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Work Header

Rating:

Explicit

Archive Warnings:

Graphic Depictions Of ViolenceUnderage Sex

Categories:

F/FGenOtherF/M

Fandoms:

Warhammer 40.000Worm - Fandom

Characters:

Taylor Hebert | Skitter | WeaverSherrel Bailey | SquealerEmma Barnes (Parahumans)Undersiders (Parahumans)Lisa Wilbourn | TattletaleAmy Dallon | Panacea | Red Queen

Additional Tags:

Alt-Power Taylor HebertVillain Taylor HebertPsyker Taylor HebertEarth Bet is a shitholeThe slope is steep and well lubricatedTaylor's boots have poor tractionPsychic AbilitiesPsychic ViolencePsychic BondPsychic MindfuckeryDubious Consent?Power PerversionPsychokinetic Tentacles

Language:

English

Stats:

Published:2023-09-20Completed:2025-01-28Words:289,573Chapters:27/27Comments:1,733Kudos:3,414Bookmarks:853Hits:236,851

A Ruinous Gift

Noodlehammer

Chapter 9: Three Schemers Walk Into a Bar...

Notes:

Thanks to Alvor for helping with the chapter.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

March 20th, 2011.

Coil had suggested that they talk to Psyker about a job. Lisa usually hated the slimy bastard's suggestions, but this one was she was on board with.

Getting information on Brockton Bay's newest parahuman had been annoyingly hard. Even Tattletale couldn't magic information out of thin air, and Psyker had been remarkably low key since taking over the Merchants.

The lack of information was a form of information in and of itself, but it didn't help her figure out the cape's motivations, mindset, and possible connection to Coil.

Coil has interacted with Psyker before. Coil has not informed Psyker that the Undersiders are on his payroll. Coil has plans for Psyker.

What a stupendous deduction there. Truly, Lisa would never have been able to figure that out for herself. It wasn't like Coil, controlling bastard that he was, had plans for everything. Oh, wait. He did!

Lisa is frustrated by her lack of easy success and is lashing out with sarcasm.

Grinding her teeth in irritation at the unwanted self-psychoanalysis, the best Thinker in Brockton Bay decided to focus on the task at hand. That being making sure that her team didn't fuck this up.

"Do we really have to do this so late?" Regent asked plaintively. "It's cold."

Is complaining for the sake of complaining. Knows he is being annoying. Is annoyed because he was made to get off the couch.

"Yes, we do." Lisa stubbornly refused to show any hint of the irritation she was feeling. "We won't be the only villains there, so we need neutral ground, and we can't exactly have a meeting in broad daylight."

"As long as the pay is good." Bitch grunted.

Is annoyed by the lack of work in recent months due to Brian's injury. Worried about her dogs. Hoping for a big payout. Will try to scare off other villains if it increases her share of the pay.

Predictable, but goddamnit, Rachel. She'd already run off Spitfire not long ago, which could have increased their group strength and let them take some jobs. Bitch was very much an immediate benefits kind of girl.

"Let's get moving. We're already running late because somebody…" Grue paused to stare pointedly at Regent. "… couldn't find a clean pair of underwear."

Is exasperated.

"It's not my fault that we have two girls on the team and neither of them can cook or do laundry." Regent complained.

Is hoping that sexism will provoke a reaction.

Thanks, Power, I totally couldn't have figured that one out by myself.

Lisa pointedly ignored the emotionally stunted manchild and looked at Bitch expectantly.

Rachel, no doubt scowling furiously beneath her cheap dog mask, used her power to grow her dogs. They became the size of rhinos and easily a lot more dangerous, but the training she gave them kept them docile. At her direction, they allowed themselves to be mounted and carried them off to the meeting space.

Arriving in this way was going to be a statement about their value and a warning to not screw with them. Meetings between villains were always tense things.

They'd moved away from their lair before masking up, and it was late enough that they only encountered a couple of people on their ride to the Boat Graveyard, all of whom sensibly got out of the way without issue.

Thanks to Alec being a little shit, they were the last to arrive. The dogs skidded to a stop at the water near one of the abandoned piers.

"Good evening, everyone." Lisa chirped with exaggerated cheer, whipping out a flashlight.

The darkness would have stunted her ability to read people.

Uber and Leet had elected to show up in Sonic the Hedgehog masks over regular street clothes. And Circus was also there in her… his?… her usual flashy costume.

Lisa winced, her power fritzing out as usual when it tried to figure out the grab-bag's gender. She was pretty sure that there was some kind of Stranger effect there, but couldn't see through it.

And then there was their host, standing in front of a shiny black Audi. She was a tall girl with curly black hair, blue eyes, a tinkertech mask, and a costume put together from a mix of fancy wool coat and biker leathers similar to Grue.

Car is enhanced by tinkertech. Psyker is fifteen-years-old. Is wearing contact lenses, real eye color is brown. Is not afraid.

Lisa had to do a double-take at that. Not afraid? Uber, Leet, and Circus had seen Bitch's monster dogs before and had still taken an instinctive step back when they barreled onto the scene. But Psyker, who was encountering them for the first time, didn't so much as flinch? And she was only fifteen?

Psyker does not fear the dogs. Psyker is confident. Psyker is concentrating on controlling her facial expressions. Psyker is concentrating on controlling her body language. Psyker is concentrating on listening. Psyker is concentrating on watching everyone. Psyker is multitasking. Psyker is aroused.

Wait, what? That couldn't be right, could it?

She took a closer look and saw that it was true. Just a barely noticeable flush on her skin and pupil dilation, but it was definitely there.

"Undersiders." The surprisingly young cape said coolly. "You're late."

Psyker is concentrating on controlling her tone. Psyker is aroused.

Alright then, Brockton Bay's newest parahuman gang boss might be a deviant. Good to know.

"Sorry, Regent couldn't find his undies." Lisa jerked her head towards the manchild in question, filing that bit of information away for now.

"An Undie couldn't find his undies." Leet cackled.

Thinks he is being funny.

You don't say, Power?

"Fuck off, Tats." Regent cursed mildly.

Lisa looked expectantly towards Grue, waiting for him to assert some control. He was always talking about the importance of reputation and this was not a good look. Instead, she found him staring at Psyker.

Her heart fell. Oh, this was really bad. Part of the reason she'd started this little shitshow was to get a reaction out of Grue, but if he didn't care to control them anymore…

Then he really was thinking about leaving. That was a problem, because if the Undersiders fell apart, she would have a lot less freedom to act against Coil. To say nothing of how the bastard himself would react. And she couldn't even tell him that leaving the Undersiders was a dangerous idea, because then Coil would punish her for it.

She was not going to get locked up in a tiny room, hooked up to an IV that drip-fed her a drug cocktail to keep her compliant. Coil had showed her that room as a threat of what was waiting for her if she tried to run away or if her usefulness as a free agent ran out.

"Yes, very amusing." Psyker said, not sounding amused at all. "If you are done playing around…?"

Psyker is choosing her words and tone carefully. Is presenting the image of a serious cape to offset her youth and inexperience. Is aroused.

