Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

This is a compilation of non-canon omake which I wrote and posted back on SB for the Worm fanfic Amelia. As it has moved to QQ now, I'm reposting them so I can get more likes so readers can enjoy as much content as possible from the old thread.

Man of the Cloth:
*~*~*~*​

When Greg Vader was a child, his mother had told him something important.

She had said everyone was good at something. Some people got lucky and were good at a lot of things, but everyone had at least one thing they could be really good at.

Greg had just never found his 'one thing.'

Well, that wasn't quite true, he had to admit. He was 'good' at games, mostly. It just wasn't the kind of good that would win him an award or anything, sadly. So he had his doubts that games were his 'one thing.'

But, to be honest, self-examination was the last thing on his mind at this point. Or, well, that specific avenue of self-examination was certainly far from his thoughts. Greg was certainly thinking about himself, but it was more related to the not-so-distant past that now seemed ages and ages ago.

Before the Slaughterhouse Nine.

Before Leviathan.

Before the ABB rampage.

He remembered making some of the first speculative posts on the newest member of the Undersiders, especially after the big bank job they'd pulled. Which was kind of, holy shit he knew a bankrobber! So, yeah, the fact that Taylor Hebert, one of his fellow outcasts, had been such a scary supervillain, who was actually an even scarier superhero, who had been undercover and fought Mannequin one-on-one until he ran away, killed the Siberian, and jammed Armsmaster's halberd and torn-off hand up Leviathan's ass!

So, yeah, the past few days had overfilled his HSQ by a bit.

He'd even gotten to be on the news, which was something he'd never thought he'd be able to boast about.

He'd especially thought he'd never be able to brag that he'd lied on national television.

Well, no, not 'lied,' really. He'd been honest when he'd talked about Taylor, and how he'd hoped they'd end up together. He'd just fibbed a bit about thinking it would ever actually happen. After all, Taylor Hebert was nice, pretty, smart, and even if he knew she didn't really like him, she was one of the only people who didn't look like he was some bastardized cross between a carnival monkey and an especially smelly Case 53. So, yeah, he'd had a bit of a crush, but he also knew when a girl was out of his league, which was why he'd never made a move on her.

Well, that, and Taylor was a bit of a bitch, sometimes.

"Not that I blame her," Greg muttered, move around another unit on his computer, shifting his strategy in Space Opera, an online game he'd been into for a while. It was taking a lot of effort to catch up after the two months he'd spent without electricity. "What Emma, Sophia, and Madison did was all kinds of fucked up."

...and what was more fucked up? Emma had powers now.

Emma "Backstabber" Barnes was the newest parahuman on Pantheon's lineup.

There'd been this whole media...'thing' about it just the other day, but the nice reporter lady hadn't shown up again, so he'd surfed the net for the cliff notes version. Anyway, if there was one thing he was proud of himself for in this whole weirdness, it was that he'd decided not to had over Taylor's notebooks to the press.

...now he just needed to figure out what to do with them. Ideally, he'd get them back to her, given what they contained, but, well...one does not just "Walk Into Mordor" as the saying went. He didn't think he'd be able to just walk up to Pantheon's giant treehouse and ask to see Taylor to give her back her journals, and he wasn't gong to be able to trust anyone else with them, either, given what they contained. He'd hadn't really been thinking when he and Taylor had passed each other that day, after the bombings, when she'd taken the blow to the head and punched Emma, but he'd seen how upset she was, even with her father trying to calm her down. Then, she'd just chucked the notebooks she'd been carrying in the trash and, well, he'd just reached in and picked them up.

Was that creepy? He wondered.

...probably not, but he might be wrong. Maybe just tell Taylor he 'found' them. Yeah, that'd be best.

...and, of course, it was probably not a good idea to let Taylor know he'd read them, just out of curiosity, though.

Still, he'd decided not to give them to the reporters because Taylor probably didn't want the press to have them. That was how famous people were, right? They all had those deep dark secrets that no one could find out or they'd start using drugs and have to go into rehab and finally recover before the Simurgh showed up while they were doing one of their concerts. Brittney just hadn't been the same after that...it was a shame, too, because he'd really liked her music.

Where was he? Oh, right, Space Opera.

