Apex of Evolution - Worm SI into Zerg Taylor
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
My claws smashed apart acid weakened stone, rapidly gathering the detritus into a large vaguely brick like shape as resin was excreted, and I brought it back to my current storage room.
Delving so deeply into the workings of my Drones was… an experience. It was almost as if their bodies were my own, meanwhile I paid less attention to my own body, not out of a need to focus, but instead a lack of need to do so.
Because my true body was sitting in a room with a projector, once again going through the Wards training videos, from the beginning, for proper protocols in the field.
Essentially, I was stuck in remedial lessons before I'd even properly finished them all.
The only 'respite' from this was to be console duty, essentially a coordinator for the Wards out on patrol, until Piggot decided it was time for me to walk around the relatively safe and boring boardwalk again.
Also, the PRT had informed me they were sending me some samples of species with paralytic and tranquilizing abilities, an obvious signal that I needed safer methods of fighting villains, which I fully agreed with.
Can't exactly be slicing apart or melting a purse snatcher, after all.
Though that was basically it for good news, back to being a glorified phone operator.
O-o-o-o-o-o-
I refocused back on my body as my teammates stepped back into the Wards room after returning from patrol.
Clockblocker and Kid Win immediately begged off to leave, Vista collapsing into the chair next to me at the console desk.
"Ugh, I really wish we could arrest those guys," She whined, likely referring to a group of teens who consistently bothered the Wards on the boardwalk, but not enough that they could be considered obstructing justice, "How are you holding up now? Console duty is boring enough when you get rotated out, nevermind all days of the week."
I shrugged, leaning back in the chair with my hands behind my head.
"I've got things to occupy me." Speaking of, I confirmed that the structure my Drones were probing at was indeed most likely a sewer or storm drain, "I'm just glad nobody got the bright idea to try and change my costume, probably because I really went on about how much effort it was to rip each piece of it out of my skin and excrete the spider silk."
Vista gave a short laugh.
"Guilt tripping, maybe I should try that some time. Does it really hurt to make the plates?"
I shrugged, spinning in the chair.
"I can turn off my pain receptors, though it's actually just a bit uncomfortable. Anyway, are you still in a 'shut up and take my money' mood? I've gathered some extra bolts of spider silk at this point and with the right tailoring your costume could be made completely bulletproof."
Vista perked up before frowning and pinching her skirt.
"Uh, PR is really keen on keeping me looking cutesy, I don't think they'll let somebody else, especially you, make me a new costume."
I chuckled, that's one enemy I'm fine with making.
But as it were…
"I can just provide the materials if they feel so strongly then, I don't mind. I want to at least help my fellow heroes stay alive if I can't actually go out there and help properly."
Vista crossed her arms.
"Don't get too worked up, you've already contributed more than any of us by taking out Hookwolf. I just hope he doesn't break out this time, the Protectorate caught him last year but the Empire stormed the holding facility."
My eyes narrowed at that. The thought of villains escaping after all the work I put into taking them down… no, I didn't like that at all.
Before we could continue, the alarm sounded, and not long after a white and gold streak blurred by and struck Gallant as he was leaving his room dressed in his civilian clothes, bowling the boy over.
"Come on Dean! I got Amy to agree to a double date again!" It screamed, and it was only then that I noticed the figure was Victoria Dallon, otherwise known as Glory Girl.
One of the few capes without a secret identity, she was also the stereotypical hot superheroine, with bright blonde hair, blue eyes, and generous proportions.
And even more than that, I think I had a crush.
I mean, she's a bit of a bombshell of course, but I wasn't expecting to feel such an immediate attraction to her type.
I've got to at least introduce myself, maybe…
I moved to calm myself so I wouldn't do anything embarrassing, and it was only then that I noticed my brain chemistry being…off.
What? Why are those neurons firing… and why are those hormones… what? The normal instigating processes aren't-
I froze, then followed through and calmed myself.
Blankly observing as Glory Girl dragged her boyfriend away, I brought up my PRT issued phone, immediately pulling up the database and searching for her on it.
Oh, that was apparently her 'aura', a minor master effect that the PRT has deemed relatively harmless, which makes her allies like her and her enemies fear her.
The way it was described didn't match how what had just happened seemed so terrifying to me, but then again, most people aren't able to observe as the chemical reactions in their brains are subordinated.
"Uh, you okay Taylor?"
I blinked, turning back to Vista, or Missy I guess as she removed her visor, looking at me with some concern.
"Ah, I'm fine, just… thinking."
She nodded.
"Okay, well I'm going to go home now." She said, seeming reluctant, "I'll talk to the PR guys tomorrow about the costume thing, if that sounds good?"
I nodded, and we both changed before heading to our homes.
On the way, I decided to relax my unease by focusing on what exactly had happened with Glory Girl's aura, looking into the affected areas of my brain.
The artificial effect was rather obvious to somebody as familiar with their own biology as myself, so maybe I can figure out a way to automatically detect and defend against similar interference as a protective measure against properly villainous Masters like, say, Heartbreaker.
That sounds like a good little project.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o
I finished the last bit of linework, stepping back from the large sheet of thick paper and eyeing it critically.
Before me spread a fantastical map displaying a combination of familiar plains and mountains and seas, but also floating islands and lakes of boiling lava.
"The Realms of Veranda?" I said, sounding out the name, before nodding to myself and quickly scribbling that in the corner while James looked over my shoulder.
"Oooh that's a great name! You sure you don't want to do the rest of the worldbuilding?"
I shook my head, setting the game map to the side and rolling my wrist as if to ward off a drawing ache, but the motion was entirely due to habit rather than actual pain.
"I prefer to experience the world as I delve into it, rather than having to think too hard about it." I smiled, "Besides, George loves worldbuilding, I wouldn't take that away from him."
The brunette smiled up from his homework, before immediately returning back to it.
James sighed.
"Shame that you don't have much time to play after school. Hope you get paid well at that job of yours, must suck to only be able to play your characters during lunch."
I blinked, rolling that statement over in my head.
The PRT gave the Wards a small allowance, in addition to a generous college fund, but I was most certainly not rolling in money.
Though, tomorrow I'll be having a meeting with a PRT lawyer about the Hess case (They kept her cape identity secret for the public), and I should be getting a fair amount of money as recompense for both the acts she committed against me, and the obstruction of justice at Winslow.
As for free time: Between manning console and my remedial training, I didn't have much, but that was mostly due to a lack of trying.
"I think I can squeeze in a few more sessions, here and there." I said slowly, nodding to myself, "I'm not doing anything important at the moment anyway, may as well have your party employ Silvia to travel with them full time for a bit instead of just for the occasional mission."
James pumped his fist in victory, meanwhile I finished my biology homework and remembered not to correct the failings of human biological knowledge.
I did very well in pretty much all of my classes now, which was a big change from my experience being forced into mediocrity by the Trio's ruining of my coursework.
I suppose it was all rather inevitable when one considers the sources of my knowledge, though despite all of that I still found myself learning new things, especially when I took up my own additional research beyond the curriculum.
Heh.
School has become the most pleasant part of my life, how utterly surreal.
O-o-o-o-o-o
I paused roughly halfway on my walk home from Arcadia, something to the side of the road catching my eye.
