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A Worm Fanfic

The Taste of Peaches

By: Grounders10

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3

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When her dad returned he was accompanied by a pair of people she had seen before. On the news only though, never in person. The first was a woman wearing a dark-grey and white jumpsuit with neon blue lines running across it like wires on a circuit board. On her head was a helm that continued the blue line pattern. A thick blue visor obscured the top half of her face. She was Battery, one of the local Protectorate Heroes.

Beside her was another hero, a much younger blonde haired girl in green body armour and a green skirt with wavy lines that, when moving, almost made her eyes water. She wore a green visor that obscured the top half of her face. She had to be Vista, currently the only girl on the local Wards team, and about three years younger than Taylor.

When they turned the corner into the kitchen from the entrance way Vista spotted her and space twisted, crunching the distance between them into nothing. "Ohmygod,youdohavefoxearsandtails." Taylor blinked at the sudden deluge of words from the young hero as she appeared inches from her face. In her lap, Inari made a funny chuffing noise. Strangled laughter probably.

Parsing the barrage of words she said, "Erm, I do? I mean yes I do." She flushed red in embarrassment, her ears going flat, drawing an undignified gasping not-squee from the younger girl.

"Vista, enough." Battery said as she crossed the room. The younger hero stiffened, blushed, and stepped back three feet with a distortion of space-time that created a weird sensation to Taylor. Like all the hairs on her arms had stood straight up at a ninety-degree angle only didn't.

"Sorry." She said, blushing. Taylor sighed. Not five seconds and she'd already made a bad impression.

"Sorry about that." Battery said, stopping beside Vista. "I'm Battery of the Protectorate, this is Vista of the Wards. We are here to ask a few questions and see what we can do to help you adjust." Taylor's right ear twitched. She sounded rather sincere and something told her that the hero was being honest. Huh, someone who actually cared? Well, maybe. Trusting vague feelings about people you just met had bitten her in the ass at Winslow a couple of times already.

"Nice to meet you." Taylor said, giving an awkward wave to the two heroes. Vague feelings or not there was no reason to be rude.

"I was starting to wonder if you were coming." Her dad said as he took a seat in his recliner.

"Unfortunately unless it's an emergency even Heroes can get stuck in traffic." Battery said, her dad chuckled. She gestured to the only remaining seats in the room, the love seat. "May we?" She asked.

"Please, take a seat." He said, also making a gesture to the loveseat.

The two heroes took their seats. Vista looked somewhere between mortified and excited, with the occasional bounce in her seat as though she wanted to leap across the room and take another close look at Taylor and her new appendages. Each little bounce was quickly stilled as she tried, and failed, to appear professional. It was rather adorable in Taylor's opinion.

Battery was much calmer, obviously far more used to these sorts of meetings than the ward beside her. Or at least more able to control herself.

"So," Battery began, "How are you feeling today Taylor?"

Her right ear twitched. "A bit tired, but alright I guess." She said. Walking for two days, including at least a day up a mountain, was exhausting; though she wasn't feeling as tired as she might have expected even after the rest.

"Wonderful." Battery smiled genuinely. "Now, it's fairly obvious that whatever you experienced over the last few days was horrible to say the least." More boring and tedious really, Taylor thought. "However, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask what happened. Anything you can share."

Taylor sighed. Here she went again. "Not much to tell really?" She shrugged, "I got locked in my locker at the end of friday classes."

"We found the locker." Battery said, "Well the police found the locker. It had been nearly kicked off its hinges and then slammed shut hard enough to jam the corners through the locker next to it."

She shrugged. "That was me, though not the closing part. The door did that to itself." She said.

"Itself? An inanimate steel door slammed itself shut hard enough to wedge itself into the neighbouring locker?" Battery asked.

Taylor sighed. "Maybe I should start from the beginning." She said. She'd share what she had with her dad, the first time anyway.

"Please."

It took an hour and a half. An hour filled with questions, clarifications, and her dad bringing drinks and snacks to them, twice, before she finished. She left out the little bit about being a Goddess again, despite the annoyed noises that Inari was making. She was not going to claim Divinity to the Protectorate. Parahumans who thought they were gods was supposed to be one of the things they fought against.