"New user requesting to join my guild?" He frowned. It always paid to be careful with newbs. You never knew when one of them would turn out to just tank the fun all of you were having with a game. It was best to check their profile pages, too, for weird stuff like a shitstorm of quotes that sounded cool, but didn't mean anything. As Greg clicked on the link, he saw his worst fears were proven. There were even a bunch of those bullshit feel-good stories that asked you to repost them to fight bigotry or cancer or something stupid like that. It was a hallmark of someone who took life waaaay too seriously and would talk his and his guildmates' ears off about some book they were reading or tv show they were obsessed with...

Huh, as he was skimming them, one of the quotes actually looked...well, relevant. It reminded him of what Taylor had done with Emma, 'turning the other cheek' and offering it to be slapped.

Greg shook his head and tried to banish the errant thought, though it stuck with him as he finally shut his browser down hours later and slid into bed.

...

The next day, a Saturday, saw Greg Vader awake and about earlier than he had been in sometime, especially since he'd had trouble sleeping the night before. Maybe, he mused, it had been because of his restlessness that he was awake just after the sun had risen. His dreams had been...weird, full of images of Taylor and giant trees and...

Almost against his will, he found himself opening a text document, then reaching for one of Taylor's journals.

For a long moment, his eyes rested, unsure on the blinking cursor, before flickering back to the open journal.

He nodded, it seemed right, didn't it? Taylor and her girlfriend had saved the city from the Nine, and were feeding so many people with their Yggdrasil, and they'd even put off getting married until they could stop the Endbringers...they were like really real goddesses and gods that came down from their magic tree to help lowly humans and stuff. Yeah, even if he'd never had a chance with Taylor, this was the least he could do. He'd show everyone how awesome Khepri and Gaea really were! That they weren't just normal heroes!

His face firmed as his fingers reached for the keys.

Pantheism:

The Book of Khepri​

Taylor Heberts best friend betrayed her and-

Greg scowled. That wasn't how these things were suppose to sound. Books about gods and goddesses always sounded so...so...epic.

Deleting his first line, he started over.

And lo, in the days before Her ascension, She was as you and I. The Daughter of Hebert, born unto-

Uh...what were, oh, right! Internet!

-Daniel and Annette Hebert, who themselves were possessed of strong heart and great spirit, imparted wisdom and temperance unto Her. In the days before the Loss occurred, Her life was good. Before the Shadow, before the Sister became the Betrayer, before the False Innocent, the sun shone upon She-Who-Would-Be-Khepri.

Greg blinked and leaned back, looking at his monitor. That...that sounded, kinda cool, actually...and it jived with what he remembered about Taylor from middle school, before her mom had died.

Huh, maybe he'd finally found his 'thing.' At least his mom would finally get off his back about finding a job.

...now, where could he find some robes?

---

I'm not going to lie, I think I'm most proud of Man of the Cloth, at least in terms of non-canon omake in this story. Greg is fun when applied properly.

---

Green Eyed Monster:​

I didn't need my power to know who was standing outside my door for the last five minutes, but it definitely helped fill in the blanks as to why she hadn't come in yet.

Maybe it was a bit spiteful of me, but I wasn't going to invite her in. If she wanted to hash out what was on her mind, she'd have to take the first step, otherwise she had Amelia to run to if things got rough.

Yeah, that was a bit spiteful.

"Lisa?"

I sighed. Of course Taylor wouldn't be able to back down and leave sleeping dogs lie. I ignored the flash of pain at the errant though and called out, "Taylor! What a surprise, come on in! You have questions about Flechette's power I'm guessing?"

She gave me that delightfully combative stare that told me I wasn't fooling her. My grin dropped a bit as I leaned back in my throne-like chair. Say what you would about Amelia's ad-hoc architecture, but some things there just weren't substitutes for. Granted, we still needed electrical outlets (or a tinker-tech alternative) for me to make use of the massage function.

"No," Taylor shook her head, her expression still the slightest bit stunned. "I'm going to need time to understand that. It's kind of 'Holy Fuck,' right? That we might have something Siberian-tier, something that might, possibly be able to hurt an Endbringer on our team."

"No," she repeated, "I...just wanted to say something. I'm sorry."

My focus snapped back as I raised an eyebrow at Taylor's more subdued body language. The string of information fed to me by my power pulsed as I picked up what she really meant.

Referring to emotion-link with Amelia. Not sorry. Stubborn. Will not be dissuaded. Fixated? Influenced. Dependent on Amelia. Amelia dependent on Taylor-

I cut off that line and tried a different avenue of attack.

