Emily Bovell first learned of Amy (and her sister Victoria) when she was required to help in screening and evaluating the newest parahuman addition to Brockton Bay. She had been initially confused at first as to why she was required until she learned of Amy's powers.
Naturally, she was pleased to have another healer besides that nice colored man on the side of the angels, considering that every other healer seemed to be on the side of the law-breaking scoundrels who polluted the streets. Which was honestly such a shame.
Her first impression of Amy upon meeting her was a mostly good one. Emily had been very pleased to see that Amy was dressed modestly in a rational costume, as opposed to what the youths today normally wore. Her sister Victoria on the other hand? The blonde all too unfortunately dressed like the rest of the women in Brockton Bay did-- like a complete floozy.
That had been something of a culture shock for Emily, if she was perfectly honest. She wasn't the type to clutch her pearls or have hysterics over fashion. In fact she was a practical woman who didn't care much over what was the latest in fashion… but one had to realize that there was a massive gap between 1800's fashion and the fashions of the 2000's.
She needed time to get used to the idea that…. Well, that women could reveal so much of their legs and not be considered prostitutes at all. The fact that even the children as young as six wore clothes like that were appalling enough, as in her mind that implied that they were intentionally raising their young girls to be flappers and wagtails.
The only upside of that? The men of this world seemed to at least have better control of their own libidos that they could glance at a woman's bare legs and not sexually attack her like a wild savage.
Emily recalled all too well the problems she had with mashers on the trolley that she often took from home to work. She'd be neatly and modestly dressed from head and toe, yet there'd be some men on the trollies who thought nothing of harassing women. So she would often do what all sensible victorian women did at the time, always carry a long, sharp hat pin with them at all times. Emily had honestly lost count of how many times she'd had to stab those lechers with her hat pin.
Of course, part of the problem was that back home nobody had seemed willing to hold a man accountable for his actions, not even other men. Here? They were of the mind that any man who couldn't control himself and his desires were no better than a rabid dog who needed to be put down. So it was purely cultural by the look of things. One that Emily couldn't help but think very progressive, especially with the way they allowed women to work outside of the house.
It had been difficult for Emily back then in finding a good man who wouldn't mind the fact that she wanted to work in the medical fields instead of being exclusively a home wife and baby-breeder. But she had managed that, and found a man that she had deeply adored with all of her heart. On top of it, he worked as a surgeon so he understood completely how important her work in the medical field was.
But, she was getting off track with her thoughts there.
Back to the topic of Amy.
The more Emily spent time with the young lady, she could tell that the girl had a good head on her shoulders, even if she had a severe case of the morbs sometimes.
Why, she only had gotten her powers after having an awful time of it, and already she was planning to go around the hospitals and heal as many people as she could. Now that was a real good seed there.
The only issue though?
Emily hadn't known Amy Dallon's family for very long but she could already tell that there was a strong case of favoritism there having met the rest of the family.
She had seen it all the time growing up, both in school and in the finishing school for ladies she had gone to as a young lady. It was simply a given that some parents would have higher expectations of one child and constantly compare them to their more gifted siblings. And when the sibling failed to live up to the other one in the parents' eyes…? Unfortunately, this often led to self-esteem problems for the child if they weren't the favored one. And it was obvious that Amy was the odd one out in her family.
Emily wasn't quite so experienced in the ways of being a healing parahuman just yet, but she still had some seniority, so to speak. So she couldn't help but feel that it was her duty to take Amy under her wing. And when she did this, she'd find ways to boost Amy's self-confidence as much as she could.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Amy walked into Mrs. Remedy's office with a mildly irritated expression on her face.
She was so sick and tired of the weeks of testing. They were constantly testing every aspect of her healing ability, making sure that she couldn't master the people she healed before they could even let her work in a hospital.
It stung all the more because while she had gotten used to Carol not trusting her at all, this was the first time the other adults had treated her in such a way. It made her think that Carol was right after all… that maybe there was something wrong with her.
She blinked when she realized that Mrs. Remedy was in the process of growing a small tree inside a large pot. "Um. what are you doing?"
"Oh, hello. I'm just doing a little bit of bio-tinkering, is all." Mrs. Remedy casually greeted the young girl as she looked up from her work with the tree.
That hadn't been the answer she had expected at all. For somebody to openly admit to something like that, as if it wasn't a big deal? Didn't the older woman understand how the world felt about bio-tinkers ever since Nilbog and Blasto?
"Should you be openly admitting to being a biotinker?" Amy found herself saying out loud.
Mrs. Remedy smiled. "Probably not. But since it's just the two of us, I see no problems with admitting that I'm one, eh? After all, you're the same as I am. Our powers seem identical on a surface level, even if they do take on different principles in order to work. In fact… I was hoping for a second opinion. Can you come over here and see if there's any errors or flaws in this chocolate tree I'm making?"
Amy tensed up at first at the fact that the other person seemed to have sussed out that she was a biotinker as well even though she had been keeping that from her own family for a while. Bio-tinkers tended to have a very negative reputation, and for good reason. She couldn't bear it if Victoria thought that she'd go full Nilbog on everyone in Brockton Bay and started acting scared of her as a result.
But then she relaxed, and walked over out of curiosity as to what the woman was up with that tree.
She touched it, and frowned slightly. "It's just a normal Cocoa tree?"
Mrs. Remedy grinned. "Ah, but not just any Cocoa Tree! See, I'm trying to grow chocolate that'll help with various illnesses. Right now I'm trying to make some cocoa beans that when ground up and brewed, will help combat various colds and flus. Just imagine… if you're ever feeling under the weather, you could just nip that in the bud by drinking some hot chocolate or even eating chocolate cake made from freshly ground chocolate. You'd never experience the worst that colds and flus had to offer again. Both the PRT and the Protectorate are very interested in this, you know. They seem to think it'd be a good marketable product."
Amy widened her eyes. "They know all about everything you can do?"
Emily nodded. "Yes."
Amy could feel her entire view of the world turn itself on its head. "But… I thought they came down hard on all Bio-tinkers? After Nilbog…"
Mrs. Remedy nodded. "Thanks to that dirty wagtail, people with our abilities do seem to have something of a bad reputation in the eyes of the public. However, the PRT is if not anything but practical. They aren't going to discard all the useful screwdrivers just because some serial killer became famous for stabbing people with a screwdriver now, eh? Instead, they'd be more likely to call the screwdrivers by some other name. If you get my drift."
Amy scoffed. "Well, they sure have a funny way of showing it. It's practically been over ten weeks ever since they power-tested my powers non-stop and they've yet to let me step foot in any hospital. It's like they don't even trust me."
