Back to Basics - 1.1 - Erin

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When Erin woke up her entire body was wracked with pain. Her nerves burned with the fire of one thousand suns. Her muscles ached like they'd been trampled by—

"Erin come downstairs, I made breakfast. Once we finish we're going for a quick run. We'll start with a mile and then see if you can keep going."

Erin groaned and groggily untangled herself from the bedsheets while stumbling towards the door. She really didn't think this whole sidekick thing thro— the levels! She almost forgot! Erin almost tripped as she raced down the stairs and dashed to the table.

"Taylor! Guess what happened last night!"

"Your [Innkeeper] class levelled up?"

"No! Well, yeah… but I got another class too! I am now officially a level 6 [Sidekick]!"

"I'm glad to see you're improving. Actually… I have news too."

"Did your bug powers get buggier?"

"Close but not quite. As of last night, I'm a level 1 [Superhero]."

"What!? Did you steal my power? No, wait, I leveled up too. Did you copy my power? And why is your class better than mine?"

Erin pouted at the unfairness of the world. Even her own superpower was against her.

"It just happened as I went to sleep. Your power must be based on your subconscious and since you consider me an ally it worked on me too. After all, we didn't even have sidekicks on my Earth. The equivalent would be a Ward and you look too old to be one regardless."

"I guess that makes sense."

Erin pouted as she dug into the food Taylor had prepared.

"Wow! This is really good! Where did you even get eggs from?"

Taylor smirked as a cloud of bugs gathered behind her.

"I have my ways."

Erin shuddered and did her best not to choke on the eggs.

"Please don't do that while I'm eating. If you give me a heart attack I'm gonna come back and haunt you from a safe distance."

Taylor hummed to herself and continued eating which was very much not an answer. Erin resolved to invest in the world's strongest bug spray as soon as she found a store. And figured out how to make some money.

The rest of their breakfast was pleasantly bug-free. Erin didn't realize how much she missed having a nice meal with someone else after only a few days. It made her heart ache for her home and family.

"Before we go for our run, we should do a little power testing. We might run into something dangerous out there so it's better if we know each other's capabilities beforehand."

"Ooh, me first!. Last night, [Innkeeper] leveled up to ten and I got [Sidekick] at level 6. I must've gotten so many levels because of all that intense exercise you put me through."

Taylor stifled a laugh at the phrase 'intense exercise' and motioned for Erin to continue.

"I got [Lesser Endurance], [Lesser Strength], and [Bar Fighting] from [Innkeeper] and [Comforting Prescence], [Quick Change], [Sense Ally], and [Charming Smile] from [Sidekick]."

Taylor looked impressed as I listed my skills and I couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride. It looks like exercise is good for something after all. Who knew?

"Your power is much better than I thought. I assumed you were just a Thinker but you might be one of the strongest Trumps I've ever heard of."

Erin beamed with pride at the compliment before realizing she had no idea what either of those terms meant.

"I always knew I was Trump material. Just so I know we're both on the same page… what is a Trump? And what is a Thinker?

"Sorry, the different Earth thing slipped my mind. Back home, we had the equivalent of a police force to keep people with powers in line called the PRT. They didn't do a very good job but they did come up with a useful set of classifications for different power types. I'll go over the rest of them later, but a Thinker is someone with purely mental abilities and a Trump is someone whose power either affects other powers or is effectively many different powers."

"So I'm a Trump because my power gives me more powers?"

"Yes, but being able to extend your power to me also counts as a Trump ability."

"So I'm a double Trump? Yes!"

"That's not exactly how it works… but if that makes you happy then why not? Anyway, my skills are [Heroic Stance] and [Quick Change]. I haven't tested either of them out yet. Let's start with [Sense Ally]. It sounds easy to test. Close your eyes and see if you can tell where I'm standing."

"Okay, I've got this."

Erin closed her eyes and focused on her surroundings. She felt the skill activate and suddenly she was surrounded by a feeling of warmth. It seemed to be coming at her from almost every direction. She could feel the spots of warmth constantly shifting in her perception.

"I activated the skill but it isn't working. It feels like I'm sensing something from everywhere all at once."

"That means it's working. Better than I thought it would if you can feel me through my bugs. When I use my powers they become part of me, in a way. You must be picking that up."

"Wait… that would mean that everything I'm sensing right now is…"

Erin shuddered and let the skill drop.

"Adding that to the pile of never use again."

"You'll have to get used to being around bugs if you want me to teach you. A real hero wouldn't let fear get in the way of a useful skill."

"Fine, I'll move it to the maybe pile."

"Alright, we'll come back to that later. There are more skills to test."

Taylor and Erin spent the rest of the morning testing their skills. Most of them were self-explanatory. [Lesser Strength] and [Lesser Endurance] offered marginal increases to their respective attributes.

[Comforting Presence] and [Charming Smile] did make Erin seem more charismatic but her efforts to persuade Taylor to keep her bugs outside the inn were an exercise in futility.

