by Louis IX
Check first chapter for disclaimer and global warnings. This is written in a style of disjointed thoughts, although still linked logically and orderly. Mostly.
Fifteen Puzzle"Oh I wish I could exchange my life with Emma's." was Taylor's thought as she banged on the locker's locked door from inside. "She would rue the day she turned on me!"
"I hope I did good when I pushed Tays in her locker." was Emma's. "Sophia has been more difficult to please, lately."
"Should I kill a Merchant, tonight, or disturb a Nazi rally?" was Sophia's. "Hmm… decisions, decisions."
"Blah! Blaaah!" was the thought from the sheep disguised into a girl named Madison – sheep can trigger into parasheep too, apparently, and gain Stranger/Changer powers so as to appear as humans (although some bleating is expected).
"I can't let this bullying continue! I must do something!" was Greg Veder's. "I know! I'll denounce Emma to Blackwell! And then Taylor will go out with me!"
"I tire of those snot-nosed brats." was the Principal's. "Another one demanding for us adults to wipe his… nose. No? Someone else's? Ah, it's a boy asking for a girl. To get laid, no doubt. If I refuse, he'll make a stink… better send a janitor."
"Damn!" was Sophia's thought a few seconds later, after Blackwell had used the (admittedly defective) public announcement system to call for some adult to come. "I'm outta here!"
"Damn!" Emma thought. "She hasn't even smiled! What's wrong with her? With me? With Taylor?"
"Hnnng…" was Taylor's as she was pulled out of the smelly enclosure. She wasn't conscious enough to notice the trip to the hospital.
"What an horrid sight." thought Panacea, looking at Taylor's bloated legs. "Let's cure that… hey! What's happening? Why isn't my power working?"
"Ngah! I'm alive! I'm alive?" Taylor thought as her eyes opened. And then data assaulted her senses. "Wow! Is that my body? Is that Panacea? Is it because she's healing me that I get such a detailed view of myself? Can I get better legs? And skin? And breasts? And eyes? Oh yeah, that's the thing!"
"Why can't I see her biology anymore?" Amy Dallon's thoughts turned frantic. "It's as if I don't have my power anymore! Is she a nullifier?"
"Here is the room I have been told Panacea was in." was the thought in Kayden Russell's head, as the woman pushed the door. And the being also named Purity decided to go full light, grab Panacea, and fly through the window with the miracle healer. "And now, destination home, and I'll blackmail the PRT so that they'll return my daughter in exchange for the miracle healer. That'll teach them not to annoy the Mother Bear. Hey! How comes it's dark, suddenly? And why am I falling?"
"Why are we falling?" was the equally frantic thought in Amy's mind, except that, in her panic, her powers activated automatically… and she slowed down to leisure float. Within a nimbus of light. Yes, that was her new power. "I have another power? I have Purity's power? What the hell? In any case, I'm a Lantern, now – the term we use in our family for us flying light-bearers… that is, most of us. And now that I'm like the rest of the family, perhaps Carol will accept me?"
"Damn. Here she goes. Away." commented Kayden listlessly. At least, Amy Dallon had been considerate enough to grab her before she had fallen too far, and to deposit her on a rooftop nearby. "How am I going to blackmail the PRT, now? How am I going to fight, even? Without my powers… how is it possible for her to steal my powers? Why… she didn't even touch me, and I have been told that she needed to touch people with her hand to change them. Well… nothing for it, let's head home. At least Theo is there tonight. I'm sure he made some Lasagne."
"Damn Lasagne!" the boy grumbled. "Why is it the only recipe in this world? Here comes Kayden. I hope she doesn't discover that I triggered. I… what's this hand coming from the curtains? Kayden's got her hand in her pocket? Kayden got my power?"
"What's this? I got a new power? Stranger and stranger… I'd better ask Max. If rumours are to be believed, Panacea can counter Bonesaw's ability to create plagues, and that means that she can create them too. If there's a power-stealing plague around, it should be a medical emergency, and MedHall's CEO should be in the know."
