by Louis IX
Check first chapter for disclaimer and global warnings.
NanometricsChapter's summary: Taylor dies, Greg is crushed and triggers.
Serious warnings: rape, death, and gore. Par for the universe.
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The Next Great AdventureTaylor wasn't one of the relatively few "blessed" with a Corona Pollentia, and thus didn't trigger when bullied. Instead… she died.
It happened out of the school, when Shadow Stalker's unregistered "solo" patrol (with Emma tagging along her cape friend) crossed a fearful Taylor walking home from the library.
They wanted their prey to actually know who they were, and removed their gear before confronting her at street level. Acting like hounds, they pushed her into a different itinerary… straight towards the ABB territory. And then, acting from further away with their masks back on, they egged her on until she found herself facing gang members. Gangbangers who had intended to relieve themselves at the nearby brothel. Leering at her, they considered the circumstances as a gift, because they would do what they wished… without paying. And even get paid if they brought her there, too.
Taylor didn't survive past the first day.
It didn't make the news, because nobody told about it… mostly: it was also because of the depressing regularity with which those events happened in Brockton Bay. And some other places too. However, there had been a witness. Somehow.
Taylor had not only bullies, but also a stalker, in the person of Greg Veder. The teenage geek loved her, really, but he didn't know what to do with that feeling, and acted awkwardly around her all the time. It led to him following her, nobody having told insecure teens how to express their feelings in a "normal" way (and all they got was internet and movies, two sources flawed from the get go). And he ended up noticing that Sophia and Emma had pushed her towards ABB territory… and that she was assaulted by Asian gangsters.
But he couldn't actually do anything to help, because he was afraid: they had blades, and had guns, and kept a perimeter while a smaller number were taking their pleasure on the poor girl.
He called the police, and insisted that it wasn't a joke. They came, reluctantly (which meant that they took their sweet time doing so, and didn't take precautions either, allowing most of the perpetrators to flee unchecked), and he noticed that they got her out… in a body bag.
Greg's mind snapped at that point. Feeling a massive guilt over his less-than-stellar actions, he followed his father's footsteps into the vodka bottle and beyond: three nights after Taylor died, Greg did, too.
Except that, in this story, Greg was one of those potential parahumans instead of Taylor, and he triggered. Not because of the mental anguish, despite its depth, but because his inebriated state made him incautious, and he wanted to go and fight Lung. Suicidal, you'd say. With reason.
And he didn't even reach his destination, because as he was walking in one of those dilapidated streets, his foot got stuck in a hole – it was a hole in one of those steel grates that you could find in the streets sometimes, acting as vents for subterranean transportation or air conditioning in nearby office buildings (long since ruins, hence the hole).
That grid may have been on the pedestrian side of the street, it didn't prevent those of Squealer's calibre from passing over it when chased by Empire capes.
And that was what happened.
Squealer's massive tank slammed Greg onto the grate, the chasing vehicles (and Fenja and Menja's massive feet) pushing his body further against the unyielding material.
"I'm going to die!" his mind realized. And he almost did. Only at the last second, while his brain was starting to get crushed into small bits through the small openings, did he trigger. And with the first impact being made by a Tinker, and the last with Kaiser's limo, his power latched onto the whole event to reconstruct him.
The small bits he had been reduced into became alive, grew mechanical legs and wings, and moved to reform his body. They had to change in the process, shedding the unnecessary biological waste… and using it to make more of them. In fact, looking over the whole process later, Greg realized that his constituent "cells", which he would call nano-robots later (after reading some books about that supposedly fictional technology), were actually able to reproduce.
In fact, if left unchecked, they could do so exponentially, killing everything on the planet. Not wanting to be exterminated as (yet another) extinction-level threat, he kept that information very close to the vest, going to extra mile to make his bots look like bugs. As if he "merely" controlled nearby bugs.
At the same time, he realized that if he could reform by using these bots, he could appear as anyone he wanted. He could even direct several bodies. In fact, searching for ways to get back at Squealer, he explored the shadiest parts of the towns with miniature robots, quickly mapping the whole district. And then he installed pools of bots at several intersections on the Tinker's usual itinerary.