Taylor's [Heroic Stance] had a similar effect to Erin's [Comforting Presence]. Depending on how she posed she could inspire either fear or admiration in whoever was watching her.

[Bar Fighting] made Erin a menace with a frying pan if she did say so herself. It did not, however, make her good enough to beat Taylor's actual combat training. Erin's many bruises after their quick sparring match could attest to that fact.

Finally, they came to the skill they both shared. [Quick Change]. Erin was about to activate the skill when she realized she had forgotten a crucial detail.

"Ummm… I don't have any clothes to change into."

"Don't worry, I could already tell you needed new clothes. I started putting something together last night."

Erin looked down at her burnt, stained, and torn outfit and couldn't find it in herself to disagree. Her head snapped back up to the sound of chitin on wood as the largest spider she'd ever seen scuttled out of the pantry.

Erin did not scream in terror at the giant spider. If anything, it was a calm and dignified yelp.

The spider was carrying several sets of silk clothing on its back. The outfits were neatly draped in the crooks of its armored back.

"Always with the bugs! Can the next scare be… I don't know… a cat? Maybe a spooky-looking raccoon?"

Taylor raised an eyebrow and elected not to tell Erin how she got her measurements for the clothing.

"The outfit on the left is for daily wear. The outfit on the right is what you'll be wearing for training and combat."

Erin gasped and grabbed the combat outfit, momentarily forgetting her fear of the creature beneath it. She pressed it to her body and imagined herself wearing it while posing heroically.

"Is this my first hero costume? It looks so cool!"

"It's only a placeholder but it'll do for now. The silk should be able to stand up to whatever weapons those goblins have. I had the spiders file down some of their chitin into smaller pieces for the armored panels so I wouldn't be surprised if they could stop a low-caliber bullet."

Taylor went and grabbed her version of the combat suit. It looked almost the same as the one she was currently wearing with white silk and black panelling. Erin's was similar but her armored panelling had greater coverage.

"That's awesome! Let's try them on!"

Erin focused on activating [Quick Change]. She felt an electric charge spread from her skin to her clothes. Her outfit burst into golden light and by the time the flash faded it had been replaced by her brand new super suit.

"It worked! Your turn, Taylor!"

" ...Taylor?"

Taylor was staring straight through her, eyes clouded. Her face was twisted with pain, the kind of pain that comes from the worst of nightmares. Erin could hear the mounting sound of insects buzzing and she could feel the vibrations of them clattering around the inn.

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"Taylor! Taylor, what's wrong?"

Erin grabbed Taylor by the shoulders and the buzzing stopped. After a few moments, Taylor seemed to return from whatever dark place her mind had wandered off to. She gave Erin a reassuring smile but her hands were still clenched in tight fists.

"Sorry about that, I'm fine. The light just… reminded me of something. It won't happen again. It's my turn, right? Let's see if mine works the same."

Erin was still concerned but Taylor bulldozed right past any attempt to dig into whatever the golden light reminded her of. Before Erin could speak, Taylor activated her quick change skill and it was… different.

A swarm of bugs rose from Taylor's outfit and swirled around her body, hiding her from sight. Erin cringed back but the bugs were gone just as quickly as they appeared with Taylor's new outfit left in their place.

"Of course it was bugs! It's always bugs with you."

Erin shook her head as Taylor admired her new costume. She had to admit, it did look kind of cool if you didn't think too hard about it. She was content with the fact that her [Quick Change] didn't involve being crawled on by anything.

"Alright, that's enough power-testing for now. We should go for that run. I wanted to scout out the surrounding area before trying the city. If the people in there are hostile, I'd rather meet them out here in the wilderness. It'd be easier to hide my swarm for an ambush that way."

"Isn't that a bit paranoid? Why don't we just go knock on the gate and ask them for help?"

Taylor gave her a bewildered look.

"Are you really asking that after being attacked by every other creature you've met here?"

"Those don't count, they probably didn't know any better. If the people there are smart enough to build a city, then they'll probably have someplace we can go for help."

"This isn't our world, Erin, we have to be careful. Even in my world, there are plenty of people willing to take advantage of new capes. We can talk about this more later, let's get going."

Erin groaned at the thought of more physical exertion but followed Taylor begrudgingly. They headed away from the inn, keeping parallel to the city. Even with [Lesser Endurance] Erin was struggling to keep pace with Taylor.

"Tay… Taylor… I can't… keep up!"

Taylor rolled her eyes at Erin's panting but slowed down nonetheless.

"This is nothing. If something attacks us you're going to have to—"

Taylor stopped suddenly and her body froze as her gaze snapped to the ground.

"Taylor? What's wrong"

Taylor stood frozen for several long seconds before answering. She opened her mouth and then paused as if considering how to answer.

