The Celestial Escalation, Ch01

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works; all other characters and worlds belong to their respective owners. I'm just playing with them.

Betad by Priapus, Beans

The Celestial Escalation

Chapter 01: The Locker Incident 

Laying on the hospital bed, I barely respond to the questions the PRT agent is sending my way. I know why they're here. My case matches all the signs of a trigger event, and they want to work out whether I gained powers from my time in the locker.

The gentle questioning goes on for a while before they accept that I'm in no condition to respond and call it a day. A part of me wants to call them back as the agent leaves my hospital room, but I stay silent.

"As I've already said, Miss Hebert doesn't have a Corona Pollentia or Gemma."

Panacea's voice echoes in my head, the tired healer sounding fed up with the questions. I wasn't awake when Panacea healed me, but I've since learnt of her involvement. Listening to the conversation between a tired Panacea and the PRT agents, I wonder for a moment if Panacea is lying on my behalf.

My dad gave her permission to heal me, which was something I panicked over when I woke up because she should have seen everything. She should know that I have powers. 

If I don't have a Corona Pollentia or Gemma, I shouldn't have powers. That's a simple deduction, but the truth is that I do have powers, don't I?

The reason I haven't admitted that to the PRT is simple. Emma told me not to.

'I didn't tell you to do anything, Tay. I just warned you that they were up to something. Why would the PRT go out of their way to have Panacea come and heal you? I've looked at her schedule and tracked her usual appearances, and Panacea doesn't come to this hospital on Mondays! Something just doesn't add up.'

Emma's voice speaks into my ear, and I have to hide my reaction. Okay, so it isn't quite Emma, but she looks and sounds like her. I really don't know what that says about me.

Celestial Forge Activated.

[Companion Bracelet] - 0cp

Source: World Seed

A bracelet housing an evolving AI; although Alliance policy is to hand them out to people only after they've gotten their class at level 10, an exception was made for you to get it a bit earlier. Although called a bracelet, there are different forms for different races. Slime people might be injected with a nanite swarm programmed with the same effect, for example. Once you have equipped the bracelet, the AI will adapt itself to gain an ideal personality fitting your own. The AI of a loner might become their perfect friend, that of a rich girl always left alone might become a butler caring for her, and someone living a loveless life might find that their companion AI has all the qualities they'd want in their girlfriend. No matter how your companion AI will end up, they will always act in your best interests. As they have a photographic memory and see the world through your senses, they can highlight important objects or places you might have missed, jog your memory if you forget something important, or browse through the internet to find information a million times faster than somebody with a human brain would. There are also various upgrades that can add to the functionality of the companion bracelet, such as identifying software that allows your companion AI to scan the Aura of creatures or objects to determine their ability, level, and other information, or even an upgrade to allow an instance of them to live in your brain and tap into your senses to control your body in dangerous situations, or just show the trajectories enemy projectiles will take so you can easily dodge them. For 50 CP each, you can apply one upgrade to your companion bracelet, with no limit on how many you can purchase.

My companion AI, and isn't that a phrase I never thought I'd be saying, designs itself to match my needs perfectly. What does it mean that she took on the face and voice of my former best friend who has dedicated her life to ruining mine?

Apparently, I got 100cp to start, and since the Companion AI costs nothing for some baffling reason, that CP got spent on two upgrades. In my case, my companion lives in my brain instead of on a bracelet that people could notice, and they gained the ability to scan the 'aura' of creatures and objects. 

Emma scanned Panacea for me, and wasn't that a terrifying moment?

Amelia Claire Lavere/Amy Dallon (Panacea)

A biokinetic with the power to modify the biology of any living organism that she touches.

Not just the healer she portrays herself as, and I had to hide my fear of her because when Emma scanned Panacea, Panacea was touching me. I know from a logical perspective that she wasn't going to twist my DNA like a pretzel, but learning that the tired girl that is healing you could do just about anything with your biology was not a comforting thought.

