1.13

I had called up the PRT number before the end of lunch and ended up getting transferred to Miss Militia, who I explained the gist of the situation to. At first she had been shocked but after some discussion I finally convinced her this was a good way for Sophia to learn some humility - and that she -had- agreed to it. Though I left out the fact that Taylor had blackmailed her into it. Miss Militia promised she would let us use an empty meeting room that hardly gets used.

After school I met up with mom outside, then headed into the PRT building. Mom had brought a big travel bag. Miss Militia met us at the front desk and guided us to the room she had talked about, though she still looked fairly uncertain about the whole thing.

When we stepped inside and closed the door, mom pulled out the bodysuit she had managed to finish for me as well as my 'costume'... I really need to get something made that's better quality than this.

Mom starts yanking out thread, a couple of patterns black and white cloth... the works. When she turns to me she says "Give me a basic manikin - roughly the size of the target, bigger when you're not sure - can always cut, can't really add material. It'll also have to be sewn. You study this -" she hands me a small pamphlet of styles of stitching along with where and why they are applied... could have used that with my outfit. "mainly these two. Figure out a way to do it fast, you have magic, just make it work. Here's some extra help " She pulls out two pages printed front and back with diagrams. It was probably pulled from the internet and printed out from the looks of the data. It was a diagram of the design of several sewing machines, their mechanisms, how they work and what sort of stitching they do.

I accept the 'gifts'... great I'm going to be a seam master... I idly wonder if that's actually the masculine form of 'seamstress'. I wordlessly create a manikin roughly in Sophia's proportions. Then head to the nearest restroom to change.

Having 'transformed' into Oblivium, though I didn't light up the black bodysuit, having some contrast is good and there's no need to cover it up. - Shard insisted I call it a transformation because the more transformations you have the better. Form one is Will, so going to form two (Oblivium) requires a 'transformation' - I put Shard on shield duty while I focus on learning from all the info my mother gave me and trying to create the best magical sewing machine the world has ever seen. I have more than a few ideas, We'll have to see how they work. It was a bit of a stress reliever to be able to just design something for fun, all my magic has been designed for combat - even flight, although fun, is mainly a way to stay at range and allow for easy maneuverability.

Once Shard had my shields up (I had to build the power orbs so they would be stronger) and I had the design down for the magic sewing machine I head back to the meeting room we had appropriated. As my hand touched the doorknob I heard a -howl- of rage... which suddenly got muffled halfway through, followed by struggling, a little squeaking, a -lot- of rustling and thumps of what I assume is a somewhat small body hitting the ground.

I decide to knock instead. The noises stopped, then there was a very Sophia sounding yelp, my mother saying something to her, then more rustling. Finally the doorknob turns on its own to open the door and show my mother with a wide smile and -lots- of cloth all with lines and markings all over the edges and a measuring tape and rope draped over her shoulders.... and I'm pretty sure she has her stun gun in her pocket.

In the back corner of the room there's Sophia hugging herself and staring at my mother in horror... I think she might be shaking a little and her clothes look like they had been thrown on in a hurry. The previous scene was easy to figure out. My mother needed accurate measurements and she can be a -little- bit of a force of nature.

I push the 'helpful' scene Shard gives me out of my head before I fully register what it is.

Mom is smiling - this is pretty much one of her favorite things. Designing and forcing clothes onto unwilling victims. If she ever became a parahuman she'd probably end up being one of the most terrifying villains in town. Her eyes are shining as she asks happily "So, what've you got for me!"

I hold up a glowing teal 'pen' with a setting on it, the power orb for it is just tethered to it so it floats sluggishly around a few feet away from it. "You change the settings here, you just draw where you want the stitching to go and it'll automatically write up some semi-physical threads in whatever type of stitch you have the setting set for. Change it to -this- symbol to erase stitching if you make a mistake. When you're done with a line just attach the free end to a spool of thread and 'click' the pen. It'll run the thread through and basically sew itself." Overall the design wasn't -that- dissimilar to the theory behind my shields, but was still pretty crazily complex to get it all working right. "The catch is you have to keep it within about eight feet of me or it'll explode. I think. I mean I didn't have much time to test it, it -could- explode if you click the pen."

