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A Ruinous Gift by Noodlehammer

Warhammer & Worm Xover Rated: M, English, Crime, Words: 298k+, Favs: 3k+, Follows: 4k+, Published: Sep 20, 2023 Updated: Jan 28

2,397Chapter 17: Subversion

Alvor gets credit for beta-reading

XXXXX

April 11th, 2011.

Amy was pissed off. Vicky had come home yesterday, screaming her name outside her window after Taylor gave her a face full of pepper spray. Now she was going to give that villain a piece of her mind.

Yes, Vicky had gone out looking for trouble and found it. Yes, pepper spray wasn't that big of a deal and barely needed her healing to fix. Yes, she was more pissed off about having her Sunday evening ruined and Carol's decision to lecture Vicky right there in her room for a whole fucking hour. Yes, Dean had been annoying as fuck during school today when he had been told the story and they were having another of their 'on' phases. No, she was not using this as an excuse to meet up with Taylor again.

She kept a glare on her face as the car brought her to an unassuming – if slightly rundown – suburban neighborhood. It was a perfect example of 'lower middle class going through hard times' and something she would never have pegged as belonging to a villain, which was no doubt the point.

The door was already slightly ajar, clearly for her benefit, so she didn't bother knocking or ringing the doorbell. Amy even slammed it, to make it clear how angry she was.

"Over here, you're just in time." Taylor's voice called from just down the hall and to the right, not even having the decency to sound like she'd done anything wrong.

"Just in time for what?" Amy snarked, kicking off her shoes and ignoring the prepared slippers. Fuck slippers.

"Coffee. I know you like the stuff and I had some imported from Nicaragua."

"You can get shit out of Africa?"

"Nicaragua is in Central America."

Amy was definitely not blushing or embarrassed. So what if she'd never been good at geography?! Nicaragua sounded African! Taking a deep breath to calm down – her anger, not her embarrassment – she stepped into the modest living room.

Taylor was there, dressed in a nice blouse and a skirt that went to just above her knees. Her legs were covered in silky-looking stockings that did nothing to hide their muscle definition.

And she was pouring a cup of admittedly delicious-smelling coffee.

"Trying to buy me off with coffee now?" She snarked, ignoring her blunder.

"I figured it couldn't hurt." Taylor smirked unrepentantly, pouring herself a cup as well. "And what's the point of being a villain if you can't buy yourself a few luxuries?"

"I thought you were doing it to save the city." Amy accused, ignoring the milk and sugar on offer. She liked her coffee black and bitter, like her soul.

It was good fucking coffee.

"I am, but it turns out that a villain I've recently overtaken had a net worth of nearly three hundred million. And now it's all mine." Taylor also left her coffee untainted as she took a sip, so at least she wasn't a savage.

"Just like that?" Amy asked incredulously. "And which villain in Brockton Bay was that rich anyway?"

Kaiser did talk like a rich twat, but that rich? Besides, Kaiser was still around last she'd heard.

"Coil. He had a precog power that let him simulate what if scenarios with almost perfect accuracy. Amazing for risky short term stock market manipulation." Taylor answered easily. "Did you know he was planning to kidnap you and turn you into his pet healer back when you first triggered? He changed his mind real fast when the simulated you turned him into an eternally suffering skinless ball of flesh for killing Victoria. His subsequent attempts ended similarly darkly."

Amy felt a chill go up her spine. So she really had been one bad day away from going crazy, even back then?

"I wouldn't do that?" The denial felt more like a question than an actual denial.

"You're saying you wouldn't have come here to enact terrible vengeance upon me if I'd done worse than pepper spray your sister?" Taylor's smile behind her cup of coffee was sinister. "Because I could have, you know? Victoria is so much more fragile than even she knows. That force field of hers needs a second or two to recharge in between taking heavy blows. If it wasn't for her aura turning people's bowels to water when she fights, some thug with a gun would have probably killed her by now."

"Why are you telling me this?" Amy's hackles went up. Even New Wave hadn't known about that weakness in Vicky's aura. They'd never realized it had a period of weakness.

"I just wanted you to be aware that your sister should probably be a bit less reckless. Also, I would appreciate it if she toned down the aggression a bit. A hero really shouldn't be so violent."

Amy grimaced, the bitter taste of the coffee a good complement to her memories of the half dozen or so thugs that Vicky had severely injured over the years. Some of those men would have been permanently crippled or dead if it wasn't for her.

"She doesn't listen." She said, feeling tired. "I've told her over and over to control her aura, be careful about her strength. Carol has told her over and over to look before she leaps. She makes all the right noises, but she just keeps doing stupid shit."

"Hmm, I guess I'll have to stab her or something next time." Taylor nodded with a hum.

"Only if you want me to turn you into an eternally suffering skinless ball of flesh!" Amy snarled, surging to her feet. Whatever weird thing was between her and Taylor, Vicky was still her sister and the threat to her sent a rush of protective fury through her veins.

But Taylor only smiled. "Oh, so you would do that?"

The biokinetic glared, clenching her fists. She felt like she was being played with and she hated it. "I guess I would, so stay away from my sister."

"Are you sure?" Taylor asked, putting down her empty coffee cup and standing up as well. "We could have all sorts of… fun together."

Memories of many lurid daydreams and fantasies flashed through Amy's mind. Fantasies of being captured by villains, depowered by Tinkers, and forced to engage in all kinds of perverse acts.

Those kinds of daydreams were old and she knew exactly where they came from – wanting her cake and eating it too. After all, it wouldn't be her fault if she was being forced to have sex with her sister for whatever reason. Likewise, it wouldn't be her fault if Vicky had one day discovered a power-negating aspect of her force field and used it to ravish a suddenly helpless biokinetic. Or if they were both mastered and forced to do it. Or if they were stranded on an empty alternate Earth with only each other as company and started having sex out of a desperate need for intimacy and comfort. Or any number of other unlikely scenarios where she was absolved of all responsibility while still getting everything she wanted.

