6.1 (readerboy7)
"You blew up a meth lab. A meth lab. Do you have any idea of what your actions caused, Weaver?"
"Less druggies on the streets? Skidmark making less money?"
"Well, yes, but - six civilians are in the hospital for second degree burns and overdose. How do you know there aren't others out there? You could have killed someone!"
"Actually I had my bugs check the area before they blew them up. No one inside at all."
"How do you even blow up a bui- wait. 'Them'? There were more labs?"
"Only ten or so."
"Only ten?! Are you &#^!ing serious?! Why do I have a feeling that Lung actually hasn't been more active recently? First the incedent with Shadow Stalker, then the thing with the bank, now THIS? You'll be reassigned to Alsaka in a week. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need a fricking drink."
6.2 (Prim-the-Amazing)
Paige followed Dragon's advice. Under Lustrum's eye, she denounced men as a gender, spewing hatred and misandry. When away though, she quieted down, thoughtful, regretful. Just with one heated moment, one thoughtless comment, and she'd demolished her entire life, filled with so much potential. She could have been a super star. And now she was a sex felon, locked forever away in the Birdcage, for life.
Eventually, she forced herself to forget her old life, the outside world. Her world and life narrowed down to the Birdcage, and just the Birdcage. She'd have a new life, a smaller life, here, in jail.
The entire prison seemed to work on some sort of barter system, trading books and cloth and favors and sex and more. She entered the system, selling her performances, gaining a reputation as someone who could sing you into a bliss unparalleled by any drug. Lustrum expected a certain cut due to her protection, but Paige still kept enough to live comfortably.
There were thirteen cell leaders in the Birdcage.
Acidbath, Galvanate, Teacher, Lab Rat, Marquis, Gavel, Lustrum, Black Kaze, Glaistig Uaine, String Theory, Crane, and Ingenue. And then there was the thirteenth leader. She'd been incarcerated only a few months before Paige, and she'd heard and watched and read about it in the news. A slaughter. A young fifteen year old girl who had apparently been viciously bullied for some time had been shoved into a locker full of rotting, bloody tampons for hours, had triggered, and when she'd gotten out she'd gone a bloody rampage, killing every last single person in her school, going out of her way to torture her main three tormenters. Soon the capes had arrived on the scene, and she'd handed herself in without a fight. There had only been twelve cell blocks with leaders before she arrived, but… apparently she'd taken over one within a day, easily.
In a way, Paige felt immensely sorry for her. But at the same time, she was also terrified. She was a poor, bullied girl, but at the same time, she was also a mass murderer.
Taylor Hebert.
She called herself Khepri.
"Today is the monthly cell meeting." Lustrum suddenly said.
"Okay," Paige said.
"I want you to come with me, as a lieutenant. If things come to a fight, I want you to sing and order everyone to go back to their respective cells."
She looked up at the much taller woman, eyes wide. If things come to a fight. She shuddered. Paige didn't like violent situations. But she nodded anyway. Paige had been targeted a few times now by men who wanted to use her power for gain and pleasure, and the only thing that had protected her then was Lustrum. She needed for the older cape to like and want to protect her, and that entailed doing as she said.
They went.
Paige's mouth was dry and her palms were sweaty. She was standing behind Lustrum's right shoulder, and all of the other cell block leaders were present. Except Khepri.
A door banged open and a fifteen year old girl lazily waltzed in, with all the eyes in the room, some glaring, at her. She didn't seem to notice. She flopped down in her seat, crossing her legs on the corner of the table they were using.
"You're late." Gavel said.
"I overslept." She said dismissively.
She wore a baggy grey version of the uniform, her long, dark hair unbrushed and tangled, greasy. She wore glasses and her eyes were half lidded, her posture loose and limp. She was tall for a girl her age, and thin and gangly like many teenagers in the middle of a growth spurt. Paige didn't think she'd be quite able to judge how pretty she was with any objectivity, as she was at the moment covered in bugs. Not completely, but you could see the fleas and lice in her hair and on her clothes, the spiders and cockroaches and centipedes and other creepy crawlies crawling over her skin and down underneath her clothes which Khepri easily ignored. Paige felt bile rise in her throat.
And then she looked straight at Paige, gave her a lopsided grin, and winked. Paige's heart wouldn't slow down to its normal speed until she was back Lustrum's block. She winced when she accidentally thought of it as home.
She had many customers. They paid with books, favors, clothes, and more. She kept the things she thought she'd use, gave Lustrum her cut, and traded off the rest for more things she thought she'd like. She made sure to keep her songs wordless melodies, free of any orders. The customers were always happy with her service, and Paige needed a day planner to keep track of whenever she had a singing session.
But when a cell block leader comes to you and asks for a song, even without a payment or a reservation, you damn well cancel what you've got planned for the day and sing.
Khepri, just as lazy and ruffled as the last time Paige saw her, stood before her, smirking.
"Well?" She raised an eyebrow. "Why aren't you singing?"
Paige noticed that there were a few more wasps circling Khepri's head than normal, and they're buzzing was beginning to get louder, and they were flying faster. The threat was clear.
Paige sang.
She sang happy songs, she sang for hours, and Khepri slumped against her shoulder with a relieved sigh, and Paige began shaking when the bugs crawling on her spread out onto her, but they didn't bite or sting, so she continued.
"Best vacation ever," Khepri mumbled.
Paige didn't understand.
"You dare threaten one of my girls into doing as you say?" Lustrum hissed, seething. She held so tightly onto Paige's wrists that she had to restrain whimpers. That was going to bruise. She hadn't wanted this. She didn't know what she'd expected when she told Lustrum about what had happened, but it wasn't this.
Khepri shot Lustrum a look that was filled with less respect than she held for her own bugs.
In her anger, Lustrum's grip grew even tighter. A pained sound escaped, but Lustrum's grip didn't loosen. Khepri's eyes narrowed, and then she sighed in an exasperated sort of way and rolled her eyes. She held out her left arm. Lustrum looked at it, uncomprehending.
"What?"
"You want retribution, right? So take it. I'm terrible with arms anyway, I was bound to lose it at some point, better have it be on my own terms. Lose my own head next." Khepri chuckled darkly.