Mrs. Remedy smiled indulgently. "You speak as if you're the only one who's gone though that? Even regular human beings without powers have to go through that screening process when it comes to the safety of other human beings. Why, the other day I read about how the local medhall company had to go through a year's worth of testing and screening before they could even release their medicine on the market. It took the FDA that long to deem the medicine safe for public consumption. In a sense, our powers are being marketed as a product… so naturally they have to test to ensure that our powers are safe for the public."
Amy blinked at that. She hadn't actually thought about it like that… huh. Suddenly, it didn't quite feel so personal anymore.
Mrs. Remedy grinned. "But enough of this talk! Would you like to help me tamper with this chocolate tree? See if we can make it kill off most common colds when brewed and drunk?"
Amy sighed, feeling all of her defenses go down in face of Mrs.Remedy's unexpected honesty and insight into the world of legitimate and friendly biotinkers. "Sure, why not."
======================================================
A/N: Now for our list of old Victorian slang used in this chapter!
Rational Costume-- Contrary to popular belief, Victorian women didn't always wear fancy dresses 24/7. When doing backbreaking work or doing activities that would've made a dress dangerous, they would wear bloomer pants instead. In fact, there was a "rational dress" movement across the western countries in both England and America during the year 1895.
Emily Bovell notes that Amy was wearing a Rational costume--ie, pants and other parts of the outfit that covered up nicely while still allowing for a wide range of movement.
Flapper--although most people think of the roaring 1920's when it comes to this term, this used to mean a woman without any morals back in the 1800's.In the 1800s, any women who committed crimes and actively partook in gang activity would've been called flappers.
Wagtail-- meaning loose women and sleazy men. This was used to refer to women more often though.
Masher-- The modern version of this would be the creeps on the subway harassing women. But back in the 1800's, when Trolleys were a thing everywhere, you had creepy trolley dudes instead. So women had to carry large hat pins on them at all times, the equivalent of the modern pepper spray. The more things change, the more some things stay the same unfortunately.
Case of the Morbs--To be depressed.It was early in the morning before she had to go to work at the university, so Annette thought it prudent that she pull at her power before she had to go. She didn't want the itch to appear in the middle of class again, after all.
>ding<
Roll 4-- Pressed Duck. a traditional French dish. The complex dish is a specialty of Rouen and its creation is attributed to an innkeeper from the city of Duclair. Since the 19th century, it has also been a specialty of the Tour d'Argent restaurant in Paris where it is formally known as the Caneton Tour d'Argent (Tour d'Argent duckling). It consists of various parts of a duck served in a sauce of its blood and bone marrow, which is extracted by way of a press. It has been considered "the height of elegance."
Effect: the food dish appears and will be there for four hours until it disappears.
A meaty dish made out of duck flesh appeared on the dining room table where she had been sitting drinking her coffee.
She reached out and took a bite of it. Huh, not bad at all. Although, she had to say that the way this dish was prepared was a little too gruesome for her.
She pulled a second time, just to be on the safe side.
>Ding<
Roll 11-- Odds on. Michael Crichton's first published novel, as well as the first novel under his pen name, John Lange.It was released in 1966 under the pseudonym of John Lange. It is a short 215-page paperback novel. Hard Case Crime republished the novel under Crichton's name on November 19, 2013.
Effect: A crime novel is now added to Annette's inventory.
She picked up the book that just had popped up, and looked it over.
Huh, a crime novel? Well, that seemed like something interesting to read during her lunch break. But for now, it was time to head off to work.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--Later on, after her civilian job--
Annette sighed loudly as she listened to Clarence blather on about the logistics of hiring people as part of the Pearl building's staff while they themselves barely had any income coming in as independent heroes.
Why did it feel like she had taken on a second job instead of feeling like an actual independent hero?
"But on the bright side, I've managed to get a meeting with Dragon to look over the patents that we've copyrighted, so that we could use her as an character witness who can confirm that most of the stuff we make isn't tinkertech and can be reproduced. Once that happens, I'm sure we'll get a lot more bites from companies willing to produce and sell those items." Clarence was saying.
"Ooh, you're meeting with Dragon? Can I sit in on the meeting? I've always wanted to meet her!" Mr. Yamamoto was saying.
Annette yawned loudly, and--
>Ding<
Roll 10--Salimabad, Chalus. also Romanized as Salīmābād) is a village in Kelarestaq-e Sharqi Rural District, in the Central District of Chalus County, Mazandaran Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 231, in 66 families.
For ten hours, Annette gains knowledge of a village in Iran, and about all the 66 families living there.
She realized that the others were staring at her, and she smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, it's been a long day at the university for me. You guys have no idea how tiring it can be to be a teacher sometimes."
Danny smiled at her. "Why don't you take the day off then? We can carry the meeting on without you. You need some downtime, I think."
Annette looked at her husband. "Are you sure?"
He nodded, and she smiled. "Well, I won't argue this time… I'm just so worn out today."
She got up from her seat, stretching as she did so--
>Ding<
Roll 3-- Thanks to the permanent effects of a past roll, the number 3 automatically re-rolls three new rolls in a row, and merges them together as one new object. The number of rolls added up together will be divided by three to prevent it from being too large a number for RNGJesus to process.
8+24+15+=47. Divided by 3=15.
Space Channel 5+Global Relay+StepMania.
Effect: A new Parahuman with totally groovin' moves just came into the scene! Once upon a time, she was just an ordinary reporter traveling around outer space working for Space Channel 5. But in the new reality created by Annette's roll combo-- Ulala is now the proud owner of Space Channel Five, an online global internet company that not only provides wifi, instant messaging and e-mail services… but also a steady stream of online broadcasted news and other streaming services.
She's also a parahuman with tinker powers that mostly revolve around dance games, but also around broadcasting and the trafficking of digital information. Any enemy that tries to attack her will suddenly find themselves inside an large force-field with her, which becomes a dance game space not dissimilar to Dance Dance Revolution or any other rhythm-based games. As in, they will see those holographic arrows and other movements that they'd have to step on while dancing. If they get a low score against her or refuse to play the dance game when challenged by her, they will find themselves immoble and unable to move until she chooses to let them go.
She has a tendency to live-stream all of her dance-offs with all her enemies, and her patrols, making her a parahuman who's similar to Uber and Leet in that she likes to live-stream all of her exploits exclusive to Space Channel Five.
Annette groaned softly to herself when a pink-haired girl in a midriff-baring '60s mod outfit appeared.
Damnit, not again.
