VT - Chapter 7 : THE Taylor Hebert.... (Patreon)

Disclaimer: Worm belongs to the one and only absolute chad, Wildblow. Enough said.

Brockton Bay

–Taylor Hebert–

As she ran around the block from her house, she winced as she felt one particular bug be crushed under the foot of someone, probably running as well. The wince was more from the nature of the feedback she got from that particular bug before the link was severed, rather than actual pain. She didn’t get physical sensations from the bugs she controlled in her two-block range. 

Even borrowing the bug senses was impossible, as all she received in return was gibberish and a killer headache that almost knocked her out the first time she tried it. So far, all she could get as part of her power was the type of bug it was, a rough location, as well as the number of all the bugs in her area. It was not quite as glamorous as the powerset she had hoped for, as it was her dream to fly in the air, preferably alongside Alexandria herself and bust down villains, but she supposed that some dreams do, in the end, remain just dreams.

Coming back to reality, she turned sharply on the spot before running back using the same route, running as well as using her power at the same time. She had to be within a two block range of her house to guide the creation of her Cape outfit. She would hesitate to call it a uniform, since it was just a bodysuit, haphazardly designed with only protection in mind. 

An actual cape outfit would likely be made up of tinkertech materials, with actual armour, with some sort of overarching theme that would tie in nicely with the power of the hero. Or, that’s what she thought before she actually had to take a deep dive into costume making and the costume analysis wing of the PHO, a place she couldn't believe she hadn’t visited beforehand.

Real hero outfits were made with functionality in mind, from the second, which made her forego any sort of color with her own cape outfit. Keeping her decision to go solo in mind, she hoped that the dark color would increase her intimidation factor and help her goal, which was going out and fighting crime in the night, and coming back to fight the far bigger evil that was High School.

She snorted at the thought, turning around once more, continuing to run, as she thought of the sheer ridiculousness of her plans. Here she was, a victim of a murder attempt, because that event couldn't be anything but that, planning on, once her outfit was done, to go out in the night and fight criminals. 

Sure, it was still weeks away, but despite her apprehension and doubts about the idea, she was still making concrete steps towards that becoming reality. She was creating her uniform; she was practicing with her power the entire time she was awake, she was working out more, focusing on her health. So that, in the eventuality that was her powers failing somehow, she could still run or fight.

Turning sharply on the spot, she continued to run, as, despite her thoughts pointing to the contrary, a thrill of excitement ran through her body when she imagined fighting villains and saving the city from villains, just like her childhood idol, Alexandria. Sure, she would do it with her fists and invulnerability and her flight, but bugs were just as useful. Right? Right?

She sighed, her mood going down a bit as she compared her meagre power to that of a member of the Triumvirate, one of the strongest capes on the planet. Not in the mood anymore, she stopped running, huffed and puffed, but still kept on walking, as she was not supposed to just stop running all of a sudden. It was on one of those fitness guides she followed online.

While she would have loved to go to a gym, or maybe get a personal trainer, she did not think her father had the funds to support that. Plus, it would eat into what little personal time she got after enduring the hell that was Winslow High. 

After walking for a few minutes, she turned and, after skipping the step that squeaked every time she stepped on it, opened the door and got in. It was 8.30 in the morning, and even though this was a weekend, her father was gone before she even came back home.

She closed the door and walked into the kitchen, trying to ignore the dull ache whenever she thought of the way she had been ignoring her father. She was up and out of the house before he woke up, and by the time she came back home from her run, he was getting ready and sometimes had cooked something for both of them. Even if he did cook for her, he packed his food and rushed out of the house to head to his job, with a wave or a good morning exchanged before she had to get ready for school.

It was something that worked for them. It did not feel nice to live with her father, who barely spoke two sentences to her in the entire day, but things had been the same since Mom was gone, and she did not have the energy to try and change things. Not when she had to suffer through the daily torture from the Trio, and especially not now, when she had powers and was taking steps towards something that would undoubtedly be vehemently opposed by her father.

She knew the right thing was to go to the PRT and then get admission into the Wards program, something that would solve a lot of their problems immediately. She would not have to work out in the public gym that was a gym only for name's sake. She would not have to work for months on end for her costume. She would not have to constantly be on the lookout, as she would have allies in the form of the other Wards as well as all the other heroes.

She would not have to do this hide and seek thing with her father, though, admittedly, it had been far easier than she had expected it to be, mostly on account of her father just not noticing much of what was happening around him. It was sad, but something that helped her, so she learned to take what was good and be satisfied with it.

