A lot of things happen when you get powers. Some good, some bad. Take what happened to me for example. On the plus side, my 'Trigger Event', as they call the events that people gain Parahuman powers, was so blindingly obvious that the PRT had had to swoop in, cover everything up with a forest's worth of NDA forms and strict legal documentation, and boot Sophia, AKA Shadow Stalker, to the curb and juvy so fast she didn't see it coming.
Most of that was a good thing.
What I was going through right now though was a pain. The PRT was trying to conscript me and I wasn't having any of it.
"What part of 'no' do you not understand?" I demanded angrily. I was sitting on one side of a conference table, my dad sat next to me, while Director Piggot, Miss Militia and Armsmaster sat on the other side, with Glen something-or-other, a member of the PRT's PR department. They really must have thought I'd fold like a pile of cards.
"I fail to see why you insist on refusing to become a Ward." Piggot said stiffly. She was a whale of a woman, one cookie away from a pulmonary embolism.
"Because the person who was primarily responsible for making me Trigger was one of your own Wards!" I answered heatedly, "Not to mention someone who should have been watched around the clock because she was a probie!"
"She isn't on the team anymore. I fail to see why you are making so much of a fuss." Armsmaster stated in a monotone.
"I can see several reasons." My Dad said coolly. He had been pissed when he found out who Sophia was. "She cannot trust that the other Wards are not like Miss Hess, she cannot trust the PRT because it was an agent of the PRT who helped conceal the fact that Miss Hess tortured her for over a year and a half, and she cannot trust the Protectorate because you are their leader and have shown no compassion or sorrow other than the fact that Miss Hess was caught and embarrassed the PRT in general and you and Director Piggot in particular."
Piggot's face darkened in anger. "I despise Capes who abuse their powers, Mr Hebert. Had I been aware of Miss Hess' activities-!"
"And yet you weren't." I shot back, "You classed her as being on probation, yet took no special methods or measures to survey her despite that. I can't trust you to have my back, so there's no way I am going to work for you."
One of Piggot's eyebrows twitched as she became angrier at me. "I see. What will you do then when the Empire or Merchants come knocking to recruit you then?"
Jeez, her voice is so cold that it's practically artic!
"Fight." I replied simply, "But Kaiser doesn't break the Unwritten Rules that I've been told about. He almost killed the last one in the Bay to do that, if memory serves. The Merchants…well, unless you leak my details to them, I doubt they'd bring their heads out of their drugged-up hazes to do anything. So, bluntly put, unless the PRT breaks the Unwritten rules themselves, I'm secure from that sort of thing."
"I also plan on stepping up our home security." Dad added.
"Might I ask what your plans are then?" Miss Militia, silent until now, asked.
I softened my voice as I told her, "The Dockworkers Union has been suffering from the gangs' non-Parahuman activities for years. I'll keep to the Docks as an independent Hero-slash-Rogue. Hopefully having a dedicated Hero will have an effect on the crime rates in the area rather than the distracted afterthoughts of an overworked and understaffed PRT and Protectorate."
Again, Director Piggot twitched, with Armsmaster joining in. It wasn't any secret that, for whatever reason, the Protectorate ENE was being shafted in the Cape department. The Empire outnumbered the Protectorate by a handy margin, and the leader of the ABB was Lung, the Dragon of Kyushu. There should be at least another half-a-dozen Capes in the Protectorate's roster, yet there wasn't.
"I see." The female Cape said seriously, "I would advise that, at the very least, you become a PRT Affiliated Cape. It will relieve you of most of the restrictions that vigilante heroes are bound by."
I was reluctant to have anything to do with the PRT or Protectorate, but this was one of the original Wards telling me this. Plus, Piggot was glaring angrily at Miss Militia. Ah-hah, so the Director hadn't wanted me to be told that, eh?
"I'll take it under consideration." I replied diplomatically.
The meeting ended after that and my Dad and I left the PRT building, where the meeting had taken place. Dad was quiet until we got into his old car.
