Floating in the void wasn't exactly fun. There was nothing to distract him from remembering all the times he was a dumbass in life. Somehow the little triumphs he experienced never seemed to stick around, only the failures. Those he lingered on; couldn't look away from them, really. Did that indicate he had something wrong with his brain that he focused too much on the negative in life?
Well, there was nothing he could do about it now, since it was all in his past life. He had died in an accident that happened so fast he wasn't sure even now just what had happened. It was just a mess of metal screeching, extreme pain, and toxic burning smells.
And now he found himself floating in this void with nothing but his thoughts to torment him. Damned if it wasn't boring.
[Would you like to play a game?]
The words echoed in his head suddenly and would have startled the piss out of him if he had a body anymore. What the hell was that? Play a game?
Just what in the Void was going on here?
[Would you like to play a game?]
Those words sounded again. It almost didn't sound like words, but like the meaning was beamed directly into his mind. This setup really made him worried. First they soften him up with what felt like an eternity in the Void, then they offer him an out, figuring he'd be grasping at any offer of distractions, like a drowning man offered a floatation device.
No matter how cursed it would end up being, he would be unable to resist reaching out and grasping hold of it.
And yet, despite his worry and caution about the nature of the offer of a game, it was working. The promise of something different to break the monotony slipped past all his defenses and he really wanted to accept whatever the offer was, to break the mind maddening sameness and pain of the Void.
[Would you like to play a game?]
[Yes.]
The moment Carl answered, a room materialized around him. He found himself back in his body, sitting at a table. Well, it was A body, at least. Even if it wasn't his original body. It had no scars, no blemishes. It was far thinner than he ever was, even at his prime. And he had no dick. He was a damned Ken Doll. So freaking insulting.
After contorting a bit, he found that he actually had no asshole either. Damned if he wasn't freaked out about this whole deal.
Damn. This place sucked.
After he finally calmed down, he saw that on the table he was sitting in front of, there was a thin manila folder sitting so very innocently in front of him.
Looking around at the suddenly appearing room, which hadn't been very solid until just a moment ago, he saw it was a soothing green color with nothing notable in it. The walls had vague patterns in the dark green color. The room he was in seemed to be a cube, 20 feet across.
While the walls and ceiling were a mix of dark green shades with alternating patterns, the floor was a dark wood color.
There was no visible source of light, but he could clearly see everything around him, as if there was a bright light from the ceiling of the room.
"Hello?" Carl was surprised his voice wasn't rusty with disuse. "What did you mean about playing a game?"
No answer.
It was just him, the room done up in soothing colors, a table, chair and the folder waiting for him to open it.
With nothing else to do and no answers forthcoming from that voice, whatever it was, Carl focused on the folder in front of him. Without touching it, he could read the label on the front.
Worm CYOA version 1
"What the Void is this?" Carl said out loud, just being able to say and hear something was a pleasure after the Void. He had long since come to the conclusion that his own personal hell was the Void. It just seemed appropriate to swear with the Void in mind, now.
He was still vaguely surprised that his voice didn't sound croaky or rusty or whatever. He felt like his voice should sound like that, after so long having not spoken since he didn't have any body parts while in the Void.
It was a bit of a difficult time, adapting to suddenly having a body after…not having one for so long.
Carl looked back down at the folder after he spent a bit of time starting at the soothing green walls.
"I'm passing familiar with Worm. But does CYOA stand for Choose Your Own Adventure?" Carl was remembering back to his early pre-teenage years when he would read those fiction novels that would periodically have the reader choose between a couple choices for the character to do and would have him turn to a certain page to continue reading the story with that choice dictating the outcome of the story from there.
He'd always wanted to take the books apart and organize it according to the path choices, just so he could see all the alternatives that the character could go down. He never did that, since they were library books and he didn't want to get his hide tanned for accruing a fee that his parents would have to pay due to destroying the library's books.
There was one particular story about a Space Vampire that came from a planet where the oceans were made of blood. Needless to say, there were a lot of choices in that book that led to interesting deaths. He wasn't sure if this "game" that had to do with the grimdark world of Worm would be any different.
Looking around the plain and soothing room done in green, with nothing to do except read whatever was in the folder, Carl shrugged in resignation. Sure he could sit here for a while, but with nothing to distract him he was sure this plain and empty room would be only one step up from the Void after a while.
He reached over and flipped open the folder. There were several pieces of paper in the envelope. He picked up the top one and began reading.
Two beings spiral through the void, past stars and worlds. They dance through the realities, shifting through other times, other dimensions. Countless facets that fuse, part, and shift as they journey.
Approaching a world they shatter. Shards falling into millions of alternate worlds to root. Reaching out across the boundaries of dimensions they bond, empowering those they find. Those at their lowest. People who will fight, suffer, and strive, and in doing so drive the entities own evolution.
But unlike the cycles before this, something has gone wrong. A single mistake leads to the death of one of these entities. Only its shards remaining as its mate is left behind, shocked and insensate in its mourning.
As things stand now the worlds within the reach of these beings are now set on a painful and destructive course that will reap untold costs in human lives and suffering. But you are going to be given a chance to change that.
You are going to Earth Bet, the center of these events, and with power to potentially avert the disaster that is swiftly approaching. Make your choices below, but no matter what you choose remember one thing. Conflict is inevitable.
While Carl was vaguely familiar with Worm, he had never read it himself. He had seen people talk about it online and read a few spoilers about it. Some said they loved the series, others talked about how it was too depressing for them to enjoy, using the term Grimdark. Despite hearing that phrase for the first time in connection to the story of Worm, the idea was abundantly clear. The Worm world was spiraling down the shitter, and no matter what people tried to do to make it better, the world kept getting worse and worse.
The Shards that gave people powers also ramped up their aggression and need for conflict, because that's how the Shards grew and learned. So even someone who was a decent human before having the worst day of their life had a chance of their shard pushing them to become a serial killer, given enough time and negative influence from said shard.
Or given enough mental instability in the person in the first place, there was even less holding them back from lashing out at the world. From what he understood the Shards didn't exactly pick well adjusted people to bond with.
So more than a few bad people received powers, making the world that much worse when they suddenly gained the power to do what they wanted.
Then there were the people with noble ideals, striving hard to do what was right. Like one particular woman that kept trying to be a hero and helping her town with the problems it faces. But she gets misidentified as a villain, and keeps running into those kinds of hard choices, the ones that make one choose between bad and worse.
Or a group of people in a unique position to possibly save the human race. And yet the path of their choices also forced them to choose between bad and worse decisions. In order to accomplish their goals, they would have to get dirty. Really dirty. And they inevitably became monsters due to the decisions they made, even when they were sticking to the plan and original goal.
"So, yeah. Grimdark is the word for it. The slow descent into evil, or just despair. The rising tides of chaos. The…the…" Carl fake-coughed awkwardly after too long a pause. "Damn, I ran out of material. I've got nothing else to make this moment more melodramatic and less frightening. Some bastard out there apparently thinks its fun; that it's a game, to send me to freaking Worm!"
He sucked in air through his teeth.
