Blood.
Her baby, bleeding out.
Rage.
Boiling, barely constrained rage, tempered by concern.
She had to save her.
She had to.
Biting down.
Praying.
…
Nothing.
Broken.
RAGE
Verity shot up in her bed, hair hissing around wildly to combat whatever threats her mind had conjured, just barely able to recognize she'd been dreaming as she tried to calm herself.
She breathed heavily as she did, staring down at her legs- oh, hey, she had legs again, that wasn't permanent, nice. She focused on said legs to try and distract herself from the obvious nightmare, curiously getting out of bed and trying to will herself to have just a tail again, focusing- and thankfully, she didn't have to focus on how she felt last time, as she watched, but did not feel, her legs merge together with each other and then her tail before rapidly expanding, all in less than a minute.
"Okay, that is fucking wierd." She said to herself as she focused on the reverse, focused on having legs again, and they unmerged in a similar process. She even noted that her shorts from her costume were still on when she did. "...Well, at least I don't have to worry about flashing people." She said deciding to worry about this later or never, whichever came last.
Verity then looked at the clock- 6:12 a.m. "Ugh, guess I'm up now…" She muttered, before going about getting ready for the day, keeping an ear out for screaming and/or her phone buzzing.
Half an hour later, she was ringing the Hebert bell, dressed in a fluffy pink sweater that had been her top priority clothing article from Parian, along with a much less fluffy but no less pink skirt, and matching fluffing pink socks with her sandals, in an absolute pastel abomination, like a strawberry milk explosion. An absolute fashion disaster in Verity's preferred mode of dress.
It took a few seconds before the door opened. "Hello Verity," Danny greeted her.
"Hey Danny, how's Taylor? Any changes?" Verity asked as she entered.
"Yeah…" He replied.
"I don't like the way you said that, Daniel." Verity said. "What happened? Where is she? Please tell me she didn't turn into a giant mutated snake monster."
"No she did, but it's not as bad as we initially thought as she was able to change back to her normal body, so it's like she gained one of those Changer powers," Danny replied.
"O...okay, that's actually a lot better than expected, yeah." Verity admitted. "I'm guessing she's sleeping right now, or?"
"No she is awake, currently running around in the garden, I am so glad those fences are so tall now," Danny replied.
"I am both intrigued and horrified by what I'm imagining." Verity said as she headed for the back door. "This one, right?"
"That is the right one," Danny replied behind her.
Verity took a breath to make sure she wouldn't react too loudly no matter what she saw, before opening the door.
And Verity saw legs, lots of legs in fact.
Eight, to be specific.
Eight blue, chitinous legs ending in two strange red 'claws' coming from an entire giant spider body, from the front of which instead of a head was Taylor's torso, mostly unchanged- wait, no, there was an extra set of arms, the now drider Taylor zooming around the garden with childlike glee.
"...Lot better than I was expecting, to be fair." Verity said after a moment of watching Taylor zoom around. "Especially if she can turn back."
"Hey Verity," Taylor said as she came to a stop, giving Verity a good look at her face and seeing it in fact did not possess any extra eyes or anything. "Yeah, I freaked out a little when I woke up but when I wanted it to, I went back to normal."
"That's awesome!" Verity said, Taylor's cheer being infectious. "Can you do that now? I wanna see."
Taylor nodded her head and Verity saw the massive lower body she now had fused back kinda like her own had done until she was standing on a pair of normal human legs, wearing the leggings of her costume. The extra pair of arms, also now gone.
"Does that feel weird?" Verity asked. "Rather, you're feeling okay?"
"Yeah, feeling better than ever," Taylor said. "Look it gave me abs," Taylor said as she lifted up her shirt a bit to show well toned muscles.
"Wow." Verity said, not needing to fake being impressed in the slightest, though she did have to stifle a chuckle. "Well, at least we don't have to worry about keeping your identities separate any more if you can do that."
"Yeah it's great," She replied.
"We should see if we can find somewhere nice and open for you to try running around in, see how fast you actually are then." Verity said. "Maybe we could even have a race."
"Yeah, that would be great, I am a lot stronger and faster now," She replied.
"The trainyard would probably be the best idea for when you decide to do so," Danny suggested.
"Ooh, yeah, that could work, I was thinking of using the Bridge but your idea's probably a lot safer." Verity agreed.
"Yeah no chance of falling into the bay doing that one," Danny replied.
"I don't think anyone's fallen off yet, but now that you're mentioning it we should probably get a hard-light safety rail installed, that's really dangerous." Verity said, sufficiently sidetracked by safety concerns. "Oh my god, is the Protectorate not OSHA compliant…?" She asked herself, horrified.
"Huh, yeah that would be the case, really never thought about that," Danny said.
"Well before I go anywhere I need to fix up my costume," Taylor stated.
"I know just the place." Verity said excitedly. "If your feeling up to getting out of the house a bit, and you're okay with it Danny."
"I am," The father replied.
"Yeah, I would like to go out," Taylor answered.
"Well you two have fun with that," Danny said. "Though breakfast first Taylor."
"Yes dad," Taylor replied with a sigh, deflating a bit.
"It is the most important meal of the day." Verity noted.
"Have you eaten yet?" Taylor asked as they went back into the house.
"Uh, yeah, of course." Verity said. "I live by my own adages." 'Mostly' went unsaid. "So how about you eat breakfast while I call up my friend and see if she's willing to work with us today?"
"That she will come on Taylor," Danny said as the two of them went into the kitchen.
Verity shrugged at that before pulling out her phone and dialing up Parian.
"H-hello?" A tired voice greeted Verity. "Who is this?"
"Hi Parian! It's me, Verity, sorry if I'm waking you up." Verity apologized immediately.
"Verity! No, no I was already up, just haven't gotten my coffee yet, so what can I do for you?"
"Oh, good, uh, I was just wondering if you could help me out with a costume thing for an independent? And maybe just hang a bit?"
"Ergh, yeah sure," She replied. "Does she need one?"
"Uh, yeah, previous one's a little too bloody and shredded to actually fix, and she also found a new asset of her power that… kind of… well, if you thought I was challenging..."
"Oh my god was she the one you carried to the hospital yesterday?"
Verity inhaled sharply through her teeth. "Ah. I guess I wasn't very subtle yesterday, huh?"
"Yeah there are a few videos of you zooming through the city and then entering and leaving the BB General," Parian answered.
"...I somehow forgot that I'm a public figure, and that that's probably going to happen every time I go out, let alone do that…" Verity grumbled. "But, uh, yeah that's her. She's fine now, just needs a new costume... And maybe a giant stuffed animal."
"Oh sure for you I can do that, though do you think she is going to be against me knowing her identity if she gets to know mine?" Parian asked.
"Oh, uh…" Verity stalled, surprised by that. "Only if I get to know too?"
"I mean, I would tell you if you asked, as thanks for getting rid of Hookwolf. And I would like to get to know you more… as a friend."
"Well yeah, of course I want to get to know you better, we just haven't had much time to talk." Verity said. "What time works best for you? Assuming you're available to today."
"I am, I am! So you can come around noon? We have lunch together after we are done with the costume repair," Parian stated.
"Sure, that sounds great! We'll be there at your place at noon then."
"I… I'll see you then Verity," Parian replied.
"See ya soon, Parry~." Verity said before hanging up. "Alright, awesome, that's squared away."
"What's squared away?" Danny asked as he exited the kitchen.
"Seeing if Parian was available or not." Verity said, before remembering something. "Oh, right, before I forget again, I got my days mixed up last night, I don't actually have a patrol today, so I can stay with Taylor all day."
