Disclaimer: Worm and Perry Rhodan still belong to their owners. I don't make a single Cent with this story. Imagine, some people produce stuff just for the fun/joy of it!
1.4
To say that Taylor was stunned by the sight of her own reflection would've been the understatement of the century.
Despite her swirling confusion and uncertainty, her lacking or shattered memories, she was sure that this was not herself.
She might not have been the most beautiful girl before the surreal events of the last minute, not by a long shot, but now, she had turned into a monstrosity!
Taylor stood there and stared at the new "face" that had somehow appeared in place of her own, transfixed by the view despite her inner turmoil and disgust at the view.
Nothing else registered with her for an endless minute, not the sounds of the inferno behind her, nor the wailing sirens or the noises of the storm, not even the soft rummaging The Presence was conducting in the echoing halls of her injured brain.
Her three huge red eyes roamed over her massive, black skinned and half spherical head, taking in the wide, thin lipped mouth, the flat and recessed nostrils, the massive teeth that looked like daggers growing from what went for jaws in this horrific form.
Shuddering in revulsion, she looked down at herself, and found a gigantic body that could've come straight out of a nightmare, black from head to toes, bulky like a battle tank, and equipped with four arms thick as trunks, and muscular enough to put even the most reckless anabolics using human bodybuilder to shame.
There was no trace of clothing on her, but as she examined her form further, she couldn't find any sign that this body had a gender, at least not if "brute" was still an asexual description
To be like this, an outlandish and repulsive freak, was simply unacceptable, unthinkable really, and Taylor started to fervently hope that all her perceptions were effects of a fugue.
Maybe she had been given a drug without her knowledge, or she had suffered a psychotic break?
Those theories were compatible with her wishes and rudimentary self image at least, even if they were no cause for celebration.
Better to be crazy and sit in some padded cell, than to be a living, breathing horror.
Her thoughts began to swim once more, canceling each other out like waves running toward and crashing into each other.
In reaction, the alien intruder to her mind, the one she had dubbed "The Presence" earlier, rose inside her once more, took over her body, and moved several steps away from the truck, turning to the still burning fire.
As she looked at the twisted, flaming wreckage, a blinding pain shot through her head like a thunderbolt, and at the same moment, splinters of memories, shattered parts of her very being, started to assemble themselves again.
The Presence was behind this, she knew, it was somehow manipulating and editing her very brain, while she could only watch on in helpless agony, witness to a coldly calculated campaign of what Taylor thought resembled microsurgery on an advanced level.
How did she know that, anyway, and how on earth was she able to observe it at all?
Faster and faster, connections were made in her head, frayed synapses cut, and new ones formed in rapid succession.
Damaged engrams were transferred to new places, and a whole region of her gray matter was transformed, became some sort of hub, one whose function she couldn't comprehend at all.
An indeterminate time passed, until suddenly, something made "click" in the back of her mind, a Gordian knot was cut, and a flood of vital information came to her all at once.
In front of her "inner eye", the data making up large parts of her personality reassembled itself: knowledge, emotions, deeply rooted conditioning, and finally, her short term memory.
She gasped, overwhelmed by the /old/new/ - integrated information: she was Taylor Hebert, daughter of Danny and Annette Hebert, friend of Emma Barnes, and … victim of a fatal accident during an ongoing Endbringer attack, one she couldn't possibly have survived!
"Positive."
What?
She flung her body around, scanned the area behind her, took in the dozen or so infrared sources of people huddling together in the wind shadow of a truck 40 feet away, but there was no one who could've spoken into her ear like that.
Taylor raised her upper left hand to her head, pressing it against the right side of the cupola that was her cranium now, thinking hard.
She tried to consciously embrace the few memories that had formed in the last minutes, while "Taylor Hebert" as a functional person, hadn't really existed.
It took a lot of effort, but Taylor succeeded through sheer persistence, finally managing to square her experience as mentally amputated shell, her acceptance of some alien Presence taking over her body, the whole crazy "standing unharmed in the midst of a raging fire while in the body of a giant", with all the knowledge that had come back to her.