==================================================
Author Notes: I was legit excited when I got that roll 3 thing, because I honestly thought I wouldn't get that for a loooong while.
Of course I was a little bit let down by the fact that I got Stepmania after I got Space Channel Five. having two rhythm-based games paired together? A little bit redundant, yeah? But then I figured that stacking the games together would just boost Ulala's dance-based ability and turn her into a parahuman, even if the dividing of the numbers turned the roll into a number 15. Two similar entries stacked on top of each other plus a number 15 equals tinker to me. Just made sense?Surprisingly enough, Ulala elected to stay with the Automata group after having spent some time at the PRT office being interviewed and doing some paperwork to legitimatize her stay in this world. Something about majorly owning Annette/Kismet for pulling her out of a really tight spot. Apparently, Ulala had been on the very verge of death, trapped in outer space, when Annette had pulled her away from her universe.
Even more surprising, the pink-haired woman was apparently from some far-future world… in fact she was stated to have been born on May 30, 2477, on Earth. Oh yeah, that was the other thing--her world had colonized not only the moon but the other planets in the solar system. And they had done so while looking like a bunch of space-themed 60's mod hipsters. Hence why Ulala had specified that she was born on Earth, instead of elsewhere like many humans would've been.
Annette had been starting to think that she only ever resurrected people and summoned them from the past, but now she could apparently pull dying people from the future too? And not only that but judging by everyone's stories of those who she had summoned thus far, there was a strong possibility that all of them were from alternate Earths where they had already died, so it wasn't as if she actually reached though time itself to resurrect people from this world. Even Emily Bovell and Bradie themselves could be from an alternate earth.
Which was both a relief and disappointing at the same time? After all, imagine if she could actually bring people from Earth Bet back to life? It would be both such a curse and a blessing all at once! Imagine having to deal with mobs of people who wanted their loved ones back and the pressure from that.
Clarence was pleased about Ulala joining them because in his view that meant that they were becoming more rounded as a Team. He had obviously appointed himself as the accountant-slash-manager of the group, while Tech-fire (Mr. Yamamoto) was in charge of online security, and now they had Ulala as the head of the public relations for Automata. That is if she accepted that role.
Annette couldn't help but wonder what The Thompsons' role in their team was because so far it seemed like Annette and her husband's role were to be the CEO and "co-owners" of this team.
Plus, there was also the issue that Clarence had been living during the '50s as a businessman. While they had computers back then, it had been very common for computer work to be seen as something akin to women's work. Back during his era, the field of electronics had been mainly occupied by women as seeing that was part of their secretary work the same way that manning the phone operator role was.
So every time Clarence needed some computer work done in his company? He usually just hired secretaries to deal with that. He'd never had to deal with computers himself directly.
So to say that he was technologically inept when it came to computers and email? Well, that'd be an understatement. He was still learning all the ins and out of the growing digital world though.
Probably why he had seen Ulala as a godsent miracle once he learned what her specialty seemed to be.
Annette poked at her power, wondering if it could do anything about Clarence's lack of computer knowledge.
>Ding<
Roll 1-- "Zidane y va marquer" is a song recorded by the French TV and radio host Sébastien Cauet, released July 3, 2006. Based on the music of Salif Keita and Martin Solveig's hit single "Madan", this parody refers to Zinedine Zidane and other players of the French football team competing in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
Effect: For one hour, everyone near Annette now knows both French and how to play soccer (football).
That was a no, then. Annette supposed that it'd get around to empowering people with that kind of knowledge whenever it felt like it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--The next day--
Annette and Danny decided to change up their eating habits and go to one of their favorite Japanese restaurants with their daughter.
This restaurant was a little out of the way and wasn't exactly in a good location, considering that the highways near it were usually roads that led out of Brockton Bay. But, it was a place that had earned Annette's loyalty as a customer considering that it had the only food that hadn't made her want to puke when she had been pregnant with Taylor.
Even her own home-cooked meals had made her want to vomit at the time… pregnancy's sensitivity to foods was a real bitch that way. So during those nine months, she had practically eaten nothing but food from the restaurant Sakura Tree.
The food here was good as usual. The Tempura was out of this world, and the dumplings were excellent as always.
But, it looked as if she had eaten a little too much. Her bulging stomach was practically pushing down against her bladder and other things. She needed a trip to the bathroom, stat.
As she did her business in one of the bathroom stalls, two of the restaurant staff came in to stand in front of the mirrors. Maybe they were retouching their makeup?
"I feel sorry for the owners. Owning a restaurant's always been their dream, but they're in such a bad location that hardly anybody comes their way. I overheard one of them praying to that shrine they have in the break room." one of them was saying.
"Hey, feel sorry for me instead. If they lose this restaurant, this means I lose this job. Who else is going to hire me in a city full of white supremacists and Asian gangsters?? Huh? I don't want to work for gangsters!" the second one complained slightly.
They washed their hands after putting some touchups on their makeup and then left.
Annette just sat there in the stall in stunned silence. One of her favorite restaurants was facing financial difficulty? No way!
"Shit," She cursed, and pulled on the toilet paper--
>Ding<
Roll 20-- Onsen. The Japanese name for a hot spring; the term also extends to cover the bathing facilities and traditional inns frequently situated around a hot spring. As a volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsens scattered throughout all of its major islands.
Effect: This small humble Japanese restaurant has been expanded to have both a modern Japanese-style Inn and many Onsens for men, women, and one for family units. And because of the roll 20, the Onsen now have magical healing properties that it's often hyped up to have, semi-permanently taking away things like arthritis and other pain-related conditions. People leaving the onsen will feel like they were renewed with a new lease on life.
Sighing, she left the stall and washed her hands before returning to the table.
Noticing that Annette's good mood had taken a nosedive, Danny asked her what was wrong.
She repeated what she had overheard in the bathroom, and Danny made a sympathetic wince at this. He then said, "I'm not honestly surprised. Everyone in Brockton Bay's been struggling financially lately… so it's small wonder why anybody would even want to come to a restaurant like this one, especially if it's out of the way like this."
"Well, that sucks," Taylor replied.
Annette then looked at the empty dishes everyone had on the table. "Oh, you're done eating too? I suppose it's time for the check. And, I better give them an extra tip, right?"
Everyone at the table nodded and called for a check.
They didn't notice the odd expression on the waiter's face as he brought them the check or the fact that all the staff seemed to be running into the back rooms to check out something...
