Capes and Magic Hats (Worm Taylor SI)

This fic is a continuous commission like A New Motivation. The title is a working title and may change eventually.

~~~

November 15th 2010

Wednesday

It was a morning like any other when it happened. I went to bed the previous night, expecting to wake up dreading the school day ahead of me as always, with thoughts wondering why I even bothered going anymore following me into the land of dreams.

Waking up was the same as well. I opened my eyes to stare at the ceiling with fuzzy vision thanks to my lack of glasses, and lamented the fact that I would have to get up and deal with all of the bs that happened at Winslow all over again. The headache behind my eyes only added to my bad mood, but it was nothing I hadn't dealt with before.

Or so I thought, until that headache began growing even stronger, steadily rising until it was so bad that it felt like someone was enthusiastically taking a jackhammer to my skull. My hands came up to clutch my scalp, my mouth opening wide in a silent scream as the pain progressed even further beyond that and continued rising.

Alongside this pain came flashes in my mind. Memories and experiences that weren't my own flew past my eyes at a rapid pace, what felt like an entire other life being forcefully implanted into my unwilling skull as I writhed in pain atop my sheets. I whimpered, my hands tangling in my long hair as the pain only grew even more severe as time went on.

It lasted for what felt like hours. Hours of excruciating agony that left me completely unable to breathe yet wouldn't give me the mercy of allowing me to pass out. By the time it finally ended, I was left staring at the ceiling, my body tangled in my bedsheets as I wondered how I had ended up on the floor.

My brain felt swollen, full to bursting with things that I had never experienced as someone else's life was planted right into my skill. Images of a city that wasn’t Brockton Bay flashed through my eyes, places that I had never been filling the gaps in my brain where nothing had been before. The memories were fragmented, fuzzy and unfocused, as if I was looking at them through a hazy film, unable to focus on any one moment in this person's life as they shifted and settled in my mind.

I groaned, bringing a hand up to my head in an attempt to cause the throbbing to stop to no avail. It seemed whatever had happened to me was over as the pain was slowly abating, but way too slowly for my tastes.

“Taylor? Are you alright?”

The softly spoken voice broke me out of my thoughts, and I looked up blearily to find the fuzzy figure of a tall, thin stranger kneeling over me in clear concern.

No, not a stranger. The man came into focus as he leaned closer, revealing a face much like my own with a pair of glasses on his nose. It was a face that I had seen nearly every day for the past fifteen years. It was my dad.

I winced, shaking my head to get rid of the fuzzy feeling in it. As I did so, my dad leaned down, his face set in concern as he took me in, on the floor with my clothes and sheets in complete disarray. “Are you alright, Little Owl? Why are you on the floor?” He asked me gently, holding my glasses out for me to take. I grabbed them from him and placed them on my face, frowning slightly as the room somehow only grew even fuzzier than before.

I ignored it, focusing on his question instead. I wasn't sure if I was alright. I felt like myself, but someone else at the same time. Two different sets of memories sat in my head, slowly shifting and unscrambling themselves as they became clearer and allowed my more insight into exactly who I was.

I couldn't tell my dad this, of course. That'd be a one way ticket to a therapist at best and a psych ward at worst. “I must've moved in my sleep or something.” I said instead as I rose from the floor, “I woke up when I fell off the bed and I think I must've hit my head or something because I've got a really bad headache.”

My dad frowned and for a moment I worried he didn't believe my lie. Luckily, he didn't press me on the matter, instead glancing down at his watch with a frown.

“I need to get ready for work, but you should stay home if you aren't feeling good.” He said, gently helping me to my feet.

I shook my head, holding back the wince that the action produced, “I can't. We've got a test today in math and I can't miss it.”

He frowned, clearly unhappy, but didn't try to fight me on it, “If you're sure.” He said, still looking at me with concern, “If you need me to come pick you up early just tell the office, okay? I’m sure I can find time to get you or maybe send Kurt to do it.”

A small smile curled at the edges of my lips despite the pain at his words. I was happy to see that despite how distant things had been between us recently, he still cared for me as much as always, “Okay, dad. I will.”

“Good.” He said, stepping away, “Go ahead and get ready. I’ll put on some eggs and coffee for us. Sound good?”

I nodded, already feeling better as I gave him a small smile, “Could I get cream in mine?”

“Sure thing kiddo.”

~~~

My migraine was still throbbing in the back of my head when I sat down for breakfast a few minutes later but it was not nearly as bad as it had been before, more like an intense pressure as opposed to the daggers that felt like they were being shoved in my head earlier.

