Stand Proud Chapter 2 (original chapter Chapter 119)

A Week Later

Taylor's Bedroom, Hebert Residence

As I lay back and relaxed, I thought back across the last week of testing that I'd done with regards to Khepri's power. It had been very informative, to say the least.

According to Khepri, Stands were usually split into Short-Range and Long Range in terms of how far they could either move from their Users, use their powers or both. Star Platinum had been a Short Range Stand, for example, unable to attack very far beyond Jōtarō Kūjō's own reach. Conversely, Star Platinum had possessed the ability to stop time, with absolutely no distance limit to it!

It had made my head spin to think that Khepri had been copied from Star Platinum. Just exactly how strong was my Stand?

Anyway, Khepri was, in matter of fact, a Mid-Range Stand, meaning that both her ability to move away from me and the range of her 'power copying field' was somewhere in between the two extremes. As far as I could tell, it was a radius of somewhere around twenty meters or so around me.

As to the powers themselves, neither Khepri nor I had any ability to sense Parahumans. It was seemingly automatic that if a Parahuman entered my range, my Stand would receive a filled-in circle on her left arm and access to a new power.

Each 'charge' of Parahuman powers could be used four times, with each use causing Khepri's missing right arm to grow and act as a visible sign (to me at least) that a power was in use. Each time I used a power, the filled-in circle representing that power on Khepri's left arm would lose one-quarter of the colour inside of it. Additionally, each power would last about half an hour before automatically deactivating.

Even more interestingly, as I experimented with that bitch Shadow Stalker's power, I had noticed that a white outline was growing around its circumference with not only every activation of the Striker invisibility power, but with every usage of that power while it was active.

When the white circle fully ringed the black circle that was Shadow Stalker's power, it flashed and changed to assume an image of Shadow Stalker's mask. After that, I didn't need to check when the bitch was out on patrol and pass inside of twenty meters of her in order to recharge my copy of her powers; Khepri could access them permanently and without needing to manifest a black arm, meaning she could use multiple powers simultaneously.

That had just been yesterday and I was still coming to terms with the idea that I could permanently learn the powers of other Parahumans. I still didn't know everything about my power though; was there a built in limit to how many powers that Khepri could learn? Was it restricted to certain types of Parahuman powers? There was so much that I didn't know.

Aside from practicing Khepri's unique power though, I had been getting into exercise, very gently. A bit of a walk every day was about my limit, though I was thinking of taking up swimming, as it was the best kind of exercise that affected most of the body.

"So then, you have been rather quiet, Taylor." Khepri said as she floated above me. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"I think they're worth a bit more than that." I answered dryly as I eyed my Stand. "Lemme see your arm for a moment."

Raising her left arm, Khepri showed me the back of her gauntlet. Not including Shadow Stalker's mask picture, there were six other powers at various levels. One was red and gold, which was Kid Win's power. His was…really quite odd. As it turned out, a Tinker gave you a tech manipulation power based on whatever their specialty was. In Kid Win's case, when using the red and gold arm that Khepri grew with this power, she could disassemble and reassemble one or more electronic devices into something else, which was amazing.

Just as an example, I had made Khepri disassemble an old TV and a microwave and blended it together, making a TV that you could cook things in. All you had to do was open the screen and take the food out. I'd had to separate the control panels after trying to change the channel and ending up nuking macaroni cheese into charcoal.

Another power Khepri had acquired was Glory Girl's forcefield (cream and gold), which granted Khepri invulnerability and super strength. Yes, the infamous Alexandria Junior was only an imitation Alexandria-type. While Khepri was already immune to anything but another Stand, if another Stand User showed up, it would be very useful to have. What was lost was the flight ability, which was something of a shame.

That was unfortunately it for powersets coming from heroes. The rest came from true-blue villains. One was the power of Rune (black and red), from the Empire 88. Another was from her boss, Hookwolf (silver), while the remaining two were Skidmark's power (a mishmash of oranges and greens) and, slightly worryingly, Purity's power (white).

Aside from Rune's power, all of them were really, really flashy powers that may as well be calling cards for the Capes that they came from. Fortunately for me, Khepri's power had altered them, whether it be minorly or significantly.

