Outsider Chronicles: Innovate Dream
Traumatic events have a nasty habit of knocking things loose. On Earth Bet, that includes superpowers. In my case, it also included some existential knowledge I really could have done without. Now I find myself in an unfamiliar city with powers strong enough to put me on everyones watchlist. What is with little girls and having space bending powers anyway?
And we're back. Nothing much to add here, other than enjoy!
Chapter 2
Taylor wasn't really sure how she felt about the last couple of days. The last thing she had expected when she left school early that day was to find her Dad home early, and with an unknown cousin who was now staying with them at that. That had been a shock, but Taylor had been more than a little glad for the little blondes presence as it meant that the argument sparked by the reveal that the school was utterly useless and that Emma was the one responsible for the bullying was cut short before it could really get going.
On the up side, its not like their relationship could get more awkward, so that wasn't really that much of a change.
Speaking of her cousin, despite the absolute beating her social skills and ability to trust new people had taken thanks to the Trio, Taylor find herself liking Dorothy. The girls endless cheer was infectious and she appeared to have a mischievous streak a mile wide if some of her choices in potential outfit were anything to go by.
That said, Taylor couldn't help but feel a little jealous that the 12 year old was already bigger than her.
That said, while she was feeling a lot better than she had been, she was still feeling the need to prove that she was truly capable, so as she planned, headed out on Sunday night. Her intent was just to do a patrol around the docks. Instead, she ended up fighting LUNG of all people to protect what she thought was a bunch of kids, only to discover that the 'kids' in question were the Villainous team, the Undersiders, then met Armsmaster and discovered he was a bit of a dick.
All in all, it had been a very long night and, as she made her way home, all Taylor wanted was to fall into bed and sleep. Unfortunately, as she approached her home and used her bugs to make sure that her Father was still in bed as best she could, she discovered that, while her Father was safely asleep, Dorothy's bed was empty. A quick check of the rest of the house revealed no sign of the little blonde as Taylor rushed into the house and sprinted up to the spare room. She wasn't sure what she expected to find as her bugs couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, but her ability to sense things through her bugs wasn't the greatest, so she had to check for herself.
What she wasn't expecting was to barge into the room, just in time to see Dorothy emerge from a door that faded rapidly after closing.
Both girls stood frozen for a moment, before Dorothy deflated.
"Well, shit," she said flatly.
Taylor scowled and crossed her arms.
"You have powers," she said.
Her cousins expression went flat.
"My parents were killed right in front of me by a bunch of skull wearing lunatics and I nearly died myself," she said, "Of course I have powers!"
Taylor flinched. Yeah, that was a really stupid thing to say.
"Sorry," she muttered.
There was a moment of awkward silence, before it was broken by a loud, jaw cracking yawn. Despite herself, Taylor couldn't help but smile at Dorothy's embarrassed blush.
"Come on, bed," she said, "We can talk about this in the morning."
"K," said Dorothy, rubbing her eyes as she stumbled over to her bed and flopped down on it.
Taylor sighed and moved around the bed, covering the little blonde and tucking her in, ignoring her sleepy protests.
"Sleep tight," she said.
"K, night Tay," mumbled Dorothy, her eyes already shutting.
Taylor stifled a yawn of her own, before making her way out of the room, flipping the light off as she left.
The next day dawned bright and way too early with my alarm cutting through my sleep like a knife through butter, followed by my Uncle coming in and getting me up when I rolled over and tired to ignore it. On the up side, a very good breakfast was waiting for me, along with an equally sleepy looking Taylor. Danny joined us shortly after, having had to step out to answer the phone. Once we were done consuming our respective fuel sources and were more awake, Taylor got up to leave.
"Wait a moment Taylor, I need to talk to you," he said, making my cousin pause and slowly sit down.
"Whats up Dad?" she asked, "I need to hurry up if I want to be back from my run before school."
"Don't worry about that," he said, "I'm going to be pulling you out of Winslow today."
Taylor looked startled, but before she could protest, Danny held up a hand.
"It is quite clear that that school is utterly incapable of providing any kind of suitable security," he said, "They promised that they would not allow anything like…that incident to happen again and yet, have clearly done nothing. As such, I am not allowing you to continue to be in that environment any more."
Taylor shut her mouth, a shocked look on her face. That done, he turned to me.
"Today was supposed to be your first day at school as well, but I just received a phone call and apparently Summerfield Middle School had a catastrophic plumbing failure early this morning," he said, "The school will be closed for about a week until they sort it all out."
