Stand Proud Arc End (Original chapter Chapter 119)
The Next Day
Hospital Ward, Brockton Bay General Hospital
"So he's OK?" I asked the doctor, who smiled back at me reassuringly. We were standing next to Dad's bed while he slept.
"He's perfectly fine, Miss Hebert." He said firmly. "His physical injuries were all healed by Panacea and now his mind's taking the time to heal itself. As the saying goes, sleep is nature's healer. Once he wakes up, we'll give him a quick checkup, but he's undoubtedly healed; Panacea has healed far more serious injuries than crushed limbs."
"Thank god." I slumped forward. "Why the heck did he go in there like that?!"
"Your father is a very brave man, Miss Hebert." The doctor said with a nod at the insensate man on the bed. "From reports by onlookers, had he not thrown the man he saved away, that man would have had his head crushed. Thanks to Mr. Hebert, that man lived."
"He's my only living family, so you'll pardon me a bit if I think that his life and health is a bit more important." I replied a bit sharply before exhaling. "Shit, sorry."
"No, don't worry yourself." The doctor shook his head. "You've had a very serious fright and you're in shock from the suddenness of it and the reversal of your father's condition to healthy. It happens more often than you might think."
Grateful for his understanding, I thanked him and left the hospital. Kurt would be picking Dad up once he was awake and checked out properly, which left me to get a good meal together for him to celebrate his recovery.
Aside from a single stop at a florist, I headed straight home. The city was still tense after that dust up yesterday and I was not in any hurry to throw fuel on the fire until Dad was up and about properly.
As I got into my house and started cleaning the place up, I thought about the powers that I'd gotten from the four Capes I'd been near yesterday.
Mush had given me a very useful power. [Variable Golem] let me designate a material around me, and a golem would be made from that material. It would also keep regenerating the golem from that material so long as there was any within my radius of effect.
Oni Lee had only given me a teleportation power, but it was a pretty good one. [Blink and Flick], as I called it, allowed me, as well as anyone or anything else I designated inside of my 20 meter radius of effect, to teleport to anywhere within my initial line of sight. The most I could teleport, excluding myself, was about a couple of tons from my experimentation last night.
A power that I'm almost certain came from Miss Militia was the power to create up to six silvery-green duplicates of myself. The best and worst part of [Mirror Me], as I called it, was that if I was affected by a power, so were the clones. This meant that if I was affected by any of the three powers of [Gift of Khepri], so were my clones. On the downside, if I was affected by the power of an enemy, so were my clones.
The last…the last power was from Lung. Khepri seemed to like mutating Changer powers into projections, and this held true for Lung's power. [Imagine Dragon] called forth a dragon to fight on my behalf. Like Lung, it could get stronger, but unlike Lung, who got more powerful the angrier and longer he had to ramp up, it was my willpower that allowed [Imagine Dragon] to become stronger; the more I focused my will on it, the stronger it became. It started at the size of a German Shephard and rapidly grew to the size of a house when I'd tried it out. Fortunately, I could also instantly dismiss it too.
The number of powers I had gathered was a little intimidating to grasp, and I hadn't even actively searched for them aside from that bitch Shadow Stalker before I'd mastered her power. Thank god I even could master the powers I gained, as that meant that I was freed of several of the limitations that I was under with the unmastered powers; namely, I was freed from the four uses per charge limitation and thus no longer had to recharge them.
The ones I had mastered were [Invisible Touch], [Stand Float], [Einherjar], [Gift of Khepri] and [Wind Barrage], while I had totally depleted [Rainbow Light] yesterday. That left [Machine Fusion], [Glorious Field], [Speedup/Slowdown], [Bio-Twister], [Clothes Make The Woman], [Repair and Restructure Optimization], [Variable Golem], [Blink and Flick], [Mirror Me] and [Imagine Dragon] as unmastered and limited use powers.
"You are troubled again, Taylor." Khepri mused as I entered the kitchen to start cooking.
"Lung isn't going to let it go, Khepri." I said quietly as I opened the fridge to take stock of what we had available. "We made him back down in public. He's infamous for holding a grudge until it dies, and then hiring a taxidermist. [Variable Golem] and [Einherjar] won't be of as much use as they were today as he'll be expecting them. I'll have to start actively hunting for powers in order to be sur of my survival…and that makes me nervous. Remember how Parian explained the Unwritten Rules to us? What I'm proposing is skirting the lines of those rules very finely."
