Taylor and the Chaos Gacha Part 7 (Patreon)

"Now what?" Taylor asked after she finished the last of her fries.

"I don't know," Amy admitted. "I was sort of expecting to get called away or for Vicky to invite herself along and make it a double date and then drag us all around town."

"Did you want to get dragged around town?" Taylor asked with a touch of amusement.

"Not really," Amy admitted. "I'd rather just head to a bookstore."

"Bookstores are good," Taylor replied as she stood up. "Let's go."

"Okay," Amy agreed as she stood up, relieved that she wasn't going to get dragged to the mall to look at clothes she couldn't afford and didn't really want.

Feat Achieved! Successfully finish a lunch date without having it interrupted by shenanigans.

+1x Bronze Random Gacha Ticket

Taylor tapped the card as they headed out of the restaurant, causing it to flip over and reveal a card. 'Novice Fine Arts, you're a novice artist,' she stopped reading the description when the card moved to her inventory icon.

Feat Achieved! Unlocked Redundant Skills DLC, get a skill at a lower rank than you already possess.

+1x Bronze Random Gacha ticket and Redundant Skills DLC

"Weird," Taylor muttered as she glanced over her abilities and traits until she found the Redundant Skills DLC trait as they left the restaurant. 'Rolling a skill that you already have at a higher rank will refund the ticket with a drop in quality, minimum bronze. It will also give you a skill card that someone else can use to acquire the skill since it would otherwise be useless.'

"Weird?" Amy asked as they started walking toward the bookstore she knew about.

"Apparently, I can get skill cards if I roll a skill twice," Taylor replied as she checked her inventory and looked at the crystal card. "Do you want to be a starving artist or at least have the basics?"

"Starving artist?" Amy asked.

"It basically gives you about a year of training in most types of arts and crafts, including painting, engraving, sketching and sculpting," Taylor explained.

"Are there any downsides?" Amy asked.

"It doesn't list any," Taylor replied as she reached into the pocket of her hoodie so that she could pull the card out without it looking too weird.

"Sure," Amy agreed. "Vicky keeps telling me that I need a hobby."

Taylor pulled the card out of her inventory and handed it to Amy. "Here."

"How do I use…" Amy trailed off as she thought about using it and the card vanished, giving her hundreds of hours of instruction in each type of art. "I'm going to need a sketchbook."

"The bookstore should have some," Taylor suggested as she tapped the bronze card, causing it to flip over and reveal a group of skeletons playing music.

"Worth a try," Amy agreed. "Have you figured out who you're going to give a copy of Squealer's ability to?"

"Not really," Taylor admitted. "I was thinking about tossing on a mask and flying over to the Dockworker's Association…" the trailed off as she saw two people dressed like Mario and Luigi fly around the corner of the street driving go-carts. "Leet?"

"I doubt he'd notice," Amy said thoughtfully, wondering if they should try to stop them since they were racing down the empty street. 'Screw it, not my problem.'

Taylor hit both of the capes with her Mystic Eyes ability and used her Budding ability to give them a copy of Squealer's ability, figuring it might keep them out of trouble or at least keep things from exploding quite as much. She winced when she saw Armsmaster fly around the corner on his bike like a bat out of Hell. "They need a race track."

"It would certainly help," Amy agreed.

Taylor hit Armsmaster with her Mystic Eyes ability and used her Budding ability to give him a copy of Squealer's powers, figuring he'd appreciate the ability. "Is it always this bad?"

"What do you mean?" Amy asked as they continued walking.

"It just seems like I can't stop running into capes now that I'm a cape," Taylor muttered, keeping her voice low despite no one being all that close.

"Occupational hazard," Amy replied with a grin. "Do you want to toss a mask on and fly to the Dockworker's Association? I'd be willing to do some free healing while you handed out powers."

"They'd probably recognize my voice," Taylor pointed out.

"You have a shape changing ring, just take someone else's appearance after you put the costume on and no one is going to connect the dots," Amy assured her as she pulled her cellphone out of her pocket. "Give me your dad's work number, I'll set things up so they're ready by the time we get there."

"Seriously? What about the bookstore?" Taylor asked.

"It's open late, we can swing by once we're done," Amy pointed out, not seeing a problem with taking a detour. "You hit Uber and Leet, right?"

"And Armsmaster, so I can probably give the power to six more people," Taylor mused.

"Great, do you have a mimic ring that I can wear?" Amy asked.

"Yeah." Taylor glanced at Amy, noticing her mischievous smile. "What are you thinking?"

"Your identity is basically paper thin, villains generally don't show up to kidnap people unless they have powers or they're rich," Amy pointed out.

