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Regarding this update: First I giggled. Then I went goddamnit, Taylor. Well done! (You, as the author. Tayor... Has problems.)

Regarding the rest of this fic: I pretty much binge-read this whole thing over the last two days, and I'm loving what's there so far. Especially your dialogues/character interactions and the humor. And how the grim-derper themes are (usually) not as obvious/in your face as in the usual worm fics.
 
Is a shame there are no replicants in the Bay, i love to see what Taylor sheaninegans go to with her and her clones goin from place to place.
There's actually two different people who make clones. Oni Lee, and Echidna. Although echidna might not be in town yet. Plus, Lee is a little hard to keep an eye on for a week straight
 
There's actually two different people who make clones. Oni Lee, and Echidna. Although echidna might not be in town yet. Plus, Lee is a little hard to keep an eye on for a week straight
I was thinking more in the lasting clones, and Oni Lee brand of madness is not worth the trouble
 
I mean if you want clones there are no less than 3 factions over in Boston that make custom human slaves via biotinkering, though I think one of them just kidnaps and modifies civilians and another one is composed of cannibals.
 
I mean if you want clones there are no less than 3 factions over in Boston that make custom human slaves via biotinkering, though I think one of them just kidnaps and modifies civilians and another one is composed of cannibals.
1: Spree isn't biotinkering.
2: Blasto's don't look like people.
3: who?
 
1: Spree isn't biotinkering.
2: Blasto's don't look like people.
3: who?
1.Orchard
2.The Four
3.Blasto
And blasto may not like people but custom programmed clones incapable of reproduction are a good product. Though thinking about it those are groups from back during the Boston Games, so not 100% sure if they are still around
 
L.18
This morning you received a message informing you that you were assigned to special duties tonight, and given a time and a place. You sulk your way there expecting more dickery from Hookwolf, but are pleasantly surprised to find Rune waiting for you. It must be really special, if it can make Rune arrive on time.

Your enthusiasm wanes somewhat when she explains that your special assignment is helping fellow Empire cape Alabaster, who went and got himself arrested again. Damn. For all that the Empire is ostensibly a villain group, you've managed to be on their payroll for a good two months now without once doing anything immoral. Until today.

You try to tell yourself that Alabaster would be freed with our without your help. He would! (Parahuman) membership in the Empire comes with get-broken-out-of-jail-free insurance. If you didn't step up, another cape would take your place. Even beyond that (according to Lisa), to a certain extent the system doesn't even want to lock up parahuman criminals.

It still feels wrong. But - you brighten up as a new thought occurs - if you could be part of the Empire while keeping your conscience clean, who is to say that Alabaster isn't the same? In which case his arrest would be unjust, and the act of freeing him, just.

It's even somewhat likely. It's not like you're trying to explain away Hookwolf's body count or anything here, it's Alabaster you're talking about. What could he even do? He has the worst power in the entire world: Immortality.

Not in the 'eternal youth' sense, though for all you know he might have that too. In the 'literally can't die' sense. No matter what happens to him, 4 seconds later he snaps back to perfect health.

Yeah, sure, that sounds good. But it really, really isn't. That's his only power. No strength, no durability, no farting knockout gas. His role in a fight is to run up to people with actual combat powers and distract them by getting repeatedly splattered across the pavement.

Everyone knows he's immortal too, so they don't hold back. He gets to suffer horrific injuries and painful death over and over again, every four seconds for however long the fight lasts. And if, like in his most recent fight, they decide to instead hold him down and slap some cuffs on him, there's nothing he can do about that either.

It would be an amazing power for a Trump like you, except for one crucial detail: He's a monster cape. The whitest supremacist. Not caucasian white or even albino white, but, well, alabaster white. Like a living marble sculpture. You would have sought him out above all others otherwise. It's not (just) vanity holding you back, either. You thought about it carefully, and concluded that 'not being immediately recognizable' would currently improve your functional life expectancy more than 'immortality'.

"Go time," Rune says, snapping you out of your thoughts.

"You realize this is a trap, right?" I ask.

"Yeah, duh? That's literally the mission," Shadow Stalker says, her voice dripping with scorn.

"No, I mean for us," I explain. "Do you really think it's a coincidence that we got pulled off console duty early for this? This is part of our punishment. They're setting us up for a beating."

"Not seeing a downside here. I get to shoot a nazi. You get to whine like a little bitch. The bosses get to pretend they're trying. Everybody wins."