Paige didn't understand, didn't want to.
"You have a regeneration power?" Lustrum asked, surprised.
"No. Just bugs." Khepri replied simply.
Lustrum glared, suspicious. But then she grabbed the cleaver which she kept tucked by the elastic line in her pants, and her arm blurred. There was a thump, so much blood, and Paige screamed.
Khepri's hissed between her teeth quietly, as if she'd cut her finger while peeling potatoes.
At the next meeting Khepri still only had one arm. She overslept again.
"Sing for me." She said.
Paige stared at her, shocked. Speechless, she looked pointedly at Khepri's stump. The younger girl took her point.
"Oh, who gives a fuck about arms? Happiness is worth it. I think I'll save you just to keep you for myself, next time. I had no idea your singing was that delicious." She said glibly.
Paige didn't understand.
But she sang. And she didn't tell Lustrum, this time. Or the next time, or the time after that, and so on.
6.3 (Prim-the-Amazing)
Danny Hebert knew his daughter. Sure, they never really talked much anymore outside of empty small talk, and they never went out of their way to spend time with each other except for meals. But they were still family, and he still loved her, so he knew her. Simply put in a sentence, Taylor was a shy, quiet, stubborn, lonely, decent, smart girl with her father's temper. And that was that.
Danny had never seen such a sudden and complete personality shift in the span of one day. It was the day after winter holidays, the first school day after vacation, and everything had been normal. They'd had bacon and eggs, and Taylor had smiled glumly at him and gone off to catch the bus. And then he'd come home, and they'd had dinner.
Taylor had changed clothes and showered for some reason, and she had dinner ready for when he came. He didn't know what it was, but it tasted as good as it looked and smelled. There was something different about her posture… her shoulders were less slumped. Her back straighter, her chin raised a few inches, her eyes easily meeting his gaze, voice clearer and louder, less stuttering in general, really. Confident.
"Did anything happen at school today, Taylor?" He asked.
"Nothing out of the ordinary," she said and flashed a lopsided grin, as if indulging in some private joke of hers.
"Really? You seem… different." He tried.
She shrugged. They went back to eating, and the discussion only came back to life some minutes later.
"Hey, dad?"
He looked at her to indicate that he was listening.
"I feel like I've been trapped in a sort of routine for some time. Do you have any suggestions for anything fun to do?" She didn't look like she expected a good answer, and he tried not to feel too slighted.
He thought.
"You could join a club."
"Been there, done that. It feels sometimes like I've joined every team- I mean club, in town."
"Really? You've joined clubs?"
She began to look slightly panicked.
"O-oh yeah. There was the Under… knitters. The Underknitters. And then the War- book club! The war book club! We read books. About war. Yes." Taylor shoved a forkful of food into her mouth.
"A knitting circle and a war themed book club are hardly all the clubs in town, Taylor." He said dubiously.
"Well there was New Wave!"
"What?"
She paled.
"I mean the New Wave fan club!"
"Oh,"
"And then there was Faul- ty government. We, um, tried to uncover conspiracies hidden by the government." She beamed like she had just said something terribly clever.
"Huh. You do way more stuff than I thought you did, Taylor."
"Well, that's me! Miss Adventurous! I'm serious, you give me a half interesting suggestion and I will do it. I mean, do you have any idea how many times I've been a member of the Slaughter- society? Which is… an apprenticeship… for young, aspiring… butchers."
"Really."
"And then there was Über- awesome baking society. Which was where I learned how to make this meal!"
"And what a good meal it is."
"Yes. I've been a partner of Circus- fanatics, which record the travels of renowned circuses around North America. For god's sake, I've even been in the Merchant's- GUILD! IN AN RPG!"
"My. You certainly get up to a lot of things, Taylor."
"Yup. That I do. Now let's talk about something else, okay? Please?"
Definitely, his daughter was acting strangely. But she actually seemed a bit happier than before, or at least more confident, and she was still his daughter. So he loved her.
Although that was a lot of clubs.
6.4 (Query)
"Because I'm done. My life is over, for all intents and purposes. No matter how hard I try from here on out, I'll never do anything one ten-thousandth as important as what I was doing before."
It was words she spoke over a thousand lifetimes ago, words that she relished and yet hated all the same.
Because Taylor Hebert was important and it was her importance that sentenced her to this fate.
Because this wasn't the end or rather there really was no such thing as the end.
Only a constant never ending loop.
She awoke staring at the off color white of the hospital ceiling.
It was testament to her experience with these scenario's that it took only a few seconds to realize when and where she was.
General Hospital, Philadelphia, Earth Aleph
Two or Three months after what they would call the Golden Morning.
The slight sound of rustling fabric gave away the nurse that was checking her chart.
"Ehrrm"
Her mouth failed to form the proper words requesting the correct date and time.
Ah, such an interesting feeling, brain damage.
Calmly she tried testing to see what parts of her were functioning.
Legs no, arms no, neck no, eyes yes!
Quickly she blinked her eyes, frantically trying to convey a message.
She cursed when she remembered that this blonde headed nurse didn't know Morse code. It was the black haired one that usually appeared after blonde ones shift, that recognized the erratic blinking for what it was.
Disappointing.
Taylor closed her eyes and out of habit began to compile her mental itinerary.
Recover.(Annoying)
Find Medical or Scalpel and regain passenger and limb.(Might be useful to ask for light cosmetic surgery as well.)
Build a better replacement limb!
Update passenger and eliminate default bonding restrictions.
Find SugarRush and utilize his ability to quickly build a Portal Ripper(or maybe a Warpslider?).
Warn Lisa and relevant others about unrestricted Scion triggers.
Also might help to warn them about invadin-
"Taylor!"
Her mental plan collapsed as the familiar sound of her dad's voice cut through her thoughts.
The hospital bed she was on squeaked as her Dad's form settled beside her and his blurry face swam into view.
2b. Also have Medical fix vision.
She tried to give a reassuring smile but her brain was once more failing to cooperate forcing her to try to reassure dad through her eyes.
It wasn't very successful.