"And I'm not rich," Taylor agreed.

"Right, which means your name is probably already in a file," Amy pointed out.

"Doesn't that mean I should be careful?" Taylor asked.

"Powers need to be used or we get twitchy," Amy pointed out. "If you show up and you heal people, the PRT will just quietly bury the report and the Bay has another hero, no one is going to assume that you're the person giving out powers, especially if you're seen with the cape giving them out."

"What's the plan?" Taylor asked.

"I'll take your form and heal people with your healing ability and you can take some random woman's appearance and hand out powers, they'll assume you're older which should throw things off when the PRT pokes around. You can swap my clothes for your costume and then you can pick a different costume for your power granting persona."

"Fine." Taylor rattled off her father's work number then pulled a second mimic ring out of her inventory and handed it to Amy, not seeing a reason to let the copied power go to waste even if she was fairly sure things were going to explode on them.

Amy giggled as she typed the number into her phone, feeling strangely amused by the idea of healing people with Taylor's power rather than her own. "If anyone asks, I helped set things up then went for a walk."

"Sure," Taylor agreed, fairly sure that Amy's idea was going to explode in their faces.

0o0o0

Danny glanced between the girl that sounded like his daughter despite her attempt to conceal her voice and the woman that he was fairly sure was actually his daughter as she'd been handing out physical boosts to everyone at the Association. "We appreciate the help."

"You've kept the city from falling apart, you earned it," Taylor explained, giving the group of dockworkers a reason that she was helping them.

Kurt glanced at 'Taylor', fairly sure she'd put in a good word with her friend. "We try."

"Don't worry, we're not going to say shit about where we got the powers," Lacey assured them.

"Thank you," Taylor told them then headed for the exit, surprised that they hadn't run into more trouble.

Feat Achieved! Mask of a Thousand Faces, successfully create more than one cape identity.

+1x Silver Random Gacha Ticket

Taylor tapped the silver card as they left, curious what they'd get. 'Zero Point Energy Gloves? These high-tech gloves allow you to point at a target and send an energy beam towards them. If the beam connects, they will be rendered immobile, while you can still move them around to your liking. Strong enough targets can resist and break through the effects. The gloves use your own energy reserves to function. That would make catching criminals easier but that's a bit terrifying, not being able to move while they haul you away.'

Amy jumped when her phone beeped, letting her know that she had a message. She checked the message, noticing the unfamiliar number. 'All Knowing Witch? My employer is willing to give you 2,000 dollars cash if you can set up a meeting with Maverick. He has someone that he wants healed and your services won't help as she has power related issues with being touched. He's willing to give her 20,000 thousand for the trouble if she can fix her issues or 5,000 for the trouble if she can't. BTW, we're in the parking lot, just find the big moving van.' 

Taylor glanced at the cell phone that Amy was holding. "Trouble?"

"Not really," Amy offered, not sure if the request counted as trouble or the sort of trouble that would require calling in some favors to deal with. "Someone offered us a quick job, we should probably take care of that."

"Sounds good," Taylor lied, having noticed the tension in 'her' voice. "Take care."

"If you need any help," Kurt offered.

"We're fine," Amy assured them as she headed for the exit, more than a bit uneasy about the fact that someone knew she was at the docks since she was in costume and currently looked like Taylor.

Taylor gave the dockworkers a smile and followed Amy, happy that they'd been just about to leave anyway. "What's wrong?" she asked in a whisper once they were out of earshot.

"Someone called Panacea to set up a meeting with you about healing someone, they're willing to pay 20,000 and they're in the parking lot," Amy replied in a whisper.

"Trap?" Taylor asked thoughtfully.

"Maybe," Amy admitted. "It might just be someone with connections that wants someone healed and didn't want to or couldn't wait for the waiting list for me to heal them. Twenty thousand is a decent chunk of change for a teenager, it's basically a rounding error if you're rich."

"If it's a trap, I'm going to make a wall of metal and we'll run," Taylor suggested, not sure what else to do.

"And if it's not a trap?" Amy asked.

"Then I'll heal them and we'll split the money," Taylor told her as they left the building through one of the side doors and walked outside. She glanced around the parking lot then focused on the large moving van that had a girl leaning up against the front of the van with a briefcase. 

"Great, capes," Amy muttered as she glanced between the girl in street clothes that was wearing a theater mask that covered the top half of her face and the driver who was a nondescript young man with a bad bowl cut and a jacket.

"Or people that don't want to get identified," Taylor offered as she glanced at the briefcase the girl was holding, wondering if everything was actually legit.

"Let's go," Amy muttered as she started walking toward the large moving van.