In fact, Annette wouldn't realize what she had done until later on when the newspaper would interview a very grateful old Japanese couple and their adult children about the mysterious appearance of the new healing onsen their property now had. Of course, the old couple had no idea that Kismet had anything to do with it and instead subscribed it to the fact that they had been praying non-stop to some of their Japanese deities.It took some weeks for Ulala to get settled in, and for her to build up the servers that she'd be using to host her website and the online services that Automata would be hosting for the public.
(and during that time Annette's rolls seemed to be mainly nothing but random miscellaneous facts and knowledge that her power had conquered up for her. Which only lasted a few hours? Honestly, she was kinda getting bored of those rolls?).
And while they were doing it, Ulala had helped by adding hidden cameras into their helmets, armors and the like so that they could record everything while they were on patrol. That way, Ulala could review them later on and add them as footage as part of her online Space Channel Five webcast. And also mostly so that Annette could hand over footage to the PRT or whatever, in case they ever questioned her about anything that happened on her partols.
Tech-fire (Mr. Yamamoto) seemed to be getting along with Ulala really well, and thus they had been going out on partols together while Annette and her family took up the other patrol routes. Plus, he seemed to be getting a lot of wonderful ideas on how to make his security AIs stronger against viruses from Ulala, as seeing she was from the future where online security was vital.
The Thompsons were no slouches neither, as it turned out that they had been spending all their time building more robot pets. They had come up with some kind of robot cat, as a counterpart to the robot dog Rusty. And for some reason, they still hadn't quite come up with cape names for themselves yet…. Mostly because they still hadn't planned on coming out as capes in public, and thus didn't see the need for a cape name quite yet.
Come to think of it, Clarence hadn't come up with a cape name either, even though he was still slowly tinkering on some personal project of his on the side. She'd have to ask him if he ever planned on becoming a public cape too, or preferred to stay on as an anonymous member like what the Thompsons were doing.
Hermes (Danny) and Karma (Taylor) were almost done building a robot themselves, a young-looking boy in blue armor by the looks of things. They just needed to work on the most complicated part, the cybernetic brain of the young man and then they'd be done. Kismet had helped out now and then with the robot boy's body itself, so that it'd have human-like movement when it moved. But for the most part she felt that the two hadn't quite enough father-daughter bonding time due to Danny's workaholic nature and Taylor getting too old for some things that they used to do together in the past. Thus Annette opted out of the project most times so that it was more of a father-daughter project that the two did together on their time off.
~~~~~~
However, that wasn't to say that Annette herself didn't have any mother-daughter bonding of her own to do.
Taylor and Annette were now outside on patrol together as Kismet and Karma, and they were patrolling the area where the Empire eighty-eight was known to roam.
Thankfully the area seemed to be quiet, which gave Karma time to play with the new features that both Tech-fire and Ulala had helped install into their helmets. There was a HUD display that showed a mini-map, controls that turned on recording devices, and so on forth. There was even a built in communicator that allowed Kismet and Karma to talk to each other without anybody overhearing them, and they could even contact other members at the Pearl Tower this way.
In fact, Karma was deeply involved in some conversation with one of Tech-fire's artificial intelligences, Roll.Exe. Roll was telling Karma how much she enjoyed her new home in the Pearl Building as opposed to being on Tech-fire's computer back home. It seemed to be much roomier, with more room for her brother Rock.exe and the female AI Roll.exe to play around in. Also, with Pearl's advanced computing system this also gave their programs room to grow and evolve as well.
It was then that the bar nearby exploded outwards as a blinding white beam of light shot out though the rooftop, sending large pieces of the roof flying towards her and her daughter.
"Ta--KARMA!" Kismet almost said Taylor's name, but caught herself in time in case somebody was recording that, as she dived to shield her daughter from the explosion.
>ding<
Roll 26-- Karma. Karma in several Eastern religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect.
Effect: Taylor now has a new power in addition to being a mega-man themed tinker and a plant-based bio-tinker. She very literally controls the concept of Karma itself, befitting of her cape name. Everyone in her radius will be judged by her power according to her core values, and those who fail her moral test will suffer massive rashes of bad luck. While those who Taylor sympathizes with will have some good luck coming their way. However, this power is a double-edged sword. If Taylor starts doing things she knows she shouldn't be doing, then her Karmic payback power will punish her accordingly as well, despite being its new host in the longest time ever.
The bar, which had a sign that read, "Zum Ratskeller", indicating that it was a german-styled bar. And various Empire goons were fleeing the now-burning building with panicked expressions on their faces.
And… Kaiser himself just got thrown through a window, and part of the windowed wall went with him. Kismet saw some empire eighty-eight capes follow after Kaiser though the newly made hole, and…. Oh, they were all fighting each other.
Purity was on one side with Victor, Stormtiger and Alabaster behind her. On the other side, Krieg was helping Kaiser get up. Hookwolf, the female twins Kenja-and-Jenga-something-like-that (Kismet forgot their exact names) were standing behind Kaiser, scowling slightly at the other empire capes who had attacked Kaiser.
Othala, their healer cape, seemed terribly torn as she looked between Kaiser and Victor. Some young lady was by her side as well, and again Kismet didn't know her name.
So she hadn't kept track of all the capes' names…. So sue her.
Kismet and Karma were now crouching behind some nearby buildings, as their cam-helmets recorded the whole thing. Roll.Exe was telling the two of them that she had already called up the authorities and alerted the other members of Automata. Hermes was on his way.
She wondered if she should let this fight play out, or if she should just do the right thing and try to stop it? While she was pondering this, she pulled on her power. Maybe her power would have a solution to that question.
>Ding<
Roll 9--Truthfully Speaking. the debut studio album by American singer Truth Hurts. It was released on June 25, 2002 through Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records.
Effect: for up to nine hours, Everyone in this area will be compelled to speak nothing but the truth, and when the truth is spoken everyone will know it's the truth, no matter how much they don't want it to be true. The Truth is often unpleasant to hear after all. This also has the side effect of intensifying the "Logical Fallacy" and the "Captain of her own heart" effect on certain Nazis.
Also, songs from the album will also play in the background until the hours run out.
"What is the meaning of this?? Why are you attacking our leader?" Krieg demanded to know.
"Because he's a fraud!" Alabaster bellowed, "He doesn't even care about the Nazi ideals, he's just a power-hungry despot who's using his position as Allfather's son to get everything he wants! He's done nothing for the cause except exploit the hell out of everyone following him."
