CHAPTER ONE: Changes (REWRITE 8/01)


February 2011

His head pinned to the table, Amy staring at the glowing javelin displacing his eye as it slowly faded away, letting our dad's corpse fall to the side. A scream comes from... somewhere. Me? Everything goes white. Suddenly- a void, vaster than space; infant godlings drifting-

I woke with a start, jolting up off the cot- and just as suddenly laid back down as my head hit the ceiling. Still not used to the height, then. Frankie looked up at me, concerned. "Shh, buddy. I'm just fine. Doesn't even hurt, see?" I wrinkled my nose at the little monster as he slowly blinked before settling down. I went to wipe the sleep from my eyes before remembering I don't have to do that any more. How long until I don't have to sleep any more, either? I glanced at the clock on the wall, and groaned at the time. 4:30? For all my recent changes, waking up at a reasonable hour still seemed beyond me. Might as well make use of the extra daytime, though. Amy snored, quietly if anybody asked, from the cot pushed right up next to mine along one wall of our small apartment, as I got up and stretched, noticing my shirt didn't cover quite as much belly as it did last night. Dammit, and it's brand new, too. That's probably a good indication I should check myself over for any other new changes.

Making my way to the bathroom, I had to pay extra attention to walk on the heels of my feet to avoid scratching the linoleum floor. Talons sound really cool on paper until you realize they don't make socks for humanoid velociraptors. Goodbye warm feet, forever. I shed my clothes as soon as I got into the cramped bathroom, switching on the flickering light and looking into the mirror.

The first thing I noticed was my even longer hair. Already down to my butt? That really needs to stop, soon, or Amy's never going to shut up about looking like Rapunzel. The white coloration still took some getting used to, although I couldn't complain about the added volume and smoothness of it. Maybelline, eat your heart out, I snarked to myself. I then frowned in the mirror as I realized I was snarking to myself, which brought my gaze to my face. I then frowned harder at the changes I saw there. Blue eyes, I noted. I'm going to miss having Dad's eyes. I'd already lost so much else of myself that I shared with him. At closer inspection, my eyes really did stand out. They weren't just blue, they were like... how I imagined lightning would look if you could catch it in a gem. There was a motion to them, a current around the rims as shades of blue and near-white flowed around the pupil. How the hell is this an 'improvement'? This power makes no damn sense. Maybe they shoot lasers? I tried it out, thinking really hard on Laser Eyes! I glared at myself in the mirror before realizing A) If this works, the laser would probably reflect off the mirror and hit me, and B) I looked constipated and nothing was happening. Damn, and that would have been pretty useful, too... Might as well check the rest of my body, not that it could get much weirder at this poi- nope, not gonna jinx it.

I noted the faint shift of my curves; the narrowing of my shoulders, the broadening of my hips, the swell in my chest. That was the one thing I could thank my power for. Actually having a shape other than rectangular. At this point I still didn't have anything close to an hourglass figure, but at least nobody could mistake me for a malnourished preteen boy. I must have grown another inch or two overnight, but I could check the exact amount later, or just get Ames to check for me. She couldn't affect my body much, but at least she could diagnose me and document any developments. Looking over my arms and legs, I noticed the distinct lack of any hair, and the total absence of any scars or freckles. That didn't weird me out nearly as much as my hands and feet, though. My hands were still mostly human, although the nails were still much harder than normal, and my fingers were a little longer, a little more slender. My feet, though, those were getting freaky. The toes themselves had grown to be half as long as my fingers, while there was a distinct arch between the ball and heel of each foot. Dangerous-looking talons grew from each of my four remaining toes, which Amy had jokingly painted with white tips recently, convincing me my raptor-feet still needed a woman's touch. They were already tough enough to put holes in the floor if I wasn't careful. I cast a baleful eye at the sandals in the corner as I wistfully thought back to my favorite running shoes. At least we have a treadmill, I can still run on that. Finishing my inspection, I hopped into the shower as I heard Amy waking up.

