3

Exchange 1.3

"Ready steady can't hold me back…"

-Ready, Steady, Go

-March 10, Hebert Household-

I feel someone shaking me awake, I open my eyes slightly as I ignore the voice. My eyes are focusing on my digital clock in the nightstand next to the bed. It was 5 in the morning… I refuse to wake up at a godforsaken hour!

"Come on shorty, get up." Taylor said insistently. In retrospect my answer might have been… a tad extreme.

"Who are you calling the Guinness record holder for the shortest person in the world?" I almost shouted reflexively, the only thing that stopped it was that Taylor hit me with a pillow halfway into my righteous rant. I looked at my cousin with no small amount of anger as she said somewhat exasperated,

"Marie, you agreed to join me in my morning run, get your stuff together and let's go." To be fair she was in fact right about me deciding to join her, I want to curse past me for deciding that getting along with my family was more important than sleep. Still it takes a few minutes for me to change clothes, grab a flashlight and a bottle of water from the kitchen and leave with Taylor. For the next half hour we didn't really talk, she kept a fast pace that I struggled to keep with at first, but I caught up after a while. The run was oddly relaxing, just the sound of our feet hitting the asphalt, the odd sound of a car in the distance. And the knowledge that there was at least a plague's worth of insects nearby letting Taylor know where everything is.

"So, debut?" She said as we headed back home, I saw some movement from the nearby windows as the neighbors began their early morning routine.

"Yeah, about that… I might've gotten involved in an accident yesterday." I said after some consideration. If I was lucky I hadn't been put up in PHO and Taylor wouldn't suspect anything. One look at her told me I wasn't so lucky.

"Marie, what did you do?"

"She was bleeding Taylor, I couldn't just let her die! Panacea famously doesn't do brains, and her head was cracked." I said trying to excuse my moment of altruism as pragmatic heroism.

"So you're Harlequin." She said after a few seconds, a car passed, wheels running over a puddle on the opposite side of the road.

"I'm in PHO already?" I asked, knowing the answer.

"Kinda, someone took a video of you doing something to that woman. The PRT aren't officially looking for you as in putting up a warrant, but they did say they're interested in talking to you." She looks at my face and sees just how well I intend to cooperate with that request. I want to avoid Coil as long as possible, because I know that it will end with either him dead or me dying while he dies. Shaking my head slightly I begin to move again and Taylor follows soon. There's still no traffic and I say,

"Yeah, so I may have debuted… But I really need to make a proper costume, want me to help with yours?"

"Mine's mostly finished already." She says almost too hastily, I turn around and tell her,

"Taylor, your neck, armpits, back and lower legs were exposed. Gimme the silk and I'll finish it for you. If you want I can also add some plating so as to improve your defense. I was thinking about minor plating on your arms, legs and chest. With your silk it should stop a lot more than small arms fire, especially if I can make strong alloys."

"I…" She seemed to hesitate. I don't know why, better armor is always a good idea, she looks at me and shakes her head for a second, "Fine, I'll see if you're any good as a tailor." I snort at the attempt of a joke that was.

"Don't worry, I'm pretty good at on the fly costumes. Any luck at finding a decently abandoned building in the docks?"

"Well I found 2, both have the vats you were interested in but only one of them has a basement that isn't drowned in toxic waste and broken machinery. Not that it matters for you, since you could just clap your hands and fix it." She says with some bemusement, shit I'm smiling aren't I? So indirect praise does make me somewhat happy…

"That's fair, so we scout them out today?" I ask as she nods and says,

"After school. Since I'll be leaving early I'll meet you outside of Stonewell and we'll go together. Officially we're heading to the boardwalk. Mostly for window shopping."

"Okay." I reply as we finally arrive at home, the smell of coffee hits me like a train. I miss my daily cup or 4 of coffee. Okay maybe it was more along the lines of 8 cups most days, but in my defense sleep is a suggestion for people who don't have graveyard shifts or work in reception for a forensic lab. The day promised to at least be calm.