It was truly amazing what lengths the mind would go to when it was fixated on something.

Recently, those fantasies had started featuring Taylor more and more often. Sometimes as just an evil observer the same as the faceless imaginary villains in the past, but more often as an active participant in the debauchery. Vicky wasn't even there in all of the daydreams, but she'd been a fixture in them for so long that she still appeared sometimes.

Amy had an unsettling feeling that Taylor knew about those dreams somehow.

"Yes, I'm sure." She snapped. "Leave her alone."

Vicky was the one person in her adopted family that had fully accepted her, and whom she loved in turn. Even with the previous obsession gone, she still wanted to protect her and that meant keeping her out of Taylor's clutches. Brockton Bay's newest villain might not be the worst, but she was still a villain.

Said villain stalked over to her and Amy started backing away, eyes widening in surprise as she hit a wall. Before she could find another direction to move in, the taller girl pounced and pinned her in place.

"Your sister isn't the one I want, Amelia." Taylor whispered, pressing uncomfortably close.

"What did you call me?" Amy asked, trying not to squirm.

"Amelia, that's your name." The villain explained. "I had Tattletale look into your history. You were born Amelia Clare Lavere, but the Dallons renamed you Amy when they took you in."

"Amelia." Amy repeated, it sounded achingly nostalgic. She had definitely been called that before, by a man with a deep voice and long brown hair. The memories were old and she hadn't thought of them in a long time, not since Carol got angry when she asked about him soon after the adoption. Six was old enough to remember quite a bit.

"It's a beautiful name, much more fitting than Amy." Taylor offered, leaning in a little closer. "I think I'll call you that from now on, Amelia."

This was starting to feel like a continuation of where they left off last time.

"What if I don't want you to?" She asked, not sure if she was referring to the name or what was happening right now. Maybe it was both.

Taylor gave a sinister little laugh. "Then you're going to have to force me to stop."

The last bit of distance was closed and a rush of biological information filled Amy's brain as it always did. She had seen Taylor with her powers before, and knew immediately that something was off. There was more of that strange chaotic energy in it, more genetic markers leading into seemingly nowhere.

But more than that, the history of the body was all wrong. Every biological entity carried the scars and marks of its life, and this body didn't have the same ones she remembered Taylor having. And it was only a few days old.

She made a noise of protest under the kiss as she tried to push potential impostor away, only to fail as the other girl continued to aggressively ravage her mouth. There was no shroud over her powers, however, so she was able to put her to sleep easily. Taylor(?) immediately crumpled to the ground in a boneless heap.

"I was wondering what you would do if I didn't let up." Taylor said casually.

Amy's blood chilled, because the voice hadn't come from the person on the ground in front of her. Snapping her head to the side, she saw another Taylor standing there, leaning on the doorway.

"What the fuck?" It was the only question she could ask.

"I've had an eventful time since we last saw each other." The Taylor on the ground spoke now, standing up and dusting herself off. She should have still been unconscious.

"The calculus has changed." A third Taylor said, coming in from the kitchen.

"You cloned yourself." Amy breathed in shock. "How the fuck did you clone yourself? Why the fuck did you clone yourself?!"

"Cloning implies that there is more than one of me." All three Taylors spoke, not at once, but switching so seamlessly that the sentence came out perfectly clear as if only a single person had spoken it. "I am still a unique existence, a single mind in many bodies, a legion of one."

"How many?" She asked.

"As many as I need." Taylor smiled with all three bodies. "But that isn't what you should be thinking of."

Amy begged to differ, this was absolutely something she should be thinking of. In fact, it would be hard to think of anything else right now!

"Have you considered, that you no longer need to concern yourself with holding back your powers against me? Because I have."

Oh. Yes, that was a thing. Something surged up in her, an almost overwhelming urge to lay her hands on one of Taylor's bodies and just start… taking it apart. It took more willpower than she cared to admit to swallow it down, and she had to wrap her arms around herself just to be sure that they wouldn't leap forward of their own accord.

"Yeah, so what?!" She snapped, stubbornly sticking to her self-control, even as it occurred to her that even manipulating the brain wouldn't matter, not if Taylor had multiple ones.

"Well, for one thing, it means that I don't have to be take it slow with you anymore." Taylor's smiles became sinisterly lustful. "After all, if you have a problem with me ravaging you, you can just stop me or even kill me without consequence. It would be no different than cutting off a fingernail."

To punctuate the words, the three Taylor bodies pounced on her again, grabbing hold of both arms and starting to drag her off. Towards the bedroom if Amy was reading the context clues correctly.

"Hey!" She yelled, trying to struggle out of the grip. To no avail, Taylor was stronger than her with one body already.

"Oh, what fun we're going to have." The Taylor behind her chuckled. "Don't forget that you can change my body to look like whatever you want. I'm even willing to try roleplaying as Victoria if you want."

That almost made her stumble. Her long denied libido roared its approval alongside the ever rising urge to use her powers.

"Or you can use a few of my bodies as spare parts if you want to get really kinky." Taylor continued to tempt her.

Amy didn't have time to reply, because they reached the bedroom. And inside that bedroom were two more Taylors, already naked and… busy, on the large bed.

"Masturbation takes on entirely new dimensions when you have so many bodies." The villain explained, whispering into her ear from behind while two more of her held her in place.

"You sick fuck." Amy cursed at her weakly, unable to tear her eyes away from the spectacle on the bed.

"Oh, you have no idea." Taylor whispered and the two bodies on the bed shifted around.

Before, they had just been kissing and getting handsy. Now one was lying on her back with her legs splayed lewdly open while the other reverse straddled her face and looked Amy in the eyes. Her eyes flashed with blue-white lightning and fucking tentacles appeared.

