Loading… Chapter Two (Original Chapter Chapter 11)

Closing the blue screen for the moment, I lay back on my bed full of wonder. My powers were, evidently, the ability to make the world around me a game. I had to wonder what the hell kind of Power Rating I would receive from the PRT? I could modify my powers, so definitely a high-Trump Rating, at least.

My mind got distracted when a nurse came in and I spotted words floating above her head.

Stacy Carmichael

LV14

(Dedicated Nurse)

"Hello dear." She said with a kind smile, "Nice to see you awake."

"Um, thanks." I said shyly, "What's the time? The clock seems to be missing."

"It's six in the morning, dear." She replied, looking at a spot on the wall with a frown, "Where is that clock? Don't tell me Joshua made off with it again…?"

"Umm…who?"

"Oh…Joshua Kendrick, he's a dear boy, but he has severe Autism; nothing Panacea can do about that, I'm afraid. He comes in for check-ups every other week or so." She sighed, "He has this dislike of clock-hands ticking, so he takes them down, takes the batteries out and hides them somewhere in the room. It's a bit of a nuisance, but nothing major. If you spot them, let one of the on duty nurses know."

A *ding!* could be heard to my ears and I watched as a screen popped up in front of me.

[Quest Alert!]

Clockstopper: An Autistic boy, Joshua Kendrick, has taken the clock in your room, removed the batteries and hidden all three items in the room somewhere. Locate all three items (batteries and clock) before the end of your hospital stay and inform the nurses where they are.

Quest Reward: +50 Relationship with [Brockton Bay General Hospital Nursing Staff], +50 EXP

Quest Failure: + 10 EXP

Accept?

Y/N

Blinking, I took in the fact I was being offered something so…mundane, as an actual quest. Shrugging, I hit the 'Y' key, making the screen vanish as I said, "Sure."

"Now, I'll be taking some blood from you." Nurse Carmichael said as she picked a syringe up from the nearby table.

"Do you have to?" I eyed the needle of the thing with scant favour. I didn't have a fear of needles or anything, but I had very firm opinions of where my blood belongs, namely inside my body, where it belongs.

"I'm not sure if you know this, dear, but that…filth you were locked in with was technically toxic waste." The woman said firmly, "The doctors ran tests while you were unconscious, but they want to double check to make sure that you haven't gotten an infection or blood poisoning. You can never be too safe."

"Fine." I sighed.

Once the blood was out of me (I lost ten HP!) and the nurse was gone, I reopened the [Queen Administrator] skill tree and examined the first of the two powers I had purchased in addition to my basic powerset.

[Sensory Linking] (LV1, Max LV 5)

{0/100 EXP to Level Up}

Your power has grown to allow you to use the sensory organs of your Mastered Insects as your own. While confusing at first, with practice, you will be able to see, feel, hear, taste and smell through them, although it isn't advised that you feel, taste or smell through them.

- Link Reliability: 60%.

- Sensory Synchronisation: 50%.

- Counts as part of your Master Rating.

In terms of immediate combat applications, this got zero out of ten. When you thought about how useful all of the insects would be as spies and scouts, however, it earned a full ten out of ten. Still, I'd have to practice doing it in order to level it up, which I could do a lot of in my current situation. It was amazing (and a little disturbing) for me to discover how many insects were inside even a building as supposedly clean and sterile as a hospital.

I turned my attention to the second power I had bought.

[Arachnid Tinkering] (LV1, Max LV 10)

{0/150 EXP to Level Up}

This grants you the ability to use the webbing and exoskeletons of spiders to create clothing and armour. With higher levels and the addition of other skills you can even make biological alterations to spiders, but nothing compared to Nilbog or Bonesaw. It also has the effect of granting you additional control over any and all forms of arachnids and allowing you to see any parts that would be useful for a design you are working on. Higher levels also grant you additional bonuses to clothes and armour that you make.

- Unlocks the [Tinker] Special Status! Congratulations, you are now a Tinker 1!

- Unlocks Tinker Specialisation: Spider Silk Clothing and Armour.

- Grants [Control: Above Average] when Mastering any and all Arachnids.

- Any spider parts (webbing, chitin) that can be used for your creations will light up in yellow in your sight.

- Grants a +10 to the Durability and Armour stats of any items you create within your specialisation, in addition to any other bonuses.

This…was pretty major. I mean, seriously. One of the major problems of being an independent hero was the lack of resources when you were starting up. This could be a godsend, both for acquiring funds and for making my own costume. Just off the top of my head, I knew of one Rogue Cape, Parian, who would likely pay very well for Spider Silk for her clothes.

Leaving the money calculations for the moment, I decided to look through the screens to find out what this 'relationship' thing was about. I had a vague idea, but I wanted to know more. It failed to surprise me that a screen popped up in front of me.

[Relationship and You]

The relationship stats show the standing that you have with people, organisation and countries. There are nine stages of the [Relationship] status. From worst to best they are: [At War], [Hated], [Disliked], [Unfriendly], [Neutral], [Friendly], [Well Liked], [Honoured] and [Exalted]. Each has a buff or debuff to interactions with the person/organisation/country in question and there are consequences to having a good relationship with one organisation.