The pitter-patter of her bare feet made me quietly jealous of her relative normality as my ears twitched at the sound. I started washing my hair, although at this point I was fairly certain that was unnecessary. Listen here, power: don't you dare take away my shower time. I'd already gotten rid of having morning breath forever, which I suppose wasn't too much of a loss, and my teeth had been getting a bit sharper, though not inhumanly so... yet. Amy rustled in the fridge as I let the lukewarm water wash over me, rinsing my hair and reaching for the soap. I was certain I'd cranked the heat up, and it's not like Ames had already used up the hot water... Was the heater broken? I felt the suds wash down my back, cascading down my spine and gathering at the tip of the budding tail I was growing. At least I could still hide it. I heard the bathroom door creak open. "In the shower, Ames."

"I'll just be a bit, don't mind me!" Her chipper voice called out to me. How dare you be a morning person. I demand an apology. It's 5 AM and you dare to be chipper. The toilet seat popped up and I started loudly humming to cover up any weirdness. "I've got a kettle going for your tea, sis. Do I need to check you over today?" Amy really needed to learn about personal space, though I could hardly blame her. We've been attached at the hip for years, after all.

"Yeah, I grew over night and I can see some surface changes. Check me after breakfast?" An affirmative noise greeted me before the toilet flush and she stood up. "Ames you know that makes the water- huh. It doesn't feel hot at all, actually."

"So your superpower is taking super-hot showers? Triumvirate material here, folks!"

"We can't all be amazing like you, Amy." Mild frustration tinged my tone. She gets a death-touch, I get... pretty hair and bird feet.

"Don't take it so hard, Tay. We'll figure things out," she promised. "I'll check you when you finish up."


At the kitchen table, I scarfed down a massive stack of pancakes while hiding my face behind an oversized coffee mug. "How do you eat that much?" Amy looked on in awe, looking back and forth between her own eggs and bacon and my mile-high stack of carbs and sugar. "That's how your boobs are getting bigger, isn't it!"

"Fuck if I know," I mumbled through a mouthful of breakfast pastry. Swallowing, I continued. "I'm always hungry now."

"Well, you've been growing a lot."

"You calling me fat?" I narrowed my eyes dangerously, though the effect was lost on her. I could never threaten Amy, after all.

"Yu-p," she casually replied. My fork bent a little in my hand. "A-ny-ways, I got in contact with an associate of mine. A Thinker, and a good one, too. Think she might be able to give us some answers. Seems like she knows a little bit about everything, really."

"You really think so?" I shivered at the blossoming of hope in my chest. For a month now, my power had been playing around unrestrained with my body. I wanted answers: what exactly was it doing to me, and how did I control it? Could I control it?

"She's at the base right now, we can stop by when you're ready," she replied. "Don't worry, we can trust her. We've already unmasked to each other, just her and I, and I've been talking her into joining on a more permanent basis; she can be a bit abrasive but the rest of our team has put up with her so far." I had to wonder at that; Amy's gang hadn't gotten any new capes since Dad's death.

"You think she's a good fit for the Marche?" It needed to be asked; the other capes working with Amy weren't exactly sociable people. Bitch and Regent instantly came to mind; anybody who could fit in with them must be quite something.

"Well she's put up with Alec's sense of humor so far; Rachel doesn't like her but Rachel doesn't like anybody so that's a moot point. Adam, of course, is already hitting on her." We both rolled our eyes at that, but it came as no surprise. The velocity-altering cape was infamous as a womanizer within the Marche. We had a long-standing agreement that if he tried with either one of us, the other would hide the body afterwards.

"Okay, but I do want to do one last checkup with you before we go and see her. Would you mind?" Saying so, I reached one hand across the table for her to touch. As soon as she did so, she twitched.

"Dammit, your body gets harder and harder to read every time we do this," she complained. How much longer can I rely on her for this? "Some of your organs are in the wrong place. Seems like they're getting smaller... but also more efficient?" Her eyes glazed over as she continued, looking at something only she could see. "There's... weird things everywhere. Organ systems, I think, but I can't tell what they do. Seems like... Something to do with your metabolism? Energy conversion? Nothing I've ever heard of. And your cells are starting to revert to non-differentiated stem cells. Except that's not quite right, is it? They are specialized, I just can't tell how. Dammit!" She tossed her hand off me in frustration. "I give up, that's all I can get. And now I have a migraine."

