1.8 Dances Part 6

“As you can see, it is written in a completely foreign language in addition to not being able to change it with my power,” continues Naomi.

“I can read it,” says Legacy as she passes the book back to Naomi.

“Wait what?” says Naomi blankly as she stares Legacy in utter confusion.

“It is written in the language that Legacy here uses,” notes Leo as he looks over at the cover, “The one she uses instinctively in her programming and documentation at least.”

“I don’t understand what is going on,” says Naomi, “Guardian can read this? And who is Legacy?”

“I suppose I ought to explain Guardian’s background,” says Leo with a hint of weariness in his voice.

So, with some input from Legacy, Leo explains how Legacy is actually a half-human half-alien hybrid, how she has lost most of her memories and just other areas of her background.

Leo is better at explaining it than I am. Probably because he knows what isn’t considered normal and therefore should be mentioned. Unlike myself.

“I should tell you about my own background then,” says Naomi as she gazes at Legacy, “I assume Leo hasn’t told you yet.”

“No, he has not,” replies Legacy with a slight shake of her head, “I only arrive here in the last few minutes. Not enough time except for the briefest of explanations.”

“Where to start,” mutters Naomi.

“Start with your original past up to how you got your powers and then explain the changes you made to create your current past,” suggests Leo.

“Good idea,” says Naomi, “Thanks. Well, I lived in Florida my whole life and I got my powers at the start of the year. And I kept them secret from everybody once I realised how powerful they were. I also promised myself that I wouldn’t do anything major with them since I wouldn’t know the consequences. So I have limited myself to minor things when I use my power. Such as making my family win the lottery, giving myself a drop dead gorgeous body, making my grades-”

“So you’re not an Aphrodite?” inquires Legacy.

“No, as far as reality is concerned, I got this body naturally by being born with it,” answers Naomi, “And I can prove it by having photos of me looking like this before then. It can be a bit weird for me to have this body as times, but my power lets me perfectly remember all of the timelines I have created without going insane. Pretty cool as I have prefect recall now.”

“So why are you are here then,” asks Legacy.

“Well,” says Naomi, “When I realised that certain people weren’t affected by my power, I got worried because if people aren’t affected, I’m pretty much helpless. So while you two are good people and I don’t need to worry about the two of you, if some people are immune to my power, there might be more. And I don’t think all of them will be as nice as you. So I figured if I moved up here close to you two guys, we got could come to an arrangement.”

“Which we have,” says Leo, “In exchange for providing protection to her, Naomi will provide assistance in minor matters. Such creating several deposits of raw materials for me to access. And not just existing there, but actually making them appear out of thin air.”

“Can you heal Joan?” asks Legacy, deciding to ask the obvious question.

“No,” answers Naomi, “She is too closely tied to Leo for me to affect her. In that regard, she is indirectly protected from my power by Leo’s own protection.”

“What Naomi has been able to do is provide Abigail with a list of all of her powers,” says Leo, “So now Abigail is using her powers that Naomi has discovered for her to help Joan. But we should let Naomi finish her story first before we explain that.”

“Right, so where was-oh yeah,” says Naomi, “So I changed things so my family moved up here once we won the lottery a year ago. It isn’t as bad as it sounds because I have kept all my old memories and have used my power to make sure I have kept in contact with all of my friends.”

“So what about Joan and Abigail?” inquires Legacy.

“Well, using my power, I was able to uncover all of Abigail’s powers so she now she knows all of them,” says Naomi.

“So can she heal Joan?” asks Legacy.

“Not directly,” answers Leo, “But she has the ability to create ‘servants’. Basically it allows Abigail to empowered people, creatures or objects into her ‘servants’. This grants them several pseudo-powers by piggybacking off of Abigail’s power in addition to giving Abigail a direct link into their minds.”

“Oh,” says Legacy.

Check what that mental link means.

Okay.

“So what exactly does-” Legacy.

“While becoming Abigail’s servant allows her to take control of your body, she and Joan are sisters,” says Leo, “I trust her especially since this is Joan best shot at a normal life.”

Plus we all know how far Leo will go to protect Joan.

Do you agree or disagree with what he is willing to do?

I neither agree nor disagree, I simple understand.