For example, say you get on well with the [Azn Bad Boyz], having a [Well-Liked] relationship with them. That will automatically put you at the [Disliked] relationship level with [Empire 88], [Archer's Bridge Merchants], [Parahuman Response Team ENE], [Protectorate ENE] and [Wards ENE]. Be careful, therefore, before you befriend any group or organisation, as each action will have a similar and opposing reaction.

That was…informative. So getting friendly with one group meant getting flak from the others. The groups mentioned were the main players in Brockton Bay; the Pan-Asian Supremacists, the Nazis, the Druggies, the PRT and the Protectorate's senior and junior branches. There were others in the Bay; Über and L33T, the Game Addict Capes, the Undersiders, a group of Hit-and-Run Thieves, Coil, a man people didn't know much about, Faultline's Crew, mercs for hire and maybe a couple of other Capes like Parian floating around.

For correctly recalling the major and minor players in the Bay, you receive +1 WIS!

This made me blink. So by fulfilling some criteria, I received bonus points to my physical and mental stats?

For correctly deducing an aspect of your power, you receive +1 INT!

That confirmed it.

Once again deciding to move on, I returned to the skill window and gazed at it pensively. I had eight Power Distribution Points left over from purchasing the basic skills in the tutorial and I decided that I needed to have a look at wheat other skills I could pick up.

Opening the [Combat] skill tree, my eyes crossed when I saw the number of skills I had available. Thankfully, there was a filter, so I organised it to view all skills from cheapest to most expensive. After blanking out for a moment, it obeyed, displaying all the options available for one PP. There were still a lot of them, so I took my time and browsed through the choices. One caught my eye and I pressed it for more information.

[Close Combat Proficiency] (LV1, Max Level 15)

Gives you basic skill in fighting with your bare hands. Nothing more than basic street fighting at first, but everyone has to start somewhere.

Do you wish to purchase this skill for [1] Power Point?

Yes/No

Hitting 'Yes', I grinned as a confirmation screen appeared.

You have successfully learned [Close Combat Proficiency]!

[Close Combat Proficiency] (LV1, Max Level 15)

{0/125 to Level Up}

Fighting has occurred within humanity since they were Neanderthals fighting over scraps of meat during the Ice Age. The oldest form is using your bare hands and feet. This skill grants you knowledge about fighting in general, if not an actual fighting style. Once this skill has been mastered, you can learn a proper combat style.

- Grants knowledge of how to fight without injuring yourself; the proper way to clench a fist for a punch, etcetera.

- Grants +5 to all damage dealt while unarmed or while armed with [Glove] or [Gauntlet] type weapons.

To say that I was impressed was an understatement. Now that I had read it, I did know how to throw a punch, dodge and roll and a host of other minor tricks that would let me fight decently, if not gracefully.

I closed the screen as I heard someone coming, thought I knew that only I could see it. Still, you never know if there's a Parahuman around when they're out of costume, so there's no point being careless.

"Taylor!" a familiar voice boomed as a tall wiry man entered the room.

"Dad!" I exclaimed happily. I paused as I saw words floating above his head.

Danny Hebert

LV20

(Dockworker's Union Representative/Danny the Demon)

That had me blinking in shock. Dad was the Union Representative of the Dockworker's Association, but the second title gave me pause. He did have a horrible temper, one he had never turned on his family, but to the point that people gave him a nickname because of it?

"How are you?" Dad asked, drawing me from my thoughts.

"Fine. Had to have blood taken to check to see if I have any infections, but other than that, nothing." I answered, "What time is it?"

"Just after eight." Dad replied as he sat on the chair next to my bed, "Taylor…the school was in contact…"

I felt my expression shut down as a notification popped up stating that [Gamer's Mind] had activated.

"Let me guess," I said bitterly, "They'll pay for the hospital bills and my books, but nothing else, right? And no one has come forward to confirm who it was who pushed me into…The Locker."

It was so easy to predict Blackwell that I wanted to hurl.

"Pretty much." Dad winced sympathetically, "We could sue, but we really can't afford it. I'm sorry, Taylor."

It made me so MAD! The Bitch Trio was getting away with murder again! I hated the fact that we had no choice here! Grrr….I would so find out what the hell the Trio had that had Winslow eating out of their hands. It couldn't be Sophia's status as a star athlete or the fact Emma's dad was a high-priced divorce lawyer. The situation was too abnormal for that.

[Quest Alert!]

Something's Fishy in Denmark…: You have determined that the attitude of the staff of Winslow High School is abnormal in regards to you and the Bitch Trio. Discover the cause of this oddity and expose the truth!

Quest Reward: +1000 EXP, +$100, [Chitin and Spider Silk Helmet], The Truth.

Quest Failure: Possible Death and/or maiming.

Note: This Quest is compulsory, so is automatically accepted.

I ignored the screen with some difficulty as I smiled wanly at Dad and said, "It's OK Dad. I understand."