Each of these would grow into a proper human, only to be splattered against the rampaging vehicle, leaving only red traces on the hood. However, several times, it got caught on camera. And since the bodies where smaller than Greg's normal size, it was quickly established (wrongly) that Squealer was deliberately killing children – with the kind of physique that generally provoked the most indignation, too: little wide-eyed innocent girls, who happened to belong to the general makeup of the population nearby.
Needless to say, after three passes through Empire territory and as many little blondes killed in such a gruesome manner, Kaiser decided to act on intelligence he had sat upon for a while, and really clean out the Merchants. Despite being the main target, Squealer wasn't even worthy of their attention, as none of her vehicles worked – the mad Tinker had gone through several of her monstrosities, but each time she got through another kid, the splatter ended up damaging the motor, and she had no backup, now.
Nobody wondered about the fact that the red splatters had disappeared, and that those motors seemed partially eaten by miniature robots.
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The Great PretenderGreg realized shortly that if he could appear as anyone, he could even mimic Taylor herself, and that it would be the perfect mean to get some measure of revenge on Sophia and Emma. The mean girls weren't even fazed that they had actually gotten their bullying target killed – not that he could prove anything: the first time he had voiced his eyewitness account to the Principal, months ago, he had been ignored. The second time, he had been actually threatened.
At the beginning, he did so only to taunt the bullies from afar. He even created a PHO account under her name – she had been an avid reader of the thing, he knew, but never connected or wrote in it. Besides, he already had separate virtual identities, one being Void Cowboy, to troll and vent his frustrations, and the other being Bag Rat… the guy in the know.
You might wonder how he could create an account with the identity of a deceased person? That happens all the time, really, the moderators only acting on it when they actually learn about this, meaning that someone had to denounce him. Given that he could "prove" his identity with a photograph, or even a live video, the information that the girl was dead became… false.
Too bad that her dad had already committed suicide over his loss. And that both had been cremated. As it stood Greg-as-Taylor found himself the "legal" owner of the Hebert's few belongings.
As he still had to make himself visible as his own self, he decided to see if he could split himself – he could already split into a swarm of insect-looking nanobots, so… why not?
Indeed, he could, and both minds could access the other if they were close enough – and if they "swallowed" a cell phone, they could stay in touch from even further away. Still, direct connectivity was interesting, so Greg created his first "blank" – another copy of himself, but limited to a mind. A mind that would still eat at its surroundings to create more bots to make a body, too, but it wasn't necessary.
The first time he did so, he didn't want to associate his face or Taylor's, to avoid confusion. But he couldn't use anyone's, really. So, instead, he created a rigidly-standing faceless knight armour, a bit like the teleport target template in one of his video games (and the fact that it was an armour would allow him to protect someone… or detain them).
Why did he think about the teleport target? Because, if a mind and body were already there, he could more easily morph it into his self, dispersing his previous body. Or bodies.
In fact, with several bodies acting as backup for each other, he could be immortal. In fact, he thought he was invulnerable, already, as bullets could pass through his body without damaging any previous organ or whatever. And if the bullets were slow enough, he could even assimilate them.
Thinking about it brought up other issues, and he was reasonably sure that, should he get his hand on a grenade, he could direct nanobots inside to defuse it.
The only thing able to actually harm one of his bodies would be a sufficiently-intense incendiary ammunition. Perhaps.
Greg-as-Taylor continued to come to school, and often stayed with Greg. Neither needed to go to the restroom or the cafeteria, but they still had to split when the class was separated according to genders, such as when going to the lockers, for their PE classes.
That's where Sophia struck. With Madison acting as watch, and Emma to help her, they pushed Taylor inside a locker filled with used tampons, left to rot for the two weeks the Christmas vacation lasted.
Greg-as-Taylor discovered something important, right then: Sophia's arm kept pushing "her" inside the locker while the door was closing, only lifting after complete darkness surrounded her. It only meant one thing: Sophia could pass through walls. Sophia was a parahuman.
With his cape knowledge, he immediately recognized the power as being Shadow Stalker's. A Ward of the PRT. A Hero. That nixed the vague idea he had had to go there himself.