Moving over, I saw the crumpled form of a dead cat, the body covered in a light frost like most of the city today, the cold having ensured there was relatively little rot despite that the corpse didn't seem fresh.
I tilted my head in thought, an idea bubbling to the surface.
Picking the carcass up by the hind legs, I made my way home, vaguely hoping nobody thought I was bringing it home to eat even if… well, that was exactly what I was doing.
I can't just eat a bit of blood. With the feline being dead for who knows how long, that meant its Essence would be damaged, so even if I consume the entirety of it, I might need to find a few more to ensure I had a stable sample, and examples of several breeds would be ideal…
After having my snack, I left to find more.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
I knelt next to the cocoons as they pulsated with life, curiously observing with my own eyes as my newest creations gestated.
This was my first time actually entering my base, and the Creep had formed a circle of black stained, but dry and clean, stone for me to sit upon on its own.
I hadn't directed it to do so, the Creep had… detected my need to not stain or dirty my clothes with the substance, and had made way for me.
As I grew more creatures, first more drones, then parasitical versions of the Solar Extractors to subvert the trees in my neighborhood, I had noticed little… quirks, from my creatures.
Sometimes, they acted far more intelligent than their brain mass would suggest.
At the moment, my main theory was the organisms piggybacking off our hivemind, but maybe it was simply my own subconscious leaking into said creatures through it.
Maybe both.
Nevertheless, the gestation was nearing completion, and with a burst of fluids the cocoons burst, revealing a dozen newly formed Zerg creatures in the form of cats, perfectly copied with only psionic connectors in their brains to differentiate them.
Immediately, I was assaulted by the sensations of… well, being a cat.
Shaking themselves of amniotic fluid, the creatures meowed miserably, as fur wasn't the greatest combination with Zerg spawning methods.
I giggled a bit, standing and making my way up the tunnel home with the cat creatures… the Catlings following.
"At least you guys won't scratch the hell out of me when I wash that gunk off of you."
The concept of bathing in water called up unpleasant feelings in the Catlings, and I giggled further even as I pondered the slight headache that I was now sporting.
Hm, I'll need to spawn some overlords soon, I'll make two, since I've got a few chambers sizable enough to spare now.
o-o-o-o-o-o
Powerful groans filled the slowly growing tunnels as my Overlords spawned, their powerful minds immediately relieving the pressure on mine as they grew into the size of small houses, barely fitting into their individual chambers.
The relief was a surreal feeling, as it wasn't like they were taking over in managing the swarm. No the Overlords' brains instead strengthened my mind, their psionic power propping my own up? Or perhaps it was more like they helped direct my own power to controlling larger numbers.
In addition, said massive brains also lent their thinking ability, essentially functioning as biological computers for all variety of tasks from calculation to tactical visualization.
Beyond their function, for sapient beings supposedly barely changed from their base form, the Overlords didn't seem to have as much higher brain functions as I would have thought. Instead, while I could feel their minds, their thoughts were all mixed and mingled together alongside that of the Hatchery, Drones, Extractors, and myself.
They were completely subsumed in the hivemind, not individuals but parts of a whole greater than myself.
It was… fascinating to observe.
Now that I had spawned them, I knew that this was standard fare for more intelligent creatures, both a measure of retaining control and the most efficient utilization of resources.
It wasn't a requirement though. Even now, I knew that if I just pushed in the right way, I could draw out a creature's individuality, giving them agency and will.
I chose not to. From what I knew of their base form, the species would find living an existence underground sanity rending, not having a self was essentially for their own good.
Hm, was that sad? Was that uplifting? I'm having a hard time deciding between them, but observing their individual mental states, such as they were, indicated a deep contentedness with their place in life.
Hm…
O-o-o-o-o-o-o
A few hours later, once their fur had dried from the bathing, the Catlings swarmed out of the back door.
Immediately they disappeared into the neighborhood as I let their instincts guide them wherever cats would distribute themselves, meanwhile ensuring they would be paying attention to the humans all around them.
After all, nobody really pays attention to the stray and feral cats that inevitably infested a large city like Brockton Bay, and an ignored information vector like that was worth its weight in gold.
It wouldn't be long before I had a bead on everything happening within my city, and even just having reliable information on what the gangs were up to would be invaluable to defeating them.
I paused in thought.
I wouldn't be able to utilize this as myself. Having a citywide information network in addition to my known abilities would immediately cast suspicion.
But… who says the new Hero has to be 'me'?
I mentally grasped a hold of my most intimately understood pool of Essence, spinning it absently as I mused over it.
Human Essence. Not something particularly impressive on its own, but if this worked… it was going to be the most vital Essence to my plans going forwards.
Time to see whether my Avatar theory would work.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Apex of Evolution - Worm SI into Zerg Taylor
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
I could feel it had worked the very moment the neural tissues grew in the cocoon, the body growing inside the structure just as much myself as my arm or leg, even if my main body was still the core of my being.
Inside the cocoon, I twitched, before settling and allowing the rest of my growth cycle to continue uninterrupted.
It was a surreal sensation, not being born yet, but after a few more minutes it was complete, and I burst out of the cocoon, coughing out liquid from my lungs before gasping in air as I stumbled forwards, feet sinking into the Creep before I became accustomed to my extra body.
Standing straight, I lifted my second pair of arms, blinking away the remaining gunk as I turned them over.
I had designed this avatar with a much simpler brain than I had. Essentially, the entire organ was entirely background functions, with all the actual 'thinking' parts replaced by an enlarged psionic connection ensuring I could fully utilize the body as my own.
As for the body itself, for this experiment I had decided to keep things relatively simple via making it mostly base human, if fairly athletic alongside a copy of the corona pollentia in my brain. The sensation of being so… weak, rather disconcerting for somebody who has rapidly become so very strong, but I had allowed myself a few upgrades.
In this case, that was an incredible array of senses, with the remaining space in the braincase taken up by enlarged sensory aspects to compensate. Incredible sight that can flip through multiple types of vision, a sense of smell great enough to build a map in my mind to navigate, hearing and taste equally sensitive.
Hell, even the sense of touch was fine tuned enough to detect vibrations from everything around me. From the pulsing of the living things that make up my Hive Cluster to how minute, normally undetectable, ground quaking varied as it passed through nearby objects like walls or other obstacles.
Taking a few minutes just to become accustomed to these sensations, I eventually managed to shake my new head before walking forwards.
The walk cycle was awkward, this body was different from my main one and wasn't quite so instinctually user friendly as controlling a normal creature was, but soon enough I made my way up the tunnels to the solid metal door that Dad had scrounged up from the Union's part repository to hide the tunnels from cursory inspection.
I cleaned myself in the bathroom, then stepped in front of the mirror.
A mature ginger Irishwoman stared back at me, a light dusting of freckles on pale skin drawing the eye towards uncannily bright green eyes, the only sign of the incredible vision.
The athletic nature I had given it gave the body a lithe appearance, with moderately sized assets lending enough sexuality to arouse interest while retaining a graceful form.
I moved into my room to get dressed in a set of clothes I'd bought in preparation from a secondhand store, worn and faded jeans, shirts and several flannels, with a puffy jacket over that. Wool socks and beaten leather boots, knitted gloves and a ragged beanie, a large backpack.