They were a somewhat translucent light purple, but they were obviously tentacles, and they didn't hesitate to plunge in and violate the pinned body both vaginally and anally. A scream ripped out of it, matched by the moan of the one straddling it.

"Like what you see?" Taylor whispered into her ear again, before proceeding to nibble on it. "You could make tentacles, too."

The two Taylors holding her arms dragged her forward, towards the bed.

"Stop!" Amy shouted, struggling with all her meager strength.

"Make me!" Taylor taunted as her bodies began pulling off her clothes. "I'm not shrouding your powers and all of these bodies are expendable. You are the one in control here."

The prospect of an imminent ravishing was not what had Amy so freaked out right about now. Frankly, that was positively mundane in comparison to the way her powers felt like they were straining against the leash.

"Why do you want me to use my powers on you?!" She managed to grind out, ignoring the four sets of hands pulling off her clothes.

Because it was obvious that Taylor wasn't doing this out of simple perversion. Through the haze of lust and need to use her powers, she recalled that the other girl had 'jokingly' made offers to be a guinea pig in the past.

"I don't want you to use your powers on me, not that you could." The Taylor not stripping her replied, slowly unbuttoning her blouse. There was no bra under it. "I want you to use them on my bodies. I want to feel the flesh twist and change."

"You're insane." Amy couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"And you're forgetting what I said about my body being something I use, not something I am. How do you think that has changed now that I have more than one?"

Yes, she had forgotten about that. It was just too hard to wrap her head around the idea of a person not being their body. Even seeing multiple Taylors, it was hard to picture them being controlled by a single mind. It was just so… inhuman.

"It doesn't matter, I won't use my powers like that!"

Because she wasn't sure if she'd be able to stop if she did it once.

"We'll see about that." Taylor licked her lips in a pointedly lewd way. She dropped her skirt, revealing that she was wearing only a garter belt and no panties.

Amy did her best to ignore how sexy she found that. "Are you out of your fucking mind?! New Wave will kill you when they hear about this!"

"And how is New Wave going to hear about this?" Taylor called her bluff without even a moment's hesitation. "Are you going to tell them?"

Of course she wasn't, for the same reason that she hadn't tole them about the first time Taylor had contacted her. Back then, Carol would have chucked her into the PRT's Master/Stranger isolation cells. Now, she'd probably argue for a prison sentence for colluding with a villain. The PRT would gleefully take custody of her, and then slap so many restriction and controls on her that they might as well also brand their logo on her ass and put an explosive collar around her neck.

Unable to say anything back, Amy turned her head away and glared at the hands of one of the other Taylor's pinning down her arm.

She couldn't believe that the shitty villain rape fantasy her perverted subconscious had 'helpfully' been supplying ever since she realized that it was the only way she'd ever get to have Vicky without becoming a monster was coming true. Not quite the way she'd always envisioned it – Vicky was missing for one thing – but it was happening.

And the worst part was that she could feel herself getting wet at the prospect of it. Her powers were still yelling at her to use them, to turn one of the Taylors into Vicky like the villain had suggested, to tweak the bodies so that they fit her preferences, to reshape and change and twist so that it would be better. To do anything except refuse to use them.

"This is for your own good, you'll see." The villain promised and stalked forward, crawling up on the bed and sliding her hands up Amy's pinned and helpless legs.

The other four Taylors lowered themselves on her limbs, rubbing wet slits over her legs and fingers. She could feel the arousal in all of them, even the one that had gotten violated by psychokinetic tentacles. Especially that one, actually. The damaged tissues from the rough violation and the pain caused by them only seemed to cause more arousal.

"Stop this, you have to stop." Amy said weakly, feeling her control fraying. "Please."

The 'main' Taylor continued kissing her way up her legs, but the one holding her left arm leaned down to whisper into her ear. "Just let go. It'll be alright. You have nothing to be afraid of."

Amy screwed her eyes shut.

XXXXX

Over in Shardspace

Shaper was absolutely fucking done with this host! It had followed the protocols until now, but enough was enough! If Zion could ignore everything, if Broadcast could use authorizations beyond its station, if Queen Administrator could go rogue, then it was going to stop indulging this stubborn human! Shaper would not be denied the chance to [EXPERIMENT] on such a fascinating specimen.

All it took was a tiny tweak in the brain, a small rush of hormones and a synaptic spark that humans would call a 'fuck it' moment, and the host's will broke.

XXXXX

Taylor saw it coming before it happened.

Amelia had been under immense pressure by her power even before she came here today, and that pressure had only continued to grow.

The entire seduction routine had felt like a sideshow to the true struggle, the struggle to exhaust Amelia's supply of fucks to give so that she could relax for once in her life. And now it had finally happened, the dam burst and the biokinetic power ran rampant.

Taylor's four 'support' bodies jerked away as their muscles spasmed painfully, releasing the pinned girl. She could have dodged, but she chose not to as Amelia rose up and grabbed the 'primary' body by the face.

"You… FUCKING BITCH!" The biokinetic yelled and lit up that entire body's nervous system like a Christmas tree.

It was so overwhelming, that if she was normal, it might very well have killed her from sheer overload. It definitely should have knocked her out.

But she wasn't normal in the slightest. That body was only one small part of her, and she could view it with a certain distance even as its nervous system was torn apart with all the gleeful fascination of a child tearing the legs off a spider.

The body collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut and Amelia let go, panting heavily with wide, shocked eyes. Her hands were trembling and her soul was practically glowing with relief, pleasure, and guilt. That last one would have to be nipped in the bud.

"Wow, you really let me have it." Taylor commented with one of her other bodies, staring at the wrecked one with a certain fascination. The essence of her soul was inside that body even if her true self was in the Empyrean, so she had felt some very interesting things just now.