"You cannot help what your power is, Taylor." My Stand said softly. "On the plus side, you cannot sense the location of the originator of the powers you gain. All it takes is for you to pass near them, and a radius of twenty meters is a fairly large area. Unless you and they are the only ones there, you will never know who they are. And you are forgetting something."
"Oh?" I raised my eye at my Stand. "And that might be?"
"New Wave are all unmasked Capes." Khepri stated. "Their addresses are in the phone book, I would imagine. We need to top up [Glorious Field] anyway, and perhaps restocking on [Bio-Twister] wouldn't be a bad idea either. The added powers that Brandish, Flashbang, Lady Photon, Shielder and Laserdream could supply us with are not to be discounted either."
"I still feel uneasy about it." I muttered. Mom's Recipe tonight, I think.
"I understand that, Taylor, but you said it yourself; Lung will not take being forced to back down well." Khepri said gently. "We need all the power we can muster against him, and we don't have to go near New Wave to acquire their powers; just the fringe of your range will be enough."
Sighing, I nodded reluctantly in acquiescence. She was right and I needed the powers that New Wave might give me. I'd wait until tonight, when Dad would be asleep, before moving out to do that. For the rest of today, I just wanted to relax and relax knowing that Dad was alive and well.
'Hmm…I wonder if Panacea's got my present yet?' I mused as I started assembling the ingredients.
Later
Living Room, Dallon Residence
{Ding-dong!}
The Dallons and Pelhams looked up in surprise. Sarah Pelham looked at her sister and quirked an eyebrow. New Wave was gathered to discuss the recent upturn in crime, and she was certain that Carol had, as always, cleared today with her day job so no couriers or the like would show up at inopportune moments.
"Expecting anything or anyone?" she asked.
"Not to my knowledge." Carol replied before standing and heading to the front door. The gathered families heard the door open, muted conversation and then the door closing. The Dallon Matriarch reappeared with a simple bunch of flowers in her hand.
"These have arrived…for you, Amy." She said dryly, handing them over to the surprised girl. "There's a card there as well."
"Oh, do you have an admirer, sis?" Victoria Dallon, or Glory Girl as she was better known, asked eagerly.
"Vicky!" Amy blushed. She opened the card that came with the flowers. "Huh…it's a thank you card from the daughter of a patient I healed yesterday."
"Which one?" Crystal asked, knowing
"Daniel Hebert. He had a crushed leg and arm. No way he'd have been able to walk again if I hadn't healed him." Amy replied with a wince at the memory of the injuries the poor man had suffered. She looked at the card again. "Taylor…huh? She's said that she'll repay me for healing her father somehow."
"Looks like you have a fan now, Amy-girl." Neil smiled at his shy niece.
"Uncle Neil!" the healer whined at the teasing. She then spotted the scheming look in her sister's eyes and mentally groaned. "Vicky, please don't do whatever it is you have planned."
"What?" the blond girl said faux-innocently. "I was just thinking you could meet her for a coffee or something. You need a break, sis. You've put in too many hours again."
Shifting uncomfortably, Amy got up. "I'd better put these into a vase."
As the girl quickly retreated into the kitchen, Sarah looked at Vicky. "Has she been doing that again?"
"Two days ago, she snuck out of bed and went to the hospital to heal until she was dead on her feet." Vicky said flatly. "She needs something to do that isn't Cape stuff and reading. Maybe a friend-date or something will help. God knows she's getting tired of me dragging her on double-dates."
The leader of New Wave pursed her lips. "An idea, although we should to a check on the Hebert family's background first, just as a precaution."
"He's the Union Rep of the Dockworker's Association." Mark spoke up quietly. "I remember meeting him…a few years ago. He's been one of the driving forces that have kept the Dockworkers afloat all this time. Keeps the gangs out, honest as they come. Heard his wife died in an RTA a couple of years ago."
"That explains the flowers…he's all she has left." Eric said with a wince. "Damn Mush and Oni Lee for dragging civilians into the crossfire."
"What happened later that day was more intriguing though." Carol noted. "That new indie hero, Khepri, took down both Mush and Oni Lee, and held off Lung. She's quite powerful, whoever she is."
"Miss Militia passed on their suspicions about her powers as well." Sarah said seriously. "They're almost 100% certain that she's a Trump of some kind. She fought Stormtiger and Mush for certain and used powers that are likely derivatives of their own, and there's suspicion that she fought Hookwolf when he tried to burn down the Dollhouse, which would explain the silvery-metal wolf-girl projection that she used as well."