Lisa was getting much less than she usually did, to her annoyance. Most people had a thousand little tells in their body language, microexpressions, voice tone, and more. Psyker was giving away barely anything in comparison.

"What's the fuckin' job and how much are you paying?" Bitch grunted irritably, clearly fed up as well.

"For you, the job would be variable. The pay is twenty-five hundred dollars per deployment for each of you, though I would ask for a basic overview of your powers so that I know what you are suited for. I already know about Bitch and Grue."

Yeah, they had pretty obvious powers, she and Regent not so much.

"Will you share yours?" Lisa asked sweetly.

Psyker stared at her colly for a moment before replying. "I am a Thinker specializing in data processing and planning."

Psyker is lying by omission. Multitasking extends to much more than just controlling her body. Psyker can split her focus to think of multiple things at once.

Hehe, nobody pulled one over on Tattletale!

"I can jerk people off from a distance." Alec volunteered with a leer.

"He can cause muscle spasms." Lisa corrected drily. "As for me? Well, I'm psychic!"

He could do a lot more than that. Give him a few hours to work on a person and he could take complete control of their bodies. She had been more than a little unnerved when she first figured that out, but Alec showed no inclination to use the full extent of his power.

"Is that right?" Psyker drawled.

Is amused. Knows that Lisa is lying. Thinks that Lisa is stupid for bragging about being psychic.

She hadn't been called stupid, but Lisa was still extremely annoyed at being thought as such and just couldn't let it go.

"Your actual power is multitasking. You're using it to micromanage everything about yourself and think multiple things at once." She revealed smugly. "And you're really turned on right now."

"Tattletale!" Grue growled warningly.

Psyker's expression didn't budge a millimeter. Her body didn't move. Her eyes betrayed nothing.

And yet Lisa felt pain spike in her skull as her power strained to understand… something. It was usually good for about fifteen minutes of continuous use before she started getting a Thinker headache, but right now she felt like she'd burned a good chunk of it in one go.

"I was warned that you were mouthy." Psyker said coolly.

Psyker is annoyed at Lisa. Is aroused. Finds Lisa attractive. Likes Lisa's catsuit. Wants to dominate Lisa sexually.

Lisa wasn't perturbed by the lewd thoughts. It was far from the first time that she'd caught something like that from people and it wouldn't be the last. She got worse just walking down the street and Alec frequently masturbated while thinking about her for the express purpose of

grossing her out.

In fact, this was an opportunity!

Sure, Lisa was straight and had also given up on the notion of ever having sex, despite a perfectly healthy teenage libido. Her powers tended to brutally murder it with the most excessive case of TMI known to man. It was hard to even get in the mood, much less stay in it, when your power started analyzing a guy's breath to determine what he ate for breakfast, how thoroughly he showered, the concentration of dandruff in his hair, and many other things both inane and disgusting. She could reign it in if she focused, but that would kill the mood in another way. A classic catch-22. And the Thinker headaches, can't forget about those lovely episodes of skull-splitting agony.

But she was still able to exploit her looks. People were naturally more inclined to help those they found sexually attractive, and Lisa was absolutely not above sticking out her tits and ass to manipulate them, as long as it went no further than that. If she was body shy, then she wouldn't have chosen a tight purple catsuit as her villain costume.

Part of her plan to suborn Coil's mercenaries hinged on the fact that she was a pretty girl and he was a creepy, bone-thin freak. For all their professionalism, those mercenaries were not immune to the usual human foibles. It wouldn't be enough on its own, but if she could prove that she could pay them just as well then it would tilt the odds in her favor. Mercenaries were by definition not loyal and Coil certainly didn't inspire any loyalty.

"She's got you pegged, Tats." Alec snickered, then turned to address their host. "But if you're turned on, does that mea-oof!"

Grue had smacked him in the gut to interrupt him.

Was about to ask if Psyker wanted to hire the Undersiders for sexual services.

Thanks, Power. Super important info there.

"Both of you shut up." Grue said sharply and turned back to their prospective employer. "Sorry about them."

Is embarrassed to be associated with Lisa and Alec. Thinks that Lisa is being immature and petulant.

Hey!

"Getting back to the matter at hand..." Psyker's tone didn't betray her feelings at all. "Are you interested in my commission?"

"You're going after Lung, right?" Everything about Grue's manner scream his discomfort with the idea. "We've knocked over the occasional ABB stash in the past, but that's a little out of our league."

"How do you defeat an enemy that thrives on battle? You deny him battle." Psyker stated confidently. "I will have Lung fleeing the city in shame."

Is not afraid of Lung. Confident she can handle him.

Okay, Psyker was either extremely arrogant or knew something they didn't.

"And what part would we play in that?" Their fearless leader asked.

"Distractions. Attacking ABB assets while I have Lung occupied elsewhere. That kind of thing."

"Do we get to keep the money we take?" Bitch stepped forward to ask, glaring at Psyker challengingly.

"My goal is to take over the ABB's territory and infrastructure once Lung is driven off." Psyker explained, staring back fearlessly. "I can't have you carelessly smashing and grabbing if I want to do that."

"Then you should pay more." Bitch growled threateningly.

Thinks she can force Psyker to pay more by intimidating her. Is trying to establish the strength of her pack. Took Psyker's lack of visible anger as weakness.

Lisa wanted to groan in irritation. Rachel's powers had re-wired her brain to work more like a dog's, which was great for working with dogs, but a lot less great for working with people. It was especially bad when dealing with people who had a lot of self-control and didn't emote much.

Psyker simply glared back at Bitch, not giving an inch. The three growling muscle mountains didn't even merit a glance. "You will be paid fairly, no more and no less."

Psyker does not feel threatened. Knows she has the upper hand.

Lisa looked around nervously, wondering what was giving Psyker all that confidence. Rachel visibly faltered at the complete lack of fear, and so did her dogs. Brutus whined a bit and lowered his head. Psyker felt somehow… bigger.

Lisa felt another spike of pain in her skull as she pushed her power to figure out what was going on, but it didn't tell her anything. There was some kind of presence emanating from Psyker, an intimidating one. Nothing like Glory Girl's emotion aura – her power could detect that easily. This was something else.

"Stand down, Bitch." Grue said sharply, deescalating the situation.

Rachel obeyed with less fuss than normal.

Is grateful for the order because it allowed her to back down without looking weak.

"Your team seems quite unruly." Psyker observed neutrally.

Thinks she could do better as a leader. Wants to absorb the Undersiders into the Black Hand.

Well now, that was interesting.

"You think you could do better?" Lisa smirked, seeing a chance to needle the other girl a bit. Maybe it would shake up some more information.

Psyker's heavy stare bore down on her and her head spiked with pain again.

"Clever little foxes should be careful that they don't outsmart themselves."

It wasn't a threat, but it was definitely a warning. More importantly…

Psyker knows Lisa is probing for information. Is feeling challenged. Believes she is the better Thinker.

Like hell!

"I'm the only one who can." Lisa smirked, throwing out a hip and sticking out her chest. Her smirk widened when she saw Psyker's gaze flick downwards.