Rune's power, from what PHO said, was 'Manton Limited', which meant it couldn't be used on living beings. The power that Khepri had could be used on living beings…or rather, just on me, making it look as if I could fly. Thanks to this power, I deduced that it was the complexity of the power that determined how long it took to master it. A pinpoint power like this only took a day to master, so in place of the original black and red blob on Khepri's arm, there was a small ring of Futhark runes.

Finding out that the simpler and more straight-forward a power was, the easier it was to master it, was very good for me. It would explain why Hookwolf's power barely had a fraction of a white ring around it after several hours of using it. The mutation that Khepri's power had introduced into this power was, rather than turning herself into a giant wolf made of hooks and blades, she summoned a blob of metal that eventually shaped itself into a lupine humanoid that could sprout blades from its body.

The main problem was that it was either totally autonomous and out of my control, or that it was set to attack any enemy within sight, because no matter what Khepri and I did, it refused to respond to word or thought.

Skidmark's power was, simply put, forcefields. He could create two types that could either repel or accelerate anything that ran through them. Khepri's twist on that was basically an add-on to Glory Girl's forcefield. Like hers, it covered all of Khepri's body, but it could be used to either speed up or slow down Khepri, which would be useful in a fight.

As for the last…Purity was, put simply, the second strongest Flying Blaster in America. Only Legend, a member of the Triumvirate, was a more powerful Blaster than she was. Unfortunately, she was also a Nazi. Rumours had it that she had broken away from the Empire 88, but I wasn't sure.

Anyway, the twist on this power was that rather than a simple Blaster beam, Khepri summoned a floating ball of multicolored light that could fly around and shoot beams off or even be used as a an explosive. The size of the ball could vary between the size of a mandarin orange to the size of a zorb ball.

All in all, it was a pretty eclectic group of powers that I had, and that wasn't even taking into account the fact that Khepri had remembered that she could pass her durability on to me by appearing inside of my body. It felt weird, truth be told, but hey, I'm all for being harder to hurt.

"We have a long way to go." I sighed.

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step, Taylor." My Stand rebuked me. "I have to admit though, that this world seems a bit obsessed with these costumes and the like. On the Earth of Stands, they had no such things."

"What, none?" I asked in surprise.

"Well, they did have their own…unique fashions, but I wouldn't go so far as to call them 'costumes', exactly." Khepri answered slowly. "You have to remember that only Stand Users can see Stands; to everyone else, they look like random happenstances and peculiar accidents."

"Surely the governments would've noticed something." I protested. "The same people being in the same area as something like Purity's light blast going off multiple times…"

"Stand Users…tend to be aggressive and hardheaded people in the first place, Taylor, meaning that they naturally got in trouble anyway." My Stand said carefully. "Someone like Sophia Hess, if a dozen or so notches further down on the scale. Someone like that, or someone with an immense amount of willpower like you possess, are the ones most likely to be able to manifest and control a Stand. Some people who receive a Stand lack either fighting spirit or willpower and end up being crushed by their Stand, dying in a coma. This is the so-called 'Stand Sickness' and it can be surprisingly common on a world of Stands."

"Well, I am very glad I have the willpower to control you, Khepri." I gulped. I made a note to keep my willpower up; no way was I going to go into a coma like that!

"As am I, Taylor." Khepri replied. "Returning to the subject of costumes, is there not a Rogue who specializes in making clothing? We could go there and acquire her power before making a costume for you."

"Yeah, except I've asked around using a throwaway account on PHO, and Parian is just using her powers to control the cloth; she has the knowledge and experience of a seamstress to make clothes like she does." I replied, having already considered doing exactly that. "I can sew, stitch and darn alright, but my specialty's patching holes in socks and clothes, not making brand new clothes from scratch. Plus, I don't really have any idea what kind of costume I even want!"

Not that I hadn't thought about it plenty of times since Khepri awoke, but…

After that Khepri and I spent quite a bit of time talking about possible costume ideas, with us eventually hammering out an idea based on a mixture of Jōtarō Kūjō's outfit and Khepri's armour. It was simply a matter of finding the right materials.

The Next Day

Broadwalk, Brockton Bay

Walking down the Broadwalk in bright daylight while Khepri hung over my shoulder like some kind of guardian spirit (which she was, really) was a lot more nerve wracking than I'd thought it'd be. While I knew that no one aside from me could see her (Khepri going through an exercise routine in front of Dad while he obliviously watched TV through her had proven that), it still made me nervous.

"Have no fear, Taylor. I am here." She said softly. "No one can see me, no one can hear me…no one but you."