Regrets decision's consequences. Knows you disapprove, counseled against action. Needs affirmation of relationship with you, bothered by losing you as a friend. Perceives disapproval as power-play against Amelia for affections, resents pity for suicidal tendencies. Perceives knowledge of previous emotional state and planned betrayal as having power over her, further differentiates relationship with Amelia to be 'Equal Partners.'

Well, shit.

I closed the valve on my power down to the constant low-level trickle of background noise and rubbed the heels of my hands into my eyes. You'd think being a 'goddess' would have made my life simpler, but no...

Taylor shifted from foot to foot awkwardly, reminding me of her earlier days as Skitter, before things got complicated.

"No, you're not." I sighed, and Taylor opened her mouth to respond. "You're not, don't bullshit me. This is who you are, Taylor. You see something you think is 'right,' and you fight for it. You won't stop because I'm telling you otherwise, so let's just lay that out there."

There was a flash of incongruous emotion on her face and I fought down the urge to break something in frustration. Her face settled a moment later and I pinched the bridge of my nose. "You think I'm being an asshole about this whole thing because I don't like you getting close to Amelia."

"Something like that," Taylor shrugged and dropped onto one of the organic-construct couches 'my room' had been outfitted with. "Amelia said you didn't think it was healthy, that we're addicted to each other. I don't really know why you teased us so much if you weren't expecting something like this."

I groaned. "Fine! I wanted you two to have a relationship, I admit it! Both you and Amelia needed emotional support! What was I supposed to do when you were so set on playing magical princess goddess with your new friend? Maybe I didn't want you dating, but I wanted you two to be there for each other in your own repressed passive-aggressive way."

Taylor flinched as if I'd struck her and I winced.

"Sorry, that came out wrong," I muttered, dropping my head in my hands. "This is just...you and Amelia are being intimate in a way neither of you really understand, probably aren't ready for, and are almost certainly being...pressured into, if you get my drift."

Taylor hunched into herself. "I just don't want to be alone anymore, you can understand that, can't you Lisa? I just...can't go back to that."

I swallowed back my own memories of loneliness. Of a year on the street verbally flaying people alive to get food and clothes. Of living in that house with those people who wanted to twist me and use me. Of wandering into my brother's room and finding-

God Damnit.

"Yeah," I choked out wetly. "Yeah, I understand." Idly, I wondered if I'd been able to connect with some on the level Taylor and Amelia were connecting with each other, if I'd been able to have that after Rex...could I have given it up?

"Thank you," Taylor breathed and stood to leave.

"Just-" I started, making her pause at my door. "Just promise you'll listen to me if I think you start getting too deep? You don't have to break the link or anything, but...just listen to any concerns I have? As a friend?"

"I...sure," Taylor nodded, a slight smile on her face.

"Thanks," I smiled and calculated my next words carefully. "I'd hate to see my hero go crazy just because she wouldn't listen to me."

Taylor started just as she was about to turn to leave. "H-hero? What?"

Successful blindside, now time to drive the point home. As strong as Taylor was, she still thought other people saw her as weak. If I ever saw that catty bitch Emma again...I grinned, "Taylor...you don't think enough of yourself. You think that you're my pity case, I know; the little girl I took in to keep from suicide by dragon. You're not. You're probably the closest thing I have to a real hero, someone I look up to."

Taylor rolled her eyes and turned away, but I could still see the pleased flush on her cheeks.

"When you protected those people from Leviathan, did you pity them?" I asked remorselessly. "How about when you learned what Coil had done to Dinah? Did you pity her? Or me, when I explained how he forced me into life as a villain?"

I grinned wider at Taylor's sputtered denials. "You saved me from a fate worse than death, a life as Coil's plaything, his pet." I put as much disgust as possible in the word. "Even after everything that's happened, you're still trying to do the right thing, even after I tried to get you to give up and leave town after the...after Crawler was killed. You don't understand how amazing that is, that you were able to get back up and keep going, do you?"

Unable to take my blunt praise, Taylor shifted uneasily. "I'm not-I didn't, Amelia was the one-"

"-who made the Yggdrasil, yeah, but that'd be just an impressive tree without you. Amelia said it herself, you're Pantheon's General. The leader of it's capes on the battlefield."

"...maybe," Taylor shrugged. "Lisa...if you didn't pity me, if you didn't...look down on me, why did you and the Undersiders save me that night? It was because you told Brian to do it, wasn't it?"

