Disclaimer: Don't own the Worm serial.

0o0o0

"Would you do it all over again?" Knowing what you know now? Knowing that you end up here, at gunpoint?" The words seemed to echo through Taylor's mind as she lay in a darkness so deep as to make Grue's darkness seem full of light and hope. "Would you do it all over? Knowing you end up here? At gunpoint? Do it over again? Knowing what you know? End up here?"

Taylor groaned as she tried to make sense of why she was being asked the same thing, again and again. "What?"

"Is the point? The point… the point." The words seemed to echo through the darkness and through her bones. An almost familiar female voice whispered, "The answer is yes, save the girl, save the world, agreement."

Taylor blinked as she tried to make sense of everything as she found herself back in her body or at least that was what it felt like. The first sense to return was surprisingly and disturbingly her sense of smell. The disturbingly familiar scent of copper, rot and worse filled her nose causing her to flash back to when she'd been stuffed into the locker the first time. She could feel bugs crawling over her skin, the wet nasty grunge pressing up against her skin and the fact that everything was pressing in on her. She screamed, she thrashed and completely lost it for the second time in her life.

Taylor groaned as she woke to a soft whisper in her ear, "I gazed into the Abyss and the abyss spat Skitter at me." She glanced around frantically looking for whoever had whispered into her ear. "Imp if you're messing with me, I'm going to kill you." She closed her mouth as her father stirred. "Dad?"

Danny blinked as he woke up and saw that Taylor was awake. "How are you feeling?"

"Confused…" She turned then trailed off as she caught sight of her right hand. She wiggled the fingers of her previously missing hand. "What's going on?"

Danny asked, "What is the last thing you remember?"

"I… it felt like the locker again…" She trailed off as a brightly glowing white robed girl stepped into the room. It took her a couple of seconds for her mind to recognize the teen before her as she looked younger than the last time she'd seen her not to mention she was glowing! "Amy?"

Panacea blinked as she came to a stop a few feet away from the bed. "It's Panacea in costume, how are you feeling?"

Taylor stared at the other girl, there was no sense of familiarity, no recognition, no dislike, no real anything other than just a sort of polite sympathy that did little to mask the tiredness she saw on the other girl's face. "Confused, did you fix my arm?"

"Getting powers will do that," Panacea muttered. "Your arm?"

"It was gone…" Taylor trailed off when she realized that Panacea had no idea what she was talking about.

Danny asked, "Powers?"

Panacea winced as she realized that the girl's father had heard her. "I didn't mean to say that outloud."

"It's fine, he knows," Taylor replied offhand.

Danny stared at Taylor. "What do I know?"

Taylor felt a shiver go down her spine at the honest confusion on her father's face. "What is going on?"

Panacea said, "The cops just said that there was an accident, that you were found in a locker with… what do you remember?"

"The locker? That was... " Taylor briefly wondered if she'd had another nervous breakdown. The last thing she remembered before waking up in what she was guessing was her locker, was getting shot by Contessa. "How long was I out?"

Panacea said, "A few hours. It's January 3rd, 2011."

"2011?" Taylor asked faintly.

Danny tried to keep his voice steady as he asked, "What happened with the locker?"

Taylor scowled as she thought back to the locker incident. "I was shoved into my locker after it was filled with nasty…" she shook her head, "It doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters! Who pushed you?"

"I didn't see them but I have a feeling that it was Madison, Sophia and Emma that shoved me in or talked someone into shoving me in."

"Emma!"

Taylor slumped back against her pillow. "Can we not do this now?" She glanced at Panacea and asked, "Did you heal me?"

Panacea said, "Your father gave me consent."

"And you noticed that I'm a parahuman when you touched me?"

"Sorry… there's no excuse for just blurting it out like that."

Taylor waved it off as she was more concerned about the fact that she was apparently in the past. "Did you fix my powers?"

Panacea frowned. "I just healed your cuts and bruises and made sure you didn't catch anything. Some of the stuff… just yuck. What was wrong with your powers? What are your powers?"

Taylor wasn't sure what she was supposed to say, she could feel her swarm, it seemed the same as before she'd had her powers altered but she could also see a glow around Panacea and feel her power. Thankfully she couldn't control her or anything but seeing the glow around Panacea left her unsettled. She debated with herself on whether or not to tell her for a couple of seconds then realized that it wouldn't be hard to connect the dots and she'd most likely already seen her name on her chart. "You're glowing…"

"Glowing?" Panacea asked curiously.

"I can also sort of sense your powers."

Panacea tensed up as she asked, "Oh?"

"Healing and stuff…" She glanced at Danny then back at Panacea.

Panacea felt her stomach drop as she realized that Taylor knew more than she'd liked about her powers. "Ah, that's interesting…" she trailed of as she glanced at Taylor's father. "Is he glowing?"

"No, just you."

"I suggest not telling anyone that you can sense powers. I don't think most capes would take kindly to anyone that could unmask them just by walking past when they're in their civilian identities."

Danny stared at Taylor. "You're a cape?"

"Apparently…" Taylor still wasn't completely sure what was going on. She'd been going crazy then she'd been shot and woken up in a locker. If that wasn't enough to make her question her sanity, her swarm was back and she could sense capes just by looking at them or at least she could sense Panacea just by looking at her.

Danny asked, "What now?"

Taylor asked, "Am I healthy enough to leave the hospital?"

"Physically yes, mentally…?" Panacea trailed off not really sure what to say. "I'm not sure, how do you feel?"

"The confusion is getting less but I'm sort of hungry." Taylor looked at her dad. "Do you think you can get me something to eat?"

Danny glanced between Panacea and Taylor. "You'll be okay?"

Taylor forced herself to smile. "I'll be fine."

"I'll keep an eye on her." Panacea plastered a smile on her face until Danny left then turned to look at Taylor. "What did your power tell you?"

"That you're more than just a healer. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone."

"As long as I don't tell anyone about your powers?" Panacea asked.

"I'd prefer that you didn't tell people about my powers but I'm not going to spill your secrets. I'm still trying to wrap my head around why I can see a glow around people and why I feel like there's a touch component."

Amy asked, "Touch? What do you think will happen?"

"I'm not sure, it's not like I've had this power for all that long…"

Amy held out her hand. "Here, don't try to do anything just see what happens."

Taylor carefully held out her hand hoping that her power wasn't offensive in nature, not quite trusting that everything was real. She blinked as she touched Amy and accidently activated her new power.

Amy's eyes went wide as she got a brief look at Taylor's physical state before it vanished and she found herself with a vague sense of herself rather than Taylor. She focused on herself and blinked as a translucent window with her picture and a bunch of appearance options appeared. "Do you see that?"

Taylor frowned as she looked around. "See what?"

"My power changed…" She gulped as the window vanished as her attention shifted. She brought her attention back to herself and that strange feeling and the translucent window reappeared. "My power changed… you're a trump."

"I wasn't expecting that." Taylor winced as she realized might have just cost the world one of the best healers ever seen. "Shit…"

Panacea took a breath then let it out as she tried to calm down. "Sorry, it's my fault, I'm the experienced cape, I should have known better. I was just focused on making up for my earlier slip and shit. Carol is going to kill me."

"Maybe it's not permanent… or maybe you just got another power?" Taylor asked hopefully.

Panacea hesitantly reached out and touched Taylor's hand. "Hmm… nothing. I'm not, I don't feel anything… shit." She wasn't sure how she felt, she'd wanted to quit healing people for months now but now that her ability had transformed she wasn't sure how to feel.

