Taylor let out a trembling sigh as she put on her costume while trying to psych herself up for her first night out as a cape.
Getting powers had been a surprising but gratifying consolation for what she'd endured in the locker. Though she still had a hard time thinking that it had been worth the nightmarish experience, no matter how cool her new powers were.
She hadn't been sure what was happening to her, at first. When she woke up in the hospital she saw things she couldn't really explain well beyond describing it somewhat as seeing colors emanating from the things around her. It had taken her a week to learn to parse through all the new sensory input, enough that she'd been kept in the hospital after she'd recovered due to fears the trauma'd had long term consequences.
Once she'd gotten out of the hospital she'd begun to experiment, wondering if seeing eldritch lights was the only thing she could do. After some trial and error while home alone she'd discovered she could take the colors into herself, an action she'd begun to call 'cultivating', even though she didn't figure out what that meant for her at the time, especially as she hadn't yet understood what the colors meant.
It took her more time than she liked to admit to realize that the aura of colors she could cultivate corresponded with 'concepts' more than anything else. The ground she walked on had the Earth concept, with different substances providing different amounts, such as stone providing more than loose dirt. Worked on or processed substances like concrete or asphalt gave little to nothing by comparison.
Turning on the tap produced the Water concept along with the substance itself. When it got windy she'd see Wind aura floating more substantially through the air than when it was still, which is what made her associate the concept with Wind rather than just Air. When she'd lit a match the colors that emanated from the flame were obviously Fire, and pretty much every electrical appliance produced Electricity, though she'd been tempted to label it Lightning, for poetic license more than anything else.
She had found that more natural sources of concepts produced more of the energy she could take in. The waters of the bay were practically bursting with Water aura, compared to the piddling amount that came from the tap. A small fire some partying teens up on Captain's Hill had set had emanated so much Fire aura compared to the match she'd lit there was no real comparison. And a lightning storm that had passed through once the weather had started to warm up let her cultivate so much Electricity that she didn't think she'd need any more any time soon.
Other things also produced aura. When the sun was out and bright she saw Light aura anywhere it was particularly intense. Depending on what they were made of, certain tools and the like produced Steel. Out of curiosity she'd gone into a specialty shop downtown that sold decorative melee weapons and such for people like the LARPing crowd, expecting to get Steel from the trip, only to realize that the concept she got was different, mostly from the edged weapons. She'd labeled that aura Sword, and that had been what had made her realize that the auras she was seeing matched 'concepts' rather than 'elements' as she'd previously thought. Another one that reinforced that she was seeing and gathering 'conceptual' energy rather than 'elemental' was when there was a late winter freeze in Brockton Bay, leaving a layer of frost and ice on everything. She'd realized upon stepping outside that rather than Water, she was gathering Ice aura, even though her rational mind said ice was just water in a different form. Same when it got very cloudy, as she'd seen 'Cloud' aura up above, though it had been difficult to gather any real amount due to the distance from the source.
Her dad had helped her determine two other types of aura she could harvest. When she'd passed by him once when he'd fallen asleep in the living room watching the news, she'd noticed aura emanating from around his head, the first time she'd seen it produced by a person. She'd been hesitant to gather any, in case it hurt him, but in the end she'd taken a small amount as a test, realizing as she did that this was Dream aura. She wasn't entirely certain what Dream aura would be good for, but after carefully observing her dad and determining that her harvesting the Dream aura hadn't done anything bad to him she'd begun to harvest it any chance she had, few and far in between as those opportunities were.
The other had come when he'd cut himself while chopping vegetables. It hadn't been a bad cut, but he had bled a bit, which he'd used a paper towel to clean up before putting a bandaid on. As he'd done that Taylor had been very surprised to find that the paper towel let off a few meager wisps of Blood aura, which she'd quickly gathered before throwing it away. This one she wasn't too sure of the use for either, but at this point she was gathering anything she could in case it turned out to be worth something in the future.
Surprisingly, one of the types of aura she'd learned about last (at least so far) was Shadow. One would think that it wouldn't be difficult to find shadows even in an era of electric lights, but apparently darkness had to be deep to produce Shadow aura. She'd only realized she could gather Shadow when she'd gone down into the basement to grab something and noticed the aura was there before she'd turned on the light. Now she went down there for at least thirty minutes every day she could in order to gather some, as it was some of the easiest to cultivate once she knew where to find it.
