"I love it!" All the Victorias responded in unison. "It's like there are a hundred and sixty-three of me, but we're all still the same person. You know, I'm not sure Amy realized she'd made so many copies of my brain."

Yeah. Discovering that the Victoria we were communicating with wasn't the only one trapped in that body was a shock. The others had all been so badly miswired they couldn't even communicate by blinking, and half of them didn't even have sense organs beyond a few random patches of skin. Needless to say, they'd all been bugfuck crazy.

We'd fixed them all, my shard and I. Read off the intact bits and copied them where they were needed, smoothed gross structures back to human baseline and substituted bits of myself in the places there was nothing better to work with. The cascade merger that turned them into a single person without killing anyone had been amazingly complex, too. Probably not something my shard invented on the spot, though I couldn't imagine why it would have developed such an ability.

"Glad to hear it. But we need to put in an appearance soon or someone's liable to come in. Think you can pull yourself together?"

"Let me give it a try."

Two pint-sized Victorias embraced, kissed and began to flow together, their flesh stretching like taffy. More joined them, merging one by one, growing slowly until they reached human size. I showed her how to fold her extra mass into higher-dimensional space, and she got it right on the second try.

A few minutes later there was just one Victoria. A naked vision of perfection, still glistening with sweat and other fluids. I couldn't resist kissing her, and she returned the gesture affectionately.

"Can I keep a tail out, like you do?" She asked when we came up for air. "It feels weird not having anything I can use as a dick."

I laughed. "That's fine, Victoria. Just don't let people see it, and try to resist the temptation to play with girls in skirts.

"Aww, that's no fun," she pouted.

April 1, 2012 (During Endbringer Attack)

"This hardly seems the time for such a discussion," Doctor Mother said disapprovingly. "We gathered you all here to deal with the Endbringer situation."

"On the contrary, this is the perfect time," I disagreed. "Everyone is here, and there's no telling what secrets you all have in your basements. All the factions need to know that this option exists."

"What are the parameters?" Dragon asked briskly, as if she didn't already know.

"My power will only work on female capes, and they have to have a biological body and the ability to have sex," I outlined. "I can only do one or two in a given month, and in the long run no more than a dozen or so total. But as far as I can tell the transformation can fix anything as long as those requirements are met. So if any of you have a powerful cape who's crippled because her power screwed up her body, or drove her crazy, or just decided to manifest in a stupidly broken way, I can probably fix it."

"By making them like you," the C.U.I. representative said. "Why should we give you more slaves?"

"I'm not a slave!" Glory Girl growled. "My god, do you people have any idea what Weaver saved me from? After that I'd follow her anywhere even if I wasn't in love with her."

Oh, they knew. Half the room had stared when she walked in with me, and my reputation for impossible feats was growing by leaps and bounds now. I had to play this very carefully, or my own allies might decide I was too dangerous to walk free.

"My power doesn't necessarily make people follow me," I explained. "Yes, it creates a strong emotional attachment, but it doesn't erase previous loyalties. If you treat your people well there's every chance that someone I've helped will come back to you. But even if they don't, anything that can help with the Endbringers might be worth it. We won't be ready to fight this time, but at the rate these attacks are coming now we need to think ahead."

"So, are there any takers?"

There was silence for a long moment. Most of the faction leaders were stone-faced, but I noticed a lot of significant glances being traded by their subordinates. Then there was movement.

"Labyrinth? No!"

She drifted into the center of the room like a leaf on a breeze, her eyes sliding vaguely from face to face as she moved. The redhead that followed her whispered urgently in her ear, but she paid her friend no heed. Her eyes closed for a moment, and she seemed to gather herself. Then they opened, and locked on mine.

"Please," she breathed, her voice strained as if it was all she could to do produce a single word. From what I knew of her, if this was a bad day that might actually be the case.

I glanced at Faultline. The tough, hardened mercenary leader looked old, suddenly. "If you hurt her, I will never forgive you."

"If I hurt someone like her, I'll never forgive myself," I replied. "Um, I'm sorry to talk around you Labyrinth, but... Faultline, is she actually together enough to make this kind of decision? I don't want there to be any hard feelings here, and there's no going back once this is done."