"Haiya…" Carl breathed out slowly in disappointment. Couldn't they send him somewhere else? Anywhere? He wasn't one of those furries, but he would almost prefer to be sent to a nice relaxing life in a world where friendship was magic and hope wasn't a four letter word. Even if he would be turned into a pony.
Carl shuddered at the thought.
"Nevermind. Bad thought. At least I get to stay human. Well, I suppose it is better to go to the Worm world than it is to float forever in the Void with nothing but myself as company." Carl wasn't very successful in pumping himself up. At least until he realized that at least Earth Bet would have pie.
"Hmm….pie…how I've missed you." Carl mumbled, feeling better about his situation already. The world of Worm may be slipping down the toilet of insanity, like a giant brown log, leaving a long streak behind to showcase the struggle Humanity as a whole was going through, but at least he would still be able to get some creature comforts.
"If I had the ability to choose the last thing I watched before biting it in that accident, I probably shouldn't have picked The Tick. It's making me a tad melodramatic." Carl muttered to himself before he flipped the intro page over face down on the left side of the folder and began reading the next page.
Your Entry Method
Reincarnation: In what feels like the span of a moment you are born into Earth Bet and live out a life up until the age of your choosing chosen, at which point you regain your memories and begin to control your actions normally. The circumstances of this life are entirely under your control, including gender, appearance, race, and who your family is. You can't make major changes to the setting as a part of this, although minor changes keeping with your life and presence are fine.
From what point you had your powers and perk is up to you, and depending on what you have purchased may give you more leeway in effecting the setting. At the latest your life can run up until the start of the canon story, the same time that you would have arrived as a Self Insert, beyond this you will have to go about your adventure normally.
You retain all the skills and experiences of your new life, ensuring you are familiar with Earth Bet and the various little differences that diverge it from your Earth. Note that you are specifically able to modify your personality to your wishes. Beyond this all new memories and experiences are integrated flawlessly and seamlessly.
"Wait, I thought I would get to make choices?" Carl muttered as he read the information that was printed in front of him, frowning at all the strike through words, but had no way to make those decisions, as far as he could see.
"It's called a CYOA, dammit. Where are my choices?" Picking up the first page, he scanned it and saw that it said he could make choices. But the entry method page still only had the information that he was going in via reincarnation, even if it did mention Self Insert being an option that wasn't available.
"Whoever is having me play this game isn't giving me very many choices." Carl muttered grumpily. "I guess getting memories of the world and how to navigate it isn't bad? But how do I indicate what my choices for a new life is?"
Carl looked around for a pen or something, even looking under the table. But there was nothing. Feeling a bit more unease over this "game" and the lack of choices, but unable to do anything about it, Carl flipped the second page over and laid it face down on the first one.
Picking up the next one, he began reading.
Your Difficulty Level: Hard
You have: 5 points
"Dammit. More choices I don't get to make. Can't I pick easy mode? Why the hell would I want to play on hard mode? I'm not a masochist! It's because you hate me, don't you?" Carl ranted a bit longer at whoever was doing this to him. The bastard.
Taking a deep breath, Carl continually reminded himself that at least it wasn't the Void.
Nothing was changing, and he wasn't able to rip the papers up, they were indestructible. Resigned, he continued reading.
Powers
Earth Bet is home to heroes and villains, all of whom wield superhuman powers in the name of their ideals, ambitions, or merely to survive. The powers you are about to gain do not come from any entity's shards and as such are not subject to the same limits, regardless of any similarities.
"At least I won't have a damn shard in my brain, telling me to do it, do it, do it all day long. That is the only thing in all of this that seems…nice."
Tinkers can mass produce their work easily if they get the resources, Thinkers can read the futures of the entities just as easily as that of anyone else, and the Manton Effect is no limit to you.
"Weren't the tinkers of the world unable to reproduce anything after they made it once? Or was that just that one guy? Well, at least I won't have that problem. Although I'll have to look up the Manton Effect once I get in world, cause I have no idea what that is."
Your powers will grow over time in response to stress and conflict as the experience pushes them to improve, and with effort you may even stretch your powers to function in new and creative ways that are beyond their original beginnings.
"Yup, there we go. Part of the Worm world. Can't have it lack conflict. Even when my powers aren't derived from a giant space parasite, my so called powers will still require conflict to grow, apparently."
Each of the powers below cost two points, and you may buy as many as you wish as long as you can afford it. Purchased powers integrate and function together seamlessly, and you never have to worry about their use having negative side effects. All powers and their aspects may be toggled on and off at will.
"With five points for hard mode I can afford 2.5 powers." Carl chuckled a bit, thinking that he could probably make a joke about his powers being his imaginary 2.5 kids. But he certainly didn't have his picket fence yet, nor a wife either. Bummer.
Note: Due to opinion being overwhelmingly in favor of more power rather than less, and how dangerous the threats facing the Wormverse are, powers are much more powerful than the other parahumans. Remember that the remaining entity is still out there, and it can casually destroy planets. Combined with meta knowledge these powers should be enough to turn a desperate slog into a decent chance for victory, but there is a major difference of knowing what to do and pulling it off.
Perks cost one point each, and may be bought once unless otherwise specified.
"But…what if I don't have meta knowledge?" Carl complained, the idea of having to deal with this Entity that could easily destroy worlds was more than a bit daunting. "Sure, I have random fan ramblings, but no actual meta knowledge…"
"And can I get an easier setting? Please?" Carl called out hopefully to whatever entity had brought him here.
Nothing happened, which didn't surprise Carl overly much. But he had to at least try.
"I guess the perks will be my 0.5 power." Carl grumbled as he began reading further.
Underneath that introductory text about Powers was a list of the Powers and Perks that Carl could choose from. A pen suddenly appeared next to the folder on the table.
Carl stared blankly at the pen for a bit, before he grabbed it and tried to cross out the word Hard and write in Easymode in its place. He tried to cross out the 5 points and write in a much higher number.
He tried writing "+20" after the "5" on his points.
Nothing.
"+15".
Nothing.
"+10", "+5", "+1".
Nothing.
"Aaaand the pen doesn't write just anywhere. Of course it doesn't. Can't have me making changes to make my life easier, can we?"
Sighing at the fact that he wasn't in full control of this CYOA, Carl turned his eyes back to the Powers and Perks section.
There were eight powers and eight perks to choose from. Carl spent some time reading through his options before making any decision. With only five points he had to make the most of what he had. He could pick two powers and one perk. Or one power and three perks. Or five perks.
But it would be silly not to buy one at least one of the powers. He doubted he would survive without them.
Sure, he could get Bottled Superpowers which would give him a case of ten vials that gave out random superpowers that were based on a person's personality. But that was such a toss of the dice that he didn't want to chance getting a crappy power, and he could only drink one of those vials, so he couldn't just chug all ten and get ten crappy powers combined.
So he would pick one of the powers and three perks, because while he was reading the Perks section, Carl saw three perks that he decided were imperative for him to have in this world.
From what he knew from the internet this world was chock full of bullshit powers, and some of the people could use those bullshit powers to predict what he would do and use that knowledge to be a complete asshole to him.