"Thank you, Amy," I said sincerely. This was the one way that I felt I had any control over my body: understanding what was happening to it. And that was going to be taken from me soon, too. "Let's get ready to go."


Amy and I made our way into the warehouse bought out by Dad years ago, now our primary base. There were several other, smaller satellite outposts around the city, but this was the largest and most easily defended, located along the southern shore of the Bay. While I wasn't technically a gang member just yet, on account of still not being used to my powers, I was welcome enough. While the ground floor was mostly empty, the basement and two upper floors held rooms and storage for the rest of our team. Bitch was likely downstairs tending to her dogs, while shooting noises from upstairs indicated Alec and Adam were on the gaming console. In the center of the ground floor, however, was an unfamiliar figure: a skinny blonde girl in a purple and black leotard, a handgun holstered at her side and a domino mask above a distinctly smug smile. Really, how can a smile be that smug? That's gotta be a record for smuggest smile. Catching sight of us, the girl who had no right to look that good in spandex sauntered over to us, thrusting her hand out to me. Not waiting for me to shake it, she instead grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously.

"Hey, nice to meet you!" She was all flashing teeth and social energy. I was exhausted just listening to how peppy she was. "Mycroft. You have a cape name yet?" The smaller girl scrutinized me briefly, answering for me before I could open my mouth. "No, of course not. Biohazard told me a little bit about your situation, how your body's changing in mysterious ways. I'm gonna assume it isn't just puberty?"

"I wish," I scoffed. Amy and the new girl looked mildly horrified at the prospect of somebody wanting to go through puberty again. "My power is doing... something to my body. Changing it slowly. I have no idea when it'll stop. If it ever stops. Can you tell me... anything?" I fought down the please that almost escaped my lips.

"Honestly, this isn't exactly my specialty. And whatever your power is doing to you, it doesn't like me snooping around. I'm getting a headache just trying, really." She did look tense, tight in the face and her eyes struggling to focus on me. "But I do happen to know a little bit. You ever heard of an Infinite?"

"...no?" Amy looked just as baffled as me.

"Figures. It's rare, and not very well known outside of academic circles. Which, naturally, I'm part of." She gave a little flourishing bow. "So class, an Infinite is a proposed addition to the power classification system. It's not really a category of power like Brute or Blaster is, but rather how a power functions. Most every cape's power is as strong on day one as they'll ever be. They might think of new ways to use that power, or grow as a better fighter, but if your power is, say, flight, your top speed won't ever change. You have a set limit on your power. But Infinite capes break that rule. Where yesterday you could control fire, today you can control and create it, or have finer control, control more of it, whatever- point is, your power grows over time."

"And I'm one of these?"

"I can't think of a better explanation," she shrugged. "There are some slow-acting Changers out there that are mistaken as Infinites occasionally; I think there's one on the local Wards, even. But they can only change so much before they reach the limit of their power. Something tells me that isn't what's going on here."

"So it never stops." I tightened and relaxed my hands, trying to picture what this meant for me. What will I be in another month? A year?

Mycroft gave me a sympathetic look, but I wasn't having it. Instead, I snagged a scarf by the door and threw it around my face before stomping out. Behind me, I heard Amy and Mycroft speaking in hushed tones, but didn't care to focus on the words. I left the lair and picked a random direction to run.

Running's always been a release for me. My power was well on its way of taking that from me as well, though. My speed and stamina were just too much; I couldn't work up the same burn, that same runner's high as I used to. Instead it was just monotonous, although the quiet time to think and nice scenery would never be taken from me. Of course, that was immediately proven false as the most goddamn obnoxiously awful noise filled the streets. Covering my ears, I looked around for the source- and ran face-first into a shiny black and red Tinkertech tank, its mounted railgun pointed right at me. I really need to stop jinxing myself.