The Masks We Wear is a Worm and BIONICLE crossover by BarelyPresent, where Taylor gains the Ultimate Blacksmith powers of Artakha. Can be found on FF.Net
and Spacebattles.
Taylor's story doesn't always need to start in the Locker. Nor does her power need to be granted by Scion. What if a golden being a little more... benevolent decided to lend a hand?
Not to be confused with a similar-named Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic.
The Masks We Wear provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism:
- Sophia/Shadow Stalker between Taylor becoming her Morality Pet, and losing the negative influence her shard had on her (see: Discard and Draw) is a much better person then her canon self.
- Emma in canon was a bully, here after getting some therapy she becomes The Atoner, becomes extremely loyal to Taylor, and after getting powers becomes a Toa.
- Taylor thanks to several factors (being in a much healthier headspace than canon,note never joining the Undersiders,note and having a power not granted by a conflict-oriented shard) is more unambiguously heroic and a all around better person then she was in canon.
- All There in the Manual: There's a lot of info on the Spacebattles thread, like a list of Taylor's current equipment.
- An Ice Person:
- Emma used to be able to freeze her water, but lost that after linking to Taylor.
- This seems to be Isaac's power, in homage to Matoro.
- Asleep for Days: Taylor after pushing her powers too far.
- The Atoner: Emma, especially after she triggers.
- The Blacksmith: Taylor creates her masks this way, and even names her hero persona after Artakha, the Ultimate Blacksmith of the Bionicle Universe, whose powers she seems to have.
- Brought Down to Badass: Isaac/Ignika no longer has his Life powers, but still presumably has some power, seemingly of the An Ice Person variety as a tribute to Matoro.
- Discard and Draw: Shadow Stalker, after linking with Taylor, loses her weakness to electricity in exchange for a slight weakness to light and the cessation of her shard messing with her mind. It’s later revealed that Taylor apparently can change the source powers draw on from a shard to something else, leaving the functional aspects.
- It seems that the something else seems to be the Bionicle Elemental Powers, linking with Amy/Panacea lets her keep her Healing Hands ability with the addition of greater control over plantlife, and Emma loses her An Ice Person abilities but gains even greater hydrokinetic strength, even able to control a person's body via their water content, with Sophia's element being Shadow.
- Energy Bow: Rune/Spectre has a laser crossbow as a weapon.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Since Taylor denies the "cape" appelation in favour of "Toa", Director Piggot suspects her of being ethnically Maori.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- The first point of divergence is that Taylor acquired powers much earlier than in canon. Specifically, she gained them when she was at summer camp in 2009.
- Also, instead of gaining bug control powers she can create BIONICLE tech.
- She also acquired her powers from Mata Nui instead of a trigger event.
- Emma and Sophia’s bullying campaign against Taylor got dealt with before it even happened.
- Emma gets some therapy after she tries to cut ties with Taylor after the alley incident. Thanks to this she remains friends with Taylor.
- Sophia/Shadow Stalker never joined the wards. Instead working with Taylor to form a new cape team the Toa. Also, thanks to Taylor’s influence she isn't as violent as she was in canon (see: Adaptational Heroism).
- Lisa was saved from being forced to work for Coil by Artakha and Shadow Stalker. So she joins the Toa instead of the Undersiders.
- Thanks to befriending the Toa Amy/Panacea is in a better place mentally speaking than she was in canon.
- The first point of divergence is that Taylor acquired powers much earlier than in canon. Specifically, she gained them when she was at summer camp in 2009.
- Forging Scene: How Taylor creates her tech.
- From Bad to Worse: After a brutal fight with Kaiser, Taylor, Sophia and Emma are teleported to Noelle's quarters somehow, and when Taylor creates the Spear of Fusion from her spear to get them out, a Sophia clone uses it on her and creates a Vezon.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Taylor can create Bionicle tech and artifacts like Kanohi, Kanoka, Zamor launchers, etc. She can create more conventional tech, like computers, but it's a lot more difficult.
- Green Thumb: Panacea gains increased control over plants as a result of linking to Taylor, and her identity with Taylor's group, Palisade, uses this almost exclusively.
- Hero of Another Story: The first interlude focuses entirely on the MU scenario.
