//------------------------------// // Chaper 15 // Story: Shard of Magic [Worm crossover] // by blake0831 //------------------------------// Taylor's breath got knocked out of her as her back slammed into the gym mats. She took a moment to simply lay there, panting heavily. Above her, PRT Trooper Rodriguez chuckled as she held out her hand to help Taylor up. "Come on, kid. Up you go." "Give me a moment." Taylor grumbled as she tries to catch her breath. "Sorry, but villains and gangsters won't give you moments to recover. Got to get into the practice of rolling onto your feet after a hit or fall quickly" The well built latino-skinned woman pointed out. "And I thought I said no powers. I felt that grabbing with your mind thing as you went down." Taylor blushed as she accepted the offered hand. "Sorry. That was reflexive." Rodriguez sighed as she pulled Taylor to her feet. "The point of these exercises is to condition your body and prepare you skills wise in case you found yourself without your powers. You may be a Trump, but there are decent chances there's someone out could no-sell your powers. Even Armsmaster joins in the training, lest someone turned his armour into a tin can and shows up with a can opener." "I know, I know." Taylor said defensively. "It's just... the telekinesis was reflexive. Like grabbing something with my free hand to stop myself from falling. I didn't even had to focus hard to do it." She elaborated as she put her hands on her knees, panting. "Can we take a short break?" Rodriguez hummed to herself thoughtfully. "I want to put you through a bit more, since I know you didn't do much de-shelling today..." Taylor blushed a bit at the Trooper/her Current Instructor's mention of 'de-shelling'. It turns out, activating her SafeGuard power in panic while fending off Oni Lee when one was still flying over an occupied American city block had unintended consequences. The power affected any weapon within its preset range, rendering them safe. It turns out, for firearms, the power 'locks' the weapon into safe mode by surrounding it with an impenetrable shell that prevents the trigger from even being pulled. Or the weapon from being dismantled for cleaning. Or anything. It basically turns the weapon into a softly glowing oddly shaped paperweight that couldn't even be used as a bludgeon device (A shotgun owner complained that it was like trying to hit something with a wiffle bat.). For the last week, Starburst had been busy undo-ing the power shell formed around the legally acquired personal-defense weapons that was brought in by concerned/irate civilians into PRT HQ. "But I suppose you deserve a break." Rodriguez finished. "Heard you're the main one responsible for the new toy. So, thought we owe you a little." Taylor merely headed to a nearby bench, intending to collapse onto it. On the way there, she idly noted that the teal shield at Dennis had time-locked earlier was still stuck in mid-air. 'Is this a record for him?' She thought as she sat down. "Hey" Rodriguez cut in as she followed Taylor. "Cool yourself off with some stretches first." the Trooper lectured. "Don't want you to cramp up." A part (or two) of Taylor agreed with Rodriguez, urging to do some light exercises instead to cool down. The main part of Taylor just internally groaned in exhaustion as she stood up and followed the instructions. "Say", Rodriguez started conversationally as she goes through her own cooldown routine. "You know that anti-teleport field thing over the Docks that the brass asked to leave up?" Taylor looked at her curiously as she went through her stretches. To her surprise, Dragon and Armsmaster had asked Taylor to leave up the anti-teleport field the Teleport Jammer power had created instead of undo-ing it. Last she heard, Dragon, Armsmaster and Kid Win were busy studying the persistent effect with various sensors. "Huh? What's up with it?" she asked, faintly noticing Dean, Dennis and Carlos practicing on the other side of the gym with the other PRT Troopers tapped into today's Wards training session. Rodriguez shook her head. "Nothing's wrong. Rogers, one of the Troopers on duty at that time, saw that Dragon had talked Strider into helping test the field the other day." She laughed a bit. "Heard Strider complained about not being able to teleport out from inside of it, and trying to teleport into the field was 'like running full tilt at a fluffy mattress and bouncing off it', with him appearing at the field boundary instead flat on his back." "Huh" Taylor simply commented, a part of her pleased that that the built-in safeties were working fine. "Speaking of the brass," Rodriguez continued. "Any news from the Protectorate about the ABB or E88?" she asked wonderingly. "Um..." Taylor replied, a tad confused. "No. I spoke to Miss Militia earlier before she went into the meeting in Director Piggot's office, and she didn't mention anything." Rodriguez let out a sigh. "Darn. Was hoping you kids heard something from the Protectorate capes. We Troopers are getting a bit terse over the situation on the field. Word on the street about ABB was that Oni Lee's a no-show and Lung is on a jaunt out of the city to recruit some cape muscle to replace him." She grimaced. "I really worry about who Lung can find that'll top a serial suicide bomber assassin that teleports." Taylor winced at the thought. Oni Lee was bad enough, and Taylor had barely survive her encounter with him. "At least whoever it was, it'll be without Oni Lee backing them up?" Taylor weakly tried to console the Trooper. Rodriguez let a small smile escape. "True that. Here's hoping Oni Lee is really out of the picture." Her smile soon disappears though. "The E88 and the Merchants poking at the ABB dragon by prodding their territory isn't helping with things in the city though." She fidgeted uncomfortably. "This... may seem like we're taking advantage of you, but can you whip up anything that'll help us Troopers on the field more? Some sort of gun that'll take down capes and gangbangers regardless of armour or toughness? Hopefully non-lethal." She looked away, embarrassed as she finished. Taylor blinked at the request. "I'll... have to talk to Dragon and Armsmaster about that. I think Dragon brought in some artificially made crystals to help with making stuff." She thought it over. "hm... maybe something to make them fall asleep from a distance?" she wondered out loud, before she felt the familiar mental rummaging. "No! Wait!" Taylor started to cry out, startling Rodriguez before sighing in relief when a new power slid into her grasp. "Oh good. It's a quick one." "What was that?" Rodriguez asked curiously. Taylor waved her hand at her head. "Sorry. My Trump power was a little... sensitive, and started working on something just now. Thank god the new power is a quick one, or I'll have to tell Miss Militia." Taylor reassured before focusing a bit on the new power ('Medical: Artificially time-restricted induced torpidity spell.'). "Huh. A ranged aid for insomnia. I think I can make a sleep gun from this for the Troopers. Need to get the concept and diagrams to Armsmaster though." she mused as she walked over to her backpack containing spare notebooks. Rodriguez squirmed a bit. "Hey, kid. Thanks about this. And... um... sorry about imposing." Taylor waved off Rodriguez concerns. "It's alright. At least it didn't pre-occupy my power for days to figure out." She flashed a quick mischievous smile at the Trooper. "Though you all owe me one more for this new toy." Rodriguez relaxed at the teasing tone. "Yeah. Thanks." She paused. "Any hints of what this new one could do?" Taylor answered as she sketched out the diagrams. "Puts the target into an enforced sleep for an hour. After that it'll transition to a normal sleep where you can just wake them up normally. Harmless. You can shoot the target has many times as you want, and all it'll do is reset the 'enforced sleep' timer with each hit. If the target doesn't go down with the first hit, multiple hits will accumulate until they fall asleep. Pretty much ignores toughness and body armour. Doesn't go through walls or shields though." Rodriguez whistled appreciatively. "That'll make things a lot easier for me and the guys on the field." She grinned. "Here's hoping Dragon and Armsmaster can give this to us quick." Taylor waved the papers she had worked on at her. "I'll ask them later, after their meeting with the Director." "Thanks, kid." Rodriguez said. "For helping us out." "You're welcome." Taylor smiled back.