Psyker likes the view. Does not believe Lisa is smarter.

Most people didn't, but they were wrong.

"Grue, I'm sorry, but I vote that we go work for Psyker permanently." Regent said solemnly. "Can't you smell the sexual tension in the air? We have to do it for the girl on girl action!"

"Go die in a fire, Regent." Lisa said flatly, but internally she was grinning. He'd given her a perfect opportunity to probe for information. "I'd demand at least five thousand a month plus bonuses, full medical and dental, paid vacations, and the option of retiring anytime I wanted."

The rest of it was just fluff. It was the last part that was meant to test what kind of person Psyker was. Money was nice, but security was much more valuable for a squishy Thinker like her.

"If you are willing to come fully into my employ, I would be happy to have you." The young gang boss said evenly.

Is telling the truth. Does not find your demands unreasonable. Is easily making enough money to accommodate you. Believes in fair pay for fair work. Is from a working class family.

"And no girl on girl action." Lisa rushed to add. It would look like a teenage girl worrying about her virtue – which was admittedly a potential concern if Psyker turned out to have a predatory bent in that direction – but in truth she said it to squeeze out more data.

"Of course." Psyker drawled.

Is only slightly disappointed. Never expected you to be interested. Will not force the matter.

Fucking yes! Options, baby! Ideally, she would be able to usurp Coil's organization out from under him and be her own boss. But if that went sideways, then having someone else to run to was an excellent fallback.

When she'd first been 'recruited' Lisa had given serious thought to running off to join the Empire 88 at least long enough to get some breathing room before skipping town altogether. She would shamelessly admit that she was selfish enough to ignore the whole racism bit for as long as she had to, but her power screamed at her that Kaiser was a narcissistic egomaniac that wouldn't be any better than Coil as a boss. Even if it worked – which it wasn't guaranteed to – she'd have just been trading one asshole for another.

Lung was not worth mentioning and the Protectorate would be legally obligated to contact her parents, which was a big fuck no. And she'd later learned that Coil had the PRT infiltrated up the wazoo anyway.

Now there was finally a gang boss in Brockton Bay that didn't make her power throw up red flags like it was at a communist rally. Her young age made it even better, as it would give Lisa the opportunity to schmooze her way into a friendship to secure her position further.

"Awww." Regent pouted.

Is disappointed by the lack of girl on girl action.

Thank you, Power. I never would have guessed.

"Five thousand a month." Bitch spoke up, now sounding very interested. "Would you pay for my dogs, too?"

Is considering taking the offer. Already sees Psyker as a strong pack leader. Stronger than Grue.

Oh. Lisa had been so busy digging for information that she'd forgotten to consider that her teammates might actually decide to jump ship. But this wasn't necessarily a bad thing… Yes, she could work with this.

"I would." Psyker said immediately. "I can also assign people to help you if you need more hands."

Considers it a small price to pay to get Bitch into her service.

Well, Rachel had a lot of dogs, so the cost of taking care of them all was not a trivial expense. On the other hand, having a large pack of trained dogs that could be juiced up with her power was also not a small force multiplier.

"What about Hookwolf and his dog fighting rings?" Bitch's voice turned angry at the mention of the Empire's murder blender and his hobbies. "You gonna run them out of town?"

"Yes."

Psyker switched to using simple, firm statements to communicate with Rachel. Has realized that verbose communication confuses and angers her.

Well, she might not be as smart as Lisa, but she certainly wasn't dumb.

"Can I get in on this, too?" Regent asked mockingly. "For five thousand a month, you can keep me around as your personal boytoy to take care of that itch Tats says you've got."

Psyker is considering it. Prefers Brian's physique.

Oh? Bisexual, huh? Lisa would cheerfully toss both Alec and Brian her way if necessary, so this was good info.

"For five thousand a month, I will use you as I see fit."

Psyker refusing to show weakness. Would rather be seen as a lustful deviant than as a pushover. Intends to get her money's worth out of Regent.

"Now you're speaking my language." Regent leered. "Just keep me on the down low and you've got yourself a deal, Boss Lady. I look forward to working under you."

Is on the run from someone. Regent is a human Master. Canadian accent. Regent is a child of Heartbreaker. Ran away from him. Will run again if the Undersiders draw too much media attention. The thought of being a paid boytoy appeals to his apathy and libido. Has almost no sense of pride or dignity.

Some of that she'd already known, some of it she had strongly suspected, and some of it she could have happily remained ignorant of.

"Are you guys serious right now?" Grue looked at each of them in turn.

Surprised by the way this went. Exasperated. Slightly worried. Not upset. Was thinking of leaving the Undersiders anyway.

"I mean, it's a good deal." Lisa shrugged. "Let's sleep on it and decide later."

Coil would no doubt want her to take the deal and act as a spy in the Black Hand, especially if Brian left and reduced them down to three members. Trying that kind of thing on a fellow Thinker, even if her power wasn't as good art ferreting out information, was dangerous. However, it was also an opportunity to cozy up to the rising gang boss and make allies in a way that wouldn't draw any suspicion.

It was perfect.

Grue gave a slow nod and turned back to Psyker. "We'll think about your offer."

Wants to know what was done to his mother. Will use this job as an opportunity to find out.

"I am pleased to hear it. Now, Uber and Leet…" She turned to face the gamer duo.

… who stopped their awkward shifting. They and Circus had been supremely uncomfortable with how the conversation had gone. Even Leet had enough self-awareness to realize that being in your twenties and inserting yourself into sex-charged conversation between a bunch of teens was a losing proposition on all fronts.

"Just so you know, we aren't interested in selling out." Uber spoke up immediately, He used the same resonant 'announcer voice' that he employed in their YouTube videos and livestreams.

Is using that voice out of habit.

"Same here." Circus chimed in, unsurprisingly. They'd tried to recruit the gender-ambiguous cape a while back and received a firm refusal.

"A simple business transaction, then."

"You should know that we only do video game themes so that we don't dilute our brand." Leet piped up.

"Yes, I've anticipated that stipulation." Psyker responded in a drawl.

Irritated. Does not like Uber and Leet.

"I've heard that you are capable of making anything once. Is that restricted to mechanical devices or does your Tinker specialty permit creations in the fields of chemistry and bioengineering?"

"Uh, yeah, I can do that. I just prefer to avoid it because it makes the PRT nervous." Leet replied hesitantly.

Fears what malfunctioning biological or chemical tinkertech will do.

Lisa feared it, too.

"Could you make a container of Dungeons and Dragons style gelatinous ooze that grows rapidly and stiffens in response to heat, but dissolves in response to a common fluid such as water or alcohol? It need not actually do anything except that. In fact, it would be preferable if it did not."

Intends to use it against Lung. Intends to use it to suffocate Lung by using his fire against him.

Okay, Lisa had to admit that that was pretty clever. It was just… trusting Leet of all people to make such a thing?

The Tinker in question was almost vibrating with excitement. "Yeah… Yeah! I can make that. It'll take me a few days, but I can definitely do it. And I haven't made anything like it yet, so it should work like a charm."

