All the Time to Lose (Wormverse)

Ch 20: Recruitment Drive

Fulgur has been quite insistent on exploring my powers over the past few days. Thanks to her though, we now know that I can pull an alternate version of myself into this reality from alternate timelines.

The trick is exhausting and if it's done for too long or too often, it becomes excruciatingly painful. However! When I do this, my consciousness is split between the two copies of me. I am aware of the sensory inputs from both copies, but I can do separate things with them.

For example, one can freeze an opponent, while the other can run away, fast-forwarding herself to increase the distance. If one copy is terminated, the other is left unaffected. I have been practicing maintaining this copy at the house and while on patrol.

The more I practice, the less it hurts to start and maintain. The best part? Both copies are me. The copy isn't a hologram, nor is it a machine. It is a sentient, autonomous human being capable of making her own decisions.

I can cancel or terminate either the copy or the original at any time. Either way, whichever survives then becomes the new original. That one is then capable of making its own copy and maintaining it until one is terminated or until the copy is no longer needed.

I'm on patrol with Castle. It's my first patrol with him. So far, I've only been on patrol with Fulgur. It's a shame I'll never be able to go on patrol with Vigilant. It would be nice to talk with a fellow precog. I would complain, but Castle's reasoning is solid.

He said that he and Fulgur are 'hard' targets. They can take hits due to their shields, and have offensive outputs (his forcefields and her lightning gun). That makes Vigilant and I 'soft' targets. We do not take hits well and we do not have great offensive output either.

Thus, when we go on patrols, we always have one hard, and one soft target. That way, Vigilant or I could use our precognition to provide Castle and Fulgur some forewarning before any threat approaches.

That's what I'm doing right now, practicing focusing my powers on our territory. Technically, according to Castle, our territory is inside Undersider territory (Grue and Imp). They haven't given us any trouble...and I don't think they will.

I am not certain of how I should feel towards Castle, Vigilant, or Fulgur. They have insisted on teaching me to be a 'normal' teenager. At least...we think I'm a teenager. I could be really anywhere between 13 and 20.

This has included getting me a bank account under the name 'Rose Fitzgerald', a cell phone, an email address, and showing me movies. They've shown me The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and all six of the Star Wars movies.

I didn't fully understand the point of it all, but it made the rest of them feel better so I let them. At least I now know more about my power thanks to Fulgur, although she is rather loud. I don't hate her for it, but it is bothersome. Especially when I get migraines.

We return to the house with no more news to share than when we left. Overall, tedious but I know why Castle insists on doing these patrols. Thankfully, this was just the midday one so it was pretty short.

The others spend the day sleeping, except for Fulgur who, according to Vigilant, doesn't believe in sleep. Me? I spend the day with my precognition, searching the future for dangers. Then I see it...the meetings. I've seen flashes of them before but...none this clear.

They all happen soon. I see Jack Slash talking to a young boy who's holding a baby. I see the Siberian approach Bitch. I see Burnscar talking to a girl with platinum blonde hair. Then, I see Mannequin attack Col-Armsmaster in the PRT.

I then see Shatterbird, well, shatter all of the glass/silicon in the city before approaching Hookwolf. Then...I see Crawler attacking Dinah, Coil, and the Travelers. Then Cherish is talking to Regent. Finally, it ends with Jack Slash coming to me.