Post!GoldenMorning
Looping Taylor
6.5 (Zulaq)
Lisa really had no clue why things had suddenly gone insane. Sure, her power let her determine that she actually was in the past, and this wasn't some crazy power induced dream, but it was drawing a headache inducing blank on the why.
When she had woken up in her bed at the old Undersiders HQ, as in the HQ that had been blown up, she had first suspected somebody was using a power on her to make her think she was in the past. But things were just so realistic, everything she used her power on came up normal, so either somebody had some power which interfered with her own, or she really was in the past.
So she decided to fuck it, and treat everything like it really was real. Either she would get to correct some mistakes others, and occasionally herself, made, and/or she'll try to push the boundaries of whatever power was making her hallucinate.
The first thing on her list was to kill Coil, the man needed to die, if only for her own protection. If he knew she knew what she knew, he would kill her, no if ands or buts. So she needed to kill him first, which actually turned out to be fairly easy. She knew his power and his identity, it was a simple matter to track him down in his civilian identity, make a call to him in order to trick him into splitting the timeline, and then arrange an accident. Easy.
Now that that was taken care of, Lisa was tracking down an old friend. She had many regrets about how things had gone in Brockton, but she knew that Taylor had even more. And now Lisa was in a position to prevent Taylor from making those mistakes in the first place, which should be easy without Coil in the picture. That was why she was standing in front of a nondescript house, having just rung the doorbell.
The door creaked open, but a chain prevented it from opening more than a couple of inches. "Who is it?" a grumpy female voice on the other side asked. Annoyed, wasn't expecting company.
Weary. Tired. Exasted, more than just sleepy. Doesn't want to be disturbed.
Odd, Lisa had always known that Taylor tended to be cautious, but she hadn't really thought that she was so weary. "I'm here to speak to Taylor Hebert about a prospective job opportunity."
"Go home and tell Coil to fuck off, Tattletale."
Geh? Knows Coil. Doesn't like him, personal. Knows me by voice. Knows my cape identity. Knows me?! Also time traveler? Knows more about it than me.
"Taylor, you'd better get out here right this minute and explain why the world's gone crazy, and we've gone back in time or I'll tell your father you're a cape!"
"Wha- Lisa? You know? You're Awake?"
Awake emphasized, definitely knows me
"I don't know what you mean, but you've got five seconds to open this door and explain, or I'm calling the Dockworkers Union and asking for your father."
The door opened, and Lisa was glomped.
6.6 (Rex)
"I call bullshit!"
"What? I totally finished the Fugly Bob's challenger once. Died a bit afterwards cause of a burst stomach lining, but-"
"Not that! This! Taylor, you're using your mind control powers to do this aren't you? There's no way you set this up in a week."
I looked up from my view of the beach. Alec and Lisa were standing beside me on the roof of my lair. I raised an eyebrow at him. Silently asking both if he thought I would cheat like that, and why it was appropriate to distract me from the dancers when the Las Vegas branch of the Protectorate was going by. As annoying as those bastards were, they managed to look damn good in those garter belts.
"Nope. I didn't use any mind control to make the Protectorate do this down Brockton Bay beach." I flipped open my pocket watch to check the time. Hmm… about thirty seconds left. "Don't need to when I can make Cauldron arrange it for me." I closed the watch with a satisfying click and slipped it back into the pocket of my immaculately fitted designer three piece spider silk suit. Weaver Clothier's still counted as a designer brand even if I hadn't gone into the clothing business in sixty-seven loops.
"By the way, what's up with the watch, there's got to be a better way to tell the time than that old thing. Come to think of it, I don't recall you ever wearing a suit before." Regent tried to distract me from the fact that I had won our bet by changing the subject. It wouldn't do him any good, but the combination of seeing Chevalier and Myrrdin enthusiastically doing high kicks and the imminent arrival of our special guest made me decide to let it go for now. I pulled out the watch again and flicked it open.
3… 2… and 1.
"She wanted to be better dressed than the competition." A new voice joins the conversation. I shut my watch with another click and turn to smile and Contessa.
"You, my dear lady, are late." She wasn't of course, but I just liked messing with her.
"My apologies. Are you the one that caused this?" She gestured out to the beach. The long procession continued by. It really was rather impressive that they had managed to organize this thing in just a week. The flyers formed a second line in the air above the beach at just the right height to give me, Regent, and Tattletale a show, while the non-flyers struggled on the beach. Everyone was, of course, wearing modified costumes. Dennis had no right to be better in high heels than I had been.
"Well, you're the one that dealt with the details, but yeah, it was me." I launched into my prepared speech. "You arranged this because it became the best way to create an army. It became the best way to make an army because I decided to tell you the method to reliably clone parahumans only if you set this up." I smirked in Regent's direction. "No master powers were used at all and everyone here is here out of their own free will which means I win." I stuck my tongue out at Regent. He cordially threw me the bird. I turned my attention back to Contessa.
"In order to reliably clone parahumans, you need three tinkers. I'll give you their names and a warning to go with each one. The first parahuman is Blasto. The first warning is not to clone Eidolon or Greyboy. Eidolon, in addition to other negative side effects, just burns through his power faster. Greyboy resets back to his original self and the benefits he provides to your goals are not worth the hassle of wrangling him. Second parahuman is Bonesaw. Second warning, save your cloned parahumans for Scion, if you start using them in Endbringer battles the Simurgh will just interrupt and wreck the whole project before you lot make any real progress. Also, clone the three tinkers as soon as you can manage. The fewer critical failure points your army has, the better. Finally, Cranial. You need to match the DNA and approximate memories of a given parahuman in order to make a clone. After they've been decanted and their powers set, you've got the problem of managing the personalities of all these parahumans. The easy way around that is to wipe their memories after they've finished developing and replace it with the memories of someone loyal to your goals. The warning is to use someone that doesn't have the capability to trigger. You don't want to know what can happen if you don't." There, that should be everything they should need. Simurgh would almost certainly ruin the project anyway, but it's not like I actually needed the clones' help to beat the golden moron anyway.
"Would you like to join Cauldron?"
I hadn't expected that. Hm.
"Up to you Regent. You wanna be in charge of running the world?"
