Celestial Worm Part 4

'Mine!' Noelle's shard screamed over the temporary mental link that Taylor had accidently created by scanning Noelle's mind with her Telepathy.

'What the hell?!' Taylor asked, doing her best to make sense of the alien thoughts and feelings that she was picking up through the link while keeping her 'fingers' on the mental switch that would allow her to teleport out of the base if Noelle woke up and ripped through the vault door.

'Stay out! Host is mine!' the voice screamed as she lashed out with static and images of things that would have fit into a film about Lovecraft's wildest delusions.

Taylor spent a minute skimming the creature's fractured thoughts, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from and why it was calling Noelle a host. 'Alien parasite? Is that normal or is her power just weird?'

Taylor scanned the nearest parahuman’s thoughts trying and failing to pick up any evidence of a mind behind his powers, which made her a bit relieved if she was being honest. 'Her power is probably just broken.'

'I'll worry about the alien invasion later,' Taylor thought as she used her Power Creation ability to give Noelle a copy of her Mental Resistance power to keep the voice from taking her over. She sighed in relief when she felt the parasite's grip on Noelle's mind vanish, causing the monster cape to wake up after a couple of seconds as her shard wasn't able to keep her asleep. 'That worked better than I was expecting and her powers haven't changed.'

Oliver glanced up from his laptop and looked at the vault door when he heard Noelle moving around in the vault. He pushed the button on the remote that activated the intercom. "Are you awake?"

"Unfortunately," Noelle grumbled as she got to her feet, unhappy about waking up from what had been a pleasant dream since her current situation sucked all sorts of balls. "Has Coil found anyone that can help yet?"

"Not yet," Oliver admitted reluctantly.

"Don't worry, I'm here to help," Taylor offered as she dropped her invisibility, causing the blond teenager to jump in surprise. His changer power gave her a solid idea on how to use it to fix one of the monster cape’s problems.

"How long have you been here?" Oliver asked warily as he studied the red haired teenager wearing an outfit straight out of an RPG.

"A couple of minutes, I was trying to figure out the best way to convince you that I can manipulate powers and that I can help," Taylor replied with a shrug.

Noelle scowled when she realized that she couldn't smell another parahuman in the other room. "You don't have powers, I would be able to smell it."

Taylor used her Flight and floated a foot off the ground. "I'm a Trump and I have a couple of stealth related powers that are probably masking my scent," she explained, figuring it was probably her Mental Invisibility power that kept Noelle from sensing her powers.

"She's flying," Oliver offered, trying to calm Noelle down before she did something drastic.

"How can you help?" Noelle asked, willing to at least listen now that she knew the woman had powers.

"I should be able to use a temporary copy of your friend's changer power to permanently stabilize your power so that you can keep a human form," Taylor offered, trying to explain things without admitting that she could straight up give people permanent powers.

"What do we need to do?" Noelle asked, a touch of hope bleeding into her voice.

"Just stand there a minute," Taylor replied as she turned to look at Oliver. "Do I have permission to tweak your power so that you have mental switches to activate your power? It will make the entire process easier."

"Go for it," Oliver replied, hoping that she'd be able to actually help Noelle.

After a few seconds Noelle asked, “What’s she doing?”

“Staring at me with a constipated look on her face,” Oliver replied through the intercom. “I’m guessing it takes some mental effort.”

Ignoring them Taylor spent a minute tweaking Oliver's powers, giving him mental on and off switches for his accelerated learning ability and his always active changer ability, adjusting his changer ability so it came with a game interface so that she'd have more control of it when she copied it. "Go ahead and flip the switches a couple of times to test it," she told him, wanting him to build up some residue with his modified power so that she could copy it.

Oliver flipped the strange mental switch that he was reasonably sure activated his changer ability for reasons that he'd have a hard time explaining and stared at the RPG like character generation window that appeared floating in front of him. "Can you make it so I can change my hair?"

"I'll give it a try after I copy the template," Taylor told him as she used her Absorption power and picked up a temporary copy of his power. 'No 'luck' on getting his Changer ability permanently, I’ll have to try again later,' she admitted, knowing that she would have loved to have the modified power before she'd woken up looking like a model. She tweaked her temporary Changer ability so that it would change the user into a healthy and athletic version of Noelle when they flipped the mental switch. She checked the description her Power Detection gave her for the temporary power then used her X-ray vision to look at Noelle and gave her a copy of the new Changer power.

