by Louis IX
Check first chapter for disclaimer and global warnings. I don't own anything listed in the d20pfsrd website.
With a Little Help From my FriendsAnnette wasn't interested in literature, but in nature. She didn't follow Lustrum, this time around, but other activists, with "only" ecological preoccupations. Of course, these fell to the wayside when Endbringers started decimating the world's population (it's difficult to focus on global issues when individual survival is at risk), and the worst nihilists of the lot became the Fallen.
Why is it important? Because Taylor Hebert idolized her mother. Especially after her death. And when Taylor felt herself slammed into a locked infested with insects (visible as they moved along the bloodied tampons, before the door slammed closed), she had a strange thought before passing out due to a dream of colliding space whales.
"If only there were a few insectivorous animals, in here. What I wouldn't give for an anteater, a boar, even a massive slug to eat through all that shit…"
Her connexion to the power-granting alien shard established itself around that wish.
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Outside…"Ah ah ah! Have you seen her face when I pushed her in? Hilarious!" Emma exclaimed, gasping for breath as she was laughing too hard.
"Yeah! You sure showed her, Ems!" Madison replied in her usual sycophantic way.
Sophia stayed silent. There was something that was gnawing at her, both from the situation and the acute distress they had heard when Emma had locked Hebert with the filth. Some memories about a PRT course on trigger events.
…and then she was on the ground, with Emma looking at her worriedly.
"What happened?" she asked.
Emma opened her mouth to answer, but the sudden silence made her hesitate. While before, Hebert had been crying and striking at the locker door with her stick-thin elbows, there was now complete silence.
The result from the three observations (distress, parahuman fainting in the vicinity, unnaturalness afterwards) was clear, now: Taylor had triggered.
Sophia wasn't keen on staying at a place where a new parahuman in distress was exerting her powers for the first time. She didn't want to be killed, especially as new triggers had whole slews of regulations regarding those circumstances. Even killing the people at the source of the event could be excused. And, as party to those who had provoked the situation, she had no doubt where Hebert's anger would make her strike.
"We have to leave. Now." she said urgently, getting up and grabbing her bag. She didn't wait for her friends as she turned the corner they had been at, only to find herself in front of the rest of the students. Emma's other friends had been given the task of blocking the circulation in that corridor, and they had done so like the good minions they thought themselves as. Sophia was of half a mind to warn them of the impending disaster, only to tell herself that saying anything might break her cover. So she pushed through, disrupting enough of the crowd that several people could move in the other direction… and watch what was happening.
And what was happening was that Taylor Hebert's locker had a door that was pushed from the inside out… with long insect legs coming out of it. The kind of legs you could find on a spider. And these legs seemed to know what they were doing because they folded back and tugged at the locker's lock – which Emma had pushed through the hole to keep the door locked, but which she hadn't pushed closed. As such, it was readily turned over and removed, allowing for the locker's door to open wide. And out came a spider as big as the onlookers were (limbs extended).
Regular teenagers as they were, the students fled in complete disarray. Emma having been the first to see the beast escaping, she had a few seconds of advance… but she wasn't the most athletic teen in the world. Falling down stairs due to the panicky mob pushing her, she was trampled afterwards.
Upstairs, Taylor slowly disentangled herself from the locker.
After passing out, she had awoken with quite a strange connexion to nature… and especially insects: in her panic at being bitten in that septic environment, she had wished for something to eat the insects. And it had worked, since she had summoned a bigger insect: the spider.
She had felt the animal take shape beneath her, and had grabbed the sides of the locker to leave some place for the spider to do her thing. Doing that pushed the door slightly open, and she had noticed the half-closed padlock. Since the spider that had appeared seemed content to obey her orders, she asked for it to open the door. And it was apparently obedient enough, but also strong and dextrous enough, to do it.
When she had light and space to move, she got off in time to see the last students flee, and her spider-saviour skitter to her, nuzzle her hand, and then fade away.
"I'm a… cape?" she asked herself, looking at her hands. Hands that curled into fists as she looked at where the spider had been, and then the locker door. "Summoning insects might be subpar," she growled, "but I won't be trampled upon by Emma and her clique, now. This I swear!"
Not knowing what had happened to her erstwhile friend, or the fact that the school's principal had just called the police, Taylor walked towards the nearest bathroom to get rid of most of the filth, and then left school through one of the backdoors – her habit of avoiding the infamous trio had led her to learn many of the passageways in the decrepit building. It allowed her to catch a bus that was heading away.
Home? No: towards the PRT building. Even if, in her mind, being a Protectorate Ward added some teenage drama to her life, it would include a much-needed paycheck, and a move to Arcadia. Or so she hoped.
Of course, seeing Sophia in the Wards room put quite a damper on things. But, strangely, Sophia apologized.
"I'm sorry, okay? If I had known that Emma wanted to push you inside that mess, I would have intervened. Trigger events are not fun for anyone."
"Does that excuse a year of bullying?"
"It's not bullying, it's character-building! My dad said so, and it worked with me, and with Emma too. And then, once she was strong, she objected to being with you again. Of course, it's moot, now."
"Why?"
