Projections in Worm (Patreon)

An: Short diversion because of the holidays. 

Myst was less than amused to find 'himself' in the body of a naked busty red haired girl standing in the middle of a hallway with a horrible rancid stench coming from the locker in front of her. She glanced at the scattered people that were watching her, she could understand the guys staring but they should be able to hear the girl screaming and they were just ignoring her which wasn't making things easier. Part of her frustration came from 'knowing' that she was a projection and that this was her first assignment. Of course, it wasn't his first assignment and he certainly wasn't a girl in either of his natural forms.

He pushed his personal worries about how the hell he'd ended up as a not-so-eldritch, eldritch abomination in the form of a girl to the back of his mind and checked the list of powers he could feel in the back of his mind. 'Intangibility, Power Administration and Immunity to Precogs that are trying to screw with me. Good enough.'

He reached through the locker, grabbed Taylor and pulled the filth covered teenager out of the locker. He ignored the hysterical screaming of his human and glared at one of the idiots filming him with a camera. "Which way to the nurse's office?" he demanded firmly.

"That way," the boy said pointing down the hallway.

"Don't let the staff take your phone, I'm going to want a copy of that for evidence," Myst warned him then tossed the screaming girl over her shoulder and stalked down the hallway, glad that Taylor wasn't heavier than she was as she was currently thrashing and screaming incoherently in rage and fear. He stalked into the nurse's office and set Taylor down much to the protest of the nurse.

"You can't just barge in here," the nurse protested. "Why are you naked?!"

He turned and glared at the nurse. "I'm going to ignore that. You will pick up a phone and call 911 or I'm going to do some extremely unpleasant yet completely legal things and you will never work in the medical industry again," he snapped, turning his full glare on the nurse and looming, glad that he was still tall even if he was a currently stuck as a girl.

"If you think you can just…" she trailed off as Myst stuck her hand through the desk then lifted it up without any apparent effort.

"Call the hospital now or give…" he trailed off as the nurse fainted and collapsed. "Fucking seriously?" he complained as she stalked over and grabbed the phone on the wall. She glanced at the number written on it for calling out then dialed nine to get an outside line then 911, wanting to make sure her human actually survived long enough to get to know her.

"911, what's your emergency?" a business-like female voice asked.

"I'm an independant cape, a teenage girl was locked in a locker at Winslow with biohazardous waste."

"If this is a prank, know this call is being traced," she replied firmly.

"Good, I'm calling from the nurse's office. I need you to send a medical team and a squad car before the principal of the school and her pet cape covers up evidence of attempted murder and bio-terrorism and place a call to the CDC, the victim's locker is filled with biohazardous waste," Myst explained, not sure what else to tell them at this stage.

"Pet cape?" the operator asked.

"Sophia Hess, a.k.a Shadowstalker tried to murder the victim so I need you to send the police so they can document the evidence before the principal has it cleaned up improperly."

"Anything having to do with a Parahuman gets reported to the PRT and revealing the identity of a ward is illegal," the woman on the phone said.

"I didn't sign any NDAs and I'm flat out telling you one of their Wards tried to kill a girl today so I'd like things handled by the police as the ward in question is on probation for attempted murder already for shooting people with a crossbow. Tell you what, send the aid car and some cops then call the PRT, I'd love to talk with them. Tell them to find Sophia's PRT handler and stuff her in a cell."

"If you can prove your claims, I'm sure everything will be fine," the operator said.

Myst sighed as he saw an angry looking black girl glaring at her from the doorway. "Shit! Not the face Sophia!" he shouted and hit the phone against the wall. "She has a knife!" He hung up the phone then glared at Sophia. "You should start running."

"You think I'm going to run from a naked girl?" Sophia asked in disbelief.

"If you had any sense, you'd already be running," Myst said with a grin.

"Is that a threat?" Sophia demanded.

"No, just an observation," Myst replied calmly. "You're not the hero here, you're a villain."

"See, this is real easy, I walked in here and saw you over the nurse's body, who do you think they're going to believe?" Sophia asked with a smirk.

"Not the girl that likes shooting people with crossbows and that has a phasing power and known grudge against the victim," Myst replied, watching her and ready to intervene if she lunged for Taylor.