Dad looked stricken for a moment before ruffling my hair with one hand. "You're a stronger person than I am, Little Owl. Anyway, once you're out of hospital, the school have given you two weeks off school to recover."

"Oh…that's…surprising." I said blankly. I had half-expected them to demand that I get back to school and stop 'faking' being ill.

"They didn't really have much choice in the matter." Dad smirked at this point, "You were unconscious for two days, Taylor, during which time I had Kurt, Lacy and a few others picket the school. The Principal was…more accommodating after that."

I gaped at him. "Go Dad!"

He kept on smirking. "Your old man still has a few tricks up his sleeve, Taylor. I've already replaced your schoolbooks and gotten your homework assignments for the next two weeks. Most of your teachers have been nice enough to say that if you complete and hand in the homework, they'll treat it as classwork too. Some haven't, like that Gladly fellow."

Mr Gladly was a teacher who kissed up to all the popular kids and all but ignored the rest of us. He tried to make everyone call him 'Mr G' like he was a pop idol or something.

"I'll handle him, Dad." I said with a small smile, "Just…can you talk to them and see if they can accept me coming in to the Teacher's Lounge before classes start to hand my homework in? Otherwise, it'll go missing again."

This made Dad's face tighten in anger before he calmed himself down. "Sure. I'll make a point of insisting that it become the new status quo."

After talking for a while longer, I shooed Dad away to go to work, telling him to send my gratitude to everyone who had helped to picket the school. Kurt and Lacy were my godparents and it was so nice of them to help Dad like that. I resolved to send some of Mom's recipe lasagne over to them as thanks once I got out of hospital.

Pulling up my Status screen again, I looked at the numbers and frowned. There was nothing wrong with my mental stats; they were nice and high. The problem was that my physical stats were too low by comparison. Seeing as I had twenty-five Attribute points in my pool, I decided to up them a bit. I dumped ten into Toughness, eight into Strength and six of the remaining seven into Dexterity, which brought their values up to twenty all around.

Saving that last point for later, I decided to have a look for those clock parts with my bugs. It would be good practice, anyway.

Two Days later

"Free at last!" I crowed as I walked through the doors of the hospital, heading home at last.

Dad was chuckling as he walked beside me. "You really don't like being in hospital, do you Little Owl?"

"It's more the fact that I hate lying around with nothing to do all day." I corrected him, "I mean, I did manage to get through quite a bit of my homework, but something fun to do, like read a novel, would have been a welcome break from the monotony."

Truth be told, I had kept busy with my powers, moving bugs all over the place to find that dratted clock in my room. The kid who hid it was a smart one; he'd somehow slipped the batteries through the grills of the air vent and put the clock itself behind the dresser in the room. Tricky guy.

"Well, you'll have a chance to, because I'm putting a pause on you doing your homework for the next couple of days." Dad said with a grin, "Seeing how you worked so diligently at your homework while in hospital, I think you've earned a few days off."

"Thanks Dad." I said happily. I mean, working on my homework had raised my Wisdom and Intelligence by a couple more points each, but being able to relax was good too. If I started it right after my holiday's days, I could probably finish it all by the end of the week, leaving me plenty of time to test my powers.

The next couple of days were restful and relaxing, aside from cleaning up the kitchen from Dad's attempts to use an appliance other than the microwave. I swear, he can burn water when he tries to boil it and that's impossible!

Dad appreciated my cooking skills being back in the house, especially when I made Mom's Lasagne. It always brought back memories of Mom to him whenever he ate it.

After my 'holidays' were over with, I got stuck into my homework and finished it by the next Monday, which was a bit longer than I had anticipated, but it was because I had to review material that I hadn't gone over properly thanks to the Bitch Trio destroying my books multiple times.

THEN I got started on properly testing my power. It took a while, but I figured out how to sync my senses with my insects. It took some time to figure it out, surprisingly enough, but once I figured out the trick, it became easier to do with each try. The fact I was succeeding so often with the sync ratio being only 50% and the reliability of that synchronisation link being only 60% was rather astounding.

Eventually…

{[Sensory Linking] has levelled up! LV1-LV2!}

When I pulled it up, I was very pleasantly surprised.

[Sensory Linking] (LV2, Max LV 5)

{35/200 EXP to Level Up}

Your power has grown to allow you to use the sensory organs of your Mastered Insects as your own. While confusing at first, with practice, you will be able to see, feel, hear, taste and smell through them, although it isn't advised that you feel, taste or smell through them.

- Link Reliability: 75%.

- Sensory Synchronisation: 65%.

- Counts as part of your Master Rating.

Both of the main parts of the skill had been jumped up by 15%, which was phenomenal. A large grin crossed my face as I lay on my bed. Once I had a chance to get this skill maxed, out, whatever secret the Bitch Trio had wasn't going to remain a secret for very long.

As requested, chapter two of this ficlet. Now the way I'm going to be writing these second chapters will be a bit random. Some of them will be immediate follow-on chapters from what I've already had written (like this one), some will be after minor-to-major timeskips, while some will be flashbacks.