Blank: Knowledge is power, and that means that an opponent who knows what your every move will be is an unbelievable threat. By taking this you are completely immune to being perceived by Thinker abilities. Your future and past cannot be observed, clairvoyants cannot detect you, and even danger senses cannot warn their users of an incoming attack from you. This is pervading enough that you cannot even be perceived by noticing blind spots in their sight, such powers simply acting as if you didn't exist. This applies only to uses of such powers that are hostile to you. Other thinker's abilities that do not rely on directly perceiving you with the power itself are unaffected. Enhanced senses pick you up just as easily, Tattletale can still read you like an open book, and Coil is still able to perceive you in his split timelines.
Carl didn't have much to say about the Blank perk besides what it had already said. Having people that knew his moves constantly proverbially cock blocking him would become very irritating.
Shattered Limiter: The factors that kept your powers growth and ability in check are completely done away with. At a base this doubles the number of slots and charges you have available. Your power growth skyrockets, with your power doubling in strength every year if you do nothing but live a normal life. Actually fighting on a regular basis drops this down to half a year. Each such interval also increases the number of slots and charges your power provides by one. Your powers refuse to be kept in check, rendering you immune to trumps who would try to affect your abilities.
There was a lot about the Worm verse and the plotline that Carl had absolutely no idea about. But one thing he was sure of was that shit happens in this world. He would inevitably have to fight some big bads, especially because he was on hard mode.
At the very least the entity that gives out powers through shards like the proverbial stranger gives out candy was on the list of enemies. No matter how tasty that candy looked, there was always a catch. The complete annihilation of the human race when the entity gets bored of their reality was a pretty big catch.
So not having to worry about anyone messing with his powers was just perfect. Not to mention the other things. They were great too.
Invictus: Your will is absolute, boundless, and unbreakable. By taking this perk, factors such as distress, suffering, and difficulty mean nothing to you. You are capable of undergoing any disaster without batting an eye, ignoring any amount of pain, remaining mentally untouched by even the most terrible events, and even the most fearsome odds will not give you pause. Abilities that would affect your mind or control you are useless, you shrugging these off as nothing more than an irritant. You will never break, never bow, and even come a thousand apocalypses you will stand as tall and resolute as ever. Being torn in half, locked into a time loop of endless agony for thousands of years, or facing the most hopeless odds are nothing to you.
Some of the options that were written there that wouldn't break his will sounded oddly specific. Like some people in the Worm verse suffered from them. So Carl was going to assume that he would need an unbreakable will to survive in this new world. This was his new reality, his new life. So he was going to make the best of it.
With his three perks chosen, Carl turned his attention back to the Powers.
The eight powers he could choose from were Alexandria, Legend, Eidolon, Kaleidoscope, Inspired Inventor, Psychokinetic, Power Manipulation, and Shaper.
Alexandria was basically the Superman package, only without the vulnerability to Kryptonite. Very powerful.
Legend would give him a "breaker state" that was basically an energy form that would heal him when he used it. He had control over energy, lazers, could move as fast as light, and a few other nifty bonuses, including buffs to his mind.
Eidolon gave him access to all the powers that were alternatively used in five power slots, 10 with the Shattered Limiter perk. His powers would even automatically change for him based on what he needed. But they wouldn't do it more than once every few minutes and the strength of the powers was capped at a certain point, usually about a 9-10 on the PRT scale, whatever that was. Not that they would stay capped, with the perk he bought.
Kaleidoscope attuned him to the power of space and time, allowing him to play around in the multiverse and all worlds and timelines would be accessible to him.
Inspired Inventor made him the world's first Tinker 12, yay! Carl had no idea what exactly that rating meant, or how powerful it was. But the power gave him five charges a day (10 with the Shattered Limiter perk). Each charge would boost his tinker abilities in a certain area. One charge was equal to a Tinker 4-5, and each additional boost from the charge would boost it another 2 or so ratings.
Psychokinetic: "With nothing but your will alone you are capable of shaping the physical world…The world is a vast ocean of vibration, matter, and energy to your senses, and all it takes is a thought to send it moving according to your wishes."
Power Manipulation let him modify, copy, steal, create, and shut down powers as he pleased. He would get five charges a day (10 charges with Shattered Limiter) to create or enhance powers.
Shaper would make him a master of biology and life, able to create biomass and build creatures and shape them as he pleased. Zerg, anyone?
All of the powers were amazing, really. Any one of them would make him very powerful and a complete game changer for the world of Worm. Especially when combined with the Shattered Limiter perk that would make sure they continued to grow.
After looking over his choices, Carl eventually decided to go for the Power Manipulation power.
Power Manipulation: Some of the rarest and most valued parahumans are those who can affect the powers of others. People who nullify powers allow enemy parahumans to be subdued as easily as an unpowered human being. Those who boost other's powers give their allies a much needed edge over the opposition. Some even have the ability to copy or steal powers temporarily.
You can do all this and more, and only your personal desires can stop such effects from being permanent. You can nullify, enhance, modify, copy, and even steal the powers of others (whether this takes the shard along with them is up to you). Transferring powers from one person to another is trivial, even stacking multiple powers onto a single target.
You also have five charges a day which let you create shardless powers like yours, whose nature are fully under your control. A single charge can result in a power that would be rated around 4-5 on the PRT scale, with more charges increasing its power, versatility, pushing or removing limits, and adding more functions.
You can manipulate and sense created powers regardless of the location of anyone you have given them to. You also have an ability to sense parahumans and powers within a large area.
Created powers are yours until you transfer them to someone else. Charges can be spent to boost any of your powers, including others bought here. Changes can be reversed at will, and you can deconstruct powers you have created, but you do not recover any charges from doing so.
As he saw it, since he could only pick one power, then being able to create and boost any power he needed or desired was the best. Despite how amazing the other powers were, with Power Manipulation Carl could eventually have all the powers he wanted, being able to replicate the rest of them.
Not to mention that he would be able to sense powers around him, so no sneaking up on him. And if some power mad jerkoff was being a complete asshole, he could simply yank their powers from them.
With his choices made, Carl picked up the pen and circled the Power Manipulation power. It actually wrote this time, and he saw his point count at the top of the page dropped to 3 once he did. He then circled each of the three perks that he wanted, Blank, Shattered Limiter, and Invictus. His points counted down as he selected each perk until it reached 0. The pen disappeared from his hand.
Carl shook his head, amused despite himself at the pushy way whatever entity was doing this was running things.
He turned the Powers and Perks page over and placed it with the others.
Looking at the last page, he saw it was headed with the word Complications, and it had a single paragraph written below that.
Being Taylor is Suffering (Reincarnation): Instead of choosing a new life, you wake up as Taylor Hebert in the hospital a few days after the locker incident. While before reincarnating wouldn't have any negative effects, Taylor's life has left you with severe depression, trust issues, and in general a very damaged mental state. Your previous life memories combined with having your powers and perks will help, but will still require time and effort to properly recover. Grants two points.
"Hey, wait! NOOO! I didn't sign up for this-" Carl's yelling tirade was cut off as his consciousness faded to black, the final paper falling face down with the others and the folder closing decisively on its own.
"-shit!" Carl yelled as he came back to wakefulness. "Sonofabitch!"
A moment later he realized that he was no longer in the green room, and that his voice no longer sounded like his own.
