Bringer of Friends
I never would have thought that my love of helping crafting interesting stories would get me into trouble. Then again, I didn't really think that ROB's were a thing. Now I'm stuck in a world that could best be described as on life support with what amounts to the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP! This should be interesting.
And we're back. Nothing really to say here, other than enjoy!
Chapter 2
A couple of days after my arrival into the world of Worm saw me fully settled with a brand new ID, an official ownership of the apartment the ROB had provided and an impressive tab with the Number Man to get my bounty into my brand new bank account without causing trouble. What? He was the best choice and his service was popular with those with a lot of money to move around in secret, anonymous and reliable. Sure, there was a risk, but I don't think that they could figure out that the bounty came from breaking the Gray Boy loops and if they can, well, I'm probably in trouble anyway. I'd also taken the opportunity to properly examine how the powers I had in each of my forms worked and had discovered some very interesting, and potentially annoying, things about them.
With most of the setup work now done, I took the opportunity to properly familiarize myself with the city from ground level, making sure I knew how to get around by bus and on foot. The main things I wanted to know was where places like the hospital, the schools and the PRT HQ were in relation to my apartment. It also gave me the chance to see the general state of the city and it was...rather grim in all honesty. The whole city felt so lifeless, like it was just going through the motions, and the constant reminders of the gang presence in the form of tags everywhere and people in gang colours walking down the street didn't help matters. I'm not sure if it was because I was looking at it with an outsiders eyes, if this version of the Bay was worse than in canon or if it was some weird side effect of my Magic, but I couldn't stop noticing it. Even the playgrounds and parks seemed drab and dull, even with the sounds of children playing.
"I really need to try and do something about this mess," I muttered as I made my way home, "Guess its time to be a Her...WHOA!"
I hopped back as a girl with curly hair came pelting around the corner, followed a moment later by a group of large boys with the look of jocks, one of whom was brandishing a roll of what appeared to be duct tape.
"Wait, was that…?" I said, before I shook myself off and ran after the retreating chase.
Whether it was Taylor or not, it was clear that the boys had unpleasant things planned if they caught her.
Taylors lungs were burning. So were her legs, stomach and throat and her head was starting to ache as her body begged her to stop. Unfortunately, she couldn't, not if she wanted to avoid whatever fate the boys Sophia had goaded into chasing her had in mind. The fact they hadn't caught her yet was either a miracle or sadism on the boys part, but she wasn't about to question it, not when her entire being was focused on getting somewhere with people, which would hopefully stop the upcoming assault.
Unfortunately, it seemed that luck was once again against her as the streets were almost empty. Fortunately, she could hear the sound of people just a block over, so she was nearly safe…
"Gotcha!"
Taylor yelped as a large hand closed around her wrist, jerking her back as the much stronger boy pulled her back, other hand grasping for the safety that was just out of reach. She screamed, but the sound was quickly cut off by a large hand, and started thrashing as best she could, just barely resisting the urge to call a biblical plague down on the boy holding her. She wasn't quite that desperate yet and she wasn't confident she'd be able to stop from doing something she'd regret if she did call in the swarm.
Then, she heard the sound of duct tape being pulled.
"Hold her still!" said one of the other boys as her free hand was grabbed and pulled behind her, "Thats it, now lets…"
"BACK OFF!"
Taylor opened her eyes in surprise at the sudden intrusion, just in time to see the boy with the duct tape take a knee to the side and go flying.
"What the fu…OOF?!"
One of the boys who was holding her went down as the newcomer grabbed the roll of duct tape and threw it at him, catching him full in the face. The other boy quickly let go and backed up with his hands up, leaving Taylor to fall on her behind, her stamina drained from her flight and fight.
"Smart move," said her rescuer, "Now git."
The three boys got, leaving Taylor alone with her rescuer. He looked like he was in his early 20s at most, with the only really unusual aspects of his appearance being a small scar above his right eyebrow and his platinum blonde, almost white, hair. Other than that, he was slightly shorter than average, with a slim build. He was wearing jeans, a pair of bulky walking boots and a blue jacket with a symbol that resembled a winged creature with a tail that Taylor didn't recognize on the back.