Taylor stared at the space over Panacea's head. "Huh, you have a character portrait with your previous powers, a bunch of empty slots and a reroll option, right, okay, this might be fixable."

Panacea blushed slightly as she noticed some of the interesting options her new power gave her. "Can we not fix this for a second?"

"Oh?"

"There's a bust slider and I wouldn't mind fixing my hair color and… yeah, give me five minutes?"

Taylor pulled her hand back. "Sure, if I could fix my breasts, I'd be tempted."

"If I get my normal powers back, we'll see," Panacea offered absently as she played around with the translucent character 'creation' window.

Taylor watched in fascination as Panacea's features and hair color shifted before her eyes. "You might want to be careful so that you can restore your normal looks…"

"Oh, that's not a problem I have multiple character portraits, I swapped to my second portrait." She broke out giggling when she pushed the slider on her bust size up until she was almost falling over with watermelon sized breasts. "Yeah, too much."

Taylor smiled at the absurdity of Panacea's new look. "Maybe a bit…"

Panacea brought the slider back to a nice b-cup then changed her hair to a slightly darker brown and changed it from frizzy to wavy then touched up some imperfections on her face. "Okay, that should be close enough to pass while still being better." She glanced at the empty bathroom. "Can I use your mirror?"

"Sure." Taylor grabbed the pile of clothes her father had brought and pulled her clothes on under her sheet while Panacea walked to the bathroom and studied herself in the mirror. "Hopefully I can fix this."

Panacea spent a couple of minutes tweaking her appearance until she was satisfied that she looked better and yet was still distinctly herself. She checked on any health issues she had and took care of a couple of things that might have come up eventually then stopped focusing on her 'character' sheet and smiled when it vanished and the changes stayed. "Okay, that should do it… can you give me back my old powers?"

Taylor pulled the hospital sheet back and sat up. "I can try." She held out her hand.

"How do I look?" Panacea walked over and touched Taylor's hand.

Taylor studied Panacea's face. "It looks like someone lightly airbrushed your features and styled your hair, it's still you, just improved a bit."

"Excellent, my old powers?" Panacea asked hopefully.

Taylor concentrated and selected Panacea's original power set for her. "That should do it, I hope."

Panacea sighed in relief as her new sense of self vanished and she felt Taylor's health like 'normal'. "They're back, did the changes stick?"

Taylor studied the other girl's face. "Nothing seems to be sliding back to normal, so hopefully?"

"Okay, you're forgiven for scaring me half to death about my powers," Panacea replied happily.

Taylor pulled her hand back. "Good, does that mean you won't tell people that I'm a cape?"

Panacea made a zipping gesture over her lips. "I'll keep your secrets if you keep mine. If people knew that I could alter and change how people look rather than just heal them, I'd never get any peace."

"That sounds fair, considering both of our powers are a bit shady."

"I guess that's one way to look at it. Have you thought about the Wards?"

Taylor frowned slightly as she realized that her new power would draw a lot of unwelcome attention from a whole bunch of people. "Not really, I'd rather just work as a consultant."

"That's probably a good idea considering you could avoid giving them your actual name. Besides, the pay is a lot better as a consultant." Panacea sighed in frustration. "Of course they pay New Wave rather than me."

"That sucks…" Taylor paused for a couple of seconds as she tried to figure out how to blame Sophia for not wanting to join the Wards without revealing knowledge she shouldn't have, "I'm reasonably sure one of the Wards stuffed me in the locker."

"What?!"

"Yeah, one of my attackers had phasing powers like Shadow Stalker and Sophia Hess is dark skinned and hates me… her skin tone fits what I've seen of Shadow Stalker's. I mean I could be wrong but I don't think I am. It would also explain why the school covered up her other bullying."

"You should talk to the police and a lawyer," Panacea replied.

"I'm planning on it." Taylor didn't see a reason to put up with Winslow considering the shit they'd put her through the last time around.

Panacea opened her mouth then closed it as Danny opened the door. "I should get back to my rounds but if you need to talk…" she pulled a card and pen out of her pocket and wrote her cell number on it. "Here, just don't pass it out."

Taylor took the card. "Thank you."

Danny asked, "Is she well enough to leave?"

Panacea said, "I fixed all of her physical problems, try not to cause her too much stress for a couple of days."

"Thank you." Taylor wasn't sure what was going on exactly but if she actually was back in the past then she was going to figure out a way to help Amy reduce her stress load before she snapped.

"You're welcome, I had fun." Panacea left to go heal people with a smile on her face for the first time in she wasn't sure how long. Her brush with losing her powers had reminded her how nice having the ability to heal people was.

Danny asked, "Are you ready to leave?"

"Yes, I've spent enough time here already," Taylor didn't really see a point in staying in the hospital as she wasn't sick or at least she didn't think she was sick. Either way, she wanted more information and didn't want to rack up more of a hospital bill than she'd already incurred. If this trip into the past was actually legit then there was no reason to burden her father with excess medical bills. If it was some type of trick, staying in a hospital would make it easier for whoever had her and she didn't really want that. "No talk about powers or anything please, no calling the Wards either."

"Why?"

"I'll explain once we get home, just trust me."

"I'm going to want an explanation." Danny just wanted to know what was going on and what Taylor's ability was.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Taylor tensed as an officer walked up to her and her father as they were finishing up the discharge paperwork. It took her a couple of tense seconds to remind herself that she was the victim and that she wasn't a wanted villain.

A grey haired officer asked, "Miss Hebert?"

Taylor nodded. "That would be me."

"I'm Officer Murphy, I was hoping you had time to write up a report for the attack, accident or…?" He trailed off as he noticed her body language shift. 'Definitely an attack rather than the prank gone wrong the school is claiming.' He didn't buy the school's claim as no one he knew considered filling a locker with biohazardous waste then shoving a teenage girl into it a joke.

"Attack, I was stuffed into a locker filled with used feminine products… I'm not sure what else to call that other than attempted murder via disease or suffocation."

He asked hopefully, "Did you see your attacker?"

Taylor shivered. "No, I was puking from the smell when someone grabbed me and shoved me into the locker from behind. I'm almost sure that it was Sophia Hess but I can't prove it, there were plenty of witnesses, I'm sure someone texted about it or posted something about it."

The officer stared at Taylor in disbelief. "Wait, you're telling me that people saw this and didn't do anything about it?" He'd spent years honing his bullshit detector and he didn't think she was lying which meant that something weird was going on here because what she was saying certainly didn't line up with what the school reported. Besides, they had evidence that the girl had been pulled from the locker and no one would willingly subject themselves to that just for the chance to frame someone when there were far easier ways to deal with people.

Danny stared at his daughter, "Wait, you mean no one told the truth?"

"Welcome to my life. Did the cameras pick anything up?"

Murphy shook his head. "I haven't gotten the chance to check the copy of the recordings the school sent us. I was told this was a simple prank gone wrong, that is obviously not the case."

Danny twitched as he worked to control his temper. "A prank?"

Murphy sighed as he held up his hands in a calming gesture. "As I'm sure you know, we get called to Winslow at least a couple of times a week between stupid pranks, gang members doing something stupid and various other problems. Now that I know it wasn't a prank, I'll make sure the forensic team takes a good look at the locker and we'll see what we can dig up." He glanced at the clock on the wall. "It's actually getting late and you've had a horrible day, do you want to finish this at the police station tomorrow?"