"Oh that's great to hear, and Parian is your friend? Well I guess she can fix Taylor's costume up being a Cape herself and all that," Danny replied. "Well I will be back here at around six, so please keep Taylor safe in the meantime."
"Trust me, I'll be keeping a very close eye on her." Verity promised. "Have a good day at work!"
"Good to hear," The man replied as he headed for the door, and a few seconds later Verity heard it open and close.
And a few seconds later Taylor came out of the kitchen as well.
"Hey, so Parian said we could meet up at her place for your costume and then we get lunch, does that sound good?" Verity asked.
"...Your friend is Parian?" Taylor asked in surprise.
"Yeah, we've been talking a lot, she's kinda my first real friend outside of the Protectorate." Verity said. "What, were you expecting like, Glenn Chambers or something?"
"I have no idea who that is," Taylor replied.
"Exactly." Verity said with a grin. "But uh, seriously, he's the head of PR and stuff at the PRT, he's the one who helped design my costume, from New Yark, makes sense you wouldn't know who he is."
"How did you get to know her?" Taylor asked.
"Parian?" Verity asked, before stifling a laugh. "Oh, I don't know, it's not like everything I'm wearing right now was made by her or something. Or a certain spider friend… tiny spider friend."
"Oh yeah that does make sense, I just thought you got stuff at a supersize store or something like that," Taylor replied. "And what do you mean by tiny spider friend?"
"I got everything custom made, including the plush from the other day? The tiny spider friend?" Verity said. "Since you're now technically also a friendly neighborhood spider… friendly spider neighbor."
"She is the one that made Cuddlebug?" Taylor asked before she slapped her hand over her mouth.
"You named it Cuddlebug?" Verity asked, just barely not squeeing at how adorable that was.
Which just made Taylor blush in embarrassment. "Shut up."
"No, come on, it's cute! There's nothing wrong with that." Verity said, feeling like her face was about to split open from how hard she was smiling at that.
Taylor just crossed her arms, and huffed as she looked away pouting while doing so.
Verity's smile did not decrease at all. "If it helps any, I still have… had, a teddy bear from when I was literally less than 1 named 'Mr. Bear', so at least Cuddlebug was a lot more inventive than that."
"That is kinda cute," Taylor replied.
"So, to blatantly change the subject." Verity said. "You wanna see if you can beat me arm wrestling?"
"Yeah," She replied. "I don't know how strong I am now, but I managed to lift my bed up pretty easily."
"Ooh, nice." Verity said as she maneuvered herself to set her tail up in front of her to use as a table, resting her elbow on it.
"I didn't think you could use it that way," Taylor replied as she did the same.
"Use what, my tail?" Verity asked. "Or super-strength for the purpose of arm wrestling contests?"
"The tail, I've seen super sports on youtube before, sadly they are not an official thing yet," Taylor mumbled as she started to push and Verity actually felt a surprising amount of force, more than she expected and so her arm was pushed down. "You didn't resist."
"You just went without saying we were starting." Verity 'scolded' lightly, preparing herself this time as they got back into position.
"Sorry," She apologized. "I thought you were ready."
"Naw, it's fine don't worry, I've done that before too." Verity said. "Like123go." She said, before starting immediately.
Taylor's eyes went wide for a second, but she instantly resisted the push, and she started to push Verity's arm a bit but it quickly came to a stop as Taylor continued to try and move her arm.
"That all you got?" Verity asked with a purposefully (hopefully) irritating smirk as she held their arms entirely still, not actually pushing back, just enough to keep them stationary.
And Taylor responded by putting her all into it now, which again made Verity move a little bringing them back to the point where they had started, though that was it as Verity matched Taylor's new super strength. Which she could tell was about half of hers, like arm wrestling a kid.
Which was pretty damn impressive, considering what she could do.
"Pretty good stuff Taylor." Verity said nonchalantly. "You want me to stop holding back now?"
Taylor's eyes went wide again at her words.
"Taking that as a 'yes'." Verity said, before slowly, almost casually pushing back and pushing Taylor's arm down, before letting go. "Pretty good for less than a day of having it, Taylor."
"You really think so?" She asked.
"Oh yeah, for sure. Especially cause this is just your normal form, you've got four arms and way more lower body strength in your other form, you…" Verity did some mental math. "Your arm strength seems about half mine, meaning in total you can probably lift more than me at full tilt." She guestimated.
"Yeah I think that math fits if the object is wide enough for all of my arms to lift it," Taylor replied. "Though super strength isn't the only permanent thing I've got."
"Ooh, what else you got?" Verity asked, eager to hear since Taylor didn't seem upset by the changes meaning they were probably good things.
"I can do this," Taylor said as she jumped up in the air and then stuck to the ceiling of the living room. "I can stick to things like a spider, even works with all of my legs."
"Woah, hold on, is this copyright infringement?" Verity joked as she watched Taylor spider-climb like a certain webcrawler. "What's next, do you shoot webs out of your wrists?"
"How did you know?" She asked.
"Please tell me you're joking."
"Well I can only do it in that other form, and with the spinnerette on my backend," Taylor replied.
"Ah, okay good, so you won't get sued by Marvel…" Verity said, relieved. "But if we're following that trend, can you sense danger?"
She shook her head. "No, just better hearing and vision, don't need glasses anymore." And that was when Verity did notice that Taylor didn't have her glasses on anymore.
"Nice, we can figure out what else you've got going on when we get to HQ like… next week? Probably, bureaucracy and all that, you're not a C53." Verity guessed, since they hadn't exactly called to join or anything yet. "For now… what do you like to do to pass the time?"
"I don't know," Taylor replied as she dropped down to the floor.
"You don't know?" Verity repeated. "Like, what do you do for fun?"
"...Read?" She replied. "I… used to hang with Emma, but you know."
"Okay, give me a moment, I'm going to go grab something from my place." Verity said, already heading for the door.
"Oh okay," Taylor replied.
A few moments later, Verity was back with a deck of unopened playing cards. "Imma teach you the way the old people pass the time. You ever play Craps?"
"I haven't," Taylor replied.
"Good, then you won't be confused by this." Verity said as she taught Taylor her family's personal card game that had nothing to do with the other Craps.
Xxx
"Alright, we're in the clear now." Verity said as she opened her hair, letting Taylor off her back after entering Parian's workshop. "Thanks again, Parry."
"It's nothing," The seamstress replied as she closed the door. "So how do you want to do this? I take off my mask, you take off yours?"
"Yeah that works," Taylor replied as she dusted herself off.
"Okay then," Parian said as she went to remove her mask, revealing the face of a girl of Middle-Eastern descent. A surprisingly cute one that looked to be about Verity's age. "The name is Sabah."
"Hello Sabah, my name is Taylor," The newly made Arachne said as she removed her mask, the only piece of her costume that she was wearing at the moment.
"And I'm obviously Verity." Verity said not to feel awkward.
"We know," The two answered.
"So you needed some help fixing up your costume right?" Sabah asked.
"Yeah it got sliced up a bit," Taylor answered as she took off her beetle backpack.
Wait, beetle backpack?
"Where'd you get that bag, Tay?" Verity asked curiously. "I don't remember you having that before."
"I just finished it up, had my bugs do the finishing touches while we played cards," Taylor answered. "I forgot to mention it but my sensory feedback is a lot better now."
"Oh, wow that's really cool." Verity said. "...Wait, Sabah, do you ever do stuff with spider silk?"
"Yes, though the good stuff is absurdly expensive," She replied.
"What if you could get it directly from the spider-wait, hold on, you said you have spinnerets right, Taylor?" Verity changed her question part way through as it occurred to her.
"Yeah," Taylor replied.