The latest one she'd learned of was, somewhat surprisingly, Life. Due to Triggering during winter there hadn't been much plantlife, but the winter had been relatively short, and before too long plants had begun to grow back. Taylor had gone to a park to do some cultivating when she'd stopped by a small bed of flowers beginning to bloom, which she'd been caught off guard to find produced a new type of aura. She'd hemmed and hawed for a while, trying to determine exactly what type it was, but in the end something in her gut told her to go with Life rather than something like Plant or Wood. She wasn't entirely sure why, but as she'd spent a long time pondering on the nature of 'concepts', after some thinking she figured that blooming flowers represented the concept of 'life' flourishing rather than something more relatively simple like 'wood'.
As for figuring out what the aura she was cultivating could be used for, it took her about a month to do so, but once she did she became very excited.
Essentially, she could use aura in various ways depending on what she directed it to. Focusing the aura into her body enhanced her physical abilities substantially, with different types of aura providing different boosts. Using Water made her more graceful and flexible, while Electricity increased her speed, dexterity, processing power and reflexes. Earth made her more durable, as expected, and Fire directly increased sheer attack power, along with increasing her body temperature. Blood had made her heal more quickly (which hadn't exactly been fun to test), and Steel gave a much greater increase to durability than Earth did, but with the downside of lowering her movement speed dramatically. Ice lowered her body temperature, but she hadn't noticed any other effects, Shadow made her more stealthy, from what she could tell, and Light let her see in the dark along with in spectrums beyond visible light, which could situationally be very useful. She hadn't noticed any effects with Cloud, Sword or Life, but she was sure there had to be something going on.
Dream aura was probably the most immediately useful while she was preparing for her debut, and would definitely be important afterwards, as rather than enhance her body it enhanced her mind. Memory, deduction, insight, creativity, problem solving… Every mental aspect was enhanced rather significantly. She'd actually begun using it to study fighting styles she watched online or on TV in order to develop her own. She spent an hour a day at least just watching Youtube videos of martial arts masters while empowering herself with Dream aura, and so far she thought she was coming up with a solid style of her own to use when she became a hero. Of special help was those times she went to local dojos to watch people practice during advanced lessons, though she was very careful with that, not wanting to really be noticed.
She still didn't know why Dream was the aura that affected her mind like that. Perhaps because it was born of other people's minds?
The only issue with enhancing her mind with Dream aura was she could only do it for short periods of time. More than an hour and a half of consistent use and she'd develop a splitting migraine. Compounding the limited usage time was the simple fact that she didn't have much Dream aura due to lack of opportunities to cultivate it. She'd need to be around multiple people sleeping to get a proper amount.
Despite all of those benefits, however, her favorite aura to use to enhance her body was by far Wind, as it provided flight. When she'd figured that out she'd spent an hour just zooming around the abandoned warehouse near the dockworkers' 'territory' that she'd been using to practice, laughing happily. She'd promptly begun cultivating as much Wind aura as she possibly could any time she had the opportunity. She never wanted to not be able to fly if she wanted to, for more than just practical reasons.
Enhancing her body was just one of the ways she could use the cultivated aura, however.
Another was using it for direct effects, making her essentially a Striker or Blaster, depending. She could launch balls of Fire or spears of Ice, gusts of Wind and bolts of Electricity. She could manipulate the Earth underneath her, and envelop an area in concealing Shadow. She thought that she could use Dream aura to manipulate other people's senses, though she had no way to test that, at least none that wouldn't out her. And she hoped that Life aura might allow her to heal others, though that was another she couldn't exactly test easily. She'd still started cultivating as much Life aura as possible, though, just in case she was right.
With Sword she could create and launch blades of Sword aura, though it worked best if she had something to channel the attack. She'd taken to using an old, somewhat rusted crowbar for that, but she wondered how much more effective it would be if she had a proper sword to use. Both Earth and Steel could be used to make barriers, with Steel being tougher while Earth was more malleable, as shown when she'd created an Earth wall and promptly made it erupt with stone spikes, a trick she'd thought of from an old comic of her dad's she'd seen once. Cloud let her make what was essentially a dense fogbank anywhere she wanted, and Light produced flashes of, well, light, which she imagined could be useful in multiple situations.
She also found she could combine some auras for different effects, though they took up more power and concentration than using one alone did, and she'd only figured out a few combinations so far. Light and Dream let her craft illusions, while Fire and Earth made a small stream of magma she imagined she would be able to form into an actual torrent if she pumped more power into it. She'd made an electrified whip out of Water and Electricity, and Sword allowed her to craft an elemental blade with pretty much any other aura she used, as proven when she made a blade of Ice that froze anything it cut.