Oh, okay.

“I’m going to go and meet Joan now,” declares Leo as he heads for the door, “You two hang out. Perhaps Naomi can help you with your knowledge problem.”

Hmmm, Leo has a good idea there...

It won’t work.

1.8 Dances Part 5

“I can try and bring it back if you want?” offers Ava.

“I wouldn’t mind if you tried,” answers Guardian.

“Okay,” says Ava and Guardian feels her dress disappearing and a set of armour appearing over her.

But while it may look like Guardian’s power armour, it isn’t. Instead, Guardian is now wearing a plastic copy of her armour without any of the electronics or other devices.

“This isn’t my armour,” says Guardian in disappointment, “Just a powerless pale imitation. Please bring back the dress. That would be preferable to this.”

“Okay,” says Ava as Guardian’s outfit changes back into the blue one strap dress, “Sorry.”

“I got a spare,” replies Guardian, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

“Sorry,” says Ava again as she looks up at Guardian, “Things have all been going wrong today.”

“You can try and make things better by seeing if you can stop you using your powers on people,” suggests Guardian.

“Okay,” says Ava as she sits on the end of her bed, “I can feel them you know. I can’t explain it, but I can just sense everybody I’m using my power on.”

“Yeah,” agrees Guardian, “It is the same for me when I’m using my technopathy except it is machines in the network rather than people. Can you make your power stop affecting them?”

“Yeah,” replies Ava, “That’s easy. I could probably do more to them if I wanted to, but I don’t.”

“What do you want if you don’t mind asking?” inquires Guardian.

“Two things really,” answers Ava, “I want to dance and I want to make people happy.

That would explain what her powers do. Or least what she is actually doing with them.

Yeah, making people dance and putting them in a state of bliss.

Indeed. If her powers are based off of her wishes, it would explain a lot. We should ask her if she knows why Quicksteel and his gang try to drug her. That is unusual behaviour for dealers.

That seems like too serious a subject to broach now. I was thinking I should ask her if she can give me dancing lessons in the future.

Legacy! Focus on doing your duty.

“Hey Ava,” says Guardian, “I would recommend joining the Junior Heroes Union. At least as a reserve or part-time member.”

“Why?” asks Ava as she looks Guardian in the eye.

“Because you are an extremely powerful parahuman,” replies Guardian, “Even if your power is based around dancing. If you were trying to hurt people, there wouldn’t be much we could do to stop you.”

“I guess that would be best,” says Ava, “I hope I won’t get into too much trouble.”

“I hope you don’t either and you haven’t intentionally used your power on people,” says Guardian, “May I ask you something?”

“You only been nice to me so far, so sure,” replies Ava.

“Once all of this sorted, I would like to learn how to dance,” says Guardian, “I would like it you would teach me.”

“Absolutely,” agrees Ava as she brightens up considerably, “We could consider it repayment for me destroying your armour.”

“Great!” exclaims Guardian.

I am going to learn how to dance! I am going to learn how to dance! I am going to learn how to dance!

***

“So you had a little adventure in Chicago this morning,” says Leo to Legacy as he leads her down a corridor of their base that afternoon.

I suppose the fact I lost my armour and gained a dress is a giveaway.

You’re still wearing the dress.

It’s not like I have had reason to change!

“Did Allison tell you about it?” inquires Legacy.

“A mixture of her, the news and some illegal hacking,” answers Leo, “Ava isn’t in any serious trouble by the way. The government has decided it would be a bad idea to risk pissing off a parahuman that is willing to work for them.”

“That is good to hear,” says Legacy, “So you mentioned you met someone today in Grand Rapids.”

“Actually they sought me out,” replies Leo, “And to be frank, they could possibly be the most powerful parahuman yet.”

“Really?” asks Legacy, her curiosity piqued.

“Yeah,” says Leo, “She is a reality warper. Effectively unlimited. Well, she has a few limits and that is why she approached me.”

“What are those limits?” inquires Legacy as they reach the door.

“I’ll let Naomi explain her powers to you herself,” says Leo as he opens the door.

An Aphrodite girl is waiting in the room, sitting in a chair whilst looking through a book. She looks up as they enter the room.