She puts her crossbow down on the bench, then punches Alabaster in the face. She can't get much of a windup within the confines of the truck, but it still snaps his head back into the wall.

"Isn't that right, bitch? Any day you get to hurt a nazi is a good day."

One of the PRT troopers clears his throat.

"I did nothing." She holds up her hands. Alabaster's split lip disappears. "See, no marks."

"Are you not ashamed to be a part of this system?" Alabaster asks the trooper. "You should be."

Sophia hits him again.

Rune sends a car floating out into the street, blocking the path of the prisoner transport. She could have just smashed the two vehicles together (Alabaster would have been fine), but instead she politely gives the driver plenty of time to brake. A most civilized jailbreak.

The instant the transport comes to a stop, all four tires explode. Stormtiger floats down from a nearby rooftop.

Then things stop going according to plan as Shadow Stalker phases through the side of the van and takes a shot at Stormtiger. Their exchange is inconclusive - a sharp gust of wind sends her crossbow bolt off course, and his answering wind blades pass through her shadow form harmlessly.

You've already kicked Fenrir into motion by the time Rune shouts for you to assist him. You don't know that Low Key could actually hurt Sophia any more than Stormtiger could, but you're damn well going to try.

Say what you will of the PRT, but their discipline and training is beyond reproach. The trooper in the passenger seat has already scrambled out of the vehicle, dragging a containment foam projector with him. Without pausing to strap it on, he sends a stream of foam your way. Rune sends the car flying up to block it.

The driver also gets out, but as he's only toting a shotgun, you ignore him. Fenrir lets out a whuff when the beanbag round hits him in the chest, but doesn't break stride.

Meanwhile, the rear doors of the transport have opened and two more foam-wielding PRT troopers have entered the fray, as well as Clockblocker of the Wards. Great, another parahuman you're ill equipped to fight.

Stormtiger is falling back, but giving good account of himself. Foam, by its very nature, is a lot easier to blow around than crossbow bolts, and one trooper is already taken out of action, stuck fast by his own foam.

Clockblocker is also facing a terrible matchup - he can only use his time stop on solid matter - and is sent flying by a blast of air.

Still, with four against one, something has to give. Stormtiger is forced to throw himself prone to avoid the next shot from Shadow Stalker, leaving him in a terrible position. He sees you coming up behind her, and rather than risk hitting you with an attack passing through her, he takes out the second PRT trooper the same way as the first.

Without distractions, and with a stationary target, Shadow Stalker easily nails him with her next bolt. Stormtiger's last act before the tranquilizer takes hold is to send a sphere of compressed air into the back of the transport.

The entire transport jumps, the boom echoing off the nearby buildings as the laws of physics reassert themselves and the compressed air explodes. A shower of milk comes flying out of the transport. Milk and... wet white chunks? Oh. Ew. That's one way to separate Alabaster from his restraints. Poor guy.

Some cue or instinct warns Shadow Stalker of your approach. She spins to face you, but it's too late. You're already on her. Fenrir bites down on her crossbow hand as she turns. She turns into shadow before his teeth can close around her wrist, and instead of knocking her over he runs straight through her without slowing.

Then she screams. You send Fenrir into a spinning, skidding halt and end up looking back the way you came. Shadow Stalker is clutching a stump where her hand should be. Copious amounts of blood is spurting into the street.

That's- you saw her turn into shadow. Which means... Fenrir can't affect the physical world while he's intangible, but apparently the reverse is not entirely true. Magic teeth.

You don't see a severed hand lying around anywhere, which means that it must still be in Fenrir's mouth. Now, you could tell him to spit it out, keep this jailbreak civilized. You could.

"Spit," you say. Fenrir obeys. The hand lands on the pavement with a wet smack, the crossbow with a clatter. "Crossbows aren't food," you tell him. You stare into Sophia's eyes as Fenrir gobbles up her hand again, crunches the bones between his teeth, swallows. He then takes one step forward unprompted by you, crushing the delicate mechanisms of her tinkertech crossbow beneath a paw. Best dog.

Sophia is swaying on her feet, barely keeping upright. Blood loss. You know the feeling. Then Clockblocker is there, freezing his colleague in time with a touch. Damn, you forgot all about him. Looks like Stormtiger didn't manage to take him out of the fight completely.

This is bad. This is extremely bad. While essentially helpless against Stormtiger, the Shaker/Blaster, Clockblocker the Striker has an excellent matchup against you, the Brute. One touch and it's all over. And you can't attack without touching him. Ok, fine, you could. You're a Shaker too, as of one week ago. Low Key can't. And the mounds of containment foam are preventing you from going around him, at least if you want to get back to the fight and help Rune. He basically has you cornered.