That meant it was much easier to tune it out and focus on the taste of the scrambled eggs my dad had cooked. Cheese, salt, and pepper were used simply but effectively to make the otherwise bland taste of the food much more vibrant, and after the first bite I quickly found myself scarfing down the food like I hadn’t eaten in days.

I looked up at my dad who was polishing off his own plate of eggs as he gave me a curious look, “Man, Taylor, you've really been going at it hard, haven't you?”

I blinked, completely taken by surprise, “Hm?”

He gestured at me, “Whatever exercises you’ve been doing are working out really well. Pretty soon you’ll be just as strong as your old man, huh?” He said as washed down the last of his eggs with coffee, “I might just have to get you down to the docks to show my boys a thing or two.”

What? I looked at my dad in confusion, unable to ask him what he was talking about through my mouthful of scrambled eggs. He didn’t elaborate either, instead looking down at his watch and widening his eyes. He quickly stood from the table, rattling his empty coffee mug as he did so, “Oh shoot! Sorry, Taylor, I’ve got to go or I’ll be late. Would you mind taking care of the dishes for me?”

I shrugged, swallowing the food in my mouth, “Sure. I don’t mind. Have a good day at work, Dad.”

He laughed as he made his way to the door, pulling on his jacket, “I’ll try my best, just like always. ”

I watched him leave, the door closing behind him with a solid noise that echoed through the empty house, before I frowned, looking down at my arms. They did look… bigger, didn’t they?

~~~ Later ~~~

Freshly showered and in a clean pair of underwear, I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror, taking in the sight of my own body in confusion. Slowly, I brought a hand down, poking myself in the abs that I was positive weren’t there a few hours ago when I went to bed.

Nor were the muscles in my arms. I squeezed my right bicep, marveling at the firmness of the muscles that were held there, before stepping back to get a better look at myself.

I had never exactly been proud of my body, quite the opposite really. Emma’s constant demeaning remarks about how unfit and ugly I was had done a fantastic job of keeping my self-esteem right in the toilet, but not enough so that I gained the drive to workout and change that fact. Now, it seemed that that issue had been taken care of for me.

When I went to bed last night, I did so as a skinny, unfit girl with a bit of a pot belly due to my eating habits. The girl looking back at me in the mirror though, had defined muscles and rippling abs that looked like something straight out of a fitness magazine.

“Does this have something to do with what happened earlier?” I asked myself as I flexed my new muscles, “Since when does getting powers make you feel like your head’s about to pop out of your skull?”

I glanced up at my face, taking in the lack of glasses sitting upon it. Despite that, the world looked as sharp as it ever did with them on, if not even moreso. What kind of power did that?

Because that’s what this had to be, right? There was no other explanation for me to suddenly look like I had been on a hardcore diet/workout regime for the last year.

I spent another moment just admiring my new physique, looking myself over in what, under any other circumstance, would be a stunning display of narcissism, before I glanced out into the hall and caught a glimpse of the light filtering in through the living room window and my eyes widened at how bright it was.

I turned away from the mirror and grabbed my glasses from where I put them on the sink. I grimaced slightly as I placed them in their usual position and the room went fuzzy once more, before immediately taking them off again.

“I'll just say they broke or I forgot them or something.” I muttered as I placed them back on the sink, before turning out of the bathroom, making my way to my bedroom to get dressed.

I could figure out what was going on later. For now, I had to get to school. No matter how much I didn't want to.

~~~ Later That Day ~~~

I stared straight forward at the whiteboard, my expression dull as my teacher droned on about differential equations and their use in real life. As I listened, my fingers pressed the paper underneath them against itself, folding it neatly into the shape I desired while I simultaneously thought about my current situation.

As the school day had progressed, I had slowly discovered more and more about my strange set of circumstances. First and foremost among them, was that the changes to my body hadn’t been the surface level increase in my physique that I had originally expected. Whatever had happened to me had also affected my mind in several ways.

The first and most obvious change was that my ability to multitask had been massively increased, as I first noticed while I was taking my test, finding it laughably easy to focus on that and also my new predicament at the same time. And even now, listening to my teacher's lecture, doing origami, and simultaneously getting lost in my thoughts was nowhere near as difficult as it should have been.

Not only that, but if asked I could recount exactly what she had said, which meant I wasn’t just splitting my attention between three things, I was focusing on all of them at the same time. Yesterday, I would have had trouble splitting my attention between one or the other, never mind all three.