The girl smiled as Taylor and Amy walked over. "Twenty thousand if you can fix my associate's problem and I'll give you an additional five if you don't mention any of this to the PRT or scream when you see her."

Taylor glanced around to see if she could see anyone else around then focused on the girl that was a few inches shorter than her. "What do they need fixed and why would we scream?"

The girl gestured over her shoulder at the back of the van. "My associate's power has a changer component that is turning her into a monster, we're hoping that you can help."

"Is there a reason you didn't just ask Panacea?" Amy asked.

"Panacea's power requires touch and my associate's power is always active. If she touches anything living, her power creates a homicidal clone."

"Ah," Amy muttered, trying not to think about the type of shit that an evil version of her would get into.

"I'm not sure I can fix it but I'm willing to try," Taylor told her, getting the sense that the girl was telling the truth or at least a version of it but still sort of half expecting a group of thugs or capes in the back with guns waiting for her. 

"Fantastic," the girl replied as she started walking toward the back of the van.

Taylor followed the girl, staying out of reach in case she was some type of striker. She twitched and took a step back when she saw the monster huddled in the van, looking like an extremely mutated centaur or eldritch abomination connected to the top half of a normal looking person.

"Can you help?" Noelle asked Amy hopefully, doing her best to ignore the whispers in the back of her mind telling her that this was another trick.

Taylor quickly used her Mystic Eyes of Purity on the monster cape, burning through a large chunk of her mana and causing the monster to shift and change before their eyes.

Lisa stared in disbelief as the monster cape changed back into a normal looking girl, causing the van to lurch as it got several tons lighter. "Huh."

Feat Achieved! Restore a Monster's Humanity.

+1x Gold Random Gacha ticket

Feat Achieved! Cure a Simurgh victim

+1x Gold Trait Gacha Ticket

'Fuck!' Taylor cursed in her head as she stared at the second achievement, wondering how long it would take before the Simurgh tossed a satellite at her house or something in the middle of the night because she could fix something that no one else had managed to fix. 

Noelle stared at her human legs in disbelief, not even caring for the moment that she wasn't wearing pants or underwear. "It worked!"

"Damn," Amy muttered, a bit surprised that Taylor's power had fixed things since she couldn't always fix monster capes.

"Don't touch anyone, I haven't had a chance to fix your power yet," Taylor warned Noelle as she used her Mirror ability on her, curious about her exact power.

"Yet?" Oliver asked, having walked over while everyone was distracted.

Taylor took a step back and turned to look at the handsome young man with an unfortunate hair cut that had been in the driver's seat. "I just fixed her physical form and possibly any mental issues she had."

"You can fix mental issues?" Noelle asked, surprised that she couldn't smell the girl's power. 'She must be some type of trump.’

"Sometimes," Taylor replied as she looked at the description of the power she'd copied, fairly sure she was going to have to break the power into pieces if she wanted to give it to someone since it was extremely powerful. "My power fixes diseases and various conditions that aren't inherent to the target, that generally includes mental issues with an external source."

"I might have another job for you when you're done," Lisa said, absolutely positive the rest of her team would benefit from having the girl's power used on them.

Taylor glanced at the girl wearing a theater mask. "I'm willing to discuss things once we're done here." She used her Mystical Eyes of Purity on the young man then used them on the girl with the briefcase, figuring she'd make a clean sweep in case the rest of her team had been influenced by the Simurgh.

Lisa sighed in relief as the low grade headache she'd been putting up with for a couple of months vanished, leaving her feeling genuinely good for the first time since running into Coil's goons. "You should bottle that."

"What was that?" Oliver asked, feeling like he'd just woken up from a daze that he hadn't even known he was suffering from.

"I wanted to make sure you were healthy, consider it a perk of doing business," Taylor told him, not seeing a point in explaining that she was just trying to make sure they weren't Simurgh bombs.

Lisa frowned slightly when her power let her know that Maverick wasn't just being nice and had a reason to use her power on them. 'It's not malicious either, she noticed something about Noelle that had her worried and tense. Damage from her trigger? Something else?' she mused, getting the sense that the entire city had just dodged a bullet.

Taylor reached into her pocket and used her Metallurgy power to create a silver ring. "Do you want some type of trinket that will limit your power so that you'd have to concentrate to clone someone?"

"That would be fantastic," Noelle agreed, hoping she could help because she was really tired of dealing with her powers.

Taylor swapped her Greater Healing ability for her Shut Off power and used her Enchanting ability to start enchanting the ring, trying to turn it into something that would let Noelle control her powers.

"Is there a reason you're not wearing a mask?" Amy asked Oliver.