"Hey, you OK?" he asked, snapping Taylor out of her examination.
"Oh, um, yes," said Taylor, "Um, thanks."
She tried to stand up, but her legs were shaking too badly to hold her weight and she collapsed again. Before she could hit the ground, the man caught her and lowered her back into a sitting position.
"Take your time kid," he said, "Theres no rush."
Taylor stared up at him. It said something about her experiences lately that the idea of someone helping her for no apparent reason was setting off all sorts of alarms. Then again, this was Brockton Bay. With that in mind, she began to gather a swarm out of sight. While she didn't really want to be using her power in public like this, she wasn't about to let this guy do anything to her.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Oh, sorry, I should have introduced myself," he said, "My names Yuri Strauss."
"OK, so why did you help me?" asked Taylor, filing the name away, just in case.
Yuri smiled.
"I wasn't aware that you needed a reason to help someone," he said.
His grin just widened when Taylor fixed him with a look.
"So, what did you do to get those guys so mad at you?" he asked.
"Hell if I know," muttered Taylor.
Yuri eyed her for a moment, then sighed and pushed off the lamppost he was leaning against.
"Well, none of my business anyway," he said, "I should be going. Stay safe on your way home."
He started walking away, before pausing and glancing back.
"Oh, but before I go, a little piece of advice," he said, "Try to remember that your school life is just one part of the whole. You're not limited to school to make some friends. Try joining a club or something and make some friends away from that mess. It'll do you some good and maybe help you build up some confidence to do away with the idiots picking on you."
Taylor jolted and whipped her head around to stare at the blonde.
"Wha...how did you…?!" she spluttered.
Yuri grinned.
"Lucky guess," he said, "See ya around Taylor."
Taylor stared after him until he vanished around the corner, before heading home herself, deep in thought. It wasn't until much later that she realized she hadn't told him her name.
Amy Dallon, more commonly known as Panacea, sighed as she trudged into the hospital. She really didn't want to be here today, not after the night she'd had, but duty called, as did the Hospital, so here she was. On the up side, it didn't sound like it was an emergency, so she would just be dealing with a normal day rather than the insanity that came with such things. On the down side, that meant she'd have plenty of time to get stuck in her own head.
She entered the hospital and paused when she spotted her main point of contact, Dr Hope, stood in the waiting room, talking with a PRT agent she vaguely recognized and a man in black and silver armour. She hesitated for a moment, then padded over, drawing the attention of the small group.
"Ah, good morning Panacea," said the ever cheerful Dr Hope, "Thank you for coming so quickly. I know today was supposed to be your day off, but the PRT wants to get Ideal here tested as soon as possible."
Amy blinked a couple of times, before she realized what the Doctor meant.
"You're a healer?" she asked.
Ideal smiled and shrugged.
"Not in the same way as you, but yes," he said.
The PRT Agent cleared his throat.
"Now that Panacea is here, we should get started," he said as he reached into his pocket, pulling out a tape recorder and quickly rattling off the time, date and those present, "For the record, how do your powers work?"
"I can create bubbles and control the time inside them," said Ideal, holding up his hand and generating a silvery ball the size of a baseball just above his palm, "I can control the bubbles telekinetically and speed up, slow down or freeze the time inside of them."
"You can't turn back time?" asked the agent.
Ideal hesitated for a moment then nodded.
"I can, but doing so is harder than changing the flow forwards," he said, "I have an, ah, energy source I suppose would be the best way of putting it which powers all of my abilities. So long as the times moving forwards or stopped, its easy to keep it going and doesn't take much, but turning it back is much more draining, especially if used on a living thing. Inanimate objects are a lot easier to effect with my powers."
"I see," said the agent, "So you're not Manton limited?"
"Nope, not sure why though," said Ideal in a remarkably cheerful voice for someone who had just cranked his threat rating up by at least two levels.
