Shard of Magic [Worm crossover]

by blake0831

Chapter 11

Taylor eyed the door to the Wards common room in trepidation, wondering if she should postpone this to another time.

After Taylor's acceptance of Miss Militia's apology, the original Wards introductory and recruitment meeting had evolved to a discussion between her Dad, their lawyer and the PRT legal representatives (that Battery had quickly fetched) over possible additional compensation and non-standard changes to her Wards contract. Miss Militia offered Taylor some respite from the legal drudgery via a quick meet and greet with her fellow Wards.

Not eager to sit through the renegotiation of her contract, Taylor had quickly agreed. As she followed Miss Militia through the PRT building, Taylor had briefly reviewed the new powers (she'll call them respectively Mind Shield, Mind Cure and Lockdown; a small part of her cringing and wondering why she had just... blurted out the full names her power had given to those new powers during the interview; she hoped that the notion that she's a 'Myrddin fangirl' won't get out to the public.) and activated her Radar power to use its appearance as an opaque band of light over her eyes as a temporary mask (Taylor briefly noted Dinah's VIP tag that appeared when she looked around, the Radar power showing Dinah's real time position relative to Taylor, the straight line distance between them and Dinah's general status. Still green, good.). Taylor also tried to dispel the butterflies of anxiety in her stomach that had started to flutter. Miss Militia had mentioned that the rest of the Wards didn't share any good impressions of Sophia during the investigations, and that they didn't know about the connection between Sophia and Taylor, but Taylor kept wondering if they'll accept her....

All too soon, they arrived at the door, and Miss Militia used her credentials to clear the security system and accept her as an authorized invited guest. As they waited for the door to open (Miss Militia assured her that the delay was a normal built-in security feature, to alert the Wards inside and give them time to prepare themselves.), Taylor nervously started tapping her foot.

Finally, the door opened and they went through. Inside was a spacious common area about 50% larger than her own house's living room. Dominating the center of the room was several couches and sofas arranged in a half-circle facing the television on one wall. A few computer worktables and desks lined another wall. A large complex computer workstation, with a specialized keyboard console and several screen sat in a corner opposite a kitchenette alcove. A hallway leading to several doors was between the kitchen and the desks.

Standing near the door Taylor had just entered through were the Wards of Brockton Bay. Taylor recognized Gallant from the helmet he's wearing, though the rest of his outfit seems to be a set of workout clothes thrown over a black bodysuit. A Latino-skinned boy sporting casual clothes and a simple domino mask smiled disarmingly at her. Another similarly dressed boy, a Caucasian red Head, stood lazily next to him with an inquisitive look on his face. Next is a young girl, who stood at ease with a serious look in full costume of a green dress/uniform complete with visor and helmet. The last is a short, fidgetting boy in a jumpsuit and wearing a red and gold visor.

Miss Militia gestured and started the introduction. "Hello Wards. Today, we got a new member. She will be here for a short time while waiting for her father to finish up with the paperwork. This is..." she trailed off, just as realization hit Taylor as well. She never actually given them a cape name! Crap, she haven't chose one yet! Taylor quickly scrambled for something, anything and blurted out the first thing that popped into her head. "Starburst!" Taylor exclaimed, before coughing and continuing in a normal, hopefully not panicky voice. "I mean, call me Starburst."

The Latino boy smiled and stepped forward with a hand out stretched in welcome. Taylor took the offered handshake and shook briefly before letting go. "Hello, Starburst. I'm Aegis, current official leader of the Wards." He gestured towards the rest. "This is Gallant;" the helmeted boy waved in greeting. "Clockblocker;" the red head gave a jovial smile and nod. "Vista;" the girl nodded and returned a "Hello."; "And Kid Win." The visor-ed boy nervously said "Hi." in response.

Miss Militia smiled and turned towards the door. "How about you all get to know each other? I'll leave you be." she said before closing the door.

She and the Wards stared at each other for a moment before Vista relaxed and stepped forward with a hand out. "Hi there! Good to see we have another girl on the team!" Taylor gave a shy smile as they shook hands firmly.

"So..." Aegis ventured. "What kind of powers do you have?"

Taylor glanced at him as she let go for Vista's hand. "I'm a... I'm a Brute package." She paused. "And a Trump."

"A Trump?" Kid Win repeated. "What kind? Like Teamster in New York? Or Eidolon?"

"A bit like Eidolon" Taylor admitted. "Though my requested powers sometimes takes a while to be assembled and ready to be used."

ClockBlocker raised an eyebrow at her. "Assembled?"

"Yes." Taylor clarified. "When I ask for a power with specific abilities, my Trump power sorts of customizes and put sort of 'parts' together, I think. Takes time to process my requests and I have no clue before hand how long it'll be before I can use it."

"Huh. That's new." Vista said with a intrigued look. "So, if I ask you for a power to remotely slap Clock over here on the back of the head..."

Taylor said in consideration. "...a power like... A hardlight hand to hit someone further away? Yeah, something like th-" Taylor felt the distinctive mental rummaging sensation in the back of her mind. "Oh, Come on!"

"What?" Gallant asked, concern in his voice. "What happened?"

Taylor looked at them in slight annoyance. "My Trump power took that as a request and got started on it."

"Wow" Clockblocker drawled as he plops himself on a nearby couch. "A bit of a hair-trigger there?"

"Yeah." Taylor grumbled as she and the rest followed and seated themselves on the sofas. "Sometimes, I need to deliberately think or speak a request at it. Sometimes, it just took whatever I happened to say or think or dreamed that can count as a valid request."

"Dreamed?" Kid Win asked.