Taylor repeated the process until it stuck then changed the power back before she accidentally flipped the mental switch and turned herself into a copy of Noelle. "That should do it."

"Why do I feel like I have three mental switches for the same thing?" Noelle asked, finding the sensation odd but not particularly uncomfortable.

"It took a bit of work to get the changes to stick, you should be back down to one mental switch in a month and a half," Taylor assured her. "Go ahead and flip the mental switch and see if you can fix your body, if that doesn't work, I have a couple of other ideas on how to fix things."

Noelle flipped the mental switch that seemed the most 'solid' and immediately felt herself getting smaller, shifting from her monstrous form to something approaching her previous size, her extra flesh evaporating as mutated flesh transformed into pale skin. She patted her legs to confirm that what she was seeing wasn't just an illusion then looked over her shoulder at her butt, wanting to make sure it was back to normal. "It worked!"

'I'll say,' Taylor mused as she watched the half naked girl jump halfway to the ceiling when she tried jumping toward a clean spot near the door. "Give me a minute to see if I can fix your copying ability."

"That would be fantastic," Noelle replied, feeling better than she'd felt in a long time.

Taylor spent a minute tweaking Noelle's copying power until she got something that made happy and slightly bubbly clones of the creature copied and required actively using the power to activate it. "If I give you a spider, can you test your ability to copy it?"

"Sure," Noelle replied, figuring she could always crush a cloned spider.

Taylor adjusted her Teleport Self power and teleported one of the spiders in the corner of the vault to Noelle's hand. "You should have a mental switch for your power."

Noelle flipped the mental switch and copied the spider, creating an identical spider. She was a bit surprised when the spider merely sat there without immediately charging the original. "It's not aggressive. Is it permanent?"

Taylor teleported the spider to her hand. "Unfortunately, permanently fixing the power is going to require help," she admitted as she used her Residual Absorption ability to copy Noelle's modified ability to copy creatures. She checked the description of the temporary power then used the power on the spider, creating another spider and creating more residue that she could absorb. She used her Absorption ability on the new spider then repeated the process a couple of times until she managed to pick up a permanent copy of Noelle's modified power.

"What do you need?" Noelle asked, wondering if this was when the other shoe dropped.

"I need to call a friend," Taylor replied as she checked the spiders with her copy of Amy's power and relaxed when they seemed normal enough. She used her Absorption ability on the spider that she'd teleported to her hand to pick up a temporary version of her modified Teleportation ability.

"You're not going to get reception down here," Oliver told her.

"I'm aware," Taylor replied as she used her temporary power to teleport the rest of the spiders to the vault, building up enough residue to try to permanently copy the power four times. Thankfully, it only took three attempts before she managed to pick up a permanent version of the power which meant she wouldn't have to keep modifying her Teleport Self ability. "I'll be back in twenty minutes, grab a shower and try to relax."

"What happens if your friend can't help?" Oliver asked.

"If she can't help, I know a Tinker that can probably come up with something," Taylor replied, fairly sure that she could use her Enchanting power to create a bracelet that blocked Noelle's ability to copy people if Amy couldn't fix her powers. “Relax, I have a load of options and we’re just starting to go down them.”

"Thank you," Noelle told her.

"You're welcome, I'll be back in a few minutes," Taylor told them as she used her Clairvoyance to check on Amy, finding her talking to Vista and Clockblocker near a lighthouse. She dropped the modification to her Teleport power, swapped her hair back to Pixie's blue color and teleported next to Amy. "Hey."

"Shit!" Clockblocker blurted out as he jumped back, not used to having people appear out of thin air right next to him.

"You seem a little jumpy," Taylor offered, causing Vista to snicker.

"Hey," Amy replied with a smile, rather amused that Taylor had managed to get Dennis to jump.

"New cape?" Clockblocker asked as he studied the blue haired girl that looked like she'd stepped out of a movie about fantasy assassins.

"I'm Pixie, I need Panacea's help…" Taylor trailed off as she realized there were half a dozen PRT agents and medical personnel hauling bodies out of the tourist trap that looked like a lighthouse. "What happened?"

Clockblocker gestured toward the dozens of injured gang members that the PRT agents and police were loading into vans. "They decided that kidnapping the White Mage was a good idea."

"It wasn't," Vista added with a grin, glad that someone had finally dealt with the Merchants, regardless of what the PRT said about maintaining the balances of power in the gangs.