"Okay, so she can produce spider silk, you can control threads, you can see where I'm going with this, right?"
Sabah's eyes went wide. "Oh yes I do."
"I don't get it?" Taylor replied.
"It means that the two of us are going to be great friends," Sabah said with a wide smile as she grabbed Taylor's hands.
"Huh?" Taylor asked in shock.
"Bada bing, bada boom, congratulations, new friend acquired." Verity said in a New York accent. "But, to spell it out… y'all gon make biiiig bucks."
"Yeah, so what are your powers precisely?" Sabah asked. "Mine allows me great control over a great number of lightweight materials with thread being what works best for me."
"Well my power allows me to control bugs, so I can do stuff like making spider's produce much more silk and even make them work, and make into proper fibre threads," Taylor explained.
"Ah, though what was that about you having spinnerets?" Sabah asked.
Verity gave Taylor a thumbs up from behind Sabah, giving the go ahead to say however much she wanted to.
"Well, I learned that I can do this recently," Taylor said as she transformed into her arachnotaur form, and the lower half transformed kinda in the same way when she undid it. While her extra arms grew under her other ones. Which was kinda freaky as it looked they kinda just popped out with a splosh sound.
"Oh that is weirder going out than in." Verity noted.
"Yeah, though it feels the same," Taylor replied.
"Oh yeah, that's what I was thinking when my tail did the thing, too." Verity said. "It just feels… natural, right?"
"Yeah it does," Taylor replied.
"That is a lot of leg," Verity heard Sabah say. "Yeah I definitely can see what you meant when you said she would be even more challenging than you."
"Is that a problem?" Taylor asked.
"A problem? A problem? Of course it's a problem-" Sabah said, taking a small breath as she clapped her hands together. "And one I am going to love to solve," She ended with a very gremlin-like giggle.
"Just remember, she's 15." Verity whispered in Sabah's ear.
"Shit really?" She asked. "But she is so tall," The woman who was barely over five-foot said.
"I was 6 feet tall from age 14, height doesn't always match up, shortstuff."
"I get ya," Sabah said. "Now before we make stuff for you, let's see what the damage is and if it can be salvaged."
"Where can I put it?" Taylor asked as she held up her costume in her lower right hand.
"I've got a table you can put the patient on," Sabah said.
"Patient?" Verity asked with a half-chuckle.
"What else would you call it?" Sabah asked.
"Costume. Clothes. Bloody rag."
"Don't insult it like that, I can see the craftsmanship in that, it would be a shame to see it go to waste," Sabah said.
"Wow really?" Taylor asked.
"Yes it takes talent to make something like that out of pure spidersilk," Sabah said as they went over to the rather short table though it was one that fit Sabah's height and not theirs.
"Wait, Taylor, you made this-made this?" Verity asked, not having realized that before. "Like, from scratch?"
"Yep, which was why I didn't go out until sunday night," Taylor replied. "That is why I talked to you about colors."
"...Oohhhhhhhhh." Verity said as all the pieces clicked together for her. "For some reason, that did not occur to me before… you did a really good job on it."
"Thanks," She replied. "Arts and Crafts is one of my favorite subjects when they don't destroy my projects."
"Well, good thing they literally will never do that ever again." Verity said, remembering she needed to try and talk with at least Sophia sometime soon. "Or else."
"There is a story there I am not getting involved in as you seem to have it handled," Sabah said seemingly to immediately get that Taylor was talking about bullying at school. "So what did you make it out of? Besides spider-silk of course."
"Beetle shells to act as armor and shock absorbers," Taylor said. "Though they still have trouble with really sharp stuff."
"How many bugs did you kill to make this?" Verity asked, horrified at the implication of that, worried Taylor might be the type to tear the wings off a bee.
"A lot, it was kinda therapeutic," She admitted.
"Maybe let's avoid doing that in the future and do something else if you want to do something therapeutic? Like weight lifting?"
"Huh? They are just bugs, they die all the time," Taylor replied.
"Well… yeah, but… you've only done that stuff with bugs, right?"
"Yes, why would I do it with anything else?" Taylor asked.
"Just… if you feel the urge to start taking out those urges on anything bigger than bugs, talk to me first, okay?" Verity said as gently as possible.
"Erh, okay?" Taylor replied as she turned her head to look down at Sabah. "So doc what is the diagnosis can she be saved?"
"Well that armor of yours needs to be replaced, though the cut thread can be sewn back together as it is very clean," Sabah answered.
"On that note, Taylor, you wanna show what you said about your wrists?" Verity asked, finding that segue into tricking Taylor into web slinging.
"Well I found out I can kinda shoot it out like this," Taylor said as she flicked her wrist and a thin string of web shot out of her wrist that attached itself to a mannequin.
"Wow, it's like that old comic book hero," Sabah said.
"That's what I was thinking!" Verity said excitedly, internally groaning that Spiderman was being reduced to old but pushing it aside to focus on her friendly spider neighbor. "Taylor, trying pulling it back like that."
"Okay," Taylor replied as she wrapped her hand around the string after cutting it with her much longer nails. And then she pulled, flinging the mannequin towards them and into the wall behind them. "Oops."
"See, now that is gonna be super useful in the field, you can use that to control positioning, or just shoot that at people to slow or even stop them." Verity said excitedly. "Not even remotely getting into how I'm pretty sure Sabah's drooling right now."
"Huh? Wah? No I am not," She replied.
"I can probably stop people with it, as it feels like I can adjust how it comes out, though for what Sabah needs the stuff that comes from this thing would be better as it feels a lot more sturdy and manipulative," Taylor said as she pointed at her 'main' spinneret.
"The word is 'spinneret'." Verity helpful provided.
"Thanks, forget for a second."
"Well that is for later, now let's fix up your costume and see what kind of modifications we need to make to accommodate that Changer form of yours," Sabah said. "Though one is already rather obvious."
"Ah yes, after all, to be four armed is to be forewarned." Verity said sagely. "...Or is it the other way around?"
The two other Parahumans in the room just gave the gorgon a rather flat look in response, clearly unimpressed.
"Oh, come on, I haven't had to make jokes about extra arms in a while, of course I'm not bringing my A-Game immediately." Verity defended herself. "I wasn't forewarned, afterall."
"Anyway," Taylor said as she returned her attention back to Sabah. "Do you need some silk now?"
"Yes that would be great, though I am not sure I have the necessary chemicals to treat it properly," Sabah said.
"Oh don't worry about that, I think my Changer body provides that," Taylor said as she reached for her main spinneret and Verity saw a thin string of silk was produced. And a few seconds later she watched as Taylor seemingly instantly and instinctually began to weave it into a proper thread of fibre using all four of her hands.
Verity watched in slack jawed awe as Taylor did.
And she continued her performance for about another ten minutes before stopping, and was now holding a spool of spider silk. "This should be enough for you to use."
"Holy… Thank you," Sabah said as she took the spool. "Yeah I can use this, to fix it up."
"Hey, Taylor, you sure you don't want to go into the para-costuming department?" Verity asked as her brain began to process again.
"Hmm I don't maybe as a side business alongside the other stuff," Taylor replied as she quickly transformed back. "Going to have to discuss all of that with dad and the PRT if I am going to join the Wards."
"Yeah, obviously, nothing is set in stone right now." Verity said, before pausing. "Except Hookwolf."
"Wait what?" Taylor asked.
"Oh yeah, you went and turned him into a ball of stone," Sabah said with a laugh. "Couldn't happen to a worse person."
"I can actually think of a few, but yeah." Verity agreed. "Did you not hear about that, Tay? That I took down Hookwolf yesterday?"
