"That's… is that good or bad?" Taylor asked after my explanation of Aria's new upgrade.

I shrugged, "I'm not really sure. Could be really good or could be really bad. Aria, for the time being please do not hack into any systems beyond what you already have. You can use your new abilities to protect our online presence more but let's keep it low key until we know more."

I sent a questioning look to Taylor and she nodded in return.

"Your power is a little scary Sparky."

"No kidding. I'm working on slowing it down so I don't end up making a bad call with my powers. I've got a number of powers that I haven't even tested and only the vaguest idea what they do."

I started a new document and created a list of my powers in the order I received them, Aria quickly filled in most of the details for me given what I had discussed with her.

Taylor peered at the list and I rotated the holo display so she could see it easily.

"Alright, I get the first two. What's enchantment do?"

"I can enchant items, places, animals and people. Think I am missing part of the power though. Think I need to have a magical ability to make it work."

"What happens when you try to use it?"

"No idea. I've never tried."

Taylor rolled her eyes, "How can you know then if you haven't tried?"

I shrugged, "Well, I don't I guess. What should I try and enchant then?"

Taylor grabbed a screwdriver from a rack near her and stretched out towards me with it. "Try on this." I hopped off my seat and quickly took it from her so she wasn't forced to lean too far.

I placed the screwdriver back on my bench and frowning put my hand on it and willed it to be enchanted.

I wasn't really expecting anything but suddenly I felt options opening up to me. I could feel two choices ready to be applied, a physical enchantment that would increase its strength and a defensive enchantment which would mean it was less likely to take damage. The difference was slight between the two and I, without much thought, choose the defensive option and pushed.

The screwdriver was momentarily encased in a glowing and pulsing green aura. Flashes of green light lit of the area around it before the aura faded away leaving the screwdriver looking untouched.

"Well, it certainly isn't subtle. What did you do?" Taylor asked with a small smirk.

"Boosted its defense. It can take more damage now. I can feel that its only temporary though. Five minutes or so due to the small amount of power I put into it. I could have pushed it and made it last longer, not sure how long though."

Taylor looked thoughtful, "And you can cast that on people. What about on yourself?"

I nodded and tried just that. I was pretty sure from all that I had read about powers that they rarely hurt the user and it felt safe.

There was the same green aura and flashes and I felt tougher. Not stronger but I knew my body and skin was hardier. It also took more out of me. Not so much that I was tired because of the five minute buff I gave myself, but I knew if I pushed for a longer period or cast it multiple times, I'd wear out much sooner than when I was buffing the screw driver.

I poked myself with a small screwdriver, gently at first and then quite hard. I could feel the pressure from the point but it barely made an indent when normally it would have at least bruised.

"Neat." I said as I selected the physical enchantment and cast that on myself.

This time the pulsing aura and flashes that surrounded me were blue. I jumped and easily cleared three to four feet without pushing myself. I was pretty sure that I could have barely got half of that before the enchantment.

Taylor clapped, "That's brute level."

I frowned, "Only five minutes for both at that power level and I could already feel it. Thirty minutes of both and I'd be tough, strong and exhausted."

"Would being fitter or practicing it make it easier?"

I considered that. There were some parahuman powers that did get better with usage but not many. Also, my powers didn't really work like other power so that really didn't help much. I shrugged in response and decided it was experimentation time.

Taylor watched as I went through racks of screwdrivers enchanting each in turn. Alternative between defensive and physical. By the time I had hit ten I was starting to slow down and I was really having to push myself to get to twenty. I would have stopped at sixteen but Taylor started encouraging me at that point.

I slumped back into my seat, "Not sure if that helped or not but I'm exhausted now."

Taylor nodded, "It took me months of regular exercise before I noticed a difference. You should join me for my morning runs. Alternate that with practicing with your powers. See if that helps after a few weeks."

