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Bio Forge Master (Rewrite) by Throwaway1971

Books » Private Rated: M, English, Romance, Words: 137k+, Favs: 57, Follows: 75, Published: Dec 12, 2023 Updated: Mar 15, 2024

29Chapter 8: 07

Bio-Forge Master

Chapter 7

Logically she knew that Aisha and Fran only had the best intentions for her, they'd been nothing but straight and they had never lied to her. Maybe omitted some things but never lied to her face, and she really appreciated that. It was hard to know who to trust anymore, her former best friend and virtual sister turned her back on her and regularly used those secrets she shared in confidence against her.

After a year and a half of dealing with Emma and Sophia… Taylor had honestly started looking at everyone with a sense of suspicion. It wouldn't be the first time someone got close to her only for it to be a cruel prank. She had started always expecting something to go wrong, for the other shoe to drop.

Which made things awkward with Aisha and Fran, she desperately wanted to open up again (both figuratively and literally since Fran operated on her!) but she just… couldn't bring herself to make that final leap of faith. A year and some of paranoia and suspicion was hard to shake after all.

"Still, why do they get away with so much?" Taylor mused as she tried to relax on her bed, a good book on her chest that went unread due to her turbulent thoughts.

It was a thought and she kept coming back repeatedly over the last year and a half. For the longest time she thought it was simply incompetence or sheer apathy on the staff part, which probably isn't entirely wrong honestly. But… she didn't know, it just didn't seem right. Some of the pranks were simply beyond belief, and after doing some research some of them could've easily resulted in her death if she landed wrong!

So, if it wasn't incompetence or apathy (or not entirely anyway) what could it be? Yeah, Emma had money and her father is a lawyer but… she doesn't have that much money and she vaguely recalled hearing that Mr. Barnes is a divorce lawyer so… that couldn't be what was keeping the school staff from doing their fucking jobs! Gangs maybe, that… didn't sound wrong honestly.

It's an open secret but Winslow was practically a recruiting ground for all the gangs. The major gangs were represented: the E88, the ABB, and the Merchants. But the minor ones as well, the 'normal' ones that didn't have any parahuman support. Some of them were actually just people that banded together for protection, but others were more typical gangs.

Tough guy wannabes and street punks.

Again, that didn't seem right either. The E88 would never sanction a white girl to be ruthlessly bullied, the ABB would rather send her to the brothels to be broken into another whore, and the Merchants? They'd get her hooked on a dozen different drugs and use her as a party favor to entice more to join, or to keep their own members content… after all the Merchants lived for only three things: Money, Drugs, and Sex.

"Well, there's one… but they're the good guys! Right…?" The thought came to her and made her grimace.

She never thought of the PRT and Protectorate as a gang… despite how it technically fitted with them holding territory and patrolling. It was actually her mom and dad that called them that, she was seven at the time. They were talking about something they had seen on tv, and mom had called the PRT a 'government sponsored gang' and her dad… didn't seem to disagree.

And now that she thought about it, she couldn't stop as much as she wanted. It made a sick sort of sense.

"Okay, let's say the school is getting something from the PRT. Like… funding, I guess? That means that one of them is connected to the PRT somehow…"

She immediately dismissed Emma, not out of denial or anything, but because she knew Emma. Before she apparently lost her damn mind, Emma couldn't keep a secret to save her damn life. And now Emma would surely rub the fact all in her face that she has PRT-backing and protection. Madison was dismissed for a similar reason, though different reasoning.

Madison was a horrible person and made life difficult, but she never actually hurt her. She kept herself limited to being an irritation at the least, pulling childish pranks and even stealing her assignments. So compared to the other three, Taylor could say that she held a mild dislike for the bitch.

But Sophia… honestly Taylor wanted to dismiss it out right. Like the PRT would cover for a violent psycho… unless they had a reason to. And as Taylor went down this rabbit hole of speculation she started breathing harder as her mind made jumps from topic to topic.

"No, nonono… that bitch couldn't be…" She didn't even want to finish the thought but already it was there.

[̵͕̳̿̾̏͌̎̈́́̿̊̌̀̽͠͝S̸̢̥̣̳̊̍̈́͋̍̿͝Ě̵̡̢̤͉͇͇̼̅͐̉̅̄̀̑͗̈́͂̆̅͋̓͊͝L̶̡͎̬͉̐̈̇È̶̢̖͕͈ͅÇ̷̡͚̩̜̯̻̤͎̥̦̍̀͂̓̓̓̈͝Ṯ̴͊́̀̈́̉̊͌͘͝͝͝Ỉ̵̪͙̟͉͚͖̝̗̒̍̄̀͋̍̐̔̐͝͠O̷̧̧̡̧̢̝̹͙̰͙̠̹̝̻̜̥̿̋̅͑̌̀̌̾̊͂͗͗͠N̸̨̨͍͇͓͚͙͓̪̈́̓̉̄͋̀͑̓͒̚̚]̵̭̩͓͉͗̔̏̈́̀̇̓̑̒̀̕͝