There was really only one conclusion that made any sense at all: while she had burned inside that bus - and by the way, why didn't she feel the slightest bit horrified by the fate of Nancy, Cleona and the others? - she had triggered.
She was a parahuman!
"Correct deduction."
Taylor gave a start, but calmed down quickly when she realized that the voice sounding in her ears had the exact same inflection as before, cool and considered, enriched with a subliminal current of ruthlessness.
"Is that you, Presence?" she formed a question in her mind, half hoping that she was having delusions, instead of having another, totally alien consciousness screwed onto her own, one which could even take over the body she was inhabiting, if it chose to do so.
"Positive." it answered instantly, and despite its curtness, she could match the "sound" she heard with a mental signal emanating inside her own mindscape.
She "followed" it, and tracked it to something she remembered from the last seconds of her fugue, an area of her brain and mind that hadn't been there before, a hub which had been constructed by Presence.
She delved inside it, and discovered that it was a gateway, the only direct connection between her waking self and the humongous, unfathomable being that somehow shared her body with her.
Taylor tried to find out more, but when she poked that existence beyond the hub with her thoughts, trying to get inside, to understand at least some of it, she was ejected back out with the mental equivalent of a forceful push.
"No time for discovery. Later." the Presence admonished her, sounding neither offended nor disappointed, but only coldly practical.
"What do you mean by that? And could you at least tell me who you are? Calling you "Presence" all the time is getting old fast."
"This urban concentration is currently under attack, sentients are dying." the voice declared matter of factly.
A sudden burst of dread and anxiety rose up inside Taylor as she was reminded of Leviathan's assault on the city, but as fast as it appeared, the bubble of dark emotions dimmed down again, leaving Taylor confused and with a rising suspicion.
"Are you manipulating my feelings?" she asked accusingly.
"Yes. You can't fight while you are mentally unstable." Presence answered unrepentantly.
"Fuck! I'm not your puppet! Who do you think you are?" Taylor screamed angrily inside her head, just before most of the emotion simply vanished into nothingness, leaving her feeling empty and stunned.
"This discussion must be postponed. Seismic shockwaves indicate that the fight has begun. Distance: Approximately five miles to the northeast."
For the first time since she was brought back from the fugue, Taylor sensed how Presence took over their shared body.
It was disconcerting, to say the least, but the negative emotional impact it should have had on her simply didn't materialize.
As their titanic body leaned forward and the lower pair of arms touched the ground, ready to spring into action, the Presence made itself heard once again.
"Taking away your agency like this is not an easy choice, but necessary. And to answer your earlier question about the identity of what you call "Presence": you are entering the battle at the side of Icho Tolot."
1.5
Before Taylor could find a fittingly sharp reply to Presence's - or "Icho Tolot's", as the case may be - unapologetic statement that it was somehow "necessary" to make her into a helpless prisoner in her own body, they started to move.
Enormously powerful legs and lower arms catapulted their giant form forward, and in seconds, the site of the terrible accident vanished in the darkness and rain behind them.
Their body accelerated smoothly, barreling along the tarmac like a living avalanche, passing dozens of cars which had backlogged behind the crash and were now jamming the road to the Lemuel Shattuck hospital.
Many people were walking, running and even hobbling in the direction of the shelter, some of them screaming at each other in open panic, but when they spotted their titanic frame approaching, they stopped in their tracks, some just to gape in shock and awe, others to hide behind park trees or vehicles.
Taylor didn't blame them after what she had seen of her body, but knew that if she or "Icho Tolot" had intended to find those in hiding, it would've been child's play with the nearly perfect infrared night vision their three eyes supplied.
That line of thinking brought her up short - what were their specific intentions anyway, or, put more realistically, those of the mysterious alien existence that had taken over her cape body?
Trying to formulate that question and putting it to "Tolot" with any clarity was getting harder by the second, mostly because their velocity was still increasing, and the world around was flying by in a mad spin.