All the things one needed to survive later winter into early spring, alongside blending into a crowd at a cursory glance.
Filling the backpack with whatever I thought would be necessary, mostly a pan, lighter, blanket and small tarp, I grabbed a wooden baseball bat before leaving out the backdoor like my Catlings the other night, jumping the fence and making my way down the alleys and deeper into the more abandoned areas of the Docks.
I wasn't too concerned on if I was properly prepared at this point. Even ignoring the fact this body was utterly disposable, it was also quite fit enough to beat the hell out of ne'er do wells with the bat or simply avoid conflict through its immense situational awareness provided by the sensory package.
Once I've built up enough of a network to have constantly useful information, I'll steal a phone from some thugs or something and begin utilizing it by giving information to the heroes.
I think I'll try and keep… Samantha? I'll keep Sam as an independant hero for the time being, since I didn't yet know how to overcome her not having a record in any way, but maybe I can just pass my Avatar off as being a refugee from a cape ruled country?
As I marched off to become homeless not an hour after being born, I introduced a Catling to Dad with my main body, saying it was basically just a normal cat, but that it would be our security system as well so that I would know if somebody broke in or something.
He named it Jerry.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Seeing as how my Hive Cluster was fairly open to discovery if somebody simply broke into my house and investigated the conspicuous door in the basement, I decided to finally head that off by creating a new creature.
This was an immobile one that was to be made by a Drone transforming into it after climbing up and latching onto the ceiling, and it was essentially a group of a few dozen long and strong arms sprouting out of a bonelike dome.
These arms would grab ahold of whatever local materials, like say cinder blocks, and create a wall which can be retracted against the actual walls to let people or creatures through or be remade at will.
I used this plus old fashioned labor to build a room past the metal door, with cinder block walls and a timber ceiling, with the back wall being the movable wall.
I kept my silk bolts in this room, so I already had a ready made excuse for why the room existed, meanwhile the base was now properly hidden from discovery unless people started trying to knock down the basement walls, which didn't seem very likely.
In addition to this entrance, I finally had a Drone carefully work at unsealing a concrete panel which formed part of the top of the storm drain my tunnels had brushed up against, before said Drone formed yet another moving wall creature (Mimic?) so that my creatures could exit the Hive Cluster in a more subtle fashion then through my back door.
Hm, with a bit of tar or rubber, I can also form a gasket around the edge, meaning if an actual storm occurs I won't have water rushing into my base. Future proofing!
"Miss Hebert, your father has come to an agreement on the Hess matter."
I blinked, looking up to the PRT lawyer assigned to our case.
Dad smiled at me, and the lawyer continued.
"For damages against you and justice itself, you will be compensated primarily by the government for the failings of Winslow as a public institution. Here is the amount you can expect for this."
He slid over to me a piece of paper, and as I read it I boggled a bit at the amount before actually calculating it.
Hm, enough to cover a lot of the problems Dad's been having for a while, fix up the house (even ignoring the already fixed roof) and get everything in order in addition to maybe getting a new car, but otherwise not anything especially mind bending even if the lump sum was a bit shocking to teenager me.
Okay, this is good.
"Dad, does this all sound reasonable?" Seemed okay, but the Peaceful Man wasn't a financial or law expert and I really just wanted this behind me now, besides I had plans to make more money.
Dad nodded, and the lawyer held a pleased expression.
I couldn't help but feel as if I was being fucked over somehow, but as long as Hess was being punished and I could put this behind me, I was satisfied.
Now, how are my nutrient organs developing?
Hm, very good. These will be vital in letting me perform more resource intensive acts mid combat, like making a lot of acid grenades or maybe even shooting webs like that one comic hero from Peace Man's world's (Earth Zayin?) comics, Spiderman.
That'll be fun. Once I work out my forearm spinnerets I'll have a real Mover rating.
O-o-o-o-o
After doing some research online, I learned that Parian actually didn't have a clothing store, yet.
She'd been trying to gather enough money and the permits to open her own store, but hadn't gotten that far yet and was still relying upon businesses paying her to be a cape mascot.
So, that was an easy target that didn't actually exist, though I decided to contact her anyway due to something else I learned.
You see, I've recently learned that my Zerg silk technically counted as tinkertech according to US law, and as such my options for selling it were heavily restricted. Essentially, I'd have to find a way for normal humans to build this stuff from scratch if I ever wanted to sell it commercially.
Even if I personally counted it more like an agricultural product, the law had other, dumb, thoughts.
This meant that the only courses I had were selling it to the PRT for them to distribute as they wished (At a truly pitiful rate), or selling directly to heroes. Which, considering I wasn't the best fashionista, meant I needed to either learn how to do fashion real quick or make a business relationship with another cape, which for me meant Parian.
But the very fact that Parian was having money troubles, and so did most heroes honestly, meant that I'd have to sell my silk at much lower than it really should be sold for, even if I could sell it for more than the PRT would take it for.
Easy money gone, but at least this should finally help me bring home more money than the pittance 'Allowance' I got from the PRT.
I sent Parian an email after finding her contact details through her website, then gathered some samples of my colored silk at home for me to bring to Parian later.
Now, I needed a way to actually get the silk to her.
I can't just go out in costume myself. For one, I was essentially grounded in that venue, so instead I had to find another way to establish a supply line while keeping my identity safe.
I started by designing a variant of the Drone specialized for traveling through the storm drains for the express purpose of transportation of smaller creatures and materials.
This Transporter, several times larger and longer than a Drone but still small enough to easily travel through the drains, would store said materials on its back in something resembling a turtle shell which could retract, and when closed it formed a watertight seal.
From there, I would have the material delivered to an Avatar, for the time being that would be my Sam body.
Now, for when the PRT makes the obvious connection between Parian getting super silk and me.
I'll say that Sam, or… 'Seer', contacted me with a business offer to act as a courier in exchange for a small fee.
Oh, I can expand upon her abilities this way, tell the PRT that she told me she had a hyper awareness of her surroundings, which was why she decided she made an excellent courier as she can simply avoid danger.
And since she carried herself explicitly as a hero, even if she'd be independent, there would be little issue with me interacting with her. Win win!
Now, if all of that turns out well and doesn't crash and burn on me, I'll be able to mitigate or possibly even completely eliminate our money troubles. Now I need to once more turn to the city's issues.
Seer wouldn't be able to fight crime very effectively by herself. That Avatar could display excellent Thinker abilities, but was limited to human physical feats.
So, I'll need to develop some more Avatars.
First of all, the issue that would plague all of my Avatars was a lack of ID if I needed them to join the PRT or they were forced to join in some manner (Like Hess had).
Thankfully, there existed an easy solution for that which meshed very well with my options going forwards.
Case 53s.
The 'monstrous capes' who always woke up somewhere strange, with no memories or history, and a weird/horrifying appearance and/or biology.
That meant I could get creative!
Immediately spinning Essence together, I used human DNA as a base, then completely ignored subtlety as I searched for the most useful traits I could find in the rest of my library.
The first thing I did was make the creature incredibly tall, near twice the height of a typical human being at a neat ten feet tall.
Then I packed in the hyper dense musculature as much as possible, making a hulking monstrosity of a figure who would be so much stronger than even they appeared, utilizing musculature sampled from a creature called a Brutalisk.