He looked down and saw that he was no longer himself. He was a lanky thin girl lying on a hospital bed, wearing a hospital gown. Thankfully he had no tubes sticking in him anywhere.
And then the memories of Taylor Hebert's life began playing in his head, as if he was experiencing her entire life. He felt what she felt, he thought what she thought.
He experienced her early life. Despite any negative issues around her, she was happy. She had a mother who loved her and a father who was there for them. She had a best friend, Emma. The two of them were inseparable.
Along with Taylor he loved listening to his mother play her flute in her off time, and learned how to play along with her.
And then he experience how devastating losing her mother three years ago was, and how depressed her father had been. How their family dynamic had changed so drastically and the two of them began drifting apart. They struggled to have any kind of meaningful conversations with each other through the grief, and it eventually became the new habits they lived with.
He experienced the heart break of her best friend betraying and tormenting her. He raged as he experienced Sophia stealing her mother's flute and smashing it on the wall. The remains of the flute were still sitting in the bottom of her dresser. She didn't have the money or the heart to buy a replacement for it.
He felt the deep sense of helplessness and despair that no one helped her. No one cared. No matter what she reported to the school administration, they simply shrugged or rolled their eyes, and even threatened her if she continued to make up lies. So she started a record of the harassment in the hope that one day someone would actually listen to her and help her.
It was also a form of stubbornness on Taylor's part, really. She never completely broke and gave up, grimly holding on to her pain and the record of what she had gone through. At least she had a twisted sense of pride in never giving up and giving in to the horrible words of the terrible trio.
Even her father that should have been there for her was too sunken in his own depression to notice the hell she was going through, so she just kept going.
Despite her toughness and grim determination to make it through school, there was still the sense of shame and guilt that maybe she deserved it? Maybe that's why no one cared or helped, even when they saw the bullying and tormenting happening, they just turned a blind eye.
And it all culminated in being shoved into a locker with the most disgusting feminine waste products and rotted trash, complete with roaches crawling all over her and biting her. The enclose space, the horrible stench, the pain and disgusting sensations on her body was the final straw. Her mind snapped and she passed out before the janitor finally found her and called an ambulance.
She then spent some time in a coma before Carl woke up in Taylor's body, merging with the girl's memories.
Carl swam up out of Taylor's memories, gasping for breath, sweating and panicky.
'Dammit, now I've got even more mental and emotional problems than I already had!' Carl gritted his teeth as he tried to bring his will to bear on pushing down the extreme reactions. It was working. He still felt all the emotions and panic deeply, but with his willpower boosted by his perk he was able to shove it down and ignore it. 'Looks like that willpower perk is already showing its worth.'
Invictus for the win.
When he finally had the panic attack stuffed down into submission, Carl considered his situation. He was forced to reincarnate into a 15 year old girl.
He was now living in a shitty reality where people gained powers by having the most traumatic and horrible day of their lives. And he was forced to reincarnate into a 15 year old girl.
Carl scowled.
He was forced to reincarnate into a 15 year old girl!
Closing his eyes, he reached for his power. He could feel the 10 charges, just waiting on him to do something. They were like 10 sparks of light floating inside him. Shifting his attention, he could feel there were a couple of powers within a hundred feet of him. He couldn't sense anything beyond that.
It was an interesting sensation, it was like feeling a specific point of heat in a certain direction. He got the sense that if he was in the same room as the person who had the powers then he would have a more certain idea of what the powers were, and be able to manipulate them. But right now they were too far away.
'Right. My powers are strong, but there are limits. And they will grow as I use them.'
He returned his attention to the 10 sparks inside himself that were waiting to be used. Carl wondered if he could only hold a maximum of 10 charges, or if he gained 10 new ones per day and could stockpile them. He would have to test it in the future. But for now, he had something he needed to do.
Reaching out for one of the sparks, he mentally kept the idea in mind for what power he wanted, telling the spark to give him the power. Demanding the spark to give him a very needed and specific power.
[Error: Prohibited]
He got a freaking error message!
Carl scowled.
He reached out to all ten power creating sparks and demanded the power he needed, RIGHTDAMNNOW!
[Error: Prohibited]
Carl slumped back down in the hospital bed, feeling a bit of despair. Despite the memories he had gained from Taylor, he had no desire to remain as a girl. Nothing wrong with being a girl, but it just wasn't him.
And his power refused to cooperate.
And sure, shows like Ranma ½ where a strong male character was forced to handle a gender swapping curse were amusing. But it sure wasn't funny when it happened to him and not a cartoon he was watching!
Whoever had dropped him in this body apparently wanted him to remain as Taylor Hebert and so they had locked out certain functions of his powers from working. The utter bastard.
'Being Taylor is Suffering indeed.' Carl thought. 'That complication is bullshit.'
After mentally railing against whoever it was for a good 15 minutes, he finally calmed down.
Carl sighed.
Opening his eyes, he lifted his hands and stared at them for a bit. His fingers were bandaged from where he…
Flashes of desperately scrabbling against the locker, trying to get out flashed through his mind. Her fingernails broke, skin being torn as she just couldn't stop panicking and desperately wanting out!
Carl shakily pushed the memory down and focused on the now.
Breathe in.
Hold it.
Breathe out.
Pause.
Breathe in.
Hold it.
He was in the hospital.
Breathe out.
Pause.
Breathe in.
He was safe. He wasn't there.
Calm returned to his mind.
Breathe out.
Think while breathing.
Experience the now.
Well. He was now a she. So the now kind of sucked.
Nothing he could do would change it. He still held out some vague hope that after some time of growing and building his powers, he could return to being what he once was. But for now, he was helpless in the face of that Random Omnipotent Being that grabbed him and threw him into this mess.
He had mental issues that he needed to handle. Severe panic attacks. PTSD. And three bullies that wanted to continue to make his life hell when he finally got back to school.
He needed to come up with a plan to fix his issues. To figure out what to do with his powers and his place in this world.
He…well. She, really. At least for now. There was no escaping it.
She guessed she would have to get used to being Taylor now. She reached for the willpower of the Invictus perk to force herself to accept it without another panic attack. Accepting her situation in the now would ensure less of these damned panic attacks and ensure she could run her life more smoothly.
At least, that was the idea.
"Oh, you're awake?" A voice at the door caused Taylor to snap her head around, feeling like she wanted to flee.
'Damned mental trauma.' Taylor thought grumpily as she once more reached for that willpower while staring at the medium height brown haired man that had a briefcase in one hand and was holding the door open with his other hand and smiling insincerely.
"Sir, I don't think that you should…" A nurse just behind the man was trying to tell the man who spoke and startled Taylor something when he cut her off.
"I'll be just a moment, Nurse. Just wait outside while I take care of a little paperwork." He threateningly said while glaring at her. She quailed a bit and backed down, stepping back so the man could shut the door in her face.
'That isn't how a dude is supposed to act. This guy is already getting on my nerves.' Taylor felt a frown tugging at her lips as she stared at the rude man.
"Well, I'm glad to see you're feeling better." The man said in a manner that could only be described as slimy and fake. "Now, if you would, please fill out these forms. It will only take a moment of your time."
Taylor, unsure of just what the man was doing here trying to get her to sign paperwork when she just woke up from however long it took her to recover from the locker, took the paperwork that he handed her.