"I'm a changer, my power is always changing my appearance," he explained, not seeing a reason to keep it secret since they were hoping Noelle and enough people knew that it wasn't really a secret.

Amy frowned as she tried to imagine never having the same face. "That sounds a bit annoying."

"It could be worse," Oliver replied as he snuck another peek at Noelle, a bit surprised that she hadn't flipped out about not having pants yet.

"His power also gives him a significant boost to his ability to learn skills," Noelle pointed out.

"That would be nice," Amy admitted.

Taylor finished enchanting the ring and checked it. "This should make it harder to clone people accidentally and keep your changer rating from turning you into a monster." She used her Metallurgy ability and floated the ring over to Noelle.

"Thank you," Noelle told her. "How long will it last?"

"It's permanent, just try not to break it," Taylor told her.

"I'll certainly try," Noelle promised as she slipped the ring on, surprised that Maverick could just whip something up to fix her problem in less than a minute.

"It's not a perfect fix but it should work," Taylor offered.

"It's a hell of a lot better than I was expecting," Noelle admitted.

"Fantastic," Lisa said as she set the briefcase on the floor of the van and opened it, revealing a decent amount of cash, using the fact that any people watching wouldn't be able to see her face or hear her to give them a warning. "You should put the cash in a bag before going anywhere important, the boss is the type of asshole that would stick a tracking device in the case."

"If he's that sort of asshole, why are you working for him?" Amy asked.

"He's got a gun to my head and leverage on my team and I happen to like them, despite their issues," Lisa explained.

"Great," Noelle muttered, making a mental note to have a word with her 'boyfriend' about acceptable contracts. "He's probably going to use my team as a hostage isn't he?"

"Absolutely, he's a control freak," Lisa warned them.

"Does your boss have a name?" Taylor asked as she grabbed the case and tossed it in her inventory.

"Coil," Lisa admitted, figuring this might be her best chance to get rid of him. "He has some sort of probably manipulation ability, I haven't figured out how to escape yet."

Noelle shook her head. "He's a precog, I can smell powers or at least most powers."

"That actually makes sense," Lisa mused. "He'd just have to check each coin toss or check if a mission is a success."

"How do you catch a precog?" Oliver asked.

"You find someone that can track him down and then you hit him while he's sleeping or you send a stranger or a trump after him that he can't predict," Noelle suggested.

"Before we get carried away, what is Coil's goal for the city?" Amy asked.

Lisa sighed as she thought about her boss. "He's basically an old James Bond style villain. He doesn't care about the money, he just wants to rule the city from the shadows and control everything or at least that's my best guess since his power would make acquiring money trivial."

"Have you considered telling the PRT?" Amy asked.

Lisa shook her head. "He has moles in the PRT and all of the gangs."

"What about reaching out to someone outside the Bay?" Amy asked.

"He has contacts in weird places, like Accord," Noelle warned them.

"The first step is to collect everyone on your teams and get them here so I can heal them," Taylor suggested, wanting to make sure both teams got healed. "It's a good excuse to get them away from his base, after that, we can simply meet up in private for a bit while we figure out the best way to deal with him."

"Do you have a problem healing my team?" Lisa asked, getting the feeling that Maverick really wanted Noelle's team healed for some reason.

"Grab everyone," Taylor suggested then turned to look at Oliver. "Do you have any spare pants?"

Lisa pulled her phone out and texted Grue to bring the rest of the team.

"Yeah, I'll grab them," Oliver said as he headed for the cab.

"Thanks," Noelle said, glad that her sweater was as long as it was, since it mostly covered everything as long as she didn't move too fast. "I can probably track Coil down but I'm not sure what type of contingencies he'd have."

"Don't worry about it, we're not doing anything without a plan and a bit more information," Taylor assured her, fairly sure her wraith could deal with Coil after she gave it a bit of an upgrade. 

"Good," Noelle agreed, glad that she was actually feeling clear headed for the first time in years.

Taylor summoned her wraith under the van and used her Budding ability, causing a window to appear with the abilities she could hand out. She ignored the versions of her normal powers she could give people and looked at the versions of Noelle's power that she could hand out. 'Unstoppable Hunter? Enhanced Strength and Regeneration with a bit of her scent ability. Evil Twins? Loyal evil clones, homicidal tendencies. Naughty Clones? Ability to clone creatures by touch if you want. The clones have a small chance of being the opposite sex when they're cloned or you can intentionally flip their sex when they're created.'