The agent nodded as the small group climbed into a lift. Amy kept one eye on the other Cape, trying to figure out what it was about him that was making her uncomfortable. Maybe it was his apparent carefree attitude, a trait rather uncommon in new Capes for obvious reasons, but something about him was bothering her. It wasn't something she could put her finger on, but something told her that this man was dangerous, even more so than his powers implied.
Ideal noticed her looking and smiled, making her twitch and look away. His mask and strange feeling she was getting made the smile seem much more ominous than it should.
"So, you can heal by turning back time?" asked the PRT agent.
Ideals lips curled up slightly and he nodded.
"Yep, thats right," he said.
"Hes lying," thought Amy.
She wasn't sure how she knew, but she was absolutely positive that he wasn't being honest. However, considering she didn't have anything to prove her suspicions and wasn't entirely sure where they were coming from in the first place, she kept her mouth shut. She did however, move a few steps closer so she was in arms reach, just in case.
"I can't heal anything that doesn't have a cause or is gradual in how it affects the victim," continued Ideal, "So birth defects, most types of mental illness and things like that I can't do much about. Cancer is more hit and miss, but its probably best to assume that I can't do much about that, other than reduce its severity. Injuries and pathogenic illnesses are all fair game though."
"I think that'll be more helpful in the long run," said Dr Hope, "Honestly, even if you could only fix cuts and bruises, we'd take any help we can get."
He scowled and shook his head.
"This city is not kind to its residence."
"No, I noticed that myself," said Ideal, "So, where do we start?"
"I need to see you heal some people and double check that there's no after effects," said the agent, "Dr Hope?"
"Of course, right this way," said Dr Hope, leading the way over to one of the private rooms where a young man with both legs in casts and a nasty case of road rash was waiting, "Mr Tooms here had a nasty accident on his bike a few days ago. Hes agreed to undergo healing from you Ideal."
Ideal nodded as he stepped into the room and smiled at Mr Tooms, who smiled back a little shakily.
"Guess the road won your little fight," said the Cape.
Mr Tooms snorted, then groaned.
"Ohh, don't make me laugh," he groaned, "Teach me for trying to be a daredevil. Completely trashed my bike to…"
"Better losing a bike than your life," said Ideal, getting another snort and a nod from the man, "Alright, lets get started. Try not to move and definitely don't let anything stick out of the bubble."
Mr Tooms looked a little nervous as Ideal created one of his silver bubbles and surrounded the bed and patent with it.
"Why not?" he asked, his voice slightly distorted by the bubble.
"Because anything outside the bubble won't be effected and the results could be...strange," said Ideal, "This might feel a bit weird."
His jaw tightened as he placed a hand on the bubble, which began to glow. Amy edged a little closer to get a closer look and as she did, she heard Ideal whisper something under his breath.
"Time Eater."
Amy shot a startled look at him, before looking back at the patent and watching in no small amount of awe as his injuries rapidly faded away, leaving him looking hale, hearty and very shocked. A moment later, the bubble stopped glowing and was absorbed back into Ideal's hand. Amy stared for a moment longer, then quickly took Mr Tooms hand. What she found surprised her.
"Hes fully healed," she reported, "Its like he was never hurt in the first place."
"Of course its not," said Ideal, "I've returned his body to the state it was in before he was injured."
"Oh my, thats rather impressive," said Dr Hope, "Are there any side effects?"
"There shouldn't be," said Ideal, "Like I said, hes in the exact same shape as he was in before he was hurt."
The PRT agent made a few notes on a notepad he pulled out of his jacket and nodded.
"Alright, I just need a few more to give a decent subject pool and we'll be done here," he said, "With any luck, we'll get the results back in a couple of days."
"I still don't quite see what the point in this is," said Ideal, "If I was a Master trying to use my powers to get thralls, agreeing to go through with this would be the worst idea possible."
"True enough, but the rules are there for a reason," said the agent, "With that in mind, lets get this done. Dr Hope?"
