Safe For Work Worm Ideas thread

[OverReactionGuy]

Well she has to have some method of making everyone who looks at her horribly uncomfortable. It's just not good characterization of Taylor without her being able to make everyone around her question if she's really a good guy or not just by being herself.

Click to shrink...

So she gets to hold her body together by having billions of blades inside her skin?


That actually might be funny to see their reactions.

 

[doomlord9]

So she gets to hold her body together by having billions of blades inside her skin?

Click to shrink...

And protecting her eyes by sprouting blades from the ridges of her sockets like a razor screen, extends blades from her gums to protect her teeth and make her bite more potent if she has to, binding a broken bone with sharp splits, there's all sorts of practical and horribly disturbing things she could do with that aspect.

 

[Prince Charon]

And protecting her eyes by sprouting blades from the ridges of her sockets like a razor screen, extends blades from her gums to protect her teeth and make her bite more potent if she has to, binding a broken bone with sharp splits, there's all sorts of practical and horribly disturbing things she could do with that aspect.

Click to shrink...

... and she sees nothing wrong with it.

 

[Vanargandr]

... and she sees nothing wrong with it.

Click to shrink...

Hookwolf doesn't he probably thinks its kinda cool

Kaiser wishes he could pull that whole body of blades as well

 

[Prince Charon]

Hookwolf doesn't he probably thinks its kinda cool

Click to shrink...

If Hookwolf was there to ping off of, that's a reasonably justification for her having Body of Swords to help her survive.

 

[OverReactionGuy]

... and she sees nothing wrong with it.

Click to shrink...

I see what you did there.

 

[Master of Squirrel-fu]

And protecting her eyes by sprouting blades from the ridges of her sockets like a razor screen, extends blades from her gums to protect her teeth and make her bite more potent if she has to, binding a broken bone with sharp splits, there's all sorts of practical and horribly disturbing things she could do with that aspect.

Click to shrink...

You know that Shirou isn't immune to his own blades right? Being made of swords is sort of a last ditch defense since, get this, he's growing shrapnel underneath his skin. I'm pretty sure that's gotta sting a little.

 

[OverReactionGuy]

You know that Shirou isn't immune to his own blades right? Being made of swords is sort of a last ditch defense since, get this, he's growing shrapnel underneath his skin. I'm pretty sure that's gotta sting a little.

Click to shrink...

He pretty much killed himself with it.

 

[doomlord9]

You know that Shirou isn't immune to his own blades right? Being made of swords is sort of a last ditch defense since, get this, he's growing shrapnel underneath his skin. I'm pretty sure that's gotta sting a little.

Click to shrink...

He pretty much killed himself with it.

Click to shrink...

And this is going to stop Taylor from using it to get revenge on those that killed her mother? All she'll see it as is an acceptable, possibly even a cheap, price to last long enough to take them out.

 

[Zege]

Taylor has not yet achieved Body of Swords. She has another advantage that has yet to be revealed and will make itself known in coming chapters.

 

[OverReactionGuy]

Taylor has not yet achieved Body of Swords. She has another advantage that has yet to be revealed and will make itself known in coming chapters.

Click to shrink...

That makes me glad honestly. Body of swords is risky as all hell.

 

[Zege]

That makes me glad honestly. Body of swords is risky as all hell.

Click to shrink...

I'm glad you approve.

Does anyone else perhaps have questions? I'm working on the next part right now and wouldn't mind observations or curiosity. Might get the creative juices pumping even more than they already are.

 

[ZipLopz]

I'm glad you approve.

Does anyone else perhaps have questions? I'm working on the next part right now and wouldn't mind observations or curiosity. Might get the creative juices pumping even more than they already are.

Click to shrink...

Just one: Is Taylor able to use the traced Tinkertech weaponry's attachments (like the stuff in the Halberd) or is it basically just the weapon with no extras?

 

[Zege]

Just one: Is Taylor able to use the traced Tinkertech weaponry's attachments (like the stuff in the Halberd) or is it basically just the weapon with no extras?

Click to shrink...

Suddenly within her hands was a copy of Armsmaster's Halberd. It was perfect, down to every imperfection in the steel.

But it was hollow, an empty shell.

It would have to do.

Click to shrink...

I planned for just that! She in fact, cannot use the special features. She can use it just as well as Armsmaster, but it comes without the doodads and widgets that make it Tinkertech.

This will apply to all Tinkertech weapons.

 

[Nervaqus987]

Moonlight on Broken Glass
Worm/Exalted​

"The pasta is really good tonight, kiddo." Dad said. "Did you do anything different with it?"
​

"Nope." I said, picking at my own bowl. "I just made it the same way as always."

"Oh." He said. "Well, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? Guess that applies to food too."

"I guess so." I said, very pointedly not voicing the comment in my head about having a lot of absence to be fond for.

Dad seemed to have figured out what was in my head and grimaced briefly, turning back to his food.

Dinners had been awkward between us recently. Not the least because this was one of the first times we'd seen each other in more than passing in…..weeks. All that time and a bit more since we'd sat down to have dinner together like this. Even this, we had to plan out a couple days in advanced and Dad was still late.

I tried not to blame him. Money had gotten uncomfortably tight for a while and Dad had to start working another job. Along with his work in the Union, it kept him very busy. But I wouldn't deny that I was a bit bitter that I barely got to see him. He probably felt the same way.

At least between Dad's two paychecks and my own…..subtle contributions, the money problem wasn't really a thing anymore.

"So…..how's school been? I mean-I know that things have been rough recently with the bullying and all." Dad asked, stumbling over himself.

"Things have been getting better, actually." I replied, struggling to contain a smirk at the expression on Emma's smug little face today when she found her backpack drenched in orange juice. She always hated the stuff when we were kids.

"That's good to hear." Dad said, obvious relief in his voice. "The teachers been helping?"

"Oh yeah, they've been just going all out on the bullying thing." I answered.