I just nodded slightly as I approached the shop of the Rogue Cape Parian, the Dollhouse. She apparently did performances using cloth golems animated by her power for the entertainment of the crowd. Shame it looked like she wasn't doing that today.

Checking Khepri's arm, I frowned as not one, but two splotches appeared on the golden left arm gauntlet held in front of me. One was a patchwork of colours and shapes, while the other was red and black, a similar kind to Rune's former circle.

Deciding that this warranted investigation, I slipped into the side-alley in between the Dollhouse and the shop next door to it and pulled out the plain art mask that I'd bought a few days ago. It covered the face, was plain white, and was only held in place by a string of elastic, but any port in a storm.

Slipping it on, I directed Khepri to look inside the shop. She opened her rear carapace, spread her wings and flew through the wall. I was never going to get used to that.

A minute later, she flew back out. "There are two women in there." She reported. "One is dressed as Parian's PHO photo, while the other is dressed in a red bodysuit. There's an odd rune on her chest in black too."

She sketched the shape of the rune in question in midair and I recognised it. It was the Odal rune, the personal symbol of the Empire 88 Cape Othala. She was one of the rare Trump-type Capes who could give powers to other people, albeit temporarily. Even rarer, one of those powers was a form of regeneration. It was partially thanks to Othala that the Empire 88 was so damned hard to beat in a drawn out fight; give her enough time to gift the affected Parahuman with regeneration a couple of times and they'd be back up in no time flat.

Still…why send Othala to the Dollhouse? She wasn't a combat Cape by any stretch of the imagination, as she couldn't gift her array of powers to herself…at least so PHO said.

Oh….she was a soft recruitment pitch, wasn't she?

"Khepri, go back in there and sync your hearing and sight with me." I ordered.

"By your command." My Stand nodded. She headed back through the wall and used what had to be an incredibly useful aspect of a Stand for scouting: Sensory Synchronization. I could see and hear what Khepri did whenever I wanted.

"…it really is in your best interests to join us." Othala was saying to Parian.

The Rogue, who was wearing a costume that made her look like a china doll from the 18th or 19th century, was tense as she replied, "I am not interested in becoming involved in the mess that is the hero/villain scene. All I am interested in is running my shop."

"Parian…this is the last time that you'll get a soft recruitment pitch from us." The Trump said quietly. "Refuse again and Kaiser will stop being nice."

"Meaning he'll send Stormtiger or Hookwolf." The cloth controller scoffed, but Khepri/I could see one of her hands trembling slightly. "My power is not suited to combat and I am not at all inclined to fight, especially for someone who threatens me, no matter how politely. Now, if you don't have an order, kindly leave."

"As you wish." Othala sounded regretful. "You will come to rue your stubbornness, Parian. Don't tell me later that you did not have sufficient warning."

With that, the Empire Cape turned and left via the front door. Once the door shut on her way out, Parian lost her rigid stance and collapsed, having to hold herself up using a nearby table.

"Dammit…what should I do now…?" she whispered.

Feeling like she needed to be alone, I mentally ordered Khepri to return and to disconnect the syncing.

As she emerged into the alley, I was deep in thought about what I should do here. Quite plainly, Parian was going to get press-ganged into the Empire when she just wanted to be left alone. This didn't sit well with me, but at the same time, the Empire was, pound for pound, the strongest villain group in Brockton Bay in terms of the number of Capes they had at their command. The Protectorate and the Wards put together still fell short.

Getting on the bad side of the Empire 88 right from the get-go was something I would term as a Bad Idea, especially given my current lack of costume. Still, to just sit back and do nothing when someone was being bullied…it made me feel sick. It was what all those useless bastards at Winslow had done to me, those who hadn't just gone along with whatever the hell Sophia planned.

My resolve crystalizing inside me, I straightened my spine and started to head towards the front of the Dollhouse. It had a very nice façade, with a display window showing some of Parian's creations in it. I was a hopeless amateur at fashion, but I knew that Emma would be positively drooling at the dresses and stuff in the window; she'd always been something of a clothes horse.

Banishing the memory of the person who had betrayed me, I opened the door of the Dollhouse and heard the bell attached to the door chime. Parian looked a bit better than she had compared to a few minutes ago, but I could still see her hands t4embling and hear a quaver in her voice as she said, "I'm sorry, but I'm closing early today…"

"After Othala's visit and the very subtle threat she made at the end, I don't blame you." I said, making the clothier look at me sharply. The mask she wore had a blank expression on it, but her body language shouted tension and flight-or-fight responses.