̷̯̲͚͙̌

̶̞̖̍͛̑̄́̐͑̈́̄̒̅̆͒͘͝[̸̨̯̩̻͚̩͓̈́͆̊́̂̔̾̚͝D̶̡̧̥̗̱͓̞̜̝̣̞̠̜͈̦͆͆̎̓͠È̸̢͕͕̮̞̟͓̮͓͈̘̫̳̠̞͉͇̄̍͂̓̍͛̆̉͂͠S̷͔̤͐̔̍̊̿̓̓̊T̸̲͚̤̳̠̣̩̙̞̍̓͛̋̑̆̾̀̍͊͜͜I̴̡̦͇̙̗̓̀͆̾͛͋̑͒̒̏͆̓͝N̴̨̗̭̤̫̳͖͇̺̤̺̦̘̑ͅͅA̶͇̥͇̣̻̼̭̻̎͑͑̈́̃̐̂͘͝T̴͔͇͈͎͍͙̊̿͌͆͒̀͐͘I̴̢̪͉̗̫̦̫͔̯͍͖̊͌̐̌̔̇̈͛̐́O̶̤͈͎̐̀̍͗̇̀̇͝͠͝Ǹ̸̡̛̼͉̠̹͓͓͍̈́̏̄̄͌̈́̂̍̈̋̚͠]̸̡̡͕̖͓̠̯̝̪͔̬̺̩͕̜̉̓̾̏̓͛͂͌͜͝ͅ

̷̧̤͉̱̙̲̻̩̼̺̗̹̳̳̺̋̽͑́̀̏̈́̓͂̏̉̔̀̓̔̚ͅ

̴̨̢̧̧͎͈̩̞̼͈̭̥̞̠̹̪̆̔͗̈͊͛̋͒͊͊͊̿̆̂̚̕͜[̸̨̮̖͎̩̰͍̪̖̖̓̎̉͑̎̓͛͂̍̃̀͜͝͝ͅT̸̢̛͔͎̼̬̥̤͕̝͔͚͎̘̖̒͊̈́͛̌̍̽͜Ř̴̥̗͉͖̰̜̻̤̹̤͉̜͍̃̇̎̆̂̍̈́͝Ȃ̶͈̯̯̪̮̈́̆̿̃͆̑J̵̧̢̜̠̠̙̻͕͆͊̈̉͛̑͊̿̌̽̽̇̕͝͝͠Ẹ̸̢͍̤̣͙̳̟͖͈͍̓̌̓̃̀͘͘͜͠C̶̨͙̹͕̪̣̝͎͚̓͋̃̔͋̑̕͠͠Ṭ̴̪̮̱̳̲̙̃̇͂͂̌͗̒̈̄̕̕̚͝͠Ơ̶͍͙̺̖̦̠̞̙̒͂́͗̓̏̓͝R̷̥͔̟̦̝̩͆͐Y̵̢̨̭̝͕̙̭̗̩̬̙̫̘͇̤̾̿͐̀̃̅̓̿̽̐̾͆͜͝͝]̶̝͕̫̹̥̝͔̏

Paying Fran a visit sounded like a good idea, there was a good chance Aisha was there anyway.

Laying her book on her bed Taylor got up and started to get ready, her dad was still at work so it wouldn't matter if she left. Though she should probably leave a note on the off chance that he came home early, which she personally doubted but the possibility remained.

Taylor figured out she got powers as soon as she stepped on the bus and went to pay her bus fare, the entire world froze, and she was presented with hundreds of thousands of different… routes she could take. Examining them, seeing as time had apparently frozen, she realized that a lot of them were decidedly slanted towards social interactions, from genuine to manipulative.

She decided instead to simply pay her fare which cause the whole world to resume, and then she went over and took a seat. Thankfully other than some tweaker homeless guy in the back Taylor could relax slightly and instead consider her new power and its applicability towards fighting crime.

She… wasn't entirely sure it would actually help her fight crime. She could like… talk criminals into stopping but that wasn't really going to work all the time now, was it? But she should probably focus on something that was bothering her.

Why did her power seem like something out of a Dating Simulator!?

'Routes' the power calls her options, that's straight out of a Dating Simulator! And the only reason she even knows that is because Greg wouldn't stop going on about this Parahuman Dating Simulator thing he downloaded a couple months ago!

And personally, she thought Panacea was a top tier waifu! Sure, she isn't a sexbomb like her sister or some other cape ladies, but there wasn't anything wrong with the Girl Next Door! Not that Taylor voiced her opinions as Greg waxed almost-poetic about Alexandria and just how her costume conformed to her body.