The hilarious part was they actually were. I make who knows how many complaints to what felt like every member of the staff at every level for months and get nothing but the same old platitudes. Emma has her homework destroyed and stolen a few times, Sophia's bag of track equipment finds itself in a dumpster, and Madison discovers her locker vandalized one day and suddenly we get an anti-bullying seminar and teachers prowling around the hallways more than usual. Really, it's almost too funny for words.

"Glad to hear they're finally doing their jobs." Dad said, nodding his head. This time, I couldn't keep the smirk off my lips.

"What about you? How's the new job been treating you?" I asked.

"Roughly." Dad responded wryly. "They sure don't pull any punches getting the new guy up to speed. Still, it's not so bad. I'm getting used to everyone there. Heh." He chuckled briefly. "I've even made a couple friends at the office."

Anything further that might have been said was cut off by the sharp ringing of Dad's new work phone. His face fell as I took a deep breath through my nose.

"Taylor….I'm…" Dad started to say, his expression mortified.

"It's alright." I said quickly. "They wouldn't be calling you unless it's important right?"

"Right." Dad muttered, sounding tired and resigned.

I focused on my pasta as Dad got up and walked into the living room where his phone was. I heard him answer, followed by a quite conversation. For a moment, I entertained the idea that it nothing, a misdial or something. But then Dad walked back in the kitchen and one glance at his face told me all I needed to know.
"You have to go?"

"Yeah…I'm sorry, kiddo, I just-"

"It's fine." I cut him off. "Are you going to be home later tonight or….?"

Dad sighed.

"It's gonna be one of those nights. You shouldn't wait up for me." He said

I didn't mention that waiting up for him was something I'd fallen out of the habit of doing for a while now.
"Alright." I did say. "Then I guess I'll see you tomorrow……afternoon?"

"Somewhere around then, yeah." Dad said with something of a grimace.

We then finished our awkward goodbyes and Dad threw on his boots and coat and stepped out of the house. I listened to the sound of the car start up and then drive away. After that, I finished up my dinner and wrapped up what was left of Dad's and tossed it into the fridge.

I let out a sigh as I finished cleaning up.

"Well, if he's going to be out all night, no reason I have to stay in." I said to myself as I made my way up the stairs and to my room.

My room was as organized as it ever got and my closet door stood open, leaving the pitiful remains of my wardrobe that were left after the Trio had wrecked a lot of my clothes bare for all to see. I walked up to my closet and shut the door. I counted silently to five in my head and then opened the door again.

Where there was once just my tiny little closet and clothes was now a doorway, leading out to a reflection of my room. Or at least what looked like a reflection. The room beyond my closet was much bigger than my real room. A massive king sized bed stood where my normal bed should have, with an elaborate wood frame surrounding it. Directly across from me was a massive standing closet looking like it had come straight out of the Chronicles of Narnia. I knew from experience that despite appearances, it was a full walk in closet even though it really its dimensions were not nearly big enough for that. The ceiling fan moved slowly over head as soft silver light came in from the window.

I stepped across the threshold and my body rippled as I did so.

I felt myself grow taller, my limbs lengthening and filling in with tightly corded muscle. My mouth shrank and my nose readjusted ever so slightly. My eyes tingled slightly and then my vision turned blurry as my glasses became wholly unnecessary. I reached up and plucked them off my face even as I felt my hair lengthen until it reached my waist. My bust swelled up from the near ironing board it used to be to a respectable size for my new frame even as the rest of me filled out and curved in ways that would draw the eye of every boy in Winslow along with quite a few of the girls.

I laced my fingers together as I felt the last of the basic changes finish, my skin smoothing out as blemishes and scars vanished. I stretched my arms over my head and closed my eyes, letting out a pleased sigh as I felt my wings, large and as dark as my hair with silver highlighted feathers, slide their way out of my back. My power rippled across my clothes, altering and rearranging them to allow room for my wings to extend without tearing my shirt or bra.

I finished my stretch and opened my now amber eyes, a pleased smile spreading across my face. As pleasant as the physical changes were, and they were quite nice, they paled before the mental changes I experienced during my transformation. It was as though a haze lifted from my thoughts. My frustration with Dad and his new job, the bitterness I felt towards Emma's betrayal and her little ongoing campaign against me, my own depression all washed away. I felt good, wonderful, in a way I hadn't since Mom died. I felt happy.

I turned around and shut the door behind me and then moved to leave this grand reflection of my room, my hips swaying as I walked in a way they never had before all of this happened.

As I walked, my clothes flickered briefly. My shirt was replaced by a hefty Kevlar vest and leather jacket, my comfortable pajama pants by a pair of heavy and durable worker's pants as a set of steel-toed boots adorned my bare feet. All of them were almost comically too big for me. That lasted all of a heartbeat before my power rippled out again and my new clothes became form fitting. Another heartbeat and they rippled again, shifting and merging together.

A skin tight body suit formed on me, looking somewhat like latex but feeling like silk. My boots smoothed and narrowed, the steel toe vanishing as the boots lengthened until they ended just before my knee. At my waist, a belt formed. Originally, I intended the buckle to be a symbol for myself, but I had never been able to settle on one and so it shifted with my mood for the day. My vest and jacket merged, a tight, long sleeved shirt ending with fingerless gloves formed. At my shoulders and neck, a mantle formed that hung low enough that it seemed to merge with my wings, giving the impression of a cape. Finally, a cowl formed over my head, open at the back to allow my hair through, and with a half mask covering the upper half of my face.
One of the numerous advantages to my power. With it, I was never without a costume and could get changed as soon as I had a spare moment. The only downside was that my new outfit would be no more durable than it originally was.

I walked out the door of my Not Room and into the replica of my home. Like my Not Room, it was larger than my real home. Exaggeratedly larger, almost stretched in a way. And that was leaving aside the rooms in this place that didn't match up with my home in the real world.

I made my way through the reflection of my home and out into the streets. Like the reflection itself, the outside was much larger than the original. It had that same sense of being stretched out. High above in the sky, the moon shone large and bright. No matter what time of day I entered, it was always night here and the moon always seemed to dominate the skies.