Her eyes grow huge as I'm describing it, then her smile grows... I may have made a monster. Sophia just looks confused. I think if she understood anything about sewing she'd be terrified.

Mom grabs me by the shirt and drags me into the room so she can get working. She's like a whirlwind, only maniacal and giggly. Sophia takes the opportunity to temporarily flee to get the necessities of tea. Based on what I can gather from the questions I can get mom to answer, Sophia had come to say she 'couldn't find the tea stuff' and the excuse I expected 'I don't have a maid outfit, why the hell would you think I'd have one!?'. Mom had assured her it was okay... then locked the door.

Around twenty minutes later Sophia returned and I was kicked out of the room but told to lean against the door - apparently there was more sewing to be done. The look on Sophia's face when I was pushed out screamed 'NO! Oh god, please don't leave me here alone with HER!'. Then the door closed. Somehow the sound seemed to carry the finality and seriousness of a guillotine.

There was a minor struggle, then either Sophia gave up or the stun gun came out. Around ten minutes later I was allowed inside.

Sophia - for all her craziness - actually looked pretty amazing. She has a runners body and it shows. She was in a stylized maid outfit with the standard black outer layer with a white under layer. It had a pseudo apron on the front and white ribbon to tie the ensemble at the back, ending with a bow at her lower back, long white sleeves which tied a few inches off the wrist leaving the rest ruffled. She wore white knee socks and the skirt came just below mid thigh showing the white ruffling just beyond the black outer layer and... sneakers. Eh, I'll take what I can get.

Shard wants to try it on later. I pointedly show the difference in size. She just shows herself wearing it which I infer to mean 'So? Just fix it.' I roll my eyes but give up on explaining.

Mom was currently distracting Sophia by handing her a hand mirror. Sophia looked torn between amazement, horror, feeling violated and wanting to scream in rage. I debated picking on her but I was a little worried she was unstable enough she might -really- attempt to murder me if I disturbed the delicate balance she was holding.

I decide I can't really miss the chance anyway so I -visibly- check her out up and down with a "Looking good, the 'sexy maid' look suits you" I think I just heard the handle of the mirror crack, I have to hold back a laugh.

The room was a meeting room so had a good sized table in the middle of the room... currently covered with strips of cloth. Mom handed me the 'sewing pen' so I could dismiss it and started to clean up but she called to Sophia in a melodic tone "Time to get the tea ready~ The faster you serve it the faster you can change back~"

I can't hold back the smirk as Sophia's delicate balance shifts fully back to the rage monster. She growls deeply but doesn't say anything, which amazes me a little. I think my mom broke her will and she just wants to get this over with and -away-.

After a little confusion she ends up making use of the coffee maker and tea leaves she had brought. We had a nice evening tea making use of Styrofoam cups. When I asked for another cup I received Sophia's patented death glare Mk.II followed by a sarcastic and angry "Yes MAS-TER" which -almost- made me laugh. When she came back with the hot beverage she held it towards the table and before setting it down, dumped it in my lap with a flat and completely unapologetic "Oops." -while- she was dumping it. I'm thinking it may not have been an accident. I'm also thinking this bodysuit is not waterproof.

I jump out of the chair knocking it backwards, "Gah!, hot!" and hold the cloth away from my skin the best I can while grabbing the cloth scraps from earlier to try to mop up the near-boiling water from my outfit. Mom isn't even trying to hold back the 'That's what you get' smirk, while Sophia seems rather satisfied with herself.

Once I'm no longer burning Sophia says "There. I served you tea." and glares at me - pointedly avoiding looking at my mother. She then grabs her clothes that were lying in the corner and -sprints- out the door, I assume to a restroom to change as fast as possible.

Mom cracks up and I can't help but laugh with her. I wipe away a tear and look up to her "Tell me you got some of that?" She grins and points with her thumb to a chair. It had her cell phone the same color as the material leaned against it on the armrest "I managed to set it up while she was looking at herself with the mirror." I can't help it, I crack up again.

