Bringing it into the kitchen, I dropped the thing into a large glass bowl I'd stuffed full of my leftovers and watched as it began eating everything.
The standard Larva was specialized for consuming Creep, which was a very efficient substance the Zerg utilized to distribute the resources they collected to the many fighting creatures and 'structures' they could make, but it was easy enough to make one not so dependent on such.
Soon enough, the Larva was finished eating, and I tried to order the now summer sausage sized creature to transform into a Drone.
Hm, not enough biomass yet, will need a few more feedings.
As I got to work preparing another bowl, Dad stepped into the kitchen.
"What is that thing!?" He screamed, stumbling away and knocking over a plastic bin of cereal.
"It's a Larva." I stated, filling the bowl with some cow hearts and liver, "It is the base creature I can mutate into a variety of biological killing machines. You don't have to worry, as soon as I've set up underground you won't have to deal with them in our house after."
Dad whipped his head from the Larva to me and back again, the action interesting to observe from two perspectives.
"You never said anything about this ability."
I set the bowl of biomass down and dumped the Larva in, the creature expressing contentment as it voraciously consumed its food while I turned to face my Dad.
"That's because this is highly illegal, if the PRT knows too early I'll be labeled the new Nilbog or Bonesaw 2.0. It has to stay a secret."
Dad watched in obvious disgust as the Larva finished emptying the bowl.
"So, why do this at all?"
I sighed, setting up one more feeding.
"Because no matter how impressive I make my own body, there's a limit to how much I can do with it. I'd never trust it to survive an Endbringer battle, for one, but this way I can eventually create a duplicate body to fight for me, and I'll remain safe."
Hm, actually, maybe I could just do that for everything?
I certainly didn't seem to have any problem directing my Larva, after all. With the correctly designed brain structure, I could probably make one of my creatures essentially function as a remote controlled limb of my main body.
And if I was using a puppet body to live through instead of my own, then I wouldn't need to be so restricted to a purely human form.
At that, the memories of the Zerg brought up how increased brain mass almost always lead to greater Psionic potential, even taking into account how genetic deviation tended to ruin said potential.
It was for that very reason that the original Overmind had invested so heavily in developing Cerebrates, essentially massive sapient brains that commanded the Swarm for the Overmind. Yes, they served a tactical function, but they were also an attempt to understand and harvest psi energy.
The thought of mutating myself into something remotely like a Cerebrate was disconcerting, but the sheer level of power I knew I could attain that way was… tempting.
For now, I'll stick with my amazon plan, attempting to figure out smaller scale psionics first, at least until I've got a proper base set up.
Dad had his eyes closed, breathing deeply.
"So, this way you can keep yourself safer, right?"
I blinked, nodding.
"Yes, nobody needs to know except you and me."
He nodded slowly, before sighing.
"Taylor, you're going to give me a heart attack one of these days."
I grabbed my chin in thought.
"I can probably help keep that from happening, make a creature that can create a healing substance for humans, or a parasite that can upgrade bodily processes, hm."
Dad groaned and left the room, and I smirked.
Okay, Drone's got the resources now, let's see.
I reached out to grab the now fat cat size Larva, before pausing.
Ew, that's really disgusting.
I tracked down that reaction, found the instinct, and ruthlessly excised it from my brain.
Bug repulsion now no longer an issue for me, I grabbed the Larva underarm and marched down into the basement.
Setting it down, I commanded it to transform into a Drone, and watched as it curled up, bit its tail, and rapidly formed a cocoon around itself.
A mere minute later, the cocoon burst, and my modified drone lifted its digging claws in victory.
I made it do a drone version of a crab rave dance for a bit in amusement, before directing it to start digging through the wall.
It screeched, which I hadn't directed it to do, before tearing into the wall to begin the arduous task of digging a tunnel to below the sewer and utilities level.
Meanwhile, I pondered the creature's action.
It would seem that, the more complicated a brain an individual creature had, the more… individual, it became.
Something to watch out for, no wonder most Zerg creatures were simple animals without the hivemind.