Another way of implementing aura that she'd found was infusing it into an item, which was how she was crafting her costume. From what she could tell it was similar to how Dauntless' powers worked, though she hadn't yet figured out a way to make the infusions completely permanent like his were rather than lasting a day or two.
Essentially, she could push aura into an item, and depending on the type she used the item would develop different properties or abilities. For her costume she'd found an old long coat that reached a bit below her knees, which she had infused with Shadow, turning it a smoky black that didn't seem entirely substantial. Her upper body was covered in a tight, long sleeved turtleneck currently infused with Fire, to keep her warm, which turned it red with hints of orange. Her legs were clad in cargo pants, which she'd chosen more due to utility than looks. These were infused with Cloud, which turned them a light gray and had the effect of making mist seem to cling to her legs. Cloud in clothing, she'd found, helped her move in an almost floaty manner, something she'd had to practice quite a bit to get a hold on.
Nobody said she had a good fashion sense.
Her shoes were sturdy steel toed work boots she'd found in a thrift store alongside most of the rest of her costume, and these she'd infused with Earth. It turned them a dark shade of brown rather than the tan they'd been, and made them a bit heavier, but also quite a bit sturdier.
Last, but certainly not least, her mask. She'd found rather a basic, almost featureless full face mask related to some Aleph anime about a blonde kid in an orange jumpsuit, and got the lenses from an old pair of her glasses to very carefully glue over the eyeholes. After doing a bit more, admittedly amateurish, work to make it look halfway presentable, she'd then infused Dream into it, allowing it to project an illusion that would change as she wanted, making her seem expressive despite the mask after she'd practiced enough that changing the image was almost subconscious. The default appearance of the mask was that of an attractive woman that looked very little like Taylor (though the adjective 'attractive' kind of implied that, her mind snarked at her), though it could really change to anything Taylor wanted. She had several other predetermined images she'd chosen for use.
That mask was the last thing she was putting on now, on her first night out as a cape. The rest of her costume was already on her, but it felt like finishing the ensemble with the mask was some sort of momentous occasion, something life changing. She gazed at the currently blank surface of the mask, staring at it for a moment, psyching herself up, before letting out a final breath and putting it on, infusing the Dream aura as she did.
The mask was very well made, as it didn't inhibit her vision much, thankfully. That had been one of her criteria when she chose it. She still looked around, confirming, before looking in a nearby full length mirror that she'd found dumped in someone's trash due to a long crack along its surface. Overall the effect was what she'd hoped for, the various infusions working fine, including her mask, showing her the serene visage of a pretty woman that looked to be made out of various types of ink.
Taylor studied herself for a bit longer, making sure everything was in its place, but she knew she was stalling. Eventually she pulled herself away and, after another deep breath, moved out of the basement of the abandoned house a few blocks from her home which she'd made into her base. Looking around to make sure that she wasn't being watched she then infused her body with Wind and shot up into the air, a smile involuntarily forming on her face as she flew.
This being the first time she'd flown out in the open she took a minute to just admire the view before she turned towards her target for the night, an area in ABB territory near the docks that was pretty much the definition of crime ridden. She made sure to fly relatively slowly and look downwards in search of anything that might require her intervention.
It was as she was approaching the area she'd decided to patrol that she first heard the explosions. Stopping in place she looked around, trying to pinpoint the source, before seeing the flash of another burst a couple of blocks from her location. Flying slowly and keeping her eyes on whatever was going on she came to a hover over what she could see was a cape battle in progress.
Oni Lee was in the middle of harassing what appeared to be a group of teens and three big monster dogs in a neglected little park. She didn't recognize the teens, and chided herself for not researching the various capes of the Bay more thoroughly, but if Oni Lee was attacking them then she knew which side she was on. The ABB had been probably the biggest source of trouble for her dad and the dockworkers out of the gangs of the Bay, with the Merchants in close second. The Empire mostly stayed out of the docks, but they were Nazis, so she held almost equal loathing for them just on that basis alone.
Observing for another moment, trying to gather herself for the upcoming fight, her first cape fight, she saw that the blonde girl in purple had looked up, apparently catching sight of her. Her eyes had widened as she stared for a moment, but that was a moment too long, as Oni Lee appeared next to her, swinging one of his knives at her throat.
Taylor reacted instantly, launching her fastest attack, a bolt of Electricity, down at the teleporter. Her aim was slightly off, though thankfully not enough to hit the girl, and the bolt hit the blade in Lee's hand, the man jerking and dropping it before turning to ash.
Slightly shaken at the close call that could have been partly her fault Taylor forcefully pushed that aside and flew down to the teens, who had regrouped and were alternating between looking up at her and keeping an eye out for another Lee attack. She landed next to the blonde girl while taking in the rest of the group, which consisted of a renaissance fair escapee, a large boy in biker leathers and helmet, and a stocky girl in a dime store dog mask, who had the three monsters keeping close.
"Are you alright?" Taylor asked the blonde, who gave her a somewhat shaky, if rather vulpine, grin.
"Fine, thanks to you. That was a pretty close call. Stupid of me to take my eyes off Lee." She gave Taylor a once over, making her have to push down the urge to fidget. "Let me guess, first night out?"
Taylor startled. "How did…?"
The girl waved it off. "Not important right now. Anyway, I'm Tattletale, the big guy is Grue, the skinny one is Regent, and Bitch is there with the dogs, Brutus, Angelica and Judas."
"Did he run away?" Grue asked after a brief nod of greeting to Taylor, an odd smoke that looked similar to her Shadow emanating from him and beginning to surround them before pulling back. It took Taylor a moment to realize why he wasn't letting it loose. While it would hinder Lee's visibility, it would do the same to them, and in this situation that was a death sentence.
"The zap shook him. He's pulled back to recover, but he'll be back soon." Tattletale said confidently as she quickly reloaded the pistol Taylor had just noticed in her hand.
"What's the situation?" Taylor asked as she began looking around, changing the aura infusing her body from Wind to Electricity, so she'd be able to react faster to any attack.
Tattletale eyed Taylor for a moment, apparently deciding on what to tell her, before speaking. "We hit the Ruby Dreams Casino, and the ABB didn't like that."
Taylor eyed them. "Villains?"
Tattletale raised a hand, apparently to ward off any negative reaction. "Small time. Robberies, and mostly on other villains. See Ruby Dreams."
Taylor considered that. "Keep it that way and we won't have any issues." She decided.
"No problem. I don't want to piss off someone with your capabilities." The blonde said in a conciliatory fashion.
Taylor furrowed her brow, wondering exactly what Tattletale was referring to, but before she could ask Regent spoke up. "Hey new girl, got a name?"
Taylor had to stop the automatic impulse to give her actual name. "Not yet." She said.
"First time out, remember?" Tattletale said before turning back to Taylor. "You might want to think of something soon. Wouldn't want to wind up like Chubster." Her tone implied that was a legitimate concern.
Before Taylor could respond Lee appeared next to her, pulling the pin in a grenade. The Electricity she'd infused herself with let her react instantly, launching a blast of Wind with a palm thrust that threw Lee off his feet and into a wall, making him crumble to ash without exploding. "We need to stop him teleporting all over the place. You guys have any idea how his power works?"
Tattletale opened her mouth to respond, but Lee appeared again, this time aiming to stab Regent. The slim teen used the scepter he was carrying to perform a decent parry, and one of the monster dogs pounced on the teleporter, who promptly burst into ash. Another Lee appeared before that one had even begun to come apart, pulling a grenade, and the group was forced to scatter so they wouldn't be blown up.
"Line of sight!" Tattletale called from where she'd thrown herself to get away from the explosion. "He needs to be able to see the place he's teleporting to!"
"Got it!" Taylor responded as she stepped out from beside the small tree she'd ended up pressed against due to the force of the grenade's burst. She was only thankful he was using pure explosive grenades rather than fragmentation grenades, otherwise none of them would have been able to get beyond the minimum safe distance. She could see that some of the teenage villains hadn't emerged completely unscathed anyway.
Her adrenaline pumping and keeping her from having a physical reaction to all the shock of the situation just yet, Taylor set herself and began preparing the one-two punch she had in mind. Her Electricity enhanced reflexes spotted Lee when he appeared next to her as she'd hoped, and she immediately raised her hand and let loose an intense burst of Light in his face before he could react, hoping she'd caught the original and not a clone.
Luck was on her side tonight, as he staggered back clumsily without grabbing a weapon, his eyesight overwhelmed. She didn't give him time to recover and quickly wrapped his entire head in a ball of Shadow, centering it on him so he couldn't simply move out of it.