"Well…that's disturbing." Neil frowned. "So…a power copier, with a mutation twist to them?"
"Likely. Armsmaster thinks she can copy the powers of Capes that she's fought." Sarah nodded. "And given that she fought Mush, Oni Lee and Lung within the space of a day…"
"Hell." Eric said, ignoring the censuring look his mother and aunt threw at him. "She's copied the power of one of the strongest Capes on the planet."
"Not to mention Mush and Oni Lee." Crystal added. "Mush is the most physically powerful of the Merchants' Capes, so he's no pushover."
"She definitely teleported out, according to Miss Militia, but there were no duplicates." Sarah said. "No duplicates though, so it's possible her power can only copy one aspect of a Parahuman's power, or perhaps she only used one aspect of Oni Lee's power."
"Whichever it is, we don't want to empower her if she turns villain." Carol said briskly. "If we ever do fight her, we want to ensure that she has minimal knowledge on how to use our powers and minimal time to get a grasp on those powers."
"There is no proof that she will ever turn villain." Sarah rolled her eyes. Carol was just so damned suspicious and pessimistic about unknown Capes. "Vicky, you go on patrol more than the rest of us. If you see her, extend a hand of friendship to her. Doubtless the PRT and Protectorate are going to try and persuade her to join the Wards or Protectorate, whichever she's of age for. Let's give her a chance to remain independent, shall we?"
"Got it, Aunt Sarah." Vicky grinned.
Just then, Amy came out, the flowers out of their plastic wrap and in a nice-looking vase. "What're we talking about?"
As New Wave talked, an invisible figure swooped by the house barely inside of twenty meters before getting in slightly closer. Nodding in satisfaction, the figure swooped away silently.
Later
With Taylor
I floated above the ground in the Boat Graveyard and grinned like a lunatic under my mask. This was so awesome! New Wave had given some totally great powers!
In addition to topping off my reserves of [Glorious Field] and [Bio-Twister], I had successfully gotten my hands on ALL of the powers belonging to the rest of the hero group, which was an unexpected bonus. I had only expected to get the Dallons tonight, but it looks like they were having a family or team meeting.
To keep with the Dallons, Brandish had given me a power that I referred to as [Destructo Disk]. It manifested as a flying buzz saw made of golden hard light. I could control it with my mind and it could cut through the rusted steel of the hulks in the Boat Graveyard like a hot knife through butter.
Flashbang's power manifested as nine floating spheres of golden light that orbited around me. I could control them with my mind and they could pass through me without harming me. Although they couldn't explode like Flashbang's power could, they could be sent in to smash through metal with a lot of concussive force. I decided to call them [Orbital Orbs].
The Pelhams were a mixed bag. Shielder had given me an absolutely useful defensive power, an octahedral prism made of golden light. I could make it as small as an apple or large enough to enclose a small house. Looking in, the prism was opaque, while the people inside could see out perfectly clearly without any golden tint obstructing their vision. I could also move the prism and make it rotate into a blur. I decided to call it the [Prism Ark].
Laserdream's power was…odd, really. Instead of a single laser Khepri fired from her hands, it manifested as hundreds of small lasers that emerged from her hands. Not only that, they were devilishly quick and, so long as I designated a target beforehand, they would seek the target no matter how quickly and evasively it moved. They also detonated on impact. Justifiably, I called this one [Homing Laser].
Manpower's version surprised me. Rather than a Brute power as I expected, I gained what amounted to a Taser touch, except I could dial the power down to a mere static shock and up to possibly lethal levels. Khepri agreed that [Shock Treatment] was the best name for it.
Finally, Lady Photon's power surprised me as well. Instead of the almost clear blasts of light I had been expecting, I gained the power to alternately fire beams of white and black light. The white light was like the classic heat ray you saw in comics. It could cut through metal like butter, boil water in seconds and all that. The black light though…at first I thought it was a light with a cryokinetic effect, but it wasn't; it was a heat ray that burned so hot that it froze things. That's some scary stuff right there, plus there didn't seem to be any other tricks to it, as I mastered it as soon as I used each beam once. I decided to call it [Marbled Light].
