CANS OF WORMS
by Louis IX

Check first chapter for disclaimer and global warnings. Also note that this is an attempt at writing in pseudo-drama play style.

Let There Be Light

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Winslow, morning

A decrepit high school corridor, with lockers on half its length, and internal windows on the other. Through the glass, you can see a classroom with several students moving to take their seats. The morning sun is bright and illuminates the scene, especially the entryway, through which Taylor enters the scene. Three students seem to wait for her with smirks, congregating around a particular locker. It's Emma, Sophia, and Madison.

Taylor: "Woe is me! I'm bullied, and every authority figure sides with Emma, my erstwhile friend! I thought the Christmas holiday would have, at least, put their bullying ways to rest but, alas, seeing their wicked smiles, it doesn't seem so."

Emma: "No need to be so dramatic, Tay-Tay. We were just welcoming you back after all. First day of school, and all that… rot. Right, girls?"

Madison: (titters, audibly)

Sophia: (glowers, audibly… yeah, right)

Taylor: "I see nothing has changed, then. Move aside, please, so that I can open my locker. And… what's that smell? What is… this?"

Emma: "That's you. Right, girls?"

Sophia: "We may have emptied a few trash cans here." (pushes Taylor forwards)

Madison: (trips her at the same time) "Try all of them. Including those for feminine hygiene."

Taylor: (screams as she falls head first into her locker)

Emma: (pushes the door closed) "That was before the break. Does the rot make you feel just-like-home, Tay-Tay?"

Taylor: "Nooo! My eyes! I have some in my eyes! It burns! Let me out!" (sounds of vomiting and banging on metal)

Emma: "Maybe later. We have classes, you know?"

Taylor: "I can't see! Did you cover the locker vents, too? I can't breathe! Do you want me to die, Emma?"

(the Trio turns around, clothes flaring in unison. After three steps, they falter. Taylor's cries stop abruptly, and the light flickers. Images of space-faring multi-dimensional whales are superimposed on the scene)

Madison: "What's happening?"

Sophia: (collapses on the floor)

Emma: (hesitates between fleeing and getting her friend up)

Taylor, in a atonal but echoing voice: "If light was wanted… let there be light."

(light flashes in the locker, visible through the vents. The metal door starts glowing red, then orange, as it starts to melt. The thing inside doesn't care to wait, and starts hammering at the already-weakened molecular bonds. Minuscule holes form, letting cohesive light heat up things beyond the locked door. Some papers burst ablaze. Loose hair, too. And thin fabric)

Madison: "Aaaah! I'm hit! It burns!"

Emma: (screams too, and leaves the corridor, her hair smoking from a near call)

Sophia: (awakens suddenly and turns intangible to shake off the bits of hot metal that had landed on her) "An attack on a Ward? I'll show her!" (takes her phone out and calls a number as she walks out) "Armsmaster? I'd like to report an assault with parahuman power."

(the holes widened enough for a hand to pass through. A hand so luminous as to be blinding. And once it goes through, the light flows out and congregates out of the locker, reforming into Taylor's shape… which then loses its brilliance)

Taylor (looks at her hands and inspecting her clean outfit): "Wow. Guess I won't have to pay for cleaning, now. And transportation, too." (turns into light again and flows through the window – without damaging it)

(the locker is left, its insides burned, as multiple PRT troopers arrive and start analysing the scene)

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Alleyway, night

A regular alleyway, with trash and dumpsters, and a rusty fire exit. A group of Asian men with weapons listen to their gang leader, who is wrapping up his speech.

Lung: "…and if you see the kids, shoot them."

Taylor, on the roof: "Kids? I got to stop them!"

Lung, looking up: "There's a little spy here. Grab her."

Taylor: "Oops. I'm outta here." (she transforms, turning completely black, and then invisible… or just not there)

Lung, seeing his men return empty-handed: "Where is she?"

Taylor: (appears on another roof, still as a black shape) "Well, seems that I escaped that one just in time! I'm not a Brute, I don't want to die! Eeek!"

Lung: (has just jumped on the roof from the fire exit, and growls to himself, his voice already hoarse) "If you want a job done well, do it yourself."

Taylor: "Who? Me?"

Lung: "I wasn't talking to you! GrrraaaAAAH!" (he transforms into his fire-wielding dragon form)

Taylor: "That's a nice light show. What does it do when the light is gone?" (she moves as if grabbing at something invisible in front of her before pulling with all her might)

Lung: "AAaack!" (stumbles as the fire leaves him, entering Taylor's shape) "What's happening? Where's my energy gone? And why can't I see anything?"

Taylor: "Energy, matter, it doesn't matter." (smiles and stretches languidly, showing a shape that's larger than before) "As to the lack of sight, what can I say? I took all the photons from you. Now, if you want some energy back, I can give you… movement!" (rushes at him, pushing him backwards)

Lung: "Aaaah!" (his ankles catching the roof's edge, he falls back into the alleyway, flat on his back) "I'm alright!" he says, lifting a hand to show he can. "Just a flesh wound! I regenerate anyways! Now, to regenerate multiple fractures…"

Taylor: "And here's how you deal with supervillains, folks!" (jumps down on Lung's crumpled form, adding insult to injury)

A gangster: "But… but…"

Taylor: "Boo!"