'Eh, you worry too much, Tay. Panacea has healed literally thousands of people and not turned a single one of them into some Lovecraftian abomination. Don't worry. I'm already trying to work out why she was called here for you.'

'Emma' is extremely advanced, as proven by her casually hacking into Panacea's phone to spy on her conversations. I really do need to think of a better name for her, because this is getting a little too surreal for me.

Just don't get caught, please? If they trace you back, you're literally in my brain. 

'I won't let you down, Taylor. I promise.'

I've heard that before. Still, this Emma can't betray me, if I can believe the information that my powers pushed into my mind. I'm not sure I do, but given that she lives in my head I'm not sure I really have a choice in the matter.

Celestial Reliquary Activated.

[Hooded Cloak] - 100cp

Source: Harry Potter

​This is a hooded cloak for you to wear, in a colour of your choosing. Looks stylish, and it can change to any other hooded garment at will. The main thing about this, though, is that it makes it very nearly impossible to figure out who you are. Your voice is changed, your face hidden, and your build becomes non-distinct. No mundane methods can pierce this secrecy, no matter how advanced. Among magicals too, only those who are the very best at these things stand a chance. 

I'm glad that my power didn't just summon my new cloak immediately because I really couldn't have explained that. I can sense it in my pocket dimension, just waiting to be called on, and it isn't alone.

Celestial Menagerie Activated

[Marvel: Redwing (Earth-65)] - 100cp

A robotic falcon with razor-sharp claws and the ability to fly silently.

An AI of my former best friend, a magic cloak and a robot bird. I know that powers can be strange at the best of times, but I might be pushing it slightly. I've heard of Marvel and Harry Potter. Marvel is an Earth Aleph comic series, and Harry Potter is a book series about wizards. World Seed, I don't know anything about, and Emma couldn't find anything online.

And yet, here I am with a cloak and a bird from them. Maybe I should see if Uber and Leet are hiring. Or just set Emma on them for being childish, violent villains who make people suffer for the entertainment of their sad little fanbase.

'Ooh, I could totally take down their shitty little stream. Give me like ten minutes, and I bet I can make Leet cry.'

I believe it. Having Emma in my head comes with the side effect of having the internet in my head. It's kept me somewhat sane during my time in the hospital because anytime I start falling into bad memories, Emma is there to cheer me up or just distract me from my nightmares with music, movies or whatever else she found. 

Just like old times. 

Celestial Grimoire Activated

[Monk] - 0cp

Source: Baldur's Gate 3

You are able to tap into your inner ki, and with this, your body itself becomes your weapon. When channelling your ki, few can match your combat prowess, defence ability, speed, deftness and subtlety. Be careful of how you spend your ki reserves, though, as your prowess drops heavily without access to it.

Again, I just don't understand the logic of my power. When I gained this, my power gave me a literal mountain of martial arts knowledge and honed my body from the ugly, flabby nerd into a toned body that's more athletic than Sophia's. It's lucky that this happened in the locker as nobody who would know that I shouldn't have abs saw me, and I didn't suddenly develop them in the hospital. 

'You've never been ugly, Tay… don't listen to the fleshy me, she's just being a total bitch. Besides, now you could totally beat Sophia until she cries for her mommy.'

Since my power gave me 100cp for each, once it 'rolled' something that was free, it just rolled again. I genuinely don't understand how my power rates things; how the hell is decades of martial arts knowledge and a body that could pass for an Olympic athlete 'free'?

[Uisce Beatha] - 100cp

Source: Fate/Legends - Land of Shadows

Your hands have a special property, one of quite great value to a warrior culture. Any liquid that you scoop up in your hands is granted great healing properties, able to heal any wound of the body or spirit in just seconds of contact, save for the greatest of cursed wounds. Your healing waters can be spread even on spiritual bodies to heal them, and the liquids will cleanse away any poison or disease in the area they touch. The closer to pure water, the liquid you hold is, the better the effect will be. Trying to use polluted river muck might only clean a few nasty scratches. You can also, should you have the need, prevent liquids you hold from gaining these properties.