I froze at that. The only time I worked up a sweat was drumming. Hell, I didn't even run for the bus if I was late. I wondered how Taylor would take a refusal. I had agreed to support her attempts to be a superhero but did that mean I needed to be the person that ran alongside her on the running track? Couldn't I be the person that held the stopwatch as she ran around the track?

"Magic might not have anything to do with physical strength." I tentatively tried.

Taylor's expression didn't give me much hope, "Might is a pretty weak word there. Don't think I didn't hear you puffing when you ran back here earlier. You need to get fit just to use your armor properly."

Damn logic. I nodded, resigned that I wasn't going to be enjoying quite as many sleep-ins in the future.

"Try again."

I looked up to see Taylor pointing at the original screwdriver sitting on my workbench.

I picked it up noting that I could feel the echo of the enchantment that had worn off. I cast the defensive enchantment and I gave her a sad smile. "It's easier and takes less out of me. Part of that is because I had already cast it on this but not all. I can also feel that I am closer to being able to use other enchantments as well."

Taylor's answering grin was not reassuring. "Let's look at your power list again, see what's next."

I frowned and didn't call up the list.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

"I think there is something else." I could feel something. Like an unused muscle that I had stretched whilst doing an exercise. Not directly used but connected.

Taylor watched me as I stood and strode around trying to get a grasp on what I was feeling. I was sure it was related to the enchantment power and I pushed at it a few times before I felt something inside click. I held out a hand and a light grey line shot out from my palm till in contacted the wall and then stuck there. As I released the pressure the line fell to the ground.

"Wow… I have a magical web shooter." I chortled.

"Web shooter?"

"Yeah, you know. Like Spiderman." I did the pose and tried again but the two fingers in my palm managed to block the thread and all I ended up was a palm full of slightly sticky grey goop.

"Spiderman? I don't know that cape. Hero?"

I shook my head, "Not a cape, an alpha superhero. You know, not a real person just a movie character. Dad has a lot of contacts in the entertainment industry and he loves his movies. We have regular family movie nights. Mum usually complains but I'm pretty sure she enjoys it."

Taylor nodded, "I see, and mum? Your mother, right?"

My sister had complained about being asked this several times, so I just used her rote answer, "Yeah, but she's British, that's how I was taught."

The thread was easily cleaned up and didn't seem to have any real strength to it. I tried a few more times and managed to project a thin band of it which had a bit more strength but there was no way I was going to be able to swing from it. It'd barely work as a trip wire and as for webbing someone to a wall, it might be able to hold a normal person for a few seconds. I guessed it'd be a lot of practice till I could make something strong enough to use in combat and a lot longer before it was useful against any sort of brute.

"Let's move on." I said and Taylor nodded.

I sat back down and summoned the list and skipped down to the entry after Aria.

"Chemistry." I stated, "I can create drugs, steroids, medicines and toxins."

"This is what you were talking about before right? You just imagine something and get a recipe. Can you imagine a list?"

I tried and then shook my head, "No, nothing like that. I guess there is a list of things, but I don't have access to it. Like when I wanted to make the T.H.A. I knew roughly what I wanted and suitable recipes came to mind. After picking one I focused on the individual ingredients that I wasn't familiar with and I knew the steps to make each of them and what I needed for that, and then those that were still unfamiliar I repeated the process with until I had a recipe of ingredients that I could recognized and could actually get."

"T.H.A.?"

"The topical healing agent. Decided to call it T.H.A., easier to say."

Taylor nodded, "That works. Okay, you listed steroids. Do you know how to make a super steroid that could turn someone into a brute?"

I thought about that for a second and frowned, "Yeah. I could make a drug that gives the user super strength, speed, stamina and healing. At maximum you could lift three to four tons, run faster than any normal human, be almost bulletproof and have regeneration. It's also addictive, destroys your body over time and if you overdose it'll temporarily make you insane. Or I could make another that not only makes the user bigger but is more potent but is extremely painful, disfigures and turns you psychotic. There are more but I think I'd prefer to think about something else now."

I guessed I looked about as pale as Taylor did.

