Taylor and the Chaos Gacha Part 6 (Patreon)

"Don't be a stranger," Buffy told Taylor, not sure if she'd ever see the girl again but happy that they'd met since the stuff she'd enchanted would make hunting vampires a hell of a lot easier.

"Stay safe," Taylor told the Slayer as she held her bags and hit the return button before she could talk herself into staying longer, wanting to get back before her father got home.

Congratulations, you've successfully completed the mission along with several bonus objectives. Rewards: Magic Resistance(completing main objective), Inventory DLC(doing the objective while naked), Resistant(Preventing Teacher's Pet)

Feat Achieved! Complete your first challenge.

+1x Gold Random Gacha Ticket

Taylor glanced at the clock on the wall then at the window then back at the clock when she realized that something about the clock wasn't right. "Did I go back in time or did everything just stop?" she mused as she set the bags filled with books and magical supplies on the couch. "It can't have been a dream because I have all of the books, maybe they just brought me back to the moment I left? Damn it, that means I could have stayed longer."

"Next time," Taylor decided as she tapped the new Bag icon on her interface, bringing up another window that looked like an inventory of some of the computer games she'd seen. 'Weight allowance, seventy nine pounds? Is that how much I can lift or is that based on a hidden magic stat?' she mused as she picked up one of the bags of books and focused on putting it in her inventory, causing the bag to vanish and an icon to appear in her inventory.

Taylor moved around a bit and smiled when she realized that she couldn't feel the weight of the bag. "That should make future naked challenges easier…" she trailed off as she realized that she was actually considering doing the next challenge naked. "Yeah, I've lost my fucking mind."

Taylor put the rest of the bags into her inventory, flopped down on the couch and tapped the gold card waiting for her, causing it to flip and reveal a picture of Leonardo da Vinci. 'Polymath, you're a polymath, a once-in-a-generation talent in all areas. You improve in all areas of expertise with speed that vastly outstrips the average person.'

Taylor stared at the card for a couple of seconds then started giggling as she thought about how well that trait would stack with the Library Mind and Scholar traits. 'Mom would be cackling,' she thought as she looked at her grayed out Resistant trait. 'Suppressed by a curse. You're incredibly tough, granting you greatly increased natural resilience, allowing you to take far greater punishment than you should otherwise be able to endure. I need to figure out a way to break the curse or figure out how to get power armor.'

"Or just say out of cape fights," Taylor muttered as she glanced at the description of her Magic Resistance trait. 'You're naturally resistant to magic and all magical effects, effects scale with your energy level. That should help if I get sent back to Sunnydale.'

Taylor glanced at the Magic Girl Transformation trait that she'd picked up from the last bronze ticket that she'd flipped. 'This would be a lot more useful if it came with a magical transformation or an alternate form or something,' she complained as she checked her Budding power on her interface, curious what it would say since it felt like there were two powers that were ready to be claimed. "Fireball and Regeneration…" she trailed off as she claimed the powers that the group had assimilated and Regeneration was added to a new section. 

'Collected Powers?' she mused as she tapped the label of the new section, causing a description to appear under it. "This section is a place for powers that don't have to be in active slots and don't contribute to active slots, I'll take that trade," she muttered as she double checked the description of the Regeneration power, making sure it didn't have a duration or anything dangerous in the description. 'You heal a lot faster than you should, fixing cracked bones and mere flesh wounds in minutes while broken bones take a day or two.'

Taylor smiled when she realized that the Regeneration ability had a toggle so that she could turn it on and off. 'At least it gives me the option to turn it off,' she mused as she closed her interface, leaving her inventory page open. She tapped on one of the bag icons, causing it to expand into a second window filled with the contents of the bag. 'That makes it easier,' she mused as she started sorting the bag, figuring she had at least two hours before the Wards would be patrolling which meant she had plenty of time to finish the starting magic book.

0o0o0

"Give us something harder!" Emma suggested, her voice sounding strangely distorted and sort of eldritch coming out of their mouth.