I walked around my Not-House to the back yard that was far bigger than the real one. Once there, I headed for the back door that would lead back into the Not-House. Opening the door, however, didn't lead into the Not-House, but back into the real world, several blocks away. I exited a basement door set in the ground.
It was a bit closer to my house than I was comfortable with, but there was a limit on how far away I could set the doors to my secret world. In any event, no one had lived in this house for most of a year. The bank evidently was having trouble selling it.

I still looked around briefly to make sure no one was nearby and watching. Satisfied that no one was, I beat my wings and took to the skies. With the barest flicker of my power, I changed once more. This time, shifting wholly from a girl into an owl. One larger than most of the ones in the area, but not so much to attract undue attention.

I spent a moment gaining altitude, circling around the neighborhood and pondering on my targets for the night. The Merchants maybe? I'd been hitting them quite a bit recently, I thought as I took off flying towards the Docks. I'd have to track down more of their store houses to make it worthwhile. That'll probably take a while though. I'll have to track down some of the main pushers in the area and tail them until they lead me to wherever they're storing the drugs and money. Although with how much I've hit them recently, they'll probably be on guard.

Well, I'll figure it out later. For now, I'll just see what trouble I can find.

Fifteen minutes later, I found that trouble I was looking for. Large clouds of darkness drifted lazily across a good chunk of the block that had found itself rather absent of all of the usual nightlife in the face of a running cape battle.

Let's see, Darkness. I thought to myself as I circled overhead, looking for the cape responsible. What's his name that does the Darkness? The guy that Uber and Leet got wrecked by a few weeks ago? Zork? No, wait that was the game. Oh right, his name's Grue.

Yeah, that was the guy. Small time villain, did some bouncer stuff in between a variety of thefts here or there. Don't know why he'd be throwing around his power in this sort of place though. I needed some more information on what was going on.

I swooped down and raked my eyes over the darkness. Nothing, I couldn't see through it at all. I sent a bit of power to my throat and ears, rearranging them into a shape I had picked up from a bat back when I first figured out how I could acquire new forms. I let out a sharply pitched cry and listened intensely as the sound bounced back.

Sonar wasn't exactly a precision tool and Grue's Darkness evidently messed with more than just light given how garbled the images came back. But with a couple more sharp pulses of noise, I was able to pick out a vaguely human shaped blob at street level near the front of the darkness. Unless I missed my guess, he was running from the other person I picked up on sonar.

On the roof tops near the darkness, another cape jumped and shifted in a way that made her nearly invisible to my sonar when she did so. I recognized her, of course. Shadow Stalker the newest member of the Wards. There was a good sized little PR event when it happened. I don't remember much about it other than a couple sound bites about why independent heroes joining up with the Protectorate is always a sign of good things to come.

Shadow Stalker kept bouncing from roof top to roof top, taking keen advantage of her edge in mobility to stay ahead of Grue's darkness and his considerably more constrained movements. Now and again, she fired a bolt from her signature crossbow at Grue's general area. More pot shots than anything, but if I had to guess I'd say she was trying to herd him to a place where she'd have better odds of getting a lucky hit.

Oh, if only birds could smirk. I lamented to myself briefly.

Then I once more gathered my power and this time, let if flood through my body. I expanded swiftly changing from an owl into a human sized harpy as a dozen small and not so small changes rippled across me, improving my senses, streamlining my muscles and skeleton, and more. Silver light poured out across my body as the tips of my feathers lit up.

I reared back my wings and flapped down hard, sending down a barrage of razor tipped feathers that flickered and curved through the air in unnatural patterns.

Straight at Shadow Stalker.

Whether through the instincts honed by her time on the streets, some tinkertech gadget supplied by Armsmaster or Kid Win, or even if she caught a glimpse of my light, she saw the attack coming. Moving nigh instantly, she jumped shifting to shadow form mid leap and crossing over from one block to the next.

Shadow Stalker landed on a roof top and returned to normal briefly, before flickering again into shadow, phasing through more of my feathers and counterattacking with a bolt of her own.

I tucked my wings in and dropped out of the way of her arrow, before spreading again and regaining lost altitude. I turned sharply through the air, whirling to avoid another arrow and saw Shadow Stalker leap to reposition herself.

On and on it went, my feathers and her arrows both finding neither of their targets. I took some solace in the fact that she had to phase through a good portion of my feathers whereas she wasn't able to hit me once. In any event, this was getting tedious with neither of us able to hit the other.

Well, time to pull out a new trick.

I tensed in mid-air, after avoiding another of Shadow Stalker's arrows, patterns of light forming across my body and my brow. Then with a flash of moonlight, I moved.

I have trouble explaining that one though. I didn't move through the three dimensional space I normally did. There was paths behind the world and those were what I traveled along.

When I reemerged into the normal world, I was behind her. It was one of those moments where I wished that there was time for quips in a cape fight. Regardless of that annoying little fact, I kicked Shadow Stalker in the back. I didn't kick her as hard as I could have since that probably would have broken her clean in two, but I send her flying off the roof top.

The hero flickered, transforming into her shadow state and turning what would have been a distinctly unpleasant fall into a somewhat graceful tumble to the ground. She whirled around, aiming her crossbow first at me, but then twisted around just in time to catch the massive blast of darkness just as it consumed her.

I watched from the roof top for a minute or two as nothing seemed to happen. Then the cloud began to disperse, revealing Shadow Stalker unconscious on the ground and Grue standing over her in his motorcycle leathers and skull faced helmet.

I smirked and jumped down, using my wings to glide down a few feet away from him, shifting into my mostly human form as I landed.

"Strix." Grue greeted me with a nod of his head. There was a strange reverberation in his voice. "Thanks for the assist. Shadow Stalker was gunning hard for me tonight."

"So I noticed." I replied. "Any particular reason why?"

"My power interferes with hers." He said, nudging the fallen hero with his foot. "So she's made it pretty clear that she doesn't want me in the Bay anymore."