Taylor put a slightly sour look. "The last five days, my power was busy working on something I didn't remember asking. I think I accidentally said something in my sleep or something. It just only finished about half an hour ago." She rubbed her head. "The bad news is, I have to wait until it's done before I can ask for anything else."

"...huh" Aegis articulated. "And you have no idea when it'll be done?"

Taylor shook her head. "Nope." She slouched on the sofa. "I haven't figure out the pattern to it yet." As Taylor finished that sentence, the 'project complete' sensation come over her. "Huh. That was quick."

"Really?!" Vista asked excitedly. "Can you show us?"

"Yeah, Hold on a sec." Taylor answered before she concentrated on the new power ('Melee-Focused Offense Oriented Attack and Fine Remote Manipulation Enabler via Mana Construct of Limb Mimicry' spell, her power dutifully reported.) and held up her right hand. A slightly translucent, teal-green larger scaled copy of her hand appeared in the middle of the sofa arrangements.

"Woah..." Kid Win wondered at the floating hand. The rest of the Wards looked at it with wide eyes. "I'll call it my 'Phantom Hands' power." Taylor announced with a bit of pride.

"Call it?" Gallant asked in curiosity.

"Yeah. My Trump power gave long mouthful technical-ish names to whatever power it made." Taylor admitted sheepishly.

"Wait a minute!" Clockblocker suddenly exclaimed. "You're Lantern!" He pointed at a surprised Taylor.

Taylor pointed to herself with her right hand, the projection mirroring the gesture. "Lantern?"

"Yeah!" Clockblocker said. "The PHO forums went nuts over a new cape sighted a few days ago helping out Gallant and Glory Girl against Uber and L33t. They called you 'Lantern' after the superhero from Earth Aleph comic books. Because, you know." he waved his hand in a circle."Your powers looked like that guys."

"Huh" Taylor answered, before dismissing the 'Phantom Hands' power. "Well, enough about me. How about you guys? All I know is from the PHO wiki and forums, and they're not exactly accurate."

Kid Win opened his mouth, but Aegis interrupted him. "Hang on a minute." He looked to the others "Guys? She seems like a decent sort. How about we tell her our real names? Build some camaraderie?" He suggested.

Vista rolled her eyes. "Like that worked with Shadow Stalker..." she murmured. Taylor's heart nearly spiked a tad at the mention.

Clockblocker chortled, "Well, she was a bitch. Plain and simple. Good looks, great bod but still a Grade-A bitch."

"Guys" Aegis pleaded.

"...I take it she wasn't a team player?" Taylor asked slowly.

Kid Win frowned. "Honestly, I'm kinda glad she got kicked out. She kept being... abrasive. At all of us here."

Vista snorted. "Abrasive. That's a nice way of putting it. We tried to be friends with her; amicable teammates at least. But it's like trying to be close to an angry, scornful, abusive pincushion. Or a rabid dog."

Gallant cut in. "Guys. I think that's enough talking behind Shadow Stalker's back like this." he said firmly. Then he continued with a gentler tone. "Besides, Starburst here seems nice. Why don't we give her a chance?" He turned and faced Taylor before taking off his helmet. "Hello there. I'm Dean. A Blaster type. I shoot energy at other people. Not a Tinker like the PHO thinks." He gestured towards the hallway. "The armour is a loaner."

Vista went next. "Hi. I'm Missy. Shaker. I can manipulate and twist space." She waved her hand, and suddenly the computers were closer to them as the space between them 'pinched' together. Taylor felt a part of her suddenly took interest and she stared at the twisted space for a few moments before she shook herself out of her light trance. Vista let the space go back to normal with a proud grin; without noticing anything off happened to Taylor.

"My turn" Clockblocker said, picking up a mug form the table. "I'm Dennis. Striker. My touch can freeze and lock things in time and space." He said as he demonstrated, leaving the mug frozen in mid air. Taylor reached out and tugged at the mug to no awail. Taylor felt that same part of her mind perking up again and she started to slid again into another trance-like state before Taylor quickly snap herself out of it.

"Are you alright?" Dean asked.

Taylor just waved at him dismissively. "It's nothing.". The rest of Wards gave her some odd looks, before Kid Win spoke up. "I'm Chris. Tinker. I make stuff like laser guns and hoverboards." he then sheepishly rubbed his head, mindful of his visor. "Haven't found my Tinker specialization yet."

"Tinker specialization?" Taylor asked curiously.

"Yeah. Tinkers who know their specialization can do all sorts of incredible things with their tech. Like Armsmaster, whose specialization is Efficiency and Miniaturization. He can made amazing powerful gadgets that used up so little power and can be really small compact." Kid Win answered enthusiastically, before deflating slightly. "My stuff isn't up to that standard, so I'm still figuring things out."

Aegis patted Chris's shoulder consolingly before he looked up with a quick smile. "I'm Carlos. Sort of Alexandria package. Can fly and I have what the PRT calls 'redundant biology'. If villains made me blind, I can compensate and see either by 'evolving' new eyes, or enhance my ears into using sonar."

Taylor hesitated, before setting her face firmly. "Hello. My name is Taylor. I guess I'll be the Trump of the team." She gave a shaky smile. "It's good to start working with you all from now on."

Comments

[Zorobak]

Eidolon will be jealous.

[Ranakastrasz]

Eidolon has way more raw power, at least thus far. Also his powers are way more immediately reactive.
More importantly, even if they are slowly shrinking, his power reserves are way, way bigger.

[Spellflame]

9844017
Time

[Spellflame]

9844017
... wait, what about the sun and moon?

[Martin911]

10721208
What's wrong with them?