The sink exploded in her hands. All she had meant to do was push away, but the porcelain sink she'd been gripping shattered with the slightest amount of pressure. With that came the pressurized blast of water roaring from the pipes she'd somehow torn apart with the slightest of touches.
"You've done it now brat," the disembodied voice drawled as Taylor sputtered and desperately tried to stop the leak with her bare hands. "Shut up!" She intelligently yelled, getting a mouthful of scalding hot water in return as she flailed aimlessly in her impromptu shower. A loud knock at the door made her stomach drop into her knees.
"Is everything alright in there!?" Taylor heard shouted over the water currently spraying her from head to toe.
"Y-Yeah! Everything's fine!" Taylor blindly ran her hands over the pipe, searching for the offending leak while her head turned towards the unlocked bathroom door to respond. "Don't come in!" Taylor frantically added as she watched the growing puddle beneath her inching towards the door.
Her mind raced for possible solutions, only interrupted by the feeling of her bare hands sinking into the metal pipe. Taylor swallowed nervously before gritting her teeth in determination.
With all of her newfound strength, she defiantly wrapped her hands over the offending pipe before pulling and twisting the engineering disaster into her desired position. Twenty seconds later, an unwatered breath of air filled her lungs as she stepped back to admire her handiwork. Though it might not have been her best work, an Overhand Knot was quick and simple enough to turn the out-of-control firehose of a leak into a dripping faucet when she pulled it tight enough.
Her shaking hands gripped the door handle, creaking the door just enough for an opening that only showed a portion of her face and not ground zero of her discovering she did in fact have powers. Years of childhood Hero fantasies were hastily bullied into a corner of her mind when she came face to face with a concerned-looking nurse and an annoyed man in flannel and jeans.
"There was a bit of an accident," Taylor tried to keep her voice from shaking as she spoke through the door. "Is there any chance you could get me a change of clothes?"
"Y-Yes, I'm sure we have something for you to wear while you…clean up," thankfully the nurse took one look at her dripping face and decided to not ask questions.
A hushed thanks was all Taylor managed to get out before shutting the door, leaving her alone with the ominously creaking pipes and puddles of water. Her back hit the door, sliding down until her arms were wrapped around her knees.
"I am so fucked," her voice seemed to echo in the bathroom as the water she sat in seeped into her underwear.
"I'm pretty sure Cape rule number one is "Keep your identity a secret!" I have no idea how to get out of here without drawing unneeded attention to myself. Not to mention the ticking time bomb that is those mangled pipes..."
Despite the water sliding down her body her mouth felt disturbingly dry.
"Hey," the word came out as no more than a mumble, barely louder than the droplets of water dripping into the puddle beneath what remained of the sink. She cleared her throat, silently hoping the growing pit in her stomach was coughed up with it.
"Hey," she spoke with a bit more confidence, trying to ignore the noticeable difference between the sweat and water on her skin.
Silence met her once again.
"Hey, Sukuna." Taylor finally spat out, gritting her teeth. This time noticing the distinct feeling of the skin on her face shifting while a chill ran through her spine.
"What is it brat?" The King of Curses grumbled, hardly an ounce of emotion in his voice.
"Can he only hear me or is he capable of using all of my senses?"
Taylor bit back the snappy response that almost escaped her lips and tried to whittle it down to sound as polite as possible.
"Any chance you help me out here?"
Taylor heard what sounded like a scoff in response, "With what? Your current state of being has no sway on my own. Even if your heart were to cease beating you would not find me rushing to aid you."
"But you're my power in my body! We'll both be in trouble if I'm outed!" Taylor rushed to clamp her hands on her mouth, surprised at her own outburst. She sat there for several seconds, mind racing as she prepared for the inevitable onslaught without Itadori to save her.
Sukuna laughed. A deep gravelly sound that made her want to pull her hospital gown over her head echoed in the bathroom, seeming to bounce endlessly off the walls while she sat there, not daring to move a muscle. When no sudden sharp pains erupted across her body, she slowly let her hands fall from her face.