"And I attacked him because I didn't even want to be in this gang in the first place. But the fucker blackmailed me into joining his gang! And also gaslit me into marrying him. And to make it even worse, he's making me out to be a complete fool by sleeping around with those twin floozies over there. He went to the trouble of forcing me to be his wife, and he won't even respect the sanctity of marriage?? Truth is, I tried to fool myself into thinking that he must love me, otherwise he wouldn't have forced my hand… I tried so fucking hard to get along with all of this, telling myself that this gang wasn't so bad, that we were doing a good thing here…but I just can't hide from the truth anymore!" Purity sounded a tad hysterical at the end there, and for good reason.
Kismet was left gaping slightly at what Purity had to go though… and she could tell that the woman who was glowing brightly like the sun honestly believed every single word she said.
The mooks in the background were shifting around, looking uneasy as they were witness to the dramatic revelations going on here.
The teenage-aged girl was blinking behind her mask as she said, "Wow, really? That's seriously so uncool. Way to be a cheating scumbag, Kaiser."
Kaiser looked like he was about to deny all of those allegations but then said, "So what? It's my right and my lot in life. A powerful man in my position would deserve to have more than just one woman in his life! Besides, I'm able to produce more heirs this way…"
He looked slightly surprised as he blurted that out.
Purity just let out a loud noise of disgust at this as she let out a bright beam of light directly at her…. Ex-husband? About-to-be-Ex-husband.
At this, a fight broke out.
Sheesh, look at all this property damage, and Purity was mostly to blame for most of it. Seems that she could really let loose when she wanted.
All those mooks were having the worst luck ever, no matter where they went they kept on tripping and getting caught up in the fight between capes at the worst possible time. And…. one just died because he had the bad luck to accidentally get between Kaiser's swords and Victor.
Right, this was getting out of hand. Kismet had to do something fast to put an end to this….
>Ding<
Roll 5-- Size Change in fiction. Resizing (including miniaturization, growth, shrinking, and enlargement) is a recurring theme in fiction, in particular in fairy tales, fantasy, and science fiction. Resizing is often achieved through the consumption of mushrooms or toadstools, which might have been established due to their psychedelic properties, magic, freaks of nature, or size-changing rays of ambiguous properties.
Effect: For five hours, All affected parties will be shrunk, or enlarged and they will stay this way until the five hours are up.
YES! Looks like Kaiser and many of the other nazis were shrinking down to the size of barbie dolls….. That should make it easy for both Kismet and Karma to capture them all and hand them over to the PRT.
Huh? Why were everything else getting smaller…?
Kismet found herself growing larger by the second.
Karma/Taylor seemed to be the only one unaffected, as she stared up at her mother with mild awe. It wasn't everyday that you saw your mother turn into a literal growing giant.
By the time she was done growing, She couldn't help but feel like she was standing on top of a miniature model of Brockton Bay. And she found herself desperately scared to move at all, out of fear that she might move the wrong way and accidentally knock over a building.
And she could see her husband Hermes/Danny coming this way on Rusty, who had transformed himself into a robo-dog-motorcycle thing. And he was coming to a slow stop in order to stare up at her. He seemed at a loss on what to do about this giant-sized situation as she was.
Well, Fuck.
"Damn." Annette cursed under her breath as she found herself as a literal giant standing in what was now a very fragile looking miniature city (at least to her eyes).
"An-Kismet! Listen to me very carefully and don't panic, okay?" She heard her husband say though the comm they had built into their helmets.
She had wondered why Danny had caught himself from ever saying her name, but then remembered that they were still being recorded and there were chances that they might have to use this as evidence that she hadn't done anything wrong.
Right. Cape names only.
She nodded, to let Danny/Hermes know that she had heard him.
"How long does this effect last?" Hermes asked, and Kismet then had to feel for it to see what her power told her.
"Five hours." Annette/Kismet said, very softly because she wasn't sure how damaging her giant voice could be to the people below.
"Okay, that's not so bad. At least this isn't permanent… okay, let's do our best to head over to the bay, okay? Over there where you wouldn't accidentally do any damage should you move around." Hermes suggested, and Kismet nodded at this.
Yeah, that did sound like a good idea. If she was standing in water then she wouldn't accidentally step on people or buildings.
She gulped, before looking down at the ground as she started to move towards the bay. She did her best to walk on her toes as she carefully moved around the buildings. Much to her dismay though, the only areas where she could safely walk were on the roads, and her weight was causing craters where she had walked.
"Fuck!" She cursed out loud when she accidentally flattened a parked car on the side of one of the roads. Hopefully there hadn't been anything too important in there. There hadn't been anybody in there far as she could tell, which was also a relief. But she knew she was going to have to pay for the damages… ugh.
She instinctively flexed one more time as she reached her legs over to the beachy part of Brockton Bay and--
>Ding<
Roll 3. Because one rolled a 3, this means Annette automatically pulls three rolls.
10+20+18= 48. Divided by 3= 16.
Sparky's Magic Piano + Doctor Who Fandom + Finger Gun.
Sparky's Magic Piano is the second in a series of children's audio stories featuring Sparky, an original character created for Capitol Records in 1947. (Sparky also appeared in comic books as a sidekick to Capitol's other famous creation, Bozo The Clown.) Sparky is a little boy with an overactive imagination. His adventures involve inanimate objects which magically come to life and talk to him.
Effect: On his Earth, nine-years-old Sparky became a massive Doctor Who fan, and his favorite doctor is the one who tends to do finger guns a lot as his signature move. (this Earth had massively different versions of the doctors than a certain Earth has, where Doctor Who the TV show also exists). So as a result Sparky has a habit of doing finger guns a lot in order to emulate his favorite doctor. Also, unlike the original sparky from the Bozo the clown show that imagines inanimate objects magically coming to life to talk to him, This boy instead imagines daydreams in which he goes on adventures with the doctor. He used to have an imaginary friend who was a clown who called himself Bozo, and often imagined himself living in a circus with Bozo from the ages six to seven, but he has ever since grown out of having an imaginary friend. He still thinks about his imaginary friend now and then fondly, as seeing that clown helped him cope though some really tough times.
As he's just a normal boy without powers, he is both simultaneously frightened and excited by the fact that he finds himself in a strange city in which a giant armored woman that looms over the entire city is moving towards the water. He's currently wondering if this is just one of his daydreams, or if this is real. This daydream seems too real… he can actually smell and taste the saltwater on the air, how the city itself smells… and the pavement under his feet feels real too. Wasn't he just lying in bed a few seconds ago?
Annette let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding in once she finally cleared the rest of the city itself and were now standing in what seemed like shallow waters of the bay.
It was probably a few good feet deep compared to the viewpoints of other people though.