"That was yesterday?" Taylor asked. "God so much has happened in a short amount of time."
"...You know what, that's a very good point, things have been moving at an astronomical pace." Verity said as she realized most of what had happened since her arrival had been within the last few days. "Do you also have a sudden sense of whiplash?"
"Yeah," Taylor replied. "Hasn't even been four days since I fought Lung."
"You fought Lung!" Sabah's voice cracked. "How are you still alive?"
"I got lucky," Taylor answered.
"Also I showed up to keep him restrained and detained afterwards." Verity said, feeling fine telling Sabah the truth. "She managed to get him before he could get into the swing of things, then I kept him that way… after he was knocked out, admittedly, but it's still Lung he probably would have gotten up."
"He would have," Sabah said. "So after I fix and clean this up, what do you two want for lunch?"
"I don't know the local places yet, Taylor, what do you like?"
"Well it is a bit out of the way, but there is one place where every Brocktonite goes to at least once," Taylor said.
"Ooh, wazzat?"
"Fugly Bob's," Sabah said. "That is what you're talking about right?"
"Yep."
"Fugly Bob's?" Verity repeated, immediately intrigued and amused. "Okay, I gotta see this place on the name alone."
"It's at the edge of the Market so we're going to have to drive for a bit," Sabah said.
"Yeah but it will be worth it to see Verity go through the Challenger," Taylor said.
"She can eat that much?" Sabah asked, giving Verity a look. "Yeah I can see that."
Verity's already mounting amusement turned into full blown excitement. "Are you implying there's an 'eat it in x time it's free' meal?"
"Yep," Taylor stated.
"Hell yeah." Verity said excitedly. "Just one problem then."
"And that is?" Sabah asked.
"How are we doing this? Masked or unmasked?" Verity asked. "Because anyone near me is obviously going to be obvious."
"Unmasked," Sabah said. "I mean it would make sense for you to have made some friends by now that aren't your fellow Capes? And none of us can eat through our masks."
"Tttrrue, but this does mean your real face is going to be associated with me one way or the other." Verity said. "The people around here respect the unwritten rules, right?"
"They do," Sabah said.
"Hmm, you know when you get used to it, it's kinda easy to forget that you're like a seven-feet tall snake lady," Taylor said.
"Sss," Verity's hair seemed to hiss in agreement.
"Shush, you." Verity said, pointing at it like a bad dog.
"Wait, can they actually think?" Taylor asked.
Verity did a verbal shrug accompanied by a physical one. "I'm pretty sure they're just an extension of me? It's weird. They respond when I talk to them but they don't really know anything I don't." She paused to glare suspiciously at the still present snake. "Or do they?" She asked dramatically.
"Ssss."
"Sss."
"Taking that as a 'no'." Verity said with a nod.
"So what do we do then?" Taylor asked. "Actually going in costume or not? But I have no idea if they will let us sit."
"So… how about this time we just order some pizza?" Sabah suggested. "We can plan an outing to Bob's some other time when we know more about their Cape policy."
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." Verity agreed, shelving her desire to check out Fugly Bob's for later. "Toppings?"
"I go for one with salad, tomato, dressing and barbecued meat," Taylor said.
Verity blinked in confusion. "I'm sorry, pizza's the dough disc topped with red sauce and cheese normally, right?" She asked, miming the shape, her years of making pizza professionally crying out in pain.
"Yes," Taylor said. "I like salad pizza."
"Oh, okay, just making sure we're on the same page, that's like a variant pizza without marinara right?" Verity asked.
"No it has it on," Taylor answered.
"...Okay, so like burger pizza, okay…" Verity mumbled to herself as she tried to reconcile her mental image of that. "Sabah, what do you like?"
"Anything, my favorite is a four-way cheese margherita," Sabah asked.
"Okay, I keep forgetting different states have different style pizzas." Verity said. "Lets order that, what Taylor said, and just like, a normal cheese pizza, that sound good?"
"I can do that," Sabah said. "The place I order from has what Taylor wants."
"Good, I've already forgotten what everyone said, I started thinking about costumes." Verity said. "So if you have that handled- Taylor?" She asked quietly.
"What is it?"
"Is all the food around here like that or do you just have very specific tastes?" Verity asked, being able to sympathize if it was the latter, but really hoping it was the latter.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I've been noticing a trend about the food people eat around here, and I'm trying to figure out what's 'normal' and what's 'to taste', like back home serving the dread vegetable with lasagna would have never flown, but your dad did that, and now you said about that pizza, and to be honest everything else I've eaten I've made myself or was like, scrambled eggs, am I the weird one here, or?"
"I don't know what you're talking about so maybe," Taylor answered.
"Okay, I thought I might be, I just wanted to check, you're kind of my resident Earth Bet expert." Verity said, having started to read up on the multiple earths situation but had gotten a headache partway through and given up.
"Oh yeah right," Taylor replied.
"To be fair, it might just be because I'm out of state, but I… I just don't know."
"Well traveling to another state might as well be going to a different reality," Taylor replied.
"...True, true." Verity agreed.
"Well, I've called, they should be here in an hour," Sabah said as she returned. "Now in the meantime I am going to be fixing up Taylor's costume."
"Ooh, Taylor, you're gonna wanna watch this, it's really cool in motion." Verity said excitedly, having been made immediately [s]jealous of[/s]impressed by Sabah's powers the first time she had seen them in action.
"I am glad that you think so Verity," Sabah replied as she began to use her power, the costume seemed to puff up like a person had entered it. And then the spider silk Taylor had weaved for her moved as well, stitching up the holes that the dog had made. A process that took only five minutes, which ended with Verity applauding. "And there, now it just needs to be cleaned of the blood."
"How do you clean blood out of spider silk?" Verity asked.
"Like you do anything else, vinegar, baking soda and hot water," Sabah answered.
"Ah, do you have enough of those to deal with that much, or?"
"I do," She replied. "And while that soaks, and we wait for the Pizza, how about I make some new clothes for Taylor since those baggy things don't fit you at all."
"That isn't necessary," Taylor replied.
"Do it, I'll pay for it later." Verity immediately said.
"No, I am doing this for free," Sabah replied. "Consider this compensation for stoning Hookwolf harder than a Merchant does."
"Snrk." Verity snorted at that. "Alright, I'm fine with that."
"Do I have no say in this?" Taylor asked.
"No," Sabah responded.
"I mean, you obviously get a say in what your stuff's gonna look like, but you deserve some clothes that actually fit. If you still want baggy, we can do baggy, but like, properly baggy, not 'wearing something sized for someone way different' baggy." Verity said, remembering her own struggles with finding well fitting clothes both in this life and the last.
"Yes, you bought that cheaply at Walmart didn't you?" Sabah asked.
"Yeah," Taylor answered rather sheepishly.
"When you're getting new clothes, please do not resist," Sabah stated with a wide but slightly terrifying smile.
"I won't," Taylor said back.
"Good, now let's begin," Sabah stated.
Xxx
After a relatively nice and relaxing day of playing 'super spider dress up' with Taylor and Sabah, and then coming back to her house and Verity beginning to teach Taylor how to make cookies, which had been a blast, Danny had come home, and when he had called them cake Verity had immediately (comedically) went off on him for doing so, which quickly devolved into laughter because she hadn't been able to keep it up.
With that, Verity had gone home feeling nice and content, knowing Taylor was okay, and had slept better than she had in a while.
Of course, after waking up, she had immediately begun stressing as she prepared for the day, because she knew she was going to be the only Protectorate Hero actually patrolling today during her shift due to everyone else being at the super-secret meeting or whatever, so she knew that something was going to happen, her luck had been too on the nose for it not to, which was why even a few hours before her patrol would even start, she was pacing around her living room in costume.