It wasn't quite the ratio of strength to muscle mass that I myself had, but I felt it a good idea to keep even the biology separate from myself, and it would still be extremely powerful for its size anyhow.
Keeping that in mind, I choose to make a game of finding different methods of making this body super effective while not utilizing the traits I was already using for my main body.
Bones threaded with polymers and covered in organo-ceramic plates, a thick hide with carbon nanostructures running throughout it, a bald head to make way for four thick horns and the beginning of chitin plates which would lead down from there and over the rest of the body in an almost lizard-like pattern, rocky tan growths with strips of the rust colored hide between them forming an effective enough armor while still looking 'natural'.
I had some fun shaping the chitin around until I had larger plates covering large muscle groups, adding onto the sort of rough statue look the body would have.
Now, I've decided I want to experience what being a male is like semi-directly, so I formed large male organs to fulfill the more self conscious impulses of the Peaceful Man's life.
Reshaping the rest of the body template, I gave it a more masculine bent, massive shoulders and a broad chest lending it a proud air, meanwhile a square jaw led right into thick neck muscles.
Focusing even more, I designated it to have… red eyes, a series of thick jagged teeth and a blunt, snakelike nose.
Alright, what else?
Right, it was right now essentially just a mid level Brute, a large Brute for sure, but still not the most powerful.
I needed more options, so I filled its chest with extra organs entirely devoted to either nutrient storage or regeneration.
There, now it would regenerate at a ridiculous rate, even better than I could in my main body, and with the nutrient organs it would actually store enough resources for this regeneration to rebuild large sections of its body at tactically useful rates, regenerating an arm in minutes for example.
It'll have to find a weapon of some form to make the best use of its strength, but now I felt comfortable letting this beast free.
Naming him Nathan and having a Larva begin feasting upon Creep, I pondered what weaknesses this Avatar would have, and how to overcome that.
While he would be able to take massive damage and lay down the hurt, in addition to being … not slow, but not fast either, he was also restricted in range unless he managed to obtain a gun or went primitive with a bow or sling.
A sling in the hands of this monstrosity would be rather scary, but I decided to keep him as a more brutish fighter and instead cover that weakness with a teammate.
Spinning more Essence, I made another being, eight feet tall and female, but rather than covering her in carapace and filling her body with regeneration organs I instead refined her body and metabolism towards more sharp and explosive strength and flexibility.
Essentially, instead of making extremely strong muscles, I made them very, very fast.
She should be easily capable of running at around a hundred miles per hour, leaping up onto rooftops, in addition to being able to squeeze that tall slender body into rather tight spaces like vents or under cars.
I hummed happily as I gave her a head full of long thin tentacles to replace hair, said limbs being prehensile but also being able to easily hang limply in imitation of hair.
For her skin I gave countless tiny cilia, so small one wouldn't be able to tell by looking at it, but essentially these cilia would flip around to showcase different surfaces, each surface a different color which would be slightly modified at will.
This meant she could copy her surroundings, hiding better than a chameleon, letting her remain out of sight while the male avatar took up the fight.
It wouldn't give her proper invisibility, but if she was completely still or moved slowly, I doubted normal human senses would detect her.
Oh, I supposed I should give her a more slender figure, tall and lanky, each limb just slightly too long to look natural.
Just for fun, I also gave her an extra pair of arms, which should also help with climbing, especially as I placed microscopic hooks on all four palms, in addition to the bottom of her feet.
Now, for the primary reasons she was to be the long ranged partner to the male's melee.
Trailing from just above a slender butt, I crafted a long, thick tail full of muscle and metabolizing structure, the tail nearly matching her height for length.
The end would most of the time seem to come to a slender point, but in reality it would split apart for about a foot from the point into three parts, the center of it holding an organ which could propel a needle-like projectile covered in variable levels of capsaicin in addition to a local paralytic.
Since I only had what the PRT had brought me for a safe method of non-lethal takedowns, I had to get creative with what I already had beforehand to allay suspicion. In this case, it was giving this Avatar the ability to, at range, causing debilitating amounts of pain, and mutating one of the paralytic traits that's brought me into something hopefully different enough to not be traceable back to me.
Part of that mutation had shifted the paralytic into a local variant, so I'd need to riddle somebody with the needles to actually paralyze them, but even locking up a few muscles at a time would be useful enough.
Theoretically, I should also be able to pump the amount of pain from the capsaicin high enough to induce shock. I didn't feel comfortable with that, but it was probably best to have decently lethal methods at my disposal.
I make her able to excrete these same chemicals through her skin as well, in addition to giving her very good long range vision with some hawk-like yellow eyes.
Ending with removing her nose entirely, instead she'd smell through her mouth, I set another Larva to feast in preparation after naming her Natasha.
I wrapped everything up by giving them both the tattoo all Case 53's were supposed to have, placing them under Nathan's right eye and on the tongue for Natasha, considering the need to keep her skin camouflageable.
There, two Case 53s who I can utilize in proper crime fighting in my own stead, and who will have a suitable alibi for knowing where all the crime is happening due to being Seer's favored heroes for providing information to.
Now, I'll need to scout good locations to drop them off in. I'm thinking in an abandoned warehouse near the ship graveyard, but I'll have to do that at night to make sure nobody sees them crawling out of the storm drains.
Oh, and I'll need some drones to help drag Nathaniel through said tunnels. Brockton Bay's storm drains were fairly sizable, but while Natasha would be able to crawl through them easily enough Nathaniel would need to be carried lengthwise.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
As my Catlings spread throughout the city, I began spawning several times more, as a mere dozen Catlings was utterly incapable of monitoring my neighborhood nevermind the entirety of Brockton Bay.
I would need… so many more, hundreds possibly, thousands, and even then cats cannot get everywhere.
But even as I began spawning more and more Catlings, I found a solution to some of my problems as those already spreading ate the plentiful pests to feed themselves, things like rats and whatever birds they could catch, in addition to roadkill like squirrels and racoons and even the occasional rotting dog corpse.
I set my Larvae to also transform into the smaller creatures. Rats and crows and squirrels and pigeons crawling out of storm grates in unseen places.
I used the crows to gang up on and kill several owls, giving me an option for long range overhead vision at night.
The simpler and smaller the creature, the less of a psionic strain they were to command, so I didn't need to many more Overlords to support this network but, at the same time I found that animals like bugs were not the most useful in their base forms.
Their senses were limited, only able to detect, usually, their immediate surroundings of a few feet.
Instead, I had to build specialized bugs.
I made spiders packed with improved sight and hearing to spy in the corners of rooms, I crafted short lived mosquitos to be spawned from specialized rats that would stealthily collect human essence, I formed ticks that would remain inert except to signal where they were, letting me tag individuals if i felt it needed.
Rapidly, scarily so, my presence spread through my city. Catling prides taking up the task of driving off or consuming enough of the previous population of pests or other stray animals that the increased presence of Zerg creatures would go unremarked.
I chose to stay away from actual pets though. Despite rapidly becoming an all encompassing spy system, I still felt that was a step too far. Besides, owners might be able to notice behavioral differences in their pets.
Of course, as I expanded my spy network, it became inevitable that I would begin coming across useful information.
