Safe For Work Worm Ideas thread

Whew, wrote most of this in one sitting, and haven't really done much polishing. I'd appreciate feedback on any aspect, but primarily character voice. I'm still trying to learn to write distinctive dialogue, and don't really know how I did.

Unbeta'd as usual.

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Previous
Embrace of Steel
Part 4

For Colin Wallis, known as Armsmaster in his armor, the day had begun simply enough.

Though he had been awake late into the night working on a new project for his Halberd, he had still awoken early in preparation for the day. Something told him it would be significant, or at least eventful.

The day seemed to be anything but.

Much of the morning was filled with his Tinker work, and by the afternoon he was on duty at the console while the duo of Assault and Battery were on patrol accompanied by Dauntless. There had been some rumors of a big push by the ABB against the Empire, and the Protectorate needed to put a show of force out.

Nothing had come of it, and by the time it had been his turn for the evening patrol with Miss Militia, Armsmaster had been feeling his instincts were off.

He was quickly proven wrong.

“Armsmaster, we have reports of a running battle between Merchant capes and Empire in the vicinity of Washington and Meadow Circle.” The voice of Velocity came over the comms as Armsmaster patrolled one of the nicer neighborhoods near the Docks.

“Understood. Keep me updated on any changes.” He signaled Miss Militia, who nodded, and they diverted towards the location noted on Armsmaster’s GPS.

By the time they arrived, civilians had already fled the area, and superficial damage to multiple buildings had accumulated. Debris littered the streets, and more than one surface had growths of steel jutting outwards.

A block from their position, Armsmaster saw Skidmark and Mush working together to launch garbage at speed towards not only Hookwolf, but Kaiser as well.

The heads of the E88 and the Merchants, and their heaviest hitters? Armsmaster could feel the tension of opportunity here.

“Velocity, this is Armsmaster. We’ve located the Merchant and Empire forces. Skidmark, Mush, Kaiser and Hookwolf all present. We’re going to need backup.” Armsmaster spoke crisply and without hesitation, “There are civilians in the residences, and we are moving to engage.”

With that, he readied his Halberd, and with Miss Militia in tow, waded into the fray to put an end to the fighting.

“Attention! Cease your current activities, surrender, and get on the ground.” Armsmaster levelled his Halberd at the group, and delivered his ultimatum. “If you do not comply, we will use force to ensure cooperation.”

The reply, as expected, was not positive.

Skidmark let loose a flurry of curses, and launched a barrage of garbage supplied by Mush through his field. Kaiser, however, took the opportunity to withdraw behind a wall of steel, Hookwolf guarding his retreat.

Swearing under his breath, Armsmaster deflected the refuse, and directed Miss Militia to intercept the fleeing Empire capes. If they could contain them until reinforcements arrived, they could make an incredibly significant capture.

Cautiously, he advanced, keeping the the Merchants occupied while the sounds of weapons fire echoed to the side.

Miss Militia had caught up, it seemed.

Abandoning all pretense of defense, Armsmaster surged forward, dodging the projectiles with practiced ease as he drove the pair of addict capes to the field of blades left behind by Kaiser’s retreat.

Aware of his plan, Miss Militia had driven the Empire’s head and his lackey back into the fray. The two pairs nearly collided in their respective retreats, and soon were facing off against not only the Protectorate, but each other as well.

Kaiser attempted to skewer Skidmark’s legs, most likely in a ploy to leave the man as an offering for his own escape, but hadn’t accounted for the Merchant leader’s field. A shimmering field appeared and deflected the attack, sending the shaft of steel into the distance, where it presumably landed in the street.

Mush, seeing his boss in trouble, hefted a dumpster that had somehow been dragged into the street, and launched it towards Kaiser, but the bin was caught on Hookwolf’s spikes and tossed aside.

Armsmaster had not been idle during the scuffle, and had repositioned himself alongside Miss Militia, in preparation for another assault.

“If you can keep Mush and Hookwolf pinned down, I can disable Skidmark at the very least, until reinforcements arrive,” said Armsmaster.

“Understood,” she replied, and the response was punctuated by the formation of a rather large machinegun.

Armsmaster smirked. He could always appreciate firepower.

His companion opened fire, and Armsmaster launched forward, intent on landing a solid hit on head of the Merchants before he could react to the sudden charge.