After I recover my mom starts cleaning everything up and tells me to get out of here and beat up some thugs - she apparently needed to talk to Miss Militia about something.

I wander the hallways towards the front entrance/exit and nod to a confused clerk at the front desk. I'm not -too- concerned with leaving evidence like being signed in and not out. At this point who I am is an open secret with the PRT, but as long as I don't come out and say anything they have to at least pretend to play by their unwritten rules.

Once outside I weave together my Flight spell and float into the sky a good ways before giving Taylor a call "Hey T, where are we meeting?"

On the other end of the line I hear some rustling an a bit of grunting before Taylor replies "Ah, um, probably the ship graveyard -" there's a thump followed by a mumbled "Damn,- tight" then "Right, ship graveyard, there's a warehouse there I think the Merchants are using, meaning it should be a drug house or something. I want to start fairly small and the Merchants are the weakest -big- gang in town."

I nod to myself and figure if she's still suiting up I have a little time to try something I've been meaning to get around to. "Alright, I'll meet you there. Does your suit have pockets?"

She seems a little confused for a moment "Um, yeah. Bugs are a good support ability but I need to carry things around just in case they get close. And, y'know, zip ties."

I smirk, I should start carrying some of those. "Alright, good, I might have something else for you to 'carry around' at least for tonight. See you there." And I head off to the ship graveyard.

On arrival I use a combination of heat and constructs to remove a couple of small disks, roughly four inch diameter, bend them outwards into a concave shape and weld them together and put a small hole in the middle of one side. I smooth all the surfaces down then move on to the hard part. I spend the next ten minutes building a deflection shield system into it and trying to find the limit for how large I can make the battery without going over the size of the disk. Too much and it would be too easy to destabilize... wouldn't want Taylor carrying a sensitive grenade in her pocket. Once done I do a bit of testing by dropping somewhat heavy things on it to make sure it doesn't destabilize due to impact. Next I shoot a low power mana bolt at it, roughly the power of one of Sophia's crossbow bolts which it properly deflects.

Shortly after, Taylor shows up - I can sense her aura once she gets in range... y'know just in case the bug outfit and meeting place didn't give it away. She's dressed in a pretty tight fitting black body suit with some almost chitinous plating and a very insectoid helmet with orange eyes.

I tilt my head "Nice outfit, person-who-I-obviously-don't-know. My name is Oblivium and I come bearing possible gifts... well, gift." and I hold up the disk, the hole in it brightly glowing - showing its power level. I toss it over to her.

She looks more confident in costume. I wonder if it's something to do with the mask - like how PHO posters can be assholes since they're anonymous. "Ah, I was thinking of going with Skitter?" there goes the confident look. oh right, seeking approval of names.

I cross my arms and think for a moment then shrug "Doesn't bother me much, but you're wanting the 'Hero' route, I don't think 'that sound of skittering in the dark' is the kind of feel you want. Maybe Arachne? - She was a lady turned into a spider-lady by the greek gods I think, they were kinda assholes. As for other options... I mean your outfit won't really do for the more 'pretty' bugs, but you could add onto it later if you wanted to go for... I dunno... Dragonfly? Monarch? Damsel, as in Damselfly?... hrm, all the pretty bugs have wings. And Damsel just sounds like your super power is being rescued." I shrug "Eh, it'll come to you. Oblivium was an on the spot thing and it just kinda stuck, I'm sure you'll find a good one when someone asks. Personally I like Damsel. It's funny and would make people underestimate you."

At first she seemed upset, but now she seems to be considering some of the options. Eh, it's her thing, she'll make a good choice. Honestly 'Skitter' isn't -that- bad. Oh right, better tell her what I gave her. "Um, 'Tentatively Skitter', that disk is a temporary Deflection Shield. It should last... another fifty minutes or so and it'll deflect small arms fire, maybe even a few high powered rifle shots. Careful though, every time it activates it'll eat some time off it. The shield is a sphere around it so put it in a pocket, or fasten it against your stomach or something. Finally, if you destabilize it, like jamming a fly inside to buzz around a whole lot, it'll explode - like with a shockwave of force, not grenade style since the casing isn't built to fragment, so y'know, emergency use."