I let out a quiet snort of laughter.

"I'm guessing you're not exactly going to let yourself be run out of town, now are you?"

"Not a chance." He said. "So, what are we going do about her?" Grue asked, nudging Shadow Stalker again.

"I'll leave her up on a roof." I said, nodding my head at the building I'd just dropped down from. "That should keep her out of sight of anyone who might do something stupid.

"Cool." Grue said. "Need any help getting her up there?"

"No thanks, I can get her." I said, walking forward and bending down to pick up Shadow Stalker in a fireman's hurdle.

"Right. Thanks again." Grue said starting to walk away. "I owe you one."

"I'll keep that in mind." I called back to him before jumping up on the building again.

I let Shadow Stalker drop unceremoniously as soon as I landed. Then I crouched down by her and rifled through the pouches on her belt. I extracted a set of zip ties and toyed with the idea of tying her up with them. I shook my head and set them down, she could probably phase through them if she woke up. Finally though, I found what I was looking for. A sleek smartphone with the Protectorate logo on the casing.

I played with it for a moment, but of course it was password locked. I smirked, letting silver light play across my lips, eyes, and finger tips and tapped out random sequence of numbers confusing the poor phone into thinking it was the right password. I thumbed through the contact list, finding numbers for Armsmaster, Director Piggot, and two more that said "Console" and "HQ." I selected all four for a group message and sent a text out.

You should think about keeping her on a shorter leash. The next villain to beat her in a fight may not be as nice as I am.

-Strix

With that, I tossed the phone over my shoulder and took the skies once more, leaving Sophia behind me.


______________________________________

Hmm.....Not terribly happy with this piece.

I've had this idea in my head for a while now, but I could never really decide on a concrete plot, hence why I haven't written anything for it before now. But something a while ago got me typing things out. Unfortunately, I lost my first draft completely and had to start over again. By the time I had caught up to where I was before and had gotten a bit further along, I decided that I wasn't really feeling it.

But Sunk Cost Fallacy is a hell of a thing, and I've been trying to break a long spell of writer's block and so punched through and finished this snip.

I'm almost certainly not going to continue.

As for what happened.

Spoiler

Taylor Exalted as a Lunar not long ago.

At some point in the middle of the bullying, Taylor got an idea stuck in her head. You can't win if you don't play. The Trio weren't going to stop and no one was going to come in and help her. If she wanted them to stop, she'd have to do it herself.

So Taylor started up her own little counter campaign against them. Things started light, but began to escalate and make Taylor dig her heels in more and more until she eventually started thinking of the Trio as "the enemy."

And one day, she caught sight of Sophia using her power and figured out who she was.

Taylor had a lot invested in fighting back against the Trio and when she realized that Sophia was a Ward, a hero, well.

The enemy of a Hero is of course a Villain.

And then Taylor was a Lunar.

As for Danny, I probably wasn't too subtle the second time around, but yes. He did Trigger and join the Protectorate.

When the bullying and counter bullying started to escalate hard, with fiances being a consistent problem, and his job at the Union typically consisting of telling people he cared about that there still weren't any jobs and having to see them go and work for gangs because at least it put food on the table, he Triggered.

Danny's a Tinker with the QA shard. Most of his tech is fairly generic as far as tinkers go, but his specialty is in controls. Particularly, direct neural interface tech. With the help of Armsmaster, Dragon, and Protectorate funding, he's started to leverage this in the form of numerous drones of various sizes that are outfitted with all sorts of toys.

The problem, of course, comes in managing all of this. Danny has a minor augmented multitasking ability thanks to the QA. It's absolutely nothing compared to Canon Taylor's, but it gets the job done well enough for him to handle a dozen or so odd drones. More if they're all the same model.

 

[Zege]

Thoroughly unbeta'd as well, and the first time I've ever written a fight scene!

---

Previous Chapter

Embrace of Steel

Chapter 2

Fury propelled her, and grief motivated her.

But Steel guided her.

Taylor weaved through the field of blades left by Kaiser, passing within millimeters of rending herself open on the razor-sharp edges, but passed through without a single mark upon her.

She somehow knew, instinctively, where every bit of steel was. As if it were her own body.

She moved like a woman possessed, and zeroed in on the nearest target.

Mush, who had tried to circle around the Protectorate capes in the confusion, and left his back exposed.

Taylor held the Halberd in a two-handed grip, as easily and naturally as if she had done so a thousand times before, and swung, using the momentum of her sprint and her entire upper body to cleave through the trash-armored cape's torso.

The Halberd bit deep, and met resistance that only managed to slow her an instant, before it continued out the front, unleashing a geyser of filth and gore.

Sensing a mass of metal on course to her side, Taylor spun with the momentum of her swing, and blocked the incoming collection of blades with the tip of the Halberd, bracing the base against the asphalt to absorb the blow.

The metal made itself known as Hookwolf, who had apparently not expected to be intercepted in such a fashion, as his metallic wolfs-head betrayed a surprised expression that bordered on comical.

The force of the collision folded Hookwolf over the Halberd, and shattered the asphalt below her feet as well as the Halberd in her hard.

She had expected this. It was merely an empty shell, after all. But that was okay.

She had reserves.

Taylor skipped back two steps, and immediately Traced another Halberd.

//Loading Projection 'Halberd'​

Instantly, she had another empty, perfect copy.

She gave it an experimental twirl, and faced her opponent with a grim determination as she leveled the weapon at the downed cape.

"Stay down." The order came out flat and toneless through her scarf.

"Fuck you." Hookwolf spat back, and scrambled back to his feet.

Before duel could restart, however, they were interrupted by a growth of steel that attempted to skewer Taylor's legs.

She easily sidestepped the attack, and dashed to one side in time to see Kaiser appear next to Hookwolf from behind a curtain wall of blades that obscured him from the remaining capes.

"Hookwolf. The rest of the Protectorate will be here shortly. We do not need to be here when they arrive." The armored cape appeared perfectly calm, but Taylor knew he had to be feeling the pressure. They may not be in the Boardwalk proper, but they were close enough to make it unseemly for the 'righteous' leader of the E88 to be instigating brawls, not without taking a hit to his standing.