Every few seconds, their direction changed radically, they were easily jumping over obstacles like cars and even trucks without loosing any speed, and they left deep gashes and holes in the pavement wherever their arms and legs impacted.
Taylor felt like she was trapped inside a rollercoaster car that had mutated into a tank while keeping its extreme mobility, a sensation that frightened and inspired her at the same time.
She was a freaking cape now! Yes, in an ugly and monstrous form, and also the product of a traumatic disaster she couldn't process at the moment, but still!
What were her exact powers anyway? It was time to get some answers, she decided.
Blending out the mad, exhilarating race through Franklin Park they were performing, she managed to put a coherent question together in her mind, one that made very clear that she was still pretty miffed at the way she was being treated, in spite of "Tolot's" tampering with her emotions.
"Would you mind telling me what you plan to do with this body?" Taylor inquired, giving the question an unmistakably waspish mental emphasis.
"The attack on this city must be repulsed. Innocent lives must be protected." "Tolot" replied, his inflectionless "voice" making the sentences sound as if he had learned them by rote.
"Do you even understand what an Endbringer is, do you get that they are killing all kinds of capes, even the toughest ones, every time there is a fight?" she shot back, scared by the unquestioning certitude audible in the alien's answer.
"An analysis of your knowledge concerning the enemy was completed 3.246 minutes ago. Threat assessment regarding combatant "Leviathan" indicates no ability to hurt a fully functional Halutian."
A spike of interest shot through Taylor despite her fear. If this was true...
"So, what you are telling me is that my body is something called a "Halutian" now, and that it can go up against one of the three most dangerous monsters in the world, and stay unhurt?"
She tried to hide her hopeful speculation behind a somewhat skeptical coloring of her mental query, but didn't know if she succeeded - "Tolot" could probably read her mind, after all.
"Positive. This body can transform 99.9987% of its mass into a material that can withstand temperatures up to 35.000 Kelvin and kinetic forces common in highly relativistic spaceflight. It's ancestors were genetically engineered and optimized for galaxy spanning warfare. Icho Tolot's combat experience of multiple intergalactic wars and uncountable interstellar skirmishes is also available.""
For a few seconds, Taylor was too shocked by this declaration to react, she just stared at the scenery they were moving through like a living cannonball, at the houses of the residential neighborhood bordering Franklin Park that were flashing by.
It took her some time to recover from mental overload, but when she did, her apprehension shrunk and the desire to help the people of Boston, to assist the heroes in the good fight, surged.
If "Tolot's" claims were true, they might actually have a chance to attack Leviathan directly without being squashed like a bug!
But now that she was thinking again, something else confused her.
"Didn't you say you were Icho Tolot? Why are you talking of him in third person now?"
"This is the body of Icho Tolot, you are communicating with his planning brain." was the rather unhelpful response.
"You aren't making any sense, how can you be this Tolot guys' brain, but not be him? That's insane!"
"Irrelevant for now. You must concentrate on the upcoming battle, estimated time of arrival: three minutes. Can capes volunteering to fight acquire advanced weaponry?"
Thrown by the announcement that she would be faced with a genocidal Endbringer in very short order, Taylor needed a moment to process the question "Tolot" had posed.
"Didn't you say we could attack Leviathan with this body alone?" she questioned him in alarm, her inner voice quivering involuntary from her rapidly rising terror.
"Positive. But your memory indicates that the enemy is a very hard target. It is advisable to arm Icho Tolot for maximum effect."
The clinical coldness with which "Tolot" - or whatever it was she was "talking" with - was treating the upcoming fight, against a creature she'd had actual nightmares about after seeing Newfoundland drowned, resulted in a paradoxical emotional mix for Taylor, three- thirds scalding fear, and one third fierce determination to do the best she could.
She put everything else away, banished it to the back of her mind, and focused on what she knew about Endbringer fights.