'Breathe.' Taylor commanded herself after she reminded herself about the locker. 'You're out. You're safe. No more mental trauma, push it down.'
Invictus for the win.
"And who are you?" Taylor finally asked after staring at the man who suddenly seemed a little flustered at her question. Even this close his face was a bit blurry, making her realize that Taylor, now her, had really bad eyesight.
"Don't worry about that, I'm just here with some insurance papers to make sure that everything is handled smoothly. Just sign in the indicated spots, and everything will be taken care of."
If Taylor wasn't suspicious of the man before, she certainly was now. The man didn't give her a name and was pressuring her to sign paperwork before she'd even read it. As surreptitiously as she could, she reached for the call button that she had seen previously and pressed it, calling for the nurse or doctor or anyone to come chase this asshole out of her room.
While she could use her charges to gain some powers and thereby feel a bit more safe, with this asshole in the room with her she was leery of doing it right now. What if there was some visual phenomenon surrounding the creation of powers? What if there was someone watching that was connected with the PRT, or if they had monitoring equipment focused on her? She didn't want to be forced to register and become a government tool.
'Aaaand there is the bolstered distrust of authority figures, caused by over a year of the school's administration telling Taylor to sit down and shut up, instead of helping her with the bullying problem.' Taylor realized.
In her previous life she had already long come to the conclusion that the government didn't have her best interests in mind. The government was solely interested in two things. Maintaining or expanding its own power, and keeping the status quo running. The two were not mutually exclusive actions, due to the large number of government employees and elected officials that were all doing their things.
Keeping the status quo running wasn't necessarily a bad thing, in and of itself. But it could be. Before the Civil Rights movement the status quo consisted of segregation and discrimination. And several generations before that, the status quo of the entire human race was that slavery was a thing that happened, that it was normal.
That was obviously a bad status quo.
But after slavery was banned, at least in most countries, the new status quo was that slavery was bad.
Which was good. It was progress in a way that uplifted humans to be better than they used to be.
And then again after the fight for equal rights and the civil right acts were passed in her country's history, maintaining equal rights for everyone became the new status quo.
Which was more good, and once more a step in the right direction. The new status quo was better than the previous one was.
But the whole point was that the government was impersonal and didn't give two shits if someone had a rough time of things, or if they were on top of the world. They only cared that the machinery of society continued to run properly and that they got their dues.
Such an impersonal force just didn't care if Carl had enough money to buy food for the week. Or that his brother broke his leg and had bills to pay while being unable to work. Or that his sister's cat ran away, leaving her in a depression and struggling to cope.
Girl loved her cat.
The government only cared that he continued being a cog, paid his taxes, and didn't go postal.
And in this life, the added memories of the inaction of the school administration led to her not trusting authority figures even more. The combined knowledge of her past life and this one made her absolutely disgusted with them, since she knew that Sophia, the chief tormenter of Taylor, was also Shadow Stalker, a Ward of the PRT, and a hero of semi-decent standing.
And Shadow Stalker was the reason that the school administration didn't care to change the status quo. The status quo that said bullying Taylor was perfectly normal, and she should just shut up and take it or finally break and leave.
The fact that Sophia was on probation didn't stop the PRT handlers or the school administration from covering her ass when she should have been thrown in juvie instead for her inability to follow the rules of her probation.
So in this life she was doubly distrustful of just how much anyone in authority actually cared about the people beneath them who weren't directly benefitting them.
The last thing she needed at this particular point in time was the PRT hassling her if the information that she had powers was leaked to them.
Not to mention that she had the idea from how people talked about Worm from her past life that the PRT was a broken sieve when it came to secrets. Anything they knew, the various gangs and supervillains would immediately find out. A complication that she didn't need on top of dealing with her gender reassignment reincarnation.
What bullshit.
"Come on now, you don't want to make my job more difficult, do you?" The man who didn't give her a name was visibly getting impatient when Taylor didn't take the pen he was holding out for her. And he was trying to use guilt tactics to force her compliance, making her feel bad for taking her time and making things hard for him.
Just as she was pondering whether she should mouth off to the bastard like she so dearly wanted to, the door to her room opened once more. The blurry figure in the doorway was recognizable to her as her father in this life, Danny Hebert.
"Who the hell are you? And what are you doing in my daughter's room?" Danny demanded angrily as he stalked forward to push his way in between the stranger and his daughter.
The unnamed asshole made a move to try to get around Danny and reach for the papers that Taylor was holding. So she quickly tucked the paperwork that the asshole handed her under her blankets to prevent him from grabbing them. Danny then surged forward, angry that the bastard was trying to get physical with his convalescing daughter.
Despite Danny's thin build, he was quite tall, which gave him a certain amount of mass and strength. And he worked with the Dockworker's Association, so he knew a thing or two about how to get rough. He grabbed the asshole and easily manhandled him out of her room, yelling at him about how he would take him to court if he dared come near his daughter again, especially without an escort.
"Nice one, dad." Taylor said with a bit of a grin when Danny came back into the room, trying to fall into the role of daughter that he was so abruptly thrown into. She. She was thrown into.
"Are you okay, Taylor?" Danny asked with a concerned face as he sat in the chair near her, running his hand through his hair nervously.
"Yeah. I will be." Taylor replied, pulling out the paperwork that she had kept a hold of and passing it to her father. "That guy you ran off was trying to make me sign this paperwork right after I woke up. Didn't even let me read it or have you around as my guardian, so it must be shady."
Taylor did have a few memories knocking around in her head of Danny talking with Annette, her mother, about his work with the Dockworker association. He had once said to her mom to "never sign anything you didn't read right before signing. Even if you came to an agreement with the opposite party just the day before, don't trust that the paperwork wasn't changed on you. You'll be responsible for what you sign, regardless of what the deal between you and them was supposed to be."
Danny spent a few minutes scanning the paperwork while she picked at the bandages on her hands. She had all of Taylor's thoughts and memories, and she was thinking of the former Taylor's relationship with her father.
She soon discovered that under the bandages on her hands, her fingers looked fine. They had felt fine, but she was still a bit shocked to see that they were completely healed, after her memory of her time spent in the locker, scratching and clawing at the metal door.
"This paperwork is trying to absolve Winslow High School and the staff there of any responsibility in the incident." Danny growled angrily, interrupting Taylor's inspection of her hands.
"I'd imagine they would be desperate to get those signed, seeing as the teachers there have known how I've been tormented by those three bitches for over a year now and they do nothing about it. Even when I took my complaints to the principle for help, she gave me the runaround and threw my complaint out the window immediately." Taylor offered, going off of her inherited memories.
Taylor may have had a huge bundle of issues and never tried talking to her father about them for whatever reason. But the new Taylor had the Invictus perk to help her power through those issues.
And not talking about being bullied would never help get rid of the bullies. And not beating the shit out of them would just encourage them to keep up their "games", especially when it became obvious the school administration was on their side.
"And they never bothered to call me in for a consult about that." Danny frowned angrily, thinking about how he could use those facts to really stick it to the administration. "Are you finally willing to talk about it, Taylor?" Danny hesitantly asked, looking at her in concern.