She turned around to see if she could still see her husband and daughter from here, and she lost her footing. She yelped loudly as she fell into the water and she instinctively tried to grab something on her way down--
>ding<
Roll 7--Double layer (biology). In biological systems, a double layer is the surface where two different phases of matter are in contact. Biological double layers are much like their interfacial counterparts, but with several notable distinctions.The surface of biological cells carry many different types of chemical groups, each with a different dissociation constant, causing them to have varying electric charges at a physiological pH. This indicates that biosurfaces are chemically heterogeneous. This biospecific feature is typical for all biosurfaces, including proteins, macromolecules and biological cells.
Effect: Annette gains some knowledge in double layering biology for seven hours.
Goddamn it. She was pretty sure that the entire city saw her ungraceful fall into the water.
Her face was burning with embarrassment as she moved away from the shallow waters and then stood up in the water. She was out where the water was up to her hips now, just close to the Rig.
Hopefully she hadn't created too much of a… splash. She didn't even want to think about the possible damage that could come from THAT.
She checked to make sure that the water hadn't damaged the electronics in her helmet. Hermes and Uala had said they engineered things so that they were waterproof and could withstand damages, but still… it was better to double check regardless.
Much to her relief, things were still recording and the comms line was still open.
"Kismet, you okay? I heard a loud noise from over there…" Hermes sounded worried.
"I'm fine, I just… fell in the water." She sounded so embarrassed as she said this.
She cleared her throat, and got right to business. "Karma, Hermes, you two are still close to the area where the empire fight broke out right? The empire capes are shrunk down, so they should be easy to capture. Have the PRT help out with that if they've arrived there already."
"Alright, mom!" Taylor/Karma said over the comm, sounding somewhat excited and cheerful. This was going to be her first time capturing a major villain, after all. And not only that, but capturing an entire group of villains at once? No wonder why her daughter was so excited.
"Alright, honey. And you're sure you're alright?" Hermes still sounded uncertain.
"Yes, yes. Go help our daughter deal with the Empire already." Kismet sighed loudly.
She then stood there as she listened to the others at the Automata's homebase chat though the comms. Both Ulala and Roll were in communications with the PRT, explaining to them what was going on and why Kismet was a giantess now.
Roll.exe then told her, "Miss Militia wants to talk to you. Patching her though to you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Turned out that Miss Militia just wanted to be debriefed on what was going on in Brockton Bay and her group today, which didn't take up a lot of her time. Once the debriefing was over, she was left to her own devices, although she had to be told to not come too close to the rig if possible.
An hour into her gigantification, and she was already starting to feel slightly bored as she floated and swam around in the bay as there was nothing to do. She didn't like being sidelined like this, but there was nothing else she could do as a giantess. If she tried to move around the city, then chances were that she'd do more bad than good.
It was then that she spotted the delicit ships near the graveyard, and she smiled to herself as she had an idea.
Danny was always complaining about them, and how it was hard to bring in new business without anybody around to help clean up that area.
Well, let's see if she could do something about that, eh?
She waddled in the water over to the ships and picked the biggest one, a container ship, and then started lifting it under her arm. It felt like she was carrying a heavy bundle of wood around 30 lbs, instead of actually carrying a 50,000 ton ship. It was honestly kind of mind-blowing the more she thought about it in those terms, as she dragged it over to the other side of the bay, towards the docks area where her husband worked.
She was sure that once this ship was in their port, they'd be able to salvage it and take it apart.
She got a call from Miss Militia asking just what the heck she thought she was doing.
"What do you mean, Miss Militia?" Kismet made a show of tapping at her helmet as she said this out loud in the most innocent way possible. "I'm just cleaning up the mess here. I might as well as do some good while I'm out here. I can't be doing nothing but swimming around in the bay while the rest of my team helps you deal with the Empire."
It barely took her a few minutes to wade all over the way over to the docks, since the water where she was was somewhat slightly past her waist. It was at the waterfront of Danny Hebert's workplace that she saw a few surprised dockworkers standing there gaping at her.
She grinned at them, and waved as she kept on coming closer. She deposited the large container ship in such a way that it would be impossible for it to be pulled back into the water by the waves, and thus the dock workers could take their time harvesting the thing as much as they wanted.
As she waded her back to the graveyard, Miss Militia hailed her on the com again.
"Kismet, we're going to have to ask you to stop bringing anymore ships over to the dockworkers. Well, uh… they're saying that some of those derelict ships belong to others and that some companies still hadn't let off their claims on them… so they're not free for you to do with as you please." She had the decency to sound mildly sorry about this.
"Oh. well.. Can I still move them out of the way, at least? I know there's a large acre of bare land with an abandoned lighthouse near the boat graveyard where nobody lives. I can pile the ships up there and leave them there. I just feel it'd be more tidy that way." Kismet said, as she kept on wading over to the boat graveyard.
"....." Miss Militia seemed to have no response to this, So Annette went ahead and did just exactly that, as she artfully arranged the ships in such a way that it was almost like a Stonehenge made out of ships in that area.
Doing that took up a good chunk of her time, and before she knew it two hours had passed.
Now she just had two more hours to go before she returned back to normal. Already, she was starting to feel so tired. After this was over, she was definitely heading home for the night.
Max Anders woke up that morning with a crick in his neck, feeling like he had slept on the wrong side of the bed. A terrible way to start the morning, but not so bad.. So far.
Unfortunately, his hopes that the rest of the day was going to be better and not turn into a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day were dashed when at noon he got a call from his wife Kayden telling him that she wanted a divorce, and that she was taking Theo with her because there was no way she was going to allow him to harm his own son anymore.
His wife Kayden had caught him at a bad time a few weeks ago, when he had been in the process of helping his son Theodore trigger. Or trying to, anyway. He was starting to think that his son simply didn't have the potential to trigger at all.
It wasn't as if he was actively trying to kill his own son. They had Othala, who could heal even the worst life-threatening injuries on hand after all. But Kayden had walked in, took one look at Theo's bloody and brutalized face and flew into a rage over it. For some reason, his wife couldn't seem to understand that this was a necessary process, if Theodore was to take over the Empire Eighty-Eight one day. He was supposed to be Max Anders' heir in everything, after all.
She had acted so dismayed when Theodore meekly told her that it was okay, that the two of them had been doing this for a very, very long time ever since he was seven years old trying to bring out his potential. And he hadn't died or had been permanently injured quite yet. He had even agreed with Max that as his father, Max only wanted the best for him.
Theodore would've never gotten anywhere in life if he didn't have parahuman powers after all. Power was everything in this world, and one needed all the edge they needed to be able to climb all the way to the top.