"I'm not sure if they have a mobile armory or something like that, but I saw a broadcast once about one of Armsmaster's Endbringer battles. He told the reporters that he always brings a duplicate of his tinkertech halberd with him."
"Accessing memory now... Excellent! A melee weapon like that plays to Icho Tolot's strengths in this combat environment."
For a fleeting instant, Taylor was proud of her very first contribution to their burgeoning heroing career, small as it was, but then they entered a wide street that was starting to flood, and the reality of their situation came down on her again, like a shower of the cold, dirty water they crashed into without slowing down.
Not far away, less than a mile if her estimate was correct, she could make out the towers of Boston's financial district.
Her sharp vision showed dozens of flying capes zipping around between the skyscrapers, firing downwards in direction of the harbor with every kind of weapon and power imaginable.
The strafing looked like a thunderstorm run amok, but she knew that it was a light breeze compared to Leviathan's tempest and his tidal waves.
As their massive body approached the battlefield, spraying huge fountains in every direction as it parted the water effortlessly, Taylor fought to harden her resolve, to remake her hate of the Endbringers and her desire to help the people of Boston into an adamantine spearhead.
They cleared one of the high rises blocking their view of the harbor, and got their first glance of the hulking, terrifying form of Leviathan.
The apocalyptic monstrosity moved around the waterfront with unbelievable speed, smashing ships, docks, capes and everything in its way, while the next tidal wave was already visible on the ocean to the east.
"First priority: find Armsmaster." Icho Tolot's voice announced impassively.
1.6
As they galloped up to the seaboard, Taylor's outlook on the world shifted radically from one second to the next, not because she was entering an Endbringer battle while locked in a humongous cape form that had come with its own volition, but literally.
Her vision blurred, and when it cleared again, she was somehow tracking the latest frontal assault by Alexandria on Leviathan, the building tidal wave out on the Atlantic, and the flying capes with ranged attacks directly above her head, all at the same time, at opposing angles and with different levels of magnification.
It was more than a bit disorienting, and it took her a moment to understand what was happening.
"You could've warned me that you were about to decouple our eyes, it gives me vertigo!" she snapped at Tolot.
"This is an active war zone, using reduced optical input was a courtesy to you, but optimum surveillance is needed now." was his blunt reply.
Before she could think of an appropriate comment, one of their three independently roving eyes fell on a tight cluster of capes who were standing atop a massive twenty story building directly at the shore.
At least a dozen parahumans behind the roof parapet were busy throwing up bright energy shields along the coastline in an attempt to hold back the rising water and prepare for the next incoming tidal wave.
Others hurled attacks of every imaginable kind towards the Endbringer, from blasts of white hot plasma to rapier-like violet lasers and projectile weapons.
Leviathan was evading most of the fire, and when he took a hit, he simply shrugged it off like an elephant would do to a mosquito bite.
"Coordinated defensive action detected. It is prudent to seek contact and inquire for Armsmaster's position."
"Sounds like the thing to do." Taylor agreed, although she was irritated that her first appearance as a cape would be directed by the strange being controlling her body, and not herself.
She was sure that without the emotional dampening that was still being applied to her, she would be furious bordering on raging madness.
Taylor was shocked out of her sullenness though, when Tolot posed a question she hadn't even entertained yet.
"Halutians consider it highly impolite to meet someone without introducing themselves. Do you have particular requests regarding your so called "cape name"?
"I've been a cape for less than twenty minutes, that's a bit short to come up with a great name, don't you think?" she bit out, frustrated that she didn't think of this herself.
"Very well, this form will be introduced as Icho Tolot then. It is a honorable name."
"Says the creepy alien who is body-jacking a fourteen year old girl." she muttered back, but Tolot ignored her.
He changed the direction of their headlong charge, and they started to ram their way through the surging seawater towards the concentration of fighters.
Despite her fear, the ease with which they withstood the onrushing flood felt magnificent to Taylor, like they were a highly mobile wave-breaker, powerful enough to just shrug off the pull and push of the at least six feet deep current surrounding them.