"Is anyone else creeped out by this?" Battery asked, not sure what to make of the six foot tall pitch black humanoid monster with far too many teeth that was lifting a bar with nearly three thousand pounds of weights over her head without any apparent strain.

"I'd be less creeped out if she was swearing," Assault admitted as the monster's tongue came out of her mouth, extending at least a foot out of her mouth.

"Don't encourage the Wards to swear," Miss Militia told Ethan absently, her heart not in it since she agreed with him.

"It's fucking Shadow Stalker and she's being polite," Assault argued, finding the entire situation strange.

"Get your mind out of the gutter," Sophia told him with a touch of amusement, ignoring the fact that Emma was covering every inch of her and could in fact act like a sex toy any time she wanted. "I don't feel angry, it's weird."

"The entire situation is weird," Armsmaster offered as he made a couple of notes in his notebook. "You can stop, I just wanted a baseline before we move to the testing equipment."

"Understood," Sophia replied and carefully set the bar down.

"This is just unnatural," Assault argued.

"Yeah," Aegis agreed, not sure if he was supposed to treat them as a combined creature or as separate people.

"It was like someone flipped a switch, one moment I was angry at the world and the next, it was gone, like I'd never triggered," Sophia admitted, not sure how else to explain it.

"No more anger," Emma offered, her voice coming out distorted and unnerving. "It's a bit weird changing into a symbiote but if that's the price of helping people, I'll pay it."

Aegis shivered as a tentacle shot out of the creature's leg, grabbed a bottle of water, popped the top and poured half of it down her throat. "That's disturbing."

"We were thirsty," the shadowy creature replied in a mix of their voices.

"Sorry, we're still working on that," Sophia offered.

"Noted," Armsmaster said as he started walking toward the door. "Let's go, we need to find out the extent of your powers."

"Okay," Sophia agreed. 'At least they haven't tossed me in jail yet for that shit with the locker, what the fuck was I thinking?' she wondered as she followed Armsmaster.

'We'll figure it out,' Emma assured her.

'Hopefully,' Sophia agreed, hoping the mental changes and the lack of rage were permanent.

0o0o0

'Vicky has a point, this is awesome,' Taylor thought as she flew toward the Boardwalk, trying to ignore the fact that her father was going to complain about the fact that she was flying around in costume. 'I'm not doing a patrol, I'm just flying to meet Amy for lunch,' she argued, slightly annoyed that she'd missed the bus because it was actually on time for once.

"Fuck her up!" Skidmark shouted as he took a couple of popshots at the flying cape that had just flown into view over a building.

Feat Achieved! Get shot at.

+1x Bronze Random Gacha Ticket

'Shit!' Taylor thought as frantically used her Metallurgy to create and float an inch thick door sized plate of iron to hide behind, happy that the idiot in the costume couldn't aim for shit. "This would be easier if I had x-ray vision," she grumbled as she tried to figure out how to deal with the idiots shooting at her in a way that wouldn't get her arrested for using excessive force, something that was getting more tempting by the second.

"Get the fucking bazooka!" Skidmark shouted at his people, wanting to kill the cape before she blasted them.

'Fuck it,' Taylor thought as she summoned her wraith. "Fly down to the ground and hide."

"Understood," the wraith replied as it flew down toward the ground, drawing the goon's fire long enough for Taylor to peek around the edge of the door and confirm that one of the dozen goons was pulling something out of the van that looked like military hardware. 

'Shit!' Taylor cursed as she snuck a peek at the man in the van from the other side of her shield and used her Metallurgy to cap the end of the bazooka. She winced when a bullet bounced off her ring's force field as she yanked her head back behind the door. "Fuck!"

"Fuck her up!" Skidmark shouted enthusiastically, pissed that she'd interrupted their supply run.

Squealer twitched when the bazooka exploded, taking out half a dozen minions along with most of the van and making her extremely happy that she'd been in her armored truck and not the death trap that Skids used to transport shit.

Feat Achieved! Sabotage, set things up so that a group of criminals takes themselves out with faulty weapons, added points for first kill.