"Nah, now shut up. The Triumvirate's coming." He giggled like a small child. It was him. It was most certainly not me.
"Well, that concludes our business." I waved a dismissive hand towards Contessa. "You should get back in line, you're almost" I made air quotes with my fingers "on stage." She turned and walked through the Door to take her place in line. Smiling, I settled down to watch the most powerful organization on Earth do the can-can so that I could win a bet.
Regent was laughing hysterically as Eidolon flounced majestically through the air in the frilliest, pinkest dress Contessa had managed to acquire. That was a lot of pink and frill. Alexandria was comparatively boring, doing a machine perfect rendition of the can-can with a neutral look on her face. While Eidolon was clearly infuriated that he had to do this, I was sure Alexandria was a mentally a million miles away. Probably playing go against herself again.
"It's a pity we didn't get the Yangban and the birdcage involved in this. With the right boosters Legend can form his own section." I murmured to my compatriots as Legend danced past, flinging multicolored lasers out with every kick and twist. It was properly coordinated with the music, the colors of the costumes of the people the firework lasers went off behind, and the setting sun. He was clearly embracing his love of dance.
"Legend laser lightshow can-can is the best can-can." Lisa agreed from my left. It was something of a pity that Legend was a superhero, his calling was clearly on Broadway.
"Wait, you guys have done this before!?" Regent squawked from my right.
"Yep, done it when Scion was actually attacking too. So we got ALL the parahumans under much greater pressure." I pointed down to the end of the line, where Contessa, Doctor Mother, the Numberman, the Clairvoyant, the Doormaker were doing their best to celebrate their soon to be acquired bounty. "That's what it means to be in the loops Regent, we can do anything and everything if we want too. And since we're stuck here for a nigh eternal span of time, eventually we're going to want to do everything." I paused before conscientiously adding "at least Twice."
Lisa shrugged. "We still haven't managed to get Behemoth to join in, but that's only a matter of time."
"Tch. I never had a chance of winning this bet in the first place." Regent crossed his arms and tried to pretend he wasn't sulking.
"Nope!" I happily chirped. "Which means I have ten loops where I can call it in and you have to cross-dress as a woman for the loop. Along with whatever other goal I set for you to do." And once I got him to sign the paper we had drawn up before hand, I could use it on an unawakened Regent any time after I'd gotten him sufficiently drunk.
6.7 (NoSolution)
It was nice now that Sam was awake with me, it presented so many more opportunities that would have otherwise been to time consuming to reach. So what if I'm lazy? It's not like I don't have all the time in the world. Oh. Wait.
When Sam first awoke and contacted me I was overjoyed at all the shenanigans that could present themselves. We at first decided to test Cauldron's to contingencies.
A few hundred loops later and we were still seeing their reaction timing. And their reactions.
We finally managed to get to a particular scenario where we could initialize Project Death Threat.
I was currently situated in one of the large abandoned warehouses at the Docks. I had four major devices occupying the room each displaying a clock counting down somewhere on it. The first one and the smallest was simply a computer with numerous accessories such as a webcam the screen depicted 00:02:50. The second one resembled a bomb on a railgun, probably because it was. The clock on the railgun stated 00:12:50 as it slowly counted down ominously. The third one which was the largest and the most dangerous, or the safest depending on your perspective was a simple metal sphere to prevent anything from interfering with it. A small control panel jutted out stating 00:32:50. The last one, and the one I was in was a rather ordinary locker, so what if I like symbolism? The locker was purposefully designed to contain until time ran out and protect whatever inside the container safe from anything and everything. The lock closing the door instead of a combination, was a clock stating 00:42:50.
Just over 8 minutes ago I had entered the locker and simultaneously Sam created a PHO account under the name of Simurgh, approved it, gave her the title of (Verified Cape) and then created a thread under the Simurgh subsection of the forum.
Topic: Brockton Bay
In: BoardsEndbringersSimurgh
Simurgh (Original Poster)(Verified Cape)
A moment ago
After a while the upper atmosphere gets boring.
I heard that Brockton Bay is a nice play to visit so I thought I'd check it out. Any advice on what to do? I'm definitely going to talk to the locals and any other tourists who show up. Anyone interested in a meet-up?
As Jack Slash wiped some imaginary blood off of his knives and simultaneously augmenting his kill count he had a sudden thought.
"I can't help but think that there is someplace that I should be right now, I feel like I'm missing out on some great action..."
I smiled as the Endbringer sirens went off. All according to plan. I counted down as I peered through the slots if the locker, this was it. 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...0! Show time!
The clock flickered and disappeared from the screen, it was then replaced with a video showing the inside of the Brockton Bay PRT headquarters.
I loudly began with my speech, "Hello world! Well, technically Brockton Bay PRT headquarters, affiliates and Parahumans but whatever. It is the nefarious, evil criminal mastermind and super villain Taylor Hebert! And! If my demands are not met I will destroy the Simurgh! MUHUHAHAHA-the screen flickered and the image of the capes disappeared-HAhaha..." Well that wasn't very nice...
When Emma and I had joked about Taylor losing it... Well who knew we'd be right? I hated Taylor even more than I thought I ever could, who does she think she is? Interrupting an Endbringer briefing and then threatening me! While she was in a LOCKER! She was so... So... Infuriating! I brought up my crossbow, aimed, and fired.
I could barely stop myself from laughing. This was going to be good. So good. I unfortunately couldn't stop my trademark grin creeping onto my face as the locker on the screen spoke.
Grue nudged me, "Tattle, what's up with that girl?"
Regent piped up, "She's crazy that's what. Think she's single?"
Grue's and mine answer to him was two words long, synced and well practiced as well as the accompanying slap to the head.
"Hey, physco-shadow knows that girl in her civvies."
"Not now, Tats."
"Why not?"
"Shut up Regent," that was practiced as well.
Alexandria was the first one to speak after the arrow impaled the screen, "Dragon, see if you can trace the signal. Low priority. We can deal with this after the fight assuming it's a prank and an ill-suited one at that. Shadow Stalker, from your reaction I assume you know something about this Taylor Hebert?"
"Not much but she's crazy definitely crazy. I've heard about her, she's a pompous jerk.