Taylor glanced over at where she knew the rest of the capes would be, and saw the two Protectorate heroes pinned down by a constant stream of bullets from a truckbed-mounted chaingun, fired by Skidmark as he laid down repeating fields to empower the ammunition, screaming obscenities at the heroes, their mothers, and the world.

Squealer had obviously arrived, and was even now hauling Mush out of his garbage pile and into the tinkertech truck.

Taylor noted that the wound she delivered had been sealed with what looked like a trash bag, of all things.

Suddenly, Taylor felt a subtle shift in the air, a gentle pressure that told her prepare.

She shifted her stance slightly, and saw as Armsmaster and Miss Militia broke apart, dashing in opposite directions. Skidmark hesitated on which to aim at, before his choice was taken from him as Miss Militia retaliated with an absurdly large rifle of her own, obliterating the chaingun and sending the Merchant flying in an explosion of debris and swearing.

The two Empire capes paused at the concussive sound, and turned to look at the source of the disturbance, giving Taylor the chance she had been waiting for.

She flung herself forward, keeping low until she was almost upon them, before wrenching herself upright in a vicious upwards slice that would have removed Kaiser's right arm and most of his shoulder, had an obdurate column of steel not interposed itself and saved the man from being violently de-limbed.

Hookwolf growled in agitation, and attempted to carve her open with a claw. He was abruptly yanked off balance, however, as a grappling hook suddenly wrapped itself around the offending limb and pulled the villain to the side.

Taylor sidestepped a sudden thrust of steel from the column, and circled around until Kaiser was in her view once more. She felt a sudden presence at her back, and spoke without turning.

"Armsmaster."

The form at her rear shifted. "That's an impressive copy. Can you handle it well enough?"

Taylor shifted her grip on the Halberd higher, and moved to a one-handed hold. She extended her free hand, fingers splayed, as a second Halberd appeared. "Just as well as you can."

Armsmaster grunted. "We'll see about that. Can you take him?"

She looked the leader of the Empire Eighty-Eight dead in the eye, and tightened her grip on her twin weapons. Kaiser's eyes widened minutely, and his posture shifted to a defensive standing.

"I believe I can handle it."

With that, Taylor lunged forward with straight thrust for Kaiser's heart, intent on impaling the man. He batted the weapon aside with an armored hand, and quickly riposted her assault with a driving strike of his own, a blade growing from his other gauntlet.

Taylor shifted to the side, just enough to allow the blow to pass, and brought the second Halberd down on Kaiser's shoulder. The Traced weapon struck true, but the awkward angle robbed it of most of its power and it only bit into the armor, lodging firmly.

Kaiser gripped the embedded weapon, and yanked, pulling it free and nearly dragging Taylor with it. She relinquished her hold, and allowed the captured blade to dissolve with a will of effort.

Kaiser blinked in surprise, and had to scramble aside to dodge the attack Taylor aimed at his head with her remaining Halberd. A shaft of steel erupted from below, but Taylor had already sensed it and sidestepped, slapping the butt of her weapon into Kaiser's gut, and sent the larger man stumbling back.

Taylor pressed the attack, hoping to force him into submission, but was forced to retreat as blades erupted from all sides. She readied a second Halberd in her off hand, and prepared for a counter assault.

The attack came quickly, and without her steelsense, Taylor would surely have become a pincushion as lances of steel erupted from multiple points at once. The first shattered a Halberd as she defended her back and the next nearly took her hand, while the third, fourth, and fifth were evaded by a mere hairsbreadth each.

Kaiser merely stood back and observed her as she blocked, sliced, and dodged her way backwards to her starting position.

"Impressive," complimented the villain, "but it's not going to be enough, girl."

Taylor nodded in response, breathing heavily. "You're right."

She could feel it already. Her body wasn't built for this sort of intense, fast-paced action, and the effort was taking a toll on her. Another minute at most, and she'd be too exhausted to continue.

She couldn't outfight the villain before her, and nor could she willingly retreat from the man who had instigated her mother's death.

So she took a third option.

Gripping the Halberd in both hands, Taylor followed the subtle pressure that had been guiding her, and spun low, swinging the weapon with all her remaining might. She knew the two gatherings of steel were still behind her, locked in stalemate.

That changed in an instant.

As she spun low, she felt Armsmaster pivot as well and unleash his Halberd's weapon systems over her head into Kaiser's face. She didn't have time to catch his expression, but sincerely hoped someone had been recording.

As she swung, she felt the power that had circulated within her since the moment she had awoken surge, and she directed it to the weapon in her hands.

//Begin Synchronization

//Reinforcing Composite Materials

//System Overload: Breakdown Initiated​

The Halberd erupted into a blaze of light, fractures running up and down the weapon as its structure overloaded with the force of power it had been infused with.

Right into Hookwolf's chest.

//All Processes Completed​

The detonation shattered most of Hookwolf's blades, and sent the cape careening off into a nearby storefront. Taylor was simultaneously blown away, and skidded along the pavement, leaving patches of cloth and skin behind until she slammed against a bus stop bench.

Agony wracked her body, and her hands felt as if they had been boiled in oil. Without the presence of Steel to give order to her mind, she was unable to cope with the overwhelming sensations.

As the sounds of sirens drowned out the world, Taylor Hebert pulled her aching body into a loose ball, and cried.

Spoiler: Pre-edit ending.

The last thing Taylor Hebert saw before succumbing to the encroaching darkness was Kaiser and Hookwolf being drenched in containment foam as PRT officers swarmed the scene.

---

Yes. That just happened.

Thoughts and opinions?

 

[Peanuckle]

Thoughts and opinions?

Click to shrink...

Nice fight scene, but it feels like we're watching Shirou fight, not Taylor. Is the altered personality part of the powerset?