Kayden looked ill at this, and then asked Max if he would ever consider doing the same to their child after it was born. He responded by saying that as long as Theodore managed to finally trigger, he would be the heir. But, if it turned out that Theodore couldn't have any powers at all then their unborn child would need to become the next Heir instead. And hey, it wasn't so bad as it had appeared on the surface. His own father, the All-father, had done the same to him and Max was truly grateful for it. He would have never been able to rule both the Empire and the company he ran otherwise.
He had honestly thought that he finally got her to see things his way, but she stormed out and took Theodore with him once Othala was done healing the boy. She had been away for so long that he had to phone her and ask where she was, but she responded that she was at a cafe with Theodore and that she needed time to think things over.
Truly, Max Anders thought he had successfully reasoned with her but now she wanted to break up their marriage because of that? And it sounded like she had made her mind up, so it was going to be very difficult to talk her out of it. It was truly a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
But he still tried to salvage the day by having them meet at a bar that they all so liked to drink at, so that they could talk things out and smooth things over. To his surprise Kayden said she'd be coming along with Alabaster, Stormtiger and the others. This put him on edge, as seeing they had been acting VERY oddly lately, and he couldn't put his finger on why they were acting so strangely.
In fact he was starting to suspect that they were planning to break off from him and form their own faction. He sincerely hoped this wasn't the case, but he was always the sort to prepare for worst-case scenarios.So, he brought his own backup too, full of people who he knew he could truly trust.
But the negotiations had broken down, once Alabaster started accusing him of being a False believer who was exploiting the white supremacists in order to gain power. And when Purity accused him of sleeping around with his own bodyguards.
Both accusations were true, but still… look at his favorite bar, it was utterly destroyed. It was truly a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
And he wasn't the only one, it seems that the moment everyone shrunk down to the size of barbie dolls everyone else also started having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day too.
At first it looked as if everyone would be able to get away due to everyone being mostly distracted by the giantess looming over the city.
But it seemed as if Kismet the new Giantess had reminded them that there were still Nazis in need of capture after she had moved elsewhere, so they wound up being chased by both Hermes and Karma.
And much to Max/Kaiser's chagrin, he found out that when you're the size of a doll going up against humans that were the size of Endbringers, you could still do plenty of damage but you weren't just as formidable as you used to be. Plus, something about the miniaturizing effect played havoc on his ability to bring out massive beams of metal that he could easily throw at people. Instead, the worst he could do now was grow tiny needles and the like from his armor.
So to a normal sized human, It'd be like fighting a living, moving cactus. It could sting and hurt you, but it wouldn't be life-threatening.
His bodyguards Fenja and Menja were similarly having problems as well, as they tried to grow back to their usual size in order to fight effectively but the miniaturization effect had planted a limit on how much they could grow. So they couldn't go back to human size by using their power to grow, the best they could do was grow to the size of a three-year-old.
It seemed that Stormtiger was the only one giving both the Protectorate heroes Armsmaster, Battery, Assault and the Automata members Hermes and Karma any actual trouble. Which made a weird sort of sense. As an aerokinetic, Stormtiger was able to use the air itself as projectile weapons which would still hold up even in miniaturized form.
The rest of the empire capes had fled, the cowards. Although… maybe they had the right idea. Kaiser's first instinct had been to stand his ground, but in his current state he couldn't do anything.
So, he made the decision to do a tactical retreat with both Krieg and the twins covering for him as he retreated and followed after Hookwolf to one of the nearest empire bases, which happened to be the place for one of Hookwolf's dog fighting rings.
They managed to throw off and lose Karma as she chased after them, and it was with a sense of relief that they holed up inside the warehouse.
It had been extremely taxing though. When one was tiny like this, the paths that would've only taken a normal human like 20 to 40 minutes to travel on suddenly seemed twice as long, and it had felt like forever. And they couldn't even take a car, due to their size. They felt as if they had run a marathon across the entire state of Massachusetts by the time they finally reached the warehouse. This was truly a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for one Max Anders.
But their misfortune did not stop there. For pure karma was actively working against them now that all of their crimes had been thoroughly researched and judged, and they were found lacking any signs of moral fiber that a certain Karma-based cape would've seen as a redeeming feature.
Earlier that week, Hookwolf had literally snatched a small dachshund dog straight out of a crying boy's arms. His parents had looked like they wanted to rush over and stop him, but they had been too frightened to stop him and so instead just grabbed their crying child away from him.
He then had berated the parents for allowing the child to have a small purse dog for a pet when it was known that gay men and women mainly liked those little dogs. REAL men on the other hand, had bigger dogs.
"It's like you're raising your boy to be a wimpy little sissy boy. You want that, huh? I'm basically doing you a favor here."
Besides, he had been looking for small dogs to use as bait for the larger dogs, and that dog had looked perfect.
But what Hookwolf didn't know at the time? That little dachshund dog was something of an escape artist, and had always been ever since he was a little puppy. His family had learned a long time ago on how to handle his tendency to escape from the house to go on little doggie adventures, and found ways to prevent him from escaping way too often.
So yeah, the pen Hookwolf had thrown the dog into with all those other new bait dogs? It wasn't going to stand up to the cleverness of Sir Dash, the sneaky escape artist.
He escaped the pen right away soon as it was obvious that there was nobody around to stop him, and helped all those other little dogs escape as well. And now he was working on letting the other friendly bigger dogs out. The ones that frothed at the mouth and would attack anything they saw, he wisely chose not to help.
And unfortunately for both Kaiser and Hookwolf, that meant that once they found a way to get into the warehouse they now had what appeared to be massive dogs nearly the size of buildings waiting for them, from their own viewpoints. And now that they were tiny, they had no way of controlling the dogs though fear as they usually did.
What happened next was pretty much predictable, with the two of them running for their lives as a large pack of snarling angry dogs chased after them. They found themselves completely cornered in an area of the warehouse where the dogs couldn't get to them. Worse, Hookwolf couldn't completely cover himself in the metal fursuit he usually wore because the miniaturization was still having a wonky effect on his ability, he could only grow tiny metal spikes on himself spaced far apart. And even that wasn't enough to deter some dogs from using him as a chew toy, because the spikes weren't even that sharp to start with.
For Hookwolf, it was truly a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Especially so when Kaiser had pretty much literally thrown him to the dogs in order to escape.
"No offense, but it's you or me. And I choose myself." Kaiser had said, before tossing him down, and then made a mad run for it.
Sir Dash the Dachshund would eventually escape the warehouse and then find his way home, much to the delight of his favorite young human. The young boy's parents would then remark that Dash's escape skill fell into the family's favor for once.