Speaking of things that I wouldn’t have been able to do yesterday… I looked down at the paper that I had been folding, finding a neat, paper triangle held between my . Looking up to make sure that the teacher wasn’t looking, I held it up and aimed, flicking it with just the right amount of force as she turned to write something on the board.

It soared across the room in a perfect arc and landed neatly in the trash can beside the door. Behind me, I could hear one of my classmates make an impressed noise as I brought my hand back down, staring towards the shot I had just made easily. I was sitting one row from the back of the classroom, almost as far away from that trashcan as you could possibly be and yet I had made that shot while barely even trying.

I didn’t even know how to make one of those little paper footballs an hour ago, but with just a bit of practice and instruction from my neighbor, I could do it with literally one hand in a matter of a minute.

And that wasn't even mentioning my insane aim. It was like I could visualize the trajectories in my brain, see where things would go when I threw them and automatically adjust my aim to ensure I always got my target. I hadn't quite tested it fully, but so far my theories seemed correct.

Which was absolutely insane if true. I had heard of grab-bag capes, but this was ridiculous. If I was right, then I had at least three separate Thinker powers now. They weren’t exactly powers that would let me beat some of the stronger capes in the Bay, but if used right I could easily be an extremely effective hero.

Which brought me to the biggest question that all of this change had produced. Did I even want to be a hero? Did I want to be a cape in general?

The question was one that, had someone asked me literally yesterday, I would have said yes to with no hesitation. But that was yesterday, before I had someone's memories beamed into my skull like the world's most painful x-ray.

And with these memories, were seemingly snapshots of the future. My future. A future which, if things went the way they were supposed to, would include me fighting Lung of all people with nothing but a bunch of bugs.

Not to mention the fact that I would apparently be joining a villain gang, robbing a bank, fighting a goddamn endbringer with, again, insects. With all that in mind, one could imagine why I was a bit trepidatious to enter the cape scene with only some muscles and improved aim at my back.

The bell in the hallway signaling the end of the period forced me out of my thoughts. I jerked upright in my seat, startling at the loud ringing while my classmates immediately began packing up to leave, completely ignoring our teacher’s words about the homework that would be due tomorrow

I was much slower to get moving, taking my time to pack my things away as I continued to think about my situation, staring at my desk with a stoic expression on my face.

“You okay, Taylor?” I flinched slightly as Greg’s voice suddenly came from beside my desk. He was giving me a concerned look, “You don’t look too good.’’

“I’m fine.” My voice was much more curt than he probably deserved, and he flinched slightly as I said the words before quickly moving on.

As I watched him go, though, I couldn’t bring myself to feel bad, not after everything that I had been experiencing. As the day went on, my new memories became clearer, solidifying in my mind until they were difficult to differentiate from my own memories and personality, quickly going from memories I had just acquired to my memories.

Was I still me? I was pretty sure I was. My own life was still there and though I was finding myself doing small, almost inconsequential things that I had never done before - tapping my fingers against my palms when I was thinking for example - I hadn't detected a shift in the way I thought or reacted to things. As far as I knew, I was still the same person as before, just changed by the memories and experiences that I had so suddenly received.

I wasn’t sure how to put it into words exactly, but it was like someone’s personality had merged with my own, giving me their experiences and habits yet leaving me in control. It was strange, and not just because of the fact that whoever I had seemingly merged with was definitely not a teenage girl. It made for a bit of cognitive dissonance that I was still trying to come to terms with.

I finished packing up and made my way out into the hall, my mind going a mile a minute as I thought about what I should do with the information that I had suddenly found myself in unwilling possession of. Should I tell the Protectorate? Would they even believe me? I wasn’t sure I would.

I sighed, lifting my head as I thought about my dilemma , only to freeze as my eyes locked onto the last person I wanted to see that day. Emma was only a few people away through the crowd, leaning up against a locker as she talked with one of the girls from her little clique, completely oblivious to my presence only a few feet away.

Or at least she was, but as if she had felt my gaze, Emma suddenly looked away from the girl she was talking to and turned to lock eyes with me instead. A smirk instantly appeared on the redhead’s face, causing my spine to instantly stiffen in trepidation.

Immediately after that, I did an about-face, turning on my heel to begin moving in the opposite direction. My feet were taking me away from my next class but I couldn’t bring myself to care in the slightest as the memories that I had gained reared up in my mind, reminding me exactly what that girl would do to me one day if she had her way.

Even putting that out of consideration, dealing with Emma right now was at the bottom of the list of things I wanted to do. I was barely able to deal with Greg asking me a question, Emma's usual games would probably cause me to snap and get suspended or worse.