So this is the reality warper.

Reality warpers are extremely dangerous. We have immunity to direct effects, but...

We have immunity to reality warping? That is pretty useful.

Except for the situations where being affected would be useful.

Everything has its ups and downs.

Very true. That is an important thing to remember.

“Hello Guardian!” says the girl as she gets out of her seat, “I’ve been waiting to meet you!”

“Hello,” replies Legacy, “While you may know who I am, I don’t know who you are.”

“Oh right,” says the girl as she flushes, “I’m Naomi Fisher. As I’m sure Leo has told you, I’m a reality warper. Any book I’m-when I’m holding a book, I can make it so it contains reality in it. And then I can change what is written in the book and that changes reality to fit what I have changed in the book. And I don’t need to worry about the changes making sense as reality makes itself work with what I have changed. And I don’t have any limits so far as what I can do. Well, actually I discovered that a few people are immune to my powers. People such as Darkness and Leo are, well, I can’t directly affect them and my ability to indirectly affect them is also hampered. Actually, I can affect the Darkness some of the time. Not sure what determines when he is immune or not. And you, well, take a look for yourself.”

She pauses for a moment before tossing the book in her hands to Legacy, who catches it. The book is a green hardback and Legacy reads the cover.

What in the name of Deltae is this?

Interesting. Very interesting.

Guardian 28,708,648: Legacy of Guardian. 

1.8 Dances Part 4

Guardian curses under her breath as she finally catches up Dancing Queen, following the trail of blissfully dancing people that she is leaving in her wake.

My feet hurt. The strips of clothes aren’t as helpful as I thought they were.

I could have told you that.

So why didn’t-oh no.

Guardian comes to a halt as finds Pathfinder dancing in the street, recognising the superhero via her bio-scan. She is wearing a red ball gown.

I am glad I’m not wearing that. Wait, doesn’t Pathfinder have a secret identity?

Indeed. And that dress doesn’t have a mask.

We should try and do something about that!

“Pathfinder,” says Guardian as she runs towards the superhero, “Can you hear me?”

But the mind controlled Pathfinder just ignores her.

Look out!

What?

Guardian shields her face with her arm as Dancing Queen goes flying backwards down the street as she is blasted by a beam of yellow energy.

“Hey!” yells Guardian as she moves towards Dancing Queen as she changes her clothes into a pale blue gown, “Don’t forget about Pathfinder’s secret identity!”

Dancing Queen looks up at Guardian as she gets to her feet.

“Leave me alone!” yells Dancing Queen as something comes hurtling down in front of Guardian.

Guardian comes to a halt as Glowbug lands in front her. As with the other victims of Dancing Queen, she has a blissfully blank look over her face. Her costume has been replaced by a short black dress with golden sequins and Glowbug is using her powers to give herself a faint golden glow.

“Heya cute stuff,” giggles Glowbug as Guardian feels her body begin moving involuntarily and her height increase as the strips of cloth are turned into the high heeled dancing shoes.

Breaking Dancing-

Wait! Not yet!

Why?

Because Glowbug’s power is healing the injuries my feet have suffered and I, ah, I am enjoying it. I would like to go along with this for a moment or two.

Fine.

Thanks Ceta. I’m enjoying dancing.

So you retained that?

What do you mean?

It’s nothing-No, I won’t keep secrets from you. Before you became the Guardian, dancing was one of the things you enjoyed most in life.

That is nice to know.

You should be aware that Glowbug is also enjoying it and more than just what Dancing Queen’s power is making her feel.

What do you mean?

According to the bio-scanner, which I am using on her, her heartbeat has increased and her adrenaline is increased amongst other things. Glowbug’s gaze is also split between your eyes and your chest with some straying towards your hips.

What does all of that mean?

It means that Glowbug is attracted to you combined with her past actions towards you and that she called you ‘cute stuff’.

Oh. Okay.

It has been two seconds. Do wish for me to break the control now?

Just a little longer.

Dancing Queen is getting away.

Fine. Let’s go.

“I’m going after Dancing Queen now,” Guardian tells Glowbug as she regains control of her limbs.

“Okay,” replies Glowbug absentmindedly before giving Guardian a kiss on the lips.