"Normally we recommend not eating the strange, possibly tinker-tech fruit might run into." Battery said after a moment of jotting down the information in a small notebook she brought with her. "But, I can't say I've ever heard of a trigger event quite like yours."

"Trigger event?" Her dad asked.

Battery hesitated for a moment. "Trigger events are not normally talked about. They're the moment when someone gets powers. It is not normally a pleasant moment to recall. Powers don't awaken without something bad happening first." She said, "Though yours would appear to be an unusually calm trigger all things considered."

Inari snorted. "Of course you haven't. She's a Goddess not a Parahuman." There was silence for a moment in the room and both Taylor and her dad turned annoyed looks to the fox in their midst. For her part Inari seemed to be oblivious. "The Gods don't have to wait to be consumed by despair before their powers can be flexed."

Taylor groaned and leaned back against the couch, wrapping herself in her tails as she did so. This was not going to help things. God, she did not want people thinking she was crazy on top of everything else… Or Narcissistic, which was technically being crazy as well.

"Did that Fox just talk?" Vista finally asked.

"Yes it did." Battery frowned. Oh dear.

"She's been talking like this since she stole my bacon from my plate this morning." Taylor groaned. Downplay the fox. Pretend the fox was crazy. Just make sure they didn't think she was crazy. Not getting pre-emptively locked up just to be safe was nice.

"You weren't eating it." The oblivious fox said.

"I looked away for two seconds!" She snapped, looking down at the fox with a growl.

"Exactly~ You weren't giving your heavenly food the attention it deserves~" She could hear the smug from the fox.

"Two. Seconds." She growled.

Inari patted her on the thigh. "Don't worry, Magical Spirit Guide Inari-Chan~ is here to help advise you~" With a very deliberate act she lifted up several of her tails and brought them down on the fox, burying it in fluff. Inari poked her head out of pile a moment later. "Rude." She paused for a moment and gave the fluff around her a push with her paw. "And I think this is already fluffier than mine used to be." She flopped across two of the tails. "Ooooh, this is comfy."

Her eyebrow was not twitching with annoyance as she turned back to the giggling Vista and desperately trying, but failing, to hide her amusement Battery. "This is the fox I followed up the mountain. She was here when I woke up." She sighed, her cheeks turning bright red with embarrassment. "And no, I have no control over what comes out of her mouth."

"I speak only the truth! I shall not be silenced!" Inari declared without lifting her head from the pillow she had made of Taylor's tails. "All hail her divinity, Goddess of Foxes Taylor Hebert." Another tail was lifted up and dropped across Inari's head, muffling further words from the troublesome fox.

"I- I see." Battery said, stifling her laughter as she made a couple more notes. "Well, it's not unheard of for master's to have semi-controllable projections, though it has been a while since I heard of one… Certainly not one this outspoken however." She closed her notebook and pocketed it in a pouch. "Well then, thank you for your testimony Taylor. Mr. Hebert, there are a few things I would like to talk to you about in private. Vista can keep your daughter company while we talk. If that's alright with you Taylor?"

Taylor nodded, her cheeks still burning with embarrassment. "Sure." What else could she say?

"If you're sure Taylor." Her dad sighed and stood. "This way, we can talk in the office." Her dad led Battery out of the room, leaving her with the enthusiastic and still giggling Vista.

Taylor stayed silent, playing with one of her tails with her hands, while Vista slowly stopped giggling to herself. "S-sorry." The younger girl said after a few minutes. "I shouldn't have laughed."

Taylor's right ear twitched. "I- It's fine. Really." Arguing with a talking fox that was claiming she was a goddess was ridiculous.

"So… Goddess?" Vista asked carefully.

A groan slipped through Taylor's lips. She sent a glare towards 'her' fox. "She's been trying to sell me on that since breakfast." She said.

"You know it's true," Inari said, sticking a head out from under Taylor's tail. She gazed up at Vista with a soulful expression. "Know the truth~ I, Magical Spirit Guide Inari-Chan~ speak only truths."