He was suddenly intercepted by the appearance of Kaiser, armed with a blade grown from his armor. Two quick jabs drove him back, nearly piercing the armor around his waist, and Armsmaster had to awkwardly fall aside to dodge a follow-up strike.

A hollow ‘fwoomp’ sounded from Miss Militia’s location, and Armsmaster looked just in time to see a concussive grenade suddenly on course for the pair.

Kaiser must have noticed his shift in attention, and quickly turned to confront the scene behind him.

Armsmaster knew he would handle the shockwave with ease, but Kaiser would not be so lucky. Hastily, the Nazi batted the projectile away, redirecting it overhead, and into the street where it detonated with a dull ‘thunk’.

‘This is getting out of hand,’ thought Armsmaster, as he retreated to Miss Militia’s side.

The Empire capes had regrouped, and the Merchants were even now gathering the garbage and debris that had accumulated as further ammunition.

It had been bare minutes since the battle had begun, and already things were going sour.

“Sir, reinforcements are ETA seven minutes,” announced Miss Militia. “Do you think we should keep this up?”

Armsmaster scowled. “We just need to keep them contained. Play them off one another, and we’ll have four captures by the end of the night.”

She nodded. “Ready when you are.”

With that declaration, Skidmark fired the opening shot on the second act of their fight, and cued Kaiser and Hookwolf in for another assault.

Miss Militia peppered Hookwolf with her heavy machinegun, and Armsmaster once more squared off against Kaiser.

A lance of steel erupted from the earth, and Armsmaster snapped his Halberd up, severing a foot-long section, which he promptly batted towards Skidmark.

The cape cursed, and deflected the lance right back at him, and Armsmaster deftly sidestepped, allowing the spear to carry on it’s course past him.

A moment later, just as he was preparing a decisive counter-assault, the world went black.

-

“And when you awoke, you say this new cape entered the scene?”

Armsmaster nodded, as Director Piggot went over his written report. It contained the answer to that question, and more, but her decided to answer her regardless.

“Yes. After a few moments time after we all recovered, this new cape entered the fight from behind the Merchants, heavily wounding Mush and stopping Hookwolf in his tracks.”

Piggot hmm’d as she flipped through the report, leaning back in her over-large leather office chair. “And you say she did this with a copy of your own weapon?”

Once more, he nodded, humoring the question. “Yes. It was a perfect replica from what I could see.”

“This wasn’t equipment you had previously discarded, or lost on patrol?”

“No. She seemed able to generate copies of the Halberd I was using at the time, at will and multiple times.”

Piggot hmm’d again. “Miss Militia agrees with this report?”

Suppressing a frustrated sigh, he replied evenly, “Yes, as she states in her own report, everything I have reported is factual to her knowledge.”

Piggot gave the report one last look, before she set it aside. “So you mean to tell me, that through your own negligence, a civilian was caught in the crossfire of your fight, and killed in front of her family. One of whom presumably Triggered from the trauma, and can now copy highly dangerous tinkertech weaponry at a whim?”

She had spoken calmly and evenly, but Armsmaster could see the boiling anger carefully held in check behind her words.

“I-,” he began, but Piggot cut him off.

“And not only,” she continued, “did this fiasco occur under your direction, you then proceeded to incite an argument with an obviously traumatized child, by calling her reckless and claiming it wasn’t your fault?”

During her seemingly relaxed speech, Director Piggot had stood up, and placed both hands on her desk and leaned forward, staring him down the whole time.

Even behind the protection of his armor, Armsmaster felt more than a little nervous.

“What do you have to say to that?”

Cautiously, he responded, “I admit I made mistakes. I apologized to her, and gave the man with her a mask of his own to protect their identities, and sent in a request to Panacea for a session with them.”

Piggot was silent a moment. “That,” she said slowly, “is the only reason I’m not recommending a greater reprimand for you than you are already assigned.”

She returned to her chair.

“As it is,” she said coolly, “you will have your performance inspected, and your status as head of the Protectorate ENE reviewed.”

The words came like a punch to the gut, leaving him cold.

“I understand,” he ground out, and though he wanted to deny it, he did understand it could have been so much worse.

Silence reigned in the office, as Piggot pulled a file from the stack on her desk.

“Now, about this new cape,” began the Director, as if the previous threat hadn’t just occurred.