The clock on the railgun-bomb thigy reached zero and sent the bomb crashing through the roof pass defending capes and into the Simurgh. As soon as it touched her she disappeared as well as the bomb.
I smirked all according to plan, now for the next phase.
Dragon would have sighed if she could she couldn't trace the signal at all and now that girl, Taylor was on the armbands, what next? A threat to save the world from a multi-dimensional near omniscient monster? Sure, she did... Something to the Simurgh, her sensors weren't picking up anything but did she have to be so... Stupid. Humans. Dragon didn't think she'd ever be able to understand them.
"MUHUHAHAHA! You thought you got rid of me! No! I am still here! You cut me off and so I was forced to terminate the Simurgh! Now unless my demands are made I will destroy Scion to prove just how evil I really am!"
I chose to intervene then, "This is Dragon, we will hear your demands."
"Ahhhh! THE Dragon? I am such a big fan! A pleasure to meet you as for my demands... Can I have the autographs of some capes please? You have 10 minutes! Thanks and bye now!
6.8 (Zulaq)
Running a hand through her hair, Taylor complained to herself that she didn't like sand. It's coarse, and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere. It had been a couple of days, and she was still finding sand in awkward places.
Of course, she admitted to herself, she really shouldn't expect any better after her current backstory of being from a planet which was one big desert. It had only been luck that the local heroes (who didn't seem to be awake) had been passing through, much less that she had just the right skills to aid them. Even if the heroes didn't seem to be the most conscientious people around. Seriously, who enters a nine year old into a hi-speed race, where almost all the competitors were expected to cheat, and still expect her to win?
Still she had won the race, and her freedom from that flying blue muppet, too bad they couldn't free her father. She had plans to return and free him herself, but that would take time, and besides she still needed to meet with this council. Although based on what she's seen so far, Taylor wouldn't bet on this council being much better than the Protectorate in terms of restrictions on her.
Well, she had to give the Jedi this, they knew how to build to impress. The Jedi Temple on Coruscant was so much better than the Brocton Protectorate's converted oil rig, and probably had better defenses to boot. But seeing how quiet and serene the hallways were only reinforced her impression that the Jedi path probably wasn't for her. But still, Qui Gon expected her to meet the Jedi Council and be tested, and it really was the least she could do for the man who'd freed her (even if she did have her own plan already in motion to gain her freedom herself).
So as she entered the Council chambers, she found exactly what she expected, a bunch of old men, women and aliens of indeterminate gender sitting in a circle ready to pronounce judgment. Then the wrinkly old green alien who seemed to command the most respect winked at her. "Humm… So you are the one Master Qui Gon believes should be trained to be a Jedi, hummm…" He/She/It narrowed its eyes in an exaggerated motion. "I private meeting is in order, I believe."
One of the other's present, a tall, bald black human, balked. "But Master-"
The alien rapped its cane on the ground. "Perfectly fine I shall be. The only question shall be if this young one can stay Awake."
Qui Gon bowed, "It shall be as you wish, Master."
And so the stuffy old people shuffled out of the room, leaving Taylor alone with the green, apparently Awake alien. Taylor watched the Jedi Master carefully, but she was surprised when the old being lept up and made a beeline towards her. Standing up, she could see that the alien only stood about her not-very-impressive nine-year-old self's height.
Still, it came as a surprise when the alien whacked her head with its staff. "About time you showed up! Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting Taylor? Eight. Hundred. Fucking. Years. Eight hundred years with some of the most stuck up, pretentious, celibate and annoying monks in the galaxy! And this body! I'm green! And short! I know you told me looping could be weird, but this takes the cake!"
Wait a minute, the only one she's introduced to the loops so far is, "Lisa?"
Lisa hit Taylor on the head again, "Who else would I be, idiot!"
Taylor couldn't help it, she burst out laughing.
Prim-the-Amazing:
The red light saber swooshed down and-
God fucking damn it! Couldn't she just go one Loop without losing an arm!? Was that too much too ask for!?
"Taylor," the Big Bad said. "I am your mother."
"You... you just cut off my arm." She said dazedly caught off guard by the admission.
The Evil Overlord seemed flustered by having this pointed out to her.
"T-Together we can rule the galaxy, mother and daughter!" She rallied on.
Taylor stared at her. Annette Hebert shifted, embarrassed.
"Well... Okay. I can get to know you, and being a Jedi is super boring anyways. Way too much meditation for my tastes, too little action."
"Wait, really?" Darth Vaderina asked, excited.
"Sure. Let's get our tyrant on, mom." Taylor smiled.
This was going to be fun. She couldn't wait to see Han Solo's face when he saw her rule the solar systems with an iron fist alongside the seemingly most evil person to ever be born in the universe! It was going to be hilarious.
6.9 (ir_fane)
Dan sighed, rubbing his aching temples. His little girl was in a mood again. It was a good mood, true, and those had been rare enough in the past that almost any cure was welcome. Somehow, that didn't make his stress levels go down much when she brought home a set of powerful criminals as her 'harem'. If they weren't so blatantly terrified of (disappointing) her, he didn't know what he'd do. On the other hand, they were terrified of (disappointing) her, so they were kind of amusing, in an abstractly horrifying way. Made him a bit tense, but he could deal. He was used to dealing with tension. Imagining how she'd ... wow , there went that headache. Imagining how she'd been successful in 'recruiting' them was ... worse.
And she wasn't being very subtle about her 'costumes', lying around her room, or with stressing critical words... on the other hand, the last couple of times she'd done this, she hadn't spent as much time at home.
Dan sighed, and tossed the newspaper in the trash. At least she wasn't calling herself 'jitterbug' this time. He still remembered his father explaining why it was a word for people who couldn't dance.
6.10 (readerboy7)
This loop had started out near-baseline. Sure, there was apparently someone called Genoscythe the Eyeraper, but I knew practically nothing about him other than his name. Bakuda and Armsmaster had said "Meh, I could take her" right before we started fighting, and Lung had said the same in chinese. No-one else was Awake, and I was following baseline for the most part. But then I arrived at the Leviathan fight, and I realised that I had been falling down the rabbit-hole all this time.