Taylor briefly considered putting things off until tomorrow after getting the lay of the land but wanted to get things on record before the school buried everything. "I'd rather not give any of the bullies time to come and kill me in my sleep or steal evidence. They've already tried to kill me at least once already. Once they learn that I'm out of the hospital, I have a feeling they're going to try to cover their asses, either by Emma's father threatening to sue my Dad into the poor house or by Sophia Hess trying to sneak into my home and kill me in my sleep. I need to grab my journal from home that has dates and times for their harassment over the last couple of months as well as the teachers that witnessed the harassment and did nothing or walked away. At the very least, I want a restraining order against them for the rest of the crap they've pulled."

Murphy scowled. "You're telling me that teachers as in multiple teachers witnessed the crap leading up to this attack and did nothing?"

Danny tightened his fist as he worked on not screaming or doing anything else that would be considered unhinged.

"That about sums it up, yeah," Taylor replied.

Murphy twitched as he pictured his daughter having to deal with the same type of crap that Taylor had went through. "In that case, I'll follow you to your home, then we'll go to the station and file a report. Even if we can't get someone to turn on the bullies, I suspect that the cameras will show something."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Taylor felt wrung out by the time Officer Murphy had finished taking her statement and looking over the journal filled with notes on the trio's bullying. While she'd put most of the crap behind her, revisiting it hadn't done anything for her current mood or stability. Only the faint hope of something actually changing this time around kept her from just tossing her hands up in disgust at trying to get justice.

On the upside, the whole experience was helping to rule out some master or stranger ability and as far as she could tell, she really was back in the past for some unknown reason. She wasn't sure why or even who had brought her back, the only thing that made sense was that someone from Cauldron had brought her back but that didn't explain her extra power or why things sucked so badly if they could send people back through time. They'd been sure that she didn't have the potential to second trigger which meant that they'd either lied, which didn't surprise her or they'd been wrong which also didn't surprise her all that much considering all of the stupid shit they'd done while trying to 'save' the world. She rested her head against the wall as her father finished his 'chat' with the officer in charge of the case.

'Assuming that I'm actually in the past and not hell or some coma, I'm going to need a plan.' The idea of actually sitting on the sidelines didn't appeal to her considering someone had given her a second chance. She drifted as she thought about costume ideas, ways to make money, people to recruit for her hero or rogue team as well as how she was going to clean up the streets while still making a tidy profit. She'd been drifting for several minutes when her Dad coughed to get her attention. "Is it time to go?"

Danny put his hand over his mouth to cover a yawn. "They might have more questions once they've investigated things more but we can take care of that tomorrow or the next day."

"Good, I'd like to get home." Taylor wanted to get home and start working on her costume as soon as possible.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Taylor woke with a yawn and realized that everything was as she'd left it the night before and that she was still in the past. She'd decided not to try and slip out, mostly because she knew her dad would be checking up on her for at least a couple of nights in case she had nightmares. Thankfully she'd been too tired to have nightmares or maybe she was just screwed up enough that being tossed back into the locker hadn't trumped the rest of the shit she'd had to deal with the last couple of days. After all, what was one girl being stuffed into a locker, compared to the end of the world?

She reached out and checked on her spiders that were weaving silk in the basement and made a couple of adjustments as she worked on her plans for the day. She knew her father was going to want her to spend the day relaxing, especially after having to deal with the police last night, she also knew that Shadow Stalker would be out for blood once she realized that she had tried to get her in trouble. 'Murphy or not, I need people to come forward and testify or I doubt they'll get anywhere.' She had a feeling that offering a reward for information leading to the capture of the guilty parties would help convince people to come forward. 'If I can get my costume done, then I can hit the Merchants tonight, that would give me enough money to put up a reward for someone to come forward not to mention call a better lawyer than dad can afford.'

She wouldn't have even thought about it the last time around but her time as a villain and strangely enough a Ward had taught her a lot about how the world worked and how to get things done. She glanced over at her computer, she really didn't want to use her computer to access PHO, at least not to create her new cape name considering who Dragon was. She also didn't really want to use the library as there were witnesses and a sign in sheet. She sighed as she rolled out of bed then headed toward the kitchen to see if she could convince her father to head into work rather than stay home and hover. She doubted that she'd be able to convince him not to take the time off but there was always a chance.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Taylor glanced down at her collection of costume bits, "What do you think?"

Danny frowned slightly as he stared at the bits and pieces that Taylor had laid out on the kitchen table. "An old pair of goggles, a grim reaper costume that is too small and torn pajamas, please tell me that you're not going out like this?"

Taylor laughed. "Don't worry, I'm cutting apart the goggles for the lenses and I'll turn the reaper costume into a pattern for my cloak and the pajamas for the leggings of my armor."

"I don't like the idea of you running around the city being a hero."

"The point is that we need money to put up for a reward to get the idiots at school to do the 'right' thing. It's either be a hero or be an exterminator and I'd rather be a hero."

"Someone will come forward-"

Taylor shook her head. "They haven't yet, not a one, nothing. If we post a thousand dollar reward for information that leads to an arrest, I have a feeling the sheep will turn on the trio like sharks in bloody water."

"That's a decent chunk of money, I already owe the hospital for your stay…"

Taylor shrugged. "Dip into my college fund, dip into the emergency fund, I don't care which but if it helps get justice then it will be worth it. If no one comes forward then you'll get the money back, if it helps catch someone then it's worth it. If nothing else, I'll pay you back. I've done some research, I can easily make that off bounties and salvage by taking out various gang members once I have my costume." She pressed on before he could cut her off, "That's ignoring any type of settlement from the school for failing to keep me safe and police their troublemakers."

Danny exhaled the breath he had been holding. "I still don't like it, they should come forward because it's the right thing to do."

"Yeah, except if that was the case, they'd have already came forward," Taylor replied bitterly.

"Fine, I'll call officer Murphy and set something up."

"Thank you." Taylor sighed in relief that her father was willing to put up the money, then again her hospital stay had been short this time around which meant that the hospital bills weren't anywhere close to what they were the last time around.

"We'll be okay, you don't have to rush things." Danny studied his daughter for ten seconds or so then headed into the living room to call the police station.

Taylor grabbed her scissors then went to work on the costume. She was planning on making the robes out of spider silk but the junk costume would be a good place to start.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Taylor opened her front door after checking the peephole. She was a little surprised to see the well known cape dressed in normal clothes standing on her porch. "Amy?"

Amy smiled hesitantly. "Can I come in?"

"Sure." Taylor opened the door and stepped back after glancing around. "What brings you by?"

"I had the time and my sister has a date which means that I'd have to be home alone. Besides, I was thinking about the other ability you let me use and I figured I could at least offer to fix your eyesight and maybe tweak your breasts a bit…" Amy blushed. "If you want, not that there's anything wrong with… shutting up now."

Taylor held out her hand. "I'd love to have my eyes fixed."

Amy reached out and checked on Taylor's health then tweaked her eyesight to be about fifty percent better than 'perfect' vision. "There."

Taylor blinked a couple of times then reached up and took her glasses off. "Wow…" she trailed off as she glanced around the room and realized just how crystal clear her vision was. "Huh, I need to wash the walls."

Amy smiled at the look of wonder on Taylor's face. "Makes all the difference doesn't it?"

"Yes." Taylor set her glasses on the end table. "Feel free to sit down if you want."

Amy sat down on the couch. "Did you want to change anything else?"

Taylor paused as she considered Amy's question. "If you're offering, genetic screening for issues, larger breasts, improved muscle density and bone structure? Maybe improved oxygen capacity?"

Amy raised her eyebrows. "You're planning on being a hero, right?"

"I'm planning on being part of a hero team though I have a feeling I'm going to have to create it myself. I can't really join the Wards with my power and New Wave is out because I want a secret identity."