I stilled a moment, indecision catching me off-guard. Should I...? Could I really? I...could I really expect Taylor to come to me if I didn't do the same? Besides, Coil was off our back now, there wasn't an emergent crisis to deal with (beyond what Taylor and Amelia were doing to themselves), and...talking about it was supposed to help, wasn't it?

...and I hadn't talked about it. To anyone. Ever. I just wasn't a touchy-feely person. I didn't dig my dirty laundry up to show my friends the old stains and rips in my soul-

God, I was getting Emo now, wasn't I? Shit.

As preoccupied as my thoughts were, it shouldn't have come as a surprise when my control slipped just a little.

-jealous. Wants to connect, wants human connection on the same level they have, is afraid to connect, fears rejection, fears being pitied-

...and that was why I never turned my power on myself. Fucking Hell. Firming my resolve, I gestured back to the couch.

"I guess, it all started with my brother. His name was Rex."

---

If Green Eyed Monster sounds familiar, it's because it was originally set between chapters 80 and 81. I think TanaNari used a few ideas from this version for a later chapter, but I'm still convinced his was better, so I'm glad the omake did a good job inspiring him, at least.

---

The Three Scariest Words:​

Doctor Mother: "So, to summarize, we know that Pantheon is in possession of a cape, or several capes, whose powers used either separately or in conjunction, can kill an Endbringer. Due to Number Man's calculations, we know that the 'combat-thinker, brute' known as Aceso, is actually Bonesaw, formerly of the Slaughterhouse Nine, who is now working in, presumably willing-"

Number Man: "98% Probability."

Doctor Mother: "-thank you, presumably willing cooperation with Pantheon. Furthermore, we now have confirmation that they are constructing virtual armies of semi-autonomous insectoid creatures that make Nilbog look like a rank amatuer in size, scale, scope, versatility, and specialization. All of these are seemingly controllable by Kephri, who can extend her range to an apparently limitless extent in conjunction with Gaea's Yggdrasil. Also, they know of Cauldron's existence and have only tenuously decided that we are apparently a 'necessary evil.' Have I summed the situation up properly?"

Alexandria: "There's no need for such a disagreeable approach to the problem. Pantheon is an experiment, one which is by every measure a complete success. They've managed to solidify control of the Brockton Bay area with only minimal Cauldron aid, they've played a willing and essential role in bringing down the Simurgh. Although we can't yet know for sure if they're able to ensure the stability of the ENE region, I think the results speak for themselves."

Eidolon: "True enough, but this kind of power consolidation is far beyond even our wildest expectations. I think it's past time to ensure that they'll cooperate with Cauldron on the matter of further Endbringer battles, with or without the politicians' approval."

Doctor Mother: "I agree. Regardless of the continuation of the experiment, they've proven themselves far too valuable to be allowed such free reign. So, what are our options?"

All eyes turned to Contessa, as they always did.

The woman in the suit frowned for a moment, feeling out the specific phrasing to her inquiry before putting the question to her power.

As the silence crept on, Alexandria's scowl grew more pronounced: "Well, Contessa?"

Contessa swallowed dryly: "I...I don't know."

Every one of the room's occupant's stiffened in shock.

Contessa: "I...don't know. My power is refusing to settle on a plan. It's a different type of interference than the Endbringers or David, but I keep getting different results, ranging from hundreds to millions of steps, and then the path just blanks out, as if I'm trying to focus on...Scion."

~*~*~*

With Pantheon:

Missy: "I'm telling you, the suit keeps hanging up when I try to put it on. I'm pretty sure the latch is broken."

Emma: "It's a seal, not a latch...and it might be a bit of damage from the last Endbringer battle. I'll need to give it a full check. Can you put it on and take it off one more time?"

Missy: <Sigh> "Fine, fine."​

---

This one was short, relatively funny little piece that was inspired by me imagining Contessa's "Oh Shit" face.

Do note that the jury is still out on how/how well PtV works around Taylia and Vista's bullshit spatial warping super-suit.​

---

...and that's it for actual omake. Do note that there are probably a lot of two/three line blurbs that I posted that I'm not really going to dig out to repost here, as they're not actually full-fledged omake.

TanaNari has reposted the three Canon Omake I've written, which were The Four Horsemen, The Devil You Know, and The Heartbroken. Unless something changes, all of these are archived on SB in their original format.​