Legend was giving his typical speech, talking about one in four people dying, when it all changed. Instead of talking about how they never got the chance to tell us the odds, but then he talked about how he wanted to live, and he would gut any of the psychopathic manchildren in the room if they interfered with the goal. The same went for us villains.
then he got his daughter to sell us girl scout cookies (and how had she gotten in here without me noticing? also, wasn't Legend homosexual?) and started talking about the afterparty.
Great, one of these loops. hopefully it won't turn out as badly as it had when cape fights had been replaced by dance fights...
6.11 (Focus13)
The warehouse was dark and lifeless where it had once been vibrant. The stench of blood and gunpowder filled the air. A tall cloaked figure stood amongst the carnage of several still warm bodies and over turned tables of drug product. The figure, decidedly female, towered over the last living person in the warehouse, other than herself. "Jesus! Take the dope and the money, take whatever! Kaiser doesn't pay me enough to..." His speech is cut off by the female planting a knife in his throat with nary a hint of emotion. He gives a wet gurgle and has a look of terrified disbelief on his face.
He attempted to reach out at the girl crouching over him in a pleading gesture of "Help me", but the girl didn't so much as twitch a finger and simply watched him expire. Silence filled the death laden room as the cloaked assailant slowly stood and took a moment to assess the surroundings. Pointless, she thought. That she had been able to casually exterminate a dozen street soldiers of the Empire either said a lot of her prowess or her opponents incompetence. She grimaced, an unfamiliar expression on her usually stoic face. She needed challenge, refining, something to test herself. She needed... a cape. Yes, that would be the logical progression in her self examination.
She wiped the blood from her knife on her cloak, pondering this new line of thought. Who to test her capabilities on first she wondered. She was interrupted by the sound of a motorbike pulling up outside the shabby warehouse. She blinked and slowly turned her head toward the noise, factoring this new element into her plans. Armsmaster she thought. But why was he here? she inquired to herself. She turned back to the corpses, she was sure she'd kept her conflict quiet enough not to warrant attention.
No matter, something to be reflected upon later she thought. If Collin was here she could use him. A part of her mind rebelled viciously at the idea of harming someone who had once been a close friend and colleague, but she shut those impulses down hard with a quick utilization of Occlumency, returning to her near permanent state of zen-like apathy for this Loop.
She began to move up toward the rafters, wanting better positioning for what was coming. If she did any permanent damage she'd make it up to him in the next Cycle. It was becoming easier to justify her actions as of late. She blamed the Mind Arts for that. And the repetitive time travel. On the other hand, the stronger she was without the use of powers meant she'd be that much more potent the next time she needed to be Khepri.
She reached an ideal spot, giving her a superb view of the warehouses interior while concealing her in shadows. She reversed the grip on her knife, applied some final touches with her Occlumency and waited for the doors to open with bated breath.
6.12 (NoSolution)
Alexandria had just received an urgent from Director Seneca of the Alaskan branch of the PRT stating that there was an urgent matter that required her immediate attention, a situation that could apparently escalate into an S-Class scenario.
"Director Seneca," Alexandria greeted coolly as she landed in front of HQ. "I trust you haven't been kidnapped recently?"
"Is 6 hours ago recent?" the Director retorted, "We can discuss the abduction after this A-Class threat is dealt with. We currently have assigned ratings as Master 8, Brute 3, Striker 2 and Thinker 2. The target name is Kodak, don't ask. Someone made a typo in the initial encounter paperwork. Now, head North, take a left at the first igloo, then take a right at the third snow bank then go straight till you meet the target. Be careful with the target, if it gets out if control it will unleash it's full capabilities. I hope you come back alive. I barely did. Have a nice day Alexandria. May we meet again." With that the Director twirled around and marched into the building followed by the security detail assigned to him.
Alexandria stared dumbfounded for an instant but then took of, Director Seneca probably knew what was be-were those bears? In tanks laying siege to the city? Someone was going to have a talking to when she got back. She flew above the icy tundra following the Director's directions as a storm raged around her buffeting her with wind, ice, snow and hail. As she peered through the fog surrounding her scanning for the Kodak, a large dark shape came out. What... How... Who puts a football stadium in the middle of Alaska? She ascended above the height of the stadium and then accelerated towards the center of playing field. She abruptly stopped before impact and hovered just above the field. Bears. Bears everywhere. Bears in the stands, bears operating TV cameras, bears in cheer leading costumes leading routines. And on the field, there was a table with a chair on either side. In one of the chairs there was a bear. A Kodiak bear with a chess board on the table in front of him with the white side facing him, and the pawn in front of his king moved one space foward. Great, I get to match wits with a Kodiak bear Alexandria thought as she took the empty seat and moved her queenside rook pawn two spaces foward.
The game ended four moves later.
Taylor knew Lisa didn't like other thinkers. But she didn't know she disliked them this much, she was just going to keep her much shut and wait for a consensus. After all, that's why they had three thinkers.
"We are not following your plan!"
"Why not? It will guarantee victory!"
"But not her obliteration!"
"I like her first two moves. Symmetrical."
"We just need to see how smart she really is. Push her limits, play around with her and then beat her."
"No we need to obliterate her, what is your stance?"
"Personally, I would prefer a nice clean victory."
Taylor sighed, and turned to her friend, "Wonder when they'll find out the game is over?"
"96.32458264026% it won't be for another three hours."
6.13 (NoSolution)
To say Accord was upset was an understatement, he was livid. He didn't demonstrate it to one untrained in the nuances of the human body but I could see it as he moved towards me flanked by his bodyguard Citrine, his posture was more rigid than usual, his steps calculated with more caution and the biggest indication, he appeared calm. It was always a unique experience conversing with Accord, I had to make sure that all my statements were accurate, precise and concise.
"Accord, how may I assist you?" I inquired.
"Weaver," he responded, "There is a discrepancy in the plan for Sector 3. Primarily, Chevalier's power is not effective on the saw. Secondary, Tecton and his associates created a full-scale model of a sword."