"I don't blame you, if it wasn't for Victoria, I'd consider vanishing and changing my appearance. I'm famous and I don't get a lot of the perks from it… sorry, it's just a sore subject."

"Anytime you want, I'll swap your powers and you can vanish into the wind for a day or two."

"I might take you up on that." Amy shook her head. "Okay, let's see what improvements we can make, just don't tell anyone I can do this, I've spent a decent amount of effort playing up the healing angle." She held her hand out.

Taylor reached out and touched Amy's hand. "Your secrets are safe with me."

"Thanks." Amy used her power and tweaked Taylor's genetics a bit so her breasts would end up a touch larger than they would have and a bit faster then tweaked things so that Taylor would end up a couple of inches taller when she stopped growing. She reinforced the other girl's bones and muscles then went to work tweaking various organs and making sure that everything was working efficiently. None of it was really enough to give her more than a brute 0 or maybe 1 but it would help keep her safe against normal thugs.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Taylor frowned slightly as the glowing form of Lisa walked up and sat down at her table after scanning the crowd for a couple of seconds. "Can I help you?"

Lisa smirked, "You called from a payphone, how did you get that number…" She frowned, "I gave it to you?"

Taylor muttered, "Thinker bullshit."

"And you know me, that's interesting, I'm listening," Lisa replied with a smirk as she glanced around to make sure there was enough noise to mask their conversation.

Taylor asked softly, "How would you like to save the world Lisa and destroy your snake of a boss?"

"Save the world? You're serious, so you're either delusional or you really think that you can do something about the endbringers and my boss."

"I can certainly do something about your boss, I know how his power works, tell me I'm lying."

Lisa frowned as her power told her the strange teen was telling the truth. "Who the hell are you?"

"It's not as much fun when someone else has all the cards, is it?" Taylor asked with a faint amount of amusement.

"Okay, you're giving me a headache, start explaining or I'll call in my friends."

"Let's take a walk, you can call Brian if you want."

Lisa winced as her power tried to fill in details without having enough facts. "You're doing this on purpose."

"Maybe, let's go." Taylor used her bugs to keep tabs on Brian and Rachel as her and Lisa walked away from the cafe so that they could actually talk without being overheard.

Lisa glanced around. "Start explaining, as long as you don't shout we should be fine."

"I need to find Leet and Uber as well as the Travelers, the Travelers should be in or near Boston at this point."

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Leet and Uber? They're jokes…" She winced as her power gave her information that couldn't be right. "Why do you want to talk with them?"

"Because Leet can build anything once, as in anything; a lightsaber, a dimension traveling police box, a starship, you know, anything. That said, the closer he gets to something he's made before, the more chance of problems. What if I could fix that, what if I could reroll his ability? He could be a hero, he could be a rogue or a valuable resource. Sure, he's a bit of a dick but a lot of that is depression and his powers growing weaker the more he uses them. If I could fix that, he could do amazing things."

Lisa stared at Taylor in surprise as a couple of things clicked, "You can alter powers."

"I can reroll a person's power so their powers express differently. If a villain group wanted to rebrand as rogues or heroes, I could make that happen, if a hero wanted a better power, I could reroll until they got something better. If a villain has a really dangerous power, I could reroll that."

"Bullshit…"

"You don't believe me?"

Lisa snorted. "No, your power is bullshit."

"I know."

"Why contact me?" Lisa asked curiously.

"How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go?" Taylor grinned.

Lisa rubbed her temples. "Just explain before my head explodes."

"Your power takes everything you've experienced and puts it all together in the form of leaps of intuition. You've managed to hack into various places and you have contacts with some interesting and dangerous people. You're also at heart a decent person despite being a villain. You've been hitting places that are insured or that belong to various gangs. Coil grabbed you off the street at gunpoint and recruited you."

"Tell me something I don't know, like how his power works," Lisa muttered.

"He can basically run two timelines at once and pick the one he likes more. For example, he calls you in for a meeting, in one timeline he tortures you, in the other he has a nice civil conversation but seems to know more than he should. Does that fit so far?"

Lisa shivered as she recalled a couple of times that Coil had a smug look that didn't really fit what they were talking about. "Good so far. How are you going to get rid of him if he can run two different timelines and pick the best?"

"You're going to run a job, a dangerous job, he'll use his power and give you a yes or a no for running it. When that happens, you call me and I'll hit his lair. Once he's dealt with I'll explain the rest of my plan to turn the Undersiders into a rogue group that can help save the world and make millions at the same time."

"I'm not sure Regent would be interested in being a hero and Bitch has a record and no secret identity."

"Alec likes thumbing his nose at people, villain or hero. He could stand to have a different ability than muscle control, I mean making people twitch. Most of Bitch's problem stems from how her power warped her ability to deal with people. Her abusive foster parent tried to kill her only friend in a pool and she snapped, that's an open and shut case of temporary insanity and her power doesn't give her control of her dogs, so the murder charge could be tossed with a bit of work. Without that, everything else is junk that could be argued down to community service, say, training service or police dogs. Of course that's assuming that we don't just change her appearance and rebrand her as a different hero."

Tattletale frowned. "You've put a lot of thought into this, why?"

"Again, I'm not explaining until Coil is dealt with, considering his power the less you know in this case the better. Just remember if he catches and tortures you that he'll probably go with the other timeline so don't say anything you shouldn't."

"That's cold." Lisa could see the logic but wasn't sure how much it would help if it came down to it.

"He's a villain and not the friendly cops and robbers type of villain."

"Assuming that I buy this, what type of dangerous job were you planning on us doing?"

"Lung's casino," Taylor replied with amusement.

Lisa twitched as her mind conjured a bunch of things that could go horribly wrong with that course of action. "You're insane, you want us to rob his casino?"

"It's perfect, it's dangerous enough that Coil will split the timeline and having Lung publicly 'kill' the Undersiders means that when heroes pop up with similar powers, no one will be looking for you."

"Right, except for the whole getting killed bit," Lisa replied sarcastically.

"You're a genius at planning, make sure that part doesn't happen. He's just one man and he can't be everywhere. As long as you can hit the casino and then get out before he gets there, you shouldn't have a problem escaping with his cash. He'll likely come after you but that just means you'll have to lay low or fake your deaths and rebrand as rogues."

"I'd have to run the job by the others," Lisa replied.

"You don't actually have to pull the job, just do the planning and the lead up so that I can hit Coil."

"No, if we're going to plan everything, we might as well pull it off."

Taylor frowned slightly as she thought about the next part of her plan. "I don't suppose you know a decent cape lawyer."

"Why?"

"Because I need a consulting contract written up for the Protectorate and I need to look at the legality of rerolling villain powers."

Lisa said, "I know a couple of people that should be able to help with that but it's not going to be all that cheap. Do you have a cape name picked out?"

"Boggle, Jester, or Yahtzee."

"Go with Jester. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to take some pain meds, con a Tinker into being a distraction and plan a raid."

"I'll drop you a line with the new PHO login once I get things set up."

Lisa pulled a cheap burner phone out of her bag and input the number of a decent cape lawyer into it. "Here's the contact number for the lawyer and a way for me to call you when we're ready. We should have everything ready to go by tomorrow. His casino was on my list of possible locations but you knew that didn't you?" She handed the phone to Taylor.

Taylor accepted the phone with a smile. "Stay safe. I'll explain everything after we deal with Coil."

Lisa sighed as she turned and headed away from the headache inducing cape at a brisk walk.