The waters of life. Again, Emma did the research and linked it to another Earth Aleph series. Uisce Beatha is one of the 'noble phantasms' of Fionn mac Cumhaill, a famous Celtic knight. Maybe the universe thinks it's funny since Fionn was betrayed when his most loyal knight ran away with his bride, which eventually led to Fionn's death. It's a little more complicated than that, but giving me the power of someone who got betrayed after Emma shoved me into the locker is in poor taste.

I can't deny that it's a very useful ability, but even still. 

If I weren't already sure my power had a weird sense of humour, its next actions would have confirmed it.

100cp granted due to 'Being Taylor Hebert is Suffering.'

[Sorcery - Fortune (One Dot)] - 100cp 

Source: World of Darkness: Sorcerer

For good or for ill, this path allows the sorcerer to control the fate of their target and create both blessings and curses. For reasons unknown, this path also benefits from additional assistance more than other magics would.

[1] One, specifically named target, receives either a mild inconvenience or an equally mild boon once. Examples include stubbing one's toe or calling at the perfect time.

My life is suffering, so it gives me the power to make other people's lives ever-so-slightly better or worse? This power doesn't work on myself; believe me, I tried.

This power has other powers linked to it, so I've 'locked in' [Sorcery - Fortune (Two Dots)]. As it stands now, this power is kinda useless, but in time, it might be able to become something more.

Yes, I tried this out on the Trio. I don't need to be able to see my targets since I just need to name them. Sophia's laces came undone, and she tripped during a race and fell on her face, Bitch Emma spilt her soda onto her new top, and Madison got hit by a door that swung open as she passed by. Karma is a bitch, and right now she's my bitch.

I only know this because my Emma is keeping an eye on them. 

So, martial arts, some healing and luck powers. It's not exactly Alexandria, but I can't deny that I've got something going for me here. 

'That's the spirit, Tay! Come on, we've always wanted to be heroes; now's our chance!'

It's really not that simple, Em. 

'Don't be like that, your luck power is amazing. We could secretly give all the villains bad luck and make the heroes lucky! And everyone loves healers. If you show up and beat up some muggers with your badass martial arts, then heal the victims with your magic water, people will adore you.'

I can't tell if Em is the angel on my shoulder or the devil whispering into my ear. For now, I just lay back down and stare at the hospital ceiling. From an outside perspective, I must seem almost catatonic.

But they can't see the copy of The Princess Bride that Emma is playing into my mind. We used to have movie nights together, and despite the weirdness, I can't help the nostalgia.

'Let's curse Fleshbag Emma with bad luck again.'

Yeah, she's definitely the devil, isn't she?

'A sexy devil, maybe. Come on, it's Barnes. She deserves it. Months of bullying and torment, and you don't want to give her even a little taste of her own medicine? We need to learn more about how your powers work anyway, right?'

…as you wish.

– Later –

With Panacea giving me a clean bill of health, they let me out of the hospital, which means I'm expected to go back to school. After all, it can't have been that serious if I was discharged so quickly, right?

Dad, actually trying to be a father for once, gave me the option to stay out of Winslow for a while. He's already taking legal action against the school, as well.

That said…

'Hell no, we aren't letting those fucking bitches win. Get me close, Tay, I'll get into their phones and find something we can use to hang the whores. Fleshbag Emma definitely has nudes. Let's see how her modelling career goes when her tits have gone viral.' 

Aren't we trying to be heroes? 

'Yeah, to those who deserve a hero. The only thing Barnes deserves is to be hung, drawn and quartered. If I had hands, I'd strangle her myself. Nobody fucks with my friend.'

Emma really fucking hates Emma. Well, she hates all the trio, the school and basically anyone who has looked at me funny, but she especially hates Barnes.

I've taken a week off, but Emma is right. I don't want to let the trio win and have me cowering in my bedroom. I don't want to go back, but I'm not going back alone. I'm also not the same girl they shoved into that locker, am I?