"No, no, no, surely nothing's gonna happen, right?" Verity assured herself. "...But what if something does, oh god, of all the places to end up, why a superhero universe?"
"Ssss."
"Not now, Charlie." Verity said, pushing the snake away from her face. "Can't you see I'm busy stressing out right now?"
"Sss."
"Not you too, Bravo."
"Sss."
"Ugh, can't even stress properly any more, what's the point of worrying then?" Verity asked as she laid down face-first on her couch. "Nothing's gonna happen."
"Medusa come in, do you copy?" Came the voice of PRT Agent currently on consol.
"Loud and clear, what's wrong?" Medusa asked, immediately pulling herself up as she answered, already heading for the door.
"The Undersiders are currently in the middle of robbing the Bay Central, how far are you from downtown?"
"Currently at home, already heading out." Verity said, her speed doubling when she heard 'Undersiders', slipping into full lamia mode.
"Then you should be able to get there quick enough so we don't have to pull the Wards from their classes, we will be sending two squads as back up."
"Understood, Medusa out." Verity said, ending the line, already heading in the rough proper direction. "Computer, plot course to Bay Central."
"Course plotted," Came the response as it began to give directions, Verity accelerating to her full speed as it did.
And it took her about four minutes to arrive at the rather immaculate looking bank that already had police cars stationed outside.
"Are they still inside?" Verity asked the nearest officer as she approached.
"They are, and they seem to have taken hostages," The officer replied. "Though no demands for ransom have been given so we assume they are just being used as a shield while they plan an escape route."
"Heh, shit." Verity said, her incumbent rage being pushed down in favor of dealing with this properly. "Well, obviously, I'm going in, have everyone out here be ready, based on previous experiences the dog one may run the second she sees me." She paused. "Wait, shit, no she's really volatile… fuck, dammit, this is the only thing I can do, I'm going up to the door, watch the exits."
"Will do ma'am though do wait a second for the PRT to arrive for I can see them just down the road," The cop stated.
"Thank you, first hostage situation, still new to this." Verity said, anxiously waiting for the first of the PRT to set up before slithering up the stairs to the main entrance, though as she did the doors burst open and a wave of darkness came rushing out of the bank.
"Ain't afraid of the dark, kid!" Verity said as she spread her hair out to hopefully act as a net to at least feel if one of them tried to pass, cautiously slithering in. "Listen, you kids give up now, slap on the wrist. If things get like last time, there will be no turning back." She said, following her other senses.
"Sorry can't let you do that, I was paid so they could get away," Said an oddly androgonous voice as she felt fire impact her face, and Verity could feel it singe her face.
"That was my face." Verity said calmly before lunging forward in the direction the fire had come from, hair still fanned out like a cobra hood to potentially grab whoever this was.
"Missed~," The unknown Cape replied on her right, the darkness making it now muddled. "Now move it you brats or you wanna get thrown in jail."
"Get over here!" Verity said, lunging towards the source of the noise.
And once again she got nothing.
"Okay, this is getting frustrating." Verity said, focusing on her sense of smell since apparently sound wasn't quite accurate either.
And as she did she immediately took in the scent of three of the Undersiders and... three? three dogs moving towards her. She could tell they were about to pass by her left and right in clusters… and she also noticed that Amy's smell was also present in the bank.
Deciding to go with the bigger threat, and now knowing Amy was here for any immediate treatment that may be needed, she lunged at the group to the left of her, impacting into what felt and sounded like very large dogs, immediately scratching the one closer and sending out her hair to grab whatever else was in range.
"Gargh let fucking go," Verity heard Hellhound say as her hair grabbed her.
"Dammit Grue cut the darkness, she can smell us," Came the voice of Tattletale, and a second later the darkness dissipated revealing the bank's lobby.
And Verity finally could properly see what the fuck was going on, Hellhound was struggling in her hair, and the dog she had been riding was ineffectively gnawing on her hair to get its master free.
On the left was the two dogs she had barreled into one down thanks to her venom, while the other was growling while it stood in front of Grue, Tattletale and Regent. While in the middle stood the unknown cape.
Verity immediately plunged for the obvious circus performer with...cotton candy for a head? Not important, what was important was that she was lunging, aiming to stab them in the leg with her claw.
And once again they dodged with superhuman reflexes as they pulled forth several throwing knives which were quickly thrown at her hair. The additional manifested snakes easily bashing them out of the air.
"Well aren't you just the entire circus." Verity snarked as the attempt to run stilled. "Though aren't you a little old for this group?"
"Money is money," They replied as another fireball manifested in their hand and launched it at Verity who just tanked the attack, the ball of flames only doing minimal damage to her outfit.
"Rude!" Verity said, lunging again, this time at the remaining dogs, scratching both with her claws as she passed, standing directly in front of the remaining Undersiders. "Speaking of rude. Remember me?"
"How does she do that?" Regent asked as he pointed his staff at her, Verity lowering Hellhound between them as he did.
"So, you all obviously don't care about the lives of others, do you care about the lives of your own?" Verity asked, having read what his power did.
"She is bluffing Regent," Came the voice of Tattletale and Verity then watched as two pins was launched from his staff indicating that the thing was a taser which hit Hellhound dead on, and delivered a rather strong shock that made her twitch in her hair.
"Well, I thought you could read minds, but I guess I was wrong." Verity said looking at Tattletale as Hellhound writhed in pain. "Now, I recommend surrendering, please?"
"What kind of Hero are you? That stuff isn't part of a Protectorate Cape's modus operandi," Tattletale said in confusion.
"I just genuinely thought you wouldn't hurt your friend, to be honest." Verity said, slithering closer. "Now, surrender, please."
And as soon as she said that Verity felt a light bonk on her head and the sound of snapping wood. "Well… that usually works," Came the groaning reply of cotton candy who had just gotten caught by her hair.
"Well that solves that issue." Verity said, a smile on her face, reaching back and scratching cotton candy's leg just in case. "Now, do I need to say it again?"
"We surrender," Tattletale said as she lifted up her hands in surrender and so did Grue and Regent, Verity saying as such through her comm to the officers outside.
"Fucking knew we shouldn't have gone for the Bank," Grue grumbled.
"You say that like you had other options." Verity said as she pulled out her cuffs, starting with Grue who was closest, while quickly saying the Miranda rights to the group as she did.
"Fucking stay quiet Grue," Regent said as the PRT officers came into the lobby.
"No no, keep talking, it'll help in the long run." Verity said as she cuffed Regent.
None of them said anything as they were being escorted out of the bank by the PRT and Verity.
"Alright, seriously though, plea bargains are a thing for a reason, most of you haven't killed anyone or anything." Verity said as they loaded them onto the PRT Van. "One of you is literally named Tattletale, you're telling me none of you are willing to tattle?"
Tattletale herself just gave her a scowl that then returned to being a smirk. "Well you should know why we don't need to." She said as the door was closed.
"...Hey, I'm gonna personally stick with the escort back to base, that sounded way too ominous for my tastes." Verity said.
"Actually Medusa we're going to need your help with carrying the 'dogs' out of the bank," A PRT officer said.
"Well, they're all going to the same place, right, I'll be right behind you guys, and be careful en route just in case?" Verity said worriedly.
"Don't worry they won't be able to pull an escape attempt if that is what you're worried about," Another PRT officer stated.
"If you're sure." Verity said, before heading back into the bank and grabbing two of the downed dogs at once over her shoulders, more issues with the size than the weight as she brought them out.
Once again smelling Amy, she looked around for the little healer, giving her a wave with her tail who returned an awkward one before exiting with the dogs.