Taylor out of curiosity checked it out and agreed, Alexandria had an amazing ass!

"God, I just had to get a power modeled after a Dating game." She thought with a faint sigh, "What next? A relationship mechanic?"

[Relationship increases if Taylor is open and honest with Fran and Aisha.]

"I was being sarcastic! Goddamnit!" She wasn't really angry, just irritated.

Or at least that's what she kept telling herself.

Despite the tweaker in the back the ride passed quickly enough, and Taylor got off at her stop with little trouble, and as she made her way to the apartment building Fran was living in, she bit her cheek at how the world would randomly freeze and she would be bombarded with thousands of routes she could take.

It didn't take her too long to realize that the time freezing thing only happened when people were paying direct attention to her, not just passing glances but full on looking. It certainly explained the random nature of her power. Obviously, it detected intent, whether it was just idle curiosity or anything else.

Thankfully as she discovered on the bus, she didn't have to pick a route for things to resume. And while she really wanted to test just how her power works, she didn't want to test it out in the open on any random person that she comes across!

Shaking her head, she walked along before entering the building and taking the stairs, not that she would've taken the elevator regardless of if it was working. While Fran corrected her pudge, he made it clear that if she wanted to keep it, she would need to exercise. So, she took it on herself to take up running daily, and honestly if she had the money, she'd probably go for a gym membership as well!

Exercise was, she found, surprisingly therapeutic in face of dealing with Emma and her minions.

Funny thing though, ever since Fran helped her out and she stopped letting their pettiness bother her? The only one that really seemed invested was Emma, even Sophia wasn't really into it anymore.

Oh, she still did her Top Bitch thing, but it seemed more like sheer habit than actively wanting to torment her.

Shaking her head, she made her way up to Fran's apartment wondering what was going on? Probably Aisha being Aisha, ruthlessly teasing Fran. Or maybe… Fran could be operating on her? Either way she would find out soon.

"Oh! I want a prehensile tail too!" Aisha said excitedly, "Oh and all the sneaky shit too! Oh! And what does this sound like for a name? Stitches, kinda fits with yours, doesn't it?"

She was expecting many things, only about a quarter of them perverse (what she's a teenager, what did you expect?) but she didn't expect to come into the apartment and find the two watching tv with Midnight curled between them talking body augmentation. Or seeing just how excited Aisha was about it, but then again it shouldn't have really surprised her.

Honestly given what she knew of Aisha, she would do it for the sheer 'what the fuck' and cool factor alone. Still, she removed her shoes and set them near the door as she closed it behind her.

The two looked but when they saw her Fran gave her a friendly smile and wave, while Aisha flagged her down with a wide grin.

"Hey Tay! Girl, I thought you were avoiding us!" She teased, "Come on and sit with us! Join our brainstorming about what sort of tinker fuckery my Stud is gonna pump me full of!~"

Fran just facepalmed, "Do you really have to make everything sound sexual?" He asked with an exasperated sigh.

"Until you pin and piledrive me? Yes, yes, I must." Aisha retorted without missing a beat, "And my pervy comments will continue until my thirst is satisfied!"

The world frozen and she saw thousands of routes before her, a few words would guarantee Aisha thirst would be satisfied and she would be grateful towards her and would do anything to repay her, another route involved adding her own input towards the discussion and integrating herself to them both, a few routes showed the way to seduce them both and make them submissive to her, and on particularly lurid route resulted in her and Aisha being teenage moms while simultaneously being the most well protected girls in the city when Fran stops deliberately limiting himself. Though that route held a lot of body horror and other shit that would make Bonesaw and Nilbog look like rookies.

She dismissed the options, now wasn't the time to experiment. But even knowing what she should do wasn't easy for Taylor.

Instead of making a snarky comment she went over and picked up Midnight before sitting between them, putting Midnight in her rightful place in her lap. Of course, Aisha draped herself on Taylor and laid her head on her shoulder whereas Fran just chuckled.

She…didn't really know how to start, and as routes were fed to her, she finally picked one that was the farthest from manipulative in the slightest. Or at least in her opinion.

"So, I got powers." Taylor blurted, the Route gently providing guidance but not outright puppeting her though she got the feeling that it could if she let it, "And they're… helping me with this. I wasn't sure how to bring it up…"

"Seriously!? What are they!?" Aisha asked, mostly curious but a little excited.

Fran on the other hand just gave a faint grimace, "You triggered? Shit…" He muttered before looking at her, "You, okay?"

"Huh? She just got powers though?" Aisha said, looking at Fran curiously.