He could have escaped the locker easily, through the vents and other minuscule holes. He could have his form reform behind them, or surround their bodies completely. He could asphyxiate them, that way, and even had the thought that, being able to communicate and act coherently, his nanobots might convey sufficiently electricity to immobilize Sophia – because electricity was a known weakness of hers.
He could even raise the alarm as Greg, or push through Madison as another female, even a teacher, to get inside and free his Taylor part. Or have her wail so loudly as to attract the proper authorities. But he knew that said authorities would believe the two tormentors anyways, and they had plenty of ways to twist the story. Even if he had a video recording – which he hadn't.
Between his shock and his multiple realizations, he didn't move. Besides, with his new physiology, it wasn't as if the material was actually harmful. And his Taylor body could even reform as a layer against the locker's interior, too, giving the impression that she had disappeared.
But in the myriad thoughts that floated in his head, one was crystal clear: he had to do something about Sophia. Something definitive. And if the authorities were on her side, he'd have to act from the other.
…and hope not to be labelled as a supervillain in the process. Thankfully, he had the ability to direct several bodies.
For Sophia, he thought for a while. Would she be better in prison, or dead? Would he send her to be tortured in a brothel, like Taylor had been? Would the ABB gangsters crucify her like she liked to do them? Or should he disintegrate her and be done with it? Perhaps also impersonate her as a Ward, to leave the truth of her death unknown for a while? Or have her commit suicide with a letter asking for forgiveness?
As he was mulling over all this, the aforementioned Shadow Stalker was hopping from rooftop to rooftop in her usual patrol. Except that, with Taylor not having triggered, there was no one to stop Lung from going after the Undersiders. And her patrol neatly intersected the man's way. Not recognizing him at first, she still noticed that the two men with him were heavily armed. Having already dispatched a similar group two streets over, she was on a high and shot without further warning or consideration.
Oni Lee was on the roofs too, as the whole ABB was combing the place to find the elusive small-time villains. And seeing his boss attacked, he teleported to the Ward, recognized her, and used a taser to immobilize her when he dropped the grenade. He didn't care about the body he left behind each time, and said body kept her immobile as the grenade landed in front of her panicked eyes and went off, killing her.
Killing a Ward painted a target on Oni Lee's head, and the Protectorate found him quickly. The fight was short and brutal, but ended on a strange note: the teleporter has had his head scrambled further by each jump, and he actually ended up comatose after just half a dozen more jumps. With his grenades going off, he didn't even leave enough matter to identify.
As people always want to see a scapegoat going down, the Triumvirate tackled Lung… only to find a legal hurdle on their way: the numerous witness testimonies that Shadow Stalker had actually killed many of their people. Wielded by a competent lawyer, it was enough to pull them back all the way to their respective home bases. Lung hadn't uttered a word.
And Greg kept his hands clean, too. He could even pretend not to know, and be sad, when informed of the girl's death.
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The Great ArmsmasterThe sirens wailed, and Greg hesitated. But he didn't have much choice, now. Especially as the monster was heading towards the Bay. The true monster. Leviathan.
In the fight against the Endbringer, he thought that he couldn't do much. But in search and recover, it was another story: planting a bot on each hero in the room, as they were preparing and listening to Legend's speech, he knew exactly where everyone was, compared to him. That means that he could find people before they drowned, encase some in armours if they couldn't be revived quickly, and run towards the triage area.
And he found Armsmaster. In fact, he stumbled upon the Tinker's final moments against Leviathan. And Armsmaster had wielded a strange device, with a blade that was quite effective.
It was called "nano-thorn", not that he knew it. But by looking at its profile, Greg knew that he could emulate it with his own cells. And he did so, slicing at the beast with renewed vigour… while a clone took Armsy back to Panacea.
Later the man (who had been unconscious, but who had several body cameras) sought him after school and offered him a place in the Wards. Which he took happily when Armsmaster mentioned the various experiments he was conducting in nano-technologies.
That was a start of an interesting story, right there.
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To be continued… in the futureAuthor's Notes: I blame all those good fanfics in which Taylor gets QA with nanobots too, such as "Ex Synthetica" by willyolioleo (available here).