Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Happily Ever After, Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

WARNING: More crack than Skidmark’s medicine cabinet


“… so that’s how the C.U.I. saved the world. And then everyone lived happily ever after.”

“Tell it again, gramma Taylia!” said Zimmy, whose rapt expression during the story had given way to disappointment once she realized it was over. “One more time, please?”

Taylia sighed as she glanced around the room. Most of the adults had meandered off to do their own things, and the two exceptions hardly counted toward her audience. Dinah was curled up by the fireplace, dozing, while Libecca was lying on a chaise lounge, so deep in reverie with herself that Taylia would probably need to dump a bucket of water over her head to snap her out of it.

And of the three children, only Zimmy was paying full attention. Her brothers were more interested in their action figures and building blocks, and especially what happened when the former were forcefully combined with the latter. Boys will be boys, she thought as the corner of her mouth twitched into a smile, but it’s already past all our bedtimes.

Zimmy must have noticed her grandmother’s hesitation, as she redoubled her efforts. “Tell it again, pleeeease?” she begged, as she batted her eyelashes, eliciting another half-smile from Taylia. Quite the charmer. Ah well, I suppose it is my prerogative to spoil them. “All right, just one more time, but after that it’s straight off to bed, okay?”

“Okay,” Zimmy chirped, looking up expectantly. Levi threw in an absent-minded “ ‘kay,” while Bemmy only grunted in agreement before returning to his toys. Taylia settled back in her chair, which purred soothingly as she stroked its armrest, and let her mind drift back to the past. “It all started on the day of my wedding…”

The wedding had been everything that Taylor and Amelia had dreamed of, and more besides. The ceremony was beautiful, the exchange of vows was touching, and most importantly the day hadn’t been spoiled by any S-class threats and/or homicidal Entities with suspiciously perfect senses of dramatic timing.

Finally it was time to throw the bouquet, which Amelia had grown on-site from flowers pollinated by Taylor-controlled bees—both as a reminder to the watching nations that the brides were no ordinary teenagers, and (Amelia hoped) a promise of what the honeymoon might bring. Taylor and Amelia joined hands on the stem of the bouquet and tossed it backwards into the throng of expectant attendees with a flourish.

There was a brief but vicious scuffle as the bouquet flew through the air: Alexandria flew up like a rocket to meet it, only to be blindsided by an actual rocket from Miss Militia. The blast knocked the bouquet away, causing Crystal and Sarah to collide in mid-air as they desperately tried to correct their courses. The now-smoldering flowers began to fall toward Lily and Sabah, who shrieked in terror and ran away in opposite directions, to the relief of their friends and teammates.

Clarice ran lightly across the shoulders (and occasionally heads) of the crowd and positioned herself to intercept the bouquet, only to be intercepted in turn by Vicky. As the two exchanged a lightning-fast series of feints, parries, and strikes, Missy took advantage of their distraction to distort the space between her and the prize, reaching out almost casually to grab it … and was shocked to realize that the bouquet was already in the hands of a strange girl who was definitely not one of the wedding guests.

As Missy and the other combatants stared in confusion, the stranger—who was dark-skinned, with long curly hair, and wearing an outfit that would be more appropriate for a seedy nightclub than a wedding—began to do a touchdown dance with the bouquet. “Who’s the best? That’s right, it’s me. Uh huh, you know it, you know it, uh huh!” she sang as she strutted around, finishing by spiking the bundle of flowers into the ground with a “Woo!” while a growing crowd stared, aghast.

The silence was so complete that you could have heard a pin drop on a mat of Yggdrasil. It was broken by an exasperated voice. “God DAMN it, Aisha!” Lisa shouldered her way through the crowd and grabbed her long-lost teammate, dragging her away from the spectacle with one hand while rubbing the bridge of her nose with the other. She could already feel one hell of a migraine coming on, and it wasn’t just from her powers. Although that certainly wasn’t helping matters; as ever, Aisha was an abundance of TMI. Flushed. Not from fighting for the bouquet. Used her power to have a quickie during the ceremony. Lisa groaned. With Alec. “WHAT?!” she screamed. “Are we living in a fucking comic book? Doesn’t anyone stay dead around here?”​

Of course Taylia sanitized the story considerably in her retelling, but she made a point of exaggerating the emotions: Missy’s surprise, Aisha’s enthusiasm, Lisa’s frustration. Hmm, I may have overdone that last “WHAT?!” she mused, as she noticed Dinah stirring from her slumber. Fortunately, Dinah only poked her head up briefly and mumbled something that sounded like “97.402% chance I’ve heard this one before.” Then she carefully smoothed out a wrinkle in her suit with her paws, tucked her head under her wing, and went back to sleep.