"Thirty thousand." Uber took up negotiations.

Uber is using his power to make himself good at negotiating.

"Ten." Psyker instantly shot his demand down. "You lack the reputation and reliability to demand more."

"Twenty-eight." Uber compromised. "You can't go to anyone else for this."

"Twelve." Psyker responded. "Leet can only make prototypes, so I expect it to be somehow flawed."

"Okay, first of all, rude. Second of all, twenty-five. His creations work best if he hasn't made anything like it before."

Uber and Psyker both know they will settle on twenty thousand. Uber is playing out a cliche. Psyker is humoring him for the sake of expediency.

"Fourteen and I will consider not running you out of town once I take it over."

"That confident? Then how about twenty-three and you do an episode with us when you're a big name villain?"

"Seventeen and I won't take revenge for what you did to my prostitutes during your Grand Theft Auto episode."

"We had to do that to keep it authentic." Leet piped up.

Does not consider the injuries they cause with their antics to be worth complaining about.

Uber and Leet were immature assholes, more at eleven.

"Ah." Uber's confident posture shrank and he gave his partner a warning swat. "They weren't yours at the time?"

Unbalanced. Did not expect Psyker to care about the well-being of prostitutes. Knows that Leet has damaged his bargaining strength. Knows that the GTA episode was a mistake.

"They are mine now."

Possessive and protective of what she considers hers. Unwilling to forgive offenses.

Finally some useful information. Also a mixed blessing in regards to working for her.

"Twenty-one and an apology?"

"Nineteen and an apology." Psyker's tone gained a note of finality.

Deliberately going below twenty thousand to assert dominance.

"Alright, that's fair."

"Good. I am sure the girls will be eagerly awaiting your visit."

"Yeah..."

Did not expect Psyker to take the offer of apology seriously. Is reluctant to follow through.

"I may have further use for a man of varied talents in the future, but for now our business is concluded."

Likes Uber better than Leet. Considers him more useful. Is thinking of ways to get rid of Leet while keeping Uber for herself. Wants his power. Thinks him physically attractive. Dislikes him.

Oho, what's this? Juicy info?

Don't mind if I do!

"You have the number of our burner phone, but you can reach us on our website. Make sure to like and subscribe." Uber said, again slipping into his announcer voice.

Knows that their internet careers are in decline.

Yeah, that happened when you failed consistently. Either way, Psyker didn't dignify it with a reply, turning to the last attendant of this meeting.

"As for you, Circus. You are a thief, yes? Does that include stealing vehicles?"

Wants materials for Gearshift's tinkering and to deprive the ABB of transportation.

"I'm usually more of a breaking and entering kind of girl, but I can do a few carjackings if you're paying me for it." The flashily dressed, but not very talkative grab-bag said.

Is not female. Is female.

Lisa winced again and forcibly stopped herself from thinking about that part.

"I'm assuming you're offering to pay per car?" Circus asked.

"Motorcycles and vans will also be appreciated, but yes." Psyker nodded. "You will also be provided with list of ABB members. Take only from them, understand?"

"And have Oni Lee on my ass?" Circus snorted.

"Oni Lee is no longer with the ABB."

Lisa's mind whirled as the others made some exclamations of surprise.

"The fight last night. Something happened?" She blurted out, recalling the few seconds of blurry cell phone camera footage someone had posted on PHO. All it had showed was a pissed off Lung running after some kind of tinkertech APC. Combined with what she'd been able to glean from hacking into the PRT's files, it was clear that the resident rage dragon had been humiliated.

"Yes."

"Did you kill him?" Grue asked neutrally.

"The man known as Oni Lee died a long time ago. His power was not to teleport, but to clone himself in a location he could see. And every time he did so, a piece of him was lost. The hollow creature beneath the demon mask would obey anyone who can speak Japanese."

Psyker is telling the truth. Is amused. Is smug.

"Oh, that's why he was so hard to read." Lisa whispered to herself into the stunned silence.

Oni Lee never spoke and was never seen doing anything other than fighting. With that and his full face mask, he was damn near impossible even for her to get a read on.

"And you speak Japanese?" She had to ask.

"Yes."

Is telling the truth.

Unusual. Psyker had a Brockton Bay accent and definitely wasn't Japanese, but it could be the result of either association with a Japanese speaker or rapid learning with her Thinker power.

"You've got him nearby, don't you?" Lisa asked, finally realizing why Psyker had been so damn confident the whole time.

The skin around the other girl's eyes crinkled a bit as she smiled under the mask. Then she silently raised her right hand and Oni Lee popped into existence right next to her.

"Holy shit!" Leet squawked and jumped back. The rest were more dignified in their responses, but everyone instinctively tensed up at the sight of the demon-masked murderer.

Oni Lee, however, did nothing. He just stood there, placidly waiting for orders.

"Well, this changes everything." Circus grinned, nervousness quickly dissipating. "Without this guy popping up to shank me, it's open season on the ABB."

Knows she can escape even if Lung shows up.

Yeah, the big dragon man really wasn't that hard to run away from as long as he wasn't already ramped up. And someone like Circus would barely trigger his power. The mysteriously gendered cape was absolutely right to say that it was open season on the ABB. The gang would die the death of a thousand cuts without Oni Lee even if Psyker proved unable to handle Lung himself.

"I don't intend to tolerate the ABB's continued existence for much longer, so don't get too comfortable with the idea of stealing from Brockton Bay's Asian community. They will be mine after this." Psyker warned.

"Right." Circus nodded.

Is considering stealing from Psyker in the future.

Lisa couldn't say she was surprised. Villains were going to villain, and Psyker didn't have the same brutal reputation as Lung.

"Unless anyone has question, I believe that our business is concluded." Psyker said. "I look forward to working with you all."

Is just saying that to be polite.

XXXXX

Coil deliberately let the phone ring several times before answering. Didn't want his Tattletale getting too comfortable, after all.

"Yes?" He inquired.

"Hey, Boss!" She chirped, knowing that he found it annoying. "We just got back from the meeting."

"And?" Coil prompted, knowing that she would wait for him to do so, again to annoy him.

"Oh, it went great. She commissioned Leet to biotinker her a counter to Lung, hired Circus to steal cars from the ABB, and basically poached the Undersiders from you."

"What?" Coil blinked.

"Yep!" Tattletale chirped even more cheerily. She was clearly going to need a chastisement soon. "Straight up offered five thousand a month plus bonuses, paid vacations, full dental and medical, financial support for Rachel's dogs... the works. Regent and Bitch are definitely gonna ditch you. Grue is thinking of semi-retiring from villainy anyway."

Coil froze in place for a moment. He'd been focusing so much attention on acquiring Dinah Alcott that this caught him completely by surprise when it really shouldn't have.

Psyker didn't know that the Undersiders were on his payroll, so it only made sense to use the money she was making to lure them into her service. And in her inexperience she had offered more than they were worth, 'outbidding' his two thousand dollars a month. The fact that they didn't know who he was probably also factored into it

Just went to show that even in the era of parahumans, money was still a superpower.