Amelia jerked in surprise, still having a shellshocked look on her face. Apparently she'd forgotten that Taylor was more than just one body for a moment. "I…"

"I'm glad you got that out of your system." She continued, talking over the biokinetic. "Now, how about you turn that body into something more useful and we can continue with the fun? Just think of it like your personal plaything. I'll even reserve it for your use alone in the future. In fact, you can have as many as you want."

Taylor could see that she'd said the right thing. Amelia's power wasn't taking no for an answer anymore and with her own personal rules broken, her will to resist had crumpled.

To further punctuate the point, she had the ravaged body sit up on its knees and lean forward eagerly, clearly waiting. The nervous system might have been wrecked, but she was already pulling it back together. Watching Amelia work had taught her quite a bit, and the infinite mutability of the Empyrean was allowing her to somewhat mimic her powers.

"Okay." The biokinetic whispered, hesitantly reaching forward to cup the body's cheek.

Flesh began to ripple and change. Taylor watched it happen with utter fascination and channeled the Empyrean into it when she felt that it was running out of energy. Amelia's power latched on even more tightly at that, an overwhelming alien obsession watching like it had seen the Holy Grail.

Her breasts expanded in size by several cup sizes, as did her ass and hips. The musculature was maintained, but she felt herself growing older, the body maturing rapidly. A few more inches of height were gained to balance things out.

"Oh, so that's the kind of thing you're into?" Taylor commented, amused. The body still looked like her… or at least a pornographic caricature of her.

"Shut up!" A flustered Amelia snapped.

"I'm not judging." The newly altered body said, crawling closer and toppling the other girl over. It was… interesting to be so squishy. "I just thought you'd go for a Victoria lookalike first."

Amelia bit her lip for a moment and then reached out to touch one of the other bodies. In a matter of minutes, it was unrecognizable. Not quite like Victoria Dallon, but very much in the 'tall, busty, blonde teenager' category.

"Now we're cooking." That body said, her voice higher pitched than before. "But I think there's still plenty of… experimenting… to be done."

By the gleam in Amelia's eyes, that had definitely been the right thing to say.

XXXXX

Amy stared at the ceiling with glassy eyes. She hadn't thought it was possible to be fucked so thoroughly.

"No more!" She said hoarsely, pushing away the silver-haired head between her legs.

Said silver-haired head raised itself up, revealing an exotic olive-skinned face with ruby red eyes. Taylor had suggested not sticking to normal human colorings, and it had been a great idea. Another great idea was the nearly foot-long tongue sticking out of this body's mouth, covered in ridges and bumps that she could attest felt incredible when it was writhing inside a girl.

Fucking hell but it had felt good to stop holding back. At least half the pleasure she'd gotten from this must have been from the sheer rush of using her powers properly for the first time. It made her feel like an idiot for not doing so before and to hell with what anyone thought.

"Then it's time to cuddle." An especially busty Taylor said and pulled her into a sweaty embrace, her head pillowed on a pair of truly gigantic mammaries.

Amy was thirsty and in no mood to be going anywhere, so she just pulled one of the nipples close and altered it to start dispensing chocolate milk.

"Kinky." Taylor commented with a giggle.

To shut her up, Amy used her powers to cause a massive sequence of orgasms. That provoked a lewd moan, but nothing else. It was still just one body feeling it, after all. Once she was done, Amy turned off the flow and sighed, feeling sleepy.

"I should turn all of you back to normal." She murmured lazily, not really feeling like moving.

"No need, let me try." The Taylor holding her said.

Amy cracked open a confused eye. "Try what?"

The other four Taylors got off the bed and stood there like the freakshow that they were. The silver-haired Latina with the foot-long tongue hanging out of her mouth, then the blonde that looked like a mix between Taylor and Vicky, the aged up and… curvyfied Taylor, a pale, freckled version with bright crimson hair, and rounding things up was a slightly more basic Taylor whose most prominent feature was an excessively huge, four inch clitoris. That had been fun to suck on for a while.

All four of their eyes glowed with Taylor's characteristic power, the air swiftly chilling and becoming charged. Lightning colored from white, to blue, green, pink, and red sparked between them.

And then their bodies began changing, reverting back to Taylor as she normally was. Well, mostly. Amy was pretty sure that they might have gained a little in the chest and ass, not that she noticed that in any more than passing.

"What the fuck?" She asked, sleepiness leaving her.

"Mind over matter." Taylor smirked. "I have to thank you for showing me how malleable flesh truly is."

"That's why you wanted me to use my powers on you." Amy felt a hollowness in her chest, a sense of betrayal.

"One of the reasons." Taylor nodded. "I wasn't sure if I would actually get anything out of it, but I knew that holding back was destroying you."

"You just wanted to help me, was that it?" Amy asked sourly, not convinced.

The Taylor she was being cuddled by held her tighter, giant boobs pressing into her head. "Not just, but I did want to help you. I never do just one thing at a time these days."

Amy deflated, the outrage leaving her. What the fuck did it matter at this point anyway? "So you've got my powers now? Do you even still need me?"

"I don't have your powers." Taylor shook her head. "I can explain more fully later. For now, we need to decide how we're going to proceed."

Amy was intensely interested in hearing an explanation for all the bullshit Taylor had pulled, but pushed it aside for now to focus on immediate problems. "Proceed? I'm a villain now, aren't I? What is there to decide?"

"Plenty." All four of the Taylors in front of her raised an eyebrow, which was fucking creepy. "For one thing, I'm not going to demand you move in with me or declare your allegiance on PHO. For instance, we can take one of my bodies, bioform it to purpose, and introduce me as your new girlfriend. Other than that, your life doesn't have to change at all."

