Chapter 4
Tuesday 11 May 2010
Lauren woke up well rested, but with the now very familiar uncomfortable feeling of emptiness. To remedy that, she tried to grab three longer lasting powers.
Power type: Tinker
Threat level: 4
Duration: 20 sec
Synchronization: 86%
Wiki article: 1973 Syrian General Staff Headquarters raid
Power: Tinker specialization: Air force. Host is able to build up to 22th century air force technology.
Power type: Blaster
Threat level: 1
Duration: 24 min
Synchronization: 73%
Wiki article: List of Air VIA destinations
Power: Host is able to fire initially weak laserbeams that get stronger the higher they are above the ground. The beams do fizzle out once they leave the atmosphere (So no Simurgh sniping or planet destroying). Hence this power is useful against flying enemies, but practically useless against grounded opponents.
Power type: Trump/Shaker
Threat level: 2
Duration: 10 min
Synchronization: 45%
Wiki article: James H. Baxter
Power: Host is able to control all paper within a 10 foot radius. The paper is able to block certain powers, mostly shaker like effects.
And immediately grabbed the remains of her alarm clock and Hero-robot. She quickly ripped most of the remaining useful parts out of them and added a new function to her phone. Once the tinker fugue ended, Lauren realized that her Hero robot was now practically unrecognizable and sighed. However, her phone now had a build-in radar application that would allow her to easily detect flying aircraft and parahumans.
Lauren then noted the synergy between this new tinkertech addition to her phone and her new laserbeam power and was sad that she would only have that power for less than half an hour. It would have allowed her to snipe any flying parahuman villain, although it wouldn't do much damage unless they were flying high above the city. E88's flying blaster Purity immediately came to mind as a great target.
The paper power seemed interesting. She took control over the stacks of paper on her desk, let them fly around her, and set them back in the same way as they originally were. It would have been a great idea to use this paper as a layer in her costume, as she had the feeling it could mess with other people's powers.
Unfortunately, none of her powers were long lasting, and Lauren didn't want to have a repeat of yesterday afternoon where she was left without powers. Hence she spend some time grabbing new powers hoping for a longer lasting power.
Power type: Blaster
Threat level: 2
Duration: 36 min
Synchronization: 54%
Wiki article: Anne de Joyeuse
Power: Host is able to fire blasts of blinding white light. The blasts do practically no damage, but easily blind people if they're looking into the blast.
Power type: Tinker
Threat level: 2
Duration: 8 min
Synchronization: 4%
Wiki article: Kashkuh, Gilan
Power: Tinker specialization: Nuclear fission.
After getting a few extremely short-lived powers, Lauren suddenly had some brilliant designs in her head and a familiar irresistible urge to build them. Lacking the materials in her room, she walked to the garage where some spare parts were lying around. On the way, she brushed off her father and Cameron, as she only had so little time to build.
A few minutes later, Lauren came to her senses. In her hands, she had some kind of power generator that apparently used heavy elements as fuel. Lauren then noticed her brother Cameron, who was inspecting the generator with much interest, and her father, who was mostly watching her with concern in his eyes.
"Lauren, are you allright? You were not responding to anything me or Cameron said. Was this some sort of tinker fugue? And is this the first time this happened?"
Lauren remembered her first tinker fugue, and had to suppress tears welling up in her eyes.
"No dad, this is the third time this happened. During the previous two I destroyed my old toy robot to upgrade my mobile phone."
Her father noticed Lauren's discomfort and enveloped her in a hug, which Lauren gratefully accepted.
Once she was comforted, Lauren continued power grabbing in the presence of her father and her distracted brother Cameron, who was more fascinated by the tinkertech power generator. She stopped when she had three powers that lasted longer than a few minutes and prepared herself for school.
Power type: Breaker/Striker
Threat level: 1
Duration: 10 hours
Synchronization: 68%
Wiki article: Inamujandi
Power: Host can transform in a ghost-like form, which can move through solid objects. Touching the ghost-form induces paralysis
Power type: Blaster
Threat level: 0
Duration: 36 min
Synchronization: 27%
Wiki article: Speedcoding
Power: Host can observe and change the coding of computers from a distance. Host can only affect one computer at a time while doing this.
Once Lauren arrived at her Homeroom, she was happy to see Aisha there. However, mrs. Wilkinson was decisively less happy with Aisha's presence.
"Miss Laborn, could you kindly explain where you were yesterday?"
"I was sick at home, I just got better this morning."
"And why didn't your parents call the school that day."
