Summary: An Alt!Power Taylor, where instead of getting control of bugs, she is instead able to use and become any gas she chooses. With a little assistance from Coil's assets, she decides to embrace the nightmare of her trigger, and use it as a way to move forward.

As Tattletale used her powers to get the door open, Taylor dissolved herself completely into mist and bypassed the whole thing, moving swiftly through the interior of the bank to the tellers, and more importantly the alarm buttons.

As the rest of the team started to make some noise and enter the main lobby Taylor returned to her cape form, as she was starting to think of it, feet away from the tellers that had been edging towards the panic button. The screams of shock and fear from the people as they hastened to move away from her was slightly gratifying.

As her teammates entered the room Grue's voice boomed out from the motorbike helmet he wore. "Ladies and Gentlemen, as you may have guessed, this is a robbery. If you can all group up against the far wall this will all go much more smoothly. We are only here for what's in the bank, so 15 minutes of your time and you can all leave none the worse for wear. It's all insured, so no one needs to get hurt!"

As he spoke he started moving people across to the indicated wall, getting all of the patrons and staff on the floor moving. The tellers practically sprinted to the wall as Taylor floated after them.

Turning his head slightly, Grue spoke in a more normal voice, "Ghostlight, keep an eye on everyone and make sure no one has any funny ideas."

Turning towards him, Taylor nodded slowly to indicate her agreement, then floated so that she had a good view of the civilians grouped against the wall.

For their part most of the civilians could not help but stare at the extraordinarily creepy figure now watching them. Her form was coated in a white hooded coat/ robe combination, parts of it looking dirty and bloodstained, while others were pristine. However, the off-putting aspect of her costume was that she kept her legs and the very bottom of the coat as a pearly white gas. As well as this the hood was completely open, and her face was gas as well. Combined with the old-style gas lantern carried in gloved hands, which was giving off an eerie green light, she looked like the ghost of a murdered woman returned to the Earth to torment the living.

The creepiness factor was increased further by the unnatural mist that filled the room to knee height on most people flowing out from her position.

All in all, Taylor was extremely proud of just how accurate she managed to get the affect, although she was also pretty disappointed that she had needed to add extra material to her chest to ensure it looked like she had an actual bust.

Confident that Ghostlight had things handled Grue went to help Tattletale and Regent while Bitch watched the front. Without the alarms being sounded they had a more relaxed schedule, but it would be obvious what was going on from people outside before long, so they couldn't afford to just stand around.

Meanwhile Taylor was left watching the hostages, her lantern held low and in front of her. She had a domino mask on, just in case, but the fact her face held no shape meant she could keep a much closer eye on everyone than they might think.

The downside to her costume soon popped up again though, as one of the customers started getting bold. "She's not even real, I bet we can just go straight through her and get out."

The whisper was a feeble attempt at keeping out of notice, if Taylor was farther away it may well have worked, but fortunately Tattletale had made a plan for this kind of encounter. So, lifting the lantern in one hand, Taylor brought it up to head level, then blew a concentrated and high-pressured stream of gas from her hood. The result was the small candle light inside the lantern being turned into a roar of flame like a flamethrower.

The line of flame was at least ten feet long, and well over the sitting people's heads, but they all felt the heat even so. Startled gasps and cries sounded below the noise of the flame, before it disappeared.

Capitalising on this shock Taylor surged forward until she was inches from the face of the man who spoke, hovering horizontally over the other people. Holding her lantern in her left hand, the right rose and patted the cheek of the man who was now rapidly paling. Thanks to some more manipulation of the gasses around them, the male was now shivering because of the cold Taylor generated.

With her message conveyed she moved backwards, the movement so quick because of her gas that between one blink and the next she reappeared exactly where she was previously, lantern again held low in both hands.

Coming out of the back, Regent caught the end of the encounter and laughed at the cowering civilians, the man that had spoken particularly bad off as he shivered, "You don't want to try anything with Ghostlight, trust me, she will screw you up before you can blink!"

Thankful again that her face couldn't be seen at all, Taylor blushed brightly, but smiled proudly at the almost compliment from Regent.

A few minutes later, Lisa came out from the back rooms having accomplished whatever she was after. She quickly moved to stand near Taylor and surveyed the hostages. "Nearly time for the next phase of the plan. Everyone looks as well as can be." Her gaze stopped on one of the individuals in the crowd however, and she quietly cursed moments later.

"Bitch, what have we got outside?"

The woman in question grunted before replying, "Wards have started to arrive. No sign of Shadow bitch."

Keeping the individual she was looking at in her sight, Lisa asked a follow up question, "Any sign of Glory Hole?"

That particular question had the entire team looking at her. It was Taylor who got the question in first though, using her powers her voice was more than disguised, sounding not only completely different, but also like it was more a whisper on the wind than anything. "Glory Girl?" She clarified, "This is outside New Wave territory, why would she be here?"

Scowling slightly, Tattletale pointed to the individual she had been watching, "Because that, is Panacea. And most likely the one to have got word about what's going on out, starting with her sister."

This caused Grue to swear as well before he spoke, "Do we need to alter the plan?"