Taylor was caught a little flatfooted at his question, and spent a moment dredging her memory. She finally realized that a large part of the former Taylor's problems were self made. Well, that wasn't to say that it was her fault that she was bullied. No matter what kind of person she was, nobody deserved to be attacked, to be betrayed by their best friends, and be hounded for over a year.
But dealing with other people was a part of life, and those bitches made the decision to be horrible humans. None of that could be blamed on the former Taylor. She could only control her own actions. But Taylor just didn't take the proper actions to end the torment or change her circumstances. She simply…stubbornly endured their actions and hoped they would go away eventually.
Well, that was more her attitude towards the end. At the beginning Taylor had held out hope that if she showed Emma that she was strong enough to endure it all, then she would be her friend once more because Emma was talking about how she wasn't strong enough.
Taylor and Emma had very different ideas of what made one strong inside.
Thinking back in her memories of her interaction with her father, at the very beginning, before things had gotten as bad as they did that culminated with the Locker, her father had been pushing Taylor to talk about whatever was bothering her. But like a moody teenager she had thrown a temper tantrum and told him to stay out of her business.
Taylor sighed, thinking about the memories she inherited from Taylor and the issues she went through. Carl hadn't been any better at handling emotions, really, when he was a 13 year old boy in his past life. So it wasn't like he could say he did any better back then.
But a bit of perspective gained from the experience of living longer really did open his eyes to various ways that Taylor could have gone about changing her shitty life.
Danny was hurting just as bad as Taylor from the death of his wife and so having his daughter tell him to essentially mind his own business had driven him to step back and give her the space she seemed to want more than she wanted to talk about her problems. And like a clueless dude, Danny had respected that space.
Carl would probably have done the same in his place, given the circumstances. Respecting your growing kid's independence was one aspect of parenting. Hard to let go, but necessary if the kid was going to mature. And being too overbearing can easily just push them away.
Taylor mentally facepalmed when it all came together for her.'
'Dammit, girl. You should have gone to your father and talked to him long since. He really wanted to help, but if someone doesn't ever know how you need help, what can they really do? Even if he wasn't taking you seriously you should have forced him to listen, or at least find someone that could listen. Teenagers.' She mentally castigated…herself? 'So damned anxious to grow up into an adult they try to do everything on their own.'
'Everything about this situation is just too damned…wiggy.' Taylor concluded. The memories and realizations she just went through didn't take very long, as paradigm changing as they were for her and her new life.
"Yeah, dad. I should have come to you a while ago. But I was hoping that after a while Emma would go back to normal. I was hoping she would wake up and realize that all that crap that Sophia Hess was spouting about 'the weak' versus 'the strong' was complete garbage. Instead they and Madison Clements kept escalating things. And the school and staff knew about it and did nothing."
"Emma Barnes was one of the ones doing it? Really? Little Emma? What happened to her to cause her to turn against you? You and her were inseparable for so long." Danny looked shocked at the news.
"Yeah…" She sighed. "I don't know what changed her. And that's what's always bugged me about the whole thing, is that I never knew just why she was being such a bitch." Taylor shook her head. And she really didn't know. Her knowledge of the Worm verse was sketchy at best.
"Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore." Danny comforted her. "We'll get some legal action against the school going, and against the people who bullied you."
"Okay, dad. That sounds just fine to me. This incident has really opened my eyes to the fact that Emma isn't going to magically go back to the person she used to be. That friendship has long since crashed and burned." Taylor shook her head in dismay, and was a bit surprised to feel her long black hair brushing her shoulders. Oh, yeah. She was a girl. Hard to forget for long.
"I'm sorry that this has been happening to you, Taylor. If anything like this happens again, I want you to come straight to me, and we'll figure it out together, okay? I can't help you if you don't let me in."
Taylor nodded seriously to her new father's request. It was nice to have someone in your corner. Even if she wasn't the original Taylor, she was living Taylor's life now. She had experienced Taylor's memories and emotions, which now felt like her life now.
And while she felt vaguely guilty about apparently stealing Taylor's life, there really wasn't anything she could do about it. She hadn't even chosen to do it, either. It was all that Random Omnipotent Being, otherwise known as ROB's doing, and she was stuck with it.
But she could at least live a decent life as a tribute to Taylor. It was all she could do for the girl now.
From what she could see, Danny seemed to be a bundle of conflicting emotions at the moment. He was very angry over what happened to his daughter, but he was trying not to show that anger, because he was worried that she would take it as him being angry with her. He was also feeling a bundle of other emotions. Relief that she was awake and looking like she was on the mend. Exasperation that she hadn't trusted him to help her. Guilt that he let it go on so long, that he was a horrible father.
Taylor felt for her new dad, she really did. As a former dude herself, she could empathize with him.
"Okay, dad. I promise. I'll come to you." Whatever else happened in this world, it actually felt kind of nice to have a father. It was a bit of a comfort to know that someone would have his…no, her back. That Danny would always be in her corner.
A short time later the doctor that was in charge of her case came and checked on her. Taylor found out from the doctor that Panacea, the healer Cape, had come by just a bit ago and done some healing on her, which was probably why she came out of the coma just a bit ago. And why she still had bandages on her fingers from…that incident.
'Don't think about it.'
Invictus for the win.
It was also likely that the two powers she had felt in the building just a bit ago had been Panacea and her sister Glory Girl.
And those two sisters was another situation that Taylor knew should be fixed. She had read some stuff about how pressured Amy Dallon was in her role of healer and laboring under bad family issues. If things didn't change soon then she would snap and do some nasty things. What those things were, Taylor wasn't sure. But someone who could mess about with the human body to the extent that Panacea could, would be able to do some pretty horrible Lovecraftian-esque things.
So it was probably better for her to derail that train wreck. Maybe adjusting Glory Girl's "Love Me" aura would help things? That was a thing, right? Not just a fanon concept?
'Right, the next time I randomly run into Glory Girl, I'll get right on it!' Taylor thought to herself with a snort of amusement.
After the doctor inspected her, he told her that she could be released, although he would prefer if she stayed for several days for observation. Her dad chose to have her stay another night, just to be sure and was leaning towards accepting the doctor's recommendation to keep her for another week for observation but Taylor argued vehemently against it.
She figured that the observation period recommendation was at least partly the PRTs doing. They wanted to keep an eye on anyone who went through trauma like she went through, to see if she triggered a power. Taylor was having none of it, and argued that she would recuperate much better at home, rather than being stuck in the hospital with nothing to do.
Besides, after Panacea's healing she was feeling fine.
She won the debate, mostly. She could come home in the morning after one more night at the hospital.
So after a couple hours of visiting with her new dad, she found herself all alone in her room. Her father would be back in the morning with a change of clothes so she could check out.
'Well, no time like the present to experiment with these sparkling charges from my power.' Taylor thought once she was alone. She pondered about what ability to give herself first. Something that wouldn't leave physical evidence. So no super buffing herself with big muscles or increasing her powers of tall height until after she was discharged in the morning, at least.
Like she needed any more height, she already towered inches over even the guys in school. Well, the girl part of her memories told her that; the guy part was cheering at the idea of becoming a six foot giant in the land of five foot eleven midgets.
