Getting Parahuman powers is a big thing, no matter what they are. Still, I really wish I had some other power than the one I received when I was locked in the locker.
My name is Taylor Hebert and I have the ability to create and control blood.
No, you didn't mishear. I can control blood. Before we go into that though, I should start at when I first discovered that I had powers.
I first twigged that something had changed since the locker when I accidentally cut my finger when preparing dinner for my Dad and I. I had been distracted by the sound of a car backfiring as it chugged along the street and my hand slipped. Next thing I knew, my forefinger had a cut across the breadth of it.
It hurt, obviously, but aside from that and the blood on the knife, nothing came out. No welling of blood or anything. Then, before my eyes, the cut sealed itself shut and even the scar faded to nothing, leaving clean, unblemished skin behind.
After I stopped having a panic attack, I finished dinner and made plans to go to the library the next day. I had some research to do.
My time at the library was…educational. I found out that I had no chance of being accepted into the Wards or Protectorate, as they only accepted photogenic, physically perfect and with 'acceptable and public friendly' powers.
Meaning a blood user was out of the question.
It shouldn't bother me that I couldn't join the nationwide superhero team and its junior wing. I'd had enough of teen drama at Winslow and had no desire to join the Wards to deal with more of it, but the fact that I was going to be excluded and looked upon with suspicion because of my power just pissed me off something cruel.
Once I was over my snit at that little injustice, I set about learning about my powers. Obviously, the first thing that I knew was that I couldn't bleed and I had a regeneration factor. This was good, as lone heroes were vulnerable to being injured.
I could also control the density of blood inside my body, making my body as hard as diamond, super strong as well as allowing me to ignore pain to a large degree. I punched right through a solid steel hull in the Boat Graveyard using that ability.
Another very interesting ability was the power to summon blood out of nothing. I created it out of thin air. I could freely control it, shape it and even alter that particular blood's composition, such as ramping up the iron content in it until it was liquid iron almost. I could make them as hard as steel while that was happening, ending up in shaped weapons that could appear from nowhere almost instantly.
I could also use them as armour, although it took a month of experimentation to discover how to shape them properly and to discover the right type of armour for me. I had initially gone with a full-plate mail design, but it was way too clunky and unwieldy. Even using my power to control the armour made me overbalance, so I scrapped that idea and moved back in time to the Roman period.
The Lorica Segmentata, or segmented cuirass armour, used by Roman Legionnaires back in the day, was a good starting point. The segmented plates of armour that I made were many times superior to the soft iron interior/hard steel exterior of the Roman design and would provide excellent protection, with the addition of a gorget to protect my throat.
Helmet wise, a full-helm was in the cards. People and the world didn't want the person called Taylor Hebert? Fine. The world wouldn't get any humanity from the head of my costume. I'd put a full face mask on it, make it look terrifying.
Similar armour would be fine on the legs. Once I decided on the design, I practiced and practiced for another month and a half until I could materialise all of it onto my body at will, at the maximum strength I could manage, which increased with time and practice.
So here I was now, after three months, finally going out on patrol as a Parahuman. Wearing my black armour, black from the ridiculously high iron content I make the blood take on; I stood atop the Dockworker's Union office building and glared out over the docks.
My helmet's mask was something I was proud of. I had rethought the terrifying thing and gone simply with inhuman; a blank mask with no facial features whatsoever. I used my powers to somehow, don't ask me how, make it like one-way glass. I could see out, but no one could see in.
"Well then," I muttered, "Time to move."
Leaping from the building, I flew through the air to the roof nearby, neatly sailing over the perimeter wall and its spikes as I did so, I started to patrol the Docks. It was an unspoken secret that with the setting of the sun, the Docks belonged to the gangs. Hell, they even tried to own the place during the day.
I hate the gangs. Almost as much as the Bitch Trio, which says a lot about how skewed my worldview has become.
Everything was quiet. I refuse to use the clichéd 'too quiet' phrase, but it did feel like that. Like the calm before the storm. No one was around to fight, aside from a few stoned Merchants and they weren't doing anything illegal, aside from being drugged up on illegal substances, but they just were not worth it.
It was when I landed on a warehouse near ABB territory that I saw a lot of Asian gangbangers, all of the m armed to the teeth by ganger standards. There had to be at least thirty of them, but they had no Cape sense in that they didn't look up, so I listened in.
"Lung wants us to gather two blocks over." One man said to his friend.
"Who're we blowing away now?" his friend asked.
"Fuck knows. I ain't arguing with Kyūshū no ryū, you idiot." The first man snorted, "I like my head in one piece!"