-Docks, after school-

" I'm going to find Murphy and force him down several flights of stairs! " I manage to think as I see what is definitely a group of merchants near one of the buildings that Taylor had suggested. I'm eternally grateful for Taylor's use of bugs to scout ahead, they would've seen me otherwise. We quickly entered a neighboring warehouse and started looking through the third floor windows.

"All right you useless fucks, listen up!" A bald man wearing rags and what looked to be a bulletproof vest shouted at the gathering junkies, "Skidmark is pissed cause Squealer got captured by that limp dicked bitch of a hero Armsmaster. So we're busting her out today! Our job is to make some noise, so grab the shit and let's blow up this old warehouse!" The small crowd roared in agreement; Taylor paled and I swore under my breath. 

Various plans came to mind in an instant, I discarded the ones where I used the idiots as biomass for a chimera, and the ones where they died. That was too much escalation for this. An idea struck me at last, one that appealed to my power; I could almost feel it salivating. I looked at Taylor and asked,

"Do you have a plan in mind?"

"Yes. But you sound like you have one of your own."

"Several actually." I replied somewhat smugly, "But only one of them would genuinely work well in this situation while avoiding escalation and keeping your powers hidden." I could see she was interested, her fingers drummed against her arm for a few seconds before she said,

"What do you need?"

"Find me as much metal scrap as possible, I'm going to make a show." I said as I began explaining my plan. It was quite simple, if I dragged them all into the ground I'd have the merchants invading the docks alongside the empire and ABB because someone seemed to have taken over it. So instead of that I make it loud, make it showy and make sure that they know to up the security on Squealer. To that end I would create several loudspeakers and a microphone so they could hear me. I'd be bombastic, like a fucking stereotyped new cape.

It took 5 minutes to set everything up; from building a microphone to setting up several loudspeakers capable of blasting my voice to the boardwalk. I had changed into a horribly colorful costume, made another mask, this one looked a lot more like a jester's face and had used Alkahestry on myself to change my pitch into something a bit more higher.

"Okay" God I hated this voice, "I'm going to make everyone know what's happening, I need you to warn me when the heroes arrive. Outside of that if things go to shit, I trust that you'll get me out." I smiled at her as I put on my mask, I hoped that it looked brave.

I saw them break into the building and clapped my hands and touched the ground, spikes jumped towards them and I narrowly avoided skewering them. The main entrance now looked like the opening of a tube filled with sharp teeth. I opened my mouth and said,

"Hello Brockton Bay, it's your girl Harlequin coming to you live from the docks. And boy do I have a show for you today! Let's give it up for everyone's favorite public punching bags, the merchants!" I clapped slowly and with fake cheer, baldy shouted something and aimed a pistol at me. A spark of lightning ran down my leg and into the ground, a wall of cement formed in front of me stopping the bullets, though I probably shouldn't have bothered. The man couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a minigun if his current aim was any indication.

"As you can hear these chuckle fucks are armed and dangerous and are trying really hard to stop my shopping trip. Now I know what yall are thinking, Harley aren't you in danger? And to that I reply, no! These junkies couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a nuke; why else would they try to blow up the docks so that Skidmark could rescue his sidekick/ho/only-reason-why-he's-somewhat-competent." I continued saying, I made a cannon after the shots stopped and aimed at where they were, dropping the wall I saw their faces pale as I fired at them. Some of them got stuck into the wall as the others began moving.

"Fuck you, you crazy bitch! Get her boys!" Baldy shouted while he continued to empty his clip in my general direction. Unfortunately for him the gun clicked several times before he threw it at me. Several junkies came at me, I touched the ground and used the circle in my gloves, the ground shook, and opened beneath them. Some fell, others leaped over the gaps I created. One of them caught up to me and tried to grapple me into the ground. Keyword is tried since it's really hard to do anything when you lose both your kneecaps and elbows. Still he screamed as if I had stabbed him, I used alchemy on him again and knocked him out, hopefully Amy would fix him… Maybe I should just fix it here, I'm sure he won't mind the blood loss.