"Because she's dead, duh! What, you didn't know? The stampede due to your Changer form pushed her down the stairs, and the students walked all over her. Literally."
Taylor was quite shaken. Still, Miss Militia was with her in the room, and she had learned enough from the exchange to have Sophia face both an enquiry and a therapist. She wouldn't return to active duty for a while, but with the therapy putting her head in better order, she would cope. And another therapist would help Taylor, too.
Meanwhile, the new trigger learned about her powers.
"I'm no Changer, I told you already! I didn't change into a spider, I summoned it."
"Since you controlled it, that makes you a Master, Taylor."
"What do you mean, a Master? I don't want to be accused like Canary!"
"Relax, it's the generic term. It includes human-targeting Masters, true, but also those who, like you, command to other species."
"Thank you, Miss Militia. Shouldn't you call me by my cape name, now? I am in costume, after all."
"True. Did you choose it yourself? Because it's a bit darker than what Wards usually get, after all. And with the fringes hanging everywhere, it looks like it's a bit torn. And also… no cape? I thought all teenage heroes wanted one?"
"I'm not a flying Brute, and I didn't want to be caught by the cape – the garment, I mean. Or strangled, or blinded, or any other hazard of having it. As for the costume, the fringes are there to disguise the presence of the leather outfit, which in turn disguise my body shape while granting some protection too."
"You don't want an armour, for that?"
"I don't know why, but hard armour feels… icky. Too uncomfortable for comfort. As for the colours, it's camouflage, like yours."
"Alright, alright. So… the power testing. We have some results, and they go well with your choice of cape identity: Hunter. Not Huntress? Not fan of gendered job description? Or is it because the leathers make you androgynous?"
"Not at all! Hunter is for Celia Hunter, the American environmentalist."
"Ah. Yes. I didn't know, sorry. Back to you, then. As it happens, your power is to create animals out of thin air, but you are limited in both the number of creatures and their threat assessment."
"Yeah. I don't know why, too. I can summon a giant spider, but when I try to summon a flock of birds, I only get one."
"And only three times per day, too. It goes along what research has shown about that number, too. Eidolon has three active powers, same as the Faerie Queen with her ghosts, et cetera."
Taylor nodded, but kept quiet. She didn't know how to formulate that whatever had been tested before… it had changed recently. As it was, her abilities weren't set in stone. While, before, she had only used her power instinctively, she was now able to extrapolate and understand her abilities better. And it was plural, because she had more than one.
First, of course, she could summon creatures that included animals and insects. And instead of three times per day, it had increased to seven. She could even have several of them active at the same time.
Second, when in need of a bigger help, she was able to summon a single creature that was much more impressive than the single spider had been. The first time had been difficult, because she had to choose many details about its appearance. But now, it was always the same, and she had grown quite fond of it (even if she knew that she could change it later). She called it Dave. For no reason. Dave was an enormous bird that was able to carry her, and in a world where flying capes were a thing, that ability was invaluable.
Third, even when she used up her summoning allotment, she could still summon even more creatures, except the process was longer… and, using it, she realized that it wasn't a summoning, but a spell. She was casting spells, like a wizard! Well, not really: she didn't have a spell book like the fantasy wizards. She had a very limited number of options, and chose protection and healing over exotic choices… for now. Because when she felt the various options she had, she couldn't consider her current selection as final.
All this data was distilled over the various moments where she exerted her powers, whether testing them or going out in the field: after her introduction to the world (NOT as a Changer cape able to transform into a spider, thus also not outing herself to Winslow students), she was included in the patrol roster and met thugs, muggers, and the various gangs. Including Merchant drug peddlers… and Aryans cheering on dog fights.
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The OthersTaylor wasn't the only one on that path. After first- and second-generation capes, grab-bag and group triggers became common. Some among them gained more power as they trained and gained experience. Dauntless may have started the trend, but he wasn't the only one.
Besides group triggers, who sometimes stuck together, people who had similarities in the use of their power gathered together to exchange ideas. But, first, they had to meet.
As Wards ought to do, upon confirming the presence of Empire capes (most notably Hookwolf), Aegis had called it in and they were waiting for the reinforcements… when their hand was forced by the appearance of three massive dog-like reptiles – more like dinosaurs.
"That's the Undersiders." Aegis whispered to Taylor. "It couldn't be worse."
"Or not. We could ally with them." she answered.
"They're villains! Small-time villains but still!"
"Allies of circumstance. Two small forces joining against a bigger evil. Like a mini-Endbringer Truce."
Below, the Undersiders had already started doing their shtick: one of them covered the area in darkness, another had the threats stumble, the third directed their group… and the fourth charged in, with two dogs. Apparently, the PRT info was false: Rachel Lindt wasn't Mastering three dogs. Like Taylor, she had creatures that could stay at her side, while she could summon others as needed, and she could also transform into yet another, sowing confusion in the opposition – and in those PRT bureaucrats who really were into that "number three" dogma.
Taylor didn't wait for approval before summoning her own forces. So as to appear as a single front, she chose reptiles too, which she made able to move through the darkness, before sending them after the Empire assembly. From the air, on Dave's back, she noticed the Undersider who directed everything look directly up, and wave at her. She waved back.