Lung. The Dragon of Kyushu, as the man had so aptly been named. The Parahuman who had fought Leviathan, the Endbringer, to a standstill at Kyushu. The Cape who had single-handedly defeated the entirety of the Protectorate in Brockton Bay when he arrived here, just because he could.
Well fuck. I had wanted a worthy opponent to take down on my first night out. Looks like the old saying of 'be careful what you wish for' is definitely true. What to do?
Well, I reasoned to myself, going to look covertly couldn't hurt. At the very least, I'd get to see a villain Cape in person and assess him.
So, reluctantly, I headed two blocks over, using blood to cushion my feet and thus reduce the sound of my landings to almost nothing. Finding the right area, I took cover behind a sign and silently cursed. There had to be over fifty ABB gangsters gathered down below, along with a figure no one in Brockton Bay could possibly mistake for someone else.
Lung.
He was topless, showing off his well-built upper body to all and sundry. The metal mask on his face was that of a stylised snarling dragon, naturally. He was lounging on a throne-like chair and, despite his pose of repose; he gave of an aura of command that practically demanded attention and respect from those around him.
"-don't care that they're kids!" he was saying to the gathered gangbangers, "You see those little bitches down? Shot them in the head twice to make certain!"
My heart skipped a beat. He did not just say what I thought he said. He did not just say he and his two-bit thugs were going to kill kids! No way!
Fuck. I'm really about to fight the nigh-invincible leader of the ABB and fifty of his stooges, aren't I? Damn me for needing to do the right thing and damn Lung for being an asshole.
Looking at the mass of bad guys, I could see that they were the ones who needed to go down first. Fighting Lung and these guys at the same time was a losing proposition.
Raising my hand, I created a large mass of blood in the air, startling the ABB gangers, who moved from startled to freaked out by the mass of blood hanging in the air. As you'd expect, they pulled out their guns and started to blaze away uselessly at my creation.
After a minute or so of this, I had it bloom tentacles and start grabbing the gangbangers one at a time, sticking them atop the mass of blood in black blood restraints. Once there were less than ten ABB left, they took the hint and ran with their tails between their legs. I dropped the bound gangbangers onto the ground and then dropped down myself.
Lung, who hadn't even twitched an eyebrow at his men being beaten by a cloud of blood, leaned his head on one arm and asked, "Was that supposed to impress me?"
"Taking out just under fifty gangbangers without so much as a wound being dealt on either side…yeah, I'd say that was something to write home about." I retorted with a sneer in my voice.
"While you may be able to deal with my men in such a way, you cannot do the same with me." Lung stated bluntly, "For daring to stand against me, your life is forfeit."
"Get in line, lizard breath." I told him, "Now are you going to fight or just sit on your ass all night?"
Silence filled the street as Lung slowly stood up and cracked his knuckles one by one. "Just for that quip," he said faux-calmly, "I'm going to break your back."
I waved my hand and the cloud of floating blood spat a deluge of crystallised blood blades at the Dragon of Kyushu, piercing into him before he could move even a step. I was careful about avoiding his head and heart, but otherwise didn't bother directing them. This was Lung, after all. He could take it.
Sure enough, Lung roared and started to bulk up, pulling blades out of him and his skin turning into dragon scales. This was the power that made Lung all but invincible, his ability to become more and more like a dragon as time passed. It made him stronger, made him tougher, granted him the strongest regeneration factor on the planet other than Crawler of the Slaughterhouse Nine and also gave him increasingly powerful pyrokinesis.
He wasn't taking me seriously though. I could tell because he was still less than seven feet in height. Reports from his clash with the Protectorate were very scarce, probably due to them not wanting to be seen as weak, but he had been over ten feet tall and fully draconic almost from the beginning.
He's underestimating me…good.
I increased the barrage of blood blades when he started walking forward, the weapons shattering on his scales as if they were made of weak glass and falling to the ground.
"I'm going to kill you, woman!" he snarled.
Time to get serious myself, then.
Ceasing the barrage, I formed the remaining blood into a humanoid figure, a knight, armed with a broadsword and shield. This was something I had practiced as well. Now I come to think of it, I could have used this as a stalking horse rather than show myself.
Oops.
Lung barrelled forwards with a roar, smashing onto my blood knight with the force of a battering ram, sending the eight foot knight sprawling as the Dragon of Kyushu went to town on it, ripping the solidified blood to pieces like tissue paper.
But that didn't matter; the blood knight was a distraction, nothing more. I raced towards Lung, one arm drawn back and heavily reinforced with blood armour and upping the density of my blood as much as I dared.
He looked up just in time for my fist to slam straight into the centre of his mask, buckling and shattering it, sending fragments everywhere and lifting Lung off the ground before he went flying backwards, over his 'throne' and into the side of a warehouse.
Pain blossomed up my arm for a moment before I redirected my energies to healing whatever was wrong with it and the feeling subsided. Damn, I'm really going to have to train my power better. Punching solid steel wasn't painful in the slightest, but punching Lung's face was like punching solid granite!
Even as I thought that, Lung staggered to his feet, his transformation increasing his size and warping his face into that of a dragon's to replace his mask. Wings sprouted from his back, as did a tail. Claws sprouted from his fingers and flames flickered around them. Looks like he was finally taking off the kid gloves.
"'onna 'ill 'ou!" he growled.
I didn't bother replying to him. The time for banter was past.
We charged at each other at the same time, ending in a grapple. I held off his arms and winced at the pain that the flames caused me, as well as the force he exerted on me. But it was just painful. Not agonising or anything, just painful.
Oddly enough, as I forced Lung back and then started to exchange blows with him, I felt something every time I landed a blow on him or he landed a blow on me, aside from pain.
His blood. I could feel the blood pulse through his body. Holy crap. I could read and control his blood just by touching him! I wasn't affected by the Manton Limit! Figures. I avoid physical contact with people, so I didn't realise I could do this. Just perfect.
Taken aback by this revelation, I react too slowly to block a blow from Lung that sends me flying into a building, although I cushion myself enough to not get injured with some of the blood around that I summoned.
"Ow." I say flatly, "Let's try that one again."
Roaring in anger, Lung sent one large haymaker at me, probably planning to send me back through the wall properly this time. I caught the punch with both hands and held it. Reaching along until I reached his brain, I quickly reversed the flow of the blood there.
Lung, the Dragon of Kyushu and leader of the ABB, choked for a moment before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed unconscious even as I restored the flow of his blood to normal as quickly as I could.
I hadn't been certain that it would work, but I had read a comic once with someone doing that. What do you know, it did. Lung was transforming back into his human form when I heard four thumps behind me.
"Holy crap!" a voice said from behind me. I whirled around to see four masked teens and three…
"What the hell are those?" I found myself asking.
"Bitch's dogs." The purple wearing blond girl replied, "Wow, you really went to town on these guys."
"Is that…blood?" the boy wearing biker leathers and a motorbike helmet asked uneasily.
"Yes, but it's made from her power, not from the ABB or Lung." The blond assured him, "And she just shut down Lung by reversing the flow of blood in his brain temporarily. She can ignore the Manton Limit, at least partially, although I think she still can't kill someone with the blood in their veins."
Absently, I got the remaining blood to wrap around Lung like a cocoon, leaving his face exposed. I stalked over to one terrified member of the ABB and took his balaclava, forcing it over Lung's head.
"Nice that you're respecting the unwritten rules." Motorbike helmet said, "Lung was coming after us for robbing the Ruby Dreams Casino last week. We fought Oni Lee into a retreat, and we were coming to take the fight to Lung, but…you got there ahead of us."
"Seriously? I thought Lung was going to kill some actual kids." I said in disbelief, "I fought fifty ABB thugs and Lung on a misunderstanding? Someone hates me."
"That's what happened? Man, that blows." The boy in a renaissance faire outfit commented.
"Armsmaster's on his way." The blond girl said, staring into the distance, "Look, we owe you a solid for taking down Lung for us. Want to come with us to get away from Halbeard?"
I had to muffle a chuckle at that. It was one of the Protectorate leader's less complimentary nicknames, according to PHO.
"Why not. It isn't like the white-hats will want to recruit a blood user." I replied somewhat despondently.
The blond girl snorted in agreement. "Yeah, if anyone doesn't fit their picture of perfection it's villainy or the Birdcage for them. Hop on."
When Armsmaster turned up, he was puzzled about all the blood, but no injuries.
So here's another one that I think is quite nice. Disgusting to imagine, but interesting, to say the least. Just so you know, the DNA of the blood is random, so she can't be found out that way.
Shaker: 7 (Able to generate large amounts of blood and shape it to various purposes, from constructs to weapons to armour. Able to solidify and/or crystallise the blood to improve its utility. Can freely alter the composition of blood from density to blood type.)
Brute: 5 (Able to control the blood within her own body to gain superhuman strength and durability. Cannot bleed. Has the ability to ignore up to a certain threshold of pain. Has a moderately powerful healing factor.)
Striker: 8 (Is able to control the blood within the bodies of others with a touch. This can be used to control the body of the person she touches, cure blood poisoning, alter the flow of blood in their body, accelerate the cell regeneration factor and a whole host of other uses.)