"What makes you think I have a phasing power?" Sophia asked, trying to conceal how unnerved she was.

"Because I do my research, I've looked up all of the villains in town, you like shooting people and you don't really care who you hurt or save, you're perfectly willing to walk away if they don't fight back. That doesn't make you a hero, it doesn't even make you a predator, it makes you a sadistic bitch," Myst replied calmly as he locked down the part of his power that would make him more monstrous when he killed someone just in case Sophia proved stupid enough to try attacking Taylor while she was unconscious.

"If I was Shadowstalker, why aren't you worried?" Sophia asked, fishing for information on the girl's powers.

"Zap zap and the bitch fell down," Myst whispered, making sure she could read his lips but that he wasn't loud enough on the off chance Sophia was wearing a recording device. "Don't worry, you'll have twenty to life to enjoy dropping the soap and three square meals."

Sophia tensed up to jump at the stranger when her Ward phone rang.

"You might want to answer that, I've already spilled your identity to the 911 operator so whichever hero they send should already know you're connected to the victim. Either way, I'm reasonably sure I can screw you over before they manage to take me down."

Sophia answered her phone. "Yes."

"What's the situation at Winslow?" Armsmaster's modulated voice asked.

"From what I heard, a girl got stuffed into a locker and rescued by a crazy cape," Sophia replied with a smug look at Myst. "She's currently in the nurse's office with an unconscious nurse."

"Contain her until I get there," Armsmaster ordered as he increased his speed, glad that he was already in the area on patrol and that his bike could weave through traffic.

"With pleasure," Sophia replied, glad that she hadn't even had to lie yet.

"What powers does the new cape have?" Armsmaster asked, looking for information.

"I don't know but she's obviously unhinged and managed to knock the nurse out," Sophia replied.

"Do your best," Armsmaster replied as he stopped in front of the school and charged up the steps.

"To be fair, she fainted when I told her Sophia attacked a fellow student and that she should actually behave like a medical professional," Myst spoke up, trying to do a touch of damage control while he could.

"Shit, knife!" Sophia said then ended the call with a smirk. "I don't lose."

"Way to escalate things Sophia, are you really that stupid?" Myst asked with scorn and exasperation as Sophia pulled out a nasty looking pocket knife. "Hypothetically, let's assume for a second that you manage to stab me or your victim, this goes from a case of attempted murder to murder, they'll investigate and they'll bury you."

"You think they care about some girl? She's nobody," Sophia snapped.

"This isn't some gangster on the street, it's a teenage girl in a school," he said as he took a step to the side to block Sophia's line of sight to Taylor. "Besides, the nurse is awake, has been for a couple of minutes so you'll have to kill her as well," Myst pointed out.

Sophia sighed when she realized the nurse had woken up when she wasn't paying attention or she'd been faking it the whole time. "You're obviously delusional."

"Not particularly, I'm just annoyed at having to deal with your shit," Myst replied, less than happy to hear the sound of something heavy running down the hallway as he couldn't help the feeling that Armsmaster was going to fuck something up.

"She's in here!" Sophia shouted as she put her knife away.

Myst wasn't particularly surprised when the first thing Armsmaster said after bursting in was "You're under arrest!" He glanced at Sophia who was smirking at him from behind Armsmaster then focused on Armsmaster. "On what charge?"

"Attempting to reveal a Ward's identity," Armsmaster replied.

"To a member of law enforcement after she'd tried to murder a classmate that she's been harrassing for over a year, I really don't think any DA will touch that with a fifty foot pole, what else do you have?" Myst asked.

"Resisting arrest," he replied.

"I don't see any police and you're part of the organization responsible for sheltering Sophia from legal prosecution so, no, my lawyer will have a field day with that," Myst replied.

"Indecent exposure," Armsmaster tried.

"I was in the middle of saving someone, Sophia threatening me with a knife prevented me from getting dressed," Myst explained. "So I really doubt that will hold up in court. Either way, you're ignoring the fact that your ward tried to kill the victim by sticking used femine products through her locker door."

"You're lying," Sophia snapped.

