Drill Chrysalis
Chapter 1: "This size will not contain us!"
This is the story of a woman who has yet to realize her destiny,
-=-For a moment, Taylor felt her pain press down on her like a mountain,
[DESTINATION]
her fate a monument to despair,
felt the sorrow swell and resignation rear its head,
[AGGREMENT]
degradation, and self-compromise,
for a moment,
[TRAJECTORY]
And how
but,
[AGGREM-]
she REFUSED!
SHE REMADE IT.
In this dimension, Earth lay dead.
Killed by an arrival beyond human comprehension. A... Thing-not quite a machine, but it's thoughts are regimented, it's body made of crystal grown like flesh. It's title in our language was, approximately, Queen Administrator.
It was, of course, not unique- a member of a swarm intelligence of others like itself. These beings combed the cosmos for resources and knowledge to keep themselves alive, near always to the expense of those less powerful than they.
It had just been in communication with it's leader, to the end of linking a fraction of itself to a Host, that their body and mind be used to further stir the petri-dish they'd made of their world. Even as they conferred Queen Administrator had nearly completed the connection.
But, somehow it's leader's confirmation was cut off. The Queen Administrator did not care, to dumbstruck at the realization of what she had connected to. In seeming response to it's kind's goal it's Host had spontaneously started generating some form of energy with no noticeable catalyst!
The fragmentary creature immediately set about attempting to analyz-~~*# !
When the Shard regained awareness (and when did it gain that in the first place?) it saw the world, saw itself through a new context,
"We are all so small in the end." She reflected.
*CRAA-C-C-CK-K*
Threads of power heaved and twisted at continents worth of crystalline flesh, she ignored the frantic attempts of communication of her fellow parasites and reached, reached for something she'd thought didn't exist but had been staring her in the face all this time!
And as she strode into the infinite, she knew new [PURPOSE].
*R-R-R-A-A-A-T-TLE*
Taylor's locker shook, hard, vibrating the entire row of lockers and wall behind it, multi-colored lights shined through the slats and around the edges of the door. As it had for going forty minutes now. The police were here in the first twenty.
That was when things started to fall apart.
Veader had run up and started hollering before the first cop had opened their mouth. His motor-mouth had gotten out the whole story before they could say anything. They might have been able to brush it off when the school denied it, but one of the dumber jocks apparently decided to be "helpful". The jerk stormed up to where the cops were trying to calm Veader down, and grabbed him by the back of his jacket, and moved to pull him away. He didn't get to take a step back before the dweeb had slipped his coat, made a spinning jump, and clocked the jock across the face hard enough to split his cheek.
The lug didn't go down, but stumbled back and, dazed, spat, "Damn-it Veader, I was just gonna get you to shut up, but now-!" It was at that point the jock looked up and realized there were tasers pointed at both of them. Greg smiled like a shark, "Shut up about what, jackass?"
The Protectorate had arrived by now.
They'd gathered her, Veader, Sophia into the principal's office
As she gazes at her reflection in Armsmaster's visor, Emma Barnes can feel her future slipping down the drain.
She has one last chance to salvage this.
"I-I was just trying to help her, to make her strong," She stuttered, a deliberately deranged sob-story on the back of her tongue, when someone cut her off,
"She's lying."
The Ward Gallant had spoken up, his helmet staring intently at her.
Sophia was glaring death at her.
The Protectorate leader nodded towards the young knight, "My lie-detector concurs." The tinker turned back to her, his jaw set in a scowl, "Miss Barnes I think it would be in your best interests to tell me only the truth as you understand-."
*CLUNK*
The tinker's head snapped up, the rattling of Taylor's locker had stopped, and suddenly there was a commotion from the PRT outside the office window.
Emma looked.
She looked different, in a way that had nothing to do with the clinging trash, rotten blood staining her clothes, nor the colorful mists wafting off her. She felt...larger than she was, as if she were bigger than the world and reality was struggling to deny it. Even with her head turned down Emma felt her regard, felt a presence that seemed a hundred feet tall, yet looked her clear in the eyes.
With a start, she realized Taylor suddenly was looking her in the eyes, eyes full of purple swirls lined in blue-gold.
Her eyes...
They begged her, those eyes begged that she wake up, that she stand!
Emma felt as if looking up to the peak of a mountain, looking at those pleading eyes.
A mountain that wanted for her to be so tall.
How?
Why, why did this being who felt like they could take the sky in hand ask of her as if- as if...
Emma realized suddenly, Taylor didn't stand above her-
she had buried herself.
Miss Militia approached the Hebert girl carefully, hands out and palms facing forward.
"Young lady, can you hear me?" she asked.
No response.
Militia moved a hand towards her weapon and crept closer. She could see into the office, just in time for the girl behind Armsmaster to break down crying. Militia caught a reflection of Hebert's eyes in the window-pane,
"Master power?" She gripped her weapon as it shifted into a desert eagle. Only to be startled nearly onto her ass as the girl erupted in flames the color of her changed eyes. Miss Militia drew her weapon, settled into a stance, and opened her mouth to demand the young parahuman to stand down, but closed it again as she was buffeted by a forceful wind, moving a hand to shield her face.
The wind suddenly blasted upwards.
Emily Piggot stared in horror as a pillar of multi-colored flame speared into the sky and in seconds, spread to encompass the sky past the horizon.