"'Your power?' Is that how you see this? Even the Itadori brat wasn't as naïve!" He managed to spit out only as his cackling came to an end. Taylor felt her rapidly heating skin shift as he vanished from her face and reappeared on the back of her left hand, only a mouth of sharp teeth opening to an endless void within his jaws.
"I'll only tell you because the other brat didn't get the chance," his tone snapped into something far more serious. Even without an eye staring her down, the uneasiness he brought with his mere presence made her think twice before daring to even twitch at his words.
"You are my vessel. That is your only role. We are not allies nor are we companions. Do not expect help from me when you are in mortal danger or anything less than that. The only thing keeping me from taking over your body is the other brat residing in your soul. Remember that if truly desire to live." With that said he decided it was his time to go, silently sinking back into Taylor's skin before she could hope to choke a word out in protest.
Taylor had a great evil inside of her. In hindsight, the skull throne should've been an instant red flag, but the mere thought of having any sort of power made her hopelessly blind to the truth of her situation. He'd talked about taking over her body, likely leaving her alone in that world she saw within her soul.
"God, I'm really starting to believe in that Curse stuff Itadori was talking about. Is this really a superpower? Cursed to spend my life waiting in fear for the moment I become a meatpuppet to my own p-"
Sukuna's words were still ringing in her head. Stopping those thoughts cold. If Sukuna wasn't her 'power' as he claimed then what was? Is she just physically gifted and Sukuna's only hitching a ride? That can't be it. No Cape is that simple, there always seems to be something else.
Aeigis is a Brute who can fly, Legend has a Breaker state, and Armsmaster is a Jack of All Trades with his technology. There's always some level of versatility that comes with their abilities, wiggle room that allows them to improve with experience outside of familiarity.
A knock on the door shut down that train of thought for later.
"I forgot to ask for your size so I got you a large just to be safe." The nurse handed over a hospital gown and a towel through the cracked door, a wary look in her eyes as Taylor looked down at her with a distant expression. A wordless nod was given to the nurse before the door shut, leaving Taylor to get dressed in relative silence.
With only slightly damp hair and a fresh gown, the only obstacle to her freedom was the wooden door she'd spent the last minute staring at. The ventilation shaft was far too small and there were no windows to jump from. Only one way in or out.
Her eye was drawn to the metallic door handle. Specifically, the press-in lock fitted into it.
Taylor tried to ignore the sudden dripping of water from the ceiling as she walked past reception. Her large-sized hospital gown thankfully covered more of her toned body than the last one had. It likely only hugging her body like that due to her overnight change in size.
No one paid her any mind as confusion spread through the ground floor, more people noticing the steadily increasing dripping, the dull roar of voices around her rising as she tried walking as casually as possible. The automatic doors slid open without any signs of resistance.
Taylor stepped into the night, a cold wind meeting her like an old friend as her soggy hospital-issue slippers carried her to the sidewalk.
The blast of cold air swept her gown with it, causing her to rush to hold the cloth down to not flash the absolutely no one on the streets right now.
Taylor couldn't remember if she'd ever been out this late at night in Brockton Bay. Every dark alley jumped at her, reminding her of the half-a-dozen or so Capes that could probably kill or abduct her before she had a chance to scream.
"Fuck, am I even knifeproof?"
Her skin had weathered the hot water just fine but there was no telling what her limits were and she didn't feel keen on stealing kitchen knives to find out. She didn't need to worry her Dad any more than he probably already was. For now, she'd just run as fast as her new body could take her if she saw any mysterious silhouettes in those alleys. Speaking of her new body, the thing was amazing.
She felt as light as a cloud even as she maintained a controlled pace on the sidewalk, a nagging feeling in the back of her mind constantly prodding her to see how high she could jump, how fast she could run, how hard she could hit.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a little girl who didn't want to be like Alexandria growing up. Even if Taylor was positive she couldn't fly, those long-buried thoughts and emotions were bubbling up and crawling to the surface of her mind as she once again reminded herself that she does in fact have powers.