"Run the tests or rather wait for the CSI or CDC people to run the tests as you shouldn't be anywhere near the crime scene. Either way, you're going to need to call the CDC if the operator didn't. If the medics haven't been called, I'm going to take the victim to the hospital."

Armsmaster scowled as he finally noticed the girl covered in filth. "What happened?"

"I told you, Sophia stuffed her in a locker using her power," Myst replied, fairly sure nothing else made sense as it shouldn't have been possible to force someone's Taylor's size into a half filled locker and then shut it on them without waking the dead. "So, there is most certainly a conflict of interest and I'm not going anywhere until the cops or the medics arrive."

"That's not how this works, you can give your statement at the PRT," Armsmaster said as he stepped forward to grab Myst.

"What part of conflict of interest do you not understand? If you try to grab me I will take it as assault and defend myself then I will have my lawyers eviscerate you in court and public option-" he cut off as she saw two police officers show up behind Armsmaster. "As I said, this is a conflict of interest. I'm an independent hero and his ward tried to murder a girl."

"Lying isn't going to help you," Armsmaster snapped.

"I'm not lying, I'm telling the police behind you that the girl needs medical attention and that they should arrest Sophia Hess for attempted murder," Myst said loudly, knowing some of the students in the background were probably recording things.

The nurse spoke up from where she was sprawled on the floor, "Sophia Hess threatened her with a knife and admitted to attacking the girl."

"You fucking cunt!" Sophia snarled at the nurse.

The grey haired cop sighed. "Sophia Hess, you're under arrest, you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand your rights?"

"Lying bitch," Sophia grumbled then shut her mouth when Armsmaster glared at her.

Armsmaster glared at Myst. "You're still under arrest."

"Do you want me to arrest you?" the cop asked Armsmaster.

Armsmaster turned to look at the cop. "What for?"

"How about conspiracy to commit murder, accessory after the fact and assault against an underage naked girl that you haven't allowed to cover up which leads to places you really don't want to go," the cop replied. "Now, we're going to get the victim to a hospital and we'll take a statement that we'll turn over to the PRT if our lawyers find cause. Get out of the way or I will arrest you," he ordered, having wanted to say it for years.

Armsmaster scowled at Myst. "You'll be brought up on charges."

"Cut your losses," Myst replied as he grabbed the blanket the nurse handed him and wrapped it around 'himself'. "By the way Sophia Hess can phase, make sure she doesn't escape during transport."

The younger cop sighed as he realized he was going to have to sign a bunch of paperwork. "This is going to be a nightmare."

The older cop said, "Not really, I'm going to call things in, if she escapes or attacks us, her name will go on the list of escaped and dangerous criminals that need to be hunted down with extreme force."

Sophia glared at the younger cop and the rest of the students that were watching and recording the scene as the cop led her out into the hallway, figuring the Director would have her out by morning.

"You might want to take a look at the locker before you leave and have someone dust for Sophia's prints or possibly Emma Barnes and Madison Clements before the principal tries to have the janitor erase the evidence. Just for disclosure, Emma's father is the lawyer that testified to Sophia's good nature to get her off her previous attempted murder charge when she was a violent vigilantee. There should be plenty of evidence on their phones and school emails, just have someone track the victim's old accounts," Myst said, making sure his voice carried much to Armsmaster's frustration.

"Some of that is sealed," Armsmaster snapped as one of the paramedics came in with a body board to pick up Taylor.

"I need you to get out of the way," the paramedic ordered everyone as the other paramedic rushed in behind him.

"It's also relevant to a felony," Myst replied as he stepped out of the way for the medics. "Either way, stay the hell away from me, you're a creep," he told Armsmaster then followed Taylor and the medics out of the nurse's office.

The old cop stepped in front of Armsmaster when he started to follow them out. "Leave it."

"I need to know how she knows any of that," Armsmaster snapped.

"No, what you need to do is go home and let us work the case. If there's a conflict of interest we can't let you anywhere near the victim. Do you have any advice on containing Miss Hess?" the cop asked, fairly sure Armsmaster wouldn't help.

