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Aisha: You know he thought you were cool, right?

Taylor: What? No he didn't. He called me a dork all the time.

Aisha: Haven't you ever had a friend call you names before, as like a joke? It's like that.

Taylor: Yeah, I have. (Remembering Emma)

What are the aspects of Taylor's psyche that inform her power? There are three that I'm keeping in mind for this:

She refuses to be a bystander

She doesn't trust anything she doesn't have direct control over

She believes that she's ugly and repulsive and that others think the same(with her hair being the one notable exception)

With all that in mind let's get to it. Taylor53 continuously grows and molts an exoskeleton that covers her entire body. The exoskeleton is not particularly durable so any defensive capabilities are negligible but if Taylor takes significant damage while the exoskeleton is still on her it will fall off and Taylor will pop out completely unharmed. After it becomes separated from her body it essentially becomes a second body for Taylor to move around. She can sense what the husk senses and has complete control over it. The husk last for a about an hour after and then it crumbles into dust and Taylor starts growing a new one. Significant damage will cause it to crumble faster.

The exoskeleton is mottled dark gray with specks of browns and dark greens throughout with a disconcerting human/insectoid appearance. A bit like her costume but without the courtesy of a million insects to hide how it looks. After molting her real body is a pale and slightly greasy humanoid shape with large eyes and a large mouth filled with sharp teeth. The exoskeleton grows a facsimile of her hair making it the one unifying trait between it and her true body.

As for how she got her hands on a Cauldron vial I'd like to think that Cauldron would look for precog thinker support from time to time and assembled a list of individuals who are likely be present for Gold Morning. The process was slow and not cost effective for the results so it would end up being shelved but before they decided that Taylor would make for a useful asset for how likely she is to be there.

Cauldron makes contact with Taylor and convince her that she can make a difference if she obtains powers and works with them. Cauldron feels confident that they can give her a risky vial since they're mostly certain she'll survive the process. She turns into a disgusting larva girl freaks out and then gets Slugged.

She's still likely to survive any trouble she comes across so it's a waste to keep her at the base so she gets deployed. I think there are good arguments to be had for her being deployed to Chicago and Houston but I think her being sent to L.A. makes the most sense.

After waking up in L.A. she wanders around before being picked up by the local PRT and being taken under the wing of Triumvirate local, Alexandria. Taylor's a great candidate to take to Endbringer battles with her ability to shrug off a lethal hit plus the extra body to help with search and rescue. And her abnormally high chance to survive is a big plus.