"Thank you for the assist, please follow us back to PRT HQ for debrief," An officer said as Verity loaded the dogs into the other van.
"Alright, hopefully I'm just being a worrywart for nothing." Verity said as they got going.
Xxx
And thankfully she was.
As the Undersiders had arrived at PRT HQ safely as that was there they kept the cells for lower-level Parahumans. The Prison Cells were designed to contain people like Lung which was a bit overkill for the teen criminals that had no Brute ratings or a rep sheet a mile long. Though the one she now knew as Circus (ha! She'd been right!) had to put in a straight jacket so they couldn't use the stuff in the hammer space they apparently had.
And right now Verity was sitting in front of Director Piggot as she gave a verbal report.
"Another capture under your belt Medusa," The Director said. "One each day so far."
"I am probably more surprised than you are about that, ma'am." Verity said, legitimately not 100% sure how she kept getting away like this.
"Well, good work," She said. "Now can we talk about the Independent you've been in contact with?"
"Yes, I have actually managed to convince her to join the Wards, her father will be calling to set up a meeting sometime over the weekend most likely." Verity said happily.
"Then we will hope it's a successful recruitment," Piggot stated. "Now speaking of the weekend, you will have Consol Duty with Shadow Stalker on Saturday."
"Understood, works fine with me." Verity said. "Has she been acting up at all?"
"No, she has been rather docile compared to her usual behavior," Piggot answered.
"Good, good. Hopefully I can have a more civil conversation with her after Consol Duty's done." Verity said.
"Yes, and hopefully you can make her continue her current behavior, now go down to the mess and get something to eat, your patrol starts in almost an hour," Piggot stated.
"Yes, ma'am."
Xxx
"You know for being so big you're rather hard to find," Said above Verity as she came to a stop, she looked up to see Glory Girl floating above her, dressed in that Lady Liberty looking costume of hers.
"Really? I'm basically wearing a traffic cone." Verity joked. "Need me for something? Kinda on patrol right now."
"Just came to thank for saving Amy's hide," She said as she floated down beside her.
"Oh yeah, of course, no problem." Verity said. "Didn't even know she was there till that one kid turned out the lights, sorry, can we walk and talk?"
"You walk, I fly, the ground is for peasants," Victoria joked as she floated beside Verity as they moved.
"Walking is for peasants." Verity joked back, indicating her current lack of legs. "But seriously, yeah, no problem, I'm always willing to help."
"Wow you can go full lamia?" She said in fascination.
"Yeah, figured it out the other day." Verity said, head on a swivel as she looked for anything potentially needing her intervention, snakes on alert as was becoming normal to hopefully cover her blindspots. "Still learning new stuff about my powers, it's pretty sick, you have anything like that happen with you?"
"No, my power is rather one note compared to all the stuff you've got going on," Victoria replied with a sigh.
"Well, at least you don't need everything custom made." Verity said.
"Yeah, just buying and shopping off the rack in a brand store is something I will never want to give up," She replied.
Verity scoffed. "I never had that in the first place, hold on to that while you can."
"So how much do you remember? Because every other Case53 in the world seems to have zero memories basides language and common knowledge skills," Victoria asked.
"Basically everything but names and dates." Verity answered truthfully. "Only problem is, I already had memory problems, so who knows if there's something else I'm forgetting that I can't even remember I'm forgetting? That I completely forgot to remember to even forget?"
"Dates and names? That seems oddly specific," Victoria stated, seemingly not wanting to comment on the tangent.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure whatever pulled me from my Earth is what did it." Verity said without thinking about it, as focused on potential dangers as she was, before immediately realizing what she had just said and groaning. "Please don't repeat that to anyone."
"Repeat what?" Victoria asked as she turned her head back to Verity seemingly having been distracted by something.
"Was there something over there?" Verity asked, looking in the same direction Victoria had just been looking.
"Yeah, I think I just saw one getting pulled into that alley," Victoria said as she pointed a finger at an alleyway that went in between two apartment buildings.
"Well, obviously I'm checking that out, feel free to follow if you wish." Verity said, immediately heading for said alleyway.
Which led to a small courtyard where the two of them came upon a scene of a young african-american guy currently being beaten up by a caucasian guy while another one had him restrained.
"Stop." Verity ordered, rising up a bit and spreading her snakes threateningly, drawing their attention.
"Shit its the snake bitch!" The one that was holding the young man shouted as he let go and went for what was probably a gun underneath his jacket.
"Do you want me to repeat myself?" Verity asked as she grabbed his wrists each with a snake, a third in front of his face, and another in front of the one who had been doing the beating, both hissing. "I said. Stop."
And they immediately held up their hands in surrender.
"Better." Verity said, before turning her focus to the dude on the ground, gaze softening as she smiled and extended a hand to him. "Need a hand?"
"Thank you, but I think they cracked a rib," He said as he held his stomach.
"Oh, shit, Glory Girl?"
"I am on it," She answered as she shook her phone.
"Other than the rib, do you feel okay? Does it feel like you have a concussion or anything?"
"No they didn't go for the head," He answered as he eyed the restrained criminals.
"You know these guys, or is this just a random hate crime?"
"I don't but going by their earlier words, they saw me with my girlfriend, and they got the idea to beat me up so I didn't 'taint' their white girl," He answered with a growl.
"Eugh, gross." Verity blanched, before turning a glare to the two in question. "You fuckers E88 or just garden variety racist assholes?"
"Wannabe ones, probably thought this could I have given them an in?" The victim said as he glared at his attackers who just glared at the both of them.
"Maybe. If they are, they're like Hookwolf- all bark and no bite." Verity taunted to see how they would react.
Both of their scowls increased while the one that had been beating up the african american spoke. "You fucking cheated you monster bitch, Kaiser is going to have you hide soon enough."
"Ha! Knew it." Verity said with a grin. "And really, what's he gonna do? Throw cutlery at me? Make me a salad?"
"...Ah I get it," Glory Girl said with a laugh which the young man joined in on.
With the fuckwads just responding by yelling curses and slurs at her.
"Well the cops and an ambulance is on its way now, so hopefully it shouldn't be long," Victoria said as she pocketed her phone.
"Good, good, I need to get back on patrol." Verity said, mentally weighing her options. "Uh, would you mind staying here with them while I keep going?"
"Oh sure, do you've got any cuffs on you? I don't have straps right now," Victoria said as she looked at the two Nazi-thugs still restrained by Verity's hair.
"Oh, yeah, of course." Verity said, pulling some from the bag she'd taken to carrying specifically for stuff like this (also neon orange and bearing her symbol), handing a pair to Victoria while she cuffed the other and read him his rights.
"Well you two can enjoy a few years in jail probably, rethink your life while you do so," Victoria said after she finished stating the one she was cuffing's rights.
The two just grumbled in response.
"Alright, see ya GG!" Verity said as she exited the alleyway to continue her patrol.
"See ya Bigger V," She responded.
"Ha! Nice."
"Glad you like it," She responded as Verity left the courtyard and continued on with her patrol.
Halfway done with it now.
And as she did she got a message from Clockblocker that the other Protectorate Heroes had finished up their Seminar and would be going on patrol soon enough.
Thankfully there was no other incidents during the rest of her patrol, and so when the clock hit seven she went back home to write her report.
Verity let out a long sigh of relief as she entered her house. "Ah, man, that was somehow my least eventful and most stressful patrol yet…" She said to herself as she unmerged her tail and heading for the bathroom. "Gotta keep this track record going…"
Xxx
Verity awoke to the sound of her phone ringing and, knowing only important people could call her, blearily answered without even checking who it was. "Hello, this is Verity, ho-" She answered with a yawn. "How can I help you?"