On the bright side, the story of the bouquet battle had captured the young boys’ attentions, if not for the same reasons. Bemmy was doing his best to reenact the scene using his action figures, with what looked like a Crawler head as a stand-in for the bouquet. Levi had stopped fidgeting and was looking thoughtful. “Could I catch the bokay at a wedding?” he asked.

“Of course you could dear,” Taylia replied, “but you’d need to be pretty fast to grab it.”

“I’m really fast!” Levi proudly exclaimed, running a few laps around the room to prove his point. “But, what do you get if you catch the bokay?”

“Well, some people say it means you’ll get married next.”

“Oh,” Levi said, “could I marry Zimmy?”

“No dear,” Taylia laughed, “that’s not the way it works.”

Libecca’s fingers twitched almost imperceptibly against the chaise lounge, transmitting a message through its material that Taylia’s special senses detected and interpreted as “Hmm, I guess it must run in the family.” She exercised her powers to make the lounge’s fabric minutely shift in a pattern Libecca understood as “Oh hush. He’s adorable and you know it.” More finger twitches “Absolutely. Not to mention that I’ll be able to embarrass him with it years later, when he starts bringing dates over.” Shifting fabric “Don’t even think about it, unless you want me to tell them about the time you almost held hands with your other half, right in the middle of a UN session.” Fingers twitching in mock outrage “You wouldn’t dare!” “Try me, you hussy.”

In the moments that this side conversation was being conducted, Levi’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “Why not?”

“I’ll explain it when you’re older,” Taylia replied, still chuckling. “But for now, let’s continue the story. Later on my wedding day…”

“Explain. Now.”

The public ceremonies were over but Taylor and Amelia were still in their wedding dresses. Taylor was gritting her teeth too hard to speak, so her swarm spoke for her. “How are you two even alive? We saw your bodies! And, out of all the times you could of let us—your friends—know, what on earth possessed you to do it by ruining Amelia’s and my WEDDING DAY?!”

Missy, Clarice, Theo, Zach, and Emma looked on in confusion and concern. Lisa was nowhere to be seen, as she was busy replacing her Thinker headache with a Johnny Walker one. CalmingSoothingIt’llBeOkay, Amelia sent, trying to prevent Taylor from having a complete meltdown. GratitudeFrustrationYou’reRightButShe’sJustSuchABratAndIReallyWantedTodayToBePerfect, Taylor sent in response.

Aisha edged away from the roiling cloud of bugs, working hard to keep her power suppressed. She’d learned the hard way that angry bees don’t need to remember what they’re attacking, and this swarm was only kept in check by Taylor’s orders not to attack anyone in the room she was aware of.

“Okay, okay, first of all I didn’t ruin your wedding. No one outside of this room will even remember who caught the bouquet, I made sure to avoid cameras, and…” “Nope.” Taylor cut her off. “Pick one: explanations or bees. Ten words or less.”

Aisha sighed theatrically. “Got captured. Bonesaw made decoy bodies. Wedding crashing is funny.”

A vein began to visibly pulse on Taylor’s forehead and her swarm surged forward again, until Alec spoke up. “Actually this scary lady in a suit told us not to contact you until now, and that you’d understand once we explained things.”

FrustrationResignationBullshitHax DittoCompleteBullshit Taylor visibly relaxed, the majority of her swarm dissipating. But remind me to fill Contessa’s wardrobe with Mantellum-wasps once this is all over. “Okay you two, actually I can believe that. But back up a minute. What was the part about you getting captured and Bonesaw making decoy bodies?”

“Oh yeah, it was crazy.” Imp said, absent-mindedly scratching a few stings on her midriff. “We both got hurt pretty badly when Piggy blew shit up, so Boney blocked our powers and grabbed us to do mad science on. I dunno what she wanted Alec for, but she said she was going to stitch me together with this older lady named Yamaha, or something like that. But anyway, most of the Nine were out fighting and that Yamaha lady talked the Siberian into letting us go …”

Oblivious to the looks of utter amazement from most of the room, and guilt from Clarice, Aisha continued her story “… so once I got my power back I broke Alec out too and we got the fuck outta there. But everyone already thought we were dead, since Bonesaw left behind fake bodies made from…”

“Definitely not Girl Scouts!” Clarice interrupted, sweating nervously. “Heh, um … definitely not Girl Scout COOKIES is what I meant to say. Because they're delicious and it would be a shame to waste cookies on making clones to gruesomely kill in order to prevent your enemies from searching for their loved ones so they won't interrupt your brilliant scientific plan to react pure concentrated tact with pure concentrated anti-tact to generate an unlimited source of orgone energy to power your army of giant murder robots because that's just crazy and hey, who wants a Thin Mint? I know I sure do! Gee I'm so hungry! I'mgonnagopickupsomeThinMintsnowbye!”

