Worm Power Quest by JPublic

[hazard]

I think that's a good lineup, Hazard.

IIRC, in Worm-verse line item #3 would be considered a Thinker power?

It would be, yes. That's why it's so deliberately combat focused.

Hazard: #2 Will not work the way you think.  For Reasons.  You may want to reconsider.

I am reconsidering.


Okay, I reconsidered.

New proposal;
Power 1: Inviolate Cloth (any cloth the host is touching is impermeable to anything that would harm the host at the host's discretion, this includes stuff that isn't clothing like bed sheets)
Power 2: Obscuration (Taylor cannot be found or targeted by anyone, directly. This offers no protection whatsoever from explosives, spray and pray etc. aimed at others.)
Power 3: Close Quarters Combat mastery (Ever played the Metal Gear Solid games? Taylor is at least as good as the protagonists in beating people up. Lethal or non lethal at her choice. Note, this does not suppose she has the physical ability to fight like them, but the mastery translates as needed and also knows how to exploit her own powers.)

[itsune9tl]

Itsune, a couple points:
1) Those 3 effects could easily be done in 2 power choices.  I'd even accept particularly convincing arguments that they could be a single stranger power.
2) Like I warnd Hazard, they may not work the way you think.

Ok then, keep it simple...
1.) Invisible Girl: But shows up on camera.
2.) Shifty: Can make a free move up to a meter.
3.) Loud: Voice amplification - Earbleed levels...

[Mamorien]

Concealment. Defense. Escape.

1. Short-range, line-of-sight teleportation (with little or no recovery time).
2. A force-field and/or knockback field.
3. Adaptive camouflage, of the sort that works better if she stays still.

[ECSNorway]

My problem with all of these suggestions is that they make it blatantly obvious to anyone and everyone who sees what happens that Taylor's a cape. Which is not generally a good thing.

1) High-density skin, muscle, bone, and connective tissue -- enough that a bullet will break the skin and cause "action movie" levels of injury, rather than bouncing off or causing more realistic wounds. This has the added benefit of providing a low degree of super-strength, again without making it obvious.
2) Close-Quarters Combat mastery
3) Rapid healing and ability to ignore pain, so she can still fight after getting shot and won't bleed out.

Survive this and take the guy out without outing our host.

[hazard]

I'll support ECSNorway's power set. It's better as far as I can tell.

[Niteflier]

Yeah, I'll throw behind ECS as well.

[Epsilon]

Epsilon: Those are okay, but #1 must be Manton Limited (no disintegrating people possible, just their clothes and gear) because ick.

It wouldn't actually leave any evidence. The target would be reduce to a cloud of free floating atoms.

But if that wouldn't "Remove The Threat" then lets be even more Literal Genie on this:

1: Offensive Teleportation - Teleports something/someone within line of site 'away'. Where is 'away'? Let's just say, it ain't coming back.
2: Temporal shield - Any harmful effect coming within a few centimeters of the skin is temporally locked in position.
3: Threat Awareness - Immediate awareness of all threats to the host within the area of effect (global if possible).

My problem with all of these suggestions is that they make it blatantly obvious to anyone and everyone who sees what happens that Taylor's a cape. Which is not generally a good thing.

The host didn't request 'conceal I'm a cape'.

[Mamorien]

The host didn't request 'conceal I'm a cape'.

Agreement.

[Norgarth]

a brain scan will show that she has an active power lobe (as opposed to a dormant one)

And as Velocity said: "Jesus. If that's not a trigger event..."
They already suspect she may have triggered, so they'll likely do a brain scan to check. even without obvious powers, she could still be a thinker or tinker

[Acyl]

The host didn't request 'conceal I'm a cape'.

No. The host didn't. Thing is, that isn't the only factor here, because:

Remember, unlike normal power parasites, you can actually help!  You should consider Taylor's general and future welfare in her choices, and feel free to exercise whatever canon knowledge you wish. 

Typically, I'd be against metagaming? But Jpub's instructions for the thread explicitly encourage us to do so. We're the shard. From a Watsonian perspective, the shard is HALPING. The shard isn't giving Taylor what she's asking for, the shard isn't even giving Taylor what she needs. The shard's giving Taylor what we think she really needs from a meta long-term point of view. General and future welfare.