Guardian blinks and darts around Glowbug, towards Pathfinder as she kicks her high heels off of her feet again. Pathfinder is no longer wearing a ball gown, but a red masquerade dress completely with a white mask to conceal her identity.

At least Dancing Queen listened to me on that account.

“Guardian!” says Pathfinder as she does a twirl, “Dancing Queen went that way!”

Pathfinder ends her twirl with a pointing motion.

“Thanks!” says Guardian as she follows Pathfinder’s direction.

“No problem!” Guardian hears Pathfinder yell, “Try and get Dancing Queen to stop all of this! This is so embarrassing!”

“I’ll do my best!” replies Guardian as she spots Dancing Queen go into a building.

She follows her target into the building, a house to belonging to a family that isn’t currently home.

Do you think this is her house? Dancing Queen had the key and she has just gone straight up stairs and into a room.

I would consider that a likely possibility. We should be careful. We have been pursuing her and have followed her to the place she should feel most secure.

I wouldn’t take kindly to anyone who chased me breaking into the basement.

Guardian comes to a halt outside the room and decides on the best course of action.

“Maybe I come in?” asks Guardian as she knocks on the door.

“Who is it?” comes the tearful reply.

“Guardian,” answers Guardian, “I only wish to speak with you. I just want to help you.”

“Come in,” says Dancing Queen and Guardian opens the door.

She looks around the room as she enters and spots Dancing Queen curled up in a ball on the bed.

“Is this your bedroom?” asks Guardian.

“Yeah,” mutters Dancing Queen.

“What’s your name?” asks Guardian, “I assume it isn’t Dancing Queen?”

“It’s Ava,” answers Dancing Queen, “Why is everybody calling me Dancing Queen?”

“Well Ava,” replies Guardian, “We didn’t know your name and we needed a name by which to refer to you by and Defender decided to call you Dancing Queen due to the nature of your powers.”

“You’re immune to them right?” asks Ava as she looks up at Guardian with tearful eyes.

“Pretty much except for when it comes to clothing,” says Guardian as she indicates her dress with her hands.

“Sorry about that,” says Ava, her voice apologetic.

“Yeah,” mutters Guardian, struggling to keep an accusatory tone out of her voice. 

1.8 Dances Part 3

What happened?

I had to reboot you for lack of better a term.

Why? What exactly does that mean?

The girl that manifested as an ability that controls both the mind and body of a person. To counter that, I broke the control and reloaded the version of your mind from before you were put under this girl’s control.

Will she be able control me again?

Physically yes, but mentally, no. Now I have experienced it, I can block the mental control and while I can’t stop her seizing control of your physical form, it will take me up to two seconds at most to restore your own control.

So what exactly happened? What form does this mental and physical control take?

For starters her power seems to be based around dancing and her joy in partaking in it.

Dancing. I have read about that. So how is that relevant?

Her power makes others dance and they can’t stop. She also puts under in a state of bliss so they don’t want to stop even if they could do so. I’m not sure about the limits of her power’s range because while you, Alexandria, Flamefly and most of the other people were affected, Defender and Quicksteel weren’t.

Anything else I should know?

Yes, the girl can change the outfit of those that her power is affecting.

Wait a moment...

Yes, she replaced your armour with a dress.

She is going down.

“-Yeah, I’ll see if I can, wait, she is seems to be back in control,” says Defender into the Guardsmen’ comms, “Talk with you in a bit. Bye. Hey Guardian.”

“Hello Defender,” says Guardian as she inspects the dress that the annoying girl has replaced her armour with.

Perhaps you can reason with her to restore your armour?

And if she refuses, we beat her up real good.

You’re overacting.

That was my armour! My pride and joy! Someone has to pay!

You can also build more and you also have a spare back at the base.

Bah!

The dress is a silky light blue with a loose skirt and tight bodice. There are no sleeves or even a right strap, but there is a large, frilly one on the left. A white ribbon surrounds her waist, but fortunately there is no bow.

“Are you okay?” asks Defender in a worried voice, “Your armour disappeared and was replaced by the dress and then you went all blank while everybody else started dancing.”