You whisper instructions to Fenrir as Clockblocker approaches. His face is completely hidden by the opaque visor on his helmet, but from his gait you can tell that he's completely confident.

You slip off Fenrir and take up mantis form.

"Are you seriously trying to kung-fu me?" Clockblocker asks.

You don't respond. Fenrir circles around to the right, flanking. Yes, you are trying to kung-fu him. You, the Thinker/Trump, had a front row seat to him freezing Shadow Stalker.

Fenrir lunges. Clockblocker flails his left arm out in response, brushing it against Fenrir's chin. His power pulses, and the wolf freezes in place. Your leg is already moving.

There's a short interval after he activates his power, less than a second, before it settles back into its dormant state. You're choosing, with more optimism than evidence, to interpret that as a cooldown period during which it can't be used again. It's in that brief window that your foot impacts his crotch. Crunch!

Kick delivered, you throw yourself backwards, falling over in your haste to get yourself out of contact with the hero. There is no discontinuity. You roll and scramble to your feet with no interruptions to your personal timeline.

Clockblocker is down, clutching his privates. There's, uh, there's blood seeping into the white fabric of his costume. Um. Shouldn't he be wearing a protective cup?

That must have been what the crunching sound was. You may have underestimated the power of mantis form.

You don't have time to worry about that now, the other half of the fight is still happening. Rune's car is out of commission, anchored to the ground by a small mountain of containment foam. You can see the boot of the last foam trooper sticking out of said mountain, so you'll call it a tie. Rune herself is on her hands and knees, puking into her mask. Some sort of nonlethal takedown, though you can't tell if it was gas or a beanbag round to the guts.

Alabaster is wrestling with the final trooper, the driver. It's not going very well. If Alabaster was capable of sustaining permanent injuries, the driver would have won long ago. As it is, it's a bit of a stalemate. To be resolved by whoever receives reinforcements first. You walk up behind them and politely rest your knife against the driver's throat. "Desist, please," you say. He desists. "Alabaster, cuff him."

That taken care of, you turn to your other conscious compatriot. "Rune! We need evac!"

She turns her head your way. "Wolf?" she manages between heaves.

"Clockblocked."

"Shit."

You pull her to her feet, and half support, half drag her over to the prisoner transport. You help Alabaster drag the unconscious Stormtiger inside while Rune shakily traces her runes on the side.

"What about the wolf?" Alabaster asks.

"He'll disappear as soon as the time stop wears off. Don't worry about it."

"A bit rougher than usual," Alabaster remarks as he settles down on a bench. You glance his way. Even his pupils are white, and barely show up against the rest of his eyes. How does he even see, if his retinas reflect light like that? Even weirder, despite being a mutant, his power is the same color as those of regular capes. "The rescue," he clarifies.

"Be nice, it was my first time." If anyone asks that was excellent deadpan delivery, and not you not noticing what you were saying in time to make a deliberate joke of it.

"Really?"

"For a proper cape fight with multiple people on each side? Yeah."

"Hm. You did well enough." He pointedly pokes Stormtiger with his foot. A bit unfair, you feel. You could not have pulled it off without him thinning the field for you.

The transport lifts into the air and start flying towards Empire territory.

Alabaster wants to secure the survival of his people and a future for white children. Another dud.

Wait, now that you think about it, stealing PRT property like this may not be the best move. They can probably track it. Indeed they can, industry and forge wisdom helpfully informs you. Dammit. Why must you be the brains of this operation?

(Probably because you're three different kinds of Thinker)

"Rune!" you shout into the driver's compartment. "Land and let me get up front."

"What?" she asks when you get in the passenger seat.

"Wolf senses. Tracking device."

You go to work on the plastic shell of the instrument panel with your knife. Rune is too busy flying the thing and not throwing up to help, but you have it open soon enough. You let your power guide you to the right wire, and rip it out. Really? A single tracking device, easily reached and disabled without special tools? Lisa is right, they really do want people to escape custody.
 
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I suppose that is one way to announce yourself to the world: Its one thing to maim, or rather neuter a kid by accident its another to follow up by having a extravagant finger meal...

What are the odds they label her as a low key cannibal cape.
 
What is Taylor's goal outside of getting powers?
She's (sort of) exalted; gaining power is the ends.

I see what you mean, though. She might be getting a bit of Vergil Syndrome, where you are traumatized by a period of weakness and start gaining power, eventually losing track of the reason you initially wanted to become powerful.