Also, the whole "blacks out after a fight and gets taken in" is a pet peeve of mine. It's so often used to put the protagonist in a new environment or scene-shift, it's become irritating to watch it again.

 

[serapheus]

Anybody know of any serious (non-crack/pwp) Amy/Victoria fics?

Been looking but all I've found are a couple pwp fics.

 

[tEN]

Seeking A Friendly Enemy is about Emma buying that zones of altered physics power we know Cauldron has. She signs up to get a Nemesis, and checks off "harass my love interest" figuring if she ever gets one, it'll be fun to save them a couple time. Sophia, just doing this to feed her family, misunderstands and starts harassing Taylor at school, as she and Emma spend all their time together. Eventually things escalate to the point where Taylor is trapped between the walls or somewhere else that doesn't really have an exit. She triggers with a Labyrinth of Time style ability to administrate the connections between places by pinging off of Emma, who is frantically looking for her. They go confront Sophia, threatening that they know her cape identity, and she pleads with them that they have to let her go, because as soon as she's caught, the payments stop, and her mother can't afford to feed her family. Emma's involvement with Cauldron and the Nemesis Program comes out. Taylor is horrified, both by the fact that Emma seems to have forced Sophia to attack people, and that Emma seems to have done it to get in her pants. She runs off, while Emma and Sophia bond, and work out a solution where Sophia joins the wards with Emma.
Taylor, with her power to administrate connections, notices immediately when a Door opens up so that Cauldron can try to clean up the mess and stop Emma and Sophia spilling everything to the PRT. She uses her power and walks out of a broom closet in Cauldron's base, getting more and more horrified by everything she sees as she evades capture, until she's face to faces with Eden. Disgusted and terrified, she barely listens as Doctor Mother explains the whole story about the entities. She then touches Eden and uses her power to shut down every single cauldron cape simultaneously, by shutting down the connections. Eden dies further.
She evacuates everybody back through the connection she's holding open between that one broom closet and a utility shed back in Brockton Bay, and uses what she learned from touching Eden to use her own connection with Scion to try and shut him down as well. This doesn't work nearly so well. Reality twists and breaks, as basically all connections on Earth Bet become jumbled together, leaving a subway platform in NYC connected to a barn in Russia and many other strange connections, because Scion is aware and fights back. Slowly, Taylor's power begins to spread into Aleph and every other reality, and, when Phir Se tries to fight back with time portals, the effect begins altering the flow of time as well.
It is now up to Sophia and Danny to use her ability to initiate state changes and his knowledge of his baby girl to find their way through the right path of connections and kill Scion. They quickly realize that the correct path to Scion's core is to follow Danny's life story, and from there, they find their way into Taylor's. By following along Taylor's timeline, they reach Scion, and are able to help her put him down once and for all.
Also there would be a gaiden where Dragon and Labyrinth work together to try and mitigate the damage caused by this unprecedented worldwide attack by the cape or endbringer tentatively known as Minos. Entirely done in PHO chapters. Everybody loves PHO chapters.

Click to shrink...

Crossposting because this idea doesn't have to be NSFW.

 

[OverReactionGuy]

Thoroughly unbeta'd as well, and the first time I've ever written a fight scene!

---

Previous Chapter

Embrace of Steel

Chapter 2

Fury propelled her, and grief motivated her.

But Steel guided her.

Taylor weaved through the field of blades left by Kaiser, passing within millimeters of rending herself open on the razor-sharp edges, but passed through without a single mark upon her.

She somehow knew, instinctively, where every bit of steel was. As if it were her own body.

She moved like a woman possessed, and zeroed in on the nearest target.

Mush, who had tried to circle around the Protectorate capes in the confusion, and left his back exposed.

Taylor held the Halberd in a two-handed grip, as easily and naturally as if she had done so a thousand times before, and swung, using the momentum of her sprint and her entire upper body to cleave through the trash-armored cape's torso.

The Halberd bit deep, and met resistance that only managed to slow her an instant, before it continued out the front, unleashing a geyser of filth and gore.

Sensing a mass of metal on course to her side, Taylor spun with the momentum of her swing, and blocked the incoming collection of blades with the tip of the Halberd, bracing the base against the asphalt to absorb the blow.

The metal made itself known as Hookwolf, who had apparently not expected to be intercepted in such a fashion, as his metallic wolfs-head betrayed a surprised expression that bordered on comical.

The force of the collision folded Hookwolf over the Halberd, and shattered the asphalt below her feet as well as the Halberd in her hard.

She had expected this. It was merely an empty shell, after all. But that was okay.

She had reserves.

Taylor skipped back two steps, and immediately Traced another Halberd.

//Loading Projection 'Halberd'​

Instantly, she had another empty, perfect copy.

She gave it an experimental twirl, and faced her opponent with a grim determination as she leveled the weapon at the downed cape.

"Stay down." The order came out flat and toneless.

"Fuck you, heeb." Hookwolf spat back, and scrambled back to his feet.

Before duel could restart, however, they were interrupted by a growth of steel that attempted to skewer Taylor's legs.

She easily sidestepped the attack, and dashed to one side in time to see Kaiser appear next to Hookwolf from behind a curtain wall of blades that obscured him from the remaining capes.

"Hookwolf. The rest of the Protectorate will be here shortly. We do not need to be here when they arrive." The armored cape appeared perfectly calm, but Taylor knew he had to be feeling the pressure. They may not be in the Boardwalk proper, but they were close enough to make it unseemly for the 'righteous' leader of the E88 to be instigating brawls, not without taking a hit to his standing.

Taylor glanced over at where she knew the rest of the capes would be, and saw the two Protectorate heroes pinned down by a constant stream of bullets from a truckbed-mounted chaingun, fired by Skidmark as he laid down repeating fields to empower the ammunition, screaming obscenities at the heroes, their mothers, and the world.

Squealer had obviously arrived, and was even now hauling Mush out of his garbage pile and into the tinkertech truck.

Taylor noted that the wound she delivered had been sealed with what looked like a trash bag, of all things.

Suddenly, Taylor felt a subtle shift in the air, a gentle pressure that told her prepare.