Clarice had begun sidling toward the door by the time she first mentioned Thin Mints, and in the end she took off at a sprint, accelerating so quickly that her voice dopplered as she disappeared down the hallway. Amelia followed in concern, while Theo stayed but looked rather unsettled by the whole outburst. Missy just sighed wistfully, “Isn’t she the cutest?”

“Speaking of food, what do you guys have to eat around this place?” Alec started wandering off in search of a refrigerator to raid and Taylor moved to give chase but … wait, wasn’t there someone else I needed to talk to? I’ll worry about it later, she told herself.​

 

Amelia, Ch 401- Victoria


The newly married couple rushed off down the center aisle, holding hands and as happy as could be. Still couldn't say I was fond of Taylor, but Amy loved her, and she was nice enough to point me in the direction of someone who deserved a good punching when I got bored. So, I was willing to tolerate her. As long as she continued making my sister so absurdly happy.


We bridesmaids followed. Clarice standing alongside Lisa as the maids of honor for this one. I stepped in alongside Crystal and gave my megawatt smile to the crowd. As the, or at least a, maid of honor, I had to represent for the whole wedding. But the level of discomfort Lisa had to pretend she wasn't experiencing while walking alongside my pseudo sibling was hilarious beyond words. We stopped for a last moment of cheers as the limo with the brides drove off. They'd get their photos done, change outfits, and be back in time for dinner.


I turned back to the crowd. "Okay, time to pack up and head to the reception! Follow us, and remember if you get lost you don't get the free food!"


That got a few chuckles. We were literally right across the street from our reception hall. A really nice place meant to house foreign heads of state and other various diplomats and stuff. One of the buildings on Avalon that was actually a building instead of something cooked up by my sister's insane powers.


We led the way, in official order this time. I took position alongside Lisa while everyone else lined up where they belonged behind us. We didn't need to exchange words, or even looks. She was suitably displeased by my little stunt, and I got to jab her for being a bitch. It wasn't nearly enough, after she fucked over Crystal and walked out on Pantheon to play house with Alexandria at Shady Conspiracies R'Us. But it was a start.


Then we formed up just inside the entrance to greet the guests as they arrived. For the most part, it was a pretty informal meet and greet. A very small ceremony, with only a couple dozen people. A lot of Taylor and Amy's friends and family were capes, and had to show in costume. Which meant they couldn't bring their civilian families with them. An unfortunate side effect of the lifestyle, and one that kept the whole ceremony pretty tiny.


Lisa smiled over at me. "What's the matter, still cranky they turned down your plans to invite a thousand people and make the party last three days?"


"Nah, I got over that weeks ago." Not really, my sister deserves the wedding of the century. "Besides, it just means it's still a fresh idea when I get hitched." Which is going to happen in approximately never. Way too much commitment for my tastes.


I reached over and gave Clarice a pat on the back. She'd gone with her natural look this time, making all four of us in front blondes. "Of course, mine's not gonna cause half the commotion of when 'shroom here gets hitched. I bet it's already all planned out."


Theo probably blushed as hard as both his girlfriends combined, saved from further humiliation only by his costume being fully face concealing. I was happy for all of them, they were great kids. Missy, especially, deserved it.


Our first waves of guests started filing in. Most of them only stopping to say hi to maybe one or two of us at a time. Michael got dragged into a small conversation with Dad, and I could sense that it was epically awkward and uncomfortable. More for my poor boyfriend than anyone. Dad was almost too nice. Too happy to talk to him, and unless he had some kind of oddly specific stranger power it was completely genuine. Mom, on the other hand, was pissed and getting worse. Though seemingly more at Dad than anyone. Oh well, she couldn't stop me and she knew it. More than that, she wouldn't dare cause a scene and ruin this day for Amy.


Later, however, there would be a scene of epic proportion. Or, much more likely, Dad would sneak off while Mom wasn't looking and avoid her until they became grandparents. Huh, there's a thought. I leaned over to Clarice. "Hey, which one of them is playing mommy for our collection of adorably world shattering neices?" It would have to be girls, they didn't have the genetic material for a boy without doing something wonky.


Clarice understood the question. "It'll have to be Taylor. Amelia's physiology is weird, it'll cause all kinds of problems. But that's theoretical. They're not having any children until after."


I didn't have to ask what. I smiled and waved as I spotted Sveta and her date. Another Case 53, this one. Completely inorganic according to my senses. She waited as patiently as possible to stop and talk to me. I didn't give her a chance to speak, just pulling her into a hug. "Hey, no need to be shy." I dropped my voice to avoid being overheard. "So, who's the new boo? He seems... durable."