“I’m fine,” says Guardian, “Get Quicksteel away so he doesn’t escape. You should also avoid going after the girl. You might not be immune and it is a bigger deal if people see your face than if they were to see mine.”

“That is true,” admits Defender as she picks up Quicksteel, “I’ll be going then. I have also informed Gears of the situation. I have also come up with a name for the girl. I’m calling her Dancing Queen.”

“Okay,” says Guardian, “Tell him that I can handle it and the others should keep out of it. I’m effectively immune to her powers now that I can counter them. But please pass Quicksteel’s phone to me before you go.”

“Sure,” replies Defender as she tosses the device to Guardian while flying up into the air, “The dress looks good on you by the way.”

I don’t care about that. I prefer armour.

Function over form.

Yeah!

Guardian glances at Alexandria, who is dancing with Flamefly whilst wearing a white, red and blue party dress. Both superheroes have this dazed look of bliss on their faces, oblivious to the rest of the world.

At least she is happy whilst under control of Dancing Queen.

From what I can tell, Dancing Queen doesn’t seem to be malicious. Rather, she seems to be confused and scared and is acting out of panic and instinct. I recommend we try and reason with her rather than attacking her.

Humph!

Don’t be petty. Focus on what on doing your duty.

I better call Glowbug then and inform her of what is going on.

That is the spirit.

Guardian takes a moment to use her power to customise Quicksteel’s phone, including adding a voice distorter so Glowbug will recognise her voice. Once that is done, Guardian phones Glowbug’s number.

“Hello, Nicola Hatheway here,” answers Glowbug, “Who is this?”

“Guardian,” replies Guardian. “I need to inform you of the situation.”

“Yeah, I was wondering what happened,” says Glowbug, “We suddenly lost all contact with Alexandria and Flamefly.”

“Well, the thing is that we got a newly manifested parahuman on the loose,” says Guardian before explaining the rest of the situation to Glowbug.

“That is not good,” says Glowbug, “Pathfinder and I will go after Dancing Queen then. We’ll try and talk some sense into her.”

“She is very dangerous,” points out Guardian.

“Yeah, but her power is dancing,” says Glowbug, “Pathfinder will find her and try to talk to her while I will nail her at range if that doesn’t work. See ya later.”

“But she took out Alexandria and Flamefly by accident,” Guardian tries to tell Glowbug, but she has already hung up.

She completely ignored my warnings!

Her preconceptions about some having a power based around dancing has stopped her from realising that Dancing Queen’s power is actually a very strong ‘control’ power.

Yeah. We should get moving. You know where she went?

I can point you in the right direction. We still have our spy network and I can access it simply by connecting the phone in your hand to the network.

Cool.

Following Ceta’s directions, Guardian begins to run down the street, only to stumble as she picks up speed.

What on Earth?

Guardian looks down at her feet.

Heels. I’m wearing heels.

Throw them away and wrap cloth around your feet to protect them.

Good plan.

Doing as Ceta suggests, Guardian takes off the heels and tosses them aside. She then heads back to one of the two people that weren’t affected by Dancing Queen and rips off several strips of cloth off of their clothes. Guardian wraps them around both of her feet before darting off.

Time to hunt down Dancing Queen and make her pay for getting rid of my armour.

Actually we’re going to try and reason with her.

Uh-uh. 

1.8 Dances Part 2

A completely different person has suddenly replaced the convulsing girl.

No, she has just manifested. That is still the same person.

Is that what happens? I thought there would be more to it.

There is, but that is for the only the person gaining power to see. We, the outsiders, don’t see the process, only the results.

Oh.

We should check on her.

Guardian bends down over the girl. She never really got a good look at the girl.

At least my armour will contain records of what she looked like before.

Guardian checks out the appearance of the girl. She is clearly an Aphrodite like Alexandria, Glowbug and Iris.

Is it just me or does it seem like there are more female parahumans than males one?

Statistically speaking, there are generally two females for every male when it comes to parahumans.

How do you know that?

Using data that I have collected over time.

Anything else I should be aware of?

Adolescents are more likely to become parabeings. In the case of humans, that means teenagers.

That I have noticed already.

You might find it interest to know that over half of parahumans will be bisexual with a third of the rest being homosexual, another third being asexual and only the remaining third will be straight.