Every second she was fighting off intrusive thoughts urging her to see if she could jump over that rusting van, clamber up that apartment building, or even swing off that telephone pole. However, the men dressed in red and green who had turned the corner on the sidewalk quickly took the wind out of those sails.
With a quick glance, Taylor spied six in total if you counted the scantily clad Asian woman trapped underneath the arm of the one at the forefront of the group. They all looked pretty young save for the woman, who was approaching her late-twenties a bit harder than most. Two openly wielded baseball bats painted green and red with designs she couldn't make out etched into its surface. She couldn't tell if they were wooden or aluminum from this distance.
However, Taylor was far more wary of those who held nothing in their hands. The possibility of concealed firearms or blades was something she wasn't keen on gambling on if conflict arose.
"Hey bitch! You just get tested for HIV!?" An accentted, slurred taunt was shouted her way by the man at the front, who had spotted her and drawn the attention of his companions.
The nearest alley was about a dozen paces back, next to a twenty-four-hour convenience store sandwiched between two dilapidated apartment buildings. If she turned and ran right now, slipping into the next street over, there was a good chance a group of drunken gang members would give chase and force her to exert herself in a way a fifteen-year-old girl was incapable of doing. The Azn Bad Boys was a Cape-headed gang after all, one infamous for the prostitution rings with a disgustingly low age demographic.
If they somehow got word to their bosses that a new Cape was running around defenseless in their territory there was a good chance she'd come face to face with people not blackout-drunk and capable of calling a teleporting suicide bomber or a flaming dragon to drop on her head. Taylor needed a solution that didn't expose her as a Cape to one of the most dangerous gangs in the city.
"Or I could just crack some heads, make sure they can't call for help."
Taylor shook off that rouge thought and briskly turned to her right and crossed the street, ignoring the catcalls and slurred shouts that trailed behind her, hoping that acting calmly and quickly wouldn't draw more attention than needed.
She was about to let out a sigh of relief when none of them walked after her, but the sound of glass shattering coupled with a sudden pain erupting from the side of her head crushed that possibility. Her fingers slowly reached for the sensation of liquid dripping down her ear, coming back wet, but not red. Her eyes trailed down to the tinted shards of glass at her feet, then to the group of ABB members drunkenly laughing with each other, even the woman joining in with a wavy smile and lidded eyes as fingers pointed in her direction.
Taylor raised a hand to wipe the bitter taste of alcohol from her lips as she found herself advancing towards the gang members.
"Why am I moving?"
Uncut fingernails stabbed into her palms, fists clenched to a point wavering on the edge of drawing blood.
"I've been through worse than this with hardly a couple of tears shed after the fact."
Her plastic slippers melded with the sidewalk with each step, letting out a wet squeak that elicited more laughter from the ABB members. The wet crack when her fist tore into the face of the man next to the woman shut them up quickly.
"So what the hell am I doing?"
He had hit the ground before one of them shouted what she assumed was a foreign swear before stepping forward and swinging his bat at her head. It wasn't that she had a complicated Thinker or Mover power as she understood it, that she was moving so fast that his swing had slowed to a crawl from her perspective. It was simply that her body was faster than his could ever be.
His swing came to a premature stop within Taylor's right hand, only getting a light sting in exchange for getting the chance to watch a man sober up in the span of a second. Her fingers sunk into the metallic surface of the bat before she lashed out with her other hand, clenched into a fist.
"C—!" The man looked like he was about to say something before Taylor sent him sprawling into the brick wall of the apartment building with a punch to the chest. His bat with a human hand imprinted on it clattered to the ground.
"Cape!" One of his friends finished for him just in time for their female companion to finally scream and fumble for a phone in her pocket. Taylor lunged for her, a bit more than a little panicked at the possibility of backup.
In a burst of movement, her hand found the wrist of the woman in an attempt to stop her movements. It was in that attempt she heard a sickening crack before they yelped and went limp. The phone clattered onto the sidewalk and the woman went with it, crying and cradling her injured hand. Taylor hadn't meant to squeeze that hard.