"We can't ally with them." Aegis was still hesitating. "We cannot! Piggot's orders-"
"Either we are child soldiers, or we're not." Taylor interrupted him. "If you say we are, I'm out."
"Well, no…"
In the meantime, the reptiles had freed the dogs, who were adding to the chaos (somewhat directed by Hellhound) and making the Empire flee. Aegis kept stock of the situation, and the reinforcement got recalled when he indicated that everyone was leaving – including the Undersiders.
"They stole the money." he groused when he noticed the cash registers open and mostly empty.
"Not all of it." Taylor added, showing that one of the tills was still full. And open. As an invitation.
"We're not taking that."
"The alternative being to leave the money around for the gang to gather it back as soon as we leave? No thanks. I have seen Protectorate heroes taking a few bills here and there when they did their job, and nothing in our contract prevents us from doing the same. If you don't want it, I take it all and share with the others, and we'll toast you the next time we go to the restaurant."
Some people thought that Taylor was of the silent type. They were those who knew her in Winslow. Before then, she was quite the motormouth. And with her life heading up, she had found her energy back. And more.
A few weeks later, she was contacted by Tattletale, by the improbable way of finding a paper in her pocket when returning from a trip on the Boardwalk. As a civilian. It said "Sorry for contacting you this way, but we have a situation in which we could use your abilities for some heroing. If you're up to saving an innocent damsel in distress, call me at the indicated number."
Of course she did. And she joined the Undersiders as they jumped the convoy ferrying Canary towards the Birdcage, the trial having ended a short time before. Strangely, a Dragon suit was nearby but it didn't attack back – Tattletale knew, of course, and had informed Taylor beforehand: Dragon was the one who had contacted them. Tattletale easily understanding double meanings (even triple meanings), she knew that Dragon would be in the process of upgrading her mainframe at that time, and that her suit would be moving on autopilot.
Like the opened till drawer, it had been an invitation, and Tattletale couldn't have let it pass.
Canary, or Paige, was a young woman whose voice could Master people. She had never used that power voluntarily, and had almost been imprisoned for it. Now that she was an escaped convict, she felt no compunction in using it to ensure her continual living and well-being.
After getting Panacea out of her explosive home life, Tattletale had the two of them work together, and change the appearance of the famous singer.
With the additions and the intermittent help from Wards, the Undersiders started to be a force to be reckoned with. Their leadership pulled many people in, but none of them were "cannon fodder" since Taylor and Rachel could both create as many creatures as they needed for that job. And they discussed powers with Paige, too, because the singer found new ways to express her power. With some training, she was able to summon her own creatures… most of whom were miniature copies of her new self, with the same singing abilities.
And when the ensemble sang, people of the world took notice.
Lung took notice, too. But that was right after Leviathan attacked Brockton Bay, and the gang leader was in the process of fleeing the city he had failed to defend against the Endbringer. He was a strong man who had coasted on the honour of having faced Leviathan alone… only to stay home when it came a-knocking. His honour lost, he left.
Purity took notice (of the Undersiders' successes). Not Kaiser, who had fought valiantly against Leviathan, only to die because his armour didn't float – who would have thought?
Golem took notice (of the Undersiders, again). A teenage boy pushed by circumstances, he wanted out of the Empire, and Tattletale recruited him easily. And then, with the same kind of discussion Taylor had had with Rachel and Paige, he was guided upon a path where his abilities could be refined and expanded upon. At the cost of specializing in stone, he ended up with the ability to summon creatures made of that matter (the process involving him pushing his arm into stone, the creature following from the stony arm that appeared further afield). Many of them. Some did even split off the stone armour he ended up wearing – with his affinity with the material, the heavy armour felt much lighter.
With his will to not rely on anything from his father, the boy wanted to make his own equipment, and they shared thoughts and ended up with more ideas than they could deal with. Thankfully, they lived in a universe replete with challenges of varying difficulty, enough to keep them progressing to higher levels all the time… while keeping them on their toes.
As they aged, others did. Aster found herself triggering when she was unjustly accused of something at school (second triggers really get it easy) and followed the group's path – with her half-brother being in it, she was already familiar with their powers. She ended up specializing in summoning Lanterns (flying lights, which were merely air-based creatures with a light template) and also getting protection through one that could wrap around her.
Of course, when they reached the level at which they could face epic challenges, those started appearing with a distressing regularity. Thankfully, by then, they had ways to relocate the fights so that they could keep their home planet intact and prosperous… but also honest and beautiful. So they did.
And woe befell those who opposed the changes, especially those who fallaciously wanted things to change but only so that they would be richer faster. Their turn had come to pass, and now they reaped what they had sown.
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To be continued… naturallyAuthor's Notes: Taylor is Master Summoner with Superior Summoning; Rachel is Goliath Druid with Second Bond; Paige is Celestial Commander with Ensemble; Golem is Stone Sorcerer with Elemental Swarm Caller; Aster is Synthesist with Sunlight Summons; and Tattletale took Leadership at some point, of course. Effing min-maxers… and I blame Eidolon for the inspiration, because: eidolons.