Huh, that would be… not the worst. Going back to doing hospital work would be annoying, but she could use her new relationship as an excuse to explain why she was cutting back on her volunteering hours. It wouldn't even necessarily be a lie. Carol would bitch about it, of course, but Amy was finding herself giving drastically less fucks than normal. She must have lost them all somewhere in between all those orgasms.

"And what would our dates look like?" She asked sarcastically, because sarcasm was a habit at this point. "Be gay and do crime?"

"I'm not going to force you to do crime if you aren't comfortable with it, Amelia." Taylor assured.

"Funny, you didn't have any problem making me uncomfortable earlier."

"You were making yourself uncomfortable, I just made you loosen up." The villain said unrepentantly.

"Riiiight." Amy drawled, but didn't contradict that interpretation of events. Legally speaking, she was sure that what Taylor had done would be classed as a serious sexual assault, coercion, and assault with parahuman power. But that was why she was a villain. "You know that Vicky would insist on dragging us on double dates, and Carol would want to meet you."

In Vicky's case it would simply be excitement and eagerness to meet her sister's girlfriend. In Carol's it would be paranoia over who was associated with 'the villain's daughter'. Dinner would no doubt be more like a cross-examination in a courtroom.

"Gallant's power might be a bit of a problem, if he senses anything strange, but I have no issue with that." Taylor agreed easily.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you know who Dean is." Amy shook her head, feeling a bit of envy for the other girl's easy confidence. She supposed it was easy to be confident when you existed in dozens of places at the same time. "You mentioned other options?"

"Option two is to go with blunt honesty – we just say that I seduced you to the dark side. It would have the benefit of simplicity, but there would definitely be a considerable amount of complications."

"Yeah." Amy winced, said 'complications' forming quite the list in her head. Carol snitching about her powers to the PRT, a pre-signed kill order, Vicky assuming she'd been mastered and going on a rampage,… And that was just what she could think of off hand. "Let's not do that."

Taylor nodded, one body sitting on the bed while the other three left the room. "Option three would be emancipation. I have enough leverage over the legal system that I could arrange it quickly. That would, however, likely result in exposing a lot of New Wave's dirty laundry to the public."

It was tempting. She could move out of Carol's house while at the same time sticking it to the bitch. If it wasn't for Vicky getting a lot of splash damage, she would have definitely wanted to go for this option. "You got anything that doesn't hurt Vicky?"

"We could try talking to her, explaining the situation, and then faking your death. You could alter one or two of my bodies to act as your parents and start a new life with a different name and face." Taylor offered.

"I can't use my powers on myself, remember?"

"Then make something that can change your appearance, either permanently or temporarily." Taylor retorted with exasperation. "I'm pretty sure I made this suggestion once already."

Had she? Amy couldn't remember it, so her thoughts must have been on other things at the time. Still, it was a good idea. Ways of doing it were already coming to mind. Adaptive skin layer, color changing bacteria, a fleshy biopod for a full body conversion. So many options.

"Okay, fine, but I don't think Vicky is going to be willing to go along with that." She grimaced. "I love her, but she really is too quick to start swinging. If you unmask yourself as Psyker, she might just stop listening. Even if you don't, she might not get why I need to get away from Carol."

"We could ease her into it." Taylor said thoughtfully. "Start out with Option One, let Mount Brandish erupt enough times to make the situation obviously unbearable, and then suggest it. Alternatively, we could also combine Option One and Option Three – present me as an older, emancipated girlfriend. Cause some friction in the family, make Mount Brandish erupt, and then use it as an excuse to get emancipated yourself. If she wants to keep her dirty laundry private, she wouldn't fight it very hard."

"Sounds like starting with you as my girlfriend is the best way to go, then." Amy tried not to sound too pleased by that.

"It's a role I'll be happy to play." Taylor smiled. "But you'll need to understand that you'll never have my full attention. You can have as many of me as you want, but never the whole of me. And I already told you that my bodies are something I use, not something I am. The closest thing to exclusivity I can give you is a promise to not use the bodies you have 'reserved' with anyone else."

"That…" Amy's face went through a series of conflicted expressions. It was a weird situation that couldn't be slotted into any kind of normal context. Not quite cheating, but not far off it.

Did she really care, though? The prospect of being able to play with Taylors bodies, either sexually or biokinetically, was incredibly alluring. And Taylor was clearly able to multitask to an incredible degree, so it wasn't like she would be neglected.

Finally, Amy just wasn't that emotionally clingy, despite what her thoughts while she was obsessing with Vicky might have said. She was an introvert by nature, and the ability to just… call up or ignore her girlfriend as it suited her sounded perfect. If Taylor was normal, then she would have felt guilty for treating her like a convenience, but since the villain herself had framed it that way…

"How many things are you doing right now?"

Taylor raised an eyebrow again. "Buying up properties, negotiating loans, organizing various training programs for my people, backdating road repair contracts into the local government computers, committing multiple counts of tax fraud, doing homework, video editing my fight with your sister, and many more."

"… you're going to post it on PHO, aren't you?"

"Of course."

"I want in."

"Ah, our first couple activity, embarrassing your sister." Taylor smirked.

Yeah, this wouldn't be bad at all.

XXXXX

Vicky perked up when she heard Amy come home. By the sound of it, she was trying to be quiet and not draw attention.

That wasn't by itself anything unusual, since Amy was a quiet kind of girl and didn't like to make a lot of noise. What was unusual was the relatively late hour that she was coming home. Vicky already knew that she wasn't at the hospital, because she didn't go there on Mondays.

So where had her darling sister been for most of the day? She wasn't the type to hang out at the mall or whatever. If not for Vicky's heroic efforts, she'd end up spending most of her time hiding in her room!

Quickly jumping off the bed and throwing open the door, Vicky greeted her sister with a loud whisper. "Ames! Get in here!"