"Because both my mother and my stepdad already start working early in the morning, so nobody but me was there to call the school."
"Well Miss Laborn, I might have believed you if this was the first time something like this happened. However, this is already the sixth time this year you missed a day without one of your parents informing us. Therefore, to make up for your missed classes, you will have detention for the next two weeks, starting this afternoon."
Lauren's friend looked seriously unhappy with this, but luckily decided that protesting was a lost cause. Protesting or continuing with the obvious lie would only have extended the detention. Still, this meant that Aisha wouldn't be coming over for the foreseeable future, interrupting their power testing plans.
The rest of the day went by without any incidents. Thanks to her long-lived ghost power, Lauren was not forced to grab new powers in the toilet during lunch break again.
Once school finished, Lauren and Liam went to their track and field meet while Aisha reluctantly stayed in school for her detention. The nice May weather made the track meet more fun than Lauren was used to. Even though it almost never froze in Brockton Bay, it was often rainy and chilly during autumn, winter and early spring.
Lauren came home in a happy mood and immediately saw Cameron playing around with her new tinkertech device. Normally, when someone's 10 year old younger brother is playing around with unknown technology, he or she would panic and get the child away from it. However, Cameron was way smarter and also more responsible than the average 10 year old. Additionally, getting Cameron away from something he was interested in was as easy as moving a giant rock with your bare hands.
Hence Lauren decided to just ask him what he was doing: "Hey Cameron, did you figure out how my device works?"
Unfortunately, Cameron was to focused on the tinkertech device, so Lauren needed to repeat the question twice.
"Oh, hey Lauren, you basically build a mini nuclear power plant, that can also work with other elements than Uranium. I have no clue at all about how it works, but it apparently eats elements heavier than iron, transforms them into iron, and makes electricity in the process."
Before Lauren could process what Cameron just said, he grabbed a small sliver of copper wire and dumped it into the device. It immediately started making noise, while at the same time, a LED light Cameron hooked up to the device flickered on.
"See, it works perfectly, the device even seems to contain any radiation that these kind of nuclear reactions would normally produce." Cameron points to the old Geiger counter that didn't show more than normal background radiation.
Lauren was suddenly a lot less happy with her little brother testing out her tinkertech. "Cameron, did you just test out a freaking nuclear reactor without knowing that there would be no radiation?"
"Of course, Lauren, I have never heard of tinkertech being harmful to their users, if you don't count Leet's stuff. The only pieces of tinkertech that produce radiation do that intentionally."
Cameron was way too confident in his own cape knowledge. "Please be careful Cameron, I don't even know everything about the devices I build and I am the tinker here! For all that I know, my tech could be as unreliable as Leet's!"
Cameron didn't seem to be concerned and happily continued examining Lauren's nuclear reactor. Seeing this as a lost cause, Lauren went to her room. Dad or Sophie would probably chew out Cameron in a few hours anyway. Once she was there, she amused herself by grabbing two new powers.
Power type: Trump/breaker/tinker/stranger
Threat level: 1
Duration: 2 minutes
Synchronization: 32%
Wiki article: 1972 Miami Redskins football team
Power: Host is able to make tinkertech in the form of small balls, that hides the carrier from powers. The carrier has to 'fuse' the ball with one of her feet in order for it to work. This works especially well against precognition or observational powers (like danger sense, coils simulation power or PtV (but contessa will easily be able to simulate Lauren once she learns of this blind spot). However, it does not hide the carrier from any mundane way of observation, nor does it protect the carrier from any offensive power. (So I rolled Trump-breaker-breaker-tinker-stranger, we now have our first power with 4 main classifications)
Power type: Shaker
Threat level: 3
Duration: (1 hour) - PERMANENT
Synchronization: 100%
Wiki article: 2005 Rugby League Tri-Nations
Power: Host is able to create a maximum of 13 semi-transparent forcefields in her own approximate image anywhere an area of 60 feet around herself. The forcefields are not particulary strong, having the physical strength and resilience of a non-powered bodybuilder, but can immediately be reformed if damaged. Host also has full control over them. At full synchronization, host has access to the full sensory inputs of all forcefields (all 6 senses), and can perfectly manage the multitasking that comes with it. She can also speak from their mouths with a synthetically sounding voice. (Finally!, the first permanent power, and with a pseudo-second trigger to boot.)
Lauren immediately ran back to the garage. At the same time, she had a comfortable, but unusual feeling coming from one of the newer powers. However, the schematics in her head had to be used now, so she would ignore that power in the meantime. Once she was in the garage, she grabbed most of the remaining parts from her last tinker fugue and started working with them. She ended up with a small metallic tinkertech ball which she intuitively grabbed and pressed against her left heel.