"That's an unfortunate waste of resources, Chevalier's services are no longer required. Neither are the services of Tecton's Crew, they have failed us one time to many. Thank you for bringing this issue towards my attention, Accord you are relieved."
I waited until Accord had left the room and then turned towards my assistant, "Vista, please bring the Siberian and Bonesaw to me immediately. Mannequin is more than capable of defending me at the moment."
Vista bowed and then quickly left the room with the assistance of her power. I returned to gazing at the Earth, "Beautiful isn't it Mannequin? Such a splendid world, full of marvels and countless lives. Well not for long. MUHUHAHAHA! Anyways, nice base you built us, very nice. And the location! They say location is everything when living somewhere. Well, I think the Moon is prime real estate. Love what you did with the Door by the way. Find it ironic, only way into this gigantic complex kilometres wide is a small door that a human could fit through. Or a mannequin."
Just then, Bonesaw and Siberian entered, "Ah, my friends, somewhere in this complex we have an abnormally large sword. Could you dispose of it?"
"Sure! Mommy, let's go play hide-and-go-seek!" Note to self; kidnap Yamada at some point and have Bonesaw rehabilitated. But now, we needed another way to destroy the earth. A proper way this time.
"Mannequin, I think it's time we pay a visit to one of your old friends."
"Chevalier, your services are no longer required. Have a nice day."
"Wait what?"
"We have no use for you anymore. Goodbye."
"But... But... I was going to destroy the world. What am I now? Chopped liver?"
"No. That would be too messy to clean up."
I stared at Mannequin's broken body at my feet. Looks like his friend wasn't feeling that friendly.
"Come on Jack ole buddy. No hard feelings? I only stole your team... No, still mad? What if I can make it up to you? I'll let you destroy the world..."
"Fine... Just make it interesting..."
That was good, now to get back to base. That fun part! Say what you want about Squealer but she makes pretty good spaceships.
This was immensely awkward. Vista, Bonesaw, Siberian, Accord, Citrine, Jack and I were all staring up at the dome of Mannequin's habitat. Not a scratch. Mannequin had really made this place impenetrable...
Then the world exploded. Well, technically the sun which then obliterated the Earth and the moon but I doubt anyone alive really cares... My last thought before returning to the locker, was how did Bonesaw get that gigantic sword outside.
6.14 (BurnNote)
"So let me summarize, just to make sure I understand you correctly."
At this, Director Piggot collected herself for a moment.
"At 03:00 you engaged Lung and a group of ABB gang members, alone, without asking for backup, or even informing anyone. "
She waited for his confirmation, because she frankly couldn't believe a veteran like Armsmaster would commit such a blunder. But he simply nodded, as if fighting Lung wasn't a dangerous affair even with a whole team as backup.
"The, fight, rather predictably, escalated untill several of the nearby buildings were either rubble, on fire, or both."
She paused again, and this time Colin took the chance to add another inch of rope to hang himself with.
"Yes, I was testing the theory of fighting fire with fire. I must report that despite promising initial results, it has not proven effective."
She begged to differ; from the glow she could see through her window, it had proven rather too effective.
She took a deep breath, and pressed on.
"You and Lung reached a stalemate. At this point, a new cape appeared, and after one use of her power Lung retreated, screaming, and I quote your report 'like Dauntless after being awoken by a high voltage taser'."
"Yes, it was lucky he was available for verification."
Director Piggot wondered if the Simurgh was laughing at her somewhere. Or maybe she was loosing it. Hopefully it was simply an exceedingly powerful Master. She hadn't expect to ever think something like that. Not even the possibility of an elaborate prank was reassuring, if only because of the sheer scale. It would honestly be more worrying if a veteran hero lost it that badly without outside interference.
Well, she'd have to see this through to the bitter end.
"The power in question being the creation of bubbles. Soap bubbles."
"Yes, Ma'am"
At this point, she really wished for one of those stress balls. It wouldn't help, but it might stop her nails from digging into her pals quit so deeply.
"How? How would that work? Did she flood the street? Create bubbles in his lungs to choke him? Please explain this to me, your report was rather lacking. What kind of power are we talking here?"
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was making a note to see a dentist. All this grinding couldn't be good for her teeth.
"According to her, she has the power to create up to thirty soap bubbles, no larger than 12.6 cm and no smaller than 1.8 cm and who's divergence of the ration of volume to surface from a perfect sphere may be no greater than 30%. These bubbles can be created from the palm of either hand, at velocities no greater than 1 m/s, measured in her frame of reference of the hand in question. They last for up to 23.4 seconds, but no less than 1.3 seconds. They do not leave any traces of soap behind after popping, but spectrographic analyses of the data points towards a mixture of common brands, namely-"
"Is her statement true?"
"No."
She smiled. Finally, the reason she slogged through all this, the thread she could pull on to unravel this whole thing.
And then he continued, and she felt a tiny bit of herself die.
"Measurements during a demonstration afterwards showed no evidence of bubbles larger than 12.5053 cm, with an error of 0.00006, as-"
"Spare me. Aside from measurement errors", she ground out, "she did not lie or show any evidence of some other power?"
"No, Ma'am."
She initiated the Master/Stranger protocols. If only so that everyone else would share her misery.
Emily Piggot just couldn't believe it.
"She walked away? We brought her in for questioning, and you let her leave?"
Armsmaster shrugged, rather more nonchalantly than she thought was appropriate.
"She pointed out that she had school today. It would be against regulation to deny a ward his state mandated education"
She just couldn't deal with him right now. She thought that rather often when it came to Armsmaster, but this time it was more than just a phrase. Her mind simply refused.
Luckily, there was someone else to ask, someone who was almost certainly uncompromised.
"Dragon, how could this happen? At the very least, the locks should have stopped her."
"It seems they had a so far undiscovered weakness to soap bubbles. I don't believe I can fix it, it seems to be shared by most of my technology. Luckily, only the specific kind produced by Bubble Girls power seem to be able to exploit this."
Emily Piggot floated in a zen-like state of serenity, until her brain managed to restart.
'Tagg, that guy deserves a promotion', she thought, 'Let's arrange one for him.'