'Would that make Legend's clone straight if she ended up female?' Taylor mused as she continued reading the description. 'Your clones will gain a large amount of loyalty and lose any modesty the originals had. They also have a chance to end up with slightly different powers or mutate physically. The power also comes with the scent ability but not the rest of her powers. Probably for the best, I don't want to become a giant monster. Evil Children? Yeah, no, I'm not making a bunch of psychotic children that have a stranger rating that makes everyone think they're innocent. Clone Army? Quickly clone temporary soldiers with Regeneration. That sounds like I'd be making a lot of temporary people just to kill them.'

"My team should be here in five, they were on overwatch," Lisa offered.

"Good," Taylor agreed as she gave her wraith a copy of the Naughty Clones ability. 'I'd rather deal with a bunch of nudists than a bunch of gremlins.'

Oliver walked back with a pair of sweats and a cell phone that he was using. "She's fine, you need to bring everyone and Maverick can fix them, including Jess's legs. She might even be able to pull the stick out of Krouse's ass."

"Good luck," Noelle muttered, well aware that he was a bit of an asshole.

Taylor dismissed her wraith when she saw three giant dogs moving toward them with people on their backs. 'Might as well. I have permission,' she decided and used her Mystical Eyes of Purity on each of the capes then did the same for the giant dogs.

Regent nearly fell off the dog when his depression and general apathy vanished between one breath and the next, leaving him feeling slightly optimistic.

Rachel relaxed, suddenly less worried about the strangers.

"Undersiders," Amy muttered under her breath.

"Who are they?" Taylor asked softly.

"Minor villains," Amy offered, having heard a little bit about them from her sister, mostly how they were slippery. "They've only really been targeting the gangs," she admitted, a touch reluctantly.

"Hopefully they can clean up their act without Coil around," Taylor offered as she saw a group of people wearing costumes pull up in a black van. 'Better to ask forgiveness,' she thought as she used her Eyes of Purity ability on everyone in the van that she could see.

Feat Achieved! Bomb Expert, deprogram five Simurgh bombs!

+1x Platinum Random Gacha ticket

"I'm planning on it," Lisa assured them, not interested in being a villain if she had better options, especially since she didn't feel like she had to be the smartest person in the room anymore.

'I'm going to have to quietly spread the ability to cure mental issues,' Taylor decided as she tapped the platinum bordered card while she waited for the team of minor villains to get out of the van and make their way over. 'Ex Nihilo, all abilities that create constructs or new matter now cost significantly less energy to produce and maintain. That should make fixing the roads a lot easier.'

Taylor tapped one of the gold cards, doing her best to be as casual as possible, causing it to flip over and reveal a picture of a girl drinking a glass of milk. 'Mmmm Milk? Drinking any type of milk replenishes energy. How much energy?' she wondered as she tapped the next card, getting a copy of her Library Mind card.

Feat Achieved! Duplicate Traits, acquire a duplicate of a trait that stacks.

+1x Silver Trait Gacha Ticket

'At least they stack,' Taylor thought as she tapped the silver card. 'Disciple, you're a great disciple. You learn things faster and easier when taught personally by someone who has a higher skill level than you in the subject in question. In addition, it is easier to earn the favour of your teachers. That would have been useful at Winslow.'

"Noelle?" Trickster asked as he rushed over, sounding like he couldn't quite believe it.

"Hey," Noelle offered with a smile, happy that her friends had stuck by her despite her mood swings.

"Are you back?" Sundancer asked warily, wondering how long she'd have her friend back and if she was actually back despite the fact that she looked human.

"I feel good," Noelle assured her friend. "Maverick wasn't able to fix my power but she gave me something that should be able to delay my power so that brief touches aren't as much of a problem."

Amy glanced between Tattletale and Hellhound. "Do you want me to heal your team and dogs?"

"The dogs are up to Bitch," Lisa told her.

"Yes," Rachel agreed.

Grue relaxed when Lisa nodded her head slightly. "We're not going to object to getting healed."

Amy used her Greater Healing ability on the three giant dogs, causing them to glow, then did the same to the rest of the group, knowing that she needed to master her ability so that Taylor would get her full ability back.

Taylor hit the girl in a wheelchair with her Eyes of Purity ability, wanting to make sure she got everyone.

Feat Achieved! I Can Walk! Cure a paraplegic. 

+1x Gold Random Gacha Ticket

'Nothing about being a Simurgh bomb but at least I got a card,' Taylor thought as she tapped the card, causing it to flip over and reveal a picture of a basket of glowing fruit. 'Orchard? You're able to create fruits and vegetables out of your own energy. The fruit and vegetables you create are extremely refreshing and can have unique properties depending on your abilities. Does that mean I can make healing carrots or magic apples that actually keep the doctor away?'

'I'm going to have to do some tests,' Taylor mused as she listened to the cape in the top hat try to talk Noelle into heading to a club to celebrate.