In addition to gaining all of these powers, I had discovered something; I could either have Khepri use the powers through her as we had been until now, or they could be channeled through me instead. This only applied to the ones which needed a point of origin, like the Blaster and Striker powers. The projections didn't apply, nor did [Prism Ark].
Practically, this meant I could channel one set of powers, while Khepri used another set, effectively doubling my powers. Only thing was, I could only use the mastered powers. Trying to use the unmastered powers that way just gave me a headache, which sucked.
"The more I discover about the powers that we share, the more confident I am that if another Stand User awakes on this planet and tries to pick a fight with us, we will be able to handle them." Khepri said in fascination as she used [Repair and Restructure Optimization] on the radio in a ship's cabin.
"Is that likely?" I asked with a blink.
"Where one can respond to a voice calling out, so too can another." Khepri answered calmly. "Jōtarō Kūjō is among the strongest of the Stand Users on the Earth he lives on, but he is far from the only one. His group, the so-called Stardust Crusaders, just finished disposing of a powerful and wicked Stand User who had been around for over a century when you called out to Jōtarō. Thankfully, it is unlikely that DIO was able to hear your call before he was killed."
"DIO?" I was curious. "A century? What the heck?"
"DIO, or to use his real name, Dio Brando, was the arch-nemesis of the Joestar family, from whom Jōtarō Kūjō is descended." Khepri said with a slight amount of distaste for the man she was talking about. "He became a vampire, or a creature that you would call a vampire, with all the abilities and weaknesses you would expect of such a creature, sometime in the mid-nineteenth century. He was a cruel, heartless man who saw himself as a being vastly superior to that of humans and would kill and mutilate them without hesitation or morality. He was someone I would equate with the group you refer to as the Slaughterhouse Nine."
I recoiled at that. One person that was as bad as the cult/group of murderers?! Christ! And a vampire? Jesus…
"I am very glad that Jōtarō killed him." I said with feeling.
"As am I." my Stand nodded. "His Stand, [The World], had the same time-stopping ability that Jōtarō Kūjō's [Star Platinum] possessed. He could only hold it for nine seconds when he was killed, but that would be more than enough to kill a lot of people."
"Damn…" I shivered at the thought of having to fight someone with that kind of power. How the hell could you fight it except by using the same kind of power?
As we started to fly back to my house, I stopped in midair abruptly as a chill went down my spine. It felt as if something was glaring at me from somewhere. Calling it a glare was like calling Jack Slash 'slightly unhinged', a massive understatement; whoever it was that was looking at me wasn't just pissed at me or hated me…they loathed me, reviled me, wanted me dead and didn't make any bones about it.
Whirling around and looking in all directions frantically, I tried to pinpoint the source of the feeling, but it cut out a few seconds later.
"Taylor? What's the matter?" Khepri asked in concern.
"It…it just felt like someone was giving me a death glare." I replied nervously, thoroughly shaken. "Not like the Bitch Trio's little glares, but an honest-to-god 'I want you dead by any means possible, no ifs, ands or buts about it' death glare."
"That…shouldn't be possible. We've invisible." My Stand replied in confusion.
"Only to sight." I replied as my eyes trailed over the cityscape around me. "Let's take a roundabout route home, just in case."
As we flew off, I couldn't help but feel that tonight was only the beginning of something. What I didn't know, but it wasn't going to be pleasant. That much I could tell.
And that is that! Whew, this was surprisingly fun to write. As always, here's a power breakdown for the powers mentioned in the chapter.
Miss Militia: [Mirror Me] – Master 6 (Subcategory: Trump 3)
Lung: [Imagine Dragon] – Master 7 (Subcategories: Brute 3-7, Blaster 3-6, Striker 3-5, Mover 5)
Brandish: [Destructo Disk] – Shaker/Blaster 5
Flashbang: [Orbital Orbs] – Shaker 5
Shielder: [Prism Ark] – Shaker 6
Laserdream: [Homing Laser] – Blaster 5
Manpower: [Shock Treatment] – Striker 1-6
Lady Photon: [Marbled Light] – Blaster 7
I have been debating about this, and I have decided to put a little 'How To' guide here to guide people on creating Stands, or at least how I go about it. This is just my opinion on how to do it, and I am certain that everyone has their own opinion on how to do it and that's fine. With that said, here's my guide.
