A Little Eldritch Worm Part 2

"So, no side effects?" Dennis asked as he looked at the attractive girl that was standing in the middle of the testing center, having to remind himself Amy wouldn't appreciate him flirting.

"That depends if you count the costume," Amy replied as she gestured at her genie outfit.

"I don't," Vicky replied cheerfully, rather amused by her sister's costume.

"For a brute rating and flight, I'll risk it," Dennis replied.

"Done," Taylor replied as she snapped her fingers and used her Magic Girl Transformation power on Clockblocker, causing the red haired teenager with a domino mask to transform into a taller and heavier built red haired man in his late teens that was wearing a kilt and no top, showing off his hairy and well built chest. "Huh, he skipped the transformation scene."

"I know, right, I was looking forward to seeing something like a nice sword," Vicky teased as she glanced at the hilt of the giant sword sticking out from behind his back.

"Pervert," Dennis replied with amusement. "I always knew you had a thing for me."

"You were a stick figure," Vicky pointed out.

"Were," Dennis replied with amusement as he flexed with a grin.

"I'm still stronger," Vicky argued.

"We don't know that," Dennis replied, happy with the transformation.

"Don't worry, we have ways to test this," Franklin pointed out as he gestured toward the brute rated weight machine.

"Let's do this," Dennis said as he headed over to the weight machine.

"So, now that we've proven your ability safe, hook me up?" Vicky asked hopefully.

"Sure," Taylor replied as she used her power on Vicky causing her to be surrounded by white and gold sparkles that did a reasonable job of hiding everything that they needed to hide as her costume vanished and a genie outfit appeared.

"What?" Dennis asked as he turned back to look at the group, his eyes jumping to Vicky's sparkly genie outfit. "Nice outfit."

"I was expecting a couple of inches," Vicky pouted.

"That's what she said," Amy teased.

"Stop stealing my lines," Dennis complained.

"You're already a flying brute, that might have something to do with it or maybe it goes off personality," Taylor offered, not actually sure.

"Maybe there wasn't enough of a difference," Dennis mused.

"See, I told you I was a magic girl," Vicky said cheerfully.

"When you were twelve," Amy complained as she reached out and grabbed her sister's hand so that she could check her biology.

"Still counts," Vicky replied smugly.

"Baseline brute rating and regeneration, you'll want to stay like this."

"I might need to redesign my costume to work with the outfit," Vicky mused.

“It’s not like it’s glued on,” Dennis called out as the machine slowly increased the weight to over two and a half tons.

"What's glued on…" Chris trailed off as his gaze jumped to Vicky and Amy as he walked into the testing room and spotted the girls, completely missing Dennis.

"Just the person I wanted to see," Franklin said as he turned to look at the Tinker. "Do you want to help Redcap test to see if her abilities include technology?"

Kid Win pulled his attention off the girls and focused on the new cape that was wearing gray gym shorts and a hoodie. "What do you need me to do?" he asked, trying to be helpful since she'd managed to get rid of Sophia.

"Talk about one of your inventions and see how much she understands while she looks through the boxes of spare parts," Franklin suggested as he gestured toward the boxes of electronics and 'junk' on the desk in the corner. "I need to take some notes and send off an email."

"I can do that," Chris replied as he headed over to the collection of boxes. "What do you want me to explain?"

"Your hoverboard?" Taylor asked as she walked over to take a look at the broken prize machine that was next to the box of junk, getting the sense that it would be pretty easy to 'repair'.

"I love my board," Chris replied then started talking about the tech that went into it, a bit surprised that the new girl was able to follow along.

0o0o0

Emily Piggot glanced up from the report she was reading on her computer about Sophia when one of the scientists responsible for power testing walked into her office along with Gallant. "Is there a reason that Gallant is here?"

"I wanted to deal with the elephant in the room before we got started and I figured you might have questions," Franklin replied. "Because of Panacea's involvement, I called in a favor with one of the Watchdog capes. As far as they were able to determine, Panacea is free of mental influence and Redcap doesn't have the ability to influence people directly."

"Directly?" Piggot asked warily.

"Her upgraded locations can invoke emotions and set rules, but the process creates warning signs which means you're free to avoid the location or at least that's how my contact explained it," Franklin offered.

"Actual signs?" Piggot asked.

"Correct, I had one of the lab techs check the entrance. Winslow currently has an official looking sign that prohibits attacking students or staff, unauthorized weapons, bullying, destruction of property and theft, it wasn't there before she upgraded the property."

"Unauthorized weapons?" Piggot asked.

"That one is a bit strange, Armsmaster didn't have any problem walking around the school with his weapons and one of the techs couldn't walk through the door because of a folding knife in his pocket. On the other hand, one of the PRT agents had no problems walking into the building with a folding knife in her pocket and a gun in her shoulder holster."

"Protectorate members and agents in good standing are legally allowed to carry weapons into locations that have restrictions on weapons, I doubt the tech has the right certification," Piggot mused.

"I'll check when I get back, but I doubt it," Franklin agreed. "Mark is a decent guy and he has a permit for concealed weapons but he's a lab tech."