What followed was Taylor and Aisha's first exposure to parahuman theory, Taylor honestly found it rather interesting especially given how different stressors and trauma dictate how the power would manifest. Brute, physical trauma, Thinker being faced with a problem you can solve or a prolonged time, and so on. And thinking on it… that trip down the rabbit hole probably counted as prime Thinker material, doesn't it?

"Well, I guess you're planning on being a hero?" Taylor just nodded with a faint blush, "Well, can't let you go out as a squishy Thinker now? Hmm, what's your favorite animal?"

Blinking at that very odd question Taylor thought for a moment, "Um, rabbits. Why?" She asked.

"How would you like to be a Werebunny?" Fran asked with a grin.

"Oh! Oh! Just a rabbit though?" Aisha asked, "Why not a Chimera like I'm going to be!"

"That's her choice." Fran answered before he focused back on Taylor, "You know what… I think I'll let you think about that for a while. There's no rush, take your time."

Taylor just nodded awkwardly before she focused on the tv and absentmindedly stroked Midnight who purred in response. Though she wasn't really watching it as her mind was a thousand miles away as she considered… did she really want Fran to turn her into a werebunny?

Wouldn't that out her like… instantly or something? And would she only change during nights of the fully moon?

She needed more details before she committed… and she needed to do some rabbit research…

250 CP Gained!

550 CP Available!

Banked!

"Just… what. Really?"

He swore the Forge was laughing at him…

After some thought Fran passed his phone to Taylor, "Here, you can use it to do some research." He said.

Taylor just took the phone and started fiddling with it, he didn't take offense and simply left the girl to her thoughts. He knew just how hard it was to come out and say that, powers helping her regardless, so he didn't plan on disrupting her thoughts.

Aisha, seeing as our current talk was put on hold, decided to go back to watching tv. Her head still firmly on Taylor's shoulder, though he noticed that she would absentmindedly watch to see what Taylor was doing before focusing back on the tv.

This suited Fran fine as it allowed him to… reconsider his plans for the Zoanthrope gene, specifically for himself and Aisha. Now he was considering using Hybrid Biologist to incorporate the strengths of various animals into their genome, and with a little tweaking would allow them to 'grow' into it more naturally to prevent any accidents like… shooting out webbing by accident or whatever.

But with Taylor… give her a Changer form via Zoanthrope Awakening but tweak the gene so her Changer form would be stronger. Coupled with some magitech equipment she could easily be the Brute of the team, perhaps even something that would let her fly for short periods of time… he was pretty sure everyone was an Alexandria fan at one point or another.

Looking at Aisha he decided to voice his change in plans, get her opinion on them.

Taylor just nodded along; she was clearly lost but she could follow along somewhat. Though Aisha just shrugged.

"Eh, if we do the Bioscuptor thing I could have a changer power as well." Aisha said, "But honestly as long as I become the sneaky shit, I'm fine with whatever.'

"Those are some dangerous words to say." Fran thought with some amusement, obviously he wouldn't do anything bad but… well he had to get back at her for giving him a shape-changing switchblade-esque dick after all!

The only reason he wasn't more upset is after the operation and Aisha had left Fran thoroughly checked everything out, and while it felt odd having something of a sheath, he was no longer a grower. He was now a shower, or he wasn't. So that was kind of weird, he'd get used to it eventually.

Still, that was a later concern. Currently he decided to watch some tv and enjoy the pleasant company! Though after some thought he decided to go ahead and roll to see what he could get.

Rolling…

Karma Chameleon – (900 cp) (GUNNM)

Fail

Rolling…

Amazo's Backup Memory – (800 cp) (Young Justice)

Fail

Rolling…

Jagan Eye – (600 cp) (Yu Yu Hakusho)

Fail

CP Remaining: 550 cp

Vague recollections of watching Yu Yu Hakusho and remembering the bullshit the Jagan Eye could do made him curse his luck. While yeah, it'd make keeping a civilian ID harder, it wasn't like he was all attached to his civilian identity anyway. If anything, the only downside is it would make things awkward for Aisha and probably Taylor.

Still, it wasn't too bad, though he would've liked to get something to give to Aisha. He noticed while going through her work her hands weren't as steady as his own, which told him perks like Steady Hand didn't transfer over. Luckily the mistakes were minor and easily corrected.

Perhaps he could make something using magitech, like a special pair of gloves that could help her keep her hands stead? Actually… Why stop at gloves… he could turn them into proper gauntlets that could be a part of her eventual costume? Yeah, that sounded like a good idea!

Glancing over to see what Taylor was looking up he hummed, the Flemish Giant rabbit huh?

The largest breed in the world according to the article, bred for their fur and meat. But they're often kept as pets as they're known for being docile and patient…

"Well, I always enjoy a challenge. Now how to change something so docile into a mean fighting rabbit?" He mused with a smile.

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