[Some time later]
They were storming the PRT base. Coil's men had taken over in surprise attack, but there where still some cells of resistance, and if they could reach the central computer to reactivate the automatic defenses, they would be able to hold and retake the base. Sneaking through the dark corridors was a tense and dangerous affair, turncoats stalking the hallways for their loyal brothers.
Well, it might have been, if they didn't have super powers. Hell, even so Taylor would be able to take all of them down without a sweat. But she had an idea for an actual productive use for her power. At the next intersection, she leaned against the wall and send some bubbles forwards to catch sight of the other hallway in the reflection, to check for enemies. She already knew they where there, but that was besides the point.
It didn't work, the red emergency light was simply too low. Of course, the thugs spotted the bubbles and opened fire. A second later, the firing stopped; and dull thumps confirmed that ricochet could be a real problem in tight quarters like this. Of course, given the rather suspicious placement of the bullet holes, it was probably Sam's fault.
"The door is locked! This looks like a job for Bubble Girl!", Clockblocker exclaimed from where he was studying the next door. A door to which he had the access codes.
[A great deal later:]
Taylor smiled. It had been a long loop, but she'd finally found a use of her power. The great Scion-killing laser canon was charging up, ready to unleash it's mighty blast on one of her bubbles, where it would create something that could only be described as a Laser Shotgun.
And then she woke up in the Locker.
6.15 (BurnNote)
"Dad, I need your help."
Danny was both surprised and concerned (and, in a dark corner of his mind, gratified). They'd drifted apart after, well, after Annette. To see her coming to him with a problem was rare.
"What can I do for you, Taylor?"
"I need to sue for custody for my children."
Daniel Hebert was many things, but he wasn't prepared for that. Taylor took the chance to explain further.
"See, Eidolon is a terrible mother. He just kicked them out. I kind of adopted Sammy, and her brothers sort of followed. They can be a bit unruly, but they're good kids at heart. Well, core. But Eidolon is letting them run rampant and they need a firm but loving hand to keep them on the right track. Unfortunately, the mother normally has the advantage in settlements and I don't even have a claim beyond an informal adoption. And we're going to need a very generous settlement to support all three of them."
He took a deep breath. He was fairly sure this was not a joke, at least not by Taylor. That just wasn't her style. It might be some form of Master, you never knew with capes. And it could even be true, capes being capes.
Either way, his daughter needed help, his help, and he really had nothing to offer.
Except, on one night drinking together, Alan had mentioned something, a reclusive legend in his field. It might be a bit of work, but from the story, he should be able to find him fairly quickly.
"I think I know what to do. We need the Lawyer. This is exactly what he does."
Her honest smile made feel like a real father for the first time in a long while.
"Hey David, this just arrived at the New York headquarters. They asked me to deliver it to you as fast as possible", Legend called out after steping through the portal.
"Hmm, some court documents, probably supposed to stand witness in some cape crime again..."
He froze, his brows knitted in thought.
"What's the matter?"
Hopefully it wasn't another class action suit by captured villains for excessive bullshit. Those were always tiring, especially since he agreed on most points. Eidolon was kind of a cheater.
"He's been served the papers for the custody dispute."
Legend really hated it when Contessa snuck up on him like that. It'd been even worse when she'd been younger and gone through a pranking phase[1], but she till took every oppertunity to freak him out like that.
Contessa walked past Legend to pat Eidolon on the back.
"Don't worry, I'll represent you. Unless you're a horrible human being who kicked out his children, you won't be found guilty."
"Wait, you said you'd represent him? How could he possibly loose?"
"We're dealing with the Lawyer here. My power only works if there is a possibility of success. Trying to find something that doesn't exist just gives me a headache. On that note, where's my medicine?"
[1] Especially bad, since they couldn't even really punish her, she always claimed it was part of the Path to Victory, ensuring mental health in a growing child or something.
Legend had found a reasonable explanation for the sight before him: The Sleeper had awoken, this this was all-
"No, the Sleeper is still where he should be. I checked."
Dragon's face appeared on the screen before him. She looked as bewildered as he felt. This was something of an accomplishment.
The courtroom they were in was large, the largest ever been built (Dragon had taken a moment to inform him of this, rather smugly[2]). This was necessary, given some of the participants. It wasn't actually the first time someone tried to sue the, well the other side,[3] but it was certainly the first time they were suing anyone else. The human-sized witness stand looked rather lonely, but the Lawyer had insisted. He claimed it was traditional.
Though he had to admit, the Simurgh getting hugged by a teenage civilian and then receiving a pat on the head would lighten his darkest hours for the rest of his life.
The judge banged the gravel. He'd been doing that every now and then for a while, but Scion just wasn't the smartest. Just getting him to wear the robe and wig was an effort. They wouldn't have bothered if the Lawyer hadn't insisted, again claiming tradition. Maybe it was necessary for whatever power he had.
[2] More so than appropriate given the situation. Though granted, there wasn't really anything appropriate about the whole thing.
[3]Though no one had been suicidal enough to try and serve the papers, as far as he knew. There wouldn't be much left of anyone who tried, anyway.
[Several dramatic acts of courtroom drama]
"Objection! While my client may have been used in committing the crimes he is accused of, he isn't the true murderer. No, that would be the one responsible for giving powers to humans, who's evil plan of genocide my client has been working against since before the day he got his powers."
There was gasp and murmuring in the courtroom[4], while Contessa dramatically pointed.
"I accuse the so called Greatest Hero, Scion, of murder."
[4] Another feature the Lawyer had insisted upon. Even if the trial was closed to the public[5], dramatic reactions from the crowd were apparently a must. Dragon, who had a secret love of drama, didn't mind too much.
[5] Officially, it was to protect the plaintiffs, put no one was sure what a bunch of Endbringers would need to be protected from, and anyone who willingly hung around them got what was coming for them.
[Later, in Los Angeles, Japan]
"I wish to be emancipated."
The Lawyer looked up at the enormous metal dragon squeezed into his office.
Well, after the last case, something nice and simple to fill his time would be just the thing,
"Do you have any suspects for the murderer?"
A/N: And I'm finally done compiling all of the loops that have been posted so far. If you didn't see the youtube link on the previous page, go back now, because I've updated it.