Making my way back upstairs, I found my Dad sitting in his chair with a beer in hand.
"We should get a door and doorframe to install in the basement soon, preferably a solid metal one with heavy locks and stuff."
Dad gave me a look, and I blushed.
"Uh, I should have probably told you earlier, but the creature the Larva turned into burrowed through the basement wall to start digging out my bio tinker base."
Dad released a deep sigh.
"I guess this is my life now."
I winced, slinking away back upstairs.
Oops.
O-o-o-o-o-o
Vista and Clockblocker stared in shock at me as I stepped into the Wards chamber.
"Taylor? What the hell." Vista exclaimed, gesturing at me, "It hasn't even been a week and suddenly you've gone from fit to bodybuilder!"
I blushed, crossing my now much bulkier arms and inadvertently shifted my other feature that Clockblocker was blatantly checking out.
With the fact I didn't need to blend into Winslow anymore, I'd released all restraint and begun bulking up as was the plan, but I'd also been enhancing my feminine features as well.
I had my breasts swell up until I could be easily considered busty, with hips and butt following suit into thicker thighs leading down into even longer legs as I made myself grow taller.
This all lead me to becoming the very image of amazonian strength and beauty, any of my former self hatred purged by the Peaceful Man's perspective that I was now practically a sex icon.
Despite the massive confidence boost that implied, the idea of people being attracted to me was still something new.
"Bwuh?" Clockblocker stated eloquently, as Vista elbowed him harshly, before he shook his head, "Uh, never let me stop you from something like this, but why the sudden change?"
I coughed into a fist.
"Uh, self image issues, also the bigger my muscles are the more densely I can pack them with superstrength? Also I like boobs, so…" I trailed off as I slowly realized what I just said, before quickly turning red.
Blaming the Peaceful Man for that, I swiftly purged my emotions and straightened.
"Uh, anyway, the reason I'm here! Patrolling, team exercises, and such."
Clockblocker laughed.
"Topic change accepted. Since you don't have a costume yet, we're going to be going over exactly what we can do in combat, and we'll be revealing our identities since we never got around to it last week." Clockblocker removed his helmet, revealing a redheaded boy with blue eyes, "Dennis McKinly, pleasure to meetcha. I can make anything or anybody freeze for a random amount of time by touching them."
I nodded, as Vista removed her own visor, revealing the green eyes she had hidden under it which fit cutely with her dark blonde hair.
"Missy Biron. I can warp reality in weird ways, it's easier to show than describe so you'll see it later on patrol. Also, I didn't get to say it before, but it'll be nice to have another girl on the wards, Shadow Stalker didn't really count."
I huffed in amusement, remembering fondly the call I got saying she'd been shoveled off to juvie properly.
With luck, I'll never have to meet any of the others again in my lifetime.
"Taylor Hebert, as you already know. I can directly reshape my biology however I wish, and take genetic data from whatever I consume for my own use. If I wanted to, I could utilize the traits of a bear to become one, or mix and match animal traits until I become a dragon. For now, I'm sticking to trying to cram everything into a humanoid form, but don't be surprised if I end up with claws or weird looking eyes at some point. Oh, and I also have a library of preexisting traits from some kind of alien biological library, with things like anti gravity organs, so I'm totally going to be able to fly eventually."
Dennis groaned huffed.
"Dang, thought we ground pounders would be sticking together."
Missy smirked, but before she could add her two cents, an alarm played shortly.
Both of them immediately pulled their headwear back on, meanwhile Missy handed me a domino mask.
"Alarm is to protect our identities, put that on."
I sighed, putting the silly thing on.
The Peaceful Man found the whole cape identity thing to be overblown, but anybody who actually lived in this world knew what happened to New Wave when they tried to unmask.
Speaking of masks though, I really should get around to making my costume. Can't make biological power armor without revealing my ability to make creatures, but I can probably get away with making things like spider silk and carapace plates. Plenty of creatures shedded scales after all.
Before I could fully distract myself with thoughts of how to make my armor, the door opened, revealing Miss Militia walking alongside a short and portly figure, hair in a bowl cut with straw blond hair.
…To be quite honest, with the shape of her nose, she looked like a pig. I immediately felt bad for thinking it.
"Welcome to the Wards program, I am Emily Piggot, Director for the PRT ENE. You won't see too much of me, but I make it a point to meet all of my Wards at some point." She extended a hand, and I shook it.
"Nice to meet you, was there anything else you needed to see me for?"
She nodded, and Miss Militia lifted a folder.
"We just need to go over some legal documentation for the Hess case, just so we can move on from it."
Oh, the 'Keep everything quiet and you'll be compensated' stuff, alright then.
I waved to the other wards and followed along.
O-o-o-o-o-o-oo-o
I finished the current growth, looking over the carapace plate that covered my shoulder with a shining smooth black surface, before grabbing it and tearing the few parts still connected off of my skin with a wince.
My skin was pretty tough now, but growing stuff out of it wasn't something I was going to get used to unless I decided to remove my ability to feel pain, which would feel too weird for me to want to do quite yet.
I used a chisel to tear off the bits on the base of the plate that had connected to me before setting it onto my pile of similar plates.
I had decided to go with attempting to make some kind of full plate armor out of carapace plates. It was something hard to figure out at first, but having made a post of PHO about it had provided me with plenty of links to other sites on hobbyist armor crafting.
From there, it was a matter of trial and error to figure out the best method of growing the plates, and from there ensuring I got full body coverage, and that the plates wouldn't be either too heavy or too bulky while still being strong enough to do what I needed them to do, that being at least being bulletproof, preferably also survive a punch from low level brutes.
As I worked on my armor plates, I also had my second Zerg creature making silk and crafting bolts of fabric from it for me.
I'd done this by first eating a variety of spiders I found, then making another Larva as I crafted the design for the new creature. I was actually pretty proud of my first truly unique creature.
Said creature was, essentially, a giant spider.
No, not tarantula giant, but dog sized giant.
I'd taken the various species of spider I'd eaten, combined all the traits for creating silk together until I could get the most out of in both quality and quantity, then utilized some Zerg traits to ensure the giant arachnid wouldn't just collapse under its own weight, and that it could be omnivorous.
It was not a combat creature, nor was it useful for the typical Zerg economy, but it was perfect for making incredibly strong silk.
I'm not exactly sure exactly how strong I managed to make my new spider silk (Zerg silk?), but I know it is roughly twice as good as black widow silk, and that's ignoring how I could essentially produce it on an industrial scale in whatever color and thickness I needed to (Though I've found layering thinner sheets to be more effective than making one really thick one.)
I already had a few bolts of the material actually, it was as simple as having Dad bring down a bucket of feed a day, and I'll be figuring out how to make a gambeson later.
For now though, growing the vambraces of my carapace armor.
Hm, I wonder if I should try and make a super leather or just use my Zerg silk to tie all the pieces together?
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
I stared out the window at my new school.
Arcadia was… clean. That being the first thing I noticed was probably just the tip of the iceberg to the rest, but I'll actually have to go in to discover the rest.
With the compensation money we'd gotten from the PRT, we had been able to afford getting me a new wardrobe and a nice leather bookbag for me, but despite now having the body of a goddess and nice clothes, I still felt nervous about going back to the realm of teen hell.
The Peaceful Man's life experience told me of how a luckier loner got along. A nice, relatively calm existence in the background only concerned with the actual academic aspect of school, but I couldn't help my nervousness.
"It'll be fine Taylor." Dad said, resting a hand on my shoulder and giving me a smile, "I've heard only good things about this school, and I'm sure you'll be popular in no time."
But I don't want to be popular.
I sighed, expunged my irrational nervousness to attain that rather pleasant unnatural calm, before stepping out of the car.
The kids in the crowd ended up turning their heads to watch me as I entered, and I cursed myself for my lack of restraint.
While I'd become even more curvaceous over the last of my break, I wasn't showing that off too much in my baggy grey sweater.
But it was much harder to hide my legs in my tight jeans, my breasts were still larger than most busty adults, and I was, most importantly, rather tall
Whereas before I'd been just tall for a girl at about 5'8'', now I was taller than a fair amount of men at 6 foot.
I'd have gone taller, but I think I was stretching things as it was.
As for the staring eyes, thankfully I had emotional suppression, so I was able to walk it off easily.
When transferring, I had half expected somebody to actively give me a tour and describe all the ward stuff to me, but instead the PRT had taken me aside beforehand to give me a phone which would be able to pass through the school's faraday cage, and tell me where the Wards' emergency garage was located.
Turns out, there was no such thing as extra costumes or whatever stored at the school. There would be a PRT van that would come in emergencies loaded with said costumes, but otherwise the Wards were expected to go to school during school hours, shocking I know.
At Arcadia, it seemed that there was a homeroom at the beginning of the day, and as such I was soon showcased at the front of the assigned class once everybody had trailed in.
"Everybody, say hello to Taylor Herbert, our newest transfer student!" The teacher, a seemingly kindly older woman, stated to a few lazy 'hey's, before turning towards me, "Would you like to tell the class a bit about yourself?"
I forced a smile on my face.
"It's Hebert, but everybody makes that mistake, so it's fine." I stated, resting a hand on my hip as I looked back at the class, "I'm a big literature and history nerd, so if you want to talk about the classics or fantasy or history, I'm your girl."
That seemed to satisfy the teacher, who showed me to my seat and I could finally get to trying to fade into the background, as hard as such a task would be.
O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
My eyebrow twitched.
"So what do you say babe? We'd make quite the power couple!"
The boy speaking to me was somehow even taller than I was, and absolutely packed with all kinds of muscle like some kind of bodybuilding demigod.
I admit, it was a wondrous sight, but at the same time he'd been giving me the most stereotypical pickup lines ever and I doubted he would take well to being the submissive partner in a relationship.
Ignoring all of that, while I found him aesthetically pleasing, I didn't actually want to be in a relationship with somebody that bulky, I found myself preferring more… feminine men, or women, these days.
Hm, before my powers I'd have liked a more pretty boy kind of man myself, but I was firmly at a feminine preference now it seems.
Oh, he needed an answer.
"No." I stated, moving to try and find an empty table before pausing in thought.
The man's friends, surprisingly what seemed to be a more nerdish crowd, were teasing the guy as he slumped over in dejection, as I cleared my throat.
"I'm not interested in manly men, but we could be friends I guess." If I was going to make any kind of friends, it was going to be with a more nerdy crowd, and if they were muscle nerds all the better considering that that… was basically what I am.
The guy perked up, flexing obnoxiously.
"That works for me! Oh, the name's James. You're Taylor, right?" I nodded, and he led me to their table in the cafeteria.
I stifled a laugh at the sight of an actual chess game going on at one corner of the table, while James wrapped an arm around a drastically shorter boy wearing a Star Wars t-shirt featuring Obi Wan from the Earth Aleph Prequels going 'Hello there'
"This guy here is Ben, he's got a line of watching any Earth Aleph movies you want, so ask him if you're interested."
I nodded, actually a bit interested as the Peaceful Man's world history seemed to match a lot more closely to Aleph's than my own.
He'd been a massive history and geography nerd, so I was very confident he wasn't from Aleph, as they also had a Brockton Bay and his own world hadn't, but I was still interested in watching the movies he remembered, especially Ghibli movies. (Push the sadness over Japan's devastation away)
Soon enough, I found myself carefully broaching interacting with kids my age by talking about the obviously safe subject of Star Wars, and the rest of lunch moved faster than it had in years.
When I finished the rest of the school day and climbed into Dad's truck, he chuckled as he turned the ignition.
"Have a good day Taylor?"
It was only then that I noticed I was smiling lightly.
Huh.
"Yeah, a pretty good day."
O-o-o-o-o-o-o
A/N - "Smirks at obvious secret"
Anyway, next chapter we should be able to get some Heroing in, maybe even some base building!