And Charlotte, who was helping me stay balanced on my feet, was staring at me wide-eyed.  I remembered her exclamation of surprise.

Yeah, what was up with that? Did she realize what Taylor’s instability means, by comparison with Skidmark & co.?

“Oh my god. You’re [a parahuman]?”

Or, “You’re [like them]?”

If everyone on stage with powers had been affected, and Lisa and I were reacting the same way, it couldn’t be that hard for her to put the pieces together.  Charlotte knew.

Seems like it. She might not know which parahumans you are, but she seems to have figured out you are among them. And if she knows anything about trigger events, or figured that too out from what just happened, she might also have figured out since when.

I looked to Lisa, for advice or ideas, but she was still slumped over, and she wasn’t recovering.  Why?  If this was some kind of psychic backlash from someone else having their trigger event, had she maybe been hit harder because of her power?

Yeah, that’s what I was about to suggest too.

Hell, if she used her power on the tesseractids, that’s definitely bound to have caused a psychic overload.

I wonder how much of that she would remember. We do know it’s possible to remember under certain circumstances, and I think it’s implied that the reason the other person we know of who remembers did so is because her power is a separated part of her psyche. It wouldn’t surprise me too much if Lisa’s power lent itself to remembering in a similar way, especially if she used it in the timeless moment. Then again, psychic overload might cause it to go the other way, too.

The boy screamed in some combination of horror, pain and rage, and flashes of the whiteness erupted randomly around him.

Ah, shit, here comes the “out of control” part.

Some caught people who were lying prone on the ground, others hit standing combatants, while most simply hit thin air.

The chances of Sierra not being happy at the end of this all just keep on rising.

A trigger event.  I’d just seen someone have their trigger event.

So you did, and it was a lot more interesting than I had expected.

But what had happened to Skidmark’s group, Tattletale and I?  I could vaguely remember something, thought about trying to put it into words, as if describing it could help call it to mind in a way that I could describe it, but they disappeared as I reached for them.

Judging by Skidmark’s reaction, it really does seem like this is a common occurrence when parahumans are close enough to other parahumans during their trigger event. He seemed to have experienced the same thing Taylor did and he knew what it meant. But none of them remember what they actually experienced, just the aftereffects.

I was reminded of Imp’s power.  Before I could get a handle on it, I’d forgotten entirely, and I was struggling to even remember what I was trying to do, my thoughts muddling the idea of it with my attempts to get my bearings.

Who’s Imp again?

But yes, it’s very reminiscent of that. It’s like the tesseractids are suppressing all memory of themselves in humans, whether that’s intentional or not.

Skidmark grabbed his microphone and broke into laughter, the nasty chuckles echoing through the area.

Alright. Whatcha got to say?

“Seems like one of you assdrips just earned his stripes,” he cackled.

Hm, did he figure out that there’s a connection between the tesseractids and trigger events, or is he just assuming that the motion sickness is the result of someone’s first, uncontrolled use of their power?

Alternatively, it’s possible he’s been present for trigger events multiple times before – Lisa did say he was using brawls like this to recruit new parahumans, like the subordinates behind him – so maybe he’s just noticed that trigger events cause motion sickness for other parahumans, not remembering the tesseractids.

I saw a flash of white from within the ring and it dawned on me what had just happened.

Alright, so what sort of power did the tesseractids bestow today?

Also, were they aware of future trigger events? I mean, planning to come back, and all that?

Another flash sparked in the ring, then a second.  Both were in close proximity to a boy no older than I was.

Got another young villain, huh.

Man, imagine if it had been Bryce. Although I’m still not ruling out that he might indeed end up with powers by the end of this.

White smoke poured from his eyes, nose, ears and mouth, with smaller traces flowing from his scalp, stirring his hair.

Well that’s pretty intimidating.

At least this was a natural trigger event, rather than one spurred on by super juice – I’m curious as to whether/how the super juice and the tesseractids may be connected by the way – so he shouldn’t end up as one of the monstrous parahumans. Probably.

He flinched as someone whirled on him and raised their weapon, and a burst of white light appeared two feet to the other person’s left.  A miss.

It seems like this person creates bursts instantly where they’re supposed to hit, rather than sending out any sort of projectile.

The person swayed toward where the flash had been, as if it had pulled at him.

Huh, interesting. Bursts of gravity?

The glowing boy stuck one arm out, towards his target, and another flash of white appeared a yard behind his target.

The man charged, and the boy tried a third time.  The blast intersected the man, and when it faded, the man’s upper arm, forearm, elbow, and the right side of his torso and hip were gone.

Welp.

Blood gushed from the area where his flesh had been carved away by the light, and his dismembered hand dropped to his feet.

Yeeeah, try not to get in this guy’s way.

It seems like it’s a sort of… burst of non-existence. The person swaying may have been due to air rushing into where it was just erased.

“Oh my god,” she murmured.  “You’re…”

Hm? Heavy? Or is this a reaction to Taylor being unsteady?

Or maybe whatever just happened with Taylor, seeing multidimensional beings and whatnot, had an outwardly visible effect on her?

Had I given myself away?  I hadn’t used that many bugs.

No, it was something else.  I could tell from the flies I’d placed on her head that she was looking up.

Hm… but didn’t you just place a bunch of bugs above you? I trust you when you say it’s something else, but I wouldn’t assume that based on this.

Her attention turned to me, then Lisa, and then back to the higher object.  I forced my eyes open, controlling my movement and my breathing to reduce the threat of nausea, and saw she was looking at Skidmark’s platform.