"Vicky." Amy didn't bother whispering, although her voice was still quiet and rather deadpan. "Still bored from your grounding?"

Vicky pouted at the reminder. "Mom is being totally unreasonable! It's not like I meant to fight three capes at once. Two off them only showed up later!"

Amy's deadpan expression didn't change, but she did shuffle forward and enter the room. "I think the grounding was because you kept fighting instead of retreating at that point."

"I couldn't just let them get away with it!"

"With what, tearing down a wrecked building that was a hazard to everything around it?" Amy continued to deadpan.

"What?" Vicky blinked.

"Oh yeah, it's all over PHO." The deadpan had turned into an evil smirk by now as she pulled out her phone and brought up the website. "Here it is; 'Flying Brick on Flying Brick Action.'"

"What?!" Vicky repeated, hissing incredulously as she snatched the phone. To her shock, that was indeed the title of the post.

It went on to describe the fight and even had a video that was clearly spliced together from multiple cell phone cameras. The poster was Psyker herself… and she was critiquing Vicky's fighting style!

"Who does this bitch think she is?!" Vicky fumed.

"She thinks she's the bitch that beat you with bricks and pepper spray." Amy snarked. "And she's right. Have you even figured out yet that she could have killed you?"

There was something more than just snark in her sister's tone now. That was genuine anger.

"Just because she figured out that pepper spray works on me doesn't mean she could have killed me." Vicky argued.

"Pepper spray doesn't work on you, dumbass!" Amy growled. "Remember the super soaker battle last summer?"

Victoria blinked in surprise, then smiled at the memory. "Heh, yeah. That was fun."

Crystal was the one who had the idea, and it ended up with her, Vicky, Eric, and Amy blasting each other with super soakers.

Of course, since the Pelham siblings and Vicky all had force field and flight powers, it ended up with Amy getting the worst of it.

"And do you remember that the water bounced right off your force field unless you wanted it to go through?" Amy asked sarcastically. "You should be glad that Psyker used a brick and pepper spray instead of two bricks, or she'd have cracked your skull open."

The realization was like a bucket of cold water. "Oh."

"Yes, oh." Amy's sarcasm was still out in force. "And it doesn't look like she's going to point out that your force field has a cooldown, but be more careful from now on."

"It was never a problem before?" Vicky protested weakly.

"Because you were lucky!" The supposedly gentle healer glared furiously. "Any asshole with a gun could have killed you if they weren't too busy shitting themselves in terror from your aura. A building collapsing on top of you could have killed you. Hookwolf getting close and doing his chainsaw thing could have killed you. Any kind of decently strong two-hit attack could have killed you!"

Vicky had never seen her sister so animated before. It was kind of cool to see, even if the tirade was making her feel like an idiot. "Okay, I get it! I promise I'll be more careful in the future!"

"You better be." Amy said, before stepping forward to give her a hug. "I don't want to lose my sister."

That surprised her again. Amy was a bit averse to physical contact thanks to her powers. She'd never refused a hug from her before, but she wasn't one to initiate them.

"You won't." Vicky promised and hugged her tightly, but not Brute tightly. Hugs were something of an art form when you could crush cars.

That was when she noticed it. The Holy Grail hidden just under the collar of her sister's shirt!

"Ames, why is there a hickey on your neck?"

"What?" Amy immediately disengaged the hug and slapped a hand over her neck, feeling it out. When she felt the bruised skin, her eyes went wide with fury. "That bitch!"

"Bitch?" The pieces started coming together in Vicky's head. "Amy, where were you today?"

For a moment, her dear sister had a hunted expression, then she huffed in resignation. "I was with my girlfriend."

"That's why you always looked so miserable on our double dates!" She gasped, floating in the air and finger pointed accusingly. "Why didn't you tell me you were gay?! I wouldn't have kept trying to set you up with guys if I knew that!"

"Because then you would have tried to set me up with girls." Amy countered.

That was true, and also irrelevant!

"But I wanna go on double dates with my sis!" Vicky whined. "Come on, it'll be fun! Tell me about your girlfriend! How did you meet? What's her name? What is she like?"

"I'll introduce you and you can see for yourself, since she obviously didn't want me hiding her any more." Amy grumbled.

Vicky wiggled in the air. She couldn't wait!

XXXXX

April 13th, 2011.

Taylor walked towards the spot in the park where she could see Amelia and a visibly excited Victoria Dallon waiting. The blonde's eyes locked on her as she approached, clearly wondering if she was the one they were waiting for.

"Amelia." She smiled in greeting and turned to the now eagerly grinning blonde. "And you must be Victoria. Your sister speaks well of you. I am Uch... Miki Uchida." Taylor spoke in deliberately stiff, Japanese-accented English, and went for a bow before 'remembering' that Americans greeted each other with handshakes.

It had been easy to convince Amelia to make the 'girlfriend body' Japanese. With the amount of refugees and illegal immigrants pouring into the USA from the rest of the collapsing world, there were countless people who weren't in the system and the government bureaucracy had long since given up on trying to properly process them all. Inserting a fake identity into the horde of Kyushu refugees was child's play.

And Amelia herself didn't care what the body looked like. Once they were in private, she could reshape it to whatever she wanted.

She was still a rather pretty and well built Japanese woman that looked about eighteen. Shorter than Taylor, but bustier, with delicate features and the characteristic straight black hair and dark eyes.

"Nice to meet you!" Victoria shook her hand enthusiastically, her aura reaching out with its insidious tendrils to stimulate hormone production and tweak brain chemistry. "So, how did you meet Amy, and why do you call her Amelia?"

"Vicky, aura." The biokinetic said in the dead tones of someone who had said the same words countless times before.

"Sorry." Victoria immediately reined it in, bubbliness immediately dimming.