Amy glanced over at where Miss Militia was talking with one of the EMTs then focused on Taylor. "If they're crazy enough to kidnap me from the hospital, they're crazy enough that they need to be in a mental ward or behind bars before they hurt someone. What did you need help with?"

"Do you know anyone that can fix broken powers?" Taylor asked hopefully.

Amy sighed as Miss Militia started walking towards them. "That depends, if the unstable power was caused by brain damage you might be able to fix it by finding someone with a healing power that works on brains, if the power is warped like what happens with a case 53, you might just be out of luck."

"Can you take a look?" Taylor asked, knowing she wouldn't have enough experience with Amy's power to figure out how Noelle's power worked.

"I have to wait until they clear me. Is it an emergency?" Amy asked.

"I have about twenty minutes before I need to get back and make sure they don't go off the rails but if you can't help, I'll figure something out," Taylor assured her.

"How dangerous is their power?" Clockblocker asked.

"She has a rather high brute rating and some rather nasty abilities that would be hard to deal with if she went on a rampage," Taylor admitted.

"What makes you think she's unstable?" Miss Militia asked as she walked over.

"Her power was talking to her and trying to take her over," Taylor explained, figuring she might as well explain things so that she could figure out what they thought about her power.

"So she's crazy, gotcha," Clockblocker offered.

"Probably," Taylor agreed, not sure if she should be surprised or relieved that none of the capes thought that her power was actually talking to her. 'That probably means her power is just weird.'

"You're good to go," one of the cops said as he walked over, having heard the last part of the discussion. "They're lucky Glory Girl didn't find them first."

"Thank you," Amy told Officer Mitchell then turned to look at Taylor. "Let's go."

Taylor checked on Noelle with her Clairvoyance and found her taking a shower. 'I should probably avoid that.' She swapped to checking on Oliver and found him talking to a group of people in their late teens or early twenties, one of which was in a wheelchair. "Give me a minute to find a safe place to land."

"Sure," Amy replied, figuring she was scrying the destination so she could make sure she didn't scare anyone.

Taylor used her Telepathy to skim the group's thoughts, trying to figure out what they were like and if they had to alert the PRT to their presence in the city since they were a villain group. 'Is that a master effect?' she mused as she examined the 'shadow' that covered Trickster's mind, pushing him to be more paranoid than he should have been. She frowned when she also found alterations to the girl in the wheelchair's mind, pushing her to be less connected with reality than she probably should have been. 'Okay, I can probably fix that.'

"And we're good." Taylor teleported Amy and herself to the hallway outside of the room where the group was talking. "I have returned with a healer."

Amy glanced around the concrete hallway, wondering where they were.

"Healer? Can she fix my legs?" Jess asked hopefully.

"Probably," Amy replied as she walked into the room with Taylor following behind her.

"What's the catch?" Trickster asked as he studied the two capes, knowing there had to be a trick.

"No catch," Taylor assured him as she used her Magnification/Reduction ability to drop his ability to swap things down to nothing then did the same to the rest of the Travelers, leaving them effectively mundane for the next sixteen hours unless she fixed it. She used her Biophysical Regeneration ability on Trickster, healing the brain damage the Simurgh had caused and restoring him to perfect health, which caused him to start coughing up black tar.

"What the hell?!" Ballistic demanded when he realized that he couldn't feel his power.

"Trickster was under a master effect, I was fixing him and the shit in his lungs has to come out," Taylor explained.

"I can't feel my power," Ballistic snapped, more concerned with his missing power than he was the fact that Trickster was coughing up tar.

"Calm down!" Taylor ordered. "I'm a Trump and I didn't want Sundancer summoning a miniature sun or Trickster doing something stupid, so I nullified your powers, it should only last a couple hours."

"What do you mean, was?" Sundancer asked.

"I healed the brain damage which means he should be less paranoid," Taylor explained as she used her Biophysical Regeneration on Oliver, trying to get rid of the Master effect that caused some of his mental issues.

"Brain damage? Yeah, I can believe it," Ballistic mused, ignoring Trickster flipping him off as he continued coughing up the crap from his lungs. "Can you actually help Noelle?"

Taylor glanced at Amy who was already working on fixing Jess's legs. "Probably. I fixed her legs and made sure her power shouldn't be able to cause mood swings, but I'm not sure if I can actually permanently fix her cloning power."

"Screw fixing it, can you get rid of it?" Sundancer asked hopefully.

