to do so in the near future.
"Of course, sweetheart, it is my fault you got those powers, so it is my responsibility to keep them secret if you don't want them to be known. I know this will not be enough for you to forgive me, but I will stop treating you like an unwanted child and treat you like I should have when I married your father. I hope that one day, I can make up for what I would have done to you if not for your powers."
Lauren stares wide-eyed at Sophie after that declaration. She had never expected to ever hear those words from the mouth of her bitchy stepmother. This master power was scarily strong. Lauren regretted the fact that this power would only work for a few more hours, leaving her unable to use it against the monsters of this city, who would definitely deserve a personality change. However, on the other hand, she was glad that she wouldn't have such a scary master power in the future.
During the hug, Lauren saw Sophie's brain. While there was nothing wrong with it, it made Lauren realize that she could use it to check her family's brains. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if her father or one of her siblings would die to a brain tumor when she could have spotted it today. The only downside was that she would have to out herself to her whole family to tell them about the brain damage, but that was an easy price to pay in exchange for her families live.
Before Lauren could reply to her stepmom or decide how much she was willing to tell her about her powers, she heard a familliar kind voice shout: "Lau, are you hurt? Is everything all right?"
She then saw her 5 year old brother William run down the stairs and attack her with a hug. Lauren loved her cute little brother, and had been the one comforting him after their mothers death. Ever since, William liked to spend time with her over their other siblings and parents and Lauren was obliging him whenever she had the time.
Lauren was relieved when she saw her brother's healthy gray matter, but was also shocked at his well-developed Corona Polentia. Her brother might become a parahuman like her! However, if a traumatic experience like hers was the price for that, she would do everything in her power to prevent little William from ever gaining superpowers.
"I'm fine Will, I just had a small disagreement with Sophie." Lauren looked Sophie in the eyes when she said this. Unseen to William, Sophie gave a nod back. "We have agreed to stop fighting and live together as a normal happy family."
"Yay! Does this mean you will stop shouting when dad is not home?"
Lauren suddenly felt very guilty about all her verbal shouting matches with Sophie, even though the bitch often deserved to be shouted back to.
"Yes Will, we will stop shouting at each other, even if we disagree."
Sophie mutters something along the same line, apparently feeling the same kind of guilt as Lauren does. This doesn't surprise her, as Sophie could get along with all her siblings. She just has a personal feud with Lauren, which got worse the longer they lived together. Lauren realized that with Sophie mastered, they could actually live together as a happy family, which felt incredibly weird to her.
To pay William back for worrying him, Lauren spend the next few hours playing with him. Sophie watched for a while, sometimes giving Lauren uncomfortable glances, before leaving the two of them alone. At some point, Lauren felt her latest two powers leaving her body, leaving her with only the brain observing power. She started to think about how her powers worked. Apparently, she could have multiple powers at a time, and she gained powers when she felt stressed, as her brain observing power had showed her. Did she have a limit on the amount of powers she could have? And could she gain new powers in other ways than being stressed out?
Lauren tried to test this out by wishing inwardly for a new power, first it didn't seem to work, but them she felt some sort of mental switch and decided to pull it.
Power type: Trump /Brute/Shaker
Threat level: -1
Duration: 48 minutes
Synchronization: 64%
Wiki article: Microcionidae
Power: Host can give the area up to 15 feet around her sponge-like properties. The area absorbs both water (like real sponges) and certain blaster and shaker abilities (Vista will find it hard to stretch the sponge like area for example), including unfortunately her own abilities. Host's body also has the sponge like abilities, which cannot be turned off. This makes the hosts body swell up when bathing and showering, or even washing her hands, and decreases the power of her own blaster and shaker powers. (This is our first -1 threat level power, and our first double trump power. It's very unfortunate for Lauren that they overlap, but I guess it is compensation for her ridiculous luck earlier.)
This must be a joke right? Unless Leviathan attacks, there is no way in hell that this shitty power would be worth all the inconveniences that come along with it. This even actively sabotages other powers she may gain. Luckily, this power seems to be gone in an hour. Lauren shudders what would have happened if this was permanent. She would have to avoid water for the rest of her live to prevent accidently outing herself by swelling up.