"She can't phase through live wires!" Myst called out, practically taunting Sophia to try to attack him. He was slightly disappointed that she wasn't quite that stupid. He turned and followed the medics and jumped in the back with Taylor, unwilling and able to leave her behind. Technically, he'd just fade out and snap back to Taylor in his intangible form but he'd rather not give anyone hints about his powers and out Taylor as a cape if he could avoid it.

"How long was she in the locker?" the medic riding in the back asked as he worked on cleaning off some of the filth caked to the victim's skin.

"I don't know, she was already in the locker when I got there," Myst replied, less than happy about the entire experience of having to pull someone out of a locker and hoping he could get some answers when Taylor woke up.

"I've seen a lot of shit over the years but this is horrible," the medic complained.

"Pretty much," Myst grumbled. "Is she going to be okay?"

"Physically, she should be fine," he assured the cape, focusing on work rather than looking at the attractive girl wearing a blanket.

"Good." Myst closed his eyes and tried to come up with a plan for how to answer all of the cop's various questions without being forced to come down to the station or otherwise reveal that he was a projection.

0o0o0

Myst pulled his attention away from 'her' movie star quality reflection in the hospital mirror when he felt someone looking through his eyes.

"What the hell?" Taylor sputtered once she woke up enough that she couldn't blame the extra senses on weird nightmares.

Myst waved at the mirror then walked out of the hospital bathroom and smiled at Taylor. "How are you doing?"

Taylor looked at the pale blue hospital scrubs the tall busty red haired model was wearing then focused on her face. "Confused," she admitted, not sure how to ask if she was mastering the girl.

Myst grinned at Taylor. "About the fact that I'm hot as hell or about the fact that you can tap into my senses?"

"Does that mean I'm mastering people?" Taylor asked warily, ignoring the first part of the other girl's statement.

"Normally I'd crack a joke but we've both had weird days so I'll just explain," Myst said as he walked over and flopped down in the chair. "My name is Myst and I'm your projection."

"I'm a cape?" Taylor asked for confirmation.

"Yep and I'm your loyal hench girl or minion," Myst replied with a grin.

"Do you have any powers other than letting me share your senses?" Taylor asked.

"I'm fairly sure that's part of your powers rather than mine but to answer your question, I can turn intangible and I get more powerful the more villains I kill," Myst admitted.

"Just villains?" Taylor asked warily, thinking of the Faerie Queen and trying not to freak out about ending up in the birdcage if anyone found out about that aspect of her powers.

"Technically anything living but I get the most out of killing parahumans and monsters with powers and I'm not killing heroes," Myst replied, fairly happy with his powerset.

"Have you killed anyone?" Taylor asked warily.

Myst shook his head. "No, I just have a list of powers in my head, you summoned me when you were in the locker, I got you out and ruined Sophia's day so I haven't exactly had time to test things."

"How do you know about Sophia?" Taylor asked.

"I'm guessing I picked up some details from your memories, nothing specific or anything," Myst lied, not wanting to have to explain that he'd read about her life in a worm serial.

"Are you sure you're not just insane?" Taylor asked, trying to wrap her mind around being a cape.

"Reasonably sure," Myst replied with a grin.

"So you can turn intangible like Shadowstalker?" Taylor asked, trying not to think about the other part of her projection's power.

"I don't have the same issues with electricity or at least I don't think so, I should probably test that," he said as he walked over to a lamp and stuck his hand through the cord after turning that part of his hand intangible. "Yep, I'm fine."

"That could have killed you," Taylor snapped.

"I'm a projection, you could always just reform me," Myst assured her.

Taylor frowned as she realized she had a mental switchboard in the back of her mind with different switches. "Let's assume for a second that you're not just messing with me, you're strangely talkative for a projection."

"You needed a friend," Myst replied with a shrug. "Love me or spank me, I'm not going anywhere-" he cut off as Taylor flipped a switch and he found himself looking out of her eyes and hearing with her ears.

Taylor blinked as the girl she'd been talking to vanished along with her scrubs. "Weird."

[Now and then], Myst replied over their mental link.

[What the hell?!] Taylor asked, accidently using the mental link.

[You unsummoned me], Myst replied with amusement. [Huh, this is sort of interesting, I can see through your eyes and hear through your ears.]

[Can you control my body?] Taylor asked.