Well, she would have to adjust her plans to account for the probability that the PRT was going to stalk her for the next week at least to determine if she triggered some Cape powers.
'Nope, this dude – er…girl is Shard free, thank you very much. No PRT intervention needed or wanted.'
Super senses were also off the list for now, since she would probably react strongly to stimuli until she had some space at home to practice controlling her reactions to loud noises or lights.
Maybe…memory?
That was a safe bet for the first power, playing with her mind.
Taylor chuckled a bit at her self-directed sarcasm. But then it turned into a full blown roblmao. Rolling On Bed Laughing My Ass Off.
The changes in her life was a bit much for her and she needed the emotional release. Escaping from the Void. The new memories, the extreme mood swings, the panic attacks, the gender change, the universe change.
Everything swirled together such that it set off her extreme laughing fit which soon enough morphed into a crying jag.
'God, I'm even crying like a girl.' Taylor mocked herself. 'It doesn't help that I am a girl now. That ROB is a bastard for doing this to me!'
Taylor swore that if she ever got powerful enough, she would give that ROB a piece of her mind, just after she broke her foot off in his ass.
Eventually she settled her mind back down. She actually felt better after having a cry. Another change in her new life. She didn't actually feel embarrassed at having just cried her eyes out. Well, not too embarrassed anyway. It helped that no one saw her.
Getting up from the bed, she made her way to the room's bathroom and blew her nose, washed her face, and had a cup of water.
The remnants of the bandages that were still on her hands were in the way of washing her face, and her fingers didn't hurt anymore, so she removed them so she could wash up properly. Her fingers looked fine, no longer broken and bleeding.
'Panacea does good work.' Taylor thought as she looked at her newly healed hands.
She then looked into the mirror, examining her new features. Curly black hair, thin face with a too wide mouth. Looking into her new green eyes, Taylor sighed at the familiarity/strangeness of her new face. Gently slapping her face, she firmed up her will.
Sure, the CYOA document said that her powers would never have negative side effects. But…she was still nervous.
There was no better time than the present to test her powers out. There was a decent chance that there weren't cameras in the bathroom for the PRT to monitor her. Hopefully.
She was kind of assuming that the government agency wouldn't want to open the can of worms recording an underage girl in the bathroom would open them to. Child Porn charges, anyone? That wouldn't look good on anyone's record.
But this was the world of Worm. Who knows how crazy they could get, right?
She mentally reached out to one of her sparky charges while standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom. Taylor focused on the idea of improving her Memory Retention/Recall capability. The glowing charge disappeared from inside her mind and Taylor felt a wave of warmth go through her head.
She was happy to see that there were no visual phenomenon indicating that anything had happened. That wasn't to say that if she gave herself some other kinds of powers that something might not happen. Like if she gave herself a plasma breaker state, she might transform immediately into plasma and burn up her surroundings.
Best not to chance getting caught with flashy powers while still in the hospital.
Taylor turned to testing her new memory powers. Thinking about some of her memories of her past, Taylor was pleased with how crisp and clear the details were in her memories. She thought about what had happened since she woke up and the level of details she was remembering pleased her.
Before she gained the Memory Retention/Recall power, she couldn't have remembered something inconsequential like what color tie the jerk who tried to get her to sign paperwork was wearing. But now she could definitively report that it had been a red tie. A maroon color, if she wasn't mistaken. Well, she was a former dude, so she may have mistaken maroon for burgundy, or some other randomly decided color name. But her Taylor memories said maroon.
'Am I going to have to work at knowing colors and fashion now to fit in as a girl? Oh, God; shoot me now.' Taylor smirked at herself in the mirror for the bit of silliness. It was still weird to see her female face, even with the fifteen years worth of memories she had as Taylor. 'Okay, I'll deal with my issues later. For now, focus on your power.'
Her memory had been greatly enhanced. And while it hadn't gotten to the ridiculousness of being eidetic and photographic yet, it was a great improvement. And Taylor was already considered a smart girl, so adding on a power that increased her memory was a very nice boost.
According to the CYOA document, her memory would now be classed as a 4 or 5 on the power scale. Before she was forced to become Taylor, she had been really confused about the power ratings and the threat ratings of the PRT. But now with Taylor's memories, she knew the basic scale, according to the PRT.
It was because Taylor was a bit of a Cape fangirl. She even had Armsmaster underwear and Miss Militia posters in her room.
'Ughh. I am so going to throw those underwear away. No way am I wearing a dude's face on my underwear. Panties. Whatever.'
But with her new understanding of the PRT threat scale, she knew that even with her memory powered up to a 4-5 on the power tier scale, she would still be considered a 0 on the PRTs threat scale. Maybe she would barely reach a 1 or 2 if she got a hold of a knife.
Taylor had no tinker equipment. She was a five foot ten inch tall skinny female with no strength, speed, durability, or any kind of offensive powers. So despite having used one of her charges to enhance her memory, she wasn't going to be considered a threat anytime soon to the PRT.
A PRT threat rating of 4 dictated that one full squad of trained operatives should be able to deal with the threat. Naturally various variables could mess up the neat and tidy measure of force needed to subdue any threat, so the ratings had wiggle room here and there.
Taylor didn't have any memories of knowing how many was in a squad, but Carl knew that a squad in the military could be between 4 to 10 soldiers. So assuming that it carried over the same to the PRT, "one full squad" likely meant 10 operatives.
And that was just so a threat rating of 4 could be subdued without any real damage to the squad. The military and the PRT were not in the habit of throwing their trained assets away as canon fodder. So 10 normal soldiers with foam and rifles could subdue a threat rating of a 4 without undue problems.
A PRT threat rating of 5 dictated that the PRT should use additional countermeasures for the threat. A typical parahuman, or one parahuman assisting a squad of operatives should be able to deal with the threat.
A PRT threat rating of 6 meant that a typical trained parahuman or one parahuman assisting a squad of operatives should be able to deal with the threat. It should be noted that operatives shouldn't go it alone against a threat rating of 6.
A threat rating of 7 indicated that parahumans should go in pairs or trios to subdue the threat, in addition to having two fully equipped squads deployed to assist.
A threat rating of 8 indicated that PRT operatives should focus on evacuating civilians and shouldn't engage the threat. Parahumans should only engage when they were supported by a team of operatives and parahumans.
A threat rating of 9 indicated that parahumans and operatives should only work on evacuating the area, unless they were given specific missions to accomplish.
A 10+ indicated that the threat was dire. Additional teams or specific high-rated individuals should be called in to manage the crisis.
Of the Endbringers that continued to ravage the world, Behemoth was rated as a Brute 10 for his enormous size, strength, durability, and regeneration alone. But that wasn't even taking into account his other powers over energy, use of lightning, sound attacks through roars, his kill aura that could burn up anyone from the inside out that got within 32 feet of him.
So basically what Taylor realized from her new memories of this life she found herself in was that her power level had no real connection with her PRT threat rating, assuming she actually went out to do some hero-ing, villain-ing, or rogue-ing.
'And I must be getting influenced by Taylor's personality and memories, because I surely want to go and do something about my broken city.' She shook her head in dismay. 'Ugh. Spare me from a fangirl's enthusiasm to emulate her heroes. I'll do this the way I want to, dammit.'