Now what to do about this? Having something of his stolen like this, even accidentally, was more than a little annoying.

Bitch and Regent could easily be killed, they were basically a non-factor.

Grue he would once again have a stronger hold over once Creep caused a little family tragedy. The young man would go to great lengths to keep his poor, traumatized sister out of the foster care system, something that Psyker couldn't offer at this point. Coil could use that carrot and stick to keep stringing him along for years.

Tattletale knew better than to think he would let her go so easily.

But was it even worth doing anything?

Bitch and Regent were low value capes. One was a brutish simpleton that only cared about dogs and the other was an unmotivated, self-indulgent hedonist. Their loose morals made them easy to use, but that was all. Even if Psyker took over paying for them, he could easily subcontract their services from her if he ever needed them. It just wasn't worth revealing his hand by either killing them or getting them back fully into the fold.

Grue, on the other hand, could be brought in deeper once he no longer had a team to lead. His power was versatile and could be used to shut down most opposition. A powerful support cape for his mercenaries. It would raise his profile in the city to have a parahuman visibly working for him, but Psyker was already shaking things up, so perhaps it was time. Accord had also mentioned a problematic, but powerful, group of capes called the Travelers that were causing him some consternation. He could take those off his hands and make sure that Psyker didn't end up outgunning him.

"Did she make this offer to Uber, Leet, and Circus as well?" He asked.

"Didn't even have time to." Tattletale answered with an audible shrug. "They preemptively told her they weren't interested."

Coil supposed that made sense. Uber and Leet were dedicated to their silly video game theme and had rejected his own offer in the past, not that they remembered it. Circus, however, was on his payroll.

"Take the offer." He ordered.

"And be a spy for you?" Tattletale asked sarcastically, clearly having expected it.

"Exactly."

"Another thing you should know, Bossman." Her words prevented him from hanging up.

"What?"

"Psyker's got Oni Lee on board. Turns out that his power wasn't teleporting and leaving clones behind, but cloning himself at a distance. It shaved off bits of him until he was basically a walking corpse that will obey anyone that speaks Japanese. Psyker figured it out somehow and stole him away from Lung."

Coil hated surprises and this was one hell of a surprise. He hadn't seen it coming in the slightest. It also suddenly made Psyker far more dangerous. And was Taylor Hebert seriously able to learn Japanese in such a short amount of time?

"You're sure of this?"

"Yep. She showed him off to us during the meeting."

Which had no doubt contributed to Bitch and Regent wanting to go work for her. Psyker really did seem to have a natural talent for villainy.

But this was starting to get out of hand. She was being too successful. An abundance of success tended to make parahumans… ambitious. A few setbacks and tragedies would have to be arranged in the future, things that would make her see the wisdom of relying on someone older and more experienced. Taylor Hebert did still have a father, and the Empire would want to strike back after they took a few hits. He was already planning to eventually leak information on the identities of the Empire capes as a way to force them out of the city. He could do the same to her, blame it on the Empire, and then help them relocate somewhere else.

It was a good starting point.

"Then it is more important than ever that you keep a close eye on her." He said to his Tattletale and hung up.

He also needed to try out a few more assassinations in disposable timelines, just to make sure that she was still manageable.

XXXXX

"Huh, he didn't ask any question about Psyker." Lisa put her phone down and shrugged. If Coil wasn't going to ask for information, then she certainly wasn't going to volunteer it. Although he probably used his powers to figure it out already.

The only reason she'd even told him about Oni Lee was because it would be obvious soon.

XXXXX

On another Earth named the Garden of Flesh by the shadowy conspiracy group Cauldron, a dimensionally-compacted bio-crystalline supercomputer chugged along in low power mode. It still couldn't make heads or tails of Queen Administrator's host, so it discouraged its own host from being too curious. The Negotiator's host was already on the case, so it was fine.

XXXXX

"How'd it go?" Sherrel asked curiously as soon as she arrived back at the lair, the Tinker having been too worried about her to go to sleep.

"Better than expected." Taylor replied happily. "Instead of just contracting them for a job, I'm pretty at least two of the Undersiders will agree to come work for me directly, with a third being a strong possibility."

"Which ones?" Sherrel asked with interest. "Please tell me one of them was Grue! I'd love to give that prime dish of man a proper welcome."

"He's the least likely to join, I'm afraid." Taylor couldn't help but be amused. "Regent and Bitch are pretty much a sure thing and Tattletale is a strong maybe."

She made the executive decision to not mention Regent's offer to be her boytoy. Not only was that far more tempting than it had any right to be, considering she didn't even find his effeminate looks all that attractive, but she feared that she wouldn't be able to stop if she allowed herself to indulge her curiosity even once.

She already had multiple mental iterations going over how good Tattletale looked in that catsuit and how good she'd look with her smart mouth occupied by something else. Several more focused on how well built both Uber and Grue were. Another dozen or so were already plotting out all the ways she could use Regent. And now most recently, yet more were pointing out that Sherrel was a whole lot of woman and that she would be into all kinds of stuff. With all their powers combined, these mental iterations started creating some extremely lewd scenarios.

I really need to get Emma back soon… or could we do something psychically? I've been meaning to talk to her anyway, so it's worth a try.

With the way her powers worked, there was no escaping the horny now that it had been unleashed.

Ignoring the heat pooling in her core with the ease of practice, Taylor considered the more important things she had seen.

Some people had a particular presence or image in the Empyrean. Emma's old cracked glass sculpture, Sophia's cruel lurking shadow, Madison's swaying reed, her father's heavy anchor, and so on. Not all of them made sense to her, and a lot of people were barely distinct from each other, but these images in the Empyrean gave clues about them. The more defined the shape, the bigger the clue.

Bitch had looked more dog than human, growling and distrustful. Grue was a wall of darkness, solid and protective. Regent was a broken heart, wounded and subdued. Tattletale had looked very much like a fox, crafty and curious, but not in the same way as Bitch. More… metaphorical. The English language really was insufficient to explain these psychic phenomena.

None of them had the kind of weak or addictive personalities that would allow her to reel them in with a light psychic touch. Paying them each sixty thousand dollars a year plus benefits was actually quite cheap if they were regarded as specialists with valuable skills.

But the money was only the initial hook. Machiavelli had been quite empathic on the uselessness of mercenaries and his reasoning made sense. Once she had them in her sphere, Taylor would be sure to find a way to make them truly loyal… or she would send them away before someone else could buy them out from under her.

"I guess he was probably too young anyway." Sherrel muttered to herself.

Probably, yes. For all his size, build and seeming maturity, Grue was definitely still a teenager.

"Get some rest, Sherrel. We've got a big day tomorrow."

"Oh yeah, I can't wait to fuck some shit up again!" The Tinker said giddily. "I should install a fucking vibrator on the driver's seat."

"Sherrel, no."

"Fine, I'll keep that kind of thing for the Bang Bus."

"We are not calling it the Bang Bus."

"Just try and stop us." Sherrel gloated, utterly convinced that the whores would want to call it that.