Lauren came to her senses at the same moment as the metallic ball started fusing with her left heel. She shrieked and tried to separate the ball from her body, but she was too late. Her left heel was now silver-coloured, felt harder than normal, and Lauren did not see any way to undo this transformation.
"Lauren, what happened?" Cameron came in, followed by Tia, both obviously startled by her shriek.
"My stupid tinker power decided to make myself into a cyborg!" Lauren said, showing her left heel. "It gives me a useful ability though."
And it definitely was a useful ability. The device should hide herself from other powers, if she understood it right. Having to always cover her left heel might even be worth it, especially once she started heroing.
And speaking about heroing, Lauren should inspect her other power.
…
"What!?"
This, this can't be right. The power was a strong shaker ability, maybe even a pseudo-master ability with the control over her projections. But what was unbelievable was the duration.
"The power is permanent!?"
This, this changes everything. No longer was she dependent on the whims of her power. Even if she grabbed 3 garbage powers now, she would still have a strong power to back her up. That reminded her, the permanent power didn't seem to fill up the space of one of her random powers. O wow, this meant she could have 4 powers now, no longer was she an inferior Eidolon!
"Uhm, Lauren, why are you suddenly smiling so creepily?" Tia said to a grinning Lauren.
O yeah, she should probably explain everything. To do this, she created a forcefield clone and let her speak.
"I grabbed another power next to my cyborg tinker power, and I can keep this power forever!"
However, before the clone had spoken more than a few words, Tia shrieked and bolted from the garage. Apparently, having a person-shaped forcefield appearing out of nowhere was a tad scary, especially if it suddenly started speaking in an unnatural voice.
"I'm sorry Tia!" Lauren shouted with her real body. However, Tia either was too scared or didn't hear it, as Lauren heard a door slam shut, presumably the door of her bedchamber.
Ugh, knowing Tia, she would probably be staying in her room for a while, before coming out and pretending she was never scared to begin with. Making a clone in Tia's bedroom and explaining what happened would only make things worse, so Lauren would just have to wait.
"O wow Lauren, that's amazing! Can you create more clones? And do you still have three temporary powers, or is that two now? And could you make a cyborg-tinkertech ball for me too?"
Of course, Cameron was just fascinated with her powers and Lauren was not in the least bit surprised that he would want to add tinkertech to his own body voluntarily. She was very happy that she couldn't recreate the metal balls, as she knew for sure that Cameron would otherwise be able to persuade her in the future.
Lauren proceeded to show off her new permanent power for her little brother by making another copy and doing what any person with telekinetic powers should be doing. She sat down in the couch, let one clone turn on the TV and find an interesting channel, and let another clone grab some snacks and soda from the kitchen. Never again did she have to leave the couch when she was hungry or missing the tv remote!
It was that moment when she realized she was observing things from three different perspectives without any trouble. It was as if she had these new senses for years. Moving the forcefields was also as easy as moving one of her own arms.
It was at that moment when Sophie came home with William, who had been watched over by an old neighboring couple for the day. William saw her forcefield in the kitchen and immediately ran over to inspect it. "Cool Lau, what does this power do?"
While William was poking her clone, Lauren explained her new permanent power to both William and Sophie. When she was finished, Sophie asked an important question:
"Will this be your only permanent power? Or do you think it's possible for you to gain more powers permanently?"
Lauren hadn't thought about this yet. The random way she got this permanent power seemed to imply that it was possible for her to get more permanent powers. Even if only a small part of them would be as useful as this power, it still meant that over time, she would grow more powerful. The PRT were constantly praising Dauntless in a way that made her think such growing powers were extremely rare, so she had apparently lucked out here.
"I think so, but it is very unlikely for a power to become permanent."
Sophie was visibly impressed and continued asking Lauren about the specifics of her new permanent power. Lauren answered those questions to the best of her ability. At the same time, Lauren was flabbergasted that she and Sophie were able to hold a friendly conversation, while just three days ago, they could only scream at or ignore each other.
Dad, once he came home, was similarly impressed. He tried again to make a speech for the wards, mentioning that they might be able to get some concessions from the PRT when she signed up due to her likely growing powerset. However, Lauren still had zero intention of signing up for the wards.