“I’ve labelled her ‘Mimic’ in my report.” Armsmaster interjected, already tired of referring to her as ‘the new cape’.

Piggot quirked an eyebrow. “Isn’t that claimed?”

Armsmaster shook his head. “Surprisingly, no.”

“Hm. Regardless, this ‘Mimic’ would be an incredibly valuable asset to our cause, with her ability to replicate tinkertech.”

Armsmaster recalled the fight, and how Mimic had handled the weapon with skill to match his own. “She also seemed to be able to copy my style as well, either through some Thinker-based observation or skill mimicry.”

Piggot hummed contemplatively at that. “And your report says that when you fought together, you felt a ‘guidance’ that led you through the battle? That it let you anticipate her setup with Hookwolf and Kaiser that disabled them?”

Armsmaster nodded an affirmative. “It was strange, like I knew exactly what she was planning, and how to cooperate to make it happen.”

“Low-level Master, perhaps?”, she murmured to herself.

He shook his head in a negative.

“It wasn’t a compulsion, as such. Just a general notion of what she was going to do next, and how best to help,” he clarified.

“Still. I say we put ‘Mimic’ down as a Master 1, Thinker 3, and Striker and Tinker 4. Better to be cautious than to go in unprepared.” She scribble into a file folder as she spoke, and set it aside.

“Understood.” Personally, he felt the ratings were high, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

“You say she has your contact card?”, she asked, as she returned her gaze from the stack of folders on her desk to his masked face.

“The man I presume to be her father took it, yes,” He said impatiently. Armsmaster’s fingers itched, and he already wanted out of this office and in his workshop. He had gotten some new ideas during the fight.

Piggot nodded to herself. “If they should contact you, let me know immediately.”

“Very well.” He hated PR work anyway.

“Unless you have anything else to report, you’re free to go,” she said, dismissing him.

Armsmaster turned on his heel, and left the office.

He had work to do.

---

A bit of the battle we didn't see from Taylor's point of view, and Piggot chewing out Armsmaster. The ratings are from what Armsmaster and Miss Militia observed, and as applied to a potentially hostile cape, so I'm all for recommendations for changes on that front. I know the extent of Taylor's powers here, but I'm frankly terrible at ranking things.

Next part will have Avenger hitting the streets to mop up the loose ends.

 

First time posting on these boards, and like some of these ideas. I have been writing a few fics for my own use, mostly because they really are not that well written, and decided to post the first chapter of one I think I will focus on and try to write more for. The plan would be to write and post an arc as a sort of mini novel rather than chapter by chapter like a few other fics that have alot of cliffhangers. So here is a snippet of the first chapter to give idea of writing style. I know I need to improve, but kind of wanted to see thoughts before I start editing first arc which has 8 chapters, and an interlude to be written. Its very rough though, and I need to expand and rewrite alot. Will probably need to look for a Beta though according to others that takes quite a bit of time. Quick question, how long do you think is a good chapter?

My watch rang, and I sighed. An hour was barely enough time to do anything useful during lunch.

I quickly made and ate a sandwich, while chugging a cup of coffee. The SX-1 tightened a bit around my waist as I ate. Too much caffeine was bad for a growing body, but I had been staying up too much lately. I had an hour to look over my preparations for the SX-2 and finish creating the venom they would develop. Afterward, I had to get back and upload the school assignments I had finished weeks ago. After today I will have finished all the assignments for the rest of the school year. Then have a three hour power nap before I made dinner for Dad and me. I would go to the basement after he was asleep and start growing the SX-2 until I found a form that met my needs.

Next year could not come fast enough when I could finally test out of school and focus on my Tinker work. I knew I shouldn’t be complaining. School was a breeze now that I didn’t have to worry about Emma and the others stealing all my assignments. Just being able to focus on my lessons and reading had caused my grades to soar without the side benefits of being a Tinker. I had always done well in English, and having more free time to read made up a little for the lack of social interaction. Biology and Science were so easy now that having to do the assignments seemed like pointless busywork. I had already checked out and read most of the biology and animal science books in the library anyway. I could teach the class better than the teachers had at Winslow.

