Current Energy: 19
Current Training: Dragon Warrior (5/10) Cost 5 to Complete
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
Hebert Household, Brockton Bay
You spend a few hours with your Master, dragging out her life story. It's unpleasant, and painful for her, and leaves her emanating a constant sense of loss and simmering anger that you wish you could simply snap your fingers and make go away. Every word is like pulling teeth, and she somehow seems to find the entire ordeal somehow more distressing than being violently assaulted by an axe murderer for hours on end.
By the end, you can tell she is nearly glad to be preparing for her first official patrol, despite the innate awkwardness of meeting her prospective teammate.
You can tell she's annoyed with you because she doesn't bother talking to you much when she sets to begin packing things. You try to help a few times, suggesting things she could bring that might help, but even you have to admit that your current isn't very well suited to the activity. In your Emulations memories, there is very little investigating to be had. Most of the time, bad guys from this Emulations world just sort of... announced themselves. Usually quite brazenly. You think it might be a Kung Fu thing, but you can't be quite sure.
Regardless, your Master ends up packing a number of things that you hadn't thought of. A flashlight, some bottles of water, a notepad, and some white plastic straps, along with a small wad of cash.
You point to that last part as she stuffs it into her ratty brown backpack.
"Whadda we need cash for? Oh! Are we gonna pay of an informant or something? Ooooh, this is so cool!" You partway squeal which is an interesting sound when it is coming from a Panda.
"I need a cellphone," Taylor answers you through grit teeth, as though enduring some great internal strife.
"Makes sense. Oh! If we have any leftovers can we get something to eat?" You ask clapping your hands together.
"I-" Taylor tries to start speaking but you sort of talk over her as your excitement ramps up.
"Oh! Snacks! Hang on, wait right there!" You say, rushing down to the kitchen to quickly whip up some celery snacks.
'Are you going to be like this the entire time your this guy?' Taylor sends to you from upstairs with a touch of exasperation.
'Are you still mad at me?' You ask knowingly.
'...No.' She admits, seemingly slightly annoyed by that fact.
'Then totally!" You say, transitioning to physical speech as you return with your snacks carefully sealed in a little plastic bag.
"You're just so high energy." Taylor sighs in exasperation, although you can feel a wave of fondness roll off her at the notion.
"Alright, the Terrible Two ride out!" You declare, then frown in thought.
"Hmm. No that ones not right. The Deadly Pair! No, too evil sounding. Hang on I just-" You begin to mumble, scrambling for an appropriate name. You wish Taylor would hurry up and recruit three other people. Then you could just recreate the Furious Five.
And also start on a new slew of action figures. Seriously, Taylor needs some butt-kicking friends or she's going to go stir crazy. You know she occasionally talks to Victoria, but she seems hesitant to go out of her way to see the girl for anything resembling 'fun'. Greg's much the same. You couldn't call them 'friends' but even still, the second the boy is out of sight she practically forgets he exists.
"...Right." Taylor faintly acknowledges as you step out of the house.
Then she makes sure the straps of her backpack are properly cinched, casts an eye towards the horizon and leaps skyward.
You realize in that moment, that you have made a mistake.
Because you, while many things - a Master of Kung Fu, capable of even flight, given the right expenditure of power - are not capable of keeping up with your Master when she is running on literal air at a speed that makes a Car look like a unicycle.
"Wai-" You screech as you are taken apart and reformed in the air, only to begin falling to the ground at a ridiculous pace. You can see the houses below, slowly becoming more sparse as they are replaced by shops and building developments the closer your Master gets to the city. Realizing that dying right now would be inconvenient, you get about three feet away from a building and using your masterful skills in Kung Fu, push off of it, landing on a wall across the street and sliding down it to the ground.
Then you are taken apart again and reform in the air.
"Okay-"
"I get-"
"That you're-"
"Mad!"
You yell at your Master, stringing the sentence together across several adhoc teleportations. You weren't even sure if she was noticing what was happening, given how loud the wind was at the speed she was moving, so it was with tremendous glee that you find yourself suddenly reforming above a rooftop.
"Ohohohoh man! I missed you so much ground! I will never complain about you ever again!" You say as you materialize kissing the concrete beneath you fervently.
"Is that a... Panda?" A male voice asks, drawing your attention to the side.
Taylor - who's costume still hasn't actually been fixed or replaced so she's just wearing sweats - is standing next to Muscles, who is likewise dressed although he has a sort of makeshift facemask in addition. Your Master, who appears to have been about to say something, clamps her mouth shut and turns away from you as if to deny your existence upon the question being asked.
"Not just a Panda, I am the Panda buddy. The Dragon Warrior!" You say, springing up and posing. He stares at yo uncomprehending for a second, before turning to your Master as if you hadn't spoken.
"So is this guy part of your so-called team or...?" Muscles asks with a worried tone.
"Unfortunately..." Taylor answers him with a half-hearted shrug.
"Huh... So, I haven't patrolled with someone else before. Do we just run along the roofs until we see something or...?" Muscles asks your Master.