"This way," said the Doctor and led the group off to the next patents room.
An hour later and I was done with the test patents. Dr Hope had managed to pull up a huge number of different injuries and illnesses for me to try my power on and, while it wasn't really that hard, Time Eater required a fair amount of focus to keep it from taking too much, which led to me having a minor tension headache, not to mention being more Mana intensive than my other spells. Hopefully, that would become less of an issue with practice. If not, it wouldn't be that much of an issue since I didn't plan to volunteer my services as a healer that much, not when I could do more good by keeping people from getting hurt in the first place.
I sighed as I let my head fall back against the air conditioner I was leaning against. I was still at the hospital, taking the opportunity to regenerate some of my Mana before I headed out and enjoy the quiet so I could think.
The subject of my thoughts was Amy Dallon, who had spent the entire time watching me far closer than I had expected. Considering what I knew about her character at this point in the story, or before the story to be more accurate since it was still February, I was expecting mild curiosity and possibly some prickly comments, not barely hidden suspicion and wariness. It was weird, worrying and annoying because it would make getting her to take a vial a pain in the neck and Amy Dallon was one of the people who desperately need a power that ran on love rather than conflict.
I sighed again and pulled one of the vials out of the storage pocket of my armour, idly turning it in my hands as I considered the problem. The stuff in it appeared to be ordinary water, although it did sparkle strangely when the light caught it, so it wouldn't be that hard to trick someone into drinking one. The problem was, I had no idea what would happen when someone did drink it and I somehow doubted it would be anything less than impressive. It would make some pretty impressive changes to the body after all, not to mention the potential issues of having Magical knowledge rammed into their head. No, tricking someone, especially in public, would be a horrible idea if I wanted to maintain any sort of good relationship with them.
The sound of the rooftop door opening drew me from my thoughts and I looked up to see Panacea walk out onto the roof, pulling a pack of cigarettes from her robe pocket as she did. She was just about to light one when she spotted me and froze. For a moment, we stared at each other, before she scowled, put the cigarette away and stomped over.
"What are you still doing here?" she growled.
I blinked, a little taken aback by the hostility.
"Just catching my breath and doing some thinking," I said, putting the vial on the roof beside me, "Now perhaps you can tell me whats got your panties in a wad? I'm fairly sure I haven't done anything to you, but you've been glaring at me since we started this morning."
Amy scowled.
"I don't trust you," she said bluntly, "Back when we started, you lied about how your powers work and I'm pretty sure that you're doing this for your own gain."
I blinked, more than a little surprised that she noticed that.
"What, you're not going to try and deny it?" she demanded.
"Not really because you're not entirely wrong," I said, "Although its not as bad as you think. Now, how best to explain this…"
I closed my eyes and thought for a moment, then snapped my fingers.
"OK, think about it like this," I said, "Time is a fundamental part of reality and it goes one way. Forwards. Powers that reverse that mess with that flow are rare and come with incredible risks attached. Now, speeding up, slowing down and even freezing time don't tend to cause too many problems because you're not breaking any fundamental laws and time keeps moving. Reversing time however is much harder."
I got to my feet and started pacing.
"There are a few ways to do it," I continued, "One way is to cheat and simply open portals to or superimpose alternate worlds that aren't temporarily locked to this one, or simply use a variant of space or matter manipulation to create the illusion of reversing time. However, to actually reverse time, you need either a LOT of energy or to pay a price of time from somewhere else. The most obvious place to get it from is the powers user, which causes rapid aging, but there are other options. You could drain it from your surroundings, but inanimate objects aren't really a good source of time because they simply don't have the same conceptual weight as a living thing. Likewise, plants don't have as much weight as animals and animals, even the smartest ones, don't have the same weight as a being able to make choices like a Human can."
"Wait, are you saying that you stole some of the patents...time?" asked Amy.
"Not exactly," I said, "I could do it, simply shave a couple of hours off of people I capture or fight. Its not like it'd hurt them, just make their life a tiny bit shorter. Or, if I was so well inclined, I could simply find someone who no one would miss and completely drain them. Its not like anyone would find the body."