"You won't even admit you stole my bacon! And eggs!" Taylor snarked as she kept one eye on the young hero.

"You keep mentioning that, but it was also apple juice. Very nice apple juice." Inari rolled over and stared up at the unimpressed expression Taylor was wearing.

Vista's snickers drew a groan from the black-haired fox-goddess. "So, you're powers are that you have a fox?" She asked, trying to stifle a snicker.

"I guess?" Taylor sighed. Her ears twitched in irritation and her tails shifted.

"Not just that. I saw lightning earlier!" Inari said, patting the tails she was partly buried amongst. "Little snaps of lightning jumping between these beautiful fluffy clouds."

Taylor paused. Had there been? Yes… On the mountain when she'd first realized she had tails there had been small snaps of electricity jumping between them. "I thought that was just the peach." She said with a frown.

Inari shook her head. "All you. See~ This is why you need the guidance of your Magical Spirit Guide Inari-Chan~ Desu~" The way the fox loved drawing out her words at times was starting to annoy Taylor. Like, really, really annoy her.

"So it knows more about your powers?" Vista asked before sighing. "Lucky. Most of us don't exactly get a user's manual. I mean somethings are instinctive, but not everything." The younger girl got up from her seat and walked over. "So, what are your plans now?" She asked.

She leaned against the armrest of the couch and sighed. "I'd say enjoy summer, but…" She waved a tail in the air. "Not exactly inconspicuous anymore." Vista nodded. It was public knowledge how valuable even seemingly useless capes were often treated as by gangs. Sure most weren't exactly going to get kidnapped off the street to fight if their power was something like a talking fox, but with the tails and ears, she was… exotic, like a rare pet. Sure she still had the same too wide smile and all the shapeliness of a 2x4, but her nine white-tipped black tails were exotic in and of themselves.

"Well, you could join the wards," Vista suggested. She must have seen Taylor roll her eyes since she continued, "Hang on. Hear me out."

Taylor waved her on with a gesture. Joining the wards was an option that just screamed more drama to her, but...

"Look, the wards is meant to help with things like this." Vista gestured vaguely at all of Taylor.

"Things like me?" Taylor snarked.

"Yes, no- You aren't a thing. I mean, ugh…" She sighed. "Things like being in danger because of your powers. You've apparently got a talking user's manual, but back at the rig, they have rooms that are meant for testing and training powers. You might not have the room here, and you definitely don't have the tools regardless of what it is you can do."

That… was a good point. She spared a glance at her tails. If that lightning had been created by her, then well… what was she going to do? Shoot the walls of their basement? Go outside and down to the docks and try zapping wrecks from the shoreline until she was jumped by gang members?

"And she'd have companions to help watch over her, right?" Inari asked, looking up at Vista.

"Of course. That's kinda the point. Meeting people who can relate with what you're going through. People who can help you." Vista said.

Taylor sighed and toyed with her tails. The wards could offer her resources to learning her powers, but… people. She had been let down by people a lot over the last year. People, teenagers, meant pointless melodrama, meant-

"Hey." She looked down at Inari. The Fox smiled gently up at her. "Give it a shot. Even Gods need companions."

She ignored Vista's mutter of "Again with the god thing." and considered that. Thor and Poseidon were both merely gods amongst much larger pantheons. Even though Poseidon basically ruled the seas himself he did have those who served him as well. Friends, allies. She didn't know as much about Norse Mythology but she would bet Thor had people to turn to as well.

But… "I'll think about it." She said eventually. She would think about it, even talk to her dad about it. She'd bet that her dad was getting a much more in depth pitch from Battery.

"It'd really be nice to have another girl onboard." Vista admitted. Space crunched and she shifted the footstool so that she was sitting a couple feet from taylor.

Taylor tilted her head. "Wasn't there another girl?" She asked. There had been someone announced a few months ago. What was her name? Trill?

Vista snorted. "For like two months, then she transferred to Pittsburgh when her family moved." She sighed. "Girls never seem to stick around here. Here for a few months, then they graduate or move. Just me and a bunch of immature annoying boys."