That could be useful to know. Maybe.

You might also want to know that parahumans are also more likely to be attracted to power regardless of their orientation.

Now that I’m sure will be useful someday.

The girl has long shiny black hair and glistering blue eyes in addition to her sleek and slender body. Her top seems strained due to her new chest while her jeans are now too short and tight.

“A little help please Guardian,” says Defender as she continues to fight the parahuman drug dealer.

Guardian pulls out a flashbang from her utility belt and throws it at the duo. It goes off, blinding the dealer while Defender’s armour filters it out.

With a furious swing, Defender’s armoured fist connects with the jaw of the dealer, knocking the man off his feet. Defender grabs the man’s leg and swing him over her shoulder and into the ground.

“Did the girl manifest or something?” asks Defender as she looks at the curled up girl, “Because I’m sure she didn’t look like that before.”

“She did,” answers Guardian, “I’m going to call Alexandria so she can arrest the parahuman dealer and help out this girl. She’ll be able to do it better than we can.”

“Is this normal to you?” asks Defender as she indicates the scene around them, “We go to take down some drug dealers and end up dealing with a pair of parahumans. And you just act so calmly about it.”

“I suppose this sort of thing is normal for me,” replies Guardian as she calls Alexandria’s number, “I haven’t experienced another type of life so this is all I know. Now please excuse me as Alexandria is answering. Hello Alexandria, this is Guardian.”

“Hello Guardian,” replies Alexandria, “What do I owe the pleasure of this call to?”

“Defender and I have taken down a parahuman drug dealer,” explains Guardian, “We also have a newly manifested parahuman girl on our hands and I feel that you would be better suited to dealing with her.”

“Okay,” replies Alexandria, “Flamefly and I were just about to go on patrol anyway. We’ll just swing by to your coordinates.”

“I’ll send you them now,” Guardian tells her as she does that.

“Thanks,” says Alexandria, “See you in a bit.”

Guardian ends the call.

“Alexandria and Flamefly are on their way,” says Guardian to her teammate, “Have you fought villains other than this one?”

“Not really,” replies Defender, “Protector and I did help Mr and Mrs Fowler fight off Vampiric and Invicta. But we arrived late to the fight and it wasn’t before long Darkness called them off. What about you? The first supervillain that you fought was Metal Man right?”

“That is correct,” confirms Guardian as she uses a bio-scanner on the girl, “Despite what people may believe, I feel that Metal Man defeated me that day.”

The girl is physically fine. There is nothing we can do help her.

I am aware.

“But didn’t you take him down and left him to get arrest?” asks Defender.

“No,” replies Guardian as she sends off the scan, “Contrary to popular belief, I walked into a trap and was lucky to get out alive. When I took down Metal Man and his gang, it was an act of desperation to give me the opportunity to get away with my life. I was expecting to end up taking his gang down over the course of the next couple of weeks.”

“Huh,” mutters Defender as she crosses her arms, “I’m- I’m not actually sure how to feel about that.”

“It isn’t a big deal,” replies Guardian.

“I wouldn’t spread that around if I were you,” says Defender, “Your attitude and reputation are doing you wonders.”

“What do you mean?” inquire Guardian.

“Well, you’re pretty cold and intimidating as the Guardian,” explains Defender, “Having been with you out of costume I know that isn’t the case, but that would be how the rest of the world sees you. Just a pragmatic and dangerous vigilante going around beating up people with minimal speaking.”

“I see your point,” replies Guardian, “I personally feel indifferent to how others perceive me.”

“Yeah,” agrees Defender, “I never really cared about how other folk have seen me. Especially since my accident. What matters was what I thought about myself.”

“That is a good outlook to have,” replies Guardian.

“Kind of the opposite of what we’re been told,” says Alexandria as she floats down with Flamefly trailing behind her as the weaker parahuman struggles to keep up with Alexandria, “PR is one of the things our bosses worry about the most and also want us to worry about.”

“We just focus on helping people and trying to do the right thing,” replies Guardian.

“We also try to do that, but we just have to look good while doing so,” replies Alexandria as she lands and bends over the girl, “So-”

***

Reboot Successful.