Now that I think about it, that was a good idea for earning some extra money. I pulled out my ideas notebook, volume 2 and wrote Tutor by the hour next to moneymaking ideas. I needed some extra money for future projects, but I felt guilty asking dad for more after he gave me so much already with a large allowance. When the settlement money from the lawsuits had come in, I though we would have enough to meet all my needs for equipment and materials. I sighed again as I finished cleaning up and started to disinfect my hands, thinking of all the lab equipment I wanted. I hadn’t realized how expensive and hard to get basic lab equipment was. Everything that was sold was carefully tracked because the equipment could be used to cook drugs and worse by others. I had an idea of taking on a job at the hospital that would let me watch patients and doctors to their work. But I would have to convince dad first.He wouldn’t like the idea of me working late at night. But that was when the hospital needed people to watch patients in their rooms, and paid the most.

Glancing at my watch, I unlocked the door to the basement and turned on the light. I had cleaned up the basement a bit, but it was still filled with old boxes of mom’s stuff that dad couldn’t bring himself to get rid of. I moved a few boxes, and crawled under through a little tunnel to the hidden alcove where I stored my lab equipment. I picked up the pheromone bottle that attracted the SX-1 and the glass terrarium. It immediately began uncurling from around my waist and went down my arm to rest under the sun lamp.

I couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride looking at it, despite it looking rather ugly. I had spent a whole day growing it from my the second seed I had made. I had never grown a Lasus before, and my impatience was the cause for how weird it looked. It was a darkish green color, about 3 and half feet long, and looked like a unusual snake. Though the differences became rather obvious after a second look. Its eyes were way too small for one thing. It looked blind at first glance, but it did have tiny eyes both on the left side of its face. The body proportions were a little off compared to other snakes. The most obvious difference was the rattle, which was a bit too over sized compared to a regular rattlesnake. It rarely used the rattle when threatened, even when I sprayed the attack pheromone. I wasn’t sure yet why it never rattled it as a warning like I intended. I didn't yet know if most of its instinct came from it’s base form of a garden snake, or the rattlesnake dna I added to it to the seed it was grown from. I wouldn’t find out until I examined its brain after it died and compared it too the brain of a normal garden and rattle snake. That might be a few weeks off based on how healthy it was at the moment. It had lasted much longer than I predicted based off the crappy quality of the materials and the seed I used to make it.

The poor quality did have an effect on its behavior. It still bumped into things, and would lunge suddenly at the air. The first time it did that made my flail and fall on my butt. While I knew it was friendly, I had removed its fangs and venom sacks almost immediately after that. While the pheromones kept it docile around me and dad, I didn’t want him to freak out if he found it.Trying to explain that I had another new hobby besides the vegetable and flower garden in the backyard would be unusual enough. It involving taking care of weird snakes would be a red flag besides the giant fangs.

I walked over to the cage nearby and pulled out a mouse to feed it. It was enough of a plant that it got part of its energy needs from UV rays, but it still needed to eat regular mice. The MP-3 forms were self-replicating, and the clones would breed fast once I activated that sequence in them. I could save money by not having to buy more mice to feed the future SX models I would grow.

I was dying to make more and determine how different the size could be grown based off the baseform for future experiments. I really needed to grow a creature to a sufficient size before I could use it as a baseform for larger creations. I couldn’t just buy monkeys, farm animals, and bears from the pet store after all. So the plan was to grow young versions of base forms and manipulate it to grow quickly. But that could take weeks of trimming the seed forms, and I didn’t have the time yet in my schedule until I finished the rest of the schoolwork for the year.

I had to be very concise in my schedule to do all of the schoolwork ahead of time, eat, and tinker while moving things around to sleep and work when dad was not at work or asleep himself. For once I was glad that he was so busy that he had to work late all the time. Things had been so busy and hard for him ever since the economy had started tanking. Brockton Bay had benefited greatly when Boston had been sealed, but things were still pretty bad despite the extra benefits from the ships at the dock coming in. Dad usually ate dinner and talked with me when he got home, spent an hour relaxing or watching TV, than went straight to sleep. The lawsuit money had improved our finances dramatically but he still pushed himself to work hard to try and help the workers as work got harder to find.

I walked to the small clear aquarium where my next batch of first generation seeds was being grown. I almost had enough seeds to grow what I wanted. Being a Tinker was a little weird in that I could visualize exactly what I wanted/could make already without experimentation. The problem was figuring out how to backtrack and make the idea work with what I had. I pictured having a half dozen SX models wrapped around my body that I could hide under my clothes. I would give a pheromone to attack, and they would move away from me to deal without whomever I sprayed. Though I would put the pheromone into a breakable paper ball instead of a sprayer for long range. They could also rattle and make noise to scare off anyone who tried to mess with me. Hopefully they would think I could grow snakes out of my body.
That way everyone would guess I was a master rather than a Tinker when I made my debut.