Taylor couldn't help it, she laughed at Vista's tone of resigned despair. One of her tails came up and covered her mouth as she tried, unsuccessfully, to stifle the laughter. "That bad?" She asked after getting her breath back.

Vista giggled. "Well, to give you an idea Clockblocker…" The next hour passed with Vista sharing stories of things that had happened in the wards. Inari would pipe up occasionally with some comment or other, but it was mostly Vista and Taylor. At the end of that hour Battery and Danny came back into the room and the two Heroes left.

Vista's bye had hardly faded when Danny sat down in his recliner heavily. "Well, that was…" He breathed out heavily, one hand rubbing his forehead. "Did Vista pitch the wards at you as well?" He asked.

"Yep." Taylor picked Inari up from where she was still cuddling amongst her tails.

"Oi!" The fox protested grumpily, but quieted as Taylor lay down on her side before hugging the fox in her arms.

"Battery talked a lot about the benefits, but some of the requirements. We'd be signing away a lot of control at the same time." He sighed.

"Like?" Taylor prompted.

"Papers are in the kitchen. We can go over them later. Right now I just want to relax. How does pizza sound for supper?" He asked.

"Fine… With pineapple?" She prodded. Her dad normally 'forgot' to get pineapple when he ordered.

"I'll order two then." He said, leaning back in his chair.

Inari slipped out from Taylor's grip and hopped off the couch onto the footstool. "What kind of things were they asking for control of?" She asked.

Danny sighed. "Things like control over looks, rights to any name she might take while with them. The stack of papers in the kitchen is two inches thick. We can look it over together later." He said.

"Well, assuming nothing is really objectionable I think you should accept." Inari said, stretching like a cat.

"Because even a Goddess needs companions?" Taylor asked as she adjusted the throw pillow under her head. One of her tails swept up to replace the escaped fox in her grasp.

"Exactly~" Inari pointed at her. The fox was grinning. "You're young for a Goddess. It'll take time for you to learn your powers and grow in strength. What you need right now is people to rely on, companions to watch your back in the days ahead."

Taylor grunted non-committedly and hugged her tail harder. It still meant she'd have to deal with other people her age… though a few of the wards did look kinda cute… She hummed thoughtfully to herself.

Her dad, probably unaware of the direction her thoughts had taken, sighed. "That is what the Wards is for. That and training. Which you need. God, you can't just hide your tails and pretend not to have powers can you?" He asked.

Taylor blinked and considered it. "I… don't know?" She said slowly, looking down at the tail in her grip. She tried to imagine it vanishing and just wound up staring at the white tip for a long moment. Nothing. "I have no idea." She said finally as Inari snickered.

"We'll talk practice later then." Inari said before jumping back onto the couch and curling up within the mass of Taylor's tails. "For now, a nap sounds good."

Taylor yawned at that. Yeah, she still felt a bit tired from the days before. More sleep would be great. She closed her eyes and tried to drift off as her dad turned on the TV. She cracked an eye open. "Daaaad…" She whined.

"You do have a bed." He pointed out.

Taylor considered that for a moment. She rejected that option. It would have meant moving and she was comfy. Instead, she closed her eyes again and tried to tune out whatever TV show her dad had turned on. Something about mutant crocodile hunting in Australia. In five minutes she was out cold.

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The office of the Director of the PRT ENE was spartan. No awards or pictures hung from the walls. There were no decorations on the desk, or potted plants in the corners. The room was like its owner, dedicated solely to the task at hand. Seated behind the office's desk was Director Emily Piggot. She was a short obesely overweight woman with short bleached blonde hair.

Her lips were pursed as she examined the notes written down in the pad on the desk. "So," She began, directing her words to Battery who was seated across from her. "A talking Fox projection."

"Yes Director." The heroine nodded.

The other woman frowned down at her notes. "That is telling her she's a goddess."

"Yes Director."

Director Piggot sighed. She dropped the notepad on her desk. The thunk of paper on wood reverberated in the quiet office. "Well that is a wonderful mess. And she might have additional powers as well?"

