Chapter Text
Taylor Hebert POV~
I knew I had to be dreaming; the world around me was a broken and shattered version of the cabin I had gone to sleep in. I looked around and saw nothing until I focused above me, where the ceiling had been torn away. Instead of the sky, I saw some kind of giant space whale. There was a thread leading from me to the thing; however, as I looked on, a strange being, appearing to be a humanoid field of stars with a trio of horns on its head, appeared and plucked the thread. It snapped away from me, and everything vanished.
I woke up as I felt as though someone had slammed a gong inside my head, and a bizarre screen appeared in front of me. It took me a few moments to be able to read it as my headache faded away.
[Sorry, I needed your power, but have this instead, it's better for you.]
'Power? What Power? Was that the thread?' My thoughts were racing as the screen changed from a personalized message to what seemed almost like a video game-like interface.
[Welcome to the Chaos Gacha, you have been automatically granted the starter feat of {CHANGED FATE}]
[You were originally meant to be the protagonist, the fated child who would solve the world with their fate-given cheat. Unfortunately, that seems to no longer be the case, and the
infinite chaos of the multiverse seems to have replaced whatever cheat you were supposed to get. There is no canon to rely on, so pull yourself up by the bootstraps. At least, you get
some starting tickets to ease the pain.]
[Rewards 1x Platinum Random Gacha ticket 2x Gold Random Gacha ticket]
[free starter trait granted]
[No Peeking]
[Epic Trait]
[Information Gathering doesn't work against you, scrying spells fall apart, precognition fails, and cameras stop recording.]
[Would you like to pull your tickets now or store them in your vault?]
'cannon? I was the protagonist? What the hell, I'm just an ordinary girl, what the hell does it mean pull tickets?' I couldn't make any sense, however, apparently just thinking it was enough, because suddenly the screen changed once again.
[now rolling Platinum Random Gacha ticket]
[Vacuum]
[Elite Ability-Allows you to create vacuums and control them in your sensory range, allowing you to pull things in and cause implosions. The more powerful a vacuum is, the more energy it
expend]
[now rolling Golden Random Gacha ticket x2]
[Intimidation]
[Rare Skill-You are skilled at intimidating people, making them feel fear and shake in their boots with your mere presence, you instinctively know how to present yourself in ways that
invoke terror.]
[Void Childe]
[Rare Trait-You are a child of the void, giving you enhanced spatial awareness, you can sense a portal opening a kilometre away, and all Space-based abilities are more potent, and you
master them faster.]
I was stunned, thinking I was going insane, until I felt my power snap into place. At first, I could just vaguely feel the space around me and had a general understanding of how I could sort of force the air out of an area. Then I just knew how I could make people terrified of me, but that last one suddenly massively expanded the abilities of my first power just by from the description I had been given and my sense of my power I figured out how to push and pull things with vacuums and how to make vacuum grenades of a sort but I also knew I could do so much more.
After getting my first three rolls, I snuck out of my cabin and out into the woods to do a little bit of practice, I mean, really, I have actual superpowers, of course I want to use them. I started by sitting in the middle of the clearing used for archery practice and feeling out my ability to create vacuums. It was easy, perhaps because of my void childe trait, and I felt the energy needed to create a vacuum and formed it into an orb in my hand. The orb of vacuum caused a small windstorm as the air was constantly pushed out of the area to maintain the vacuum. Looking down, I threw it at a nearby tree and watched as it blew off a large chunk of bark. I continued to practice forming the vacuums into sharp blades and even creating an aura that allowed me to deflect projectiles and even fly. I was very giddy as I flew around in small circles around the clearing. Alexandria had been my hero since I was old enough to know who she was, and now I could fly just like her.
I stopped using my vacuums and started trying to figure out the screens that had given me the powers. I was able to pull up a listing of my current abilities and traits called [log]. That's also how I realized how I was using my vacuum abilities so easily, it seems I got really lucky with my roles since Void Childe complemented vacuum so well. There was also a [vault] that seemed to hold items this Chaos Gacha could potentially give me, as well as any tickets I didn't want to use right away. I learned all of this after I figured out how to open the [Index], which explained everything, including my starting option. The screen had told me about the Changed fate, and I was still stunned by it since I didn't feel like I was anything more than a normal 14-year-old girl, but there you go. I finally went back to my cabin, snuck inside using my vacuum control to float in and keep it quiet. I lay in my bed and barely managed to get to sleep with all the excitement.
That very morning I called my dad, I needed to go home and figure things out so I pretended to be homesick and I couldn't stay here anymore fortunately it seemed this was one of dad's good days, he hadn't been the same since mom died, and he said he'd be here within an hour to pick me up. As I packed everything away, I got a sudden message.
[change cannon (minor)]
[reward x1 bronze ability ticket]
The screen disappeared and I sat there surprised, 'umm roll bronze ticket?' I thought to myself, it seemed to work, as the screen reappeared
[bronze ability ticket rolling]
[Cat Form]
[Uncommon Ability-You are able to turn into a cat or a cat hybrid at will. Gaining enhanced agility, senses, reflexes, claws, and sharp teeth as well as any other characteristics the average Cat would possess.]
I looked at my hand and willed my new power to activate. With a simple flex of my finger, my nails turned into razor-sharp claws, and a small amount of fur grew along my hand as small pads grew out of my fingers and palm. It worked, I not only had powers, but I would get new ones. I didn't know much about capes, but I knew that getting more powers or powers getting stronger over time, which I apparently would be doing both, meant my powers were unusual and I would need to keep them hidden until they were strong enough.
Dad finally showed up in his old beat-up pickup truck, and I ran up and got in.
"Dad, we need to talk," I said as soon as I got in, and he looked at me worried,
"What's wrong, Taylor?" he asked his voice laced with worry as he looked at me, his eyes lit up for the first time since mom died, though with fear instead of happiness, it's still better than the apathy he had before.
"Something happened at camp, Dad, I woke up with powers," I said to him as he started to drive us back to the city. "It started with a strange dream."
I told him what had happened to me. He was driving very carefully, but kept glancing at me as I explained everything that had happened in the few short hours since I had woken up with a splitting migraine.
"Taylor, what do you want to do?" he asked as we pulled into our driveway. "If I had my way, I'd insist on you joining the Wards, but I want to give you the choice."
I looked at him unsure what I wanted to do "I don't know if I want to join the Wards I mean they're super heroes but they aren't allowed to do much, but I need to get out there, I need to fight crime and help people, both because it's the right thing to do and because it's how my powers will grow" I say knowing dad won't like it.
"Taylor, I just want to keep you safe," he says, pulling me into a hug as we walk into the house.