Of course I had no intention of going out as a hero yet. The snakes were just for self-defense when I went out at night to gather materials, and build at my lab. Brockton Bay was dangerous at night, and I wanted something to defend myself before I snuck out. All my other ideas of lusus with night vision, and something I could ride to escape trouble had to wait. I just didn’t have the equipment or materials yet to even begin something like that. I had to go slowly and stay under the radar for as long as possible.

I had done the research on Tinkers and it was pretty depressing. Most didn’t last long by themselves. They were forcibly recruited by gangs, killed to keep someone else from recruiting them, or affiliated in some way with the PRT though they had a lot of restrictions. Only a very few actually seemed to join Toybox, and it was a much smaller organization that I had first pictured. I really didn’t want to work under the PRT, at least not yet. I would have been required to join the wards, and I had enough teen drama when I was at Winslow. This wasn’t getting into the fact that my specialty would scare people with how similar it was to what Nilbog could do. They would be suspicious of and restrict anything I made if I joined them, and I knew that could make a difference in the city.

I had been both excited and filled with apprehension when I figured out my specialty. I can literally create life from raw materials. Fashioning homunculus from stuff I could buy at the garden and drug store. I decided to call my creations lusus naturae, which was latin for whim of nature. I had a million ideas for Lusus to protect people walking the streets at night, and specially made farm animals that required little to take care of them and would help feed people.

I knew how the PRT felt about self producing creations, but they would surely be okay with helping to feed the world. I’d take numerous precautions and I wouldn’t mention the self-replication until I was a trusted hero. To do that I would hide that I was a Tinker until I had enough power to defend myself, and create something useful to sell to the PRT. Researching capes had made me very cautious about not going out until I was ready. There was a grand total of two independent Tinkers that had lasted longer than three years in the United States right now. Though both were villains, and I was going to be a hero.

Void was a tinker in New Orleans whose specialty was a variety of short ranged teleporters. He had lasted so long by being hard to catch, and rumor on PHO was that even his lab moved around. His MO was a high tech thief, teleporting into rich people’s houses and various tech places to steal what he wanted, though it was reported that he had quickly became used to the finer things in life based off the fact that not everything he stole was fenced. He seemed to become more versatile the more familiar he was with an area. He wasn’t as effective outside his territory, and a local group of hero shifters had been his main rivals for years. He was seen as strictly small time until recently when he gained a very high blaster rating. It seemed he had devised a way to teleport a portion of a person away and had killed a powerful local Brute. He had started charging protection for parahumans who entered his territory and tried to assassinate anyone who didn’t pay.

Overmind on the other hand was some type of hive mind tinker in Seattle, with drones and implanted henchman. There was a lot more information on her. She had started as a prostitute called Leshawna Wilson before triggering and being forced to join a local street gang called the ballers almost immediately. The gang had very quickly risen in power with its members becoming similar to commandos, and acting amazingly coordinated against rivals and cops. It seemed they could share skills, communicate information between each other, and had improved reaction times with drones acting as spies and mobile defense platforms. They had quickly taken over the local projects and gangs, swelling in membership and being led by a low level Thinker called Three C. Many local teens had started piercing once side of their forehead with gold jewelry to copy the old implants that weren’t internal like the higher-level members. Despite their power they didn’t really try to expand their territories or operations because of other powerful villains in the city.

No one knows if it was because they weren’t expanding anymore, or she just didn’t like not being in charge but Leshawna, now calling herself Overmind, had simply notified every member of the network that she was now calling the shots. When people tried to fight her, she simply lobotomized or fried the brain of anyone who didn’t follow her orders. Scarily enough there were also rumors that she had control of the motor abilities of those she killed. Under her control, the gang had started to aggressively expand and she was fond of siege tactics that were hard to root out. She had become such a nuisance that the PRT had moved team members around to create a custom team to deal specifically with her, which was starting to prove effective at ousting them.