"Who are you with?!" she hissed, and I noticed that several dresses, suits, bolts of cloth and animal plushies around the room were trembling. Better answer her before she lashes out in fear.

"No one." I said softly. "I'm not with the Empire, ABB, Merchants or the protectorate. Nor am I with any gangs from out of town. I'm a brand new Parahuman and I picked up that Othala was here thanks to one aspect of my power and I used another to eavesdrop on the conversation you had with her. I am sorry that I scared you there."

I spoke as honestly, plainly and sincerely as I could. She was visibly on edge and balancing on the edge of losing control of her temper and powers due to Othala's little threat. In retrospect, perhaps I should have waited a day or so before meeting with her. Shit.

"And I should believe you why?" Parian didn't relax an iota.

Wracking my brains for what the hell to do, I hit on one idea that, while wild and dangerous for me, was probably the only thing that could get her to calm down. Slowly, I raised my hands to my head, lowered my hood, grabbed my mask…and removed it, revealing my identity to her. Judging from the audible gasp that she let out, this had more significance than I was mentally attributing to it, but that could be dealt with later.

"My name is Taylor Hebert. Nice to meet you, Parian." I said clearly.

Parian's POV

As the girl -Taylor, my mind reminded me automatically- tucked her rather simple mask away, I was positively gaping at her behind my own mask. Just what was she thinking?! You never gave your identity to anyone…except…oh.

'I've been so on edge with Othala visiting me once a week for the last month that I was looking for an excuse to fight.' I thought in growing horror. 'I wasn't even prepared to listen to her, so she did the only thing she could think of to make me take her words seriously.'

Parian, or rather, Sabah was definitely NOT the kind of person that should join the Empire, as she was of middle-eastern descent. She was seriously regretting choosing a blond wig for her Cape persona. Black, brunette, even a red wig would've been better in retrospect. What on god's green earth had she been thinking?!

In any case, the Empire was the one to blame for her stress and angst, not this girl. She'd better get herself together.

"I…you didn't have to do that." Parian said at last.

"Given how it looked as if I was going to be dogpiled by your entire stock of fabric, I really think that I did." Taylor answered dryly, making the Rogue flush even more beneath her mask. Had it really been that obvious? "Then again, I was to blame. I should've waited until tomorrow to talk to you given how shaken you were after Othala's visit."

"That…might have been a good idea, yes." Parian had this odd urge to laugh. Oh dear, was she about to have a hysteric fit? "S-so…you want a costume, I take it?"

"If it's not too much trouble." Taylor nodded. Her long brunette hair moved with her and, although she really wasn't Sabah's type, the Rogue had to admire the care that had obviously gone into maintaining that much hair.

"Just to warn you, I am not a Tinker." The Rogue decided to make that clear. "I control cloth, that's it."

"I know, I read the PHO page you put up, as well as visited the Dollhouse's website." The other girl replied with another nod. "You must be tired of saying that to every person who comes in here."

"It does get a little wearing, yes." Parian admitted. "Now…what kind of Cape are you? Brute, Stranger or what?"

"Master, with an invisible projection." Taylor answered and nodded at a bolt of cloth that was on the floor, having been shaken free by Parian's power. It was picked up and replaced in its former position so smoothly that the Rogue had to double-check her own power to see if she had unconsciously moved it herself. Then she spotted the telltale dents in the cloth of a hand being used to hold it.

"Okaaayyy…that's a new one on me." Parian admitted. Masters who manifested projections weren't unusual; look at Crusader of the Empire 88 and his group of ghosts as a homegrown example. An invisible projection though? That was a new twist on things. "How do you control it if it's invisible? It must make it hard to control its actions."

"To amend my previous statement, it's invisible to everyone but me." Taylor said with a touch of smugness in her voice.

"Ah, that makes a lot more sense." The Rogue nodded unconsciously. "So…costume. What were you thinking?"

"Aren't you gonna ask how I'll pay for it?" Taylor cocked her head slightly in puzzlement.

"I've helped a couple of new Capes before now." Parian said with a shrug. "They pay in monthly installments, and I don't charge very much if they're heroes-to-be. Just because I don't want to be involved in the usual cops and robbers shenanigans of the hero/villain scene doesn't mean I can't play favorites slightly."