Battery nodded. "Yes, Vista said the fox had mentioned electricity from Taylor's tails." She said. And hadn't that been a bit of a surprise on the way back from the Hebert's home. "However, she doesn't seem to be aware of them herself if she does have them."

Piggot grunted. "A possible trump them. A master/changer at the minimum." She flipped to the next page of the notepad. "And that thing calls her a Goddess. Wonderful, just what we need. A trump/master with a god complex."

"With respect Director," Battery said, "Neither I nor Vista saw any sign she believed the claims of the fox. If anything she seemed annoyed by them." And very uncomfortable, with the fox and them.

"It's not her current thoughts on the matter I'm worried about." The Director replied before turning to the other two people in the room. "Armsmaster, Glenn, your thoughts?"

Armsmaster was Battery's boss, the head of the Protectorate East-North East, and a tinker of exceptional skill and talent. He was standing off to the side, refusing to sit due to the weight of the blue power armour he wore whenever he was on duty. His signature halberd was leaning against his shoulder.

Armsmaster cleared his throat. "She is potentially a potent asset, but without more information there is no way to tell how much of one. On the low end we're looking at a master with a fox shaped projection and maybe tasers for tails. On the high end, well it's far too soon to say." He said, "The God issue is worrisome, but not unmanageable. Therapy and socializing can hopefully alleviate the dangers."

"Which is part of the reason for the wards program in the first place." The last person in the room said. Glenn Chambers was, to Battery's eyes, a living contradiction. The Head of Image for the entire PRT, he was responsible for managing the images of every single Protectorate Hero and Ward in the country. It as a part he did not look even remotely qualified for. Nearly as obese as the Director his clothes were, everytime Battery had seen him, wrinkled and ill-fitting. His glasses were these ugly rectangular frames that only served to make him look more like he was squinting. Atop everything was his hair. He didn't have a mohawk technically, but the way he gelled his hair certainly suggested the shape of one. It was disgusting how he could be so good at managing others, yet never seemed to spend a second thinking about how he looked.

The obese man picked a piece of paper from the folder open in his lap and held it up. It was a picture of Taylor taken from Battery's bodycam and blown up to size. "This here," He waved it, "is probably the most photogenic cape I've seen in years. Getting her on board would be a potentially amazing PR windfall. I can already think of several potential costumes for her. Battery, is she interested?"

"Her father was." She replied, "A bit worried about some of the clauses in the papers though."

"You did make sure to point out that nearly all-" Glenn started.

"All the points were negotiable. Yes I did. Not the first time I've done this." Battery finished.

"Of course." Glenn nodded, "And Taylor herself?"

Battery frowned. "Vista thinks she made a decent impression, but she's shy. Nervous. Like I said earlier, she has trust issues." That much had been clear almost from the beginning. The nervous shifting, flattened ears, and the way she had gone from cheerfully talking with Vista at the end to shutting up the moment she saw Battery and her father. It had hurt in a way, but no natural parahuman came without issues. It was just the nature of powers.

"Well, I say let's try and make this as sweet a deal as possible." Glenn said, "She's getting bullied right? I know her situation with no secret identity makes things awkward, but we should still be able to manage that local school? What was it.. Uuuh…"

"Arcadia." Piggot said.

He pointed the photo in his hand at the Director like a baton. "That's it. They deal with New Wave all the time, a Ward shouldn't be an issue."

"Should they inquire about the Wards then we can see about talking to Arcadia about the possibility." Piggot said, as she tapped her pen against the desk. "Anything else?" The three shook their heads, their replies all along the lines of no. "Very well. Battery, write up your report for tomorrow. Make sure to include everything, even Vista's speculations. Glenn any ideas you have you run by me first. Glenn, Battery, dismissed. Armsmaster, stay. We need to have a talk about why I'm receiving reports of you being involved in a running battle through a public bathhouse."

Departing an unwelcome scene in a hurry was, in Battery's opinion, one of the few useful lessons she had picked up from her husband. It was a skill she put to excellent use as she not-quite-jogged her way out of the office.