Sunny Sky: 1.2

When Taylor got home, she was disappointed to realize that her father, Danny, hadn't even noticed she was gone. Instead he was snoring softly on the couch in the living room, oblivious to her entry. A half empty bottle of whisky told her all she needed to know. She walked quietly to her room and shut the door, replaying the day's events so far in her head. Alright, so she could summon people? How exactly did that work? Did her power have someone that could teach her?

She felt a multitude of names explode through her head. Legacy, Arbitrator, Roulette, WaveLength, Lady Maeve, Magister, Archmage, Ares, Magician, Silence, on and on the names flitted through her mind until she ordered it to stop and then they did.

Right, teach was a pretty broad term. Tentatively, Taylor tried to focus on asking a question: Was there a hero who could teach her more about her powers specifically?

She felt a name float to the surface, almost eagerly, but something about it screamed of malice. She shoved it down and another name offered itself up, though it had a sense of exhaustion to it.

With a small burst of light a young man materialized into her room. He was dressed completely ordinary, like someone right off the street: jeans, t-shirt, jacket, not even a mask. He had tanned skin, dark eyes and short black hair that grew just slightly past his ears, looking a bit disheveled.

He looked at his hand for a long moment, just staring at it while flexing his fingers, before flicking his eyes over to Taylor. She didn't see any kind of hostility in his eyes, but he looked tired. Worn out. Resigned.

"I'm Isaac. Isaac Walker. You must be Taylor."

"Y-yeah."

Despite his appearance, he radiated a confident sort of power. "You wanted to know more about how your powers work. Ask your questions."

"What are my powers exactly? Who are you? Who was that guy Legacy? Am I the one summoning you? Are you just projections?!" The words came tumbling out, faster, more hurried, panic and confusion still racing through her veins.

"Your powers allow you to summon supers." Isaac said simply. "As for if we're projections…" Isaac trailed off, thinking it over. "We're not quite projections, but not quite alive anymore either. We're memories, formed from the light of the Storm by way of your power."

"Supers? Storm?"

"Right, you would call us parahumans. We're not from your dimension, obviously. Parallel Earth and all that. In our world, we didn't have Scion, we had a massive cosmic storm hit the planet. It caused nearly a third of the population to gain powers overnight. That percentage started going up as supers started having kids. I was a hero, a long time ago at least, and as for Legacy… He was the First. The very first superhuman to appear, the one who set the trend of heroes, the founder of the United Hero Frontier, a global alliance of superheroes. He was the very best of us…" Isaac trailed off with a sigh.

"What happened? Why can I of all people summon you guys?"

Isaac sighed, that aura of weariness multiplying. "We fought an enemy we couldn't beat. They called themselves Gilgamesh and Ishtar. A lot of supers named themselves after gods or mythical beings, so everyone just thought they were another pair of heroes. For a time they were just that. Then something else appeared. You call them 'Endbringers'. We called it an M-Class threat and then proceeded to murder the fuck out of it. After that, Gilgamesh and Ishtar suddenly went on a rampage. We lasted a few months. The combined might of every super on the planet and it was still a slaughter." He went quiet, then made a gesture, the light of the air bending and forming into a glass filled with amber liquid. He downed the thing in one go. "You aren't some chosen one, if that's what you're asking. You got your powers by chance. The Destroyers, their physical avatars were just a front. No more real than I am. Behind them were… Entities. Beings of incomprehensible size and power. We managed to slip our own power into theirs. See, they grant people of this Earth powers via small pieces of themselves. The piece that connected to you happened to hold the power that we infected them with. So rather than get whatever power it meant for you, you got the ability to summon us."

Taylor could feel her head spinning, a headache forming behind her eyes. "Ok, so where are these Entities now exactly? Are they posing as heroes here too? Who?!"

Isaac looked away for a moment. "I can't tell you."

"Can't or won't?!"

"Both. Neither. Argh!" Isaac snarled and then made another gesture. "Alright look, my plan was to tell you all of this and if you reacted badly then I'd erase your memory. But I don't think I can use my powers directly on you." He made a tugging gesture with his hand. "See that? Normally I'd have just borrowed your power for myself. But I can't. I don't want to try something more violent in case it could actually hurt you. Just trust me when I say this is a conversation that can wait for another time. Focus on learning about your powers for now."

"You were going to erase my memory!?" Taylor gaped at the sheer gall that the super showed.

"Only if you reacted badly." Isaac shrugged. "I used to do it all the time to myself. I ever learned a piece of info I really didn't want to know? Just wipe the last ten minutes from my head. Easy stuff." He suddenly cocked his head to the side and seemed to be looking at the wall of her bedroom. "Hm. So Assault didn't fully believe you after all."

Taylor felt a chill run down her back. "What?"

"PRT agents. They're monitoring the house. Probably to see if you start going out at night as a cape." He made another sharp motion with his hand. "Alright, I just threw up an illusion. That way they can't just look in and see us or listen in."

"I never asked, what are your powers?" Taylor asked, feeling curious at the range he'd already shown.

"You'd call me a Trump. Originally I would just manifest a random powerset every now and then, constantly shifting day to day. Later I learned to control it. I'm able to temporarily steal or in the case of more powerful individuals, copy superpowers." Isaac said with a nearly mechanical, practiced tone. Like reciting information from a book.