+1x Gold Skill Gacha Ticket

"Russian shit," Squealer cursed as she shifted her truck into reverse and backed out of the parking spots she'd claimed, fairly sure that Skids had gotten obliterated by the blast since she couldn't see his body and he'd been standing next to the guy with the bazooka. 

'Fucking lunatics,' Taylor grumbled as she snuck a peek at the destruction, not sure how she was supposed to feel about the mess and the dead thugs. 'They wouldn't have died if they hadn't been trying to kill me,' she told herself as she used her Mystic Eyes on the cape driving the monster truck, curious if getting them clean would improve the city. She summoned her Ditto near the truck. "Copy her!"

The ditto giggled as she copied Squealer and waved to the cape.

"Fuck this!" Squealer cursed as she shifted the truck into gear and hit the gas, wanting nothing to do with shapechangers or body snatchers. 'I should have plenty of time to grab the cash and my tools,' she sniffed the air, 'and get a shower before they realize Skids is dead. Fuck this city,' she decided as she pushed the button for the cloaking device, knowing the heroes would be incoming because of the explosion.

Taylor flew down and swapped her Bequeath power for her Greater Healing ability and started working on stabilizing the survivors. Once she was reasonably sure the survivors weren't going to bleed out from the shrapnel and burns she used her Metallurgy ability to turn part of the metal door into handcuffs and shackles and secured them.

"Hello?" Velocity called out as he stopped at the edge of the parking lot, not sure what was going on since Squealer was just standing there looking a bit dazed and confused. He focused on the new cape, curious if she was a local or if she was from out of town. 'Gray cloak, long sleeved shirt, gloves, knee length skirt and a scarf around the lower half of her face and a pair of shades, not the worst costume I've seen.'

"I was just securing them, they tried to shoot me out of the air," Taylor told the hero.

"And Squealer?" Velocity asked as Vista and Clockblocker appeared on the scene thanks to Vista warping space.

"No clue, she was just standing there," Taylor replied as she walked over and put the cuffs on her familiar, using her Mirror ability to copy her power. 'Sorry,' she thought as she dismissed her familiars and stepped back as the cuffs hit the ground.

"Some type of projection?" Velocity mused as he glanced around, looking for cloaked vehicles or some sort of projector. "Tinkers are always a pain to deal with."

Feat Achieved! Trick a hero, fake a villain's disappearance.

+1x Bronze Random Gacha Ticket

"Weird," Taylor offered, a bit surprised that she'd picked up a card for that. 'It's like my power likes causing trouble.'

"Can you tell me what happened when you showed up?" Velocity asked as he walked over.

"I was flying to the boardwalk to grab lunch with a friend and someone started shooting. I sort of panicked and conjured a door to use as a shield which is probably why someone started shouting about getting a bazooka, that didn't help the panic," Taylor admitted.

"I don't blame you," Velocity assured her.

"I was in the middle of trying to retreat when the bazooka exploded. I'd just finished stabilizing and securing the survivors when you showed up."

"Great," Velocity muttered, not happy with the amount of paperwork he was going to have to fill out because of the faulty bazooka. He glanced at the burning van. "We should move the injured a bit further away."

"I'll do it." Clockblocker ran over and froze the van, making sure it wouldn't explode on him then started working on moving the survivors in case it exploded when his power wore off.

"I'll be right back, don't go anywhere," Velocity told her then moved over to help Clockblocker with the survivors.

Taylor turned to look at Vista as the younger girl walked over. "Is it always like this?"

"It depends on the day," Vista replied with a slight smile. "First time patrolling?"

Taylor shook her head. "I wasn't patrolling, I was just flying into town to have lunch, they decided to shoot me before I even realized they were there."

"That's one of the problems with flying, especially in the middle of the day," Vista warned her.

"I'll keep that in mind," Taylor grumbled as she hit the capes with her Mystical Eyes ability, curing any diseases or mental issues they might have.

"What are you using for a cape name?" Vista asked, trying to distract the new cape from the fact that she'd been shot at.