Well, yeah, I am because getting powers doesn't magically change things, but I have ways to defend myself now. 

I started wearing baggy clothes after Em- Barnes started bullying me for my figure so nobody at the school should be able to tell that my new body is new. 

I want to say that Dad would notice, but… has he noticed anything since mom died?

'Harsh, but you're not wrong. We totally need to get you some exercise clothes to show off the new bod. Barnes thinks she's all that, but I know how to beat her at her own game.'

Two problems. I don't want to show off the 'new bod', and where the fuck am I going to get money for that?

'We're gonna steal it, duh.'

Ems, I'm starting to think you and I have very different views on what being a hero means.

'I mean from criminals. What? You want to leave the money in the hands of the villains who can use it to buy drugs and guns?'

Again, I am pretty sure that's still illegal.

'If you're a registered independent hero, it's a legal grey area. Kinda a 'we won't ask if you don't tell thing.' 

And how do you know that?

'Tay, I'm an AI connected to the internet that can process information a million times faster than a human. What do you think I've been doing while you're sitting around or sleeping?'

Please tell me you're being careful. Again, if they trace you, they're going to follow you back to my head. 

'I'm literally just browsing. I've barely even hacked into anyone's phones. Besides, I'm pretty sure there are some sweet upgrades you could get to make me better at this and harder to track.'

Yeah, yeah. I'll look into them. Just don't do anything risky until after we get them, okay?

I know Emma has my best interests in mind, but it's becoming obvious that she's inherited some of Barnes' carelessness. 

Sitting on my bed, I frown to myself. Can I really become a hero? I couldn't even stand up to fucking Madison. Powers don't change that much.

'Of course you can! You've already got some good powers, and we're only going to get better. Besides, you've got me now.'

True. Emma can connect to Redwing and pilot it since it's essentially just a fancy bird-shaped drone. With her scouting and monitoring police radios, I might be able to pull this off.

Of course, I need to test things, work out just how good I am at fighting, and see if these muscles are just for show. Then I need to test my luck power and healing waters more. This isn't something we can just dive into-

'Let's go on patrol tonight!'

Damnit, Emma. This is the kind of thing that takes months of planning. We can't just-

'Again, I process information a million times faster. There are 720 hours in a 30-day month; you slept for eight hours. Which means I spent effectively eight million hours planning this, or eleven thousand one hundred and one months.'

That's not how that works. That's not how any of this works.

'Totally is. You have the powers, the skills and the costume. We're overprepared for this.'

We are not going out tonight. We aren't even remotely prepared for this. I'm not remotely prepared for this. 

— Later —

I want to go on record saying that this is a terrible idea, and I'm blaming you if anything goes wrong.

Emma, as it turns out, is just as good at manipulation as the original, fleshy model. Her tactic was just to broadcast the crimes she picked up in the surrounding area directly to my brain.

To keep me 'informed' of course. Not as a blatant guilt trip, telling me that a breaking and entering is happening literally four streets away.

As it turns out, when you have the acrobatic skills of some fantasy monk, sneaking out is laughably easy.

Emma can watch for cameras as I move through the backyards, Emma ensuring that any footage of me is swiftly deleted. 

My 'costume', if you can even call it that, is a pair of jeans and a tank top under my new cloak. The cloak is pitch black at the moment, and it responds to my desires as it shifts to be more of a hooded cape than a full-body cloak.

It restricted my movement too much otherwise, so now it just goes down my back while leaving my body exposed for the sake of mobility. It has a mask, and the magic in it prevents me from being identified as it fully covers my facial features and hides my hair.

Which means my awe-inspiring outfit of a pair of torn jeans and a tank top is on display. I borrowed a pair of Dad's old gloves to prevent me from leaving any fingerprints but this is still such a bad idea. 

A couple of months and I could get a proper outfit sorted and-

'Pft, it's just a few empire thugs and only one of them has a gun. No capes in sight. I've hacked their phones, and they arranged this themselves. We can take them.'