Taylor knew that she could throw a bunch of charges in one field and become a powerhouse immediately. But then she would have no idea how to use those powers properly. Even if her powers were bullshit and told her how to use them, she would have no experience in determining under what situations to use them properly. And that was assuming that her powers even came with an instruction manual, rather than forcing her to learn everything from scratch.
In other words, she was nervous about jumping in the deep end and wanted to work her way up.
So, she was going to take things a bit slow. Unless there was a dire and immediate threat, she wouldn't grab flashy power ups immediately so she could avoid giving herself away, but she would work her way up to it soon.
Besides, what if she threw a bunch of charges in super speed and tore herself apart because her body wasn't tough enough to handle the speed? She didn't know if that was possible, but the mere possibility alone made her cautious with this Power Manipulation ability that she wasn't used to yet. She just didn't trust the promises of the CYOA document and wanted to make sure she was safe.
The fact that her Power Manipulation ability didn't automatically have these answers popping up in her head told Taylor that the rest of the powers that she gifted herself with probably wouldn't have automatic answers and guides to power use either. So, she would have to learn on her own.
And with that thought, Taylor added one more charge to her Memory Retention/Recall. The expected rush of warmth went through her mind. She noticed a nice jump up in just how much detail she was able to remember. Which if she understood how her powers worked, that second charge had brought her power rating for memory retention and recall up to a 6. It felt like a six, at any rate.
'Huh, look at that. My Power Manipulation power is telling me what my power rating is at. Maybe it's more informative than I originally assumed? Maybe I have to ask the right questions?'
She then added one charge to the speed of her thought processes, speeding up her ability to think to a ranking of 4. After the rush of added powers, she felt like she was able to think and process her surroundings more efficiently and quickly. Her mind felt far less sluggish compared to before.
Now that she was sure that her adding powers didn't create any visual evidence, Taylor left the bathroom and got back in bed, tucking herself in.
She wondered if she was being too specific with her enhancements with the charge. How broad could she go with the created power?
She mentally accessed the 7 charges left that she had that day and explored thinking of various ideas and possibilities for powers at her power while not pushing for the charge to be used. She was getting a sense of the boundaries the charges had from the responses of Possible/Not Possible and the associated costs that were returned to her in answer.
'So it's not that the Power Manipulation doesn't have answers for me. I just have to ask the questions in the right way. Gotcha.'
She found that there were limits to how much each charge could enhance her. It made sense to her that her power started off relatively weaker and had plenty of room to grow. She was in hard mode, after all.
If she focused on a specific area, one single idea or concept, she could use the first charge to boost that power rating to a 4. The second charge boosted it to a rating of 6. The third boosting would require 2 charges to bring it up to a 7, and another 2 to bring it up to an 8. After that she would require 4 charges to bring the power rating up to a 9, and another 4 charges to bring it up to a 10. 6 charges would be required to bring it up to 11, and another 6 charges to get to 12.
So to create and power up a single concept power from 0 to 10 would require 14 charges. At least at the efficiency and power of her Power Manipulation power at the current level.
So currently her Memory Retention/Recall power was sitting at a 6. While having a great memory was not necessarily immediately threatening to the PRT, it was actually very respectable as far as powers go. And her Speed of Thought power was currently at a 4. Normal humans weren't even considered to have a power rating of 1, so a power rating of 4 was still far above the average.
After some more thought and questioning her powers a bit, Taylor discovered that aside from the specific concept powers, she could go for a general boosting power with different charge costs. For example, if she wanted to boost her mind in general instead of in one specific area, she would have to spend 2 charges to get to level 1. Then 4 charges would be required to get to level 2.
And the cost rose by 2 charges every level. So to go from level 2 to level 3 would require 6 charges. To go from level 3 to level 4 would cost 8 charges. To go from level 0 to level 10 in boosting her overall mind, it would require 110 charges.
It was a high cost, but it boosted everything about her mind. Her thought speed, memory retention/recall, imagination, calculation capability, ingenuity, abstract thought, intuition, etc, etc.
So in 11 days of using all 10 charges, everything to do with her mind could be a 10 on the power scale. The same could be done for her physical capabilities. In 11 days she could be a power tier level 10 Brute.
The realization of just how strong she could get really struck Taylor at that moment.
Especially because as she questioned her power about the results of various power creations, she realized that her Memory Retention/Recall and Speed of Thought powers had no additional information because they didn't need any to be used.
Duh.
Taylor felt kind of dumb for not realizing that at first. The powers her Power Manipulation gave her would of course come with information and knowledge of how to use them if they needed it. The jump document even told her that.
Taylor blamed her mistaken idea of how her powers worked on her new circumstances that she wasn't at her best and brightest at the moment.
So while she could spend the next 11 days boosting her base physical body up to a power level of 10 so she would be strong, tough, and fast, Taylor decided she wouldn't do that alone. A mix of boosting her mind and body, and then adding in single concept powers would increase her power faster than simply making her an overall Brute 10 with no additional powers.
So with the general knowledge of how Power Manipulation worked, Taylor decided on how to use the rest of her charges for the day.
She first focused on creating a General Mind Enhancement power. A moment later two charges were used up and warmth spread throughout her head. Her overall mind was now at a level 1.
Taylor could immediately feel the overall improvement. More than simply recalling things with exactness and fast, she was thinking better in all respects. Like she thought earlier, normal humans were only a 0, so a power rating of 1 was a good boost.
She focused once more on enhancing her mind. 4 charges were used up this time, followed by expected warmth rushing though her head. Her overall mind was now a level 2.
She felt satisfied with what she had done, even if she had stumbled a bit at first with misunderstanding her mind. Her Memory Retention/Recall was a level 6, Speed of thought was a level 4, and her General Mind level was 2.
There was one charge left over that Taylor was going to leave alone for now. Based on how many charges were required to level up her powers, she was fairly sure…well, she was hoping that her 10 charges a day would get added to the available pool of charges, rather than being restored to 10 charges each day.
There was still the possibility that she was wrong in that assumption. If she couldn't stockpile sparky charges, but could still apply charges to a future power without boosting it to the next level, everything would still work out. So she would rather lose the single charge this time than lose a full 10 charges in the future through her assumptions.
A moment later Taylor almost face palmed herself. She still wasn't used to her power being so…helpful. At least when it was consulted it was helpful. If she didn't pose questions, she got no answers.
She had accidentally posed the question to her power and got the definite sense that her charges would be added every day at noon and that she had unlimited space to hold the charges as they piled up every day. So saving that single charge wasn't critical to test out the limits of her power. It would still be there at noon, and then she would have 11 charges to work with.
'Well, then. I think I will still leave it be for now. Tomorrow when I get my new charges I'll use that single charge to get some power to enhance my eyesight and get rid of my glasses. Other than that, I think I'll use 6 charges to boost my body in general to a level 2. The remaining 4 will have to wait until I'm not so tired to choose.'
With her immediate choices of how to use her charges decided, Taylor let herself drift off to sleep. Even though she had only been awake for a couple hours, she was tired out from the emotional rollercoaster. She needed her rest to take on this crazy world.