As they were closing in to the heroes position, she felt their speed go down noticeably, and their movements became somewhat less graceful and fluid, but she couldn't detect any change in the flowing water that could be responsible for the change.
"Why are we slowing down?" she demanded.
"This location is a priority target, the molecular structure of this body has been adapted to the higher threat level."
"Do you call that an explanation?"
"Icho Tolot's weight has increased by 46.000 pounds, due to changes of the molecular structure in the outer layers of the body, including muscles covering vital areas. Top speed was reduced to 42 miles per hour, maneuverability has decreased 23 percent. Survival chance against most known forms of physical assault is approaching 95%."
"You think Leviathan will attack here?" Taylor asked, her fear rising another notch.
"Currently projected probability of offensive action against this strong point in the next five minutes: 78%. Note that data on enemy tactics is severely limited."
"We must warn them, it looks as if all the best shielders are up there!"
"Positive."
They had nearly reached the building, when someone on top spotted them, and a cape stepped from the roof and started to glide down towards them.
He stood upright in the air, striking an imposing figure, while the brown burlap robe he wore fluttered in the storm, and the knotty staff in his right looked much more like a weapon than an old man's cane.
"Do you recognize this cape?"
Taylor's response to Tolot's simple question came slowly and disjointedly, her thoughts slightly jumbled by admiration and awe.
"Yeah... that's... wow, it's really him. I mean, eh... that's the leader of the Chicago Protectorate… he's called Myriddin, and… he's really, really powerful... like a real live Gandalf the Gray!"
Myriddin was one of the most famous parahumans in America, quite mysterious, and possibly just a bit barmy, especially if he actually thought that he was a wizard; the question if his cape persona was only a public relations stunt could provoke some talking heads on national television into heated discussions.
Taylor had seen him on the news countless time, fighting crime, busting villains and stepping up in Endbringer battles... and now he was here, and wanted to talk to her, Taylor Hebert, an unknown schoolgirl from Brockton Bay!
The parahuman celebrity stopped his descent about 20 feet above the raging waters, and kept a respectful distance from them.
"I'm Myriddin, Chicago Protectorate." he called to them, his clear and vibrant voice easily audible despite the raging storm around them.
"None of us up there," he pointed his staff to the building's top ",even the local heroes, have ever seen you before. Are you here to join the fight?"
Taylor was sure that she wouldn't have been able to produce a single coherent sentence if she'd been in control right now, she'd be too caught up at the thought of who was addressing her.
Icho Tolot on the other hand, seemed quite immune to teenage awkwardness, and being starstruck was the furthest thing from his mind.
"Greetings, Myriddin! To fight the abominable Endbringer at your side will bring great honor to Icho Tolot." he declared formally, his rumbling, extremely deep bass cutting through the din of the storm even better than Myrridin's voice had.
Using their body's superior vision, Taylor could see how the Protectorate cape frowned slightly under his cowl, but obviously decided that this was not the time for questioning the new combatants' odd manner.
"Very well, Icho Tolot. May I ask what powerset you bring to the fight, so that I can assign you to one of our teams?" Myriddin inquired, adapting quickly to the very polite tone Tolot had set.
"Icho Tolot is a high end brute, he can fight Leviathan at close quarters."
Myrridin paused for the shortest of moments, and Taylor could see a flicker of surprise on his features.
She knew that the number of capes who were not only capable, but actually willing to engage an Endbringer in hand to hand combat was not very high.
"You should work with Alexandria and her group than, I can give you a communication band, wait a moment please."
He stuck his free hand into a pocket of his robe and started to rummage inside, but before he found the device he was searching for, he was interrupted by screams of alarm from the roof behind them.
Tolot rotated their head, quick like an automated gun turret on a modern naval ship, and their glowing red eyes registered the cause for the shouting in less than a microsecond.
Leviathan had tired of the murderous game of cat and mouse in the harbor, and was on a collision course with the shield wall at the coastline, riding atop his mighty tidal wave like a demonic surfer of doom.