Regardless of how annoyed I might be, I'm not going to let the Empire assault one of my neighbours for the crime of being born black. 

From what Emma gathered, this is an initiation for a new member. We could call the police, but the response time for our neighbourhood is poor, to put it bluntly.

They'd be far too late, assuming they respond at all. This isn't a neighbourhood you see the heroes in. As Emma so manipulatively put it, I'm all they have.

Reaching the house, I quickly move to the back door, which is conspicuously cracked open and take a deep breath.

I swear to god, if I die here, I'm going be pissed, Emma. 

I can hear voices inside, as well as a struggle as I make my move. The lead thug is leaning against one of the walls in the bedroom, his gun held in one hand.

His three minions are currently pulling an older black couple from their bed. The man is already bloodied as he spots me slipping into the room. 

The leader is the main threat. He needs to go down first as I focus my ki. Steps of the Wind allows me to move at far greater speeds, and I've closed the distance before he has time to notice the hooded figure zooming towards him.

He gets out a single confused shout, barely beginning to turn his gun towards me before I launch myself at him. My body moves with years of experience that I don't have, my fists striking him in a flurry of blows to his stomach. 

His cries of pain get the attention of the other thugs, armed with bats and a knife, but as their leader folds in on himself from the blows, I grab him and, without hesitating, snap the arm holding the gun, forcing him to let go of the weapon.

With a grace I didn't know I had, I catch it with my foot and kick it towards the open doorway, hearing it clatter across the hallway.

 Without stopping its movement, my foot continues to move as I spin around and deliver a kick to the leader's face. 

It's surreal to move with such grace and confidence, and I can tell it intimidates the other thugs, but not for long as they try to rush me.

That's when Emma makes her move, the metal hawk diving in through the open door with its talon extended as it launches itself at the closest thug, piercing his shoulder and making him cry out in pain as I move towards the other two.

My body almost feels like it's moving on its own as I dodge under a swung baseball bat, using the movement to sweep the thug's legs out from under him, rolling onto his downed body and kneeing him in the face.

The youngest of the thugs, the one who was supposed to be initiated today, swings at me, but I dodge back away from his lousy attack. The movement is laughably slow, my body reacting as I slip back and watch the swing go wide.

Not wasting time, I dash forward again and get into his personal space, making it hard to swing the bat as I grip it with one hand and strike him in the stomach with an open palm, knocking him back as I disarm him.

The downed thug I kneed tries to get up, but one of their would-be victims takes offence to that as she moves forward and just smashes her bedside lamp over his head. I can't help but notice that her pyjama top has been pulled open and her bra pushed up, exposing her fairly hefty breasts. I doubt she did that herself, reducing my hesitation to beat these assholes even further.

They're all wearing balaclavas, but as the youngest one tries to get up, I decide to put a stop to that. Gliding forward, I approach the thug and, in a single swift movement, pull off his balaclava, making his eyes widen in fear.

I was going to beat him into unconsciousness, to be honest, but I pause as I recognise the boy in front of me. He's barely older than me, an upper-year student at Winslow.

Emma whispers into my ear as he scrambles to his feet, and I hold back the violence I was going to inflict on him.

The knife-wielding thug manages to throw Redwing away, clutching a bleeding shoulder, but he doesn't do any better on his own as the man of the house hits him with a discarded baseball bat. 

The Winslow idiot looks at his fallen bat with a panicked look on his face, fear clear in his eyes.

"Don't try it, Dylan. You won't win."

He freezes in place, his already pale face losing what little colour it still had as he chokes out a 'how'.

"I know a lot, Dylan Ward," I saw simply, following Emma's guidance as I list off his home address, the name of the person who recruited him, and where his parents work. Dylan grows increasingly pale as I speak with a confidence I don't have. "And I'll know if you ever try something like this again. You're getting let off lightly because of your age, but I don't give third chances."

The leader groans, almost rising to his feet before another kick puts him down. Emma has already handled calling the police from the leader's phone, no less.