I saw a small swarm of flies form a big 5 and form an arrow to my right. " Thank you Taylor. " I thought as baldy grabbed a knife from his belt and charged at me. He was quick and drugged out of his mind, fortunately I wasn't. I formed several chains from the concrete and encased his limbs in them; he fell, breaking his nose and decorating the ground with his blood. I could almost hear them arrive as I turned around. Kid Win and Gallant… Why the fuck did they send wards here? I expected the beard or Militia herself. Maybe Assault if I was lucky, Velocity or Battery if I wasn't. Actually I'm 80% sure they aren't supposed to let wards engage, whoever let them is fucked.

But why did it have to be Gallant? I would've loved for Clockblocker or even Browbeat to be here, I would've even taken Sophia before this guy… Thinking about it if Sophia was here I'd probably kill her. Taylor would understand… hopefully. Anyways Gallant, God he's a fucking moron. Seriously dude, for a guy who can read emotions and manipulate them you fail constantly to read the room and try to fix shit.

"The youth guard is going to riot over this." I say while stepping away from them, several junkies struggle against their chains and Gallant says,

"Harlequin, I'm Gallant and this is Kid Win, we would like to ask you to tell us what happened."

I raise my eyebrow… Wait fuck wearing a full face mask, oh well, "Are you guys deaf?" I ask as I turn the microphone off. I can see the swarm building behind them and shake my head. Everything is fine Taylor, just hurry up and get their explosives. "I'm pretty sure everyone heard what happened, but to sum it up I was going to get some bagels and I found that these junkies wanted to blow up the old armtech warehouse behind me. Lots of nifty stuff in there as well. I'm pretty sure only half of it will give you super cancer."

"Is that so?"

"Yup, you don't sound too convinced Mr. Mood Ring." I say with a smirk, I hope it annoys him… Fuck full face mask!

"I… Look, you're young, why not join the Wards?" I can hear the exasperation in Gallant's voice, good. The guy needs more frustration in his life, maybe it'll let him have a better relationship with Vicky.

"As much fun as listening to the director scream at me sounds, I'll have to take a raincheck on that."

"Why would the director scream at you?" Kid Win asks, I smirk.

"Because of this." I said activating the circle in my boot once again, behind me a 25 foot statue of me sitting on top of the merchants in a throne appeared. It wasn't my best work, asphalt and cement are horrible materials to mess with, but it did make for a neat distraction. By the time they looked at where I was I had already run away. I hoped that he had been confused as to why I was pissed at him.

Running through one side of the docks to get to another isn't as luxurious as movies and TV make it seem. Especially when doing it in a bright costume while trying to be stealthy, thankfully Taylor's swarm guided me. Still, I feel like I should've given Kid Win some advice, or a stuffed doll. Maybe both, a giant doll that says modulation every 5 minutes…

I met up with Taylor in the other warehouse, after changing my clothes again and restoring my voice… Fuck Marie's voice back to her normal tone. The other warehouse was dusty, I could smell the rust in the air and I'm at least 80% sure Taylor has all the roaches hidden away somewhere. The first thing I do is use alchemy to see the warehouse in full, the plumbing is shot to hell, electricity isn't far behind but I can fix those. 

"Beggars can't be choosers, Taylor I'm going to begin working. Let's get out of the building before I begin doing this." I say as I try to drag her out with me. I breathe deeply and feel the plates of the earth beneath me, even with that it would still take a lot out of me, but I begin the transmutation. The building's interior is cleaned out, some of the materials are used to reinforce the walls and floors, the earth beneath it is changed and a new basement is made, the vats are reconstructed from the ground up and cut in half in terms of height. The old chemicals that were in them are transferred back into them, some changed to produce red water. I'd need to make some plants grow later… " Fuck, so tired… " I think to myself as the alchemy is done. Taylor grabs me before I finish meeting the ground, my hands are trembling and my vision is blurring as Taylor says something. I hope it's nothing important.

Fainting isn't as fun as television makes it out to be, the dull throb behind my eyes doesn't make it better, I hate not being as strong as I used to be. Or as resistant to pain, then again the latter was a result of me being a stubborn bastard, given how often shit hits the fan I don't doubt I'll have some opportunities to improve my pain tolerance. Shaking my head slightly I see Taylor approach from my right, she's frowning. Okay scratch that she's breathing deeply and saying something… I should pay attention.