As I walked away, I could hear Emma shouting after me, barely audible over the din of chattering students that flowed in the opposite direction that I was going. I picked up the pace, automatically dodging around someone who stepped into my path and startling them. I didn’t look back or even attempt to offer them an apology as I moved as fast as I could without breaking into a full sprint.

I pushed past the crowd and quickly found myself at the staircase at the end of the hall. I wasted no time in ascending the stairs, taking two or even three at a time yet not stumbling or breaking stride in the slightest as I made my way to the second floor of the school. Before the changes, I would have tripped over my own feet doing such a thing so it seemed that that was another thing that had changed. Did I also have perfect balance now or something? Just another thing to figure out I guess.

I put the thought in the back of my mind as I reached the second floor, pushing open the doors to the hallway and walking inside. This floor wasn't nearly as busy, only a few students mingling around and talking to one another by their lockers. They paid my no kind as I passed them by, making a bee-line to the nearby women's bathroom.

Most wouldn't think that Emma would follow me this far but I knew better. I had less than ten minutes before I was found by the other girl, probably with company. With that thought in mind, I didn’t hesitate to push open the door to the bathroom and immediately make my way to one of the stalls, locking myself inside.

I sat back on the toilet, my breathing not even heavy from the journey up here, and just waited.

For several minutes I sat there, just counting the seconds and listening intently as I waited for someone to enter. Somewhere around the third minute, the bell rang once again, signaling that even if I left right now, I would be late for my next class. I paid it no mind, instead focusing on the door to the bathroom as I waited apprehensive for the door to open and someone to come in.

Another minute passed. Then two. Slowly, I began to relax, the tension draining from my shoulders as I imagined that perhaps Emma hadn’t actually followed me. Maybe she had decided that screwing with me right now just wasn’t worth the trouble and went to class instead.

That idea flew right out the window and all of that tension came flooding back as the door to the bathroom suddenly creaked open and someone walked inside. I stilled my breathing, staring at the floor underneath the stall as they slowly passed me by, gulping slightly as I recognized the shoes that the girl was wearing.

Emma owned that exact pair of shoes. Now, I knew that that didn't necessarily mean that this was the girl herself, but I also wasn't exactly in the right frame of mind for critical thinking.

I drew my legs up, placing my shoes on the rim of the toilet to hide myself, quieting my breathing as much as I possibly could in hopes that she couldn't hear me.

I should've just stayed home and figured all of this stuff out. I really wished I had. I wished I had just taken the hit on the test and made it up later. I wished Emma wasn't such a horrific bitch that the mere thought of being stuck in the bathroom with her utterly terrified me.

More than anything though, I wished I was anywhere but here right now.

The moment those words crossed my mind, everything around me shifted and an incredibly disorienting sensation overcame me. It only grew even stronger a moment later, causing me to close my eyes tightly with an almost silent gasp

And then I was falling, or at least that was the only thing I could equate the feeling to. The feeling in my stomach was familiar, but there was no wind rushing past me, no sensation of air rushing over my limbs or even the hard surface of the floor disappearing from underneath my sneakers.

I didn’t even get the chance to begin to understand what was going on before it stopped just as suddenly as it began. And suddenly I found myself somewhere else. Somewhere much more… peaceful.

Confused and somewhat afraid, I brought my hands down to my sides. Soft grass threaded between my fingers as I brought them down, causing me to flinch slightly, before I slowly opened my eyes to see what was going on.

The moment I did so, the first thing I realized was that I definitely wasn’t in the bathroom anymore. Stretching in front of me were what seemed like miles and miles of rolling hills. A bright cloudless sky hung overhead, no sun in sight yet the world didn't see any dimmer for it. It was a stark contrast to the ceiling tiles and fluorescent lights that had been in their place moments before.

In the near distance, sticking out like a sore thumb among all of the emptiness around me, was a large building that reminded me of a library, just sitting there in plain view and practically beckoning me towards it.

“What is this place?” I muttered to myself as I took in the view in front of me. I breathed deeply, feeling all of my tension slowly fade out of me like I was in a relaxing sauna or something. Whatever this place was, it had a deeply calming presence, the feeling of tranquility prevalent all around me.

“Is this… my power?” I wondered out loud as I began looking around at the admittedly beautiful scenery, “Did it send me here?”

The idea seemed a bit far fetched, but I had no other explanation. Something about this place felt.. Intimate, familiar almost, and I was struck with a certain feeling of rightness.

And as I began to make my way towards the beckoning building, I somehow knew that this place, whatever it was, was somewhere I was meant to be.