Dylan looks like he's about to pass out as I move to the couple, examining them as they thank me. Pulling out my next trick, I unclip the sports bottle from my waist and get to work.

Pouring it into my hand, I clasp both hands together and carefully spread the water over the man's bruised and minor cuts, washing them away with the waters of life.

I still think we rushed into this, but I can't deny the burst of pride in my chest as we secure the thugs. I'll need to prepare a way to secure them myself in the future, something we could have handled if we hadn't run out on literally the first night, Emma.

'It went well, didn't it? Sure, we could have obsessed over every little detail, and these two would have been beaten and robbed at the very best. You did good, Taylor.'

We did good.

Em doesn't respond to my correction, but I can feel her happiness. She's literally in my head. We can't hide anything from one another.

As the police finally arrive, I go over the details with only a few tiny white lies about how I discovered their plans. I also reluctantly heal the thugs, mostly because the one Redwing mauled is bleeding out. Emma went overboard.

It's only afterwards that I realise a tiny flaw in our plan.

As the officer asks me for my cape name, I freeze, and I feel Emma do the same.

Eleven thousand months of planning, huh? 

'Oh shush, you didn't think of it either.'

— Bonus Scene — Emily Piggot 

New capes were such a common occurrence in Brockton Bay that they rarely actually held meetings over them anymore.

"You think she was working with someone?" Assault asked, making Armsmaster nod.

"I'm almost certain she had a Tinker ally. Several cameras she passed by were hacked into and had seconds of footage deleted, and the phone of the Empire thugs' leader was used to call the police while she was still fighting. That's not even mentioning the metal bird," Armsmaster explained. "The alternative is that she is a Tinker herself and has some way to interface with technology while still maintaining her concentration on the environment. Mr Doyle claimed that she easily handled the Empire men at the same time that the call was being made. I believe it to be the former, as she already had several powers without adding a Tinker rating to her report."

"We'll classify the Tinker as a separate entity for now," Piggot agreed. "What powers have we confirmed for our mystery cape?"

"So far? From both the Doyle family's verbal report and the interrogation of the Empire men, we've confirmed Mover, Stranger and her healing power. We have reason to suspect she's a Brute and a Thinker as well, but that could be her tinker friend feeding her information," Armsmaster explained. "She allegedly had a burst of speed during the start of the fight, and her strikes were far stronger than would be expected of an unpowered girl, though it could just be years of training as her body was described as being very athletic. Her cloak seemed to give her a stranger rating, modulating her voice and completely concealing her face despite the mask only covering the lower half of her face. She apparently made it change from a cape to a full body cloak between the fight and the arrival of the officers, but the description of her outfit under it from the Empire men described a pair of jeans and a tank top, which matches her claim of this being her first night out. Finally, she produced a water bottle and used the water within to heal the Doyles' wounds."

And that was why a girl whose powers seemed to be mostly low-level brute and mover suddenly had their attention.

"Could it be Tinkertech water?" Miss Militia asked, making Armsmaster shake his head.

"I don't believe so. She emptied the bottle while reluctantly healing the empire men and simply refilled it with tap water, which still had the same effect," Armsmaster explained. "The bottle appeared to be a standard, if older, sports bottle. We witnessed her using her powers on the responding officer's body cam. I did notice that she would always perform the same action, pouring the water into one hand and then cupping both hands together before spreading the water across the wounded part of the body. She was able to heal the allegedly deep cuts on one of the thugs' shoulders after her… bird mauled the man."

Someone who could heal using nothing more than water? It went without saying that everyone she healed was currently under heavy supervision, but Healing capes were amongst the most in-demand in the world. 

Every organisation longed for their own healing cape, and her presence was bound to start a rush of groups wanting her for themselves when word spread, and word would spread. It always did.

Still, as problematic as this would be (because nothing good happened in Brockton Bay without immediately being followed by chaos), this was a chance to untangle the ENE branch from being so damn reliant on Panacea.