A wooden baseball bat let out an earsplitting crack when it was swung into the back of her head, threatening to send her to a knee when the sharp pain tore through her skull. Taylor wasted no time in spinning around and delivering a haymaker to the dumbfounded man holding a bat with a skull-sized indent on its surface. He crumpled with little fanfare, allowing Taylor to quickly turn toward the two men who were still standing. One had pulled a switchblade while the other looked torn between running and playing dead when her gaze landed on him.
She was confident she could clear the distance between them before the man with a knife could take a wild stab, but the lingering pain from the baseball bat was a constant reminder of her mortality despite her newfound powers.
Surprisingly, she didn't have the chance to advance, the man letting out a battle cry before charging her with both hands wrapped around the handle of his blade, poised to stab forward.
Leaning on her superhuman physique, she sidestepped the attack faster than his inebriated mind could've possibly predicted. Another knockout was dished out with a swift strike to the side of his head, letting him collapse lifelessly onto the sidewalk.
When Taylor turned to address the threat of the other man, a distinct metallic click shattered any sense of confidence she'd built up over the course of this one-sided brawl.
She spun on her heel just in time to see the first man she'd hit on his hands and knees with a handgun raised. His face was a mess of bleeding flesh, yet Taylor could still see the raw hate in his eyes through all the red staining his face.
The supersonic crack of the bullet leaving the chamber made Taylor's heart freeze and every concurrent boom sent a similar shock coursing through her body.
Taylor let out a wince at the sharp and burning pains in her hands that she'd rose to protect her face and two separate spots in her chest. The rest of the bullets had assumedly missed.
When the smoke cleared Taylor was still standing—and he was out of bullets.
When Taylor came to her senses she felt an all too familiar rage bubbling deep in her chest. This man had really tried to kill her.
A running kick exploded into his waiting face, his body lifting several feet off the ground before tumbling to a stop about a meter away. Taylor turned to face the man who was somehow still frozen in shock a dozen feet away. At this point, Taylor wasn't surprised when he fainted, joining the rest of his companions on their concrete mattresses.
She turned to her hands and the glowing aura around them. With an experimental poke a sharp pain rose up from the bullet imbedded in her forearm.
Careful to not exert any more force than she had to, Taylor rapped on the front door. She winced when it sounded loud to her ears regardless. It didn't take long for her to hear lights flick on and distance shuffling from within the house.
When the door finally opened she could tell he was at a loss for words, so she chose to take the initiative before he could jump to any conclusions.
"Hey Dad…there was a bit of an incident at the hospital when I woke up," Taylor struggled to find the next words to say as she failed to gauge his reaction. "I heard it was some kind of Villain attack and ran home."
She looked down at her wet hospital gown, the one she had drenched in a nearby bathroom sink to try and get out what bloodstains she had accumulated in her scuffle, hoping her excuse was enough to dismiss the questions that arose from her current choice of clothing. It was certainly a better alternative than running home in the red and green that those ABB thugs had donned in her mind.
But the last thing Taylor expected was for him to just stare at her, taking several seconds to watch her awkwardly shift around in the occasional cold wind that swept past her.
"Are you alright?" He asked after what felt like an eternity, his voice almost a hush that escaped unnoticed into the night.
FINALLY!
Only at least thirty more chapters to go!!!
Who am I kidding this is a Worm fanfiction, I'll probably still be writing this thing on my deathbed.
Jokes aside I had a bit of trouble writing this chapter due to how unplanned the first one was. You should see my drafts right now, there's like twenty half finished chapters ranging from what's coming up in what I hope less than a month to the (still up in the air) ending and possibly epilogue. Added in the fact I hadn't finished the entirety of Worm I hope you can excuse the time this took to release. Though I have just started Ward which I have had pleasure of not being spoiled on so cheers to that.
Let's hope this 'soon' isn't anywhere close to as long as the last one.
P.S. I'm still trying to get a hang of the formatting so if you spot anything iffy be sure to mention it.