"There's a tunnel system below us. I noticed part of it yesterday but it was empty before. Now… they're filled with giant humanoid ants marching in lines. They don't show up on my bug senses so they're probably smarter than normal ants"

Erin's shoulders slumped as she gave a resigned sigh.

"I'm honestly not even surprised anymore."

"The tunnels look like they branch towards the city. If these ant-people are the ones living there, I might not be able to corner one alone. Looks like I'm going to have to try to sneak up to the walls and scout the city with my bugs tonight. Let's just finish off the run then we can go down to the river and shower."

Erin barely managed to hold on for the rest of the run. Upon reaching the river she collapsed onto the bank while Taylor looked barely winded.

"That was a good start, when we get back to the inn we can talk more about strategy."

Taylor disrobed with [Quick Change] and went to bathe in the river. Before she submerged, Erin caught a glimpse of how hard her life must have been. Scars and burns traced their way over her body and her missing arm was cauterized in a malformed stump.

Erin realized that the only image she had of superheroes came from her knowledge of pop culture. She had no idea what Taylor had been through and how she had suffered. Erin somberly followed Taylor's lead and took her own bath in the stream. She decided then and there to swallow her complaints about the training Taylor was putting her through.

***

As night approached, Taylor and Erin sat at one of the inn's tables eating Erin's first success with basic cooking. After Taylor taught her how to make a smokeless fire, she managed to make pasta using the ingredients she had found in the inn.

"Where did these ingredients come from anyway? This inn looks like it's been abandoned for years."

Erin was about to tell Taylor about the strange glowing symbols she'd seen on the cabinet pantry when Taylor held up a hand to silence her and looked around.

"What's wrong?"

Taylor got up from her seat and moved to hide beside the door, beckoning for Erin to follow.

"Someone's coming. It's a man. A human man. He's heading straight for the inn, he must know someone is in here."

"Isn't that a good thing? Why are we hiding behind the door?"

"He looks suspicious. We're going to watch what he does. If he leaves, I'll trail him back to where he came from. If he tries something aggressive…"

Erin looked up to see spiders of all sizes gathering above the door from the hidden corners of the inn. She shivered and couldn't help but wonder if Taylor was being a bit paranoid.

"Stay quiet, he's almost here."

As Erin waited in silence, the atmosphere seemed to grow heavy. It was as if the dark deepened with the mood, and she could almost feel the temperature dropping to a chill.

Thump. Thump.

Erin jolted with the suddenness of the sound but she managed to keep from making a noise. She shuffled closer to Taylor and gripped her arm.

Thump. Thump.

Each knock grew louder and more insistent. Erin was almost tempted to ask who it was but she feared she wouldn't like the answer.

Thump. Thump.

"I know you are in there, girl. Open the door before I get impatient."

Erin looked to Taylor but she seemed content to wait. She was tensed, ready to spring towards the door at any moment.

"I only require sustenance. Feed me and I shall bother you no more. Refuse me and you shall face my wrath."

Thump. Thump.

Again, Taylor waited silently. Erin started to worry about whether they could face whatever was on the other side of the door. Its voice was a haunting echo, eerily quiet yet clear and insistent. She wondered to herself if Taylor was mistaken when she said it was human.

"This is your last warning. Open this door or I will break it down myse—"

Taylor seemed to take this as her cue to spring into action. Rising fast, she undid the latch on the door and flung the door open. Even before it opened Erin could hear sounds of scuttling and a startled yelp on the other side of the door.

"Mmmmph!"

Writhing on the ground near the door was a human-shaped lump, swaddled in bolts of spider silk. Surrounding him were several of Taylor's massive armored spiders tying up the ends of the silk as Erin watched.

"Is this the guy that was on the other side? I thought he'd be more… "

"Monstrous? He was. Or at least, he looked like it. He has some sort of illusion powers. He was using them to try to scare us into submission. Too bad for him it doesn't work with touch. The bugs I had on him could feel his real shape."

"That explains why the room felt really creepy all of a sudden. So what do we do with him now?"

"Let's take him inside and interrogate him. He might have just appeared here like us but if he's a native to this world, we can get some information about the locals."

I followed behind as Taylor dragged his struggling form inside and propped him up on an empty chair. She had her spiders wrap him to the seat and cut a slit in the silk around his mouth and ears leaving his eyes covered.

"You have no idea who you're dealing with girl! I am an illustrious mage of Wistram and you will unhand me at once! If you are quick about it I may spare—"

Taylor pressed a knife to his neck and his speech cut off. She was so smooth Erin didn't even see her grab the knife.

"I want to make one thing clear here. You are not the one in control. I am."

As Taylor spoke the bugs around the inn echoed her voice with a harsh buzz. Their prisoner tried to lean away from the knife but he was strapped tight to the chair.

"If you try to make a single illusion, I'll know, and I won't be happy. Now talk. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Even though the false chill was gone, Erin shivered. She knew Taylor was on her side, but she couldn't help feeling intimidated by the cold hostility in her voice.

Is this how superhero interrogations usually go?