"Ah sorry for waking you up Verity," Came Sabah's voice. "I thought you were already since it's like nine."
"Nah, it's fine, I was just catching up on lost sleep, no patrol or anything today." Verity said as she stretched and got out of bed. "So wazzup?"
"Well I was wondering if you would come over for dinner tonight? I got the leftovers from my grandma's birthday last evening and it's way too much for me alone," She explained.
"Oh, yeah sure, I'd love to, I don't have anything planned for today." Verity said, easily accepting that since Sabah was her only real peer-level friend at the moment. "We can talk some more and get to know each other better, it sounds great."
"Yeah! I'll see you at five-thirty then," Replied Sabah's very happy voice.
"That works, see you then."
"Yeah, see you then." And at that the call ended.
"Epic, already hanging out with friends." Verity said to herself as she stretched out her back again before getting ready for the day, and then deciding to make cookies for the night. After those were done, she mostly just enjoyed her day off and did some online shopping… or rather, putting stuff on her wishlist for later when she had money, since she had about 30 dollars to her name at the moment since she wouldn't be getting paid till next week.
And so, Verity arrived at Sabah's workshop with a solid 10 minutes to spare, a container of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies in her bag, wearing an orange sweater Sabah had made that even had her logo on it with a more subdued navy skirt.
"Hey, you're a bit early," Sabah said as opened the door, her mask on for the moment. "And what you've got there?"
"Cookies, I always like bringing dessert when people treat me to food." Verity said as she entered. "And I just really hate being late, to answer out of order."
"You shouldn't have, I've got ice cream in the fridge," She answered as she took off her mask after she closed the door. "But I'll definitely take anything made by you. They are bound to be great."
"Aw, thanks, it's an old family recipe." Verity said, not catching that Sabah hadn't had her baking yet. "So, what kind of food are we having tonight? I know you said leftovers from a party, but that means I have even less idea what to guess."
"Do you like spicy? Because my family has a hard on for that, and today is the Indian kind," Sabah answered.
"Oh yeah, I love spicy food!" Verity said eagerly. "Never really eaten Indian food I don't think, so it'll probably be interesting."
"Well it is definitely going to be an experience, let's get up stairs, and I'll start heating it up," Sabah said as they left the workshop and went up to her apartment.
"So I heard that you took out the Undersiders yesterday?" Sabah asked as they entered the kitchen where she began to take the food from her fridge. And she had been right; there was a lot for one person to eat.
"Yeah, they were robbing a bank with this...weird clown, I already forgot what they were called, who had like cotton candy for a head, I think? Maybe a mask? I was paying more attention to the Undersiders after what they did before." Verity began to ramble. "I thought the one was a mind reader or future predictor or something, but apparently no, because she basically told the taser to taze their own friend, which was really surprising and a bit of a dick move, you know? I really wasn't expecting them to do that."
"That would be Circus, he? She? They? they are kind of a cross between a mercenary and a thief," Sabah said as she turned on the stove. "And I am going to need a bit more context for the other part, why would she tell her one teammate to taze the other one?"
"Oh, so, Hellhound, the dog whisperer or whatever, they'd all been escaping on some of her dogs while Grue, the one who can spread darkness, was doing his thing, but it apparently doesn't do anything to scent, and lemme tell you, those dogs stink, so I tackled the one and captured Hellhound in my hair before cornering the rest of them, and when Regent went to do the tazy thingy I put Hellhound in between as a threat, because they seemed to have some group cohesion right? But then Tattletale, the one I thought was a mind reader or future teller or something with that name and how she knew I was coming last time, said I was bluffing and Regent tased her. Like I said, really wasn't expecting that."
"Well she is probably some form of Thinker, and probably got, like, a bad reading on you and her power told her that you would," Sabah said. "People online say that Thinkers rely too much on their power and so don't have very much common sense because their power lets them believe they are the smartest person in the room at all times."
"Ah, yeah, the Brainiac Complex." Verity said with a nod.
"Brainiac Complex?" Sabah asked in curiosity.
"Brainiac's this alien supercomputer who likes to put cities in bottles and then destroy the planet they're from, claims to be one of the smartest things in the universe, but absolutely no sense of how people actually act or react." Verity explained. "Big one is that he says he's 'preserving cultures' by bottling them, but then actively destroys the cultures in question."
"So they have the power of super intelligence but not the power of super wisdom?" She asked.
"Yeah… yeah, that's actually a really good way of phrasing it!" Verity agreed as she thought on it for a moment. "I'm stealing that for the future."
"Guess I should call the cops when that happens," Sabah said as she put what looked like stuffed peppers into the oven.
"Oh nooo, not the people with the peashooters and the tiny metal bracelets." Verity said monotonously. "Whatever would I do in face of such overwhelming might?"
"Okay you can tone down the sarcasm a bit," Sabah replied.
"Sorry, I thought we were bantering." Verity apologized, dialing down her comedian instincts. "That's how I banter."
"And sadly it is banter I don't know how to respond appropriately to," Sabah answered.
"Ah, sorry, we should be able to better gauge each other's banter-o-meters soon enough though."
"Snrk, okay that is a good one, so has anything else of note happened?"
"Uhhhh… I stopped a hate crime yesterday with Glory Girl, nothing too major, but apparently Kaiser's out for my head now, which is 'fun' to think about."
"After how you humiliated Hookwolf, one of his strongest Lieutenants, yeah he would," Sabah said. "So do you think he is ever going to stop being a rolling stone?"
"Rolling stone?" Verity repeated, not understanding.
"Yeah, that is what he is right?" Sabah asked.
"...Ohhh, you mean Hookwolf, okay I thought we were still talking about Kaiser, was really confused for a second there." Verity said, having thought for just a moment Kaiser might have been this universe's Mick Jagger. "Yeah I have no idea, we're still figuring out how to turn the poor pig I tested it out on back, Hookwolf's probably gonna stay like that though, so far whatever I turn to stone stays stone, but alive. Could be permanent, could be time based, not sure, but blasting them again does nothing." She'd also found that her eyes saw 'wood' as being inanimate, for some reason, so she melted through it like anything else, but left stone entirely alone.
"Well I hope he stays like that, have him be turned into a lawn ornament or something like that," Sabah responded.
"Ha! Yeah, that'd be great, but no I think he's gonna be in the Rig or a lab for a loooong time." Verity said. "You know, just in case he turns back."
"Makes sense." Silence reigned for a few seconds before the seamstress spoke up again. "So what are your favorite kinds of movies?"
"Oh, uh, horror or like, Hallmark movies." Verity said, not mentioning the real second was 'anime ones' since anime didn't exist in the same capacity. "I don't really watch movies."
"What about shows? I've got a lot of sitcoms?" Sabah said.
"Ehh, I don't… actually own a television, so… I don't really know what this earth's tv is like?" Verity admitted, before realizing what she just said. "Dammit, again?"
"This earth?"
"Uhhh, yeah, I'm kind of not native to this universe." Verity said, deciding to stick to her slip-up and tell the truth. "At least I'm 99.99% certain, since history is very different here."
"Huh? You know how that happened?" She asked.
"How I got here or how history was different?" Verity asked back. "Because the former is a big 'no'."
"Well that's a mystery and a half, because there is only really one person who did that stuff and he's dead now," Sabah said.
"Yeah, that's what I've been hearing." Verity sighed. "The bigger problem honestly was that my last memory from before getting here was driving with my friends, so they might be here too, or other universes, and I wouldn't be able to tell since I obviously didn't look like this before, so they probably don't either."
"...Well I hope they arrived here and someday you find them," Sabah said as the timer went off and she pulled out the stuffed peppers and placed them on the table along with the rest of food, consisting of rice, a pot of curry with beef cubes and another that had chicken legs in it.
"Yeah, hopefully." Verity said as she helped Sabah do so. "Sorry for being a downer, it's really hard to talk about anything from before without that happening." She said, doing her damndest not to drool at the tantalizing scent of stuffed peppers.
"Yeah the same is true for me and talking about Basra," She responded. "So I get it."
"Basra? What's- well, I mean, If you don't mind, I know you just said- I'm going to stop talking now."
"Well the food is ready so let's eat a bit first," Sabah said as she sat down.
"Yes, right, sorry, thank you." Verity said, trying to fight down the heat she could feel in her face as she took a 'seat'. "Oh, man, I haven't had stuffed peppers in so long…" She said as she took a bite and immediately went from 'embarrassed and a bit down' to 'up' as it were. "Oh my god, this is fantastic, did your family make these?"
"Yeah," She answered. "Well grandma did, she was in the kitchen the entire day."
"For her own birthday? Or was it a different grandma?"
"Her own birthday, she takes every opportunity she can to cook for the family, and her birthday is one of the few times we're all gathered," She answered.
"Oh, okay, right, sorry, my connotations for birthdays are probably a bit different from most, my family's weird." Verity apologized. "But, seriously though, this is fantastic, you'll have to give your grandma a thanks from me because this is incredible."
"I will be happy to tell her that," Sabah replied.
"Yes, please do." Verity said, taking a spoonful of curry- and immediately feeling like she was punched in the face by the spices. "Oh, okay, so when you, you said spice, you really meant, okay, okaaay."
"Milk is right here," Sabah said as she filled her glass.
Verity greedily drank from said glass as her eyes watered a bit. "Okay, uh, turns out first time trying spices is spicy."
"I guess your new taste buds are new?" She asked.
"Maybe, but I've also never had real curry." Verity admitted. "I'm more used to just like, raw peppers, I ate a ghost pepper once even."
"Well you're a brave soul," Sabah replied. "I like this and even I wouldn't dare eat one."
"Yeah, I think I drank a gallon of milk, threw up, and passed out… I think? I don't really remember, I just remember spice."
"That sounds like the standard thing that happens, there is a reason why they are called ghost peppers," Sabah replied.
"Yeah, you know, that's a good point." Verity agreed as she ate another spoonful of curry, immediately holding back tears. "And you know what they say, only way to git gud is to practice."
"I'll go get some more milk," She said as she stood up. "And some creme fraiche, forgot that."
"K." Verity squeaked as she continued to eat regardless.
She came back a few seconds later with more milk and a tub that contained some kind of cream.
"Mix that with curry it should dull the spiciness a bit and make it taste just as good if not even better," Sabah said as she put some of it in her own curry before mixing it.
Verity gave her a thumbs up as she downed another glass of milk before doing just that.
"Well," Sabah said some time later as she leaned against her chair. "Going by how much you ate I assume the curry became to your liking?"
"Yeah, more or less." Verity said as she wiped her mouth with a napkin. "I think my regen made me get used to it quicker, which was nice, and when I did it was just plain good."
"Yeah I am glad that you-," Sabah's voice was cut out as Verity's world became a cacophony of noise, heat and Pain.
Xxx
Verity's head was ringing as she came to.
Her eyes opened and her vision was filled with broken concrete that from how she felt was also on top of her.
"HAHAHAHAHA! Did you fucking see that, that is my fucking genius, that is what you get for messing with the ABB you over grown snake!" A female voice shouted in celebration.
Verity took a moment to assess her situation.
Sabah underneath her, badly burned, a piece of rebar piercing through her stomach.
The rebar was also sticking through Verity's stomach, she realized, but that didn't matter very much at the moment.
And Sabah was still conscious, her eyes filled with fear as she stared up at Verity, her breathing quick and uneven.
"Sabah… I'm going to need you to trust me on what I'm about to do, okay?" Verity asked as she pushed herself up a bit, ignoring the rubble weighing down on her for the moment, as she slid up the rebar, and gripped the now freed and blood-slicked section with one hand, pushing aside the urge to vomit at having the rebar rub against her guts. "Cause this is gonna hurt."
She nodded her head.
"Okay…" Verity said, before strangling her own screams as she proceeded to pull the rebar up and push it up and back through her own stomach to get it out, and mercifully her healing seemed to be pushing it out once she got to the edge. "Here comes the real shit part." She said, before biting down on Sabah's neck.
She let out a small grunt as Verity did so.
And after a few seconds she removed her fangs.
And as she stared at Sabah she watched as the hole in her stomach began to close up, her skin healing as well.
"I am da best, I am da best, I took out the biggest fucking deal in the Bay, not Kaiser, not Lung, I Bakuda, the greatest Tinker since fucking He-."
Bakuda's gloating was cut off as Verity threw the rubble off of her and rose up, immediately tracking on to Bakuda, the primary colors standing out. "You broke the rules." Verity declared as her hair rose up behind her. "So I'm going to break you."
"How the fuck are you still alive? That was supposed to be a sun!" Bakuda shouted as she took aim with her grenade launcher.
Verity, meanwhile, was not up for banter at the moment. "Die." She ordered, before ten beams all fired as one and converged on the dead woman walking.
And in an instant Bakuda was turned to stone.
Verity, however, did not stop firing even as she did.
She continued blasting the now-immune-to-stoning-power statue for a solid minute before ceasing.
As she did, she noticed it was not the only statue.
There were, in fact, five other statues, as apparently Bakuda had brought mooks that literally had not registered until now, and were mainly identifiable as such by the guns they were holding.
"Medusa to Consol." Verity said as she went for her comm… and then realized nothing was there, and as she took a moment to look herself over for it, she found she was… basically naked, save for the ash staining her form. "...Dammit I really liked that outfit." She cursed before turning around to focus on Sabah. "Parian, you feeling okay?"
"What happened?" She asked.
"ABB bomber bitch blew us up." Verity said. "Apparently with the force or heat of the sun, which is genuinely kind of comforting to know I can survive." She said, before reaching down and picking up Sabah in her arms. "Let's maybe get out of this first and then discuss, yeah?"
"My home, my things," She said as she looked at the now absolutely ruined house. "It's gone."
"You can stay at my place while we try and get everything fixed up, if you want?" Verity offered. "Since it's… kind of my fault she blew up your house? Really fucking sorry about that."
"No, no, no don't say that, this isn't your fault, it's that… oh wow," She said as she took notice of the Bakuda statue.
"Yeah." Verity said, no regret in her voice. "Oh, before I forget, you should probably jury rig up a mask for yourself, unless you wanna get cocooned."
"I take the cocoon, I can't feel any of my stuff, too buried," She answered. "And oh god, I think we weren't the only ones that were hit."
"What?" Verity asked, before looking out- and seeing smoke rising off in the distance from a number of different places. "Shit, okay, uh, how are you feeling right now? Up to maybe making your way somewhere safe on your own? Cause I need to head towards those."
"Hmm, shouldn't you still rush home cause…" Sabah's voice went still as her face got beat red.
"Why would I need to do that? Nothing really to display right now, you are seeing the extent of it." Verity said as she began moving towards the nearest smoke pillar.
"Still, but I can head towards grandma's place, see if she is okay, because I think a few places have lost power," She said as the street light that should be on were not.
"Okay, you go do that, we'll meet up again later." Verity said, stopping for a moment to set Sabah down on her feet. "Stay safe." She said before rushing off.
It was hero time.