"Can Ms Hebert reverse the changes?" Piggot asked, sort of hoping that she couldn't as it would make dealing with trouble at Winslow a lot easier.

"No, and the Thinkers were clear, the effect isn't going to fade or collapse until the building does," Franklin told her.

"What is your opinion on Ms Hebert?" Piggot asked Gallant.

"I don't know," Gallant admitted, thinking about the first time he'd gotten close enough to sense her compared to her emotions after she'd snapped out of the weird rage she'd been in. "She seems honest about her desire to be a hero but she's also stressed out and furious with Sophia."

"The fact that she didn't cave Sophia's head in with her cane speaks to her self control," Piggot stated, knowing she would have killed Sophia if she'd been in Taylor's shoes. "What else can you tell me about her powers?"

Franklin shrugged. "I'd give her stamina drain a rating of two or three, it's effective but it's easy to block and doesn't have any kinetic force to it. Her ability to temporarily turn capes into Tinkers is certainly unusual and her ability to permanently give people a Breaker form is quite possibly unique but she can't use the ability on herself which complicates the rating a bit."

"What makes you think Breaker rather than Changer?" Piggot asked, curious since his report hadn't mentioned his reasoning.

"A Changer would be left with the same injuries or they'd heal when they shift. The durability testing left a bruise on Panacea's arm that vanished when she shifted back to her normal form and reappeared when she swapped back to her magic form. It vanished completely after about ten minutes in her normal form and was fading rapidly in her magic form which means that her Breaker form has some regeneration."

"Good," Piggot replied, happy that the best healer in the world had a bit more protection. "Do you think that is an interaction with Panacea's power or a natural property of the Breaker ability?"

"It's a property of the Breaker form, the same thing happened to Kid Win and Clockblocker when they were transformed," Franklin admitted.

"Why wasn't that in the report?" Piggot asked, hoping he had a good reason for not including it.

"It would have been but the virus scanner on my computer started screaming about the network's compromised security and basically wouldn't let me do anything until the network was fixed. Nathan is watching the techs to make sure they're not part of the problem but you're going to want to have Armsmaster or Dragon take a look at the system when they get a chance because the scanner found some outside connections."

"I'll talk to Armsmaster about it," Piggot grumbled, less than happy about someone hacking their network. "What else can you tell me about her powers?"

"Her ability to create and control her minions would give her a high Master rating but there seems to be a limit to the number of minions she can have active at once," Franklin said, thinking about Redcap's inability to summon more minions during testing.

"What are the chances that we'll be able to talk her into the Wards?" Piggot asked.

Franklin shook his head. "Slim to none considering the amount of money she could make in a weekend, the sheer amount of red tape she'd have to deal with if she worked for us and her ability to upgrade locations. She could turn her house into a fortress and bribe the gangs to leave her alone."

"I can't see that working out long term," Piggot argued.

"It doesn't have to, it just has to work long enough for her to build up her defenses and her reputation and connections," Franklin pointed out. "It took her thirty seven minutes to turn the broken prize dispenser from the giftshop into a machine that sells belts that 'conjure' hoverboards, just imagine what she could do with a couple of weeks."

Piggot stared at Franklin for a couple of seconds, wondering if he was joking before deciding that he was serious. "How long do the belts last?"

"I'll let you know when the first one breaks, we have Aegis giving it a test run," Franklin replied, looking forward to giving the hoverboard a try after they proved that it was 'safe' or at least safe enough to test for a couple of minutes.

"I'd appreciate it," Piggot replied as her phone rang with an annoying tone that let her know that it was the Chief Director. "I need to take this."

"I'll let you know if the healing machine that Panacea is building actually works," Franklin told her then left, looking forward to seeing what the wards that had gotten caught in Redcap's Trump ability.

Gallant followed the scientist out, curious if Vicky could actually get her shield generator to work.

0o0o0

"Okay, we're here, what happened?" Danny asked as he put the car in park, turned the key off and focused on his daughter who was sitting in the passenger seat.

"How much did the PRT explain while I was finishing up power testing?" Taylor asked, not sure where to start.

"They told me that someone posted a video of you knocking Sophia unconscious on the internet and that I probably should avoid watching it," Danny replied, wondering how bad the video was and why they'd needed to have Panacea heal her. "They also mentioned that any chance of keeping a secret identity was basically shot because of the nature of your trigger and the minions."

"Yeah, summoning my minions wasn't my best idea but I wasn't exactly thinking straight," Taylor admitted, hoping that she wouldn't have to deal with the rage now that she was back to normal or at least as normal as she suspected she'd get considering the fact that she could feel her minions in the back of her mind and use their senses if she wanted to. "I just remember thinking that she'd look better on the ground and then I knocked her unconscious and shattered her knee cap with my cane."

"Any regrets?" Danny asked.

"If I'd been thinking about it, I wouldn't have used the minions, I would have just hit her until she stopped moving," Taylor replied, wondering if she should be feeling guilty for shattering Sophia's kneecap.