Taylor hated the fact that she was probably right, so she just shook her head and went off to bed.

Taking off her costume, she once more considered updating it. The coat had been an okay choice for a cape with limited options, but that was no longer the case. There was a company in New York that would create a custom cape outfit and deliver it. Undoubtedly watched by the PRT and expensive as hell, but she'd seen examples of their work and it was top notch. All you had to do was send them the design and the measurements and they would create as many copies as you asked for.

Another thing to talk to Emma about. She could task billions of mental iterations to putting together a costume, but it still wouldn't give her a flair for fashion.

Crawling naked into bed, she wiggled in between the silk sheets, an expensive indulgence that she hadn't been able to resist. They just felt so good! For a brief moment, she was tempted to indulge in something else, but shook off the urge. She could do that later if psychic sex didn't work, or during if it did.

Closing her eyes, Taylor breathed in deep and cast her mind through the Empyrean, following the tether to Emma's shackled soul.

The redhead was sleeping, her dreams fixating on Taylor as they always did these days. Slipping into her mind and taking control of the dream was easy. Gently cradling Emma's consciousness so that it couldn't escape into the waking world was a little harder, but not actually hard. She knew who she belonged to, so she didn't try to resist even subconsciously.

The chaotic dreamscape took form, solidifying into a replica of Emma's room. Only the windows, which showed nothing but the empty blackness of the Empyrean, betrayed the truth.

"Taylor!" Emma gasped in delight, sitting up in the bed. Her dreamform didn't have the still unhealed bruise on her cheek that her physical body did. "You're here! How did you get here?"

"You're still dreaming, Ems." Taylor told her, moving forward to join her on the bed.

"This is the best dream, then." Emma declared and threw aside the sheets, practically vibrating with eagerness. They were snuggled up together in seconds.

"Just like old times, huh?" Taylor sighed, remembering those days. It was only a few years ago, but the her of the past felt so different and distant that it might as well have been centuries.

"Not quite like old times." Emma giggled, rubbing their naked bodies together and moving in to nibble on her ear. The sense of lust filled the room in a very literal way, rather than a metaphorical one as it would in the real world.

It didn't feel the same proper physical contact, but it was still nice and resulted in a phantom tingle in her actual body. Taylor had to force down a new surge of lust and keep her hands from going wandering.

"Down, girl." She smirked and held her back, enjoying the disappointed pout on the redhead's face. "There's some things I need to talk to you about before we get to the fun."

"Okay." Emma continued to pout a little. "What things?"

"Tomorrow night, the Black Hand will be launching a full scale assault on the ABB." Taylor began. "And I don't intend to stop until Lung is defeated."

What she really wanted to do was kill him. Her instincts screamed at her to do it. Her morals, such as they were these days, demanded that he die for what he'd done. Even the literature she'd been reading advised to always destroy your enemies utterly so that they can't plan revenge later.

But the goddamn PRT was in the way of doing the sensible thing, again. Every bit of research she'd done confirmed her suspicions – they cared more about capes than about non-powered people. It was never outright stated of course, but the pattern of powerful capes getting a lot of leeway as long as their crimes were kept out of the public eye was clear if you knew what to look for.

Bitch was a fine example. She was actually an unmasked cape, her true identity being Rachel Lindt. According to official sources, she was wanted for a murder committed by parahuman powers several years ago. Given her age, the math didn't really check out. She'd have had to be very young at the time, and the alleged murder of her foster mother probably happened during her trigger event.

Taylor had read the law, and there was some vague wording about concessions for trigger events. The legalese was dense, but once you pierced the shroud of bullshit you realized that it could be twisted to mean anything. And there were no further crimes solidly pinned on Rachel after that, just suspicions.

The conclusion was clear – the PRT had played hardball during her trigger event because she was isolated and vulnerable and they wanted to force her into the Wards, but it backfired because Rachel refused to knuckle under.

But the biggest clue by far was the Birdcage. The place made zero sense.

An inescapable prison for villains who crossed the line too many times, the ominous three strikes rule. No chance of parole, no way out. Even if you were found innocent after the fact, it was literally impossible to extract you.

Allegedly.

The fact that capes always went to the Birdcage even for crimes that got normals the death penalty was suspicious. Kill orders were only assigned to capes that nobody seemed able to catch… and who killed other capes by the dozens. What was the point of putting hundreds of vicious bastards into a hole with each other, where they would be trapped for the rest of their lives and probably kill each other anyway? Why not just execute them instead of building an insanely expensive tinkertech prison?

It made sense if you looked at the Birdcage as more of a storage facility.

And it was co-ed. Both male and female capes went there. What little information there was available on the super prison claimed that the male and female wings were separated, but Taylor wasn't buying it.

The children of capes usually had the potential to become capes themselves, and the Birdcage was almost guaranteed to subject them to a trigger event. If the PRT was stockpiling capes, then why would they deny themselves such an easy way to get more?

It even shone a light on why Heartbreaker was allowed to live. He stayed away from other capes, only enslaved normals, and produced more capes with the women he mastered.

Conversely, Canary had been a rogue that used her voice-based power to sing uplifting songs, yet she was getting railroaded into the Birdcage as soon as she stepped a toe out of line. Taylor had a feeling that the singer would have gotten a lot more leeway if she'd decided to sing about gloom and doom and made people trigger from depression.

For what reason the powers that be were doing this, she didn't know. To fight the Endbringers? To counter Gesellschaft and the Yangban, who were doing something similar? Irrelevant for now. What was relevant was that killing Lung would mean spitting in the PRT's soup. They hadn't cared to look too hard at Skidmark's disappearance because he had been dismissed as just a measly low level Shaker, but Lung was a highly rated Brute, Blaster, and Mover. As much as she wanted to do it out of sheer spite, she didn't have either the reputation, prestige, or strength to fend off their retaliation if they decided that she was less valuable than the capes she was killing.

And so she was forced to stay non-lethal with Lung, despite every fiber of her being urging her to kill him.

Taylor swore to herself that one day it would be the PRT and the rest of the bastards stepping lightly around her.

Emma squeezed her tightly. "Just be careful, okay? I can't lose you again."

"Don't worry, I've accounted for everything."

And she had. Every player in the city, every combination of them. She'd even accounted for truly bizarre team ups like New Wave and the Empire 88. Not every potential occurrence had a counter that would lead to her victory, but she was confident in at least disengaging if it seemed like things were starting to go against her.

"Okay, if you say so." Emma relaxed at her assurance. "Why do you want to talk to me about that, though? Can I do something to help?"

"Not with this." Taylor pulled the redhead closer. "Yan and Lao. Do you want me to save them for you?"

Emma had tensed up at the mention of the man in charge of the ambush in the alley and the girl who had been intending to cut up her face. The question made her frown in confusion. "Save them for me? What do you mean?"

"For revenge." Taylor said as if it was obvious.

And to her it was. What they'd done was unforgivable. Lao made her want to break her own principles and force a woman to work as a whore. Threaten to maim her Emma, at age thirteen no less, and sell her like a piece of meat, would she? That it was the inciting event of the chain that led to her own trigger was also not forgotten or forgiven.