Later on, Kaiser would later find out that both the twins and Krieg had been captured by the joint efforts of the Protectorate and the Automata family. As well as the traitors Alabaster and Victor, who had been captured solely by Karma.
Stormtiger, the new recruit Rune and Purity were still at large, but Kaiser had to wonder if they could actually be reasoned with. There seemed to be no mention of Othala at all, so he had no idea what happened to her. Hopefully she was alright.
As things stood right now, it seemed as if he was completely on his own…. Normal mooks didn't count at all. And if he returned back to normal, he'd still have to contend with a very public divorce from his wife… which would hurt his rep in both his civilian form as well as his cape self, as seeing part of his power came from the fact that he had a powerhouse like Purity under his thumb. And if they thought she wasn't submissive to him anymore…? Well, there was a chance that the Empire as a whole could break up into smaller gangs, just like that. Especially without any of his usual loyal capes to back him up and help him keep the gang together.
Ugh, what a terrible, horrible no good very bad day.--The Dallons and the Pelhams--
Everyone was eating together at a chinese restaurant, even the extended family members, which Sarah Pelham found to be nice.
It wasn't everyday that they all got together like this. Even Mark had come, and he was usually too depressed and out of it to be able to participate in things like this. In fact… he looked unusually chipper.
"Looks like the new pills are agreeing with you for once. I was starting to think that those doctors would never hit on the right combination of pills." Sarah commented, smiling at Mark.
Finding the right medication for depressed people turned out to be a very inexact science, as the doctors seemed more content at just throwing any combinations of pills to see what worked and what didn't.
The last batch had been… terrible. Mark had nearly suffered a meltdown due to it, so Sarah was just happy to see Mark acting so content and more like his usual self from before the depression had gotten too bad.
Mark smiled. "Actually, you can thank Amy here for that. While she couldn't touch my brain chemistry directly she was still able to find some medications that would be compatible with my biology with some help from Mrs. Remedy during power-testing. Not something that messed around with my head like all those other pills did. Just something that would help remind my body to produce the chemicals that my brain so desperately needed."
Eric, Sarah's son, looked interested at this. "How did she do that? Were you there with her or something."
Mark nodded. "Yes. Victoria was also getting power-tested, due to somehow gaining Amy's powers during her second trigger. However for some reason the PRT felt that Victoria and Amy needed to be separated so that they'd be able to be evaluated fairly on what the two of them couldn't do and could do on their own. Carol… well, you know my wife, she wanted us to be able to keep an eye on things. She went to watch Victoria's power testing, while I watched over Amy's."
He smiled wryly at this, silently hinting at Carol's tendency to want to be in control of everything, and everyone else at the table chuckled, which caused Carol to raise her eyebrows in confusion. She was the only one who wasn't exactly in the know when it came to the family's inside jokes about her. It wasn't anything actively malicious or cruel however.. It was more like a good natured ribbing between family members.
"It's cool though." Crystal said, "Having two new healers in the family I mean."
Carol frowned slightly at this, but she didn't say anything.
Victoria bounced happily in her seat. "I know, right?? It's so awesome that Ames and I can do work at the hospital together… once they give us the clearance to do so that is."
Her smile then faded. "It does seem to come with a few downsides… for instance its' gotten harder for me to punch baddies without feeling horribly guilty about it."
"What do you mean?" Eric sounded genuinely curious at this, while Crystal ate some of the chinese stir fry on her plate.
Victoria Dallon then explained, "Well.. you know how Amy's got this full powerset that tells her whenever people are in danger of dying from something or not just by looking at them? And how she gets even more information from touching them before she heals them. I've got this weaker version of that, and the thing is I can't even turn it off… not even when I'm fighting criminals on patrol. And well… it turns out that I'm stronger than I thought I am? Like, I was just trying to pin down this one dude to put zip ties on him, and he was struggling. So I accidentally broke his left arm all the way up to his shoulder. and then my new healing powers were telling me in full gory detail the extent of the damages I did to him and how to fix it… ugh. I healed the guy of course, but it's still not nice to get confronted with how much I hurt them in the first place."
"Yeah, I've noticed that you don't really know your own strength most of the time. And, it sounds like you need more time training in how to be more gentle with people." Crystal said after she was done swallowing her food.
Victoria sighed. "I know. I used to just brush this off as I thought it'd just get better with more experience under my belt considering that I've only been a superhero for a few months… but... yeah."
"Why are you so quiet tonight, Carol? Everything alright?" Neil, Sarah's husband, asked Carol Dallon as he noticed that she hadn't really said anything much and was just eating her food quietly.
Carol smiled, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. "I'm fine. I've just been thinking."
"You know you can come and talk to us about anything, right? I'm your sister after all." Sarah replied.
Carol sighed. She then whispered to both Neil and Sarah so that the kids wouldn't be able to overhear them. Thankfully both Victoria and Amy were sitting at the other far end of the table so they couldn't overhear them. "It's nothing. It's just…. Well, that so-called Mrs. Remedy person. Nothing about her adds up at all."
"What do you mean?" Neil sounded interested.
"Remedy shows up out of nowhere with a nearly identical power set that Amy has long before she triggered? And when I tried to look into her past, I couldn't find anything. And when I asked the PRT about more information on her, they told me that her files were classified for now. Classified??" Carol grumbled slightly.
Sarah frowned. "You tried to unmask another cape?? Seriously? Do you know how bad that would make us look if that ever got out?"
"So… you think this Mrs.Remedy might be related to Marquis and Amy? I mean.. While cape families are a thing you know that powers aren't always genetic. People who were completely unrelated to each other sometimes get the same powers. Just look at your daughter Victoria as evidence of this. She got some of my power as well as her boyfriend Dean's when she first triggered, just simply because we were in the same place she was. And we're not even related to each other." Neil pointed this out, and Sarah nodded.
That was actually a very reasonable point.
Carol scowled slightly. "Maybe so. But… Amy formed this instant connection with this woman and they've been spending a lot of time together. This woman's been influencing how Amy acts lately, and it's' very noticeable if you know what to look for. I just don't like it at all. I'd feel more at ease if I knew what kind of person she really was."
Sarah was about to say something, when a very loud booming voice said, "DAMN!"
Everyone clutched at their ears, as they looked around for the source of the noise. It had sounded like it was coming from outside.
So all of them ran outside to find…. A giant Kismet standing over the city in the distance with an expression of shock and resignation on her face.
"The hell?" Sarah couldn't help but say out loud as she gaped at the giantess.