"She knows what she's doing," Faultline admitted grudgingly. "Her power makes it hard for her to interact with the world, but she's as sharp as anyone on the inside."

The most powerful Shaker in the world. Well, I certainly wasn't going to turn that down.

I nodded. "Alright, then. I-"

"What about me?" another voice interrupted. I turned, to find that the speaker was the odd conglomeration of tendrils wrapped around Weld. The face of a teenage girl peeked over his shoulder, but she didn't seem to have a body.

Weld gave her a concerned look. "How would that work, Sveta? She said she needs... um..."

"I still have my parts," Sveta blushed. "They're just arranged weird. Please, Weaver? I know I'm not as useful as someone like Labyrinth, but I don't want to hurt any more people. If you take me I'll be able to control myself, right?"

Her tendrils tightened, digging trenches into Weld's steel body. Damn, that was a lot of strength. If she could control it, she'd be an amazing melee combatant. But this would be a tricky one.

"Yes, that's right. But I don't think I'm invulnerable enough to survive doing the transformation on you. Unless you're willing to keep acting as a human bondage fixture until we're done, Weld?"

Steel can't blush, but Sveta turned red enough for both of them.

"If that's what it takes," he said steadily. "Us monsters have to stick together."

I smiled. "Alright, sounds like a plan. But you're planning to join the fight today, right? It takes me a couple of days to do this right, so how about I start with Labyrinth and then catch up with you two after the fight?"

April 7, 2012

The walls were alive, a pulsing mass of living flesh like something out of an alien horror movie. Soft cries of feminine pleasure echoed through the warm, humid air of the tunnels, and the scent of desire permeated everything.

It was incredibly cozy, here inside Elle's new pocket dimension. The four of us congregated in a rounded chamber barely big enough to contain us all, but no one minded the tight fit. We cuddled together, comfortably appreciative of one another's nakedness, a steady flow of little kisses and caresses reinforcing the bond we all felt.

"Alright, the first meeting of the sexy vixen association is hereby called to order," Victoria announced grandly. "Mistress Taylor presiding, of course."

They all giggled at that.

"I suppose I'll let you get away with that this time," I chided. "But seriously, don't let yourselves get in the habit. It's the same reason I said to stay in human form as much as possible, and be restrained about sexplay. If we lose touch with our human selves all we'll have left to fall back on is the brood instincts the shards give us, and they don't exactly have a good track record for engineering sane minds."

Elle nodded seriously. "Taylor's right. I haven't been able to think this clearly since before I triggered, and it's been so long since I could talk properly that I barely remember how. Hold on to what's left of your humanity, all of you. Nothing good comes of letting it go."

"You don't have to convince me," Sveta put in. "I have hands! I can control my tendrils! This morning I visited a coffee shop and didn't kill anyone. I'm not giving this up for anything."

I patted her thigh. "Glad to hear it. So, we need to take stock, and plan. Elle, Sveta, I can feel both of your seeds now. You both have mine as well, right? How are your powers feeling?"

"I've never had so much control," Elle said happily. "I can make these pocket dimensions stable now, and they'll last forever as long as I don't leave for too long. I can maintain fixed portals to Earth, or open a new one anywhere I have a seed at will. It's too bad we can't communicate between here and Earth, or I'd be able to pull you back any time you get into trouble. Oh, and I can make creatures now. Nothing intelligent, but an army of minions to guard me and keep me entertained when I'm alone here sounds like a good idea."

"You don't ever have to be alone, Elle," Victoria reassured her. "If you decide to live here instead of Earth I'll make sure I always leave some of me here to keep you company."

"Which solves the communication issue," I pointed out. "From now on I suggest you keep a few pixie bodies with each of us, actually. That way if any of us get in trouble Elle can bail us out easily."

"You guys have such awesome powers," Sveta griped. "All I can do is kill things really well. I'm basically just a Brute."

"Sometimes that's exactly what's needed," I observed. "But if you're patient I think we'll be able to give you another power. How would you like to be able to fly like Victoria?"

She gasped. "Really? How?"

I smiled. "Being broodmother means I can feel all of our shards. They're all healthy, and growing faster than before. I think our connections nourish them somehow. Anyway, I think we're going to be able to gift each other with child shards every few months until we all have versions of each other's powers."