Taylor smiled then turned and headed toward the business part of town as she pushed the button to dial the lawyer.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Taylor felt rather silly wearing her 'new' tossed together costume. It consisted of an old monster mask, a pair of sunglasses to keep people from seeing her eyes or face, a scarf that she'd wrapped around her neck, a hooded jacket that helped hide the fact that she had long hair, several shirts to add some bulk to hide her skinny form and gloves and an old flannel to hide her hands and arms. Combined with three pairs of socks, oversized work boots that she'd picked up at the junk store, a pair of sweats and some old overalls it was next to impossible to put a race or even gender to her. She was using two cheap voice changers to help disguise her voice by giving it a strange echo. Sure, it wasn't perfect but it should be good enough at least until she could get a professional quality voice changer.

Armsmaster frowned slightly as he looked over the mismatched cape. 'And they're claiming to be a trump, I should have had Miss Militia deal with this joker.' He tried to keep the scorn out of his voice, "Your costume is…"

"It's not a costume, it's a disguise. I'm a trump, I permanently alter powers. I'd rather my civilian identity wasn't ruined by some overzealous paper pusher."

"Permanently?" He asked with concern. He'd been told about her supposed ability to alter powers but not the permanent part.

"Relax, I can restore a person's original power in case they don't like the changes they end up with."

"Changes?"

"I reroll aspects of a person's power, as in your power is miniaturization, if I rerolled it, you might be able to shrink."

"I'd rather you not mess with my power. Do you have to touch people?"

"Sure, let's go with that," Taylor smiled behind her mask.

"That isn't a reassuring answer," he replied uncomfortably.

"It wasn't meant to be, reassurance isn't my department. I'm merely offering a service and at a substantial discount to heroes."

"Meaning that you'll offer it to villains?"

"My lawyer said to remind you that I'm not a government agency, I can't run background checks. As long as they don't volunteer the information, I don't have to ask. Besides, I'm not Eidolon, my only real method of defense against most capes is rerolling their powers."

Armsmaster scowled but she was technically correct. It would be a pain proving that she was aiding a villain as long as the villain didn't come right out and admit to being a villain. "Why only five thousand a hero?"

"Why not? Heroes fight endbringers and I like being alive. Besides, my power doesn't lend itself to combat except against capes so I have to help however I can. Besides, five thousand dollars a cape adds up and the Protectorate can afford it. They're a multinational organization and I'm just a rogue, living in Brockton Bay. If I reroll twenty heroes that's a hundred thousand dollars, that's enough to live comfortably for a couple of years and a drop in the bucket for the Protectorate."

"You realize that we have more than twenty people that would want different powers, right?"

"And at five thousand dollars a cape, they can have different powers. If I can't give them better powers, I'll restore their default powers."

Armsmaster asked, "Is there a master component to your power?"

As far as she knew there wasn't a master component to her reroll power, just her bug control which wasn't really what he was asking so she had no real issues with telling a version of the truth. "Not that I've seen and not as far as I know."

Armsmaster was relieved when his lie detector registered that as the truth. "Can you cure case 53's?"

"It's a possibility, do you have any handy?" Taylor was hoping that she could as it would make dealing with the Travelers a heck of alot easier.

"I can have some here in twenty minutes, let me make some calls then we'll look over your contract."

"Thank you." Taylor leaned back slightly in the chair and tried to stay calm and not worry about a doorway opening and Cauldron minions jumping through or Contessa paying her a visit.

Twenty rather tense minutes later and Armsmaster came back with a teenage male that looked like a metal statue and an eight foot tall hunched over girl with grotesque muscles. He said, "See what you can do for Weld and Gully and I'll see that you're paid, consider it proof of your ability."

"That sounds fair." Taylor reached out her hand. "Just grab my hand, lightly, I'm not a brute."

Weld reached out and carefully grabbed the strange cape's hand, not sure what he was expecting or hoping for. "Okay."

Taylor sighed in relief when she found that her power actually worked on Weld despite her gloves and his metal skin. "I should be able to reroll your powers. The best result might be to just reroll your powers completely, wait, no there's a switch and it's locked, let's see." She reached out and rerolled the always on aspect of his power. "Okay, that gives a slow change… that's not going to work." She rerolled his power a couple more times until she got one with a switch where he could just switch back and forth between his metal form and his human form. "Okay, that should do it."

"I don't feel any different."

"Okay, let's try something else." She mentally marked the portrait where he had the switch then rerolled his powers.

Weld twitched and lurched before catching himself on the wall as he changed back to human for the first time he could remember. "What did you do?"

Taylor looked at his powers. "I changed your power. You now have the ability to turn part of your body to metal. It's not a fantastic power but at least it got you human again. I'll swap your powers back to a set where you have an on and off switch for your metal form once you get some practice playing with this form. If that's what you want."

Weld steadied himself against the wall. "I'd still have my metal form when I need it but could be 'normal' looking when I didn't need it?"

"Exactly."

Weld smiled brightly, "Let's go with that."

Armsmaster's lips twitched upwards in what might be someday with time and effort be considered a smile. "Fascinating."

Taylor asked, "You have Earth control and enhanced strength, do you want to keep your earth control or try for something better?"

"I'd be happy with fixing my muscles and jaw," Gully replied as she held her hand out.

Taylor reached out and set her hand on Gully's huge hand. She spent a couple of seconds studying the Ward's powers then rerolled the strength part of them. She frowned as the power changed to something that would pull in material from the earth to add to her in horrible ways. "Don't move." She quickly rerolled her power then checked it. "Okay, that's better. A strength boost if you're standing on dirt or stone."

Armsmaster said, "Her appearance hasn't changed."

"Her power warped her but it's no longer keeping her like that. Let me try a couple more power sets." Taylor went back to rerolling until she hit one that gave Gully an ogre like form and would let her change between a normal sized person or at least a mostly normal sized person and a nine foot tall ogre like form with increased strength. "Okay, I think I fixed things. Try concentrating on getting larger."

Gully frowned slightly as she thought about getting bigger and nothing happened. "Nothing."

"Try stretching?" Taylor suggested. She wasn't sure how exactly the other girl was supposed to trigger her power, she just knew what it did.

Gully shouted in surprise as she changed shape and grew another foot. She tried to speak and found her underbite was gone. After a couple of tries she managed to ask, "What do I look like?"

Armsmaster spoke up, "Green and larger but well proportioned."

Weld was reminded of various fantasy orcs or maybe a troll. Either way, her muscles looked even and well toned which was better than before. "You look good."

Gully sighed. "I'm even taller than I was before."

Taylor said, "You should have a smaller form as well."

"And the changes are permanent?" Armsmaster asked with a touch of disbelief.

"So far as I know." Taylor was as sure as she could be that the change was permanent.

"Do you mind staying while we run some tests on their new powers?" Armsmaster figured putting in a call to Panacea to come check Weld and Gully was in order. If they checked out he'd have no problem paying the new cape ten thousand dollars and signing them up as a consultant on the spot.

Taylor didn't see a problem with that as she was curious how they adjusted to their new powers. "That's fine."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Danny stared at the black debit card sitting on the table, "You're telling me that you have ten thousand dollars in a numbered cape account?"

"Yep," Taylor replied cheerfully.

"Ten thousand dollars?" he asked in disbelief.

Taylor resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Yep, that beats what I'd make if I was a Ward."

"Are you putting some of that away for college?"

"Not yet, part of that goes to pay for the reward money and for repairs to the house and half a dozen other things that need to be done around here."

Danny shook his head. "It's my job to take care of you, not the other way around."

"I'm a cape with a valuable power, it's not going to hurt to help out a little."

Danny sighed. "Well, I guess we could fix that step and a couple of things."

"Good. So, I have a confession to make… that's not my only power."

"You have more powers?"

"Bug control."

"Bug control?"

Taylor nodded. "As in I control bugs."

"How many?"

"I've got a four block radius."

"How many bugs?"

"Four blocks, as in EVERY bug in a four block radius," she emphasized.

Danny blinked as he tried to wrap his mind around just how many bugs his daughter could control with that radius. "How much control do you have?"

"I can have spiders weave spider silk garments while directing the rest of them to do other things."

"That's interesting and somewhat terrifying," he said as he seriously considered it.

"So I've been told," Taylor admitted.

"Wait, someone else knows about your bug powers."

"Uh, right… okay that sounded better in my head."

"Taylor…"

"Would you believe me if I said that I'm from the future and went back in time?" Taylor asked innocently.

Danny studied his daughter's face for a couple of seconds then rolled his eyes. "Not when you say it like that."

"Right, so, Amy wanted to hit the movies, do you mind?" Taylor asked hopefully.

"Nice distraction but who have you told about your bug powers?"

"Just you this time around."

He shook his head. "At least you're laughing again…"

"Does that mean I can hit the movies with Amy?"

"How safe is it to go out with a cape that doesn't have a secret identity?"

"We're just going to the movies with her sister and her sister's boyfriend, it's social and normal and I need friends and Amy is nice."

He asked, "Do you need a ride?"

"That would be great." Taylor hadn't been friends with Panacea the last time around but she was hoping that she could keep her from having a mental breakdown this time around and she was surprisingly fun to be around when she relaxed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Taylor jumped slightly as her cell phone vibrated. "Oops, sorry."

Amy rolled her eyes. "Don't worry about it. Victoria's phone is always ringing."

Victoria snorted. "I'm not that bad."

Dean laughed. "Yes you are."

Taylor glanced around the restaurant as she pulled her phone out. She glanced at the caller ID then opened it and put it to her ear. "Hello?"

Lisa's whisper came over the phone, "We're ready and I got confirmation that we're good to go."

"Copy that, stay safe." Taylor closed the phone and put it back in her pocket.

Dean frowned slightly as he sensed the new girl's excitement. "Something the matter?"

Taylor sent a couple of bugs to chew through Coil's costume on his left leg. "No, just a friend checking in. So, where were we?"

Amy said, "Talking about the new dress that Victoria wants."

"Ah, right, that," Dean muttered good naturedly.

Victoria smiled at her boyfriend sweetly. "It goes with that sexy pair of underwear you liked so much."

Dean blushed. "Moving on…" He glanced back and forth between Amy and Taylor. "So where did you meet?"

Amy spoke up before Taylor could, "At the hospital, I was taking a break and we got to chatting. You're always saying that I need more friends and besides, you keep trying to set me up with creepy guys so I figured I'd avoid that this time and invite Taylor."

Victoria rolled her eyes. "I was just trying to get you out of the hospital."

Dean noticed the rising tension and quickly asked, "Where do you go to school?"

Taylor shifted uncomfortably. "Winslow or at least I did."

He winced as he felt a spike of anger and disgust coming from Taylor. "Sorry…"

"My ex-best friend decided to stab me in the back and emotionally torture me for the last year and some. I told the staff about it, they ignored it. Recent events have shown that there isn't much point in going back as the administration is content to cover for the evil tro."

Victoria asked, "Who the hell does that?"

"Emma Barnes, Madison Clements, and Sophia Hess."

Dean had to resist the urge to stare as he heard Shadow Stalker's civilian name. He felt the mix of frustration and anger coming from Taylor when she mentioned the three names.

Victoria blinked in surprise. "Emma? As in the daughter of Alan Barnes?"

"My ex-friend..." Taylor had to resist the urge to grin savagely as her bugs finished eating through Coil's costume enough that she suddenly had reroll options for Coil. 'Precog, huh, I guess that makes sense. That has to go.' She rerolled his powers then checked his new power. 'That's worse.' She didn't see a point in giving him three timelines rather than two. She rerolled his power again, then again when the next one proved almost as useful. She wasn't going to let him have the power to see what might have been by 'changing' something in the past as that would give him even more options for information gathering than he already had. She continued rerolling his power while he freaked out over his timelines collapsing.

Dean wasn't looking forward to telling Armsmaster about Sophia but maybe this time they'd have enough proof that he'd have to do something about his antisocial teammate. He looked at Victoria. "You know Emma?"

"Her father works with my Mom," Victoria replied.

Taylor sighed. "Sorry to bring it up. What did you think of the movie?"

Amy said, "Harry could have been a bit smarter or they could have buried the locket rather than wear the cursed thing but other than that, it wasn't too bad."

Victoria glanced back and forth between Amy and Taylor. "You can't just…"

"Just drop it Vicky." Amy didn't want to offend her new friend and her time at Winslow had caused her to trigger which meant that it wasn't something they needed to be talking about in a room filled with strangers.

Taylor sighed. "I'd rather talk about the movie. I'm still trying to process everything and the police are still collecting evidence which means I probably shouldn't talk about it all that much."

Dean said, "Ron Weasley was an idiot."

Victoria frowned slightly then decided that she'd just ask Amy about it later. "Neville turned hot."

Taylor listened to everyone banter back and forth as she kept rerolling Coil's power until she came up with a power for dancing that made sure he could hit the right steps. It wasn't perfectly useless but it was horrible enough for now. She selected the dancing power then let her bugs wander off when he wasn't paying attention. "Too much soda. I'll be right back." She kept a couple of bugs under the table so that she could listen in as she made her way to the bathroom to call Lisa.

Amy got up as well. "That's a good idea."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Amy glanced around the empty restaurant bathroom to make sure it was actually empty then asked, "Are you okay?"

Taylor considered saying that she was fine for a couple of seconds then sighed. "Can you promise not to freak out until I can sit down and explain?"

"I'll try."

Taylor used a couple of bugs to watch the hallway outside the bathroom to make sure no one was coming. "I also have bug control powers, including looking through my bugs… one of Coil's safe houses is less than two blocks from here."

"Wait, is that why you suggested we eat here?" Amy asked suspiciously.

"That and I wanted dinner with a friend. I'm working with another cape to take down Coil. I have a unique chance to take him down but in order to do that I either need help or I'd have to go to his safehouse myself and I might hit him with too many bees trying to subdue him. The main problem with going myself is that I don't have a costume for my bug persona yet. It's time sensitive, do you think you can help or talk Glory Girl or Gallant into helping?"

"Cape detector… Fine, I'll tell her I got a call by someone I trust about intel and she can hit the place, if you can direct her where to go. But we're going to have a long chat after this is over."

"Fine…"

Amy sighed. "Okay, explain where it is and how to get there so I can pass the information to Victoria, after that we can direct her via her radio earpiece."

"Thanks."

"That doesn't get you out of explaining."

Taylor explained the plan then sent a text to Tattletale to lay low.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Lisa smiled as she walked over and sat down across from where Taylor was eating a strawberry sundae. "Now that Coil is locked up are you going to explain what's going on?"

Taylor swallowed her bite of ice cream then smiled at Lisa. "I'm sure you have most of it figured out, what do you want to know?"

Lisa asked, "Why take out Coil?"

"Because he's a control freak and can basically 'save scum' until he wins unless someone manages to hit him in both timelines at almost exactly the same time or can disrupt his powers. He'd have came after me before the month was out, a trump that can reroll powers is a very tempting chess piece to have on his team."

