Veer

Coil!Taylor

1.1

It still made me smile.

The sheer difference having my power made was amazing, I could do Anything.

There were no consequences that could touch me from my indulgences, and that was just the start.

The path not taken no longer held any weight, because I could walk them both, measure up the differences, and declare one of them real.

From the simple things like what flavor ice cream I wanted, to getting a better look at the Cape fight that tore down entire buildings when the Shadow Spawn fought Lung of all people.

Absolute nutcases, but great people, shame that timeline had been too dicey to let roll.

Maybe I can see about running into them again some day soon, getting rid of Shadow Stalker should give me an in with Grue after all.

I shrugged and stepped off the bus, slipping into an alley to pull my Cape clothes from my rucksack.

Cloak swirling with a classic drama mask covering my face, as I walked up the hill to the entrance to the Palanquin.

Slipping past the line, the door, and silencing the doorman that was about to raise an objection to my garb and apparent age with the flash of a card bearing Faultline's mark.

I made my way past the crowd inside, drawing some attention, but not too much, I was a semi-frequent sight after all.

I needed to hand the card off to the bouncer at the bottom of the stairwell to the upper floor before I could pass him, but it didn't take long for him to confirm that it was genuine.

At the top of the stairs, I nodded a greeting to Newter, who was, as usual, sprawled on the sofa with a girl on each arm, both of them too blitzed to care who had walked up, or what Newter and I said. "Veer, my friend you here to see the boss lady? Or maybe.. ?" He waggled his eyebrows mostly jokingly, as I had never, at least to his memory taken him up on trying the drug his powers let him create.

They were, to be honest, absolutely amazing, but nothing about them meant I needed to keep that timeline going once they ran their course, so I never did.

"Here on business I'm afraid, Faultline wanted some help on trying to break her limit."

"She really does focus on that." Was his slightly aspirated response.

"She's a driven woman" I shrugged and made my way into the hallway at the back of the balcony.

I waved to Emily who was keeping watch over a small, almost comatose blonde inside the door to the right.

You wouldn't have guessed it, but the girl in the fugue state was one of the most powerful Shakers on the planet. When she got going, it was an amazing site to see.

Faultline had hired me once to see just what her limits were. One of the more high paying jobs I've ever taken, 90 hours of letting her spread her power over the entire club and street, and she could have made Lovecraft cry.

I opened the door at the end of the hallway, revealing Faultline herself sitting behind a solid oak desk that had her mask and a dozen over things laying on it. It gave the impression of disorganization, but she was anything but.

Her subordinate, Gregor the Snail, a monstrous cape 53 stood against the wall to the right. He was bald and had several scabs-like scales on his very pale skin, honestly looking like a monster. he wasn't sensitive over it but it had caused him to be rather withdrawn.

"Hello Veer." Faultline greeted me, with Gregor nodding his greeting, as I said, withdrawn.

"Hiya Faultline, how have things been?" She usually didn't say much if my power was active, or if she thought it was since she knew I would remember this and not her.

"As well as can be expected, no serious injuries on the last contract, I take it your power is running?"

Straight to that question, I would be offended if this wasn't simply how she is.

"Yep, welcome to what if land." I was mostly joking, but it was an easy way to reinforce what I had told her my powers were.

As far as Faultline knew, I had the power to simulate alternate timelines, to see the deviations from reality in the form of 'what-ifs'. Close to the truth, but different enough that her risk assessment of me was far lower than it would have been.

For example, she probably wouldn't have asked me to perform this job for her if she knew I had the choice of these events she had asked me here for becoming reality.

"So, ready to die?" I asked her with a smirk when she made no move to respond to me.

Gregor sighed. "Blunt, Veer, very blunt"

"No reason to sugar coat it, and its not like you will remember any of this anyway."

Faultline cut in "You are always blunt Veer, I seem to recall your report on Elle for instance…"

"One time! You say something one time and no-one ever lets you forget!" It was only one time, I swear.

Faultline grinned slightly, before looking to Gregor then handing a stopwatch to me and nodding. "Ready then, Gregor? Veer?" I took the stopwatch, checked it was set to zero and nodded.

"Second Trigger Test, Faultline, Strangulation, Set!" It earned me a glare, but it was worth it, and its not like she will know next time I speak to her.

Gregor wrapped one of his arms around her neck in a hold as she gripped the edge of her desk, waited for me to click the stopwatch, and then tightened his grip.

I watched as Faultline's arms came up, hitting his discolored skin, trying to dislodge what I knew to be abnormally strong limbs from her throat.

Her face flushed, gasping for air as her larynx was compressed, her struggles having little effect on the monstrous Cape.

Gregor could shrug off impacts from a car, and his leaders powers gave her nothing in terms of physical boosts.

Gregor increased the force, and I could almost hear her neck creaking.

She started to go limp, face tinged blue and I saw Gregor hesitate. "Harder, this is her last chance to do it." He closed his eyes as his arms tightened slowly, the last panicked struggles of her arms cutting through his clothes in flashes of red and blue, but leaving his skin unharmed.

Crack

Faultlines head slumped forward, her struggles ceasing suddenly.

Gregor let go immediately, turning her chair to look into her face, eyes wide and red, skin blue hued.

"F-Faultline?" I think that was the most emotion I had ever heard from the man.

I was pretty shaken up myself, I may have done some stuff in timelines I have dropped, but… it had never been to someone I had cared about, never to someone… someone I would have called a friend.

"Fo… forty se-seven seconds, Manton limit unbroken." I stuttered out, leaning heavily on the desk, looking away from her too still body.

Gregor looked at me, and I chose.

I was in my bed, breathing heavily. Shaking my head I pulled open my middle draw and turned on the mobile phone within, chewing on a fingernail as I waited for it to turn on.

That had shaken me more than I thought it would, but it wasn't real, not anymore.

Pushing the thoughts from my head I sent off a text to the number given to me by Faultline confirming that the job was done, and that I would be by tomorrow morning to give her a report.

The reply from her a few minutes later, consisting of a standard 'Good, see you then', set me at ease more than it should have but it helped me sleep knowing that she was still there that she hadn't…

It helped me sleep.

And there is the start of Coil!Taylor.

To explain the name, Veer sounds a bit like Seer, and it fits with both her actual powers, and the ones she is pretending to have.

Not sure I'm happy with how her mindset came out, it was hard to get it how I had pictured.

There was a lot of tone-shift as well, which I think would be lessened in an actual fic, since there would be more of the start, and the end would have more impact in contrast.