Luckily I didn’t require as much mechanical equipment as other Tinkers since I worked with biological material. Clumps of earth, distilled water, some drugs from the drug stores, and a custom computer that I bought parts for and managed to put together myself. My main issue had been lab equipment, and a machine shop to build stuff. It had taken me two weeks of carefully mixing a few things with some samples to make my first seeds. While the seeds were amazing they had a lot of flaws and all my lusus simply would not last longer than a few weeks. I didn’t have the tools yet to create the next generation of seed, and it would take money and time to build the basic equipment I wanted to really get started.

I had stolen my basic lab stuff from Winslow, after the principal had refused to take action against Emma and Sophia. It was weird but I felt horribly guilty not at the fact that I stole from the school, but that I didn’t feel guilty at stealing from them. The school had completely failed in its duty to protect me, but it wasn’t like that excused stealing. Dad had raised me better than that, and mom would have lectured me but I just couldn’t feel bad about it. I promised myself that once I was a trusted hero with plenty of sponsors I would pay them back with interest.

And finally things were starting to come together on the start of my equipment to build what I needed to be a hero. It was almost torture to not immediately grab the equipment and materials I needed and start making what I wanted. I had a million ideas for lusus, but learned my lessons from studying Overmind and Void. I took my time gathering materials to not arouse suspicion, trusted no one, would try to hide what I was capable of whenever possible , would take advantage of familiar territory, and would not go out until my equipment was ready.

Once my snakes were grown, I already knew what my first stop would be. I had spent the first week after my trigger just wandering around and taking notes of my tech tree, and what it would take to build up to it. I had carefully made a note of things I could use, and I remembered an old hospital that had closed down on the north end of town a few years ago. I had read about it in a local haunted places of Brockton Bay book, and based on my research they had to have some neuro imaging equipment that I needed to help build something to help “program” my lusus.

The information I could give them right now was very limited, and was sort of like teaching rats how to run a maze but done in a few seconds after creating them. I couldn’t reprogram minds already “programed”, so I had to create brand new snakes to program them to curl around me, and come when I gave a signal. I couldn’t be a good hero if I couldn’t control my creations, and there was no way I would create intelligent ones. I was also hoping to find some copper wire to salvage in the walls, and would teach the snakes to move into and gather it without making holes. I really needed the money for materials before I could build my first human sized model. I had an idea for getting around not having a human sized base for it after watching a documentary on the future of food and scientists efforts to grow meat in a lab. While I needed something living for my current seeds to work, the next generation should hopefully be able to get over that limitation after some work.

I carefully poured the distilled water into the tank, and spent the rest of the hour organizing my samples and materials. I had the seed carefully suspended in the large former fish tank, and checked on the portable generator I had made from a car battery. I looked at a slide of the venom I had extracted from the SX-1, and compared it to other genetic samples of snake venom and drugs on my computer and I researched on a few medical databases that didn’t have good security. I needed venom that would stop a person, but there was no such thing as a perfect tranquilizer for every person. Too little and it did nothing, but too much could be deadly. I had spent almost a week but I had finally thought I had something that would paralyze the nerves without causing pain, but wouldn’t have another other side affects.

Now I just had to create the template for the venom, and copy it in the right place of the DNA of the seed and a copy of the SX-1. Unfortunately I couldn’t yet directly create or modify something from the start. That wasn’t until the very end of the tech tree, and could take years to build up to. Right now I would be stuck using trial and error, while carefully trimming the biological growths of the seed as they developed until I had a form that used that venom. I had a pair of very sharp knives I had turned into scalpels to remove the growths I didn’t want and would put later bury into the garden in the backyard. Luckily the Lusus were enough of a plant that there wouldn’t be unusual dead animal smells to rouse suspicion from the neighbors.

Since the SX-1 forms were not that big, it shouldn't take long to grow and trim forms. But will probably take awhile before I had a form that had the right makeup of venom and would meet my purposes. I could slow the seeds growth but couldn’t stop it from splitting and growing once I started. I would start it tomorrow after dad left in the morning. I had already completed the rest of the schoolwork for this month, and should have sufficient time to grow the right form. Then I could simply clone some more seeds and clone at least half a dozen more SX-2s to defend myself with when I started to go to the lab proper I had spend time making hidden. I was so excited to finally being able to make what I imagined. I’m going to change this city for the better. I know it.