[I doubt it but I'll give it a try.] Myst tried to wiggle fingers he didn't have or move for twenty seconds, doing everything he could think of to see if he could get her body to move. [Nope]

Taylor sighed in relief then frowned when she realized Myst might be lying to her. [How do I know you're telling the truth?]

[You don't], Myst admitted.

[That's not particularly comforting], Taylor replied.

[Would you rather I lied? Everything will work out, we'll punch all of the villains until they realize they were wrong and see the light], Myst offered, his mental voice practically dripping with sarcasm.

[I'm fairly sure you couldn't sell that to a five year old], Taylor replied as she sat up. [Which switch do I flip to get you disconnected from my senses? I wasn't quite paying attention and I have to use the bathroom], she admitted.

[No idea], Myst admitted.

"I thought you said you had a power that let you keep track of your powers?" Taylor grumbled.

[It doesn't include your powers in the list], Myst explained.

[Great, now what?] Taylor asked, swapping back to the mental link when she heard something outside.

[Trial and error, how many mental switches do you have?] Myst asked.

[Five?] Taylor offered after mentally 'feeling' around a bit which was a weird feeling.

[Flip one?] Myst suggested. [Yuck,] he complained as she flipped one of the switches and he could smell the astringent scent of the chemicals they'd used to try to clean the mess off Taylor.

[What's wrong?] Taylor asked.

[Technically nothing, you just let me borrow your sense of smell], Myst explained.

[Sorry], Taylor replied and flipped the switch. [Better?]

[Much], Myst replied, much happier not having to deal with the annoying mix of chemical scents when he didn't have to.

[If that was scent], Taylor mused as she flipped the switch 'next' to scent. [Anything?]

[Taste, can you flip that off until you're eating ice cream or something?] Myst asked.

Taylor flipped the switch then flipped the next one. [Anything?]

[I can feel your clothes,] Myst replied.

Taylor quickly flipped the switch back. [That leaves two switches and I don't think they're for sight or hearing as the switches for senses felt connected to each other.]

[Makes sense], Myst mused as he shared the part of his ability bundling power that should give her a decent read on her power. [Anything? I shared my power sense.]

Taylor smiled when she suddenly knew what her remaining switches did. [Yeah, I can send you into items or people to fight monsters to improve the items or people like a knock off Dauntless and summon and dismiss you anywhere within a four block range.]

Myst would have smiled if he'd had lips. [At least I'll have something to do while you're working on studying for your GED.]

[GED?] Taylor asked.

[We're not going back to Winslow, I'd rather burn it to the ground than put up with the idiots], Myst said as someone knocked on the door.

"Yes?" Taylor asked, fairly sure her father wouldn't let her quit school.

A twenty something nurse opened the door and stepped in once she realized Taylor looked calm. "How are you feeling?" she asked, keeping the door open with her foot in case Taylor wasn't as calm as she looked and she had to make a run for it.

"Like I need a dozen showers," Taylor admitted, trying not to think about being stuck in the locker.

The nurse nodded, having heard the story from the EMT. "Taking a shower is a good idea. Your father brought some clean clothes by earlier, they're in the bathroom."

"Is my dad here?" Taylor asked, surprised that he hadn't been sitting in the chair when she woke up.

"He's currently talking with the police," the nurse explained as she looked around. "Did you see the cape that rescued you?"

"Just for a bit, she wanted to make sure I was okay before she left," Taylor explained.

The nurse smiled. "That's good, most capes don't stick around."

"How long am I going to have to stay here?" Taylor asked, not wanting to be stuck in the hospital longer than she had to be.

"Panacea swung by while you were unconscious and checked to make sure nothing nasty got into your bloodstream, thankfully you didn't have any cuts which made things a lot easier to deal with."

Taylor shivered as she flashed back to being trapped in the locker. "Does that mean I can get a shower?" she asked, trying to focus on the important bit.

"Of course, a set of clothes are on the counter," the nurse reminded her. "Do you need help getting to the bathroom?"

"I shouldn't," Taylor replied as she climbed off the bed, less than happy to find herself in a hospital gown that didn't cover nearly enough. She tested her footing then made sure the gown was closed in the back and headed for the bathroom.