Once he realized that it was hopeless, Evan began to talk about her future outfit instead. Via his connections, he would be able to arrange for a bullet-proof jacket, helmet, and face mask that were only slightly too large for her. Lauren would have to were these if she wanted to go out heroing, which she didn't mind too much. As she now had a permanent power that could be used defensively, since Lauren could now surround herself with forcefield clones, she would be allowed to go out once her future gear arrived. Aside from that protective gear, Lauren could do whatever she wanted with her costume, as long as it was practical and decent.
In the evening, after the outfit discussion, Lauren felt the ghost power from the morning slip away. Without any temporary powers, she still felt a tad uncomfortable, but not nearly as bad as she felt before the permanent power. That said, she decided to grab some random powers in the hope for more permanent powers.
Power type: Changer
Threat level: 3
Duration: 1 hour
Synchronization: 99%
Wiki article: Lygon Street, Melbourne
Power: Host is able to transform into any of Australia's most venomous animals, like the Box Jellyfish, Taipan Snake, Blue-ringed octopus, Stonefish and the Redback spider. Clothing is included in the transformation. Note that the change takes a few seconds
Power type: Brute
Threat level: -1
Duration: 2 hours
Synchronization: 8%
Wiki article: Monique de La Bruchollerie
Power: The right side of host's body becomes much stronger, comparable to a very weak brute. However, the left side becomes much weaker. Host practically gets lateral paralysis on the left side with this power. (oh oh)
Power type: Mover
Threat level: 0
Duration: 6 hours
Synchronization: 30%
Wiki article: Azerbaijan–Malaysia relations
Power: Host is able to teleport distances specifically between 4000 and 5000 miles. Host is not able to take other people with this teleport and needs to have been at the place she is teleporting to. (At this point, the power is useless as Lauren has not travelled outside of the continental USA or Canada)
Lauren suddenly feels a rather familiar feeling on the left side of her body. Or rather, a lack of feeling.
"No, no, no, no, no."
And realizes she is almost fully paralyzed on the left side of her body.
"WHYYYY!"
Lauren starts screaming and panicking. She fails to move her left arm, left leg, or even the left side of her face. She does not hear the running footsteps from the rest of her family and brievely losed consciousness.
Power type: Changer
Threat level: 3
Duration: (1 hour) - PERMANENT
Synchronization: (99%) - 100%
Wiki article: Lygon Street, Melbourne
Power: Host is able to transform into any of Australia's most venomous animals, like the Box Jellyfish, Taipan Snake, Blue-ringed octopus, Stonefish and the Redback spider. Clothing is included in the transformation. Note that the change takes a few seconds. At full synchronization, the transformation removes any adverse effects on the hosts body, be they wounds, disease or power induced effects. Host is able to choose which of her body enhancing powers affect her in her animal forms. The reverse transformation now has a similar healing effect. Note that missing body parts will not be regenerated during the transformation.
When Lauren regained consciousness, she first noticed that she was no longer paralyzed in her left limps. Then she noticed that she had more limbs than she used to have. Finally, she realized that her room had grown a lot bigger, and that her vision was somewhat different.
Freaked out by this, she summoned a clone. The forcefield clone first saw nothing wrong with her room. However, when she let the clone look at her, she couldn't see herself. Instead she saw her father sitting with his hands very protectively around something. Come to think of it, she saw some gigantic human limbs from her real body. Did she shrink or something? Wait, didn't she get a new power that transformed her into some kind of animal?
Her clone then saw her animal form, and Lauren's forcefield immediately shrieked. She had become a freaking poisonous spider, and she was deadly afraid of those unholy animals.
Lauren immediately transformed back, startling her father, to get rid of that spider body. She was definitely never going to use that transformation again! Now that she thought of it, the power seemed to have changed somewhat. The transformation to an animal, which could be a number of different venomous animals, now had some healing properties, which seemed to have healed her paralysis, and ...
"What! Another permanent power! But this power was only supposed to last an hour or so!"
Before she even had the chance to be happy about it, the paralysis came back in force. Now that she was a bit more clearheaded, she realized that it was part of a very unhelpful new power, which luckily was not permanent.
Lauren almost got another panic attack when she realized that this horrifying power could have been the permanent one. Being permanently paralyzed on the left side of her body would have been worse than the paralysis from her trigger event. Maybe she should not be trying so hard to get new permanent powers …
The next hours were spend being consoled by her family, including even Sophie, and explaining what had happened. Luckily, the paralysis wore off after two hours. Before she went to bed, Lauren was no longer in the mood to grab any new power.
AN: Hi everyone! I want to thank everyone who favourited, followed or reviewed this story. Next up (in one or two days) will be an interlude from the shards perspective, which will shed some light on how Lauren's power came to be.