She shifted her stance slightly, and saw as Armsmaster and Miss Militia broke apart, dashing in opposite directions. Skidmark hesitated on which to aim at, before his choice was taken from him as Miss Militia retaliated with an absurdly large rifle of her own, obliterating the chaingun and sending the Merchant flying in an explosion of debris and swearing.

The two Empire capes paused at the concussive sound, and turned to look at the source of the disturbance, giving Taylor the chance she had been waiting for.

She flung herself forward, keeping low until she was almost upon them, before wrenching herself upright in a vicious upwards slice that would have removed Kaiser's right arm and most of his shoulder, had an obdurate column of steel not interposed itself and saved the man from being violently de-limbed.

Hookwolf growled in agitation, and attempted to carve her open with a claw. He was abruptly yanked off balance, however, as a grappling hook suddenly wrapped itself around the offending limb and pulled the villain to the side.

Taylor sidestepped a sudden thrust of steel from the column, and circled around until Kaiser was in her view once more. She felt a sudden presence at her back, and spoke without turning.

"Armsmaster."

The form at her rear shifted. "That's an impressive copy. Can you handle it well enough?"

Taylor shifted her grip on the Halberd higher, and moved to a one-handed hold. She extended her free hand, fingers splayed, as a second Halberd appeared. "Just as well as you can."

Armsmaster grunted. "We'll see about that. Can you take him?"

She looked the leader of the Empire Eighty-Eight dead in the eye, and tightened her grip on her twin weapons. Kaiser's eyes widened minutely, and his posture shifted to a defensive standing.

"I believe I can handle it."

With that, Taylor lunged forward with straight thrust for Kaiser's heart, intent on impaling the man. He batted the weapon aside with an armored hand, and quickly riposted her assault with a driving strike of his own, a blade growing from his other gauntlet.

Taylor shifted to the side, just enough to allow the blow to pass, and brought the second Halberd down on Kaiser's shoulder. The Traced weapon struck true, but the awkward angle robbed it of most of its power and it only bit into the armor, lodging firmly.

Kaiser gripped the embedded weapon, and yanked, pulling it free and nearly dragging Taylor with it. She relinquished her hold, and allowed the captured blade to dissolve with a will of effort.

Kaiser blinked in surprise, and had to scramble aside to dodge the attack Taylor aimed at his head with her remaining Halberd. A shaft of steel erupted from below, but Taylor had already sensed it and sidestepped, slapping the butt of her weapon into Kaiser's gut, and sent the larger man stumbling back.

Taylor pressed the attack, hoping to force him into submission, but was forced to retreat as blades erupted from all sides. She readied a second Halberd in her off hand, and prepared for a counter assault.

The attack came quickly, and without her steelsense, Taylor would surely have become a pincushion as lances of steel erupted from multiple points at once. The first shattered a Halberd as she defended her back and the next nearly took her hand, while the third, fourth, and fifth were evaded by a mere hairsbreadth each.

Kaiser merely stood back and observed her as she blocked, sliced, and dodged her way backwards to her starting position.

"Impressive," complimented the villain, "but it's not going to be enough, girl."

Taylor nodded in response, breathing heavily. "You're right."

She could feel it already. Her body wasn't built for this sort of intense, fast-paced action, and the effort was taking a toll on her. Another minute at most, and she'd be too exhausted to continue.

She couldn't outfight the villain before her, and nor could she willingly retreat from the man who had instigated her mother's death.

So she took a third option.

Gripping the Halberd in both hands, Taylor followed the subtle pressure that had been guiding her, and spun low, swinging the weapon with all her remaining might. She knew the two gatherings of steel were still behind her, locked in stalemate.

That changed in an instant.

As she spun low, she felt Armsmaster pivot as well and unleash his Halberd's weapon systems over her head into Kaiser's face. She didn't have time to catch his expression, but sincerely hoped someone had been recording.

As she swung, she felt the power that had circulated within her since the moment she had awoken surge, and she directed it to the weapon in her hands.

//Begin Synchronization

//Reinforcing Composite Materials

//System Overload: Breakdown Initiated​

The Halberd erupted into a blaze of light, fractures running up and down the weapon as its structure overloaded with the force of power it had been infused with.

Right into Hookwolf's chest.

//All Processes Completed​

The detonation shattered most of Hookwolf's blades, and sent the cape careening off into a nearby storefront. Taylor was simultaneously blown away, and skidded along the pavement, leaving patches of cloth and skin behind until she slammed against a bus stop bench.

Agony wracked her body, and her hands felt as if they had been boiled in oil. Without the presence of Steel to give order to her mind, she was unable to cope with the overwhelming sensations.

The last thing Taylor Hebert saw before succumbing to the encroaching darkness was Kaiser and Hookwolf being drenched in containment foam as PRT officers swarmed the scene.

---

Yes. That just happened.

Thoughts and opinions?

Click to shrink...

Not a bad chapter even though Taylor is channeling Shirou more than herself ATM. But her going into mind of steel mode would have that make sense. Her making Halberd Bombs was entertaining.

Honestly, I have no idea where the story would go from here.

Taylor is probably going to join the wards or at least forced into it for her "own" safety since she has no secret identity. Taylor's mom was just killed in a cape battle. And Taylor was also pissed off with the villains and hero's wasn't she? Her being pissed at the hero's didn't really show up in this chapter, instead she readily worked together with them.

But that is fine. The wards honestly wouldn't be a bad idea to this Taylor because of the AU elements. Don't think Taylor was bullied. Btw, non bullied Taylor is a chatterbox and has an upbeat personality. You should remember that.

Though I am expecting a major personality shift since she just saw her mom die in front of her.

I do not feel sorry for the Nazi's or merchants when Taylor gets to a point where she could reek bloody vengeance on their asses.

-edit-

Taylor after all has infinite ammo and can overload her creations and explode them. Probably would get to a point where she could destroy a city block with an overload like archer.

