Are You Afraid of the Dark? [Worm AU fanfic]

Very nice update. Loved the interaction with Cricket and Hookwolf, and the action scenes were great.

 

I'm sure Tattle Tale is going to have a fit once she hears about this and if Taylor gained powers and should join them she will realize quickly who her dad is and have an0ther one before probably going to him and telling him everything so he will eliminate Coil for her so she can be a friend to Taylor instead of her forced manipulator.

 

Now Danny needs to get his old gear out. He's no longer retired... or he can't rely on that fact. He just re-appeared in a big way. Loved it!

 

I don't think this Danny will miss Taylor having powers.

 

I think her thoughts would be more along the lines of:

"Oh god, I just convinced the last remaining family member of the Dark to become a villain and routinely put herself in danger. If she gets hurt I'm so fucking dead oh god oh god."

Followed quickly by:

"... Oh fuck, I told Coil about the Dark's daughter."

As her power slowly reveals exactly what he'll do to her.

 

Calvert stared at Tattletale. "Skitter is whose daughter?"

She bit her lip nervously. "Uh ... the Dark's?"

He glared at her; while his eyes weren't visible through his costume, he knew she would understand he was glaring. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"Um ... no?"

Breathing deeply, he looked off into nowhere. "Three years ago, I set up operations in this city. I contacted the Dark and offered them half a million per year to work for me exclusively. They turned me down. I raised it to a million, then two million, and was rebuffed each time. In my ignorance, I decided they were too much of a danger to me, and I sent my entire force of mercenaries after them. They invaded my base, after killing every single mercenary, and held me at gunpoint in my own office. They told me that if I ever came into contact with them again, they'd kill me, and I'd never see it coming. And you recruited their daughter into the Undersiders?"

There was no answer. He looked around. Tattletale had wisely decamped. Well, no matter. Picking up the basewide intercom mic, he cleared his throat. "Now hear this. Now hear this. We are clearing out operations in Brockton Bay. Be prepared to move all equipment in the next twelve hours. I say again, we are clearing out operations ..."

 

So Hookwolf got possible a truly metal death, crushed by his own wolf's head mask as his body was pulped.

 

I think that death by junkyard crane is the most original way of dealing with Hookwolf anyone's thought of yet...

Why oh why did you have to end it on a lie, Danny?

The rest of that sentence was some variety of the truth, but killing two capes? That's not a quiet night, no matter how you look at it.

 

I kinda want to see an Armsmaster POV where after investigating the butchery of the dog fighting ring, Cricket's death and finding Hookwolf's pulped corpse decides to go after DARK in order to get an easy(In his mind due to DARK being 'normals') fame boost, I could also see Battery agreeing with taking DARK down if DARK ever took out (dirty)cops.

 

Well, it would be correct, if he was using British understatement. The kind of understatement that describes "We're about to be overrun by a Chinese army and we need massive support ASAP!" as "Things are a bit sticky, sir."

Alternatively, the night certainly is quieter now, with Cricket and Hookwolf, both rather loud capes, dead.

 

1) Would you rather he told the truth?
2) Compared to some of his exploits with Anne-Rose, that was very likely a quiet night by comparison.

 

Only the British are allowed to do that.

Doesn't really work with how he said it. Especially given he opened with 'we had a bit of excitement'.

He was (sort of) telling the truth with the rest of what he said, so I was a bit disappointed he ended in a blatant untruth.

I think it would be better if he ended with something about how Chewie couldn't wait to visit Taylor again.
I'm probably just nitpicking at this point, though.

Given that they'd never actually gone after a cape, I doubt it.

Perhaps the dogfighting ring was something they'd have tackled confidently with the two of them, but they'd have had multilayered getaway options in case of cape, not a seat-of-the-pants plan thrown together at the last second.

Thoroughly planning escape routes is part of how veterans manage to get old. Even the very best can't win every fight, after all.

 

Out and out gone after a cape expressly to kill them? Yeah, I doubt it.

But encountering one in the middle of a job and killing them? probably happened once or twice. I mean, going after gangsters they'd need solid plans to handle any potential capes in that gang that may or may not just show up, and given how common they are in BB, they probably offed one or two in their time. Most capes, after all, lack a Brute rating.