Also, as part of entering into the Wards program, she would get a guaranteed stipend, which was more than generous, solving most of their financial problems early on, good insurance was also on the menu, dental included, as well as guaranteed scholarships for college, if she wanted to. 

Specialised training for her power, specialised PR training, tinkertech support items, and more could all be within her grasp. For just a moment, as she whisked the eggs, her mind went to a fantasy scene of her smiling and waving at the crowd, standing alongside all the other Wards, and giving confident speeches with a beautiful smile on her face, only for it to be shattered by her mind itself.

As the fantasy was replaced by her going around and beating gangster on her lonesome, wearing that all black outfit that seemed to absorb all the light around it, using her power, which was just using more and more bugs to smother and scare everyone around her, turning her into a social pariah, as well as a joke, because what could mere bug control do in the face of invulnerability? Tinkertech? Lasers? And more.

No matter where her mind went, she found her powers and, more importantly, herself lacking. She just could not imagine standing beside those giants confidently, not with her current self; hence the exercise and practice with her power.

Everything she found on PHO told her that powers were kind of a one and done deal. Most powers could not really increase in their effectiveness or efficiency. Blasters did not increase their output in any meaningful manner over the course of years of having their powers.

Powers were not like muscles. Sure, one could learn how to better use their power and maybe gain some efficiency there, or use some tinkertech or another cape with a good power to amplify their powers, kind of like Othala, but most powers were permanent in their output.

That left her with a Bug Master power, a designation that was bound to draw additional scrutiny on her, even though it was just Bug control, not something ludicrous like Cape control, with a measly range of just 2 blocks. It had been months since she had been practicing day in and day out, hoping, desperately, that the people on PHO were wrong and that she could increase the range of her power somehow.

But it did not look like she could do that, or if she was doing anything, it was far too slow to be of any use. At this rate, she might gain a third block in range by the time she reached her mid twenties.

Sighing, she looked down at the whisked eggs before pouring them into the pan, along with some cheese and salt. A bare-bones breakfast, but one that should be healthy enough for now. She had no money for supplements or protein powder, so this, coupled with whatever meat option she had at the cafeteria, was all the protein she could realistically obtain.

But even this little change in her diet had worked wonders for her, as she could actually see improvement in her stamina and the weight lifted in the public gym. The option of blending in bugs, as she’d read that they were pure protein, was present in the back of her mind, but she had reserved that for when she was truly desperate for any improvement. For now, she was slightly content with her rate of progress.

After all, while her power might not be anything special, regular people were plenty afraid of any cape power. So, her intimidating power alone should be enough to scare some of the gangbangers, and on the rare occasion it did not, she would be two blocks away, ready to haul ass back to safety.

Either way, she was going to do this. She was going to go out crime fighting and as she plated her food, she told herself that nothing was going to stop her.

“That is not nearly enough protein, Ms.Hebert.” She turned around, her arms flailing about as she entered a crude combat stance, as she heard someone speak from behind her. Her eyes darted about the kitchen, ignoring the mess at her feet, even though she felt a pang of hunger at the fact that those were the last of the eggs in the kitchen. She used her powers to find anything, but nothing.

“Hello! I am here, Ms.Hebert.” Her eyes snapped to the phone that was just innocently tucked into the small gap between the window and the windowsill. Her power went into overdrive, as she mobilised all the bugs she could without being too overt to find out just who put the phone there, as they could not have been too far.

Or had they kept that phone there and run away when she was in the middle of her thoughts and then activated it after they were a safe distance away?

Her blood ran cold as she realised the real risk of her identity being leaked as a cape, even before she had taken the first step into the cape scene of Brockton Bay. Panic threatened to overwhelm her, but she just offloaded all that panic into all the bugs underground, so no one else saw their odd behaviour and connected it to a cape that lived nearby.

A two block radius was a frighteningly small radius to use and narrow down a particular individual suspected of being a cape. Her recent incident at the school could be used as a point of reference for any recent Trigger Events for all residents nearby.

All of these thoughts went through her mind, as she struggled to think of a way out of this without endangering her life, her father’s life, and—

“Wow, that can’t be healthy, Ms.Hebert.” The definitely male, slightly rough, maybe modulated? voice spoke from the phone once more, as she debated whether to push the phone out or to take it in her—

“All this paranoia is neither good nor expected from a fresh cape, Ms.Hebert.”