…alright, what’s that doing above them? Did they accidentally move much closer to it while fighting?

Skidmark was slumped against the railing, struggling to his feet.

Woah. You okay, there, buddy?

…how are the other parahumans looking? Is this motion sickness happening to all of them? We did see Lisa slumped over a bit too, which I thought was from having been attacked.

Squealer, Mush, Trainwreck and their other subordinates weren’t faring much better.

Seems like it. So did all of them see the beings?

Dammit, I need a temporary name for them. I’ve painted myself into a corner by using Karahindiba specifically for the one Hana saw, and now I’m forced to just call them multidimensional beings unless I make up a name for them.

How about tesseractids?

Senegal turned and kicked my attacker away from me.

Nice work.

While Senegal used the lock on the end of the length of chain to strike the man in the jaw, I tried to stand.

Senegal may be a creep, but he knows what he’s doing in a fight.

Stupidly, I’d opened my eyes as I stood, instead of trusting to my power to keep a sense of the immediate situation.

Whoops. Probably not a good idea right now.

Motion sickness hit me like a sack of bricks, and I nearly fell over.

Yeah.

Charlotte caught me to keep me from tipping over, only narrowly avoiding stabbing herself on my good knife.

Good job.

I kept my eyes closed as I fought back, pulling out of Charlotte’s grip to strike at the Merchant, cutting him across the forehead.

From the outside, it’s going to look like Taylor is being a badass while fighting blindly, but the truth is she’s just “looking” in a very different way.

He growled something I couldn’t make out and charged me.  Knowing I wouldn’t be able to beat him in any contest of strength, I threw myself to one side, landing hard on the ground and nearly tripping Senegal.

Whoops, careful.

I brought my knees to my chest, and then I kicked outward to strike him in the calf with both heels.

Niice.

I wasn’t thinking straight.  I should have predicted that he’d fall on top of me.

…ah, shit.

His shoulder hit my chest, his body weight heavy on top of me.  His knife hand was trapped under his body, near my waist.  I was more fortunate, with my right arm free, and I pulled the knife’s point across his ribs, aiming for a shallow cut that hurt more than it injured.

Phew.

He screamed and dropped his weapon, and I scrabbled to slide it back towards Charlotte, Brooks and Lisa.

With panic and disorientation nearly overwhelming me, I had to resist the urge to use my power to call a swarm together.

It’s been a while since that was an issue last, but it’s still very much a thing that can happen. I’m still not backing down on my 1.1 prediction that at some point, likely a moment of intense rage or despair, she will fail to control her power.

Using this many bugs, to get a sense of what was going on?  It wouldn’t attract undue attention.

Yeah, this is fine.

I let bugs gather on the ceiling of the mall, drawing them down through the large crack where part of the roof had caved in, as a just-in-case.

Good call.

I closed my eyes, trying to blink and fix the distorted focus, and it only helped a little.  I looked to my left for help, saw Minor and Jaw with their hands full, their movements too hard for my eyes to follow.  To my right?  Lisa was slumped over, and Brooks held her. 

Welp.

Merchants were closing in on them.  Senegal stood in front of me, and though his gun was gone, he was using the length of chain that he’d taken from one of the Merchants to drive our opponents back and buy us breathing room.

Nice!

It wasn’t enough.  Three capable fighters weren’t able to protect seven people in total.

Might have to bring in some bugs after all. Or run.

I used my power, and wrenched my eyes closed.  It helped more than anything, as the tactility of my swarm sense gave me a concrete, solid sense of the things around us.

Excellent.

Many of the Merchants had lice on their skin, in their clothes and on their hair.  A small handful of flies buzzed around the area.  With a bit of direction to guide those flies to where I needed them, I had a solid sense of my surroundings and what the enemy combatants were doing.

In this state, she’s more in tune with her bug sense than with her vision, it seems. That’s probably not a coincidence.

He caught me across the cheekbone with his elbow, and pain shot through my entire skull, bringing me halfway back to reality.

I mean, she’s remembering so far, but for Hana it started to fade rather quickly after time resumed, even if her psychic link with her weapon (at least I presume that’s the reason) allowed her to remember the most important bits.

Someone grabbed me, her chest soft against my back, her grip around my shoulders painfully tight.  Charlotte?  Or Lisa?

I don’t think Lisa would do this unless she were physically trying to restrict Taylor from fighting back. I guess it’s either a scared Charlotte, or a female merchant getting in from behind.

The shift from what I had seen to relative normalcy was so drastic that I could barely grasp what I was sensing.

Yeeah, got a lot to process right now.

I opened my mouth to say something and then closed it.  I couldn’t unfocus or take in the scene as a whole, as the entirety of my attention was geared for seeing…

Seeing the unseeable?

what had I been looking at?  It escaped me as I tried to remember.

Ah, there we go.

It reminds me a lot of someone’s power. I wonder if more powers are similar to things about the beings?

I shook my head, striving and failing to see past the countless minute details or the shape of things: the way the Merchant’s facial features seemed to spread out as he advanced towards me, the contraction of his body as he bent down, the nicks and brown of rust on the knife he picked up, the one I’d dropped.  I still held my good knife.

Taylor seems to have ended up in a state of hyperawareness following a timeless moment of being aware of something most people have no idea exists… if anything her awareness has gone down.

But it also appears to be working against her right now – she can’t see the forest for the trees, and the forest is currently attacking her with a knife.