"That's what I don't understand, you talk like you know him."

Taylor shrugged. "Would you believe me if I said that I came back through time?"

Lisa winced and rubbed her temples as her power tried to connect the dots to tell her if that was even possible and returned what amounted to a blue screen of death. "Not funny. Now that Coil is dealt with, what do you want with my friends and I?"

"In the short term, I want to set up a meeting with Leet. Past that I need to track the Travelers down so that I can head off an S-class threat before it gets out of control. Once I'm finished doing that, I'm going to be working on cleaning up the Merchants and the ABB and putting in place a team that can keep the Empire in check."

Lisa whispered, "Where are you going to find enough capes to go up against the Empire?"

"Here and there," Taylor replied with amusement.

"How do you know me?" Lisa asked wearily.

"From an alternate future. You became a warlord to help the city because the Protectorate couldn't keep everything together in the wake of Leviathan's attack."

Lisa scowled as her overworked power confirmed that Taylor was telling the truth or at least thought she was. "Say for the moment that I believe you, how did you come back?"

Taylor shrugged. "I'm not sure, the last thing I remember was a cape shooting me then I woke up back in Brockton Bay."

"On the day you triggered?" Lisa asked curiously as her power was trying to fill in pieces..

"Which means I'm either crazy, my power showed me an extremely detailed snapshot of what might have been or I mentally went back in time a couple of years for one reason or another." Taylor shrugged. "Either way, the knowledge is real unless your real name isn't Sarah."

Lisa frowned slightly as she pulled a sticky note out of her pocket and handed it to Taylor. "I'm leaning toward the last two considering some of the information you've already mentioned. Leet's contact information and I've set up a meeting with the Travelers in Boston tomorrow."

"Great, how am I supposed to get to Boston on such short notice?"

Lisa grinned through her headache. "I'll drive, that will give you plenty of time to explain everything about the alternate timeline or vision of the future that you saw."

Taylor figured she could tell her father that she'd be out and be back before he got home for dinner if everything went off without a hitch, if not then she'd call and tell him she was at a friend's place, assuming that Accord didn't pull any of his crap and try to kill her. "Fine."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Lisa grumbled as she ran her fingers over the cheap rubber monster mask that Taylor had insisted she wear. "This is humiliating."

Brian snorted. "It's a generic monster mask, get over it. It's not like we can wear our regular costumes in Boston thanks to you having to get the last word every time you run into Accord or have to deal with him via the boards." He glanced at the unknown cape they'd been hired to guard. "What happens if this goes sideways?"

Taylor really didn't want to have to deal with the OCD villain if she didn't have to. "We're here for a meet and greet with the Travelers, hopefully we don't have to even deal with Accord."

Lisa stopped fidgeting with her mask as they walked into the 'closed' Irish pub that the Travelers were using for their temporary base.

Taylor was just glad that Accord wasn't there. She glanced over the Travelers and noticed that Cody wasn't there which meant that he'd already insulted Accord. She focused halfway between Sundancer and Trickster. "I'm Jester."

Trickster said, "You claimed that you can help Noelle."

"I should be able to, I've helped other case 53's. I should also be able to help Oliver with his power."

Trickster frowned. "How do you know about Oliver?"

Taylor stated, "I have my sources."

"What do you want for your help?"

"Nothing to fix Noelle and a thousand dollars to fix Oliver."

"Why the different price and why so low?" Sundancer asked suspiciously.

"Oliver can live with his power's flaw and Noelle is mutating into an S-Class threat, I'd rather avoid that if I can."

Trickster scowled. "You don't know that."

"Actually, I do. I have the word of a particularly skilled Thinker on that. Thus the price reduction."

Sundancer winced. "If you can help without hurting her, please do."

Oliver said, "I like the skill aspect of my power, just not the part where I'm always changing appearance."

Taylor said, "I should be able to fix that part of your power and leave the skill aspect alone."

"I'd be willing to pay for that," Oliver replied.

Taylor held out her gloved hand. "In that case, step forward and I'll see what I can do."

Trickster winced. "You have to touch someone?"

"It's easier if I do but no, I just have to get close, do you think you can keep Noelle calm enough so that she doesn't try to kill me?"

"Hopefully," Trickster muttered under his breath.

Oliver stepped forward and lightly grabbed Jester's hand. "Now what?"

"Now I reroll your powers," Taylor replied as she examined his powers looking for the broken aspect of his powers. "Okay, no real control mechanism on your power, let's see if I can fix that." She rerolled his 'ideal' body image power and frowned slightly as she got a power that would cause his body to change even faster. She rerolled it again then again as her third attempt wasn't useful either. It wasn't until her fifth attempt at rerolling his power that she got something that might work. "Apparently the fifth time's the charm. That should give you a more active version of your adaption power where you can target someone consciously rather than passively."

"That's it? I'm cured?"

"That's it. I can reroll your power more after I've cured Noelle if you want to try for something better than being able to look at someone and activate your power to alter your appearance at will."

Oliver focused on the three capes and smiled as he felt a mental trigger when he focused on the three strangers. He activated his power and felt his face sort of shift. "Did that work?"

Ballistic glanced away from the window for a second. "You look different but you're always changing appearance."

"We'll see how it goes, thanks," Oliver replied.

Trickster scowled behind his mask. "If you're lying about being able to help Noelle."

"I'm not, just relax," Taylor replied with a touch of annoyance.

"Fine, she's in a warehouse, I'll take you there but it would be better if only Jester came with me. Noelle has been twitchy lately."

Ballistic muttered, "That's an understatement."

Taylor didn't really want to be alone with Trickster but she doubted he'd be a problem at least not before she cured Noelle or if she failed to cure her. Considering she was planning on 'curing' Noelle from a couple of blocks away, she'd have plenty of time to come up with an alternate plan if she proved immune to her powers for some reason. "I don't really trust you Trickster, I trust the rest of your team a lot more."

Sundancer said, "I'll show them where she is."

Trickster scowled at Sundancer. "I'll do it."

Ballistic turned and looked at Trickster. "You're on edge, you'd set her off and that won't help any of us. Maybe she can help or maybe she can't but this is the best chance we've had since we got here."

"Not going to happen," Trickster replied with annoyance.

"If it would make you feel better, I can reroll your power as a proof of concept."

"Yes, that way we'd have proof," Trickster replied firmly.

Taylor felt like rolling her eyes at Trickster, she'd came to help and he was acting like paranoid idiot. She held out her hand. "Sure, let's see how good your luck is today."

Trickster grabbed Taylor's hand. "Do it."

Taylor rerolled his power then checked. "Personal teleportation, five feet range."

Trickster reached out with his power and tried to exchange Sundancer and Oliver and found himself five feet closer to Ballistic. "What the hell?"

"I told you, I reroll powers," Taylor replied.

"Fix it!" Trickster shouted, the lack of his familiar power making him feel strangely naked.

"That was merely proof of concept. If you wish me to keep rerolling until you get something better, you'll have to pay five thousand dollars. Of course, I'll be happy to give it another spin if you'll chill out and let me get on my way."

Trickster grumbled before he walked over and grabbed Taylor's hand. "Fix it."

Taylor rerolled his power and had to work not to start laughing at his new power's drawback. "That should do it, line of sight teleportation up to about a thousand feet, self only."

Trickster teleported across the room. "That's better."

Lisa smirked at the anatomically correct life sized nude salt statue left behind in the exact position Trickster had been standing in when he teleported. "That's new."