So this is story where Taylor gets Blasto’s shard. Blasto was a character with a lot of wasted potential. His main issue was his lack of control over of what he made, and that he was kind of an crazy. Blasto by word of god was more of villain scientist/researcher than a warlord. Taylor in contrast wants to be hero and this will greatly change how things progress for her. She has more morals that Blasto did, which will limit her in some big ways compared to him. She will be severely limited at first because she refuses to make sentient creations, or make creatures that she can’t control because she wants to be a hero. Though she is far more creative/strategic than Blasto, and this will push her down paths that Blasto would never have thought of. My favorite part of worm had been when Taylor had been a warlord, trying to help people and making tough choices. So this fic will detail her rise as a warlord of the city though with heroic intentions like in canon but much earlier in the timeline, and interacting with the other powers of the city as a powerful independent that is equal to other factions of the city. Similar to worm canon I wanted Taylor to start as a normal person, and will look nothing like she did at the end.

The main difference in this universe is that the Endbringers attacks were in different order, and a few different places. The Simurgh chose to attack Boston when Taylor was little pushing The Teeth and Accord to Brocton Bay. Brockton Bay benefited from the business that went their way after Boston was sealed, and it happened early enough that the Boat Graveyard wasn’t created by angry workers. So there is more work, and the docks are open. Though the world is still slowly being destroyed by the Endbringers causing a depression. The Butcher and Accord’s presence has changed Brockton in several ways. Both the Empire 88 and the ABB have a few more parahumans as the Butcher and Accord have hit the others hard. Lung in particular has a sort of bodyguard to protect him while he bulks up after nearly dying twice to the Butcher and Accord’s ambassadors. The Butcher in particular has changed things drastically for many characters, though that will be shown in future chapters. Accord is allied with Coil and they have a non-aggression pact with their powers greatly benefiting each other. The merchants have been absorbed into the Teeth, and they hold more territory, and Coil’s hold on downtown is much more stable. So despite the fact the Empire and the ABB have more capes, they actually hold less territory than in canon. Though Lung has recently had success pushing the Teeth out of the docks since the Butcher is trying to expand in another city. Cauldron is not experimenting in Brockton Bay since Accord doesn’t want such a thing in his city.

Taylor has a ways to go before she becomes a warlord, but she will be a long time enemy with the other gangs in the city, and Coil will loathe her as an arch enemy before the story is over. Still haven’t thought of a good cape name for her. Well I could see her calling herself Blasto, I think she would pick something else. I know the writing is rough, but any constructive feedback is appreciated. This arc involves Taylor at the first stage of her tech tree, and trying to figure out a way to be a hero with Blasto’s power, and Taylor starting to develop a hypothesis about parahuman powers.

 

So, I just discovered the (NSFW) General CYOA Thread that we have here, and I was struck with an Idea. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

Choose your Own Adventure! (A slightly-meta Worm omake)
Episode 1: Taylor Hebert

I startled into awareness as my vision was assaulted with bright colors and loud music. Considering the last thing I recalled was the dark and disgusting inside of my locker, I was understandable confused at the sudden change. Also, was that... cheering?

As my Eyes adjusted, I noticed that I seemed to be standing in front of some sort of colorful stage that, for all I could tell, seemed to be floating in a sea of blackness.

"Thank you, thank you." Huh, the voice sounded exactly like Alex Trebek. "And welcome to the first ever episode of: Choose Your Own Adventure!" The cheering perked up for a bit before settling down. "I'm your host; ROB, and today we're going to be bringing you a very special guest: Taylor Hebert!"

A spotlight suddenly shone down on me as the invisible audience once again burst into cheers and applause. I only had a a moment to freak out before a glowing figure who I'm guessing was the host gently (but firmly) pulled me toward a raised podium next to some sort of prize-wheel that I'm certain wasn't there a second ago. After placing me on the podium, he continued down front so that he was facing both me and the 'audience'.

"Taylor here comes from Brockton Bay in the dimension known as Earth Bet." My thought process, which was finally beginning to catch up with what was going on ground to a halt at that. If he had to mention the dimension... "For those of you unfamiliar with it; Earth Bet is a world populated with both regular humans and beings known as parahumans who used to be normal humans, but underwent a traumatic event and gained superpowers." Crap, I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore.

I did my best to keep from hyperventilating as 'ROB' continued. "Taylor here, after getting betrayed by her best friend and emotionally tortured for over a year and a half in a way that was almost certainly designed by her tormenters to psychologically break her completely,"

Wait, