It had been a couple of hours since I had first discovered that my arm could transform into a gun… and I had quietly experimented with it, in the confines of my bedroom.
The first thing that I discovered about my power, was that… it could only transform into the gun form. Originally, I thought that my power let my arms shapeshift into various weapon forms, but nope. Just the one gun.
I could make do with that, at least…
The second thing that I discovered was that both of my arms were… robotic, and capable of transforming into the Arm Cannons. Though, it didn't seem to work on any other part of my body.
The third was that despite the constant itchiness when there was flesh enveloping my arm, I no longer felt pain from either of them. Instead, they just registered a dull 'feeling', so that could at least be somewhat useful.
Oh, and I discovered that I didn't need to peel my flesh off to use my power… instead, I could just form the Arm Cannon and within an instant, it would appear, though the flesh on my arm did explode outwards, in a surprising fashion.
It wasn't all that gory at least, it was more akin to… a balloon popping. It even came with a similar sound. But, that bit of experimentation also left me with a bunch of flesh to clean up.
And it just had to get everywhere during the transformation, so I swiftly transformed my arm back, grabbed a dustpan and brush… and just started to clean. The flesh had gotten everywhere, from the floor, to the walls and roof, to small crevices throughout the room.
Even after I finished cleaning it all up, and carefully throwing it in the trash… making sure to hide it under actual trash so Dad didn't freak out, I was still pretty sure I'd be finding little scraps of skin throughout my room. At least I'd had the foresight to close my door beforehand.
But that's all that I could discover about my newfound powers, as I couldn't exactly fire the Arm Cannons inside of the house.
Well, I could but it'd be a really stupid idea. Best case? Dad would be pissed and likely call the PRT to put me in the Wards, and I really didn't want to deal with that sort of teen drama as a Cape.
Worst case, though? I could kill someone or even myself. After all, my powers didn't exactly come with a training manual. I had no idea how powerful my Arm Cannons were.
I had actually been experimenting with my powers for long enough that the sun could be seen coming into the sky, its rays shining through the gap in my curtains.
Looking at my alarm clock, I saw that it said that the time was 7:43 AM. So it had been around two hours since I'd first woken up and discovered my powers.
It was also around the time that Dad would be waking up, to get to work at around 8:30. He was weirdly punctual about that.
As I thought about that, I heard a familiar creak from Dad's bedroom… the floorboard by the side of his bed had been a bit loose for the past year, and he just hadn't been able to muster the motivation to fix it. Or at least, that's what he told me the last time we spoke.
Then I heard the sound of him shambling his way out of bed, and into the bathroom. I could just barely hear him grumbling about 'Needing a coffee', and then the sound of the shower running silenced his muttered words.
While he was showering, I took this opportunity to make the both of us some breakfast, just some simple bacon and eggs… not like there was much else in the fridge.
As the bacon was sizzling alongside the eggs, I also decided to make up a pot of coffee for Dad. Even if we'd been a bit distant since… mom, he was still my dad and it's not like it was taking all that much extra effort.
Then I heard the sound of the toast coming up, and looked towards it, which is when I noticed something…
"Huh, have we always had this toaster?" I idly asked myself, as I took the toast out of the toaster, not even noticing the heat due to my powers, before placing the freshly cooked toast on a plate.
The toaster was practically brand new, a ruby red color that somewhat clashed with the usually dull kitchen. It looked a lot fancier than any appliance that we'd had before…
"...The old one must have broken and Dad got it for cheap," I muttered to myself, confident that Dad probably got it in a garage sale or some sort of thrifting, as I went about buttering the toast before putting my focus back on the bacon and eggs, which had gotten quite a bit crispier… but thankfully wasn't burnt.
With that, I then prepared everything and placed the bacon and eggs onto the two plates alongside the buttered toast.
Having finished that, I then quickly sat down at the kitchen table, and just focused on eating my breakfast… it wasn't bad, at least. But it didn't taste like mom's used to.
I wasn't really able to put my finger on it, but it felt like it was lacking something… back before Mom died, Dad probably would have joked that it was something like 'Motherly Love'.
Eventually, I heard the sound of the shower being turned off, and some shuffling as Dad went back to his room to get dressed.
A few minutes later, he came out dressed in a white shirt and brown pants, fit with a pair of simple black shoes.
He walked into the kitchen, and looked at me, then to the breakfast that I made, and back to me with a small smile on his face.
"Thanks, little owl," Dad said with a soft smile, as he walked over to the pot of coffee and poured himself a mug and added a splash of milk and sugar before sitting at the table.
Even though we were both sitting at the kitchen table, we didn't really… talk. There just wasn't much that we said to each other nowadays.
The silence was practically palpable, only interrupted by the sound of the knife and fork meeting the plate and Dad eating or drinking…
"Once you're better, I want you to go back to school next week," Dad said, finally breaking the silence, "And hey. Maybe you can bring Emma over one of these days and have some fun with her"
My eyes widened as I looked up at him, and saw that he had… a genuine expression on his face as he ate his breakfast.
"...Okay," I said after a moment's hesitation. I couldn't exactly get mad at him… after all, he didn't know what was happening at Winslow… or what was happening with Emma.
"Anyways, I'm going to be getting home late tonight, alright?" Dad said after finishing the final piece of bacon, he looked at me with slight concern in his eyes, "Are you going to be okay by yourself?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine" I mumbled to him, slightly scratching my forearm as I did so. He'd been a bit more protective lately since I 'tripped' at school and my skull was split open, after all.
"Okay then. Just remember that curfew's at 9:30 PM.. and if you need any help just call my office and I'll get to you as soon as possible" Dad said as he slowly stood up and started to move over to me before hesitating and… instead deciding to walk back to the table and grab his dishes and put them in the sink.
With that, he grabbed his keys and wallet and walked out of the door, but before closing it he had one last thing to say…
"Taylor, I'm… I'm… never mind," Dad said, as if he was trying to figure out what to say, before ultimately just… shutting the front door and leaving for work.
I waited for a few minutes, listening to the sound of his car leaving the driveway… before deciding to go back into my room, and grab a simple old Halloween mask that I had lying around in my cupboard, along with a thick blue jacket with a hood and a simple old school bag that I put the mask, jacket, and a couple of bottles of water into.
With that, I left the house out of the window, and inconspicuously made my way to the Boat Graveyard… it seemed the most safe place to experiment with my powers.
It took a while to get there, as I had to take a bus from the house over to where the Boat Graveyard was in The Docks.
Once there, I walked for a little bit until I found an alleyway that didn't seem to have anybody in it, and put the jacket and mask on.
With that, I walked out of the alleyway wearing a thick blue hooded jacket that covered my upper body and hid most of my hair, and an old Armsmaster mask that I wore years ago, which worked to hide my face, now my identity was at least somewhat obscured.
The Boat Graveyard wasn't all that far away, just a couple of minutes. And once I got there? I'd be able to actually test out my powers… I felt a little bit of excitement at that prospect.