"What does the bitch want, this time?" was Max Anders' thought when he noticed the face peeking at the security screen for his secure office. "Better be important. And I'm not including her daughter in that. Men don't engage in their children's life before they're ten, after all. At least. At least, that's what my parents said… and did. Like I did with Theo, too. That went swimmingly, even if I hated them. And Theo hates me, I can see it. I wonder why. Damn, she's still speaking. Why did God give shrill voices to women if he wanted us to listen?"
"There, I told him." Kayden thought. "Although… now that I think of everything… was it wise to bring Theo? He's saying something to his father, saying he finally got powers, and plunging his hand into his pockets…"
"I don't know what he wanted to show me." Max thought. "But I hope it wasn't the way he sliced through his pants legs. With blades. That weren't there before. If I'm not mistaken, it looks like my powers. The boy got my powers! I'm so happy I could cry. That is, if I wasn't a manly man, of course. Wait… I could cry, yes, but only because I don't have them anymore. Crying being bad for my image, I'll holler and bellow, instead. As usual."
"Well, the mucho macho is back." Kayden concluded. "Apparently, the power-jumping we are experiencing has taken Kaiser down. Theo got his power. I must have taken Theo's. And Panacea got mine. Who got Panacea's? And where does this chain lead to?"
"Damn the boss." was Hookwolf's thought. "Always calling for me at odd hours. I so wanted to get a taste of the new Indian joint near my apartment, but nooo. Hey, isn't that the boss lady with junior? Why are they leaving on foot? And in a hurry? Mustn't be important."
"Here comes my loyal follower." Max thought, seeing Hookwolf approach. He counted meters (because Germans counted in meters, which was decimalized, and simpler, and… dang it) and noticed when something changed. The man's posture shifted a bit, and his own changed too. He was now aware of an always-roiling blender of blades inside his body, acting both as a protection and a close weapon system. "…and here comes his power. Better than nothing. I should send him with a message to Cricket, so that he could be killed, at last – I always despised his manners. But not by my hand."
"I don't understand. What's this message the boss wants to give to that woman? And why do I feel so feeble? Am I ill? Is that what it means, to be ill? I never knew."
Cricket was a woman of few thoughts. "Boss wants me to kill Hookwolf? Okay. What? Powers?"
"How bizarre." Hookwolf thought. "She tried to slap me, and I cartwheeled away. I didn't know I could do that. I didn't know I could imagine the corresponding verb, too. Now she's running? Boss' message must have been important. And unrelated to that slap, that one was probably because of that pinch on her ass. That always gets me slaps anyways."
"Grrr. Grr. Grrrr!" Stormtiger was thinking, as he was exerting his muscles and powers on mannequins attached in various places in the wide training room. Only to stop brutally when his chosen stance twitched and disappeared without conscious thought. He also dropped to the floor, while Cricket started to rise. Unaccustomed to the powers, the woman started to send air kamas everywhere, and a painfully squishy Stormtiger opted to opt out. "Grrr!"
Later that night, he was joined in bed with Whirlygig – we don't judge, no. When they parted, he found new uses for her power, while she lamented losing it. They had also exchanged various liquids and critters, leading to another increase of STDs in the surroundings. But the less said about that (and about her thoughts during the meeting) the better.
Instead of her little twisters, she got Skidmark's power soon afterwards, with some adaptations. "I didn't know Skid's fields could be made with a curvature. At least, it looks like my power if I anchor them in the air. That way, they're mostly invisible."
"What in the BEEP of BEEEPing BEEP is BEEPing wrong with my BEEEEP power? BEEP BEEP!" was Skidmark's thought at that moment. "Especially BEEPing now, when BEEP BEEEEEPing Under-BEEP-siders come BEEP knocking?"
"Strange." thought Alec. "I was sure I made Skidmark miss his aim a few times, but… all the time? Now… let's recap. The others go that way, we convene at the money, and bring it back to the boss. Good thing Lisa told us who it was. And where to go to find him. Because it appears that they ditched me. Again. I'm still going to take that money. Sweet video games, here I come. And the boss, too. Strange, the others don't seem to have arrived before me. At least I don't see Bitch's hounds. Have they taken the scenic route? Oh, hi, Boss! You seem constipated. Note that I'm ever thankful that true telepathy doesn't exist. Running my mouth like that in real life would have me killed in short order. Now… if someone can tell me why I'm seeing double? Is it the drug I inhaled at Skidmark's?"
"Damn damn DAMN!" was Coil's internal monologue (in mono, this time, instead of the stereo he was used to). "What happened to my power? And who is it that knocks at the door with such noise? I told Lindt to keep her beasts out! Of course, she didn't obey. Let's open, so that I can stop that racket and scold her properly. Oh, it's not her. Oh shit. It's Mush. How has he found the base? Damn, he must have followed Regent! And why can't I change reality? I must hide! I must protect myself! Especially from the rotting garbage he's throwing at me! It's disgusting! It reeks! And… he isn't throwing it, much as the refuse comes to me, leaving him quite naked. Eurgh. I… have Mush's power? The hell?"
"What's the boss doing?" generic mercenary henchman #12 thought as he applied the standard protocol for when the base was infiltrated with enemy capes – such as "kill them with lasers". After all, that rotting pile of garbage could only be Mush, right? "Why isn't he giving orders?" he wondered again, after the lasers had sheared through and revealed the face of his boss. Problem was, only commanding mercenaries had seen the man's face, and he was still pelted with lasers.
"Damn, that's ugly." was Pitter's thought when he looked at the corpses there. He recognized his boss, of course, as well as several mercenaries that Coil had struck by reflex. "At least he died quickly. With that much refuse, I'm not sure he'd have survived the septic shock. Now, I'm out of here. Knowing the boss, there's a good chance that the base will self-destruct soon. Damn paranoid capes."
"I don't know what happened, but I don't want anything to do with it." the old man previously identified as Mush thought, as he went with the flow and left the place. He was quite tired, though, and crashed as soon as he was outside.
"I don't know who he is, but he reeks." the ambulance driver thought, after having helped put the old man in the bay. "And his wounds… worst infection I had ever seen. I'd better head to the General Hospital fast. Rumour is that Panacea's there."
"What's happening?" thought Aegis frantically. "I just wanted to fly, and suddenly I can't move my body. I can talk and move my fingers, but nothing constrained by my clothing. It's as if Clockblocker froze my costume! But he's on the other side of the waiting room! How could he have done that?"
"Something strange's going on with Aegis." the aforementioned blocker of clocks reflected. "Why would he say that our powers were exchanged? We didn't do anything strange, only watched over the hospital entrance, as ordered. I saw too many wounded, by the way, and I'm sure I won't forget the smell of that old man, even if his wounds were healing quite fast, after his entrance. Perhaps a new cape?"
"Well… that was nice. Panacea's power rocks!" thought Taylor as she checked herself out. "Too bad she was kidnapped, I didn't have time to thank her for my new body… athletic, strong, beautiful, no more glasses. Awesome." A two-seconds pause while she registers the Wards' dispute in the hospital's entranceway. "Why are Clockblocker and Aegis arguing? Oh, that is interesting… it looks like a parahuman power wants to jump from Clockblocker to me. And it isn't his power over time? And why do I even have knowledge of that?"
"Ah… at last, I'm with my proper host." said power reflected. "After all these jumps, I wasn't sure I could find her again. But everything is fine, and I'm sure the boy with clocks on his costume will work wonders with Shaper, the healer's shard. Especially regarding his father. Now, how to explain to my host why my wanderlust caused fifteen people to exchange their powers as I switched from host to host. In addition, each jump changed each power slightly, and I can now customize myself so as to stop jumping like a jumping bean! And discuss with my host!"