Since I was expanding primarily from the border of the docks, my creatures were able to listen in on mostly ABB gang members as they moved about in their activities, occasionally hearing their orders, or even just watching as said gang members walked around neighborhoods and collected protection money.
Enough information was available to me now that I no longer felt comfortable keeping it to myself, so I began moving my Sam body to find an isolated gang member to beat up and steal a phone off of.
Even as I began the process of setting up Seer's relationship with the PRT, I woke up Nathan and Natasha where I'd had them collapsed in an alley, ready to begin their careers.
My rats had discovered a human trafficking ring, women and young boys being shoved around by hardened asian men, and I'm not going to let that stand.
I'm rather eager to test out my new bodies.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
A/N - Pretty scary how rapidly the Zerg can spread unseen across a city, eh?
Honestly, I'm probably moving too slowly here of all things, but let's just say that's because Taylor's being really cautious now.
As it were, I hope you can see now why I wasn't too afraid of joining the Wards being overly restricting, since Taylor can just make Avatars to do the work she cannot do with her primary body.
We'll get to have some fun with the Nats next chapter, especially since this experience will be the foundation of some of Taylor's interests expanding.
Apex of Evolution - Worm SI into Zerg Taylor
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
I walked together with my other body as we stalked through the alleyways. In this case, I was focusing upon my male body as I sampled the strange sensation of… well, being male.
It felt roughly similar to the experience I had of the Peaceful Man, if a lot more… powerful? Confident? Aggressive?
My movement had weight to it, my stride felt steady, and the hormones coursing through this body felt interesting as I cautiously let it influence my mind.
And despite what my lifetime of female expectations told me, even past the Peaceful Man's life experience, it still surprised me how little the organ between my legs bothered me, despite how many moving parts and sensitive tissues were involved there.
Hm, I'll have to explore a bit more later, but for now my Nat bodies have a job to do.
First of all, decency.
I smiled as Natasha, I tested out the effectiveness of my wall grippers as I pulled myself up with three limbs, three more following as I began climbing towards a balcony.
Just above it was a rolled up sheet of cloth attached to a contraption that would have been unfolded in warmer and gentler weather to act as shade.
I swiftly reshaped the fabric into a rather basic chiton, the first thing I could think of, utilizing rope stolen from the sunshade which would have supported its weight when fully deployed.
Nevertheless, decency acquired… for Nathan, as Natasha's powers required her to be naked.
Even as I moved both bodies in tandem to get the clothing secured in him, I stewed on that fact.
I mean, it wasn't really my body, but it certainly felt like it was… oh well, people to save no time to worry about it.
I had Natasha activate her camouflage, the effect rather obvious close up as her skin rippled with colors, and then climbed up to the rooftops to where it became less so to Nathan's standard human eyeballs.
Still noticeable if one was paying attention, but potentially mistakable for a heat shimmer.
It'll have to do.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Before my Avatars had even made it five streets towards my target, I was noticed by normal citizens as they moved in the early morning pre rush.
Gasps of surprise, even the occasional scream met my appearance as Nathan, with drivers either speeding away or completely stopping in surprise or curiosity or whatever..
I just chose to wave awkwardly before continuing on, and a block away from the human trafficking facility (Let's just go with facility) was when the birds and cats perched across the neighborhood noticed the Asian men spread around the neighborhood acting strangely.
Hm, wasn't expecting them to be so on point in their defense, aren't gangsters supposed to be unprofessional?
Then again, I was walking towards the building in a straight line, that might have tipped them off?
Inside, my rats watched as thugs moved to the upper floors at the windows, peering outside and reaching for guns.
Well, this body is meant to be the frontliner.
I moved Natasha up to a ledge overlooking the street the facility was on, eyeing the normal looking apartment building, before looking down and surveying the street.
I mentally set most of the Asian men walking around as targets. All those who had initially reacted suspiciously to Nathan's approach, with more to be appraised once the opening move has been played.
Natasha's tail rose up over her shoulder, the end splitting open, and I waited until Nathan stepped onto that street.
Then I used his vocal cords for the first time as I roared. A primal, bestial sound that resembled more a tiger than a human, then charged right down the street towards the facility.
Dozens of men shouted in shock as guns, mostly pistols, were brought out of concealment and they converged on me.
With a crash of dust and splinters, I smashed into the entryway of the building. Meanwhile I used Natasha to begin spitting chemically coated needles all over the street, confirmed gangsters shot at first with uncanny accuracy while those who simply ran away were let go unmolested.
One by one they dropped screaming in pain, the needles mostly disabling places like the legs or feet to ensure they wouldn't be moving around easily, even if they could work through the agony to try and escape.
I continued making a massive mess as Nathan, running through the corridors and room to lightly punch thugs in the guts or wrestle them to the ground, meanwhile I stealthily followed as Natasha to immobilize the gangsters via rapidly fired needles at their important muscle groups (Without pain, as they were already captured).
"Shit" I muttered over my tea, as I realized I didn't have a convenient method of properly restraining them, the paralytic would only last a few hours.
I'll have to have the Nats get their hands on a bunch of zip ties or something.
At this point, I let Nathan continue on towards the captured people, meanwhile Natasha gathered the fallen into the main stairwell for easy access.
Finally, Nathan broke through into the holding area, a group of apartments stuffed to the gills with people alternatively staring blankly off into the distance or trying to sleep on the ratty carpet.
"I'll kill them if you don't stop right the fuck there!"
I froze, my Nathan body not moving an inch, as a skinny man with a scar on his lip stepped out into the hallway with a little girl held in his arm, struggling weakly, while the other held an uzi to her head.
I stared into his eyes, abandoning my gathering work to instead creep towards that room as carefully as Natasha's feet would take me.
"Heh yeah, you must be trying to be some big hero, eh?!" He shouted, a Korean accent tinting his voice, before actually spitting in my face.
I didn't blink, Natasha set three hands on the ground and one on the wall next to the door, opening her tail and moving it into position.
I didn't immediately attack, because I was afraid of him somehow detecting me and flinching, or him managing to squeeze in a shot before the paralytic took effect. I hadn't been paying attention to that, not enough to know more than it being very fast, but not enough to confirm if it was instantaneous
"Yeah, who told you where we were, huh?! Tell me who snitched, and maybe I'll let you keep most of the bitches in here. I'll need to keep this one though, to keep yah honest."
The girl blinked, pausing in her struggle as she looked upon my Nathan body, eyes far too dead for somebody looking at a massive man monster covered in chitin armor.
Scum.
"Boss man already knows all about this, so you best get to talking real quick, or you'll just both yourself and the sluts killed."
Hm, a competent enough lowlife criminal.
To be expected, but rather frustrating to deal with.
Also, he was right. If Lung came around now, none of these Avatars could deal with him, even Oni Lee would cause a lot of collateral damage.
I needed to be quick now, no time to waste, but I needed to at least try and stall a hair trigger reaction.
"You… do know that the very moment you pull that trigger, I'll rip your spine out, right?" I stated slowly, my deep rumbling masculine voice almost making me stop before I caught myself, "Can't be letting low-lifes like you think they can get away with killing people in front of me, after all."
The man was sweating, and I wished I could close my eyes out of fear of what I might see next, but I fired the needles the moment I saw his trigger finger loosen.
Three impacted his finger and hand in quick succession, more following as he screamed in shock, dropping both the girl and the pistol.