"How should I know? You've been out here longer than I have. What do you usually do?" Taylor answers, quickly accepting the topic change for the lifeline it is.
"I haven't been on a single patrol. I just know where the Merchants are so I attack them when I see them being pests." Muscles explains, gesturing for your Master to follow him along the rooftops as he turns to leap to another building. Thankfully, your Master is limited to the pace Muscles sets, which gives you more than enough leeway to keep up.
Several minutes pass wherein the three of you don't do much but bounce from building to building. Muscles seems perfectly comfortable in the silence, but your Master becomes increasingly agitated as time goes on.
'What's wrong?' You asked, serenly running along part of one wall in order to make it to a good angle to spring to a slightly higher rooftop.
'What do I do?! I'm trying to recruit him but were just running! Should I ask him what his powers are? His name? Oh my god we never asked for his name!' Taylor panics at you.
'I've been callin' him 'Muscles'. Nice. Short. Works.' You offer.
'I'm not calling him that! Just... help me!' Taylor wails at you.
Honestly, you were going to do it anyway but you find it interesting that your Master is capable of maintaining and absolutely blank face and unbothered body language while simultaneous more or less crying for you and radiating confusion and inadequacy. It's like there are two completely different Taylor's, and only one gets shown to the world around her.
You hope she meets some people she can open up to soon. And in service of that...
"Hey. You got a name yet? I've been calling you 'Muscles', like, in my head. Does that hurt by the way? It looks like it hurts." You note, indicating the mans almost cartoonishly oversized musculature. By rights, and as a martial artist with significant knowledge in the way biology is supposed to function, if only so you can subvert it to your will via your fists, you feel like the guy shouldn't be able to lift his arms above waist level, let alone move with the degree of control he seems to posess.
"I haven't thought of one yet. I was thinking I might just leave it to the Protectorate. I don't think it actually matters." He says lightly, causing your Master to trip slightly as she makes her most recent landing.
"He- wait, so you're going to join the Protectorate?" Taylor asks, doing her best to hide how dejected she's obviously feeling.
"I haven't decided yet. They do have a few benefits though. Armsmaster was at my house today - when you phoned me." He explains.
"Oh... so... I guess that's why you hung up." Taylor says sadly.
"Eh. Honestly, the big thing I want is practice. My power isn't that strong. I mean, I'm tough and strong, but if I compare myself to any other Brute in the Bay I'm just middling." He explains plainly, as though not overly bothered that he has most likely just deeply offended your Master.
Again, you can't help but be thankful that you aren't that psycho anymore. You probably would have needed to be told not to-
'Don't do it.' Your Master absently tells you, apparently having reflexively countered a murderous impulse you don't actually possess. You find it deeply worrying that what she was forbidding hardly even bothered her to contemplate but well... for now...
"I guess I don't really have much to offer huh..." Taylor says dejectedly.
"What are you kidding? Do you even know what the purpose of the Dragon Warrior is?" You jump in grinning.
"Sorry- how old is this guy?" Muscles asks curiously. He clearly doesn't mean it as an insult, but you kind of feel insulted regardless. Still, you continue on.
"Ma- Taylor, the Dragon Warrior isn't just a Master of Kung Fu, it's someone who helps other people Master Kung Fu!" You exclaim, jumping upward and doing a few kicks at the air.
"That's... impressive... but I need help with my power." Muscles pushes, obviously assuming you haven't grasped his point.
"You're power is punching people! Kung Fu is punching people!" You explain, drastically simplifying what Kung Fu means to you.
"My power isn't-" He says then shuts his mouth as if electrocuted.
You peer at him, then at your Master, who is looking at him curiously herself. You consider the situation. You're pretty sure you could help this guy with his power. Maybe not right away but... creating new Martial Arts is basically the same as breathing for you, and eventually, Taylor. You doubt there's a Martial Art in this world that's designed for people with powers, but even if their was, it would be too all-purpose to be useful to most people. What would really bring out a Parahumans strength is a Martial Art tailored specifically to their power. You know 'Powers' don't get stronger over time. They just get used more or less efficiently. And in that respect, what you can provide would be a force multiplier - like swinging a weapon instead of a palm.
The problem is, that would be a significant time investment for each individual you - or Taylor - would want to train. It'd be like having another Taylor entirely to handle, one who you aren't sitting on top of twenty-four seven. It would also require your Master be okay with you teaching that person, which - if he doesn't join your team - is doubtful.
Your Master and Muscles spend the rest of their time awkwardly running around and failing to find any actual crime to stop, which is something Muscles tells you he has simply gotten used to. At one point, the pair stop so your Master can pick up what Muscles calls a 'Burner Phone', something he is amazed to find out she doesn't have already. As much as Brockton Bay is the crime capital of the country in most respects, it doesn't actually have a drug dealer on every street corner. He does, however, note that the streets were oddly quiet that night, which your Master notes down to ask Greg about tomorrow at school. Speaking of tomorrow...