I don't know if that's an intentional story beat by the writer, but Taylor is comically weak to slippery slopes, so it would fit.
 
Nah. There is Panacea, they'll be ok. Of course, Low Key now is strictly inside "kids gloves off" subset of E88 capes, with Hookwolf and his crew. On the other hand, if somebody of them saw her using martial arts, it could have some hilarious consequences.

BTW, depiction of SS brutality seems to be over the top to me. I don't think she would exhibit such clearly psycopatic behaviour when seen by wards and PRT troopers. She's still on probation.
 
Biting off a Ward's hand might be enough for the PRT to decide to make an example out of her.
Unforeseen power interactions leading to injuries seems a bit harsh for examples, especially given the fact that they live in the same city as Panacea, so there is a certain expectation of injuries for heroes being non-permanently crippling.

Really hope she tries to grab Alabaster and gets Ego-Infused Pattern Primacy, might lead into healing, and would definitely help against some capes. Might even undo Simurgh influence, actually.

Also, does she spend Willpower on Charms, and if so, is it a finite pool, or does it work like motes do for her? And how would things with an xp cost work? I suppose it isn't relevant quite yet, but it would be fun to know.
 
Well, here's to hoping she doesn't end up consistently underpowered compared to a rival who doesn't even try to improve at all (Dante).
Then again, she's Exalted, so chances are she'll manage.
But - you brighten up as a new thought occurs - if you could be part of the Empire while keeping your conscience clean, who is to say that Alabaster isn't the same? In which case his arrest would be unjust, and the act of freeing him, just.
Heh, that's reaching even for Taylor.
On the other hand, if somebody of them saw her using martial arts, it could have some hilarious consequences.
I want Hookwolf to just wordlessly shove a recording of her MA into her face. Just super pissed at her acting like she's incapable of throwing a punch XD
 
Nah. There is Panacea, they'll be ok.
Although 90% of fics have Panacea on call for the PRT, I'm pretty sure she actually doesn't take requests from them and only helped the Wards after the canon bank robbery because she was personally involved.

I want Hookwolf to just wordlessly shove a recording of her MA into her face. Just super pissed at her acting like she's incapable of throwing a punch XD
I guess she could claim she was hiding her martial arts because she was worried they wouldn't like her knowing a style from Asia?
 
What is Taylor's goal outside of getting powers?
She's an addict, she doesn't have one. The author mentioned, I think it was on SB in the deleted thread, that if Taylor turned Know the Soul's Price upon herself, it would read: she wants another power. Her entire motivation is in getting that next hit of power.
 
An important note before we begin, considering the venue: THIS IS NOT PORN. THERE IS NO PORN HERE. You can let go of your dicks. It's delicious grimderp all the way down.

For all that the Empire is ostensibly a villain group, you've managed to be on their payroll for a good two months now without once doing anything immoral. Until today.
Promise half fulfilled?

I do still want to see Taylor get her ass kicked.
 
Ok so we got mutilation, proxy cannibalism and very violent castration as offences. It's a good thing Taylor finished her Vista power copy cause there is no way in hell Missy is going to be ok to even talk to her after being so fucking brutal against her team.

Also reminder that Taylor implied to Vista that she shares senses with the wolf, even if jokingly, so the PRT has that as a possibility and she just ate a human hand. Also if they did not leave clock close enough to refreeze stalker she is going to bleed to death within the next minute, arterial spray is no joke.
 
Ok so we got mutilation, proxy cannibalism and very violent castration as offences. It's a good thing Taylor finished her Vista power copy cause there is no way in hell Missy is going to be ok to even talk to her after being so fucking brutal against her team.

Also reminder that Taylor implied to Vista that she shares senses with the wolf, even if jokingly, so the PRT has that as a possibility and she just ate a human hand. Also if they did not leave clock close enough to refreeze stalker she is going to bleed to death within the next minute, arterial spray is no joke.
She also mastered a ward. So if M/S protocol actually does something that's gonna be a problem as well.

Not that the PRT exists to do something in this or any universe.
 
I don't think she would exhibit such clearly psycopatic behaviour when seen by wards and PRT troopers. She's still on probation.
It's a Nazi. If a chunk of people in this thread are any indication, no one would give a shit even if Sophia's clearly a psychopath. Not like they could've missed her being a psychopath, she's on "probation" for almost murdering a dude, but y'know...

EDIT: Hell, didn't Foil give her shit for it in... Sentinel I think?
 
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