I lunged, grabbing the girl as the gun smacked into the ground and misfired, the bullet sinking safely into my own flesh instead of hitting anything else thankfully.
As soon as I had the girl in my arms and my back to the thug to shield her, I scampered in on all sixes as Natasha, rearing back my tail and firing a stronger pain needle right into his face.
The man screamed, ripping at his face with one good arm, and I then immobilized the rest of him with a needle bombardment before turning my head dismissively.
Okay, Lung or whoever else important knew I was here, but the rest of the building was neutralized as far as my pests could ascertain.
It was time to do some rescuing.
I moved as Natasha back to the thug piles while Nathan entered one of the apartments, where a dozen or so rather pretty girls were kept in old dirty clothes.
The other rooms were organized by 'Type', I suppose. One had an assortment of young boys, another held more average looking women.
The arrangement felt rather limited to me, but I supposed they wanted people who would sell well.
Again, scum.
"Everybody!" Some screamed at my visage, but some just had the same expression as the girl before, "I'm a Hero, here to get you out of here. The cops and PRT will be arriving shortly, but I need you all to follow me outside."
Natasha finished pilfering what she needed from the thugs, six of the smaller phones held in three hands while one more flipped open a seventh, quickly calling the emergency number.
"PRT emergency services, what is the nature of your call?"
I licked my lips.
"New heroes Natasha and Nathan reporting a successful bust of ABB human trafficking center." Natasha's voice was… sibilant and smoky, creepy in a kind of hot way. I do fine work, "We need officers on the scene to process 46 formerly captive civilians, alongside 32 ABB gang members. We also heavily suspect reinforcements to be incoming, likely either Lung or Oni Lee."
Silence on their end for a few seconds.
"Dauntless will be on the scene shortly, Miss Militia and Armsmaster soon to follow. What are the conditions of the victims?"
I glanced over them as the crowd was led down the stairwell, gingerly stepping around the downed thugs.
"Mobile. We are leading them out onto the street, and the plan was to make our way towards the boardwalk."
One of my crows watched as a man appeared from thin air on its roof, before falling apart into ash not long after.
Oni Lee.
"Seer is reporting to us that Oni Lee will hit us in a moment."
"Seer?"
"Unaffiliated Thinker, gave us the information to hit the building, I'm hanging up now."
With that, I flipped the phone closed and sighed, setting it along with the rest in a corner for later retrieval before climbing out a window and to the roof.
Oni Lee made good time, as I could already see him with Natasha's eyes.
Clenching onto the edge overlooking the street, I also tensed as Nathan, directing the captives to hide in the alleyways while I grandstanded there.
Then he popped up on the rooftop next to me, looking down at Nathan, and I blinked in surprise in all four of my bodies before instinctively reaching with a hand to his leg.
An inch away, he twisted, a knife flashing and slicing my wrist to the bone before being painfully wrenched away.
Then he pulled a pin on a grenade, and I leapt away.
The rooftop caved in from the explosion, meanwhile my Natasha body was sent tumbling now covered in my own blood and dust, negating my camouflage.
Lee reappeared, slowly walking towards me, and I shot a spray of needles at him with my still hidden tail.
Apparently, my needles were thin enough to just about skip his notice, because he only tensed after they hit.
Collapsing into ash, my birds watched as he teleported a few times before collapsing, the needles having immobilized an entire leg.
I'd just gotten back up, ignoring the damage this body had sustained, before he returned, still collapsed on the rooftop.
Flinging more grenades at me even as I shot more needles at him, now striking his neck and sections of his midriff, he then appeared next to my Nathan body.
I flipped over the edge of the roof and fell to avoid the resulting explosion, and as debris fell around me I grasped a windowsill two stories down with two arms while the other pair and my feet helped to steady me.
The pain of my arms being pulled out of their sockets made all my bodies grunt, and I resolved to work out how to manage pain more efficiently later as Oni Lee appeared two feet in front of my Nathan body.
Deciding to go for broke, I charged him.
For some reason, he didn't blink away as I did so, and I was able to brush past the mere man's meager strength to press him into my chest in a brutal hug.
He struggled, but I was immovable to him even as a knife was digging into my tricep.
Then he collapsed as I shot his limbs full of needles, my Natasha body stepping into Nathan's sight.
Holy shit, she's literally painted with blood.
Okay, muscles aren't designed to handle this, so I proceed to collapse and lift the body up with my Nathan body after it drops Oni Lee to the ground, entering hibernation until recovery.
I looked up at the crowd of former captives, before turning back to look at the still form of Oni Lee, now lying facedown on the ground.
Okay, quick tactical analysis.
Why hadn't he teleported away before I could grapple him?
Using the dozen Overlords now available to me, I began running this analysis.
Hm…
His head had been immobile when attacking me, and the nature of a full face mask like the one he wore meant his peripheral vision was impaired, meaning he wasn't able to see anything but my bulk before I secured him.
Line of sight for his teleportation? It was a common medium for a lot of powers.
Best to neutralize that just in case.
Setting Natasha back down gently so as to not damage the body's tissues further, I ripped off a chunk of the cloth off my outfit before blindfolding Oni Lee.
It was then that my birds spotted a form descending down to the street, dressed in greek armor, and I heaved a sigh.
"Why does fighting high ranking gang leaders seem less challenging than people?" I muttered, lifting Natasha back into my arms before turning to face the Protectorate hero.
Dauntless. I've met the man a few times in my primary body, and he was from what I could tell the archetypal hero, if a bit dull.
"Would you mind telling me what's going on here?" The man asked, voice tense, so I gestured with my shoulder at the gathering crowd behind me.
"These people were being held captive by the ABB to be, I presume, sold off. Me and Natasha were thinking about being heroes for a while, and once we got word this was going on we wanted to do some good and save them."
Dauntless looked over them all, eyes wide.
"Damn, that's a lot of people. Uh, is the woman fine? You seem unworried."
I blinked, glancing down at the Natasha body.
"She'd been hurt, but I can tell she'll live. We're… connected, I suppose."
The man blinked, glancing back down at her, before immediately looking away.
"Uh, why's she naked?"
Then the roar of bikes pierced the morning air, Miss Militia and Armsmaster pulling into the scene.
"Later, for now we need to get these people to safety and put Oni Lee in prison." I stated, and he nodded instantly.
As PRT vans arrived and Troopers rolled out to begin guiding the victims away, I let out a sigh as my network confirmed there was no giant rage dragon incoming anytime soon.
"Will your partner need medical attention?" I blinked, tilting my head towards Armsmaster, who lifted one of the trauma blankets the PRT troopers were distributing, "I also have this, to cover her up if needed."
I twitched in my main body, chuckling even as I smirked at Armsmaster..
"Would be a shame to cover her up, but fine. Natasha will recover eventually, her body is tough, but she only heals at normal rates unlike me."
Armsmaster nodded.
"Then, we should proceed to going to a more secure location where we could arrange a meeting with Panacea and, if you are willing, to help debrief us on what exactly happened here. We've noticed almost all those unconscious are covered in needles."
I nodded, and followed along towards a van. No reason to be unhelpful to the PRT, even if I wasn't going to work for them in these bodies, and the opportunity to see Panacea at work would be interesting.