"Alright…" Sounded like a watered down Eidolon, but even that was pretty strong. "Back to 'Gilgamesh' and 'Ishtar'..."

Isaac winced, clearly hoping she'd forgotten. "Taylor, please wait, there are more pressing concerns right now. Like getting you established as a hero and training your powers."

"You want me to ignore something that literally destroyed an entire world full of parahumans, something that apparently makes Endbringers seem soft in comparison?" Taylor scowled in disbelief.

"Yes." Isaac said bluntly. "Because we don't really know the full range of these beings' powers. Every power on this Earth? One of theirs. Every. Single. One. And they probably have even more in reserve. Think about that. It means they probably have Thinker powers completely unrivaled by anyone else. If they work out that you know what they are, then this Earth is doomed. You have the potential to challenge them, that was the whole point to passing on these powers, but as you are now? You wouldn't stand a chance."

A spike of pain drove itself through Taylor's head and Isaac seemed to fizzle at the edges. "Shit!"

"See, you can barely keep me around for a few minutes and I haven't pulled out any strong powers either. Luckily supers have a very distinct advantage over parahumans." Isaac smirked. "Our powers grow with usage and time, with no known upper limit. Legacy? He used to have trouble flying faster than a bird. When you summon him, he can probably break the sound barrier a couple times over. Your own power will improve, you just have to keep using it and pushing it past its limits. Next time see if you can summon more than one of us."

"Wait-"

Isaac vanished before she could finish her sentence. "Godfucking damnit…"

Taylor stalked out of her room and fished some painkillers out of the medicine cabinet, taking twice the recommended dosage. Her headache faded after some time and she sighed while walking into the living room. Her dad was just starting to wake up with bleary eyes.

"Taylor? What time is it?"

"Just past eight dad." Taylor informed him. "I was about to start dinner."

"I'll give you a hand."

"Just take it easy." Taylor said while glancing at the whisky. "Work must have been tough today."

"Yeah. Had to lay off a couple of guys."

"Sorry to hear that."

Danny merely shrugged and turned on the t.v.

And there's our daily dose of interaction. Fantastic.

You know, you could put in a bit more effort too.

"Shit!"

"Everything good kiddo?"

"Yeah just uh, stubbed a toe."

Isaac?!

Yeah. Found out another aspect of your powers I guess. Hold on, someone else wants to speak to you.

Isaac's subdued voice was replaced by a more powerful one, oozing good cheer and warmth. Taylor! It seems Roulette managed to speak to you and now so can I!

Legacy?

The one and only. Before it seemed like there was a barrier between us, but that has thinned. Now you shouldn't need to summon us to at least speak to us and get any sort of tips or advice.

You're all… aware? Even when you aren't summoned.

In a very vague way. We can see and hear through your senses, but its muted and distorted. Your thoughts are quite clear though, especially when pertaining to your power!

Taylor began preparing a simple salad with some grilled chicken on top.

Alright. Any advice on how to start this whole hero thing?

Well I started with a bank robbery. Went fairly well. It was mostly luck though, I happened to be flying overhead and saw the robbers walking in.

What do you think I should do then?

Get yourself a costume and start patrolling areas where crime is likely to occur. Standard UHF doctrine.

Right… But if my powers are just summoning different supers, why would I bother going out?

Well I'm no expert on Master powers, but usually there's at least some kind of range limit. Plus don't tell me you wouldn't want to be there yourself, kicking ass and taking names!

Taylor thought about that for a moment and grimaced. The idea of just sending out other heroes didn't feel right. Like cheating. Yeah, she definitely wanted to be fighting alongside her supers.

Well Isaac said you were the First, so what's your advice on costumes?

Well… I'd suggest summoning either a Designer- er sorry force of habit, I mean a Tinker or… He trailed off sounding hesitant.

Or?

Summon a gentleman named Vulcan. His abilities are similar in nature to that of Dauntless, the Protectorate hero.

Taylor paused in her cooking. Dauntless. The guy could empower objects to do different stuff. People speculated that one day he'd be as strong as the Triumvirate or even surpass them.

I'm able to summon people that strong?

Oh most certainly. You already summoned me after all! You won't be able to keep him around for long though. He was often considered somewhere in the top five or ten most powerful supers in our world. But even a short amount of time should allow him to at least get started on a project for you.

Taylor finished cooking and called for her dad. He came into the living room and they began eating in silence.

You know, Isaac wasn't wrong. You could try and talk to your dad some more.

What would be the point? Taylor thought bitterly. He barely talks back anymore.

I know its difficult Taylor, but… I can tell that things have never been the same since your mother died-

I don't want to talk about this.

Taylor please-

No. Drop it.

There was a deafening silence for a while. I've lost people I care about too. You aren't alone Taylor. If you ever want to talk about it, I am here, we are all here for you.

A feeling swelled up in her mind, not just Legacy and Isaac, but dozens of distinct personalities, all offering up feelings of reassurance and comfort.

She pushed them all away and focused on finishing her food before going to bed.

Fuck I don't want to go to school tomorrow…

All of her books had been in the locker. Tomorrow was going to suck.