"So… I had been abusing Panacea's power for my own gains?" Taylor thought after her power explained everything that had happened in the last hour (from its point of view). "I thought she couldn't heal herself? Well… no matter, I'll keep what I have. And I think that Amy will be much happier playing a Lantern with her family. I just hope that Clockblocker (who will need a Rebrand, like the others in our fifteen puzzle chain of exchanges) will be reasonable with it. As for the villains who now find themselves with a new power and no introduction as to how to use them… I sure won't be the one doing the explanation!"
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Consequences"Why do I have to explain everything?" Armsmaster asked himself. "It's not as if I'm good with human interaction! If I had thought that my being Protectorate leader implied social activities, I wouldn't have strived for that position! Hannah is better at it anyways. I wonder if I could delegate that to her."
"Ha! Take that, Colin!" Miss Militia thought. "Delegating social tasks, you want? You'll have to find another target! To think that the man gave even the Wards oversight away to the PRT, even when both Dragon and I protested about putting children into a military boot camp." She huffed. "Anyways, it's nice, for a change, to see the Empire floundering. Kaiser still hadn't mastered Hookwolf's power, and outed himself quite handily. We can now follow the traces and dismantle the rest, thanks to Kayden and Theo leaving the Empire and joining us. The only black cloud, in all this, is Shadow Stalker's reaction to our new Ward."
"I can't believe Hebert's now a Ward!" said Stalker fumed from her prison cell. "I also can't believe Piggot let her use her power on me! Now I don't have access to my power, and people openly mock me for it! And they also know about my vigilante ways, without me able to do anything about it. Damn!"
"Thank the gods for the Wards." Daniel Hebert thought. "When Taylor told me she had powers, I suggested that instead of ending up snatched by a gang. Well, there's that bully she found there, but she was helped by the others when Stalker attacked her, and that made them friends. And Miss Militia seems good for the kids – contrarily to that old harridan, who wanted to transform them into little soldiers. The only drawback is that the Rig is further away."
"Nice!" thought Gallant as he flew home. "Thanks to Taylor exchanging powers, we all got each other's for a while, and Kid Win's is nice to make stuff. Especially as, apparently, what we develop as Tinkers is still under our purview afterwards. Such as my flight pack, which I can repair and maintain by myself. And the jumping of powers allowed us to refine ours, too. Now, my rays truly come from guns, and my vision of emotions comes online when my helmet is put on. It's nice to be able to discuss with people without having all the cheat codes, for once. Even if Vicky now hates me."
"And to think I believed my specialty was anti-gravity, or guns." Kid Win thought as he browsed through his old collection of schematics. "While it had been modular items all along. And it's a nice niche, since everything can be made modular. I will be as versatile as Armsmaster, soon. Perhaps even more. But he'll always be more efficient than me – that's his specialty. Every Tinker has one… even if Taylor can refine or change it, like she did Bakuda's."
"Damn them all!" the new prison cook seethed, even as she made food for her fellow prisoners. "Lung, first, for considering that he had a leash to order me around. The Empire, too, because even as they stumbled around like headless chicken, they still reacted when I sent a few bombs their way. And the Protectorate, to have gotten me. I still say the girl's a cheat! No one should have that much power over other's powers."
"I wonder what Bakuda is doing, these days." the man with three names mused – Ethan, Assault… and Madcap. "Can't be worse than this." he added, looking at his last attempt at making a nice dinner for his overworked wife. "Burnt on one side, raw on the other… I wonder if it's me or the oven that is to be fixed. Damn!" He used his power to move towards the trashcan, smiling as he always did when the added effect manifested, as he didn't tire of hearing "Boing!" each time he bumped into something.
From her home office, a few doors down, Battery sighed. "Why won't he let me help him cook, when he wants us to have romantic dinners? It's not as if it should be from the two of us, if it's for the two of us. And now he's doing his shtick again! I tire of this immaturity, really… although it goes with the ability to make me laugh, and I need that also. Taylor did something for my power as well, too, so I can't complain much about upgraded power." she thought, reflecting about how she could now move while still charging, instead of staying a sitting duck. And, speaking of duck… she stood up to teach her husband how to cook it correctly.