Sveta clapped her hands, and Victoria smiled gleefully. But it was Elle who really got it. She froze for a long moment, and the color slowly drained from her face.

"Taylor? We're an S-class threat, aren't we?"

I nodded reluctantly. "Yes. It's a slower buildup than Nilbog, but the power sharing actually makes it worse. If I wanted to build an army I could eventually make each of you a broodmother like me, and you could each recruit a brood of your own. In the long run it's an exponential process, and the bigger we get the stronger we are. If someone like the Protectorate figures that out now they'll probably try to kill us."

"But... we're heroes, not villains," Victoria said uncertainly.

"If I told you to go collect a few dozen cute college girls to turn into broodling fucktoys for us to share around, would you hesitate?"

She opened her mouth, and closed it again. Frowned. "That's fucked up. No, I wouldn't. Hell, I'd happily murder most of the world for you, Taylor."

"Exactly. And I used to be Skitter, the ruthless villain who took over a city and killed Alexandria. They don't trust my motivations, and most of them never will. That's why we need to keep a low profile, and act as natural as we can until we're ready to make our move."

"What happens then, mistress?" Elle asked.

Oh, she was a smart one. Affirming her loyalty and reminding me not to lose my humanity, all in the same breath. I leaned over Sveta to kiss her.

"First we stop Jack Slash, and save the world," I told her. "Then we find out where the Endbringers are coming from, and put a stop to it. Then, assuming we get that far, we help police the other S-class threats. We're going to be humanity's first real S-class ally, girls. We just have to work things so they let us help."

"What if they don't?" Sveta asked. "What if they decide we're just monsters they need to kill?"

"Then we leave. We already know how to travel to other worlds. Somewhere we'll find a civilization that isn't run by idiots."

Skitter / Panacea

(non — forced Skitter / Panacea relationship)

(Автор: ShaperV)

I hurt everywhere.

I clawed my way slowly back to wakefulness. It was all wrong. Why did I hurt so much? I didn't fight, and I always kept myself in good shape. What happened to me?

Memory returned. Fleeing from Siberian. Skitter of all people trying to help me. But I'd been a little too slow getting out of that building, and the monster had brought it down on me. Somehow the Undersiders had led her away after that, and dug me out. But I'd been half-crushed by falling concrete, too dazed to heal myself.

Then the long, terrifying battle against the rest of the Nine. I'd only caught flashes here and there, in between bits of healing. Myself, the first time I'd ever really tried to work around my power's limitations. Hellhound's dogs. Skitter, at one point, and I remember being amazed that she was even standing. She was hurt worse than I was, but she shrugged it off like it was nothing.

Then the bombs. It was a stupid idea, and the PRT had fucked it all up. They'd gotten some of them, but Jack Slash and Siberian had escaped. And Victoria...

I curled around the mangled lump of flesh in my arms, and cried. Just a head, and a lump of improvised organs in suspended animation. Could I even begin to fix this?

"Amy? Shh, it'll be ok. We're safe here."

An arm around my shoulders. Bare skin touched mine through the ragged tears in both our costumes, and my power automatically catalogued her body. Only one arm, because Siberian had torn the other one off while she was buying time for me to run away. Second and third degree burns over a third of her body, partly treated by me in a spare moment. Three fractured ribs, a concussion, blunt trauma everywhere, a metabolism on the ragged edge of collapse... and she was comforting me.

She wasn't a girl, she was a force of nature.

"Skitter? Where are we?"

"My lair," she answered. "I've got food when you're ready for it, and no one is going to bother us here. You said you could save her with time and biomass, right?"

I checked my sister's vitals again, and nodded. "I think so. I... thank you, Skitter. We'd both be dead if you hadn't helped."

"You saved us too," she pointed out. "Especially after Bonesaw unleashed her plague. Come on, let's get some breakfast in you."

I didn't talk much as I ate. I probably seemed like I was in shock, but it took concentration to coax what was left of Victoria into eating. I put the added biomass to good use, expanding her life support suite into a proper digestive system, and then spared a few minutes to see what I could do for my own injuries with modified bacteria. But that took only half my attention, and the other half was observing.