I picked up a discarded coke can and surrounded it with a bubble. A moment later, the metal turned into white ash and drifted through my fingers as Amy stared with wide eyes.
"However, those methods have their own issues, so instead I went with an easier one," I said as I brushed off my hands, "I used an application on the ability to devour time to heal."
"How?" asked Amy.
I grinned.
"By devouring the moment the injury or illness hit the body," I said, "Its not reversing time, its removing the event from the physical timeline of the body. Sure, I don't get quite as much as I could, but its more than enough. I don't have many reasons to truly turn back the clock more than a few minutes on anything, so I can slowly build up power. Given enough time to gather the required power, I could even reverse the time of an entire city in the aftermath of an Endbringer attack!"
I turned back to Amy and grinned.
"So, still think I've got some nefarious plan in the works?"
Amy scoffed and drained her water bottle, before tossing it at me. I caught it without looking or shifting my grin.
"Fine, you've made your point," she grumbled, "I'm not sure why you didn't just come out and say it this morning though…"
"Because then the PRT would have got all funny and I really don't want to have to deal with that," I said, "I'm sure you understand."
"Yeah, sure, whatever," said Amy as she rubbed her stomach as if it was hurting her.
I frowned.
"Hey, are you O...K?" I asked, before I suddenly realized that Amy hadnt had a water bottle when she came up on the roof, "Awww crap."
I glanced at the bottle in my hand and yep, it was the vial I'd been playing with earlier.
"Well, I guess thats one way to get it into her," I said, "Now lets just hope that…"
I was cut off as Amy collapsed. I darted over and turned her over, revealing glowing red markings, not unlike what happened when Ultear released the cast's Second Origin. Fortunately, there was no blast of light or agonized screaming, although from the look on Amys face, I had a feeling that was more to do with her muscles locking up than lack of pain.
I sighed and dropped down next to her.
"Well, nothing to do but wait I guess," I muttered, "With any luck, this won't take lo…"
I was cut off by a wave of fear that made me stiffen up. I slowly turned around and looked up at the avenging angel who was floating above the roof, glaring down at me.
"What. Happened. To. Amy?" growled Glory Girl.
I swallowed. This...was gonna suck.
Welp, that'll do for this one. I would have done more, but thats a perfect place to end. For Fairy Tail viewers, just picture the scene freeze-framing with Yuri and Glory facing down while the ending credits (inevitably something incredibly happy that really doesn't match the tone) starts playing us out. Thats what I did.
I actually went through a couple of different ideas for the opening bit, starting with Dinah accosting Yuri and ending up being the first receiver of a Vial, then I remembered that she wouldn't have Triggered yet and scrapped it. Thats fine though, it didn't make as much sense as I'd have liked and I much prefer the new one.
To be clear, Fairy Tail doesn't exist on Bet, but the ROB provided Yuri with some clothes that have the Fairy Tail logo on them.
I'm...honestly not sure why Amy is that hostile to Yuri right off the bat. I wanted her to be a bit suspicious so I could have that chat on the roof, but she got away from me. I toyed with the idea of Shards not liking Mages, but that would cause unnecessary problems in the future, which...would have been in keeping for Worm I admit, but it wasn't what I wanted. Instead, you can think of it as a subconscious feeling of being threatened by a newcomer apparently muscling in on Amy's 'turf'. She might hate healing at this point, but the Hospital is also somewhere where she has power and is respected, so she sees Yuri as an interloper into that space. Throw in a grumpy Shard that doesn't want to lose its only source of data, stress, likely sleep deprivation and teenage hormones and you have a recipe for disaster.
Her drinking what she thought was Yuri's apparently unopened drink was an extension of that, although it was pretty dumb all the same.
And heres Vicky! I see no way this will end well.
Speaking of, suggestions for possible Magical styles for Worm characters to get are welcome.
And with that, I'm done. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!