She nods, "Sounds useful. If it's only going to last that long though let's head to that warehouse."

I nod, it's sound logic. We head that way just as it's starting to get dark.

En route Taylor explains, "I want you to stay out of it unless things gat bad... alright? I need the experience and if you're in there I'll just be following along behind. Besides, this should be pretty easy, it's just a bunch of guys that probably have guns."

I look around a bit, I'd been catching some movement in the shadows. That's when I realize it's because she has a giant swarm that she's been trying to keep -mostly- out of sight. "Well, doesn't matter how bullet proof your suit is, if the shield goes down and you get shot it'll hurt like hell and could cause some internal damage. Just because it doesn't pierce doesn't mean it's not dangerous. So try to make sure the 'guys with guns' are shooting and looking somewhere you're not."

She nods "Don't worry, I've got a plan. That lesson on gun safety and how they work was... inspiring."

I smirk, knowing how they work does give some insight - particularly since I doubt many of these guys are going to be able to figure out -why- the gun isn't firing. All they probably know is 'point, pull trigger'. "Alright, when we get there I'll set up across the street on a building. You toss a firefly my way if you want a hand and I'll try to keep a lookout just in case. Sound good?"

Taylor agrees then points forward to a warehouse about two hundred yards further, "There it is. Try to -sneak- to your position, wouldn't want to give me away because you glow."

I float off down a little alley between two warehouses and take the long way around before floating up on top of the warehouse across from the one Taylor is raiding. I float on my stomach an inch off the roof far enough I can see while keeping the glowy bits revealed to a minimum. When I get there, Taylor is standing against the wall outside and I can see traces of her bugs entering the warehouse. She waits there for nearly ten minutes, I'd guess she's disabling the guns. Suddenly there are screams from inside then she creates an outline of bugs in the doorway 'heh, smart. Maybe I should use something similar until I get illusions working.' and around ten shots go off, followed by silence, then cursing. Every gun that shot had just jammed. That's when Taylor ran inside. I heard "Got ya bitch!" and another two shots, but the deflection shield should handle that. The rest were screams and general sounds of combat and bones breaking. I mumble to myself "Good job girl, disable the advantage, then blind them with a screen of bugs and disable one by one."

I get a firefly that zips to the side of the building. I follow it to see two guys struggling to keep bugs out of their eyes and running down the alley. I use a burst of power to my flight spell to launch myself in front of them only for Shard to tug at my mind. She wants to get them. I roll my eyes. "Ah, could you guys hold still for a second? My sister wants to beat you up." and I start summoning Shard.

The two guys come screeching to a halt and nearly fall over when I land in front of them, then both look at each other in confusion for a moment before looking back at me yelling "Fuck you man! Goddamn capes think they're all that" One of the guys had picked up a pipe since his gun jammed and was now swinging it at my head.

The pipe stopped so suddenly it jarred the man's arms. With one hand on the end of it was a foot tall teal pixie with fiery hair and wispy wings, smirking at the look of utter bafflement on the guy's face. The other guy swung a somewhat short chain trying to catch me from my right side. Shard used a boost spell on pipe guy's clothes to push him into chain guy, knocking both into a pile. She then created four Foxfire orbs as big as she was, before I coughed. Because that's how you let people know it's your turn to talk.

Shard turns to me questioningly. I point to the several dragonflies holding zip ties. "You've gotta -catch- them. Blowing them up would ruin her first time out." This causes the struggling duo to instantly stop and turn a little green. "Good, now, idiot duo, turn around and put your thumbs together behind your back. Shard, if one tries to run put a hole in his foot."

The duo did as ordered and Shard... well, she did her best but I had to assist with the zip tie capture. After they were restrained Shard flew up and hugged each criminal's face for a moment, to their utter confusion. It'd be too much trouble to explain.

Around that moment I get another firefly so I float around the building towards the front door following it. Once I pass the corner I see a guy in a biker outfit and helm. The faceplate is a bright orange with scratches all over and the outfit looks like it'd been through hell and back with how ragged and worn it was. He also had cowboy boots.