Step 1: [Decide the theme of the Stand Names in the story] This might make people scratch their heads a bit, but it is useful. In Stardust Crusaders Part 1, the Stands were all named after the Major Arcana of the Tarot. In Part 2, the new Stands were named after Egyptian Gods. In Diamond is Unbreakable and onwards, the new Stands were all named after songs, which is fair, as there is an enormous number of songs from all cultures and time periods.
Deciding on a naming theme will make it easier to decide the powers and abilities of the Stands you include in the story. Choose whatever you like, but be certain to choose a theme that keeps to the type of story you want to write. In the case of [Stand Proud], my theme for Stands would be any deity's name, but you could use mythological heroes, book titles, anime/manga titles, cartoon names or literally whatever you want. Don't think that just because song names are all that Stands are named after in JJBA nowadays that you can't deviate from it.
Step 2: [Which Comes First? The Stand or the Character?] Once you have decided on a naming theme for your Stands, you are all set to make one. If you aren't doing a JJBA fic, or if you're doing a crossover into that world with new characters and are choosing to have the MC as someone who doesn't have a Stand like Taylor, you have two choices: Choose the Stand's Name first and build the Stand around that, or choose a power and build the Stand around it and then name it.
To use Taylor in [Stand Proud] as a continuing example, I chose to use her last name in Canon as a base. I then designed it around a golden version of her last costume in Canon. The power I chose, which some people have rightly pointed out as being unsuited to Taylor, is explained in a couple of points. Seriously have a long and thorough look over the JJBA Wiki entry on Stands in general before doing this step, as there's a boatload of details about a Stand that is important, such as whether they are Natural or not natural, humanoid or non-humanoid, Long Range or Short Range and so on and so forth.
Step 3: [Personality Powers] At this point, you have the image of your character's Stand now. That's good. Next come the tricky bit: choosing a power. As Asuki – The Infinite Archive rightly pointed out in his/her review of the first chapter of [Stand Proud], a Stand is, for the most part, the manifestation of the user's mentality. How they think and act influences the type of Stand they will possess. Unless something in the backstory (see below) alters or influences that fact, you will need to step back and have a good look at the kind of person your character is, how they act, think and feel before choosing a power that suits them. I personally like to browse through the Power Listing Wikia to see anything interesting. Mmm…Absorption Blade Construction…
Ahem. Anyway, once you have decided on the power, you have to then assign the parameters for your Stand, as this is heavily influenced by what power it possesses. The parameters are an accurate assessment of how dangerous any given Stand is in a fight, unlike the PRT Threat Ratings, which are used as general ways to determine a Cape's abilities and the level of force to be used against them. The range of the parameters is from 'E' (Really Weak) to 'A' (Excellent), although a few Stands have had 'none' and 'infinite' in various parameters.
The parameters are Power (Destructive Power, typically physical strength), Speed (pure speed, as well as reflexes and agility), Range (How far away the Stand can move/exert its ability. Either or both), Durability/Vitality (endurance and susceptibility towards attacks), Precision (How precise a Stand is with its attacks) and Developmental Potential (Generally the Stand's overall potential and ability to learn, also how much of its abilities have yet to be discovered).
Choose carefully. There is little point in making a ranged Stand have an 'A' in toughness, or a wide-area attack Stand with an 'A' in Precision. Choose the right stats to maximize the abilities of the Stand, but don't make it overpowered.
Step 4: [Backstory] OK, so now you have your Stand and its power. Now you need to determine how your character awakens/acquires/is given it. In JJBA, there are Naturally Born Stand Users and the Artificially Created Stand Users: those created with the Bow and Arrow and those created by proximity to the Saint Corpse Parts. You can go along with the first or even the latter two if you want. If you can come up with a MacGuffin to use instead of the Arrow and Corpse Parts, go ahead.
In [Stand Proud], I had Taylor's Trigger Event to take the place of the Bow and Arrow and the Saint Corpse Parts. This is a very common plot device in Worm Fan Fiction and I used it shamelessly. So Taylor is going through her Trigger Event and she somehow resonates with Jōtarō, whose astral form (plus Star Platinum) beats the shit out of the [Queen Administrator]. On the way to her though, the Stand 'power' resonates with the parallel universe that is Canon and the power takes on the linking abilities and general appearance of Canon!Khepri, mixing it up to create the Stand known as Khepri.
If you think 'Hey, that's too damned convenient!' or 'Isn't that a little weird?' go ahead. I thought of it and I like it, so I wrote it. What you guys choose to write is up to you. Later. Read and review.