Lao wasn't a cape and Taylor didn't have to hold back. She'd refrain from forced prostitution simply because she didn't want the ABB's stench associated with the Black Hand, but that bitch was going to suffer.

Emma was quiet for a long moment, then she buried her face in Taylor's neck and mumbled out a response. The only reason she even heard it was because this was a dreamscape and thus didn't really operate on physical principles. "Can you take care of it for me? I don't want to see them again."

"Of course."

Emma was hers, so taking revenge on her behalf was just as fine. Lao and Yan would make perfect practice dummies for her powers.

And she didn't even have to try feeling bad about it. From what Taylor could tell, the ABB's gangers were split between vicious bastards and unwilling conscripts with very little in between. Taylor had found the likely reason for this in Machiavelli's writings.

Machiavelli cautioned a wise prince to keep his hands away from his own people's property and women, so as to not arouse their hatred. Lung extorted money from the gang and took whichever women struck his fancy. As a result, he was greatly feared, and also greatly hated.

The only ones that followed him willingly were petty monsters reveling in the chance to indulge their cruelties without consequence. Once Taylor took over, she intended to purge the city of the likes of them. Given the predatory behavior of the ABB, she expected this to be met with cheers… once they were assured she wasn't going to be the same, of course.

There were a few seconds of comfortable silence before Emma started pressing kisses against her neck and sliding a hand over her stomach.

Taylor once again had to push down the lust as her real body tingled with desire from the psychic interaction.

She grabbed on to Emma's dreamform and rolled them over until she was on her back, then manifested leather cuffs to hold her in place.

"Not yet." She whispered, taking in the sight of the bound redhead. "I still have something to talk to you about."

"Taaaay!" Emma whined, wiggling helplessly. "Can't it wait?"

"It can." Taylor admitted. "But I want you focused."

"Okay, fine." Emma huffed. "What do you want to talk about?"

"My costume." She said simply. "I want you to design me a new one."

The redhead's green eyes suddenly shone with eagerness. "Really?!"

"Really." Taylor confirmed. "What I'm using right now is a bit too… mundane. And Sherrel needs a proper costume, too."

Larry didn't, his powers had him covered, and Oni Lee's look was valuable in how recognizable it was. For now. Once the ABB was gone, his look would change as well.

"She's easy." Emma said immediately. "Her power is vehicles, right? A customized racing outfit would be perfect. And she likes to throw her sex appeal around, so something shiny and skintight and with the zipper down to show off a lot of cleavage. Colors and the pattern would be a bit more work to get just right, but I'm sure she'd have some ideas."

"I'll talk to her about it." Taylor nodded, happy to have that settled so easily. "What about mine?"

"Well… what kind of image do you want to portray?"

"Control, mystery, wealth, power." She rattled off, having been thinking of this for some time.

It had taken some adjustment, but Taylor now fully grasped the importance of a villain's reputation and appearance was a big part of that. That was why her mannerisms were more dramatic when she was acting as Psyker.

"Ummm…" Emma chewed thoughtfully on her lip for a bit, which sent several more mental iterations spinning off into the gutter. "The big hood thing you've got going now is good for mystery, but it should be a robe or a cloak instead of a coat. Something open at the front so the back can billow dramatically."

Taylor hummed, liking the sound of it. Aside from the fact that she was a woman, Alexandria had been her favorite hero because of her cool cape.

"What else?"

"Uhhh, can I get back to you on that?" The redhead asked with a hesitant smile. "I'd need a little time to think of something and I'm a little distracted right now."

"Mmm, that's fair. And you've been a good girl." Taylor said, allowing the lust to come back to the fore now that she had nothing more to talk about.

Emma was quick to understand where things were going and her eyes began to gleam eagerly. "Does that mean I deserve a reward?"

"It does." She allowed. "What would you like?"

"I want to please you again." The redhead said immediately, tongue flicking out to lick her lips. "Please, I've been dreaming about it ever since the first time."

"I told you, Ems." Taylor murmured, lifting herself up and shuffling forward so that she could straddle Emma's face. "You're still dreaming."

The bed changed under them, changing from a single to a queen size. With it, the manifested leather cuffs also changed position, pulling Emma's hands apart so that there was plenty of room for Taylor to place her knees. A new pair of leather cuffs manifested lower on the bed, grabbing her ankles and pulling them apart until she was spread eagle.

The redhead payed little heed to this, busy as she was immediately putting her tongue to use.

Taylor sighed a bit in pleasure, but also frowned. It felt good without a doubt, more real than a simple dream should, but still somewhat lacking. Well, better than nothing, and it wasn't like she couldn't use her physical hands to pleasure herself while this… mental projection was getting busy with Emma's dreamform.

Emma didn't seem to notice that anything was missing and took to her task with enthusiasm. She clearly still remembered that Taylor liked it hard and wasn't shy about using her teeth either.

"Good girl." Taylor murmured, putting a hand on the dreamform's head encouragingly. She was immediately able to sense the happiness from Emma in response and knew that the redhead was enjoying this even more than her.

Still, Taylor wanted to do more and with numerous mental iterations active, it didn't take long to remember something in particular.

The conversation between Larry and Louie about making porn, and using Larry's powers to simulate tentacles.

The dreamscape was easily malleable.

Deciding to try it, Taylor focused her will and shaped the Empyrean around them. Two small dark 'portals' opened into the dreamscape just below Emma's legs, several light purple tentacles slowly slithering out of them. In truth, the portals were just a visual effect to make it look like those tentacles were something other than a manifestation of her will.

For a moment, she considered that this might be taking things a bit too far, but quickly shook it off. This was basically just an advanced cooperative wet dream. It was fine to get a little kinky and Emma belonged to her anyway. She wouldn't mind.

Neither of them were using their eyes to see, so when the tentacles first touched her feet, Emma immediately knew what they were and tried to jerk away in shock, but the leather cuffs binding her limbs allowed almost no slack. All she could do was fruitlessly struggle to break free and try to yell into Taylor's crotch.

The sense of power was as big a turn on as the psychic cunnilingus and her masturbation became more vigorous to match the events of the dream.

Finding herself enjoying the mixed sense of fear and arousal suffusing the dreamscape, Taylor elected to not tell Emma what was going on. Instead she just kept a firm grip on her head and rocked her hips forward, pressing her sex more firmly against the redhead's mouth. "That's it, keep going."

Unable to refuse the order, she did her best to ignore the sensation of tentacles slowly wrapping their way up her legs. Two more portals opened up at the sides of Emma's body and more tentacles slithered out, moving towards her breasts. The tips teased the nipples, just as the lower tentacles started prodding at the redhead's clitoris, labia, and anus.

The fear spiked again and Emma did the only thing she could to find relief – she focused on pleasuring Taylor.

Letting out a low moan at the sensations her dreamform body was transmitting back to her, Taylor matched her masturbating to Emma's licking. This had been a great idea.