"O…K," I said, "So I'm going to be home for a bit?"
"Yes, so I'm trusting Taylor to keep an eye on you," he said, "Is that OK Taylor?"
"I…sure, I don't mind," she said.
"Good, in that case, I need to go," said Danny, getting to his feet, "I have a meeting with a lawyer before I go and see Blackwell. Have a good day girls."
He gave Taylor a quick hug, before grabbing his briefcase and leaving the room. A moment later, the front door shut, leaving the two of us sat in the kitchen in utter shock. That…was not the Danny Hebert I was expecting. And judging from the look on Taylors face, she felt much the same.
"So…judging from that look, I'm guessing that wasn't normal?" I asked.
"Not…really," said Taylor, "Since Mom…since Mom died, hes been kinda…listless."
"Huh…I wonder what snapped him out of that?" I muttered.
Taylor just shrugged helplessly.
After cleaning up breakfast, Taylor and I retired to the living room.
"Soooo, powers?" said Taylor.
"Right, so I can do this," I said as one of my doors phased into existence, "I have a pocket dimension where I can do…basically anything I want."
Taylor frowned.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Here, I'll show you," I said, opening the door, "Come on."
On the other side, a gravity defying mock up of a sitting room, complete with coffee table, my winged armchair, a mantlepiece and a few random paintings floating where the walls should be. There wasn't even a floor, just boards that flew into place under our feet as we walked.
Why yes, I am showing off, how can you tell?
I dropped into my armchair, snatching up my Rimuru slime plushy as I did and waved a hand at the spider shaped armchair that appeared across from me. Taylor hesitated, then slowly stepped through the door, flinching slightly as the floor manifested under her feet. She slowly made her way over to the chair.
"What is this place?" asked Taylor.
"I told you, its my pocket dimension," I said, "I can do whatever I want here."
I waved a hand and the darkness under us exploded into life as an enormous jungle appeared. Taylor jolted, her eyes going very wide.
"Holy…what the fuck have you got in there?!" she spluttered, "Some of these bugs…"
"Yeah, thats Catachan for you," I said as the copy of the Death World I'd created exploded into active volcanoes, then was swamped by an endless sea as a Reaper Leviathan crested the surface with a reverberating roar.
Taylor stared down at the swirling surface as it melted back into the darkness of potential, then looked back up at me with wide eyes.
"So…you can make anything?" she asked.
I shrugged.
"Pretty much," I said, "But anything I make from nothing won't last more than a few seconds outside of this place."
"But once you get someone in here…"
"They are basically at my mercy, yes," I said with a grin as a massive labyrinth popped into existence beneath us.
Taylor watched as I tossed a handful of dice off my chair and the seemingly small bits of metal slam into the ground below, now the size of buildings. She swallowed and glanced at the door.
"Oh, and I have a way around the issues of not being able to take things from this place," I said, "If I create the resources needed to create an item and then work them like a normal person would, I can take them out of this place. It works even better if I provide seed material. I can even make workers to do it for me!"
Taylors eyes snapped back to me.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
I grinned and reached across to the mantle piece where a snowglobe was sitting innocently. I picked it up and plopped it down on the coffee table, where it promptly melted and turned the table into a screen that looked down into Ariadne's workshop. The Spider woman was currently shouting at one of the generic workers. A moment later, the image shifted to Brunor, who was supervising a group of Dwarves as they put the finishing touches to a battery of massive ballista, then to Rose, who was putting the finishing touches to a pointed witches hat.
"I have a built in workforce," I said with a wide grin.
Taylor stared at the screen for a moment, then let out a slightly hysterical bark of laughter and dropped her head into her hands.
"And here I thought you could just make portals," she said, "This is just…"
"Complete and total bullshit?" I prompted, not losing my shit eating grin.
Taylor snorted.
"Not the language I'd use, but sure," she said, "It makes mine look even weaker by comparison…"
I hummed.
"I wouldn't say that," I said, "Sure, I might be the strongest Shaker around, but bug control is still plenty powerful."
Taylor looked up with a raised eyebrow.
"How did you know about that?" she asked.
"I noticed the bugs around you acting weird," I said quickly, "But ignoring that, considering that bugs outweigh every other lifeform on the planet above microscopic level by an order of magnitude, even a fairly short range would be formidable if you could control enough of them."
Taylor didn't look convinced. I just shrugged and lent back in my chair.
"Well, I'm sure you'll find out how effective you can be eventually," I said, "So, what now?"