I let her go, and she reached over and grabbed his hand. "This is Weld. He's with the Protectorate in San Francisco. We met during a parade..."


Chances are I was the only one who'd know she was blushing. Well, maybe Lisa and Ayane would have figured it out.


I shook the boy's hand. Yup, inorganic. No nervous response. I put some real effort into the squeeze and decided that he was way tougher than steel. "It's a pleasure to meet you."


He squeezed right back. He had enough savvy to know it was on purpose, but not hostile. "And you, too. You're kind of a hero of mine. I can't begin to tell you how thankful I am for all you've done to help the Case 53s. I'm really passionate about the cause, as I'm sure you can imagine."


"Thanks, I'm proud of it too, I promise we'll talk about it later." I meant it, too. Not a lot of people were dead zones to my senses like he was. But we had lines of people to say hello to.


He moved on to Clarice, who was all smiles. "Hey, we used to go to school together! Do you remember?"


"Trust me, no one could forget you. You'll be a legend to the grandkids of your classmates."


"Small world, huh?" Sveta responded. "You'll have to tell me stories later."


I greeted the next guy, shaking his hand. One of Avalon's new employees. A parahuman, with the minor Case 53 traits that so many of those vial experiments produced. My power considered him a non-threat, so my guess was Tinker. "I'm sure you'll hear this a lot from others, but that was really nice of you, letting Clarice be the maid of honor. Not a lot of people would have done something like that."


I smiled happily. "She deserved it. Besides, sometimes a good deed is its own reward." I looked over at Lisa the moment he moved on. Okay, maybe I should stop rubbing it in. It's fun and all, but I'm starting to feel bad.


The next guest of interest was Akaihana. She was sporting her new armor. Legion, v2. Still faced the same problem with dimensional storage, but she could run six powers now. As long as two of them were mine and Theo's, to provide the defenses. Because that armor couldn't do shit to protect her and needed my energy generation just to power its flight and shunt drive. "Love the new duds."


"They are really nice," she agreed politely, before move on to thank Clarice for all her hard work. For some reason, she was always a little uncomfortable around me.


Dragon and Defiant came in together. Dragon ended up on the Taylor side, so she got to say hello to Lisa. "Thank you for, well, everything." What the hell does Dragon have to thank Lisa about?"


Lisa shrugged. "Sometimes a good deed is its own reward." Her glance in my direction made it clear there was no way either of them were going to let me know what was going on, and she knew I was going to be obsessing about it all night. The bitch.


Defiant and I had nothing really to say to each other, so a casual handshake was the end of that. And after several others, we finally got to go inside. Most of them would line up yet again to meet the newlyweds later, but that would be limited solely to congratulations and at most a full sentence. Those of us with a real reason to talk to them would end up doing so later.


I, meanwhile, had stuff to check up on. Michael had finally managed to extricate himself from my parents and was waiting for me. His faceplate opened up, and I gave him a kiss. I would have liked to do more, but too much temptation to not stop. So I gave him a hug, which he interpreted as 'please squeeze me hard enough to break a normal girl's ribs', as I had trained him to do. "This marriage crap takes too much work."


He pressed his lips to my forehead. "But the end is in sight. Just a little longer, right?"


"Yeah, just a little longer," I agreed. "So, what do you know about that Weld kid that Sveta's seeing right now? Am I going to have to figure out a way to break a solid metal ass in half? Because I am up for the challenge."


"With the standard rules of me not giving you confidential information, and you not telling your sister anything at all?"


Michael waited for me to nod before continuing. "He's a pretty popular up and comer, already making a name for himself. He's naturally charismatic, very polite, and good at following orders. He was assigned to Brockton Bay for a while. The top brass yanked him out as fast as they could the moment Flechette and Vista walked. They didn't want to lose any more of their bright young talents after your sister stole two of the best in a single day. I don't think think they're ever going to forgive or forget that at one time two of your Endslayers belonged to us."


I laughed. "Oh god I hope not. I'd hate to imagine we went through all this effort without the pleasure of having people who resent us for being better than them. That's like half the reason to be good at anything."


"Really? And what's the other half?"


I squeezed him. "The arm candy."


"Well, by that standard, I must be the best in the world."


"Plus one hundred and fifty relationship points!"


I didn't even bother to look. "I swear, you have a secondary Thinker power for that."


"Nope, but I'm working on it. Come on, we gotta go make sure Paige is good."


I reluctantly let Michael go. He gave me another peck on the lips. "Go ahead. I'll make the rounds. Maybe have a brief chat with Weld. If I start now, he may even get enough of a lead to outrun you."


"You know me too well."


==============


A/N- I will never write wedding chapters. Ever. Again.

Reception's got a couple more chapters left in it, though. So there's always still a chance of something horrible ruining their happy moment, right?