Gangster: "Aaaah!" (flees, followed by the others)

(the sound of a motorcycle, rather loud, comes from further away. In comes Armsmaster, riding his Armscycle and holding his Armshalberd like a knight's lance of old)

Armsmaster (dismounting, growls): "You gonna fight me?"

Taylor: "Eeek! Armsmaster! A true hero! Why is he such a douche, though?"

Armsmaster (securing Lung in the Armssidecar): "I'm Armsmaster. You're an unknown, a nobody. It's better for everyone if I take the credit for Lung's capture. Alright? Alright."

Taylor: "But…"

Armsmaster: "I forgot to ask."

Taylor (deadpan): "I noticed."

Armsmaster (annoyed): "Not that. This: are you the parahuman Taylor Hebert, who attacked Shadow Stalker?"

Taylor: "No! I never attacked Shadow Stalker…"

Armsmaster: "Two true sentences. Therefore, I invite you to join the heroes. Good day."

(Armsmaster leaves. Taylor looks around, and notices four people peeking around a building nearby)

Regent: "What a douche!"

Taylor: "Exactly what I said!"

Regent: "I know, right?"

Grue and Tattletale: (facepalm)

Rachel: (looks around, confused) "Where's Lung gone?"

Tattletale: "Armsmaster has zero social skills. Everything he says is dictated by a program he wrote, according to the context said program can infer from what his Armscamera takes."

Taylor: "Uh…"

Tattletale: "I wonder about his use of a civilian name to point to a cape. That's clearly against the Unwritten Rules."

Taylor: "The what?"

Tattletale: "You know? The cop-and-robber game we cape play? That's why you don't target capes in their civilian identities."

Taylor: "Ooookay."

Tattletale: "Whatever. What's important is that you got Lung off our back."

Taylor: "You are the kids he wanted to shoot?"

Regent (grinning): "It may be because we robbed his casino."

Tattletale (exasperated): "Maybe. Now, Miss Unlight or whatever you're called, you have our thanks."

Taylor: "Unlight? Nice. Although I prefer Enlightenment, if we are to make puns about light."

Grue: "What light? I see a shadow."

Tattletale: "That's because she absorbs all light. Shine a light at her, will you?"

Regent (doing so): "It's absorbed."

Tattletale: "Exactly. Enlightenment is in a Breaker state, right now – and I suspect that she triggered near another Breaker. She's currently made of a cohesive bunch of immobile photons (don't ask me how that works, physics get wonky around powers) and can absorb other photons at will, while physical attacks and projectiles will pass through her. Since photons are also a manifestation of energy state in atoms, it means that she can interact with energy too, such as Lung's fire. She can move as fast as photos, which means near-instantaneous transportation, even through windows. Anything or anyone she holds, if not made of photons, will be pureed, though." (finishes breathlessly, and takes a deep deep breath)

Taylor (lifts one eyebrow): "Thank you, Miss Exposition, I hadn't known some of that. And I definitely didn't want all of it thrown around as if it was public knowledge."

Tattletale: "Sorry, it's my power. I extract information from the barest hint, and my power fills in the blanks. And then I have to mouth off."

Taylor: "Must be inconvenient."

Tattletale: "I would have said the same about your absorption of Lung's energy, earlier, because transforming back with the added mass would have made your body bigger and fatter, creating quite the wardrobe malfunction."

Taylor: "I have tested it before. Anything I wear is transformed with me. I might be bigger, with a body shape according to my will at that time, but my clothes grow with me."

Tattletale: "Nice. In fact, if you lack money, try wrapping yourself in the most expensive silk drape you can find, and sell half of it after you double in size."

Taylor (shrugging): "Why not. Thanks."

Tattletale (wincing as she holds her head): "That's not all you can do. You can emit light at will, directed anywhere, with any wavelength and polarization. It means true laser beams, people."

Regent: "Wow! Overpowered, much?"

Taylor (wincing): "True lasers don't make things explode. Don't take science-fiction into account, here."

Regent: "Why not? Parahuman powers fuck with the established science already! Legend throws lasers that can turn corners! And freeze people!"

Taylor: "I don't. The "laser" she told you about is just a side effect of my power. It acts as if you stay in the sun too long: they just heat things. Slowly. Very slowly."

Tattletale (who had been muttering the whole time): "…slowly, she says. As if she doesn't know she can beam several lasers at the same point. She can orient all light in her area of effect, in fact, meaning that she can make anything appear, to the eyes of onlookers."

Regent: "She can?"

Tattletale: "Anything visual, I mean. Walls, bridges, even people, as long as they don't make noise. She can impersonate people, hide others… quite the Stranger, there. Aaah!" (falls down, held by Grue)

Taylor: "Okay. Perhaps I should… leave?"

Grue: "That would be best, thank you. Tattletale gets massive headaches when she uses her power too much."

Tattletale (turning her head and holding her hand to hide Taylor from her sight): "Not my fault that she's a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; my power wants to get all the information it can get."

Taylor (arms crossed, chin in hand): "If I remember correctly, that quote is from Churchill."

Tattletale: "Gah! Go away!"

Taylor (leaving): "Okay. Bye."

Grue and Regent: "Bye."

Tattletale (still turning her back to where Taylor was): "I will need to start fresh, but I still think she could be of use, especially for the bank."

Rachel: "Who?"

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To be continued… hopefully

Author's Notes: The muse struck when I was reading the fanfics "Camera Shy" and "Manager" (both on SpaceBattles), although what it produced here has close to no tie to them except the fact that they play with light effects.