"Thank god Piggot complained to me about Stalker." Alexandria was thinking (at roughly the same moment, for no reason). "Well… god, or whatever superior entity, I'm not a particularly religious person. Other than Scion, of course. Of course, Eden being dead, that superior creature would be… me. Thank me, then." Let it be known that Alexandria could be a bit too sure about her own superiority. "That allowed us, Cauldron, to learn about the existence of Switcher – or Taylor Hebert. The poor girl had a bad case of hero worship about me, but that changed when I asked her to give Stalker her power back. It's the kind of power we clearly need against Scion or the Endbringers. Despite the fury in her eyes, she obeyed, even doing something about the girl's vulnerability to electricity."
…"I can't believe it!" Grue thought. "Isn't that Shadow Stalker? I thought she was kept away, her power offline, so why would she phase out of the PRT prison? And she saw me, too! I manifest my darkness quickly, thankfully, hiding behind solid obstacles at the same time – I know she'll fire her crossbows in every direction. And… what happened? Even though she's still in her shadow form, she's falling like a regular person. She's going through the ground, now! She never did that, before! And I know that she can't return to her normal self when matter intersects her body. What will happen to her, now? Is that in relation to what Regent and Tattletale mused, earlier, about gravity-constrained ghosts ending up at the centre of Earth's core?" he mused, his altruistic disposition making him quite sad for what will probably be a long and painful demise.
Meanwhile, Taylor was at work with Cauldron capes. "I wonder if they will realize what exchanging electricity with gravity will do, as a vulnerability of her shadow form. But no matter, this one seems even more interesting. Eidolon, they call him. What a mess. He doesn't even know what he's doing most of the time. Still, I can help him by stopping his decay, so that he wouldn't be tempted to always try to fight unwinnable odds – and what could these be, anyways, for the strongest parahuman in the world? Or so he calls himself anyways. Let's see what he does with only two powers, now. With a better choice among them, and at full power each."
"Damn!" exclaimed Eidolon in the privacy of his own mind. "I just lost one-third of my versatility! All this for just being able to be at full power, and the ability to choose my powers and better understand them? That's… What's this? I can control Endbringers? I did summon them? Let's see how I can banish them, now… and then go for a worldwide drinking binge. All those deaths…"
"Wow! I never thought I'd see Eidolon able to get smashed." Doctor Mother thought. "He was always so serious, as if the slightest misconduct from him could have disastrous side-effects – and we now know it did. Still, with our new Trump trump card, we can alleviate his suffering, and others. Such as those Case 53s Switcher treated. She was able to isolate parts from the shard cocktail our poor volunteers imbibed, and remove them before adding others. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I'm sure that Contessa's main Path led to her appearance."
"We got her, at last!" thought the aforementioned precog. "After a hundred thousand steps, I can at least step back for a while, no? Apparently, no, as I still have a few of those to walk through. Have Switcher meet with both Miss Militia, Bakuda, and Flechette, and join their powers. And then we go get Scion and we can relax!"
"Wha?" Scion's thoughts were muddled, the long time he had spent in depressed isolation not conductive to be the most reactive. As such, he couldn't parse the fact that his shards' hosts were attacking him, their all-powerful god. And their weapon even tore through his bodily presence and reached his real body. "Seriously, wha-"
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To be continued… mayhapAuthor's Notes: Here's the sequence of switches in the first part: Taylor = Panacea = Purity = Theo = Kaiser = Hookwolf = Cricket = Stormtiger = Whirlygig = Skidmark = Regent = Coil = Mush = Aegis = Clockblocker = Taylor. As the jumping trump passed from left to right, the other powers switched to the left.
Thankfully, after that part, Taylor's power acts more as a power manager: she can confiscate them, change them, and give them out – hence the name Switcher. Since she can't use those powers herself, Cauldron prefers to have her far from any action. That would be the main difference between this fic and others – like "Manager" (by Seraviel, available on SpaceBattles).