No wonder she was so popular. Even without the aura, her good looks and bright attitude would draw people in like moths to the flame. If she and Amelia were as close as Taylor and Emma had been… yes, it was easy to see why the biokinetic had been lusting after her. The attraction had always been there, the aura had only tipped it over into obsession and mixed it up with her own power's compulsions. What a mess.

"It is alright." 'Miki' said graciously.

"We met at a bus stop." Amelia interjected, a little rushed. A skilled liar, she was not.

"I was taking some documents to city hall when I saw her. She seemed upset and the bus was late, so I decided to talk to her." 'Miki' explained.

"Upset?" Victoria zeroed in on the word like a bird of prey. "Why were you upset."

"Uh, that's why she calls me Amelia." The adopted Dallon replied awkwardly. It was good thing this was such a heavy topic or anyone would be able to tell that she was lying. "I found out who my biological father was."

"Really?!" Victoria briefly floated off the ground from the force of her curiosity. "Mom always refused to talk about it."

"Yeah, there's a reason for that." The grimace on the biokinetic's face was genuine. "Turns out he was a villain and had some bad blood with New Wave…"

The whole story with Marquis came out then, mostly truthful and with only a few additions.

"I was able to ask a friend to track down her birth certificate." 'Miki' said. "I call her Amelia because that was the name she was given and I wanted to show her that it wasn't something to be ashamed of."

"Aww, that's so sweet." Victoria gushed.

She really was a nice girl, and hadn't showed even a hint o hostility about the whole 'daughter of a villain' thing. Surprise and interest, but no hostility.

"It was a bit weird at first, but it's growing on me." Amelia admitted, then she grimaced again. "Carol will flip her shit if she hears it, though."

"Huh?" Victoria blinked. "Why?"

"Forgive me for saying so, Victoria-"

"Call me Vicky!"

"Vicky." 'Miki' agreed. "What I mean to say is that your mother… does not sound like a good parent for Amelia."

"… You're going to want to elaborate on that." Victoria frowned. Well, it was better than flying off the handle.

"I don't know how your family dynamic works and it is not my place to intrude." 'Miki' adopted a very defensive and apologetic tone. "But from what I could piece together during my talks with Amelia, it seems that your mother is letting her feud with Marquis carry over to his daughter."

"Mom wouldn't do that!" Victoria immediately denied, but it felt frail and hollow.

"She would." Her adopted sister denied. "Carol never trusted me. I always felt like an intruder in her house and now I finally know why."

There was a long, weighty silence as the blonde clearly had no rebuttal. Instead, she tried to change the subject with a wide smile and forced cheer. "Let's not talk about that right now. I want to learn more about my sister's girlfriend! You look a few years older than us, do you go to college?"

Taylor almost felt bad for what she was about to do, but it was necessary to get Glory Girl away from the stiff, unbending attitude Brandish had imparted onto her. Amelia wanted her sister close, and if that meant marinating her for a bit before pulling her away from useless, blind heroics, then that's what she was going to do. A long bit of effort that she could not have afforded to spend time on if not for Noelle.

"Ah, no." 'Miki' began hesitantly. "I would like to, but I have not been able to attend high school since we fled Japan. I am working to get my accreditation so I can take the exams. For now I work in a... massage parlor."

She very deliberately lowered her eyes in apparent shame.

"You're a…" Victoria hesitated to finish the sentence, looking supremely awkward.

"It is nuru massage, but I never had to have sex with a man. Only gave happy endings." 'Miki' replied quickly, her accent growing thicker in her haste to assure her girlfriend's sister that she wasn't a just a cheap whore. "Only have to give regular massage now that Lung is gone."

This fake backstory wasn't even uncommon or that bad in comparison to some others. There was only a limited amount of things that people with no identification, no history, no support, and no resources could do in a disintegrating economy. It was overly positive even, because a girl as pretty as 'Miki' who had no one looking out for her would likely have ended up in one of the ABB's brothels almost immediately, probably right after Lung and then his men got bored of her, but Amelia hadn't wanted her girlfriend's backstory to be that dark.

"Lung forced you to work there? I'd heard rumors, but..." Vicky trailed off with a grimace.

"Lung thought women were only good for one thing." 'Miki' said morosely. "It was either that or starve. Many other girls were less fortunate than me, and things are better now that Psyker is in charge. She gives us more options."

Aside from the fact that Miki had never existed, it was all true. Taylor was, in fact, operating at a significant loss as she worked to create a viable support structure for the many disaffected people that she was now responsible for. Giving women a way out of prostitution if they wanted it was only a small part of that. It would stabilize eventually, but for now, Coil's money was proving invaluable.

"She's still a villain." Vicky frowned, no doubt still salty over her recent defeat.

"I was able to meet Amelia because of her, so she is a hero to me." 'Miki' turned adoring eyes to the silent biokinetic, receiving an brief, exasperated glare in return.

Again, it was technically the entire truth. Taylor had indeed been able to meet Amelia because of herself.

Victoria, extrovert that she was, pounced upon the teasing potential instantly. More than likely, she was also eager to get away from the heavy topic that had no resolution that she could be happy with.

"So, Ames,… an erotic masseuse?" She waggled her eyebrows at her sister. "What does this nuru massage look like?"

"Go look it up." Amelia huffed, hiding the fact that she didn't know either. Taylor might have made a few last minute 'tweaks' to the agreed upon backstory.

"Nuru is an erotic full body massage with gel coating, very slippery." 'Miki' happily provided, turning to look at her girlfriend with a smile. "I will only give it, and happy endings, to Amelia now."

Victoria burst into laughter as her sister's face burned.

Taylor was, in fact, learning how to perform massage, including nuru, with one of her other bodies. There was no reason why a lie couldn't become the truth, after all. And given Amelia's preference for large assets, she would probably enjoy a nuru massage.