"Okay, we'll revisit the drugs and medicines later. Eh… does T.H.A. have any side effects?" Taylor asked looking worriedly at her leg.

I shook my head, "No. None of the ones I have made so far have any side effects. You're fine."

"Good. Okay, what about this one. 'Things you make are better.' Is there more to this power?"

"If so, I can't see it. There is nothing about that power that I can pull on. I just know that I have it. When I was putting together our armor I experimented. If I just pulled off a few components and replaced them it all worked just like before. But if I pulled it completely apart and put it back together rebuilding with the same parts with just a little tweaking, I could measure the difference afterwards. However, when I built the armor we wore tonight out of those same parts I could feel it there but even though I was using new components for much of it, the improvement didn't apply on top of what was already added. Nice but not that powerful."

"All helps. What's this Soul of the Forge?"

"Oh… Let me introduce you to him." I hopped up from my seat and headed over to the small kiln. When Taylor didn't follow me, I turned around and she rolled her eyes at me from her seated position on the workbench with her leg all covered in T.H.A.

"Whoops. Sorry. Later then."

I returned to my seat sheepishly and looked at the next item, "Workshop and Simulation room. You know about that, and we tested the key already and you've already pushed the simulation room further than I have."

"You do need to practice more, and I am learning more about it each time I'm inside and I'm pretty sure I could use it just fine even with my leg like this, but we can come back to it. What about this one? Is this super intuition like Tattletales?"

"Nope." I shook my head, "I can't read people. I just find solutions quicker. I still need to have all the clues available or be able to see the end result. I just don't have to go through the hard process of putting them all together. Big help when I was building the suits as I skipped a whole lot of testing and experimentation and just went straight to final assembly."

"Yeah. Suits are great. Okay, these next few look like you have a good grasp on and I've seen just the result of the art one." She waved her hand at the MRI receiver made of bone lattice. "What about this building power here? Did it help you make the armor better?"

"Nope, only applies to actual buildings and I don't understand how that works." I thought about it a bit, "maybe if I built something using the power, I could then pull it apart and either repurpose or learn from it. I'd still need to put together an entire building it in the first place which would take a lot of time. I'll mark it down for future testing, but I'd need a lot more resources."

"Okay. Another magical one. Up for testing it again?"

"Hey, I forgot about that one. There should be another room or something around with supplies." I glanced at Taylor's leg, "I can look for it later though."

"Go on, I'm fine here."

It didn't take more than a few seconds to find the supplies. In fact, they were in the first place I looked. As soon as I left the forge I turned left and looked at the lockers and noted an additional locker at the near end. This locker was made of wood and decorated with magical symbols.

I opened it to find a collection of cards, charms and talismans all neatly organized though, unfortunately, not labelled.

I picked up a spell card first and was flooded with the knowledge that I could use this to place a Geis on a person. That person would be pushed to fulfil the conditions I placed on them. If they failed they would be punished quite harshly by the magics involved. I quickly put it back down. That was a bird cage sentence in a playing card.

I took a long slow breath before I tried one of the talismans, this one wasn't as bad as the first. It seemed with a lot of time I could use this to gain a measure of control over someone else's power as long as it was external. Controlling a power rather than a person was more acceptable though I couldn't see an immediate use for it, certainly not a heroic one. I'd have to be in contact with the target for a long time whilst I built up the connection and then I'd gain some measure of control when the power was expressed.

Maybe if we got targeted many times by a single parahuman we could use it to build up a defense. I didn't think that was going to be a common occurrence.

I was wondering if this power was more aimed at villains than heroes and any doubt about that evaporated when I touched one of the charms. Its purpose was to infest a human turning them into a monster. I didn't get any more details than that as I had already snatched my hand back and slammed the locker shut.

"Sparky?" Taylor asked as I came in. I could hear the concern in her voice.

"I'll tell you later. I need a break. Let's give the simulation room a go" I answered quickly.

She nodded slowly as I pulled up some reference pictures for crutches not meeting her questioning gaze.