 

[doomlord9]

My guess would be that she either joins the wards until she kills her 3rd nazi cape and goes vigilante before she get arrested or she denies it right off the bat so that she doesn't have to worry about stupid things like laws and regulations preventing her from killing more nazis.

 

[OverReactionGuy]

My guess would be that she either joins the wards until she kills her 3rd nazi cape and goes vigilante before she get arrested or she denies it right off the bat so that she doesn't have to worry about stupid things like laws and regulations preventing her from killing more nazis.

Click to shrink...

Well, all capes have their own hangups from their triggers. Nazi's are just unfortunate.

 

[Zege]

Nice fight scene, but it feels like we're watching Shirou fight, not Taylor. Is the altered personality part of the powerset?

Also, the whole "blacks out after a fight and gets taken in" is a pet peeve of mine. It's so often used to put the protagonist in a new environment or scene-shift, it's become irritating to watch it again.

Click to shrink...

Thanks, I was really unsure if I handled the combat well. Yes, it is very Shirou-like, but it's not a total personality shift. Her emotions are simultaneously out of control and forcibly locked down with her Mind of Steel, which makes her very flat when using it. It's temporary.

The blackout was unavoidable, I think. She just tore a variety of muscles and tendons, fractured a number of bones, and flash-fried her hands, combined with the psychological shock from suppressing her emotions, and then feeling them at once? Would just be too much for any person, I think.

Not a bad chapter even though Taylor is channeling Shirou more than herself ATM. But her going into mind of steel mode would have that make sense. Her making Halberd Bombs was entertaining.

Honestly, I have no idea where the story would go from here.

Taylor is probably going to join the wards or at least forced into it for her "own" safety since she has no secret identity. Taylor's mom was just killed in a cape battle. And Taylor was also pissed off with the villains and hero's wasn't she? Her being pissed at the hero's didn't really show up in this chapter, instead she readily worked together with them.

But that is fine. The wards honestly wouldn't be a bad idea to this Taylor because of the AU elements. Don't think Taylor was bullied. Btw, non bullied Taylor is a chatterbox and has an upbeat personality. You should remember that.

Though I am expecting a major personality shift since she just saw her mom die in front of her.

I do not feel sorry for the Nazi's or merchants when Taylor gets to a point where she could reek bloody vengeance on their asses.

-edit-

Taylor after all has infinite ammo and can overload her creations and explode them. Probably would get to a point where she could destroy a city block with an overload like archer.

Click to shrink...

I've got plans, trust me. Annette surviving the car crash has had wider effects than are obvious at first glance, and will make for some interesting (to me at least) plot lines.

Her dropping her anger at the Hero's was intentional, a combination of the forced logic of the Mind of Steel, and another factor that will show up in future sections.

As for her destroying an entire city block?

Spoiler: Trace On

//Sword Barrel Full Open

My guess would be that she either joins the wards until she kills her 3rd nazi cape and goes vigilante before she get arrested or she denies it right off the bat so that she doesn't have to worry about stupid things like laws and regulations preventing her from killing more nazis.

Click to shrink...

Well, all capes have their own hangups from their triggers. Nazi's are just unfortunate.

Click to shrink...

Taylor will indeed have more than a bit of a grudge against the Nazis. She's going to have a bit of a reaction to the sheer level of violence she just performed though, and probably will aim to be less lethal in the future.

 

[ZiPeppe]

I'm almost certainly not going to continue.

Click to shrink...

This just made me a little bit sad.

 

[cyberswordsmen]

Thanks, I was really unsure if I handled the combat well. Yes, it is very Shirou-like, but it's not a total personality shift. Her emotions are simultaneously out of control and forcibly locked down with her Mind of Steel, which makes her very flat when using it. It's temporary.

The blackout was unavoidable, I think. She just tore a variety of muscles and tendons, fractured a number of bones, and flash-fried her hands, combined with the psychological shock from suppressing her emotions, and then feeling them at once? Would just be too much for any person, I think.

Click to shrink...

The blackout because of injury and waking up later is mostly a myth that comes from fiction using it as an excuse to not really finish a scene. In real life if you black out you aren't just in bad shape you either have a serious head injury or are in great danger of dying from blood lose or other serious injuries.

The type of injuries you describe shouldn't make her black out just collapse as the adrenaline stops masking the pain. She won't exactly be capable of talking but it will be because she is to busy crying.

 

[Vanargandr]

So I was thinking of Draven and Darius the other day

If Emma never betrayed Taylor and had a power of her own

well Draven!Emma Darius!Taylor could work?

 

[Nervaqus987]

This just made me a little bit sad.

Click to shrink...

Sorry.

Just not really feeling the whole thing.

 

[Zege]

The blackout because of injury and waking up later is mostly a myth that comes from fiction using it as an excuse to not really finish a scene. In real life if you black out you aren't just in bad shape you either have a serious head injury or are in great danger of dying from blood lose or other serious injuries.

The type of injuries you describe shouldn't make her black out just collapse as the adrenaline stops masking the pain. She won't exactly be capable of talking but it will be because she is to busy crying.

Click to shrink...

Well, I'm certainly not adverse to changing it. I really only used the blackout because I wanted to end the scene, and I thought it made sense. But hey, I can extend the section to include her reaction to the pain and emotional damage as well.

 

[cyberswordsmen]

Well, I'm certainly not adverse to changing it. I really only used the blackout because I wanted to end the scene, and I thought it made sense. But hey, I can extend the section to include her reaction to the pain and emotional damage as well.

Click to shrink...

Just having her collapse from pain would serve as a good bookend for the scene. She isn't going to doing much in the immediate future and a general outline of events can be stated or implied in the following scene.

 

[Snake/Eater]

I have a rough Guilty Crown crossover idea,a character Trigger's with the "Power of the King" shard it's the ability take a super-powered object from inside a person(or animal) based on the owner's personality.they also have a natural instinct on how to use how to use the object then the person the object belongs to.but in order to extract any items they need to do two things.

1. they must have eye contact.
2. they must pull the object out of their chest.