The moment the guy saw me he started sprinting -toward- me. Huh. No gun and running at an obvious cape, he's probably a new parahuman the Merchants picked up if he's out here. "Shard, come back, I'm not taking chances." I zip back around the corner to give time for Shard to be drawn back inside. If the guy can make an area effect around himself I don't want her hurt. A moment after Shard had been drawn back into my head, the guy -literally- crashed through the corner of the building as if it was paper.

I instantly threw my feet to the side and let my body drop so he couldn't grab me since he was some sort of powerful brute. I mean that's sheet metal and he just tore it apart with his whole body without missing a beat. So I do a sort of 'reverse gravity' flip and swing into the air. I take a page from Shard and stay close enough to lock a construct around his waist and use a flight spell on the construct to hold him there for a moment.... only for him to suddenly weigh a god damn ton and a half and completely shatter my construct and spell without so much as moving an inch. His feet even punch through the concrete of the sidewalk we're on a good two inches. When he suddenly gained weight I felt that odd sort of twisting feeling of physics crying when Vista uses her power, though slightly different.

Suddenly the guy was flying at me, I moved to the side and tried to deflect him but it was like trying to build a construct to deflect a train. The pitiful wall I built up shattered, and I'm pretty sure my shoulder almost did too when his elbow clipped it. I grit my teeth and check my shoulder while watching him in the air - shoulder just seemed -really- hurt, not broken. Yay, just another giant bruise. I noticed the guy didn't move his body -at all- after his jump until after he had passed me. then he adjusted and locked his body down again, and again his feet punched a few inches through the concrete. Some sort of breaker power with weight/invulnerability/body lock thing? Either way, it's not always on, he seems to just turn it on for impacts or reverses it to 'super jump'.

I call out "Hey Biker Guy, - " I'm interrupted by a muffled sound from his helmet. "Uh... what was that?"

He tries to talk again, still too muffled to make out -anything-. Now his arms are flailing. He holds up one finger in the universal 'give me a sec' sign. He turns around to face the opposite direction and opens his helm. "The name's IMPACT" He sounds like he's around my age actually, didn't recognize his aura though, maybe a dropout? Then he shuts the faceplate again. I didn't even realize it opened like that. Why would it open, aren't biker helmets supposed to just be a solid chunk? Eh, I blame tinkers.

When he turns around I try again. "Impact, you got your free shot, so I'm gonna light you on fire now. Okay?" At his surprised muffled sound I launch a semi-low powered Fireball at him. Well, at the ground where he was standing since I was sure he'd try to dodge.

He did -try-. Mostly succeeded too. But now his muffled screaming is filling the alley between warehouses and he's flying through the air with his pants on fire. Shard makes a suggestion. I agree. I fly above where his 'arc' will end and charge a good Foxfire orb. When he releases his body lock and tries to reorient himself I shoot it at the back of his helmet. On contact it flips him around into an uncontrolled spin right before he locks himself into place. He slams into the ground on his back creating a nice little crater.

I fly down over him while he's stuck in his personal crater and create a shell over him once I'm in range so he can't get any momentum going. I have shard use the idea behind my Energy Shield to put out his pants, damn things had to be soaked in alcohol or something. I can see his ability gives him some good protection when it's on due to how mild the burns on his leg are. He doesn't get true 'invulnerability' when he locks up, but it's still pretty good. I assume with -enough- fire it wouldn't really matter.

I hear clapping. I look up to see Taylor standing next to the two guys I had caught - apparently they tried to escape when I got distracted. I wave at her, "Hey there, how'd your little kickass spree go?"

She shrugs "Eh, pretty easy. Once they lost their guns and sight it was a cakewalk, but I had to chase some down. You know how it goes. What's with the shell on Biker Guy?"

There's a muffled sigh and some attempts at communication from 'Biker Guy'.

I look down at him "Some sort of breaker I think. Guy hits like a train on steroids and weighs a couple of tons on command. Calls himself Impact-" I get a muffled sound I interpret to be 'thank you'. "-the shell is to make sure he doesn't move." That time I get a muffled sound that I think is 'fuck you'.