From a Doylist perspective, a lot of us here seem to be assuming that the powers should ideally be subtle. Because keeping Taylor from being outed as a parahuman is seen as desirable goal - for as long as possible, at least. Now, that's driven by knowledge of canon and fanon? But we've been told to do our space whale fragment halping with that knowledge in mind.

a brain scan will show that she has an active power lobe (as opposed to a dormant one)

And as Velocity said: "Jesus.  If that's not a trigger event..."
They already suspect she may have triggered, so they'll likely do a brain scan to check.  even without obvious powers, she could still be a thinker or tinker

This is why I like what Hazard and ECSNorway are suggesting. It's low-key stuff that solves the immediate problem, works broadly to keep external observers guessing 'does she have powers or not'. Yeah, the jig may be up for some watchers, like the Protectorate/PRT, but it still keeps the full scope of her power under wraps. Even if we can't obscure the fact she's a parahuman, there may be some benefit in hiding exactly what her powers are.

[x] Plan ECSNorway.

[Epsilon]

I mean, that's a good argument but Coil obviously already knows, considering he just sent someone to kill her so secrecy is less useful than something like Threat Awareness, which will pinpoint anyone who is actively trying to harm her in a large area. Like, say, Coil.

I think the best way to get safe in the long term is to make it clear to Cauldron that Eidolon 2.0 (now with no weaknesses!) is active and needs to be catered to. If I were really metagamming every vote would include "Fuck Contessa, the power" after all.

[Niteflier]

It is interesting looking at the metagaming here, from the perspective of someone with little knowledge of Worm.

And then going, "Who the heck are you all talking about?

[Bob Schroeck]

Yeah, my response exactly. Because I've never gotten around to Worm I've chosen to stay out of this. But despite that, it's been interesting all the way. And then you get into what is probably spoiler material and I'm lost.

[hazard]

The thing with Worm?

It's kind of a crap story.

I mean, make no mistake the world of Worm is fascinating in many ways, but the story itself is not that good.

But well, the spoiler material? I'll try to put it in as little spoiling manner as possible.

Brockton Bay, the setting of the story, is a degrading hellhole where the heroes are outnumbered at least three to one, and it pulls no punches the way hero stories usually do about the sort of consequences that likely results in. The gangs are major factors in the sociopolitical system of the city because quite frankly, that's where a lot of the money is, and the government can't break the gangs because there's not enough manpower to throw at breaking them that isn't already tied down holding the forts in the other cities around the US.

Coil is one of the leaders of such a gang, one which does a lot of its work with trained and well equipped mercenaries. Sending a mercenary to shoot up a hospital to kill someone he finds inconvenient would fit his MO.

Eidolon is one of the Triumvirate, the three most powerful capes in the US, and has Taylor's powerset except with a few differences.

Cauldron is a... morally ambiguous conspiracy at best that has been trying to stop an upcoming, earth destroying apocalypse. On the one side, they are absolutely right about it happening sooner or later, on the other, they've left all moral considerations behind in the face of answering the question 'what gets us the best odds of not having humanity die when there's no escape into space or other dimension?'

Contessa is Cauldron's primary asset, a woman who has the power of 'performing the steps needed to be victorious.' One of her victory conditions is 'keep Cauldron secret.' And she's very, very good at making that happen because of that power.

[jpub]

Thanks for the rundown, hazard. I don't think much of Worm as a story, but I like the world Wildbow has built.  Probably my fundamental problem with it is you can see WB's poor understanding of government and law enforcement, and basic distrust of authority, as a huge bias on the story.  

And I'd like to say, as the writer of this project, I'm enjoying the HELL out of this discussion.  This kind of argument is exactly what I was hoping for.

One thing is like to mention: You're all right that a MRI would probably show that Taylor's triggered, but I'm thinking that privacy laws, as well as the PRT's participation in the Unwritten Rules that project secret identities, means that is probably going to take a warrant on the suspicion of using parahuman abilities to commit a crime before you can force someone to submit to a scan.

[Norgarth]

I've never actually read Worm, but I've read enough fanfic AUs/crossovers  to get a lot of the basic canon (and a lot of fanon, some of which I actually know is fanon)

The 'major powers' in the city are:
- The Parahuman Response Teams (PRT) and Protectorate (PRT is the non-powered law enforcement agency, theoretically working in support/cooperation with the Protectrate, which are the regional branch of Government Cape organization).  Oh, and The Wards (local chapter), which are the junior/'under-18' Protectorate heroes.
- New Wave (independant Hero team, an extended family group who went public with their identities a decade or so ago with mixed results)
-The Empire 88 (E88) the biggest of the parahuman gangs, Neo-nazis and if I recall  correctly, outnumber the Protectorate team on their own) this leads to large numbers of skinheads in town
- The Asian Bad Boys (typically just called the ABB) A pan-asian gang, only 3 capes but the leader, Lung (as in the japanese dragon, because that what he turns into) gets more powerful the longer he fights, and the other 2 include a teleporter who likes leaving live grenades behind as he pops out, and a Tinker (mad-scientist type) with a specialty in explosives.
- The Merchants, smallest of the main gangs, they are mainly drug dealers (and many of them including the Capes leading the gang, are users as well)

Lesser factions include:
- The Undersiders, a newish team of young Villains, that seem mostly to be doing it for the thrill/money.  They hit banks, but also steal from the other gangs.
- Coil, the mastermind using misdirection and well equipped mercenary troops to his goals, suspected of being a cape but unconfirmed
- Uber and Leet, a pair of minor villains, who perform Videogame themed crimes and occasionally hire out as mercs for other criminals.
- Faultline's team. Faultline and her team are superpowered mercenaries, based in (but usually not operating in) Brockton Bay
- the Local Police ('standard' organizational rivalry with the PRT)

**

As I've heard it said elsewhere, Worm can be summed up as 'And then it got worse.'  Wildbow seems to follow the statement: "The light at the end of the tunnel is the headlamp of the oncoming train."   It's likely why there is so many Worm fics, a prospective author can't help but make things better, because it's grimdark almost to the point of grimderp (maybe past that point, as I've said, I haven't actually read it)

[Acyl]

I think the best way to get safe in the long term is to make it clear to Cauldron that Eidolon 2.0 (now with no weaknesses!) is active and needs to be catered to.

This is a good point. It's a very valid way of looking at it. 

So on the one hand, we have the 'go low-key or subtle, don't give away information to potential enemies' angle. 

Then we have the 'deliberately go LOUD and make her completely untouchable' school of thought. 

What we're voting on in the thread, way JPub's set it up, is the power selection Taylor gets. But power selection is, effectively, us trying to influence Taylor's game plan or strategy, or what kind of story's being told, and it's interesting to see the different range of responses being suggested.

From JPub's point of view, it also influences what kind of story's going to be written.

[hazard]

While breaking out the 'full power super obvious super parahuman' could be viscerally satisfying, I think it's better to let Taylor get into a better headspace first. She's currently a girl that almost got murdered, is facing another murder attempt, and has many very understandable reasons to be very suspicious of authority and other people in general. Actually letting the authorities do their jobs and (if possible) subtly assisting their efforts through careful power selection when Taylor is asked to testify would go a long way to mend her wounds.

Because of this, low level and subtle power selection is best, as that makes it harder for people to say 'look, Eidolon 2.0' Until Taylor is ready, or it's absolutely necessary to break out the obvious high end powers, like if one of the local walking apocalypses tries to visit.

[ECSNorway]

One of the things about the story that has a hard time coming through at this point is that Taylor has an incredibly difficult time trusting authority. Her mother is dead, her father has effectively deserted her (retreated into himself/work because he couldn't cope with losing his wife). Teachers and school staff have almost universally supported the "popular kids" who are tormenting her and blaming her for the problems they cause.

The PRT and Protectorate are, in her view, utterly useless in doing anything about the gangs. The city government is useless in doing anything about the economy - they can't even get the port open or the ferry running (there's a whole thing about her father trying to get that done because it apparently makes it easier for people to get to the other end of the city, apparently Brockton Bay is built around a very wide crescent and the ferry is quicker and easier than driving... I chalk it up to a "wildbow didn't do the research").

So her inclination to go "whee, I got powers, be a hero, join the team!" is kind of... not happening. She's convinced herself that she has to prove herself to them first, and still isn't sure about the Wards because it's "just more high-school angst". She has a VERY hard time trusting anyone or any outreach of friendship - she's been betrayed too many times.

It doesn't help that the apparent ringleader of her tormentors was her best friend, practically a sister to her.

[jpub]

Okay, I'm calling it here.

Based on the discussion, I think Plan ECSNorway is the winner here. So with some modifications for my own use, Taylor will have:

1) Body Enhancement: Minor enhancements to strength, durability
2) Skill Enhancement: Close-Quarters Combat mastery
3) Body Enhancement: Minor Regeneration and pain tolerance.

I've already started some work on the next entry, so hopefully I'll have something by next week. My current challenge is trying to write a sociopath who thinks he's a Bond villain without going completely cartoony. It's... interesting.

[hazard]

One thing is like to mention: You're all right that a MRI would probably show that Taylor's triggered, but I'm thinking that privacy laws, as well as the PRT's participation in the Unwritten Rules that project secret identities, means that is probably going to take a warrant on the suspicion of using parahuman abilities to commit a crime before you can force someone to submit to a scan.

Much belated but something to highlight; the PRT barely offers any lip service to the concept of the Unwritten Rules. The Unwritten Rules do not exist, directly, for the benefit of the government, you see.

The Unwritten Rules exist for the benefits of the capes. And noone else. Especially the capes involved in crime and fighting crime without the benefit of the implied back up of the entire US government. If the government believes that they can get a cape under their thumb or in jail (depending on the specifics) by spilling their identity or spill their identity before they are notable enough other capes would get nervous they would do so. They would also happily exploit their knowledge of civilian identities to conduct arrests on unprepared and unequipped capes.

They've done that in Worm after all.

However, for capes without back up like what the Protectorate and the PRT get, heeding the Unwritten Rules is still a very good idea; they're what keep you from terminally pissing off the powerful gang leaders in the city as well as the various non-criminal capes operating on their own or in small teams. People have been executed by such persons in the background of the story.

The Endbringer Truce is a real thing that even the government sort of heeds. Mostly because if the government can't point to any incident that could otherwise have spilled a secret identity or made arrests during the recovery from invasions by the local walking apocalypses they'd lose half their manpower or more because a surprising amount of villains volunteer to do this rather dangerous job.


As for the MRI scan; even if the PRT could order it be made it's very likely they've no right to actually see it, unless there's legislation in place that requires doctors to report any parahumans in their care. Because, you know, patient privacy privilege. The PRT would need at minimum a valid warrant to force someone to hand over private documentation, and they can't actually serve it to the doctors I think. It's Taylor's dossier after all, not theirs. And doctors only have a right to access that medical dossier in so far as needed to adequately perform their medicine, and can be denied at any moment access by the owner or by their legal representative, which is Taylor's father given she's a minor.

(Which means that yes, you can tell your treating physician that you don't want them to read your dossier, and they would have to obey. It wouldn't be sensible, because they need that dossier to actually provide you with the best care they can, but you can do it.)

[jpub]

True enough, but remember, all they know is that Taylor went through something horrible.  That doesn't give them much.  Only about a third of the population can trigger, and of those not all of them do.  On top of that, Taylor hasn't done anything overtly parahuman yet.

My position as quest runner is that they need some definite suspicion to even begin to be able to legally force a fairly expensive test on a private citizen.

[Mamorien]

My current challenge is trying to write a sociopath who thinks he's a Bond villain without going completely cartoony.  It's... interesting.

It'd be easier if you had his powers; then you could just write two different versions and collapse the timeline where your prereader says it's too over-the-top. Or am I thinking of the wrong sociopath?

[jpub]

In the rare moments he thought about it, Thomas Calvert considered his power to be a collection of gifts, not a single one.  Yes, the ability to live two lifetimes at once was the most blatant benefit, but there were other, less tangible things he valued far more.  Freedom from regrets. Freedom from consequences.  Freedom from failure.  Most importantly, freedom from fear.  He could make any choice twice.  He could pander to any impulse, any whim.  With preparation, he would never fail.  With enough care, he could never die.

All that came crashing down in a single moment.

In one timeline, he had been Coil, deep within his office in his secret base, reviewing the latest intelligence on the gangs and the investments he relied on to finance his operation.

In the other, Thomas Calvert was indulging some rather violent fantasies.  He was cheerfully breaking a bevy of laws and policies as he perused Director-eyes-only files, being careful to learn all he could before security busted down the door to Piggott's office and tried to arrest him for his espionage.  Oh, and shooting that swine Piggott too, probably, but that was the lesser offense in his opinion.  He guessed he could look through two more files before-

Pain.

Coil woke with his head on his keyboard, choking on the drool filling his mask and with what felt like a thousand red hot spikes jammed into his head.  He tore off the mask and coughed fiercely, even as every motion made the headache worse.  After a few minutes of coughing and hacking he collapsed back in his seat and tried to make sense of what happened. A glance at his computer screen told him he had lost hours.

And for the first time in a long while, Thomas Calvert felt fear.

It didn't take long for him to reach the logical conclusion: someone  had triggered, and their power directly interfered with his.  He'd experienced Thinker power conflicts before, most memorably in his experiences working with Accord, but never before had it been so abrupt, so violent.  Whomever had triggered was a problem, a disaster waiting to happen.  They couldn't be used, they couldn't be controlled.

Which meant they had to die.  As soon as possible.

Coil stood and quickly made his way over to the wardrobe where he kept his extra clothes and costumes, and got out a towel.  He carefully cleaned off his face, grabbed and donned an extra mask, and then returned to his desk and cleaned it up as well.  Finally, he placed the towel and mask in a special plastic bag he pulled from his desk.  He'd have to make sure all of it was incinerated before he left.

He then once again sat as his desk, and used his low-security backdoors in the PRT and BBPD databases to scan the day's events.  It wasn't guaranteed, but there was a chance something would be mentioned.  It didn't take long for him to find it: about an hour after his episode, police were called to Winslow High School due to an attack on a student, and even asked for PRT and Protectorate assistance.  

It took some more digging, including a call to one of his moles in the BBPD to get a more complete story, and with it, some names.  Coil was surprised at how out of control Shadow Stalker had gotten.  He wished he had known beforehand, because reckless stupidity aside, the girl's behavior would have made a wonderful piece of leverage down the line. Nevertheless, he now had his target's name and location - Taylor Hebert, Brockton Bay General Hospital.

How fortuitous.  Two birds with one bullet.

He picked up his phone and made a call.  The sooner the girl died, the sooner his plans could get back on track.

***

As the echo of Taylor's scream faded, the soldier in front of her looked dazed, his eyes glassy.  The gun dropped, pointing towards the bed between them. At the same time, Taylor felt another rush of warmth overtake her, filling her with energy and confidence.  She felt taller, stronger.  She knew how to handle this.

A moment passed, and the mercenary's eyes suddenly cleared and he looked at her with confusion that quickly turned into alarm.  "What the... CAPE!" He started to bring up his rifle to a firing position, and Taylor burst into action.

With a hard shove, Taylor slammed the hospital bed into the soldier, who grunted and leaned forward, off balance.  This gave Taylor the opening to reach forward, grab the barrel of the rifle and both rotate and thrust it so the soldier was forced to release his grip.  She then jabbed it hard into his ribs twice and swung the barrel up to snack him in the face, hard enough to break his nose and knock him out.

As he collapsed and slid to the floor, Taylor heard a wordless shout of alarm and saw another mercenary had stepped through the door, his weapon ready to fire.  She heaved the bed up for cover as crimson light burst from the barrel, and then grunted as a bolt penetrated clean through the mattress and scored a line of fire along her left ribs.  She dropped to the ground, grabbed a bar of tube steel from the bed frame, ripped it off, then spring back up, swinging the bar at her assailant.

Surprised but still a professional, the soldier fired another shot into her midsection, but even as the searing pain flared, Taylor didn't stop and struck him as hard as she could, and was shocked to see the bar impact the mercenary's shoulder and send him flying into the wall, where he collapsed, groaning.  Taylor smoothly jumped the toppled bed and kicked him in the head once, knocking him out.

Taylor stopped cold, and listened for any indication of more attackers.  Hearing none, she crept to the door and carefully looked into the hall, first one way, then the other.  Seeing none, she she carefully made her way into the hallway and saw a couple people cowering and staring at her in fear.  She only made a couple more short steps before she heard an odd tinny noise from the ground.  A quick look and she discovered something that looked like an ear bud.  With care, she picked it up and held it to her ear.

"Team two respond.  Alpha target captured.  Status of Beta?  Team two, report!"

Taylor figured she was Beta.  But the only person she could imagine anyone wanting to capture at the hospital was Panacea, as Taylor had overheard nurses talking about the famous healer earlier.  But what could she do about the other team and target?  Once the other attackers learned the assassination attempt had failed...

And suddenly, Taylor really registered what had just happened to her.  "Wait, what?  How did I do that?" She whispered, and then jerked in sudden realization. "Shit! I've been shot!"

Taylor looked down at herself to see the damage and-

Well.  Those are new.

***

Armsmaster rolled up to the police cordon outside the hospital a good thirty seconds before Dauntless came in for a landing.  He felt a bit pleased about that, but shook his head slightly as if to admonish himself as he got off his bike and secured it. "You connected, Dragon?"

:Signal is clear.  I've got suits twenty minutes away if you need them.:

The BBPD officer lifted the police tape acting as a barrier for the two of them, and they made their way briskly to the command area, where Lady Photon, Manpower, and a glum Flashbang were already speaking with the officer in charge, an intense looking middle-aged man in plain clothes.

"Armsmaster," the officer greeted.  "It's good you're here.  We're clearing the bottom two floors, but these jackasses have set up a bunch of weird tinkertech traps in the stairwells.  No one can get in or out of the upper three."

"Thank you," he responded, and flicked up his eyes to where Dragon had helpfully supplied the officer's name on his HUD, "Lieutenant Winters.  Do we know what these traps do?"

"Big boom," Manpower offered, and pointed up to where a thin stream of dark smoke could be seen coming from the hospital roof.  "At least, that's what happened when Photon tried to go through the door from the helicopter pad."

Armsmaster repressed an eye roll as he heard Dauntless ask if she was okay, as if he couldn't tell that from looking at the woman.  He frowned and said, "This doesn't make sense."

"Pardon?" Winters asked.

Armsmaster pressed a button on his left forearm, and a small slot opened, from which he pulled out a sheet keypad.  As he tapped on it, he continued his thoughts out loud.   "Whomever these people are, they've trapped all the entrances and exits.  They're on upper floors, so they can't escape through the sewers, and have clearly blocked off the roof.  There's no real targets of interest in there-"

"Panacea's inside," Lady Photon sharply corrected him.

Armsmaster looked up in alarm, but then scowled.  "Trying to attack a cape that's considered off limits by everyone short of the Slaughterhouse Nine is even more ridiculous, but it's the only lead we have.  Do we know what her schedule was?"

Lady Photon and Manpower looked over at Flashbang who shrugged and admitted, "She's supposed to be in school."

"So it's doubtful she was the target," Winter concluded, and Armsmaster smiled thinly in agreement.  "This is too involved for a kidnapping attempt, it's either a distraction, or a delaying tactic.  Excuse me, I need to call this in."  With that, he walked over to a uniformed officer and appropriated his radio.

: I've informed the PRT,: Dragon reported over their radio link. : I'm sending over two suits and a few drones now, ETA eighteen minutes.:

"Dauntless," Armsmaster ordered briskly.  "The Lieutenant may be correct, but there still a chance whomever these people are, they've got some plan.  I want you above the building so we can have a bird's eye view of any attempt to escape." He looked over at the members of New Wave.  "I don't have authority over you, but any rash actions could be disastrous."

Manpower barked a short laugh.  "So try to keep Brandish and the kids in check.  Don't worry, we know our jobs."

"Thank you."  The tinker gazed upon the building, frustrated.  "What is going on in there?"

***

"I have powers, and they gave me boobs." Taylor said to her reflection, and then snorted in amusement at the stranger's face in the mirror. "As well as abs, a perm, a butt most girls would kill for, and amazing plastic surgery. My life has become a bad comic book."  She poked and prodded at the areas she had been shot,  and marveled at the lack of any sort of wound.  Heck, her clothing was even fixed!

Oh, her clothing.  Not to be left out, her hospital gown had  transformed into some sort of pin-up girl's version of military gear.  Her top was now a grey-green tank top that pendant world have been tight even without the assets she was carefully ignoring.  Her pants were some sort of faded and ripped camouflage cargo thing, all the pockets suspiciously intact, tucked into a dusty pair of grey combat boots.  She had padded fingerless gloves on, and white tape around her wrists.  And her face...

The first thing she noticed was the eyes.  They were dark and warm and expressive in ways hers had never been.  Then the nose, a bit larger than average, but straight and perfect, drawing the eyes to the lips, naturally dark and full.  The cheeks were high and round, and it was all framed by rich, curly dark hair.  It was a beautiful, perfect face, straight out of a Mediterranean postcard.  

Taylor hated and loved it all.  Loved it, because who didn't want to be so amazingly gorgeous, and hated it, because... it wasn't hers.  It almost felt like an insult.

"Dad isn't going to believe this," she whispered.  "No one will, they'll demand to know what I did with Taylor, demand I give her back... I want her back."

Like cold water had been thrown on her, Taylor shuddered and reeled as the strength and confidence left her.  And at the same time, seemingly between blinks of her eyes, she was starting at regular Taylor Hebert in the mirror, clad in a drafty hospital robe, her glasses on again on her face.

"It's gone?!" she cried out as she touched her cheek and looked over the rest of her body.  "But how?"

A noise made her look around, and she peeked outside of the bathroom into her hospital room.  The soldier's were still collapsed on the floor, but out the window there was something moving.  She carefully picked her way through the mess and looked outside, and took in all the police and holy crap, that was Dauntless and Photon Mom flying around out there!  

She scrambled back into the bathroom, and sat on the toilet.  "Okay, the heroes and police are here, but they don't seem to be doing much. I mean, it's been been a while.  But why?" She stood and stared into her reflection's eyes, a grim conclusion coming to her. 

A hostage situation.  If Alpha was Panacea, then law enforcement was going to try to negotiate.  If that's so, the soldiers are probably going to come looking for their pals.  And her as well, if she really was the Beta target. 

A shiver went down her spine at the thought that someone wanted her dead.

Which meant she was going to have to do something about it herself.  With a firm nod, she tried to will herself back into that other form...

And nothing happened.

Taylor began to shake in panic.  "No! No no no no no, it has to come back!" She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, and firmly thought about changing.  Opening one eye, she glanced at her reflection, only to be disappointed.  She cursed under her breath, and collapsed back to the toilet seat.

"Okay, think, Taylor," she muttered.  "It happened when you were in danger just now.  Would that be it?  Do I need to be about to die?" Her eyes widened as she considered the locker.  "Did it happen then too?  Is that why I got out?  The doctors were surprised I had no signs of infection, and the locker was really easy to open all of a sudden..."  

Taylor sighed.  It made sense.  If her power was trying to protect her, then it would only kick in if she was in danger.  Wanting to go fight bad guys and save Panacea wasn't a good reason...

A rush of warmth flowed into Taylor.

***

An actual active request!  Well, not quite, but it would do.  You are hopeful this means the host will be using you more actively.  You were dismayed to discover the positive and negative feedback mechanisms usually available have been disabled, so other methods may have to be considered to encourage the host to be more active.

You are also concerned by the transformative module your selections pass through.  It appears to be tied into the host's subconscious, and your attempts to query its functionality are fruitless.  It also seems to have a broadcast effect - obfuscation of some sort?

Choices must be made.  The host has a goal.

What do you choose?

*********

I hope I did Coil well, he's tricky to work with.

You have now discovered Taylor's fourth always on power!  Taylor has an active Stranger/Changer effect that makes her transform into a suitable heroic form that matches her powers and also makes people actively disassociate the transformed state from regular Taylor.  Don't push it though, it's not foolproof!

Powers on cool down:
Skill Enhancement: Close Quarters Combat Mastery
Body Enhancement: Fast Regeneration

***

Important Note on Coil's Power:

Coil believes his ability is to independently live two separate timelines, and at any point shut one of them down and make the other reality.  He's incorrect.  

What really going on (based on Wildbow's comments) is that at the point of split, his power simulates two timelines, selects the one Coil would choose, and then autopilots his body through the selected timeline while playing back both simulations to Coil's brain.

What Me-as-author is saying this means is that when faced with something it can't properly simulate (Contessa, Eidolon, Endbringers, Scion, even other precogs) it has to have some sort of error handling scheme.  In the best case it leaves Coil with false memories once the simulation/autopilot is complete - for example, he remembers Behemoth attacking Reykjavik when it really attacked Jakarta.  In the worst, it craps out, fakes a sudden 'fail condition' in the false timeline (rocks fall, everyone dies) to make Coil think he dropped it voluntarily, and returns control.  This latter case is what likely  happens when he's encountered Contessa.

For whatever reason, that didn't happen here.  Coil's power basically threw a segfault and crashed hard.

You should probably take that into account in the future.

[Niteflier]

Hmmn...

Taylor jerked to wakefulness as a rush of something flowed into her, like a sudden jolt of caffeine.

 The energy - adrenaline, perhaps - that had driven her this far left her about the moment she left the building.

You have now discovered Taylor's fourth always on power!  Taylor has an active Stranger/Changer effect that makes her transform into a suitable heroic form that matches her powers and also makes people actively disassociate the transformed state from regular Taylor.  Don't push it though, it's not foolproof!

I have to wonder what sort of person she appeared as under the Chameleon effect when she busted out of the locker. And did that affect the student who reported the incident?