"I don't know," Taylor admitted. "I was hoping that Panacea would be able to figure out if we can fix her power or remove it. If we can't, I should be able to come up with a tinkertech device that can suppress her ability to create evil clones so she can live a reasonably normal life. I just need everyone to stay calm so that Noelle doesn't panic."

"Even if you can't get rid of her power, blocking it would help," Sundancer admitted.

0o0o0

"How much can you tell me about the new cape?" Officer Mitchell asked Miss Militia once Panacea and the girl vanished, wondering if she was going to cause more problems than she solved or if she was actually going to be helpful.

"Not much," Miss Militia admitted. "This is the first time I've met her and I only interacted with her for a minute. The first time I heard her name was when Velocity mentioned her about twenty minutes ago." She turned to look at Dennis. "Do you have any idea why Panacea took a page from Glory Girl's book?"

Clockblocker glanced at the assholes they were still loading into the transport vans. "I think she's tired of cleaning up after the assholes. The holidays always suck and the new year celebration probably didn't help. There's also the fact that if they're willing to kidnap a cape at the hospital, they'd be willing to do a lot worse to civilians."

"He's not wrong about people escalating," the officer pointed out as Vicky flew over a building and came in for a landing.

"Where is she?!" Vicky asked intently as she glanced around for Amy's rather distinctive costume.

"Relax, she's fine, she just went to help Pixie heal someone," Clockblocker offered, trying to defuse the situation before Vicky blew her top.

"Cool," Vicky replied, relieved that Amy wasn't in danger, something she'd been a bit worried about when her mother had told her that Amy had been kidnapped and where she'd been taken. "What happened? Mom just said that the Merchants had Amy."

"Sorry, I can't talk about an active investigation," the officer apologized then headed back over to talk to the officers that had checked the building.

"A group of Merchants showed up at the hospital and one of the gang members stayed to keep an eye on the nurse to ensure Amy's good behavior," Clockblocker explained. "Less than a minute later the gang member that was supposed to be watching the nurse told her to run into the ER and call the police then he bolted."

"Makes sense," Vicky admitted. "He'd be gone by the time security got there and I doubt anyone is going to beat the shit out of the guy that warned people. Who rescued Amy?"

Clockblocker shook his head. "You've got it backwards, we probably saved the Merchants by showing up, Amy had already beat the shit out of most of them by the time we got here."

Vicky raised her eyebrows and gave Dennis a look of disbelief. "Seriously?"

"I got it on video," Dennis replied as he showed her the PHO page on his phone with the video he'd recorded.

"Right…" Vicky trailed off as she watched the video, her disbelief quickly transforming into pride and a severe case of the giggles as she watched her sister kick the shit out of the Merchants.

0o0o0

"I probably should have started with creating a switch that influenced her power and giving it to her like a power," Taylor admitted as they walked up to the door to Uber and Leet's workshop.

"You got there in the end," Amy replied with a hint of a smile. "Besides, if you hadn't experimented with the power dampening bracelet, I wouldn't have a bracelet for when I don't want to deal with my power."

"Point," Taylor replied as she knocked on the door, trying to avoid focusing on Amy's thoughts about tying Vicky to a bed and having her wicked way with her. 'This is going to end in tears and ice cream.'

"What are we going to do if they don't open the door?" Amy asked as she glanced up at the poorly concealed security camera watching the entrance.

Taylor held her hand out and conjured an illusionary ball of fire over her hand. "We'll just have to get creative…" she trailed off as the door was flung open, revealing Leet dressed like a black wizard holding something that looked more like an alien blaster than a magic staff.

"What the hell?" Leet complained. "Lara Croft and a pet Chomp from Mario Brothers, you're mixing games."

"Pot, kettle, you're dressed like a mage and you have a blaster," Amy argued.

"Fine, what do you want?" Leet asked.

"We need a portal to Earth Aleph," Taylor told him.

"What makes you think we have a portal?" Leet asked defensively.

"You can build damned near anything and Haywire managed to pull it off which means it's possible," Taylor replied as she let the ball of illusionary fire vanish. “Besides when it comes to games we both know you are far too impatient to wait for imports when you can buy direct.”

"Are you trying to get us killed or dropped in the birdcage?" Uber asked as he walked over, wondering how they'd even found their base.

"No, we just ran into a group of professional gamers from Earth Aleph that needs a way home and you're one of the only people I can think of that could pull it off," Amy explained.

Leet glanced at Uber then sighed. "I might know a way, what's in it for us?"