Taylor sighed and got to her feet.
"Now, we go back out and pay a visit to the library," she said, "I want to do some research and our internet is…not the best. Unless you can…"
I shook my head.
"Not really," I said, "I probably could given a bit of time, but its really not worth it right now."
I hopped off my chair and followed Taylor out of the pocket dimension.
An hour later, we were in Brockton Central Library, which was actually surprisingly nice considering the state of the city. After a quick chat with the librarian at the desk, we nabbed a couple of computers and got to work. In my case, I needed to brush up on my knowledge and see what might have been left out of the story itself in the name of time and relevance. And do a bit of research on the Boat Graveyard.
While I could get around most of the downsides of bringing things out of my pocket dimension with the work around, anything created solely from things spawned by my power would be naturally weaker than natural objects. For the most part, that wouldn't be a problem, but if I needed a weapon, it would be. So, to get around that, I needed seed materials to remove the problem. And if I could provide a useful service to the city, well, all the better.
I was in the middle of trying to figure out if eating the Boat Graveyard would actually get me in trouble or not when Taylor made a noise of surprise from next to me. I lent over the divider and saw that she was reading a message from a 'Tt' on PHO.
Subject: Bug
Owe you one. Would like to repay the favor. Meet?
Send a message,
Tt.
"Friend of yours?" I asked.
"Not really," said Taylor, clearly distracted, "Just someone I met last night."
"Hmm," I said, "So, what are you going to do?"
Taylor looked rather torn.
"I don't know," she said, "They did save me last night, but I'm pretty sure that they are Villains…"
I hesitated. Taylor joining the Undersiders was both a very good and very bad thing for her. On one hand, it led her down the path of villainy that ended with her becoming Khepri, but on the other, it also got her some genuinely good friends, something she desperately needed. That being said, considering what had happened this morning, she might not actually need them now.
Then again, there was the rather large payday she got out of it, so…
"You should go for it," I said, "Even if they are villains, it might still be worth hearing them out. Unless it was the Empire or something."
Taylor snorted.
"I wouldn't be hesitating if it was," she said, "Still, I don't like the idea of going on my own…"
"I can cover your back if you want," I offered, "My gear isn't done yet, but I do have some things I can use."
Taylor looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
"I really don't think I should be taking you into danger like that," she said.
I grinned.
"Don't worry about that, I'll be well out of range," I said, "I got a flying broom."
Taylor snorted and ruffled my hair, making me squark in protest, before turning back to her computer and started typing.
Subject: Re:Bug
Bug here. Would like to meet, but want proof you are Tt. I'll reciprocate if needed.
She hesitated for a moment, then hit send. A couple of minutes later, the response came and we both huddled around the screen to read it.
Subject: re:Bug
Proof? Last night you didn't say anything until I asked your name. Big guy had a mess of nasty bites and you pepper sprayed him and I told my pal G that when he asked. Good enough?
G R and me will meet you at the same spot we crossed paths last night, k? Don't have to get gussied up if you catch my drift. Rest of us will be in casual wear.
If we meet at 3 will that give you enough time to get there from library with everything you need? let me know
Ta ta
"Huh, thats pretty impressive," I said, "I guess she must have a Thinker power of some kind."
I glanced at Taylor, who was looking rather torn. I nudged her.
"You OK?" I asked.
She glanced at me and let out a long sigh.
"Yeah, fine," she said.
She rested her fingers on the keyboard for a moment, then quickly typed and sent a reply, before standing up.
"Come on, lets go," she said, "We need to get changed before this."
I grinned and trotted after my cousin as she left the library with set shoulders.
Ya know what? I'm going to leave this chapter here. Now, before we move on, no, I have no plans for Taylor to join the Undersiders. However, theres no harm in profiting off their gratitude, right? Plus, having Tats around for the inevitable scuffle with Coil is always smart.
Dawww, they're bonding! I'm sure this won't backfire spectacularly for the Bay.
Competent Danny is going to be a thing here…sort of. Hes received enough of a kick up the rear to get him moving where his girls are concerned, but of course, hes still got his issues.
Incidentally, I wonder what caused that plumbing problem in a school attended by preteens? Hmmm…
Yes, I did take some text from the original work for this one, but it was only the PMs between Taylor and Lisa. There really hasn't been enough changed for that to truly be affected yet. It will go completely off the rails very soon though.
And with that, I think I'm going to sign out. Don't forget to leave a review!