 

Love this fic
That fight was very well written.

 

i though that it was a crossover from a show i loved from the 90s

 

Damn, that was pretty good. I expected Danny to kill Hookwolf by somehow electrocuting him, so the magnet was a cool twist for me.

 

Taylor: "Dad, can you help me with this homework? How do magnets work?"
Danny: "Very Efficiently."

 

I have to wonder, not so much if Danny will realize his daughter triggered in that locker, but when. Also, whether her power is the one she had in canon or not, because that's not a given.

 

Which means they can be knocked out, subdued, or avoided.
Assassins tend to go after individuals, not groups.

It's the canon power.

 

OK. It might take him longer to notice, then (it's not as obvious as other powers can be), but it still seems very likely to me that he will, probably before April (maybe even before the end of January).

 

Slightly changed.

 

I like where this is going.

 

Later at the Hebet residence ,

Knock, knock.
Danny picks up his freshly cleaned and loaded 1911 holds behind his back and answers door to see a dirty blond teen with freckles.
" Coil made me work for him at gun point and he's gearing up his me for some big move... Oh by the way my name is Tattletale " she says with great enthusiasm.
Blink Blink
" Yea he's totally into kidnaping little girls with powers and making the do his bidding " She continues
Danny opens his mouth to speak...
" Is $300K enough to bye The Darks services " She barges on not letting him speak

 

I like it, it somehow feels/flows better now.

By the way, is this story going to be added to the vote options in your vote thread?

 

Not at this time.

I have enough there as it is.

Sorry.

 

Grab at front of shirt, YOINK. Lisa suddenly finds herself inside the house, the door closed, 1911 pressed against the side of her head. Her power tells her that the man holding the gun is very willing and able to blow her head off, though he'd probably take her down to the basement first. Which is soundproofed. Also that, by coming here like this, she may have overstepped the mark.

"One; how did you find me? Two; what little girl with powers are you talking about? And three; did you seriously not do your homework about me before you came here?"

Her power is now filling her in on a lot of things about the Dark. Not a parahuman. Hasn't targeted parahumans up until tonight. Has no moral qualms about murdering her and dumping her body. Considers his daughter's well-being above all other things. Murdered Hookwolf and Cricket, and about two dozen other Empire goons, over a puppy. Really wants answers to his questions. Might yet kill her if he doesn't like the answers he gets.

Carefully, she takes a deep breath, and tries not to let her voice shake. "Let me start again. Hi, my name is Tattletale. I'm very intuitive, and I can be of great assistance to you ..."

 

No need to be sorry, there are enough great fics on that list that I have trouble deciding what to vote for already Still, I'd have given this five points at least.

For some reason I can't help that TT's power would get utterly schooled by Danny. Because it notices/gives importance to the wrong things, draws conclusions based on assumptions that will bite her in the ass, gives too much info on unrelated things, and too little on actually relative stuff, and last but not least has to be supressed most of the time anyway in order to not cripple her.

On the other hand the mental image of Lisa being trained by an actual, honest to god hitman/superspy is pretty awesome. It would be almost like giving Jason Bourne the ability to read minds or something. The potential for espionage alone would be through the roof.

 

No. Aisha, post trigger. That would be terrifying .

 

Oh right. I forgot about her.

...
XD

Although, I'm honestly not sure if lisa or Aisha would be more versatile/useful in that regard. Both powers lend themselves well to espionage and assassination, though in different ways. And I can't remember how aishas power interacts with surveilance cameras.

 

It ignores them entirely and instead directly targets the mind of the person viewing it.

We don't have a range for the effect so we'll just assume it's global, but if Aisha is not suppressing her power the memory of her existence is removed the femto-second it hits your neurons regardless of the source.

Lisa doesn't hard counter it either, she simply picks up all the little clues that someone is there, someone not hostile to her or the others there, someone that seems mischievous but rather familial towards Brian, ect. ect.

It's a passive sidestep in that Lisa still doesn't remember Aisha exists but she has enough information to know that the Mysterious Stranger isn't a threat.