"Lau, is everything all right?"
"Yeay, everything is fine. I was just thinking a bit." Lauren lies to her little brother.
Feeling extremely dissatisfied with this power, Lauren uses the same method as earlier to get a new power.
Power type: Brute
Threat level: 0
Duration: 8 minutes
Synchronization: 64%
Wiki article: Shiva Keshavan
Power: Host's body becomes as strong and flexible as a male Olympian adult athlete. She does not get the instincts that such athletes have after years of training, so she will not be competing on Olympic level yet.
Well, this was not the most spectacular power, but at least it helps somewhat instead of actively hindering her. Unfortunately, this power lasts too short for Lauren to enjoy her new stronger body. At this point, Lauren could not think of any connection between her powers anymore. Some were extremely helpful, others were actively hindering her, and the type of powers she got were all over the place. The best she could think off was that she was a piss-poor version of Eidolon. This fact was even more cemented into reality when she was unable to gain more powers, leaving her with 3 powers, just like Eidolon.
To test her short-lived strength, she lifted a box full of her brother's toys. It felt somewhat easier than she was used to, but not ridiculously so. It seemed to be a very weak power, compared to other parahuman brutes like Glory Girl.
Lauren resumed playing with her brother, and in a few minutes, the strength-boosting power was gone. Deciding to do one last test, Lauren mentally flipped the switch.
Power type: Blaster
Threat level: 4
Duration: 8 hours
Synchronization: 80%
Wiki article: Alexander III of Scotland
Power: Host is able to shoot a variety of medieval area ranged weapons out of her hands, including arrows, crossbow bolts, throwing spears and trebuchet stones. Host also has an instinctive understanding about the range, trajectory and strength of these weapons.
Lauren was impressed by this power. It would have been a very useful ability when going out as a hero, and Lauren was definitely planning on going out as a hero to curb stomp some skinheads once she had a good set of long lasting powers and some hero gear.
However, there was no way to safely test out this power at home. Dad was also bringing back the twins from the local gym in an hour, so testing it sneakily in a nearby park or abandoned building was off the table. Going out after dark without a hero costume and gear to test the power was of course utterly stupid, even if Lauren's neighborhood was not the worst in Brockton Bay.
As Lauren heard her father Evan's car approaching, she felt the worse than useless sponge power disappearing. Deciding is was probably not a good idea to grab another, potentially hindering, power before dinner, Lauren decided against grabbing a new power. Instead, Lauren moved to the door to greet her family and 'impulsively' hug them.
Both Cameron and Tia were very surprised by the sudden hug, as Lauren was never very close to them. The brain-scanning power confirmed what Lauren already knew about them, namely the signs of autism in both children and the Corona Pollentia in Cameron's head. Cameron had already been checked for parahuman powers a year ago when rumours started spreading about him being a thinker. The MRI decisively proved that Cameron was not a parahuman, but 'just' a child genius.
Hugging her father while saying "welcome home dad!" completed the annual brain health check, luckily with no diseases found.
Dinner came around with no problems. Both Lauren and Sophie were intent on not mentioning anything that happened in the afternoon and tried to keep to safe topics like Williams playtime and the twins afternoon at the gym.
After dinner, Lauren decided to finally start on her homework, which she was originally planning to do when the incident happened. However, when she was alone in her room, she could not resist grabbing a new power.
Power type: Shaker
Threat level: 0
Duration: Instant/Single use
Synchronization: 66%
Wiki article: Insulator Museum
Power: Host is able to break or repair anything ceramic in a 15 foot radius.
And briefly had to resist breaking the porcelain tableware in the cupboard before the power was gone. Well, this wouldn't do. Lauren immediately reached for another power.
Power type: Trump/Stranger
Threat level: 1
Duration: 2 minutes
Synchronization: 24%
Wiki article: Wombats Rest, South Australia
Power: When activated, the host appears to be a wombat located at the position of the host's feet, through all senses of other humans observing them. Most notably, this includes parahuman senses, giving the host practical immunity to human master powers while this is active. The host is still visible through cameras though. All wounds of the host are displayed on the equivalent parts of the wombat's body.
Unlike the other powers she had until now, Lauren did not have a clear indication of what this power was capable off. Something with appearing to be a small animal? Lauren looks at her mirror and decided to activate this power. She immediately squealed at the cute wombat appearing in the mirror, although the sound she hears is not a squeal, but a cute animal noise. Before she was able to experiment more with the cutest power ever, it ran out of time and she saw her human body again, including the ugly burn scars on her face. She had hoped that her earlier healing power would have made them go, although it would have been hard to explain that away, but her power seemed to accept them as part of her unhurt body.
Despite how tempting it was to continue power testing, Lauren forced herself to start making her math homework. She motivated herself by promising to continue power testing after it was done.
In the end, the math homework was not that difficult, and Lauren finished with a few hours to spare before bedtime. As promised to herself, she activated her mental switch again.
Power type: Stranger
Threat level: 4
Duration: 8 hours
Synchronization: 84%
Wiki article: National Museum of Bhutan
Power: When someone is trying to observe the host, his/her attention will always be drawn to the most interesting object in eyesight. At default, the power is on, but the host is always able to turn off the power while conscious.
Lauren was happily surprised by the usefulness of this power. While she unfortunately was not able to keep it, she could still make use out of it. The nature of this power made it so that it was not obvious that she was using a parahuman power. Therefore, she decided to raid the cookie jar, even if it felt a bit childish to do that. With what had happened to her earlier, Lauren felt that she deserved some cookies.
With her power online, she went to the kitchen for some old-fashioned cookie jar raiding. She saw Cameron and Tia working on their homework, although Cameron was spending more time helping Tia out then working on his own homework. When Lauren walked in, their attention immediately shifted to the landscape painting in the hall, before they got back to their homework. The same thing happened when Lauren grabbed some cookies out of the jar and when she left the room.
Lauren did not see the frown appear on Cameron's face after she left.
The rest of the time for bed was meant to be spend checking out the local cape scene on PHO, but ended up being mostly wasted on shipping threats and cat videos. Unfortunately, she still couldn't find any threats on her favorite guilty ship: Panacea and Laserdream. Lauren has always suspected Panacaea to be adopted, making it a perfectly legal ship. Both were incidentally her favourite heroes, Panacaea because she was always selflessly healing the injured in the hospital, and Laserdream because she was actively patrolling the poorer areas in the city and was always focused on protecting the civillians first during any cape fights. It was too bad that she was going to college after this summer, Lauren would have liked patrolling with her after establishing herself.
AN: Welcome to my new fanfic: The Junkshard. This fic will feature the adventures of Lauren, who has the (mis)fortune of getting utterly random powers. Note that Lauren and most other original supporting characters are randomly generated, and many of the MC's important choices will be randomized. However, I will try to keep the story as realistic as possible while writing it, and weird choices will have low possibilities attached to them (although sometimes I still get outcomes like Panacea/Laserdream being Lauren's favourite ship...). Note that this story will focus mostly on how Lauren deals with her unreliable power and the consequences of her impulsive actions or untimely power usage, and will therefore be somewhat less fighting-focussed than canon and many other fanfics.
I want to reference A Chance for Greatness by WyrmKiller, which is a worm fanfic on SB with an almost identical power (There are some slight differences, but they are not noticable at first. The origin story of the Shard is also different). This is a great story and my main inspiration for this fanfic.
The next interlude will explain most of the technical details of the power (Some hidden mechanics will not yet be revealed though). If you want to join Lauren in figuring everything out by yourself, you can skip that interlude.
Finally, if you have not read Worm yet, please do so, it is a great story. However, knowledge of Worm will not be strictly necessary to enjoy my fanfic. I made one small change from canon worm, Aisha is one year older so that she and Lauren are in the same school year.
Disclaimer: I do not own Worm and it's characters, Wilbow does. I only own my randomly generated OC's