"-and what the hell am I supposed to do Marie?" She finished saying, I could see her eyes trembling as she forced herself to calm down. Was she sending her emotions to her swarm? If so, that's not good.

"Probably not tell Danny and I'm fine." I try to reassure her, her eyes are twitching! Is that how I looked when angry? 

"Okay I can understand that your powers are weird, but you barely had a fucking pulse! You barely responded Marie, I thought you were dying!" Taylor screamed at me, she was between pissed and worried. I breathed out and slowly said,

"Yeah, I might have bitten off more than I could chew when I rearranged things, and making it so you'd need to be brute 4 or 5 to begun to break the floor was probably overkill, but we have a base now, and once I install the seals only you or I will be able to enter without expending tinkertech explosives." I replied with some measure of pride, Taylor didn't look impressed at all, but I could tell she was a bit calmer, her breathing was regular and her eyes weren't trying to drill holes into my cranium. I held out my hand to her and after a few seconds she took it, I pulled her into a hug and said 

"Taylor, it's just going to be a simple alchemical lock. Nothing fancy and without alchemical know-how they'll never get in. I'll even run a small electric current that will stop shadow bitch so that they can't enter. Now, for how long was I out?"

"An hour." I frowned when I heard that, an hour was lost and I had nothing to show for it, I needed to hurry up and make a stone. Even with Alkahestry aiding the process it would take too long to use plants for the red stones, so time for plan B. Use a living creature and make them hurry shit up.

"Get a lot of bugs, I won't have the time to use plants to purify the red water." I asked her while I stood up from the floor, my back felt great, sleeping on the floor always did make it feel fresh. I stretched even as Taylor asked,

"Purify?"

"Yeah, as it is the red water is highly toxic, as in I can spike Lung with this and he'll die while coughing out his innards toxic, but I can refine it by using living things like plants and animals, a bug chimera will do nicely for the beginning once I have it then I'll start making stones. Once those stones are up everything will be easier."

Instead of answering directly she closed her eyes and I heard them. Thousands if not millions of bugs flew in, the hairs on my head stood up in fear as she gathered them all into a single point. I clapped my hands and touched the floor, the circle was engraved in seconds and I activated it. I was happy that I wasn't afraid of bugs because a 7 foot tall beetle wasn't something I wanted to deal with, I could see Taylor's eyes widen as the new bug touched her mind.

"I'll make you another one later Taylor, tell it to keep still and don't look through its senses." I told her as I used alchemy again to transfer the liquid into the bug. It seemed to screech, but I had made sure it was mute when I made it. After a few minutes it stopped trying to scream as I began using Alkahestry. It was an interesting shift in mental imaging, where Alchemy would use analysis, deconstruction and restructure to force the change, Alkahestry accelerated the process by energizing the body. Within minutes the stones were done and the beetle was dying. I killed it quickly by destroying it with Alchemy and several stones fell into the floor, some of them were around the size of my fist, others were smaller. I grabbed the smallest one and used a little alchemy to make a chair. I barely felt the pull, the stone worked fine.

"Good news, we have red stones. Give me a few minutes to inscribe the array into a bracelet for you and we can leave." I tell her even as I begin picking up the scattered stones. A few transmutations of metal and I have a small bracelet with a rather bright red rock in the middle. The array itself is inside the metal, the outside has a simple garland of flowers decorating the metal. It looked like a normal bracelet that any girl would use, if a bit prettier than one would expect from someone who goes to Winslow.

"Alright Taylor, listen up. This bracelet has a set amount of charges built into it, twenty to be precise. Touch something and focus on breaking it down and it'll be destroyed. Even a tank will fold like wet paper with this. Normally you'd need some basic knowledge of alchemy for it, but I've made it so that only you can use it." I said handing what was essentially a weapon to my cousin. Funny thing, thinking like that, my cousin, she was Marie's cousin, yet she is mine as well.