The tips of the tentacles opened up, revealing tiny mouths with even tinier blunt teeth. They latched on to the nipples and the clitoris, while the others began to slowly push their way into Emma's orifices.

The redhead squealed and bucked her hips, but there was no escape.

"Something wrong?" Taylor asked innocently, staring down at the half-panicked green eyes.

Which turned out to be a mistake, as Emma realized that she was being played with. Once she knew that the tentacles were Taylor's doing, she immediately calmed down and accepted their attentions.

The loss of such a powerful emotion was a bit disappointing, but the increased arousal and pleasure somewhat made up for it.

Emma shuddered in climax as the tiny mouths continued suckling on her sensitive bits and the tentacles writhed inside her vagina and anus, the five-fold stimulation being too much for her. The dreamscape shuddered along with her, threatening to collapse.

Taylor held it firm, not allowing Emma to wake up. She tugged lightly on her hair. "Get back to work."

Emma shook off the sense of euphoria and did as she was told, eagerly resuming the interrupted cunnilingus. The tentacles continued to pleasure her, but toned down the intensity.

Taylor couldn't help but be curious about how those felt, and this was a good a time as any to test it out. A new portal opened up and another tentacle slithered out, this one heading for her instead of Emma. Her sex was already being taken care of, so it aimed for her anus.

That was another thing that she'd been curious about, but had managed to refrain from testing out. She knew that she would enjoy it, which was why she had hesitated to try it. But it was fine if it was just in this dream.

The tentacle easily slid inside.

Taylor shivered, feeling a phantom sensation in her real body. Her powers made this into something more than just vivid imagining.

But still just a tease. With nothing in the real world to match what was happening in the dream, it was just leaving her hot and bothered.

That frustration led to several mental iterations attempting something that would have otherwise never occurred to her – manifesting those tentacles in the real world. It was something that even she considered a pointless effort, but it wasn't like it strained her to dedicate a few mental iterations to it.

But to her shock it worked. The Empyrean filled her body and then gave form to her will. The air solidified, turning into an exact replica of the dreamscape tentacles, minus the fake portals from which they came.

Thousands of mental iterations immediately began dissecting the implications of this event, even as the psychic tentacles positioned themselves at both of her entrances. There they paused for a moment as more mental iterations protested that this was taking things a bit far.

They were overruled by the more numerous horny mental iterations, who shouted back that it was just more masturbation and to get on with it. The thick tentacles slithered inside roughly, showing no concern for either her vaginal or anal virginity. Her hymen tore, her rectum stretched, both quite painfully. It was glorious.

Taylor moaned in climax both and bucked her hips, in the real world and in the dreamscape.

Once it passed, she backed up enough to free up Emma's mouth and smirked at her pout.

"That was a mean trick." The redhead said.

"You liked it." Taylor chuckled.

"Yeah." Emma admitted. "Will you stay with me?"

"I'm always with you." She said and allowed the gentle tides of the Empyrean to wash away the dreamscape, sending Emma's consciousness back to true sleep.

Sitting up in bed, Taylor reluctantly pulled the tentacles out of herself. Her recently self-violated orifices were sore and throbbing with pain, and there was a little blood trickling from her sex. Did this count as losing her virginity?

Well, she didn't feel as if she'd lost anything. All the hesitation felt downright silly in hindsight. It really hadn't been that big of a deal.

Shunting that into the background for now, Taylor turned her eyes to the glowing purple tentacles in front of her.

They were a solid manifestation of will, infringing on the physical world from the Empyrean and requiring considerable focus to maintain their shape. Multiple mental iterations were required to control them as finely as she did. Her body was the conduit through which this was made possible, and she knew that her eyes were sparking with eldritch light as she continued to uphold their existence.

Releasing them, she instead turned her gaze towards the socks she'd left carelessly draped over the back of a chair. With force of will, she pulled the Empyrean into herself and used its energies to yank on the sock. It flew towards her, surrounded by a pale glow.

"I'm a telekinetic, too?" She asked aloud, suspicion in her tone.

From a practical standpoint, this was a fantastic discovery. It would give her a whole new dimension of versatility and raise her value as a cape. It was just...

I have too many powers.

The rule was that parahumans only got one power. That power might have many applications, but it was still only one power.

There was some bend to that rule. Brutes and Blasters could often also fly, an ability that didn't necessarily have anything to do with their main power. Alexandria, the world's most famous flying Brute, was also known to be a powerful Thinker on top of it.

But for all she knew that could be another aspect of her powers. It wasn't like she knew how exactly they worked. A local example would be Glory Girl, a flying Brute very similar to Alexandria, who also had an emotion aura for some reason.

Perhaps their powers had some kind of unifying theme that tied it all together, a mechanic to it that was kept secret and hidden from the rest of the world. Lung's regeneration, escalating Brute rating, and pyrokinesis didn't seem to have any connection either, until you factored in that his real power was to turn into a dragon.

But only grab-bag capes were supposed to actually have multiple powers with no connection to each other, which Taylor knew she wasn't.

Her powers had been unusual from the start, but she had somewhat been able to dismiss them as a case of the aforementioned rule bending. Her main power was obviously the multitasking, and the psychic thing seemed to at least follow the same mental theme.

The minor Brute rating hadn't made sense until she took Louie's withdrawal symptoms onto herself. That had seemed to be the missing connection. It was all just barely plausible. A power to connect, manage, and uplift people, which would obviously require great mental and physical endurance.

But then her telepathic abilities continued to expand and grow in complexity. Another thing about powers was that they weren't supposed to grow in strength. What you got was what you got. Capes could learn to use them better, but they didn't actually get stronger. She was getting stronger though, she could feel it.

Powers were also supposed to be instinctive, but that only applied to her multitasking. Everything else she'd needed to practice using. And she had only become able to see the Empyrean after that first masturbation session once she got out of the hospital.

Now telekinesis. Again, it had some loose connection in the sense that it was another mental power, but it was straining credulity to the breaking point. Taylor couldn't find a way to fit it into her previous assumptions in a way that didn't sound like she was making excuses. Meaning that her previous assumptions on her powers were wrong, or…

Or there was something else in play here.

She had no proof, nothing at all to go on except a niggling feeling. It wasn't like parahuman powers were well understood, even thirty years after their first appearance. For all she knew there were other cases like hers. Eidolon's power was to swap between powers, which again seemed to break the rules. The Empire's Othala could grant a variety of powers to others. Invulnerability, regeneration, super strength,...

Maybe she was just some kind of weird Trump, as that seemed to be the one category of parahuman powers that was the most prone to breaking the rules.

Maybe.

Taylor would, however, make less assumptions about what she could and couldn't do with the Empyrean. It was the common point between her telepathy and newly discovered telekinesis. If she could do more, then that was most the most likely source of it.

And maybe she would do more sex stuff. It hadn't escaped her that her two biggest breakthroughs had happened while she was playing with herself.

XXXXX

Notes:

This is the last "finished" chapter I have. Chapter 10 might be done in time to be posted next week, but it also might not be. In short, we will soon be returning to a "when it's done" posting schedule instead of a weekly one.

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