"Huh…that's cool." The other girl nodded. "I kinda wanted to model my costume after my projection. Khepri, show yourself."

"Khepri? Who-?" Parian barely had the time to get the words out before a vaguely insect-like humanoid came into visibility in an explosion of shadows. It had only its left arm, with the other a mere stump, and it floated above Taylor protectively. It…no, she as there was a vague feminine shape to the chest, had shining blue eyes that ran over Parian as if assessing a threat before nodding at her.

"This is my projection…Khepri." Taylor introduced them. "So, do you think you can create a costume for me based on how she looks?"

"W-Well…it's…that's actual armor, isn't it?" Parian said, trying to get her head around such an odd-looking projection. "I can only work with fabric, whether it's synthetic or natural being irrelevant. If you can provide the materials then I can attach the armor portions, and even colour them, but I have no clue where you'd get them."

"Hmm…" Taylor tapped her chin with one hand. "Well, I can see what I can do there, but what about the rest of it? The bodysuit and the like?"

"Easily doable." The Rogue confirmed confidently, eying the almost organic black-grey skin that was between Khepri's chitin armor plating. "In fact, you've given me a few ideas for commissions I've had…I'll cut you a 10% discount for that."

"R-really?" Taylor sounded surprised.

"Oh yes." Parian confirmed. "Some people want a costume with an 'organic' feel to it, whether for intimidation or just the 'coolness' of it, but I've not really tried that sort of look before, so I've been at a bit of a loss about it. Your projection…Khepri…is a preexisting blueprint, or perhaps model would be a better term."

"Sounds like a deal." Taylor nodded.

"Great. Now I need to take some measurements." Parian reached for a tape. "As well as an idea of anything else you'd like included in the costume…"

Later

With Taylor, Streets of Brockton Bay

"Well, that went better than I thought it would." I muttered as I headed home.

"I am surprised that merely showing your face to her was enough to get Parian to calm down." Khepri, now invisible once again, remarked in surprise.

"Parian explained that." I pointed out. Thankfully, there were precious few people in my neighborhood, so I could talk to my Stand without looking like a loon. "Because of the Unwritten Rules and the Endbringer Truce, revealing your identity behind a mask is the ultimate olive branch, especially to a Cape that you've only just met."

"It is going to take me a while to wrap my head around this, I think." My Stand sighed.

I was about to respond when I saw Glory Girl's symbol on Khepri's arm light up, as well as adding another filled circle to the gauntlet. Looking around, I spotted Glory Girl flying across the sky, with a girl in white robes held in a bridal carry in her arms…oh! That had to be Panacea! Holy shit!

"Looks like we have another power to test tomorrow, Khepri." I muttered with a delighted smile.

So, this is chapter two of Stand Proud. For those who complain of it being mostly infodump…you are 100% correct. As I keep explaining, with most of these chapters, I would ordinarily stretch them out into two or three chapters so you could see other aspects of the world as well as Taylor's perspective. As there are IDEA SNIPPETS, I am trying to get the gist of the idea over to those who read it, in the hopes that someone will adopt it.

Regarding those who might wonder 'what about Glory Girl's Master Aura?', Khepri's power chooses the best power among them if a Cape possesses multiple powers at once. In Glory Girl's case, Khepri could already fly and a mindfuck aura would be of not much use compared to preparing for another Stand possibly showing up.

Oh, and for those who are wondering about Taylor's official PRT Threat Assessment for Stand Proud, look in the reviews for chapter 119. Rusty Thebanite left a pretty good assessment of Taylor's basic Stand powers there and I officially endorse them. The powers that Taylor has thus far acquired and experimented with are listed blow, along with their individual threat ratings and 'Jojo-style' attack names.

Shadow Stalker: [Invisible Touch] – Striker/Stranger 3

Kid Win: [Machine Fusion] – Shaker 2

Glory Girl: [Glorious Field] – Shaker 4

Rune: [Stand Float] – Shaker 4

Hookwolf: [Einherjar] – Master 6 (Sub-ratings of Brute 7, Striker 3, Mover 3)

Skidmark: [Speedup/Slowdown] – Shaker 4

Purity: [Rainbow Light] – Shaker/Blaster 6

Untested powers: Parian, Othala and Panacea.