Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower 1.2
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Taylor searched within herself, Searched for the smallest "spark" of power she could find. She could feel them. Hundreds of tiny sparks, embodying the energy she could bring out.
A pause, as she found what she was looking for.
With a smidgen of mental effort, Taylor brought up the spark, and focused it into her hands.
Shaping the spark into the form she wanted, she unleashed it as a concussive blast at the wall in front of her.
It exploded. Violently.
"... Dammit, that was the smallest spark I've ever found, and it would still absolutely murder anyone with normal human durability." Taylor groaned mentally. Muttering to herself in something approaching despair, she leaned against an alley wall in the docks. It had been three months since she had gotten her powers, and she was still unable to get her primary ability working at a level that wouldn't instantly kill ninety percent or so of what she might feasibly come up against in Brockton Bay.
"And even if I did find a spark within a reasonable power range, with how long its taking me to find them, it's all but useless!" She thought with disgust. "I might have to accept that my power just doesn't have a low setting on it.
Letting out a sigh, Taylor sat on a nearby bench and mused on the nature of her powers.
It appeared as if she had two "major" powers. An energy projection one, and a physically enhanced body.
Her energy projection took the form of a large number of tiny "sparks" within her body. When she mentally pulled at one of the sparks it gathered into her hands and sat there, waiting for further commands. From that point she had a few different things she could do with it.
She had a limited ability to shape the charge of energy before unleashing it. Forcing it out as either a wave of concussive force, or a vaporising laser. Attempts had been made to split the charge, dissipate a portion of the charge, or pull out only a portion of the charge, all in an attempt to reduce the force of the resulting blast. And all had ended in failure.
She also had the option to either return the spark to her body, or draw up additional sparks and combine them for a larger charge.
Assuming a strictly linear scale, she could probably level a larger than average apartment complex if she used the power of every spark she could conjure behind one of her blasts.
Probably.
Firepower which had a potential upper level that could bust a city block was not exactly the easiest thing to test in the world. Especially when one wanted to remain fairly unknown for now.
Sparks consumed rapidly regenerated. It should take approximately (assuming regeneration rates didn't improve or weaken as she had less sparks) a half minute to go from empty to full.
Range limitations were mostly unknown, she was having difficulty figuring out ways to test it without grabbing attention. A giant red laser shooting through the sky was going to get, at the very least, the Protectorate and all the major gangs on her tail. At the minimum, it extended several dozen feet.
Brief experiments were made in the area of non-lethal uses for her power. Such things as vaporising the earth beneath their feat, which she had no where near the control necessary to do. And a few other, similarly failed attempts.
All attempts to cheat the limit on the amount of sparks she could use had failed. Sparks just flat out didn't regenerate unless they were used up.
In conclusion, her energy projection was useless unless she was fighting something extremely durable, or was willing to commit murder.
Her enhanced physical abilities were more useful for the purposes of fighting weaker opponents, she could probably take on a decent number of normal humans without trouble, but she was not so enhanced that she could fight most parahumans in hand to hand and come out on top. Being limited to four or so times the human maximum in strength, and a nondeterminate amount more durable.
There were limits to how far she would go to test that.
In short, probably capable of taking down a large number of the average thug, but most parahumans had something to make them a larger threat then her moderately enhanced strength could deal with. And her research had led her to believe not a whole lot of parahumans had the durability to take her energy projection at any level. Leaving her useless against them unless she was willing to smear them across the sidewalk.
Shifting to a more comfortable position, Taylor contemplated what to do with her powers.
She could always go to the protectorate. There were probably numerous heroes with similar lethality problems, and so they would have experience dealing with powers like hers and would almost certainly be able to figure out someway to make use of her abilities in a useful fashion. But, that would mean the wards, and she was quite done with teenage drama thank you very much.
Plus, she would certainly have to tell her father. After losing mom, she didn't really want to tell him "hey, I'm gonna go off and fight super powered humans who may, or may not be completely murderous! Bye." She didn't imagine he would take it very well.
Doing nothing wasn't even an option for her, she had entirely to much experience with people in power who refused to use it. And she would not sink to the level of her teachers.
Taylor looked at her watch, realizing how late it was. "That's enough for today, I need to get home before Dad worries."
Pulling herself off the bench, Taylor began to walk home.
And then she heard footsteps. Lot's of them.
Her breath hitched "That many at this time of night? It has to be one of the gangs." Dashing and almost tripping in her hast, Taylor vanished into the darkness of a nearby alleyway.
Dozens of feet, pounding the ground echoed toward her, as the light brightened until she saw him.
A man. A very tall man covered in tattoos, an ornate metal mask covering most of his face, and streamers of fire which ran up and down his bared arms, providing the orange illumination she had seen earlier.
She knew this man.
Lung. The leader of the Asian gang called the Azn Bad Boys. A terrifyingly powerful villain entirely capable of taking on entire teams of heroes, and winning.
Taylor shivered a little bit at the sight of one of the most powerful capes in the world.
Looking back at the assorted gang members, he began to speak.
It took Taylor a little while to parse through his accent and figure out what he was saying, so she missed a few of his initial words, but what she did hear, was unsettling.
"...tierly too good at it. We hit them hard, and we hit them fast. Before the kids have a chance to get away again. So remember, shoot. Doesn't matter your aim, the distraction is more important then your actual effectiveness." Lung let out a brief snort, blowing fire from his nostrils before continuing. "But, anyone who manages to kill one of them gets an extra cut of the loot next time."
A great cheer arose from the crowd, eager smirks conveying an intent to commit murder most foul.
"They're... going to kill children?" Taylor thought with horror.
For a short moment, Taylor contemplated just hiding in the alley way, and letting them pass by. It would be easy. The light generated by their leader prevented them from seeing outside its radius into the darkness. There was little to no chance of them noticing her. It wasn't like she could take Lung anyway, he had fought off the entire BB protectorate upon first coming here. Her powers were strong, but not so much so that she could fight off Lung alone. She didn't even have a costume, her identity protected by a scarf, and a pair of orange goggles she had been inexplicably drawn too.
And yet, images flashed through her head. Of teachers, and fellow students ignoring her. Letting Emma bully her for years. Letting her get put in that locker. And she knew, if she ignored this, she would never be able to look in a mirror again.
With a resigned heart, Taylor walked out in front of 27 murderous gang members, led by a man who had stared into the face of an endbringer and come out on top, and spoke with considerably more confidence then she actually felt.
"Stop right there!"