"Probably better," Danny agreed as he adjusted his glasses. "What exactly are your powers? The agent that I was talking to either didn't know or wouldn't say beyond the fact that you 'upgraded' Winslow and have minions."

"I have a beam that can drain stamina from living creatures and use the energy to refuel my stamina which is better than a double shot of espresso, the ability to upgrade locations that should help keep us safe and the ability to manipulate jello. I can also give people the ability to turn into magic girls and temporarily turn capes into Tinkers," she offered, not seeing a reason to mention her technopathy, as the less people that knew about her ability to psychically manipulate and interact with technology the better. "My cane lets me create minions that I can use as scouts and spies and lets me cause my eyes to glow various colors which is pretty cool."

"Jello? You have the ability to manipulate jello?" Danny asked, not sure why he found the manipulation of jello the strangest thing in her crazy list of powers.

"Probably, it was on the list of powers I saw on a floating screen when I blacked out in my locker," Taylor admitted.

"You got a list of powers?" Danny asked in surprise.

"Everything but the ability to control my minions and see through their senses," Taylor replied, not actually sure why that part of her powers hadn't been on the screen unless controlling the minions was her parahuman power and everything else was some type of magic.

"Weird," Danny mused, fairly sure powers didn't work that way.

"Yeah," Taylor agreed. "You should probably avoid mentioning my possible jello-kinesis since I didn't mention it to the lab tech."

"Makes sense," Danny agreed with a smile as he pictured a much younger Taylor running around using jello to fight crime. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know," Taylor admitted. "There's a slim chance that I could save my secret identity by turning a minion into a magic girl and claiming that she loaned me the cane and got me out of the locker but there were people in the hallway recording the fight and most of my classmates are part of the gangs or know people in the gangs so I can't see it working."

"Even if they believed the lie, there's a decent chance the gangs would assume you had a connection to the mystery cape and come after us looking for information," Danny argued.

"Trying to hide would also prevent me from making obvious upgrades to the house," Taylor admitted.

"What type of upgrades are you thinking?" Danny asked, wondering if the house would even look the same once she was done upgrading it.

Taylor turned to look at the house where she'd grown up, wondering how much it would change when she used her power. "I wouldn't mind having a house that prevents our enemies from finding it or that can take a hit from an endbringer and shrug it off."

"What about both? We might as well shoot for the moon, right?" Danny teased, not sure how her power worked but he'd seen the before and after pictures of Winslow so he figured there was a chance that she could make it hard for the casual gang members to kill them by shooting through the walls.

"That's probably going to take a while," Taylor admitted, not sure how much 'mana' she'd have to toss at the house to get it to that point. "Do I have permission to try?"

"Might as well," Danny agreed. "If anyone from the building department asks, you fell asleep on the ride back and you accidentally used your powers on the house when I poked your shoulder to wake you up."

"Sure," Taylor agreed as she used her power and spent everything in the pool to upgrade her house, causing the house to change from a modern looking wooden house into an old fashioned three story stone keep with dozens of stained glass windows, balconies on the second and third floors and a solarium off the side of the house that would be perfect for a garden.

"Huh," Danny muttered as the wooden stairs leading up to the keep were replaced by stone stairs. "That wasn't quite what I was expecting."

"Yeah, no," Taylor admitted as she opened the door and got out of the car, curious if she'd also screwed up the inside and what happened to all of their stuff.

"Do you think the key still works?" Danny asked as he got out of the car and headed for the keep, trying not to freak out about the changes to the house. 'Anne would love the windows.'

"At least you won't have to fix the step," Taylor teased as they reached the place where the rotten step used to be that her father had never got around to fixing. She was pleasantly surprised as they unlocked the front door and walked into the familiar and yet unfamiliar living room that looked to have been stretched so they had more room.

"At least we didn't have to cross a drawbridge over a moat to get in," Danny mused as he glanced around, mentally noting the fact that the wallpaper had been replaced with tasteful wooden paneling.

"Not yet, I'm checking my room," Taylor replied with amusement as she headed up the stairs to see her room. She glanced at the window on the wall that looked down at the car, nevermind the fact that it was facing the wrong direction or that it didn't look like a stained glass window. 'It's probably just as well that I'm not trying to hide.'

She reached her room and studied the carved plaque over the door with her name on it. 'At least the door to my room didn't move.' She walked over and checked the bathroom. "Huh," she muttered when she saw the tiled bathroom that was easily twice as large as it used to be and the row of shower stalls that reminded her of some of the gyms she'd seen in movies. 'This would be great if I had a sister or a bunch of girlfriends.'

Taylor shook her head then walked back to her room and looked inside, her gaze immediately jumping to the bed that was set into a nook with a window overlooking the backyard. 'That should be facing the car, shouldn't it?' she mused as she turned her attention to the rest of the room. She walked over to check the books on the large and ornate bookshelf and pulled the leather bound book that seemed out of place with the rest of her books. She jumped back and stared in surprise as the door to her room closed and the bookshelf swung out, revealing a doorway that led to another room. 'Neat!'

0o0o0