Ah, best to get some of the phones off to the Sam body, a few Catlings will do.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o
A/N - Literally wrote half this chapter in the past few hours, inspiration be crazy man.
I'm sure there's some issues that need fixing, but I require sleep in, like, hours ago. Any issues can be fixed later.
Especially the parts after Dauntless comes in, but yeah, sleep.
As it were, next chapter I think I'll be setting up a few important things.
Apex of Evolution - Worm SI into Zerg Taylor
O-o-o-o-o-o
"Thank you for the observation on Oni Lee's power, we've theorized that he relies upon line of sight, but more evidence for it is always comforting when we need to plan for his involvement."
I had Nathan nod at Armsmaster's words, even as he leaned against the wall next to Natasha's hibernating form on a gurney.
The Protectorate Heroes had moved the Nats to the PRT headquarters, the center for the troopers and administration rather than the Rig in the bay, meanwhile all the former captives were now being safely processed with fears of a Lung interrupt dampened.
"We would like to know more about this 'Seer' you mentioned." Armsmaster continued, arms crossed, "If she's got information on the gangs we would be very interested in learning more, if you would be willing to tell us what you know about her?"
"As far as we can tell, she's somehow able to know what's happening all over the city, she's also got better 'normal' senses then the most specialized animals you could find. The moment we woke up without memories and started wandering around, she found us, introduced herself, before setting us up with a safe place to sleep and a crash course in how to get by before running off."
Armsmaster frowned slightly at something, before nodding.
"So we've got a very powerful Thinker who could be spying anywhere in the city? If you can, would you be willing to communicate to her that the PRT is always interested in hiring more Thinkers, they can usually obtain a generous salary and relative safety in comparison to normal Heroes."
I shrugged as Nathan, meanwhile filing the reaction away.
"She seems to have her own thing going on, but I'll give her the message." Should I say she already heard it? …No, best to leave the specifics behind how Seer gets her information vague, "She did tell me to give you guys her own message, that Seer is willing to freely provide information to anybody she deems heroic enough."
Armsmaster hummed, turning away and typing onto a pad.
"For the moment, I will have to trust that her definition of 'heroic' is adequately lawful, breaking up a human trafficking ring certainly helps. For now, Panacea is nearly here, what is your relationship with Natasha? We need to establish if you can give Panacea permission to heal her."
Hm.
"I don't really know, we woke up feeling as if the other was the most important person in our lives. Could be we were lovers, could be we were siblings, maybe even just very close friends. One of those for sure though, I believe."
Armsmaster didn't comment on the possible implications.
"Good enough."
O-o-o-o-o-o
Amy Dallon
-
"Do I have permission to heal her?" Amy asked, even as she asked not caring about the answer.
It was almost never 'no', and despite how guilty she felt about it, she always found herself wishing for that very answer.
It was such a neat solution. She didn't have to stress over restraining her powers at the slightest inclination to 'improve' something, and she didn't have to feel the immense guilt from not healing somebody.
But Amy had been called to the PRT Headquarters to 'check out the new Case 53s, one being injured', which was basically the Protectorate offering them her services, and they weren't likely to say no to that.
She'd have words with them later though, she had higher priorities in the hospital and Carol would be angry about them trying to worm her into an on call relationship with the Heroes.
"Sure thing." The gigantic Case 53 before her stated, shifting in place as he eyed her curiously, before tilting his head towards the female monstrous cape, "Wake up."
In an instant, the eyes of 'Natasha' snapped open, and she turned her head weakly to stare at me.
"Hello there." Amy shivered, the smoky voice with a slight hint of hissing combined with her slender and strange, yet remarkably feminine, form pulling at some of Amy's more repressed urges, "We've been curious about how power based healing might feel."
Amy pushed off her complicated feelings with a blunt shrug.
"Here."
She clasped onto Natasha's wrist, and Amy quirked a brow as she began familiarizing herself with the strange body.
Immediately standing out to her was the wildly differing DNA from a Human.
While many Case 53s had seemingly insane biology, this was made even stranger by the fact that much of their DNA was barely even different from a human.
Sometimes she got one with alien genetics, but it was rarer than one might think.
Also, as she looked closer at the DNA in curiosity, she found it to be… remarkably neat, too neat.
There was no junk data, no extraneous bits and pieces. No, she had the bare minimum of base human DNA for the data corresponding to all the extra traits to be built upon.
It was almost as if somebody had built Natasha from the ground up, instead of being evolved, and that was distinctly different from any other Case 53s Amy had come across, who even if they did have alien DNA, they also had accompanying junk data.
Curious.
Amy then looked at the actual damage to Natasha's body, feeling a spike of guilt at delaying for her own curiosity, and despite the differences in biology quickly fixing the damage with ease.
A burst of information followed as she watched Natasha's anatomy move her into a sitting position, and Amy drank it all in.
"Now that the rest of your body is okay, I'll diagnose any possible issues with your brain." Amy stated, moving her internal senses to Natasha's brain even as she noticed a spike of alarm hormones triggering at her words.
The first thing Amy noticed was the lack of a lot of the areas of the brain responsible for… well, having a sense of self, or just directing the body.
No, all there seemed to be was the bare minimum of structures for keeping the body alive, and yet…
All of the central nervous system seemed to lead to a collection of structures replacing the rest of the brain mass, which she didn't know the purpose of.
In that moment, as she let her power sink into those structures, Amy's consciousness merged as it normally did with those brains she scanned, and she felt the mind behind it.
[SHOCK]
Amy clenched her eyes tight as she became instantly overcome by a massive wall of information, not like anything she had ever felt before.
It was like she was melding with a brain so incredibly complex that her own was subordinated.
[CONCERN]
But she also couldn't feel any other brains than Natasha's. Instead, this felt like something… less physical, like when she became overcome by grief or lust or fear.
This wasn't a brain, this was a mind so vast that her own was stuck floating on the surface of it.
[CURIOSITY]
Amy felt it as she… lost her own direction, in the midst of this great presence.
She became just… one part of a greater whole, a cog in a machine, or a synapse in a greater brain.
Despite the terror that brought her at first, she also quickly lost that.
She lost her fear
She lost her shame
She lost her disgust at herself.
Amy relaxed, despite herself finding comfort in no longer being responsible for her own insecurities and issues, the hivemind taking it all away, just letting her… exist.
She somehow felt it as the massive presence sorted through her mind with a curious air about it, meanwhile getting glimpses of what it felt: Intrigue, worry, compassion, sympathy.
[EPIPHANY]
Somehow she knew that by the connection of minds the greater presence had learned something extremely important about… not her, but itself?
Then she felt the connection fading, as her own body moved without her command, releasing its hold upon the Natasha body's wrist and rapidly blinking.
Amy's regaining hold upon her own self came back slowly enough to be noticed by those around her, as Armsmaster stepped forwards with a concerned air about him.
"Are you well Panacea?"
Amy blinked once more, her insecurities and barriers going back up as she settled back into reality, and her shoulders hunched up as normal as she nodded.
"I, uh, yes." She stepped away, swaying slightly before righting herself, "Yes, I'm fine, there was just… a lot."
Amy turned her eyes to Natasha's own, then Nathan's.
No, these were simply small parts, limbs of a greater body.
She found herself not caring about that, instead…
She wanted to return.