"Maverick," Taylor offered. "How long do you think the report is going to take?" she asked as she turned to watch Clockblocker and Velocity working, mostly so she could mentally pull up her interface and tap the gold skill card without Vista seeing her move her hands strangely.

"At least a couple of minutes," Vista warned her.

"Damn," Taylor cursed when she felt thousands of hours of practice and knowledge pour into her head, giving her what felt like the worst case of brain freeze she'd ever experienced.

"Are you okay?" Vista asked, having noticed her twitch.

Taylor blinked a couple of times as the knowledge seemed to settle and she could focus on answering Vista. "Yeah, I think it just sort of sunk in that my life is never going to be normal."

"Normal is boring," Vista assured her.

Taylor smiled as she read the description of the card, 'King of All Trades, you have Adept-level expertise in all basic trades (Adept Blacksmithing, Medicine, Mechanics, Cooking, Interfacing) with competence comparable to an actual veteran of the trade and are greatly talented in those fields. Is this what Uber feels like?' she mused as she tapped the stack of bronze cards, causing the top bronze card to flip over and the previous card to vanish. 

Taylor glanced at the picture of a flat screen that was showing two girls kissing. 'Project Image: this ability allows you to conjure 2d planes that show images or play a video that you can remember or imagine accurately. The 2d planes created are stationary and are as durable as 1cm of untempered glass. Can I use that to make movies or would I have to chain them together?' she wondered as she tapped the next card.

'Illumination: this ability allows you to conjure bright points of light that you can telekinetically control, you can also consume more energy to make the lights semi-permanent. I'll have to see if I can change the color,' she mused as a transport van with a PRT logo on the side pulled into the parking lot.

Velocity walked back over with Clockblocker. "Don't take this the wrong way because you can have all the credit if you want it but how much credit do you want for their capture?"

"None," Taylor stated firmly. "I wasn't patrolling and I don't need them to have a reason to shoot me while I'm flying around."

"I'll try to keep your name out of any press release or at least give you a heads up, do you have a way we can get in touch?" Velocity asked.

"Not yet," Taylor admitted. "I haven't set up a hero account and I don't have a cape phone."

Velocity pulled a small pad of post-it-notes out of his pocket and a pen and quickly wrote some contact numbers and passwords so that she could call in a user name in case they needed to talk to her. He handed her the note. "Call or send a message on the boards when you get things set up, we have some affiliate programs you might be interested in and having contact information helps."

"I appreciate it," Taylor assured them, not seeing a problem with giving them a number they could reach her at since she doubted they'd be able to trace a cell if the phone was in her inventory. "Am I free to go?"

"Yeah," Velocity assured her as Kid Win flew over a building on his way to the parking lot.

"Fantastic," Taylor replied, then frowned when she noticed the metal door. "Do you want me to take the door or are the bullet holes evidence of them trying to kill me?"

"Evidence, we can get it back to you in a couple of days or weeks if you need it," Velocity offered, not sure if it was part of her power or not.

"It's fine, I just didn't want to get in trouble for littering," Taylor told him.

"You're good," Velocity assured her.

"Thanks," Taylor replied as she floated a foot off the ground. 'Kid Win's some type of Tinker, would he even notice another specialty? Would he connect the dots? Screw it,' she decided as she hit him with her Mystical Eyes ability to fix any mental issues and used her Budding ability to give the Tinker a copy of Squealer's power. 'It might take a bit longer but I'll get it eventually,' she decided as she flew off toward the Boardwalk, hoping that she wasn't too late for her date.

"What do you think?" Vista asked once the girl had vanished from view.

"It would be nice to have another healer around," Clockblocker offered, fairly sure the girl was the healer that Vicky had mentioned when he'd asked about Amy's missing freckles.

"And she's a girl," Vista mused, wondering if they'd be able to recruit her for the Wards.

"New cape?" Kid Win asked as he flew over.

"Yeah, a group of Merchants decided to try shooting her out of the air and managed to kill themselves with faulty equipment," Velocity explained as the PRT agents came over to secure the minions for transport.