She nods sagely but tilts her head a bit "I thought the name Impact was already taken?" a muffled shout of... something. "Ah well, we've got the PRT coming in. I called them up when 'Impact' started flying around."

Shard wants to hug Impact. I don't think I'm going to let her watch late night TV anymore.

I let out a breath, "So, you won, want to do anything to celebrate-" then, several blocks away there's an explosion. And a dragon man thing. I look at the sky. "Damnit, I -just- got the punch card filled. You don't delay on your delivery do you!?"

I get an odd look from Impact but Taylor is staring at the dragon man. "That's-... That's Lung isn't it?"

I nod "Yep, the rage dragon that likes to punch -Endbringers-." When Taylor seems surprised I say "What? I -was- listening when you were talking about the important information about local capes."

She shakes off the surprise "Well. I don't think the police are going to come anymore, and the Wards are going to stay the -hell- away from this... Think we should stop him?"

I just give her a -look- "This guy likes to punch ENDBRINGERS. If he was still human sized I'd say we had a chance, but as it is the guy's already ramping up to 'Tyrannosaurus' mode, shortly thereafter is going to be 'Laugh at God' mode."... Shard is excited. He transforms.

Taylor raises a hand to her helmet's chin and takes on the classic thinking pose. Impact is just laying back and relaxing offering no useable input. After about ten seconds of thought Taylor looks down at Impact, "Ever wanted to punch a dragon?"

******************************************************

The three of us were on a building a few stories tall and I'm grinning like a madman THIS is going to be fun. For me. Not for Impact. I have Impact locked into a cylindrical construct with a cone over his head to combat wind resistance, his fists are straight out above his head and he's reduced his density to as low as possible. Taylor is halfway between us and Mr. Rage Dragon. She has a couple of bugs lined along my construct and has managed to set a few around the dragon since his heat kills them if they land on him, but it's enough to triangulate where he is. She's guiding my aim with fireflies and she has one by my mask to tell me when to fire.

We're aimed with Mr. Rage Dragon between us and the bay - because if Impact doesn't punch through him we want the dragon in the bay. And if he -does- (Which I fully expect) we don't want to lose Impact to the earth.

There's a bit of muffled mumbling. I reply, "No complaints. The deal was we don't turn you in or say anything about your link to the Merchants if you agree to be the meteor that squishes the dragon" It turns out Impact can fuck with physics and change his mass/density/weight without changing his current velocity to a pretty high degree. So I'm going to shoot him at lung when his mass is at his minimum (increasing speed down the 'barrel' or his innards would turn to mush) and once he's out of my range, he increases to... whatever the hell his max is. I feel like I'm munchkining a D&D game or something, shrink spell with a crossbow and ballista ammunition.

Mr. Rage Dragon jumped onto a building chasing someone on a giant demon dog thing... who then gave a thumbs up? Then the angry dragon stopped to roar. Ah, there's Taylor's signal. Bye Impact! I release the supercharged Boost spell - it's not unlike supercharging a mana bolt to its highest possible speed. Sadly I lost a lot of mana to the cone for the windbreak and the spin to retain accuracy (Impact is going to be sick for days), I kinda wanted to see just how fast I could throw him.

Once Impact leaves my range his entire body goes rigid and I assume his mass skyrockets, but at that speed the additional weight doesn't have a -huge- effect on the accuracy.

Well, Mr. Rage Dragon -is- a super brute so I'm not -that- surprised when Impact doesn't just blow him apart. I'm a little sad the collision with the bay occurred so quickly, I wanted to catch the look on Lung's face. Well, one way or another, Lung is -definitely- not coming back from that any time soon. Probably shattered all the bones in his body, then he collided with the bay at high speeds shattering them -again-. I'm not optimistic enough to think he's gone for long though. Probably be back in a day or two.

I float over to where Taylor is standing and waiting while watching the miniature tidal wave we've created. "So, how are you liking the heroing business?"

She shrugs "Eh, I think I'd like to go home now."

I poke her helm in the forehead "Actually I think you'll want to stop by my place. Mom got a recording you're gonna want to see."