Disclaimer: Worm belongs to wildbow. I do not intend to profit from this story.

CHAPTER 2

Previously, Taylor has gained Parahuman powers. She also found out that Sophia Hess was a ward, Shadow Stalker. Her trust in authorities was shattered completely after school refused to compensate her properly and decided against taking action against trio. Danny's long forgotten friendship against Alan Barnes gets destroyed. Taylor finds her powers expanding after ingesting her own blood. She also gains powers of Stormtiger and Alabaster by ingesting their leftover blood from a wall.

Now:

Taylor was jogging home. Her mind was in jumbles. Thoughts of her recent experience were running through her mind. She has gained powers of two Empire Capes by ingesting their blood. If this information got out, she would have the entire Empire after her head. Moreover both Stormtiger and Alabaster would be after her. On one hand the entire experience has left her feeling elated that she could gain powers from other parahumans, but on another hand the danger to her life has increased even the people who-would-be-after-her didn't know it yet. How was she going to manage her life and her powers? What about school? How was going to face Sophia without trying to kill her? How was going to get stronger? These thoughts were all that consumed her mind.

Her home came into sight. She abruptly stopped. How was she going to conceal all her activities as a parahuman from her father? For that matter, how long could she hide it? He was her father, should she even hide all this from him?

Yes, she was going to hide it from him. Knowing her father, he would immediately be worried for her and would force her to enroll in ward program. She was not going into wards. Scratch that, she was not going to even associate with PRT for that matter. How could she? For everything that happened, all she felt was disgust for them. No, PRT was not getting her help or association any time soon.

She entered her home. Her father was watching TV. There was news of a fight between Glory Girl and the two Empire Capes. She was surprised. It had only been half an hour since she left the scene of battle. Already the news crew was there. Well what can you do, huh? Her father turned to her.

"Finished with your run? Today was a quite long. Everything all right?" Her father asked? There was concern on his face which she found endearing. It warmed her heart to know that her father was always going to be there for her. Perhaps not fully emotionally available but atleast it was more than she could say for authorities and her former friend.

"No, everything is alright. Just felt like taking a long run."

He nodded his head in consent.

"The dinner is in microwave. I already ate. Hope you don't mind. I was getting quite hungry."

"nah, it's alright." She went into kitchen. There was lasagna in microwave. She put the timer to 1 minute. Suddenly her father's voice rang out.

"Taylor, see this fight between Glory Girl and Empire Capes? It's dangerous out there sweetie. Can't you do your runs only in morning?"

Her mood darkened. All the thoughts that she was still trying to avoid came back.

Yes Dad, I know it's dangerous. I was there.

All that came out of her mouth instead was "Dad it will be fine. I was not even near the fight.".

''I know that you are careful, but it is just a matter of chance. I just don't want you getting hurt." His voice was getting closer.

"Don't worry dad. I told you. I will be extra careful." She could feel him standing behind her.

"Ok". He whispered. He hugged her. She tensed. She just stood silently there. While her relationship with him has improved, she did not feel like comfortably hugging him back.

Both stood there silently, one feeling uncomfortable and other feeling hurt and guilty.

She silently went back to her room, her dinner in her hands. Her father didn't protest.

Now was not the time to get emotional. She had a goal and intended to complete it. Quickly finishing her dinner, she got to work.

She closed her eyes. Her awareness expanded. So many parahumans. So many blips on her radar.

First she focused on those familiar to her.

Flight. Forcefield. Aura. Victoria Dallon.

That must be Glory Girl.

Near her, she could feel many other Capes.

Photokinesis. Weapons and Shield Creation. Carol Dallon.

That should be Brandish.

Photokinesis. Explosion. Mark Dallon

That must be Flashbang.

Biokinesis. Amelia Claire Lavere.

What? Who was this? As far as she knew this was New Wave. There was no person by this name. New wave identities were public.

Firing her PC she quickly searched Biokinesis. She clicked on one of the links which apparently was forum for theoretical powers and their applications. Her eyes widened in shock as she finally figured it out. Biokinesis meant absolute control over anything organic. One of its application being Healing.

Panacea. Amy Dallon

Holy shit. Not only was Panacea adopted but she severely underplayed her powers. Absolute Biokinesis. What bullshit power.

Panacea actually has the potential to become next Nilbog.

Taylor was still reeling from shock when implications of this information hit her mind. Panacea didn't make this information public and didn't reveal the true scope of her powers. That means she knew the consequences of making this info public. She would be feared by everybody. They would fear when she was going to snap. Her life will be hell. This also meant that panacea lied about her ability to affect brains.

Taylor could see the potential of gaining this power. She needed to get stronger as soon as possible. No, she needed to get stronger as soon as possible without people finding out her powers. The only way to do that was to get other powers, quickly and silently without the Capes knowing she was taking their powers.

If she could gain Panacea's powers, then things will be quite easy for her. And as Panacea has not revealed her true powers, Taylor could easily use them without anybody finding out.

One touch could put a person to sleep. One prick to get there blood.

She shuddered. What a scary power.

But how to get her power? It was not as if she could just go to Panacea and ask for her blood. Also she could not prick Panacea anywhere. She would know it. She needed a foolproof way to get her blood without her knowing.

A yawn escaped her mouth. She suddenly realized how tired she was. Heaving a sigh, she went to bed.

48 hours later

One Taylor Hebert was quite happy. She had just figured out the solution to getting Panacea's powers. It has been 2 days since she found out about Panacea's power. She had used her power extensively to find out about other Capes in Brockton bay. There were quite a few shocks there. For one, Kaiser was none other than Max Anders, CEO of Medhall. Medhall was one of the most prominent corporation of Brockton Bay. They were present long before she was even born. It was because of them the economy of Brockton Bay was not only standing but also was even there. After the attack of leviathan on ships sailing in sea, the trade to Brockton Bay was severely limited. It was Medhall that uplifted the economy of the city. But still, to think that Medhall was a cover for Nazi and a racist Organization was Earth shattering.

While going through her search of city Capes, there was something she noted about the two individual parahumans. One of them had a power of probability manipulation which granted him the ability to live two timeline simultaneously. He was a man named Thomas Calvert. There was not much information about him on PRT forums and website, only that he was a PRT counsultant. The other one was Battery. A member of Brockton Bay Protectorate Battery who was considered a model hero. She had the power to recharge which gave her incredible speed and strength along with Electromagnetic powers. Both these Capes' power felt off as if they were passive or lost. All other felt like a golden beacon to her senses. But these felt dull, almost like faded silver. She couldn't figure out head and tails of this.

But back to her initial problem, after she had a goodnight sleep, her mind was clear. She realized before getting to Panacea, she needed to get to some other parahumans. On the top of her list were Capes like Victor, Grue, Tattletale and Vista. This Thomas Calvert was also on her list but approaching him without proper planning was inadvisable. Not only would that put her on his radar, she had no proper defense against him or PRT. No, she wouldn't risk anything, not until she was confident in her own power.

Speaking of powers, Victor's power will make it easier for her to do various things and will make it easier to get blood of other Parahumans. After all his power was similar to her except his worked on skills and he temporarily drained the person of his/her skill.

Grue's power was the most important. It would be instrumental in her getting blood of Capes. All she had to do was engulf the person in darkness and he/she was ripe for picking.

But the most troublesome would be Tattletale, a parahuman who could fill in the blanks with just a few facts and figures. She would see Taylor coming a mile away and would get carefull. No, to get to her she needed to first take Grue's power and then Panacea's powers. Once she get those, she would go after Tattletale.

And the last one was Vista. A long time ward, she could manipulate space on massive scale, granted her power worked less when she had to bend space with organic mass.

Once she had these powers, then she would basically be unstoppable.

Another power of interest was L33t's power. He could essentially make anything given time and resources but he tended to use these powers for fun and pranks. She could get his powers but they wouldn't be useful to her because she neither had time nor resources to make tinker weapons.

Her initial planning complete, her feelings of rage and anger were back with fury. Soon she would complete her goal of ridding her city of gangs and her revenge against Sophia and trio. Then only will perhaps her mind and heart find a modicum of peace.

A ting sound woke her out of her thought. The timer on microwave was at zero. She sighed.

Baby steps, Taylor, Baby steps.

She pulled out her dinner, served two servings and took both to the couch on which her father was sitting. Her mask of a recently-traumatized-teen-on-her-way-to-recovery firmly on her face.

She handed her father a plate while taking a bite out of her own dinner. Danny smiled at her. She smiled at him. Her father went back to watching TV without a word, blissfully unaware of the dark thoughts plaguing her mind.

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