Lee had drawn a couple of his huge knives and begun to swing them blindly, obviously trying to keep them away. Taylor used her Electricity granted speed and dexterity to get inside his fumbling guard, slamming a fist into his solar plexus and driving the air from his lungs before forcing his hands to release the weapons with a quick application of Electricity to make them spasm open involuntarily. Then she pulled a couple of zip ties out of her cargo pants. "A little help!?"
Grue rushed over and helped her wrestle Lee down and bind his wrists and ankles, his size and obvious training helping immensely. Before long they had Lee face down on the ground, helpless and immobile, a strip of cloth over his eyes keeping him from teleporting, letting Taylor release the Shadow she'd had on him.
The others approached. "Nice job." Tattletale chirped, a vulpine grin on her face. "You're pretty damn versatile, aren't you?"
"Not so tough now, are ya?" Regent said, poking the ABB cape with his scepter, prompting Grue to slap him upside the head in a practiced motion that seemed almost reflexive.
"We should probably call the PRT to come pick him up." Taylor said, abruptly realizing she didn't have any way to do that. Crap, she was going to have to get a cell phone, wasn't she?
Before anyone could say anything the three dogs started growling in the direction of the street, prompting the teens to turn in time to see dozens of ABB gangers approaching, many with guns aimed in their direction.
"Damn, I was really hoping we'd have enough time to run." Tattletale cursed.
Taylor saw a large, shirtless man approaching with his men, the metal dragon mask and the tattoos covering his body letting them know who this was.
Lung had arrived.
Hello hello. Welcome to the first of my new collection of AltPower!Taylor ideas.
I was sort of inspired to do this thanks to Seerking's Asylum, as I have a notepad document full of power ideas that I don't currently have ideas for full fics for. I figured a place to put them all out in would be good, both to get them out of my head and to offer them out to anyone interested.
If anyone would like to make a fic of their own based on any or my ideas, all I ask is that you PM me and credit me for the initial inspiration.
Now, as for this idea, Cultivator!Taylor came to mind while I've been going through the Cradle series by Will Wight on audiobook during work. I've been aware of the xianxia genre for a while, but Cradle has been my first real exposure to it, and I'm quite enjoying it. I highly recommend it for those of you that want a new fantasy series to read.
Of course, I have made some changes to how powers work from the general genre. Taylor isn't limited in what auras she cultivates, letting her have a wide array of options. This is mainly because there aren't other Cultivators on Earth Bet, so there's no point in limiting her that way and thus wasting the ability to show up what the other auras can do. While this is inspired by xianxia, it doesn't have to follow those rules.
I can't think of anything else to say at the moment regarding this. I am going to post another chapter of this specific idea to deal with the fight with Lung before I post another. I might come back to it after that, we'll see.
In any case, with that all said, it's time for my usual reminders.
As I've stated previously, my best friend and their roommate have a podcast. Yes, I know, everybody and their mother has a podcast these days, but I beg you to hear me out. It's called 'Two Idiots and a Dog', and they talk about pop culture in general with different shows for different topics. So far they've done 'Idiots on Film', talking about classic or important movies, and another one called 'Idiots Unleashed', where they just take a topic their Discord members vote on and talk/argue/rant about it without a filter. Their latest episode was on The Game Awards. This was recorded before the show itself, so they don't discuss what a shitshow it was, and focus on the nominees and some related topics. It was interesting. So that's 'Two Idiots and a Dog' on all your favorite podcatchers.
Secondly, I am, as always, truly grateful for those of you who are willing to send a buck or two my way out of the kindness of your heart. I relied on all of you when I wasn't working, and it definitely still helps even now that I'm gainfully employed. Thanks to you I have more of a cushion to get things I still need or pay essential bills. Like Final Fantasy XIV. (Speaking of, Ryuma Hyurinmaru on the Coeurl Server, Crystal Datacenter, North America, Astral Prime FC)
I used to have a poll on what to update there to incentivize donations, but I recently realized that part of the reason I have trouble motivating myself to write is that I've been letting others dictate what I write, so that's no longer a thing. I apologize, but as of now, I don't have anything to really reward patrons with other than my gratitude.
If you'd like to send a few cents my way anyway, I'm at Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis. However, if you'd rather donate a one-off amount rather than a monthly sub, I also have a Ko-Fi. That's ko-fi dotcom /athanmortis78653 .
Thank you all for reading, and I hope everyone had a Happy New Year. Till next time!