Taylor had to resist the urge to laugh at the size of certain parts of the statue. "Now that you know my power is real, can we get on with curing Noelle?"

Ballistic laughed as he looked at the statue. "Sundancer, take Jester to the warehouse and see what she can do for her."

"Sure, follow me, I'll take you to the warehouse." Sundancer headed toward the back exit.

Trickster glared at Jester. "Fix this."

"Consider it insurance, if something happens to me, you'll be stuck like this forever, now stop wasting my time and let's go." Taylor followed Sundancer toward the back of the bar.

Brian said, "We'll stay with Trickster and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Hey!" Trickster shouted.

Ballistic snorted as he stepped in front of Trickster. "Give it a rest. We can sort this out after Noelle is cured."

Trickster scowled at Ballistic. "If anything happens…"

Lisa said, "Relax, she's in good hands."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Taylor glanced at the various street signs as Sundancer drove them toward their destination. She already knew which warehouse held Noelle thanks to her swarm but she wasn't going to mention that part. She sighed in relief as she landed a bug on Noelle and found that she had reroll options. She'd been half afraid that her power wouldn't work on the monstrous cape. She reviewed the collection of broken and not quite broken powers then rerolled her twisted brute power that was driving her insane. "She'll be okay."

Sundancer said, "Thank you, we didn't set out to be villains, taking care of her was hard though that's not really an excuse."

"Hopefully this will let you turn over a new leaf." Taylor rested her head against the headrest of the van as she settled on a strength, regeneration and durability package that didn't include Noelle being a horrible monster. 'That should help. Now for the worst part, not being able to touch people.' She rerolled the touch requirement part of Noelle's powers then quickly rerolled it when it came up ranged and automatic. It took her five tries before she rolled a touch ability that Noelle could activate at will. She focused on the twisted personality part of the clone ability and started rerolling. "I'm going to have to ask that you keep a secret."

Sundancer asked, "What do you mean?"

"Normally I wouldn't admit to this but given the right circumstances, I have a decent range on my power. I'm already fixing Noelle."

"Oh… shit," she said, shuddering as she realized how dangerous the cape with her truly was.

"Yeah, being a trump that can alter powers with a touch is a lot different than being someone that can alter powers at range."

Sundancer shivered. "People would kill to control you, sorry."

"Thus why I'd really rather you not tell anyone including your team."

"Don't worry, I can keep secrets," Sundancer replied.

"Good." Taylor frowned slightly as Noelle's cloning ability rerolled to the ability to make children with brute ratings and altered copies of the original's power. 'Okay, at least the chance for physical deformities is gone.' She focused on the age part of the new power and rerolled it a couple of times to see if she could get older clones. After a couple attempts she started spamming her reroll 'button' trying to get something that wasn't useless.

Sundancer parked the van. "Now what?"

"Now we have a chat with Noelle and hope that things don't end badly," Taylor replied as she looked through the rerolls and picked out the one that created teenage capes. It wasn't ideal but it was better than the one that created octogenarian versions of the person copied without any more knowledge than they started with. She got out of the van and started walking toward the warehouse slowly. "Perhaps you should be the first person she sees, she's still extremely strong."

"That's probably a good idea." Sundancer quickened her pace toward the old warehouse.

Taylor focused on the evil part of the clone's personalities and hit reroll. 'Pyromaniac, no, just not… not happening.' She hit reroll again and looked at the result. 'Thinks Noelle is their mother and wants to... not happening.' She continued hitting reroll as Sundancer slipped into the building. 'Necro… nope.' She firmly hit her reroll on that mental issue.

Taylor was still rerolling the mental aspect when Sundancer walked back out. "Is she calm enough to talk to?"

"She's a bit freaked about being back to normal but she's more lucid than she's been in a while. You should come inside," Sundancer said happily, almost dancing in place.

Taylor took a breath then walked in hoping that Noelle wasn't just playing some twisted game. She didn't think so but the Noelle she remembered had been almost completely gone by the time she'd went on a rampage. She paused in the doorway as she spotted a human looking Noelle sitting on a crate with a blanket wrapped around her waist and legs. "How are you feeling?"

Noelle wiped a couple of happy tears away from her eyes. "Better than I've felt in a long time. Sundancer says I have you to thank for that."

"I'm just happy I could help."

"Can, can I touch people without copying them?"

"You should be able to, I swapped your power to active use rather than automatic. You might want to practice with a small furry animal, but you should be able to get the hang of not copying people."

Noelle snorted. "I'd rather not have crazy clones around."

"I'm in the process of fixing that."

"How?"

"I've narrowed the choices down to teenage clones with exhibionist leanings and minor mental abilities or kleptomaniac teenage clones with minor stranger abilities. The rest of the options that have come up are horrible and less useful by far. Basically, various personality disorders and insanity that I'd rather avoid."

Sundancer said, "Pick the exhibionist leanings, I'd rather not have her spawn a bunch of kender with special abilities to make them better at stealing stuff."

Noelle snickered. "Yeah, no kender."

Taylor selected the exhibionist option which was better than the other options though it had taken more than a few rerolls to drop it to a moderate issue rather than a major issue. "Okay, that should do it. Your new power set includes your old power sense and enhanced senses as well as strength, durability and a crazy amount of regeneration. I swapped your clone ability so that you create brute and tinker enhanced teenage clones that are loyal to you. I might be able to reroll the loyalty part if you want but for now, your power seems stable."

"You're leaving me with the ability to create an army? How much did Trickster agree to pay you?" she asked in shock.

Taylor laughed. "One thousand dollars to fix Oliver's power. Fixing your power before you became an S-Class threat was on the house, though I might have to charge Trickster to fix his power."

"What happened?" Noelle asked.

Sundancer snorted. "Trickster was being an ass and wanted more proof of Jester's ability. Jester re-rolled his power and he ended up with a line of sight teleportation power that leaves a 'naked' lifesize salt statue behind whenever he teleports."

Noelle frowned as she thought about Francis' new power. If the statue had included his costume then it would still be viable but as it was, it basically meant that he had to be extremely careful in how he used his power. "How much are you going to charge to fix his power?"

Taylor shrugged. "That depends."

"On?" Noelle asked wearily.

"In short I'd like to recruit you for a hero team."

"You want an army?" she asked cautiously.

"I want to save the world from the Endbringers and clean up my home town. I know a guy that should be able to build a portal to earth Aleph, so that you can go home for visits," Jester offered as a bribe.

Noelle asked curiously, "How do you know about that?"

"I know a couple of thinkers. Most heroes can't effectively fight the endbringers, we could use the help and it would let you make up for some of the crap your team has done since you got pulled here."

Sundancer said, "I've never really used my ability in public which means that I could swap out my costume and turn hero. Genesis creates temporary minions which by nature are changeable and Trickster already has a different power. How hard would it be to change Ballistic's ability so that he had more control or something?"

"I can probably find something useful for an alternate ability. Do you think Trickster would agree to be a hero?" Taylor asked though she already knew the answer.

Sundancer shook her head. "He'd agree to tap dance through fire if Noelle wanted him to. How are you going to pay for a hero team?"

"I'm planning on robbing various gangs and villains as well as collecting bounties."

Sundancer considered her options. Even if Jester couldn't get them home, she'd rather be a hero than a villain. "I'm in." She turned to look at Noelle. "I'm tired of being a criminal and we found a cure for you so I'm free…"

Noelle said, "I'm still not sure about creating clones, but if you're sure that my ability is safe, I'll join."

"Welcome to the team." Taylor knew there were some details to work out, but having the ability to copy capes was a game changer.