- Heroic RRoD: Taylor can knock herself out of she pushes herself too far with her powers.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Emma, even deliberately choosing the name Tuyet because the original was a traitor.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Amy/Panacea like canon doesn’t have a huge social circle, unlike canon she finds friends among the Toa.Artakha: Lisa had fed her observations on Amy to my HUD, giving me an insight into the healer.She was lonely.Her social circle revolved entirely around her sister. She spent so much time at Hospitals in her capacity as Panacea that she legitimately didn’t have anyone she could call ‘friend’ apart from Glory Girl. The knowledge reminded me of the black weeks after Emma’s betrayal. I didn’t want to let her languish any longer than I had to. She reminded me of myself so much it was painful. Just like the Telekenetic, she had a flimsy support structure. She deserved better. I was hoping we could be that for her.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: When Tattletale's power slips up and starts revealing more about the Entities and Cycle than it meant to when analyzing Taylor, it wipes her memory of the event.
- Legacy Character: Isaac names his cape persona Matoro after the Toa who inspired him, even using an Akaku like the powerless one Matoro wore before he became a Toa, and having An Ice Person powers.
- Literal Split Personality: The Ignika/Isaac and Mata Nui split up after giving Taylor her powers and meeting Cauldron, Mata Nui taking the actual mask with him in order to take the fight to Makuta while Isaac stayed on Earth Bet in a human-like form.
- The Spear of Fusion Taylor makes ends up creating a Vezon analog of her when a Noelle clone of Sophia grabs it.
- Living Shadow: The Sophia the Spear of Fusion hitting Noelle makes has writhing shadows instead of hair and pitch-black skin, with her eyes being her only normal feature.
- Making a Splash: Emma triggers with water powers when Taylor nearly drowns.
- Mask of Power: Taylor can create Kanohi, and switch between them rapidly via a Suva.
- Meaningful Name: And not in a good way, Emma chooses Tuyet, a traitorous Toa, as her cape name.
- Palisade, Panacea's new cape name, refers to a defense made out of tree trunks in fence formation.
- Taylor's Vezon decides to name herself "Karzahni", after Arthakha's evil "brother".
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Rune leaves the Empire after no one even tries to contact her after a fire, despite the fact that her phone was fully functional.
- Morality Pet: Taylor to Shadow Stalker. It helps that linking with her has apparently helped negate the effect her shard has on her mind.
- Mr. Exposition: Isaac serves as the group's main source of information on the Matoran Universe.
- No-Sell: Taylor/her powers have some kind of anti-Thinker effect.
- Portal Network: Taylor has teleportation relays set up around the city to help her move rapidly.
- Power Armor: Taylor manages to create armor with powers forged into it for herself.
- The Power of Creation: Taylor's power, of course, and she unconsciously taps into her ability to create things she's already made when trapped by Kaiser, and later to create a Spear of Fusion to save Emma and Sophia from Noelle.
- Reed Richards Is Useless: One of the things Taylor notes when criticizing the Protectorate is how she has several things that could do things like cure disease, heal wounds and rebuild cities, while Protectorate heroes seem to only focus on things like laser guns.
- Saying Too Much: When trying to analyze Taylor and her powers, Lisa’s power lets more slip than it meant to, and tries to wipe her memory of it to cover it up.
- The Speechless: Lisa loses her voice as a result of brain damage from Coil’s failed kidnapping attempt. She can still comprehend words though, so she's perfectly capable of using a vocalizer Taylor made.
- Slave to PR: One of Taylor’s criticisms of the Protectorate is their focus on their image. This is especially so after a fire, which Armsmaster was told was under control, got worse after he sped by without even stopping, forcing Taylor to step in.
- The Social Darwinist: Shadow Stalker at the start, though Taylor helps her grow out of it.
- Super-Empowering:
- Taylor linking someone has shades of this, especially with the Discard and Draw effect in regards to the secondary powers.
- Mata Nui to Taylor in the first place.
- Teleporters and Transporters: Taylor makes use of these, from switching between masks using a Suva to teleporting around the city.
- Time Skip: Crucible 2.1 takes place a few weeks after the previous chapter.
- Unwitting Pawn: Cauldron made sure Echidna and the Toa met to try and replicate the Toa powers.
- Wrong Context Magic: Taylor’s powers are heavily hinted, and later confirmed, not to be the result of a trigger event.
- X-Ray Vision: Isaac/Matoro uses an Akaku.