"OK Taylor." He said after a moment, "What do you seriously plan on doing?"
"Dad, I have to find a way to use my powers." I told him frankly, "They don't like being left fallow for long. Research has shown that. I'm going to do as I said in there; become an independent Hero/Rogue."
"The hero part I can see where you're coming from, but the rogue part?" Dad looked doubtful.
I smiled and twitched my finger, making a piece of paper float out of the back of the car and fold itself into a paper crane. "How interested would the Dockworker's Union be in someone who can turn any inorganic object into paper? Such as, oh I don't know…ship hulks?"
A smile grew on Dad's face. "I think I can pitch it to them fairly easily. You'll need a costume and name though."
The Next Week
Dockworker's Union Offices
I stood in front of the leadership of the Dockworker's Union in my costume, feeling a bit silly. I knew all these people, yet I had to act as if I didn't. Not for the first time, I had to wonder about the absurdity of the Unwritten Rules.
My costume's mask was made of Papier-mâché, which made it relatively hard anyway, but it was made as strong as steel when I altered the paper within with my power to make it like that, as well as making it fireproof and waterproof. I had painted it white and red. Who knew that kindergarten-level stuff could be so useful? The rest of my costume was a white jumpsuit covered by a dress made from A4 sheets of paper, more than you'd think was there just by looking at it.
"OK people, let's calm it down." Dad –Danny, he told me to call him in this outfit- said, making most of the room quieten down. Dad was well respected by those in the Union because of his unflagging efforts to improve their lot.
"Today, we have a petition form Paper Master here, a Rogue Cape, to work for the Dockworkers Union on a case-by-case basis." He continued.
"Paper Master?" Kurt, my godfather said doubtfully, "What can she do?"
Dad gestured at me and I cleared my throat. "I have the ability to transform inorganic objects into paper, as well as the ability to manipulate paper. I could turn those hulks in the Boat Graveyard into a mountain of paper and move it all away. The same could apply to rubble or broken machinery in buildings."
This earned me some muttering from the leadership.
"Could we see a demonstration?" Came a request for Brian Marshall, a work crew leader.
"Paper Master?" Dad said questioningly.
"Certainly. There's an old desk outside the room that looks as if it is ready to fall apart. If someone could bring it in?" I said politely, glad my mask hid my smile. Dad had had that desk put there deliberately so I could demonstrate my powers.
Two men lugged the monstrosity of a desk into the room. It was the old-fashioned kind that was made of solid oak and would have been worth a fair bit, had it not been for the unfortunate graffiti carved all across the top of it, plus the broken leg.
Pressing my hand to its surface, I invoked the power that had turned half of Winslow into paper and lo and behold, the desk exploded outwards, transforming into at least a hundred sheets of A4 paper that I had fold themselves into paper cranes and fly around the room.
"And this will work on steel? And on ships the size of the ones in the Graveyard?" Dad asked intently.
"It worked on brick and mortar; I see no reason why it wouldn't work on the ship hulls." I answered, "I have not tested it, admittedly, but it has worked on steel pipes and the like, so the only thing in question is size."
After a moment of whispering, the consensus was that my power would need to be tested on a ship before any contract was signed. So I was led out to a car and taken to the Ship Graveyard. To be precise next to a ship that had been sunk while moored at the quay.
Placing my hands on it, I invoked my power once more. The ship glowed blue for a moment before it started to dissolve into paper from the top of the coning tower all the way down to the hull. As the paper fluttered in the air, I drew it down to the concrete ground next to me and stacked it up in piles next to me.
"So? Do I pass?" I asked Dad, who was shaking his head in disbelief at the steadily dissolving ship.
"I think it's safe to say that you do." He said dryly, "You'll save us a ton of money on salvaging these ships, as well as clearing out factories and other buildings. We could even have you demolish derelict buildings."
I was about to reply, when a loud sneering voice called from behind us, "What the fuck are you fudge-packing cunt dribblers doing here?"
I turned and saw Skidmark, the leader of the Merchants, surrounded by at least thirty of his gang members, drugged up to the eyeballs as usual. There was, thankfully, no sign of Squealer or Mush with him, but these odds were bad enough. The Dockworkers were only lightly armed and I could see at least three merchants armed with assault rifles.
"Skids, look!" a druggie said, pointing at me, "A Cape!"
Skidmark sneered at me. "New Trigger? Has ta be. Come here and I'll give ya some stuff that'll make you feel real good."
I made my way to the front of the group of Dockworkers before crossing my arms. "On the whole, I think I'd rather not."
"Your choice, cum whore!" the disgusting Cape sneered before beckoning at his gang, "Fuck them up!"
"Oh no you don't!" I snarled. I raised one hand and the stack of paper moved at my command, merging and folding into a long sinuous Chinese-style dragon that roared at the Merchants.
"Fuck-biscuits!" one shrieked before firing with his rifle. The bullets peppered the dragon until the gun's magazine ran dry. I just clicked my fingers and the many holes caused by the bullets piercing through the paper sealed themselves shut, as good as new.
"Kill the cape not the construct, you dick-guzzler!" Skidmark howled.
Before the man could reload, I made the dragon as hard as steel then had it charge at him and bite his weapon in half. It spat out the part it had torn from the weapon and roared again.
"Fuck you!" Skidmark roared and activated his power. Lines of red and blue appeared between him and the dragon. I frowned, trying to remember what his power was from my trawling of PHO. Skidmark could create areas of attraction and repulsion, and even layer them up to increase their strength, as he was currently doing.
I grinned underneath my mask as I recalled one of the restrictions on his power when he did this though.
With a gesture, some of the paper on my dress that I had shrunk down detached itself and grew until I bound and folded them together into the shape of a large tiger. I sent my new construct around the back of Skidmark, making sure to make the paper tiger as hard as steel.
It barrelled into Skidmark's back, forcing the man through his own repulsion field, which sent him flying into the coils of my paper dragon, which I collapsed around him, turning him into a mummy.
Turning to look at the Merchants, I placed my hands on my hips. "Well? Either fight and lose or run like a little bitch. Your choice."
About half of the group of drug addicts turned and fled, screaming obscenities at me, while the rest geared up to fight me. Between my paper tiger and the paper projectiles that I used (paper windmills and swords), the remainder were defeated and captured rather quickly.
Dad called in the PRT, which had Armsmaster arriving inside of ten minutes on what most people in the bay called the 'Armscycle' but he just called a motorbike.
"You defeated Skidmark." The Tinker Cape said. It sounded like a statement, but I could hear a question in there.
I laid my hands on my purring tiger as I replied. "Yeah. Between your paper tiger and mine, I think my one is more effective."
That started him grinding his teeth.
So yes, I am aware that someone is writing a story similar to this one, Papergeist, but this is not related to Konan of Akatsuki. Think more Read or Die's Yomiko Readman than her.
On a different note, two of my stories, Code Geass: The Prepared Rebellion and Zero no Tsukaima: Saito the Onmyōji, now have TV Tropes pages! This is something I am very happy about, so be sure to check them out and many thinks to the person who set them up. If you discover pages about any of my other stories, PM me!
Shaker: 5 (Possesses Papyrokinesis, the ability to control paper and card. She is able to control the size, shape, density, hardness and other areas of the paper under her control. She can remotely fold them into origami figures and has an instinctive ability to do so. The range of her ability stretches for about two miles (3.219 kilometres). She can also turn a small quantity of her paper into explosives, the ratio being 1 paper for every thousand pieces of paper she possesses.)
Striker: 4 (Has the ability Paperization, the power to turn things into paper. This only works on inorganic items, but there seems to be no limit as to size as she turned half of Winslow High School into paper when she Triggered. She can freely control the size, shape and colour of the paper she creates, but the default is white A4 paper.)
Mover: 3 (If she has enough paper, Taylor can fashion wings to fly with or surf on the paper she has access to.)