Worrying at her cheek for a little as she thought, Tattletale eventually responded, "No, it will still work." Turning her back on the civilians as she started to move on Lisa finished in a low voice to Taylor, "As long as you have all their attention it will work perfectly."

Moving over to the windows, Tattletale checked on the cordon being added by the Wards and PRT. After a quick once over she nodded and turned back to the civilians. "Ok, Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you very much for your cooperation, but alas, our hospitality has come to an end. I want everyone to line up behind Ghostlight. She will lead you out of the doors and move into the centre of the plaza.

Once out of the doors you will all turn straight to your left and follow the building down to the street, where the authorities will be waiting to speak to you. Do not move straight ahead when you leave the building. You will end up in the middle of a cape fight, and you will get hurt. Follow the path and this is all over."

Nodding at Ghostlight, Tattletale moved to the back of the line forming in the lobby, making sure no one had any bright ideas at this late stage. Grue and Regent watched from the sides.

When Tattletale called the start Taylor lifted her lantern again, then sent a wave of mist to open the doors and pour across the plaza outside the bank. Once the mist reached far enough for good coverage she floated forwards, heading straight to the centre of cleared area while the civilians moved quickly down the side.

In front of her were the Wards, the line up only missing Shadow Stalker and Glory Girl.

As she moved Taylor checked to make sure that the entire plaza had a three foot layer of mist. She could create gas out of nowhere, but it was more efficient to produce it from herself. The mist allowed her to deploy her weapons without alerting anyone that didn't know what she could do.

Of course, the secondary advantage of getting her powers to create the mist was just how creepy it made everything look. Given how most villains in Brockton Bay were, this would doubtless be thought of as it's only purpose.

As she was drifting forward, the supposed leader of the Wards shouted, "Stop right there! On your knees and surrender, this doesn't have to get worse for you!"

Obligingly, Taylor came to a complete stop. It was to her advantage that she drag things out as long as possible. At this moment the rest of the gang were being covered by Grue's darkness and running for it. Once they were clear she could just turn herself into a colourless gas and disappear with the wind, reforming back at the base.

First, though, a little lesson for the holier than thou Protectorate who had allowed that bitch Sophia to torment her.

Checking on the mists she could still feel all around her she realised that her team was out of the building, and the civilians were almost out of the way. Time to have some fun.

Again the green lit lantern lifted up to her lips, and once again she produced a bloom of flame that roared across the plaza, stopping several feet short of the Wards. There was a very satisfying yelp from each of them before Vista was able to expand the distance and protect them.

Thanks to the tip from Tattletale as she left Taylor wasn't confused when the boy in Clockblocker's costume started giving orders and the Wards charged towards her. She could also feel Glory Girl heading her way from the roof.

Timing things as closely as she could, just as the faster Glory Girl started to get within reach of her, Taylor immediately turned herself into a towering cone of mist. The eerily lit, self-contained, fog bank swirled rapidly for a few moments as the heroine ploughed through and joined the Wards, then fell back towards the ground. From the bottom of the column the mist exploded outwards, rapidly covering everything in front of the bank.

With visibility reduced to near zero Taylor recreated a tinker sleeping gas surrounding Vista, the youngest Ward succumbing moments later and falling in place. Without the space manipulator her team would be able to flee the area, and the Wards would have a much harder job of avoiding her. Gallant, Glory Girl, Browbeat, and Kid Win rapidly followed her into slumber.

At the same time she was peppering Clockblocker, in Aegis's costume, with spectres of screaming women leaping at him, clawed fingers aiming to strike him down. The same was happening to Aegis himself, but instead of making him jump out of his skin it was leading him to Clockblocker. Thanks to the scare tactics employed as soon as the white suited Aegis appeared in Clockblocker's vision, the brute was immediately frozen in time.

Grinning internally, Taylor produced the sleeping gas around the final Ward and started to reel in her mist. She had beaten all of the Wards! Solo! Now it was time for the final stage, and a little more theatrics.

As the mist rapidly sped towards her current position, she reassembled her body, leaving nothing behind to suggest why all of the Wards were down. Then, floating backwards, she returned the inside of the bank before rapidly disappearing from all of the PRT agents' views. Dropping into an invisible gas form she sped into the skies and headed in the direction of the Undersider's base, no one the wiser of her escape.

Authors Note: So this is actually the first ever Worm story I wrote. I had the idea for an alternative power & the bank scene came together really quickly. However, I promptly ran into a brick wall, because I just can't make the leap from Taylor getting her power to joining the Undersiders. It's pretty possible that Taylor could have found out who Sophia is, and thus been soured to the entire Protectorate, but the chance of her being in the right place to stop Lung and meet the Undersiders is pretty poor. Also, by producing the right gases Taylor could easily put out any fire, and put Lung down before he can cause a problem, so no Armsmaster meeting. Without that it seems really odd for Taylor to have joined up with villains.

I've been trying to work around that for ages, and have now given up. So this is a one-shot. Hopefully someone can either provide inspiration, or a better writer can take it over! If I do come up with anything I will change things up.