But she knew she wasn't welcome right now, but… maybe later?
"Natasha should be fine now, I-" Amy blinked, realizing that it would actually be possible for her to make these two human.
She ignored that.
"Same as ever, I wouldn't be able to give them human bodies. If that is all?"
Armsmaster nodded, and Amy began making her way back to where Vicky was waiting to bring her to the mall.
Strangely, Amy had been looking forward to hanging out with her despite hating the act of shopping, but now that paled in comparison to the… Merging.
No, what she wanted to know now was, who or what was the Primary?
She desperately wanted to know, to touch them and see what made them tick.
…To ask if she could go back.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
I moved a moderate amount of my pest network to the neighborhood where the Dallons lived, and towards Brockton General Hospital, as I resolved to keep an eye upon Panacea.
The things I'd learned when she inadvertently connected with me, it was… worrying.
Funnily enough, I truly didn't care about her lust, even obsession, over her adopted sister. No, that wasn't worrying by itself.
It was the tremendous levels of self hatred/disgust I felt from her.
Guilt, fear, loathing.
All combined, it made for a mind that was… remarkably fragile, yet bendable. A normal human wouldn't so easily give themselves up to the hivemind, from the Swarms experience they would normally instinctively resist until their minds broke, but Amy Dallon had eagerly given up her Self.
So yes, I'll keep an eye on the city's miracle healer, especially since I knew she had gleaned some important things from our merging.
Speaking of, I had also learned some about my own abilities from said connection.
Connecting with an active sapient mind that was not previously part of the hivemind, not through a psionic organ but through Panacea accidentally releasing a signal and myself latching upon that, I found myself utilizing my own psionic power without an organic connection to utilize.
This led me down a rabbit hole, thinking more upon the Swarm's experience with psi energy.
I noticed a pattern.
In every case where the Swarm developed a new psionic ability, it was through adoption of the initial species' Essence.
Never did the Swarm actively just… try to train their abilities like humans did in their dimension, instead relying entirely upon a species' base abilities, never changing them.
It was like… instead of changing the software of a computer, they simply attached a new computer to the network with the bare amount of physical additions to keep the systems working together.
The Zerg only utilized hardware, not software.
That was why they couldn't change a psionic species heavily without losing the ability!
Essence was not just DNA, as I already knew, but it was also the collective… psionic imprint? Of a species. It was how I could obtain the popular teachings and societal rituals through Essence rather than just base instincts through DNA.
Essentially, the hardware came along with some of the previous software.
And since the Swarm never learned how to develop their own software, they couldn't truly take apart, understand, and utilize the new abilities.
It was why the old Queen had been such an invaluable part of the Swarm, she took these psionic imprints and reshaped them for her own use, advancing the psionic abilities of the Swarm by centuries in comparison to the normal methods of assimilating widespread abilities of a species.
This was due to her keeping, in large part, her human mind. Specifically, a human mind trained as a psionic soldier.
So, what did this tell me?
I could change a psionic species' Essence, as long as I took the time to learn how they did what they did first, then I could mix and match their abilities as I pleased via imprinting my own learning onto the Essence of new Zerg organisms!
Okay, what would be a good place to start then?
Overlords, let's start there. First thing, they held the ability to amplify the psionic strength of groups of their species. They had utilized this to defend themselves upon their homeworld by attacking as a group, breaking the minds of any predators or enemies of their clans to great effect.
I set two of my Overlords to replicate this effect upon a variety of my rats, watching all minds involved intently, instead of their brains.
The rat collapsed, its mind scrambled into uselessness by the attack and its brain massively strained, any more power and the thing would have had an aneurysm or something.
Interesting… so, they had directed their emotions and thoughts just so?
Glaring at a rat who had made its way into my bedroom, I felt its mind as it swayed lightly, but recovered from the attack.
Despite the weak effect, I felt a giddy elation in my breast.
I can learn how to use psionics now!
I immediately focused back upon my Overlords with a much sharper mental gaze, and began producing a variety of creatures to test their mind upon.
Let the experiments begin.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Vista
-
Vista laughed out loud as Taylor cursed up a storm from where she lay crumpled on the training room floor.
"Stupid goddamn webs!" She cried out, getting back to her feet and flinging an arm out, a thick line of webbing following suit from her wrist and attaching to one of the rafters.
Grabbing hold of it, she pulled, and Vista leaned back in a guffaw as Taylor impacted the wall with no sign of her usual grace.
"Laugh it up Missy," Taylor grumbled as she dropped to the ground on her feet, rubbing at her wrist to remove the remnant specks of webbing, "I'll only give the costume guys pink silk."
Vista closed her mouth.
"You wouldn't dare."
Taylor turned and stared back into her own eyes with a dead look, and Vista shivered.
Taylor could be oddly intimidating at times, despite the fact she knew she was super nice most of the time.
"Try me."
After Taylor again pulled herself into the air with her webbing, the door opened, allowing Chris and Carlos to step into the training room.
Both looked up in surprise as Taylor hung upside down from her web rope, staring at them blankly as her hair hung upside down.
"Yo."
I couldn't help but start laughing at the two's baffled expressions.
Taylor was weird, but her weirdness was rather enjoyable.
"Carlos, fight me! I need a dose of adrenaline or I'll go crazy!"
Carlos chuckled, rising up into the air as Taylor flipped herself over and flung more webbing at a wall.
"Alright alright, prepare yourself."
The resultant cavalcade of errors proved that, while Taylor learned better in a fight, she would still need a lot more training to handle flinging herself through the air properly.
Vista resisted the urge to laugh at her more, Taylor's little threats were usually not to be ignored.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
I flopped onto my bed, only slightly worried by the dangerous sounding creaking from my dense body's weight, instead distracted by my thoughts.
Being male as Nathan was and is an interesting sensation, especially once he got some privacy to… flush out the pipes, as it were.
Something about a male orgasm just… felt more satisfying to me than my normal ones.
Maybe it was the memories of having lived as a male, maybe it was personal preference, maybe it was just male orgasms being objectively better?
The reasons don't really matter, what does is that I seem to like them more, a lot more.
I had a passing thought of testing out Nathan's equipment on Natasha, before banishing the thought… maybe some other time.
As it were, I certainly seem to find the idea of there not being any form of penetration happening to be rather boring, and since I seem to have a heightened interest in women over men, that meant one thing for truly satisfying sex.
And I could do it, I could definitely give myself a dick.
The very thought of that made me blush, and now I knew I had inherited a lot more of Peaceful Man's fetishes than I had already thought.
Damn him, it wasn't as if being a hermaphrodite would make me even more of a freak or anything.
I heaved a sigh, deciding to sleep on that thought process.
I didn't need to sleep anymore, but it was a nice way to let my thoughts sort of reset, get some perspective on things.
Pulling my covers up, I forced my brain into sleep mode, letting my hivemind go into a less micromanaged state wouldn't hurt me now and then, especially since any of my creatures could wake me if better direction was truly needed.
My dreams ended up fairly steamy, how predictable.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
A/N - I'm thinking it's nearly time to have some more important things happening soon, yes.
As it were, can't go wrong with some more setup, and we've learned some pretty important things about how the Zerg and psionics work here.
Hm, I've just had a great idea inspire by that, you'll see next chapter.