"How do I use it?" She asked, clasping the bracelet on her right wrist. It fit well, the single red stone in the center being rather eye-catching.

"Right, touch something and focus on destroying it. You need to desire it to be destroyed, down to atoms." I replied, grabbing her hand and placing it on the chair I just made. A bright flash of light later and I had no chair, and a shocked looking Taylor. Her mouth was open and she was pale,

"Like I said even a tank can't handle it, it's a last resort weapon and an escape route creator." I said in the most soothing tone I could muster, I could tell she was still reeling from the use of alchemy. Which is weird given that the stone handles 99.9% of the energy cost, maybe I fucked you somewhere…

"Marie, I could see everything for a second. Is that what you see when you use your power?" Taylor eventually replied with a somewhat shaken tone. I'm not proud to admit that it just occurred to me that there is information overload when using it. That could be a problem in the field, what if she stalls or is distracted? What if it happens if and when she fights lung? 

I can smell the smoke, her body is slumped against a wall…

That could not stand. "Can't remove the analysis part from the process even though Scar knew what he touched, but still… Maybe I can reduce the information intake? Not feasible with the current setup…" I started muttering quickly, numbers and formulas racing through my mind like falling stars, my hands grabbed another stone and I made some chalk using it. I start writing on the wall various formulas, trying to find a way to skip the information while keeping the results of the analysis. It surprised me that Taylor apparently saw this and grabbed me by the shoulder and shook me.

"Marie, stay with me don't go into a fugue. I know that it's tempting but we really don't have the time for it today." She looked paler than usual, her eyes were hardening slightly as if she was preparing herself to do something drastic. If I strained my hearing I could probably hear the swarm. Why would she try to stop me? It didn't make sense… I sigh and let go of the chalk, my legs soon follow as I sit on the floor, I can hear my heartbeats, 1, 2, 1, 2. The rhythm slows down as my eyes focus on Taylor's own, 

"Tay… I'm sorry, I should've told you about the steps." I manage to spit out with some reluctance, I think she wants me to apologize so I'll get it over with.

"Marie, it's okay." She replies, her eyes never leaving my own, I feel something crawling up my arm, it's a small ladybug. A snort and a laugh escaped my mouth, "So cute bugs are your way of saying calm down?"

"Figured you'd listen to Jeff." Taylor's snarky tone was refreshing to my ears. Still now that we're both relatively calm, it was time to try more human transmutation. The amount of stones were more than enough to fuel it, and I knew my math was right, yet a piece of my mind still hesitated. This wasn't just changing my hair length in order to get traumatized by truth in order to get some power, it was a full body transformation. Increased durability and strength, and possibly some more powers, but I would be sharing my brain with another parasite. 

Or maybe not, since I wouldn't be trying to bring back the dead, therefore no sin? I felt a pull from within my mind, like someone grabbed my hand and dragged me to look at something, it felt familiar as it led me back into the revised formula, I viewed it again from my mind and did the math, it should work. Now to convince Taylor to let me mess with my body and possibly humanity that way.

"Taylor, remember a few days back, when I mentioned turning into a dragon?" I asked while looking at Taylor straight in the eyes.

"Marie, what are you planning?" She asks as I move slightly so as to be more comfortable on the floor.

"Give me a second to explain, you see Alchemy has 3 steps, 1 rule and 1 taboo. The first step is something like analysis, it is understanding the material down to its molecules; the second step is destruction, reducing said material to its base components; the final step is transformation/reconstruction/transmutation. It is taking those base components and remaking or creating whatever you want, within reason of course. That step is limited by a simple rule, equivalent exchange, put ten grams in, get ten grams out. Simple math." I smile as I get up, I struggle to move as the slight limp in my right leg makes me tumble forward, Taylor catches and I grab hold of her, "The taboo is human transmutation. There's a simple reason for this, alchemists aren't gods, but a lot of us wish we were. Alchemy can theoretically bring back the dead, but what is the value of a soul?" 

Taylor's eyes widen as I finish my little speech. I can almost hear the gears turning in her head. "You could revive mom?" 