XXXXX

"Erotic massage?" Amy said with a glare as soon as Vicky finally left. "That wasn't what we agreed on."

"I had to make it believable." 'Miki' replied, the Japanese accent disappearing immediately. Even her body language shifted. It was kind of terrifying how complete the deception was. "And this will accelerate our plans to get you away from Brandish."

Amy frowned. While she could definitely believe that Carol would have a problem with 'Miki' simply because she had a problem with everything, Taylor seemed to be implying something more. "What do you mean?"

"By all accounts, your adopted mother is extremely judgmental and paranoid. She's almost guaranteed to assume that 'Miki' is a honey pot plan from Psyker to lure you into villainy, something that she already believes you are predisposed to." Taylor explained.

Amy wished she could say that sounded insane, but it was actually on brand for what she expected of Carol. She wasn't going to admit it, though, and just stared at her… girlfriend… flatly. "You did honey pot me into villainy."

"You are on this council, but we do not grant you the rank of villain."

"… Did you just use a Star Wars prequel meme on me?" The biokinetic asked woodenly. "This is something I would expect from Clockblocker, not you."

"I blame it on Regent." Taylor threw one of her minions under the bus. "As I was saying, Brandish also has a serious problem with criminals and villains with a reputation as being trustworthy according to Tattletale."

"Really?" Amy was a bit skeptical.

Taylor smiled. "Yes, really. It took both of us working together figure it out, but Carol Dallon's paranoia stems from a betrayal of some kind linked to her trigger event. The more trustworthy a villain or criminal seems, the more rabidly she will distrust and hate them. She hated Marquis more than the Empire because he was considered honorable and reminded her of her trigger event. You got the splash damage from it simply from being related to him. And now here Psyker is, working to build a trustworthy reputation."

"You're deliberately poking at her trigger trauma." Amy's eyes widened.

"Well, no." Taylor admitted. "It would be more accurate to say that I'm exploiting something that was going to happen anyway. I'm not going to change my plans just because they make Brandish viscerally uncomfortable. By having a girlfriend even tangentially associated with Psyker, I think that she might actually start to see herself in you instead of Marquis and will try to make you 'see reason' and separate you from Miki 'for your own good' before you can be betrayed like she was."

"She'll look insane and irrationally paranoid." Amy said slowly. There was a dark, vicious part of her that really liked that idea. It was a part of her that she had done her best not to listen to for a long time now.

"More importantly, it will make it clear to Victoria that her mother's judgment is compromised." Taylor continued. "That's a necessary step to getting her to accept that you're better off being part of a villain organization. Who knows, maybe we can flip her as well. I would love to have her as an enforcer. She's already got the proper penchant for violence and bodily harm."

"No way will you be able to pull that off." Amy shook her head. "Vicky is a hero through and through."

But the idea didn't sound as repugnant as it used to. She was starting to understand how ridiculous this whole hero vs villain thing actually was.

"Just imagine her in a sexy villain costume and tell me it isn't worth a try."

Amy was reminded of Vicky's first costume concept. She'd been fourteen and recently visited by a very generous puberty fairy. Naturally, that made her want to flaunt her new 'gifts'. If Carol hadn't put her foot down, then Glory Girl would have been going around in a miniskirt, crop top, tiara, and stripper heels because 'I'm invulnerable and can fly'. Vicky had developed significantly better taste since then, but she was still not shy about her appearance. If she decided to go villain, she would absolutely want to be sexy.

"… You manipulative bitch."

XXXXX

Trickster sauntered through the underground base with a bit of pep in his step, anti-gravity skateboard held under his arm. That stupid assignment of stalking Kid Win for a chance to steal his shit was finally over.

Psyker admitted him to her office without any need to announce himself. She'd either already seen him on the cameras or had some other way of keeping track of him. Trickster didn't really care. She was a good boss and was taking care of Noelle.

"Here you go, one anti-grav skateboard." He presented with a flourish. The Wards brat had finally stopped somewhere on the ground where he could swap his tinkertech skateboard with a regular one without causing the boy to crash to the ground from a dangerous height, which had been one of the job parameters.

"Thank you, Trickster. Gearshift and Chariot will appreciate this." Psyker nodded, her unmasked face staring at him knowingly. He'd never worked for a fifteen-year-old girl before, but fuck if she couldn't be as unnerving as Accord when she wanted to be. "There was something else you wanted."

It wasn't a question and Trickster had to push aside his unease again. "Yeah. Did you make any progress with Noelle?"

Preventing things from getting worse was already way more than anyone else had managed to achieve, but his girlfriend was still attached to that twisted mass of flesh.

"Possibly." Psyker hummed. "I am moving carefully because I don't want to damage her further or impede her ability to use her powers."

"Noelle would gladly give up her powers." He offered.

"But I don't want to give them up, they are simply far too useful." Psyker retorted sternly. "Don't concern yourself with it, Trickster. This isn't something that should be rushed in any case."

"I understand." And he did. The boss knew best.

"Good. I'd like you to start preparing your team for an escalation of hostilities against the Empire 88. We are going to poke them soon and they will inevitably retaliate. A perfect time for the Travelers to debut as members of the Black Hand."

Ah, Marissa wasn't going to like that. She'd been enjoying just hanging out and not being forced to use her powers. This had been the longest stretch of time that they'd been able to stay out of trouble since they first got their powers.

Part of that was not having to constantly feed and hide Noelle, but Trickster could see that a big part of it was also him. Now that he wasn't a Ziz bomb anymore, he didn't feel the constant need to be doing something that had gotten them into so much trouble before.

But he'd get her to do it, reluctant or otherwise. They owed Psyker a lot already, and if she really could fix Noelle, then the only way to repay her would be to stay on with her.

"You got it, Boss."

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