My tone becomes glacial as I say, "No. There is nothing in this world that is equal to her soul. What I would bring is a homunculus, a false human… A monster with powers that defy logic, like being able to turn into any living creature, and be as hard to kill as a brute 6 or 8." I can see her pain and what she wants to say to me, my sight is blurry as I feel something slide down my face. I reach my goal, the stones are all within my range now.

"What's the point then?" Taylor asks me with pain in her voice.

"The point is, I want to make sure that I can be of use to you. As we stand neither one of us can take a hit from someone like Glory Girl." I clap my hands, Taylor looks at me with wide eyes and what I can only assume is horror, "If this doesn't work, I'm…"

" I'm sorry. " Those words taste like ash in my mouth, she's crying…

"I…" I stutter as my hands hit the floor and the circle forms beneath me, "I want you to know that I was happy to have you as my cousin." Light fills my eyes and I can hear Taylor scream my name…

I'm not sure how long it's been but I don't think it's been more than a second since I activated the transmutation. I can see my body, I can see everything that makes it human, and I choose to change that. Stronger muscles, denser bones, more efficient organs, everything slowly and painfully changes. The stones around me begin to break as their energy is siphoned off into this body, into my body I forcibly remind myself. 

I feel nerves start and stop, it is like someone shoving needles into your pores, hot needles that shoot liquid metal. I want to scream, but nothing comes out, I want the pain to stop but I can see Truth smiling, that bastard knew what I intended from the start. I want to raise my hand and give him the finger, yet nothing I do can make my body respond. I want to scream, the pain is too much, I need to scream, I can taste my own blood,I have to scream, anyone, anyone, please, let me scream!!!

The void doesn't stir, even as my body convulses it doesn't move, it doesn't shift, there is nothing but pain . How long has it been since the transmutation started? Hours? Days? Weeks? Seconds? Is Taylor still there? Fuck I should've told her to run away from Contessa, or to kill Coil as soon as possible. I feel my nerve ending flare up again, my skin is like water, rippling like waves and my blood boils as I try to scream. 

"Oh Marie, you're always so headstrong." Mom says as she bandaged my hand, stupid Mark, he had to stab me with a pen, still I broke his nose. I thought as mom continued talking, "...And next time make sure that he's well and truly down before turning your back on him. Make no mistake my little raven, you made me proud today, but I don't want you getting hurt." 

"Yes, mum." I mutter wincing slightly as I open and close my palm.

I can hear voices now, my own, Marie's? Marie's, my own? Where do I start? 

Where does A̸̰̗̬͒̿̽͊d̸̮̻̫͕̅͒̇̔̑͝a̶͇̩̱̗͙͑̎m̴͖̦̓̽̈́̆ end? 

I feel my legs reform, bones, muscles slithering slowly outwards, skin, nerves reattaching themselves, little bits of hot lead flowing inwards. I want to scream, but I've forgotten how. I hear data, I feel a cycle go through my mind, the pain of the host, the shard digs deep into my flesh, conflict, data, entropy… I reject it, more pain floods my mind, I can feel the gnashing of teeth inside my guts, spreading outwards. My muscles are devoured even as they grow back, I snarl and try to curse, my mouth floats above me smiling cruelly at my pain.

I hear a voice that is not my own, one that doesn't sing about data, about a discarded cycle. It is full of pain, and sorrow. I cannot stand it, it causes more pain in my soul. I'm making her cry, I refuse to let her cry; I refuse to be the source of her pain. A small spark of emotion within me gives me strength. I force my arm to rise, it feels like I'm lifting a corpse again, I feel warm as my hand reaches for a small light.

The light faded from my sight as the world went from gray to color. Taylor is holding me tightly, almost breaking my bones really with how strongly she's holding me. 

"Hey." Is all I manage to say with a mouth that tastes like copper, and about as dry as a desert. Taylor holds me tighter still, I swear I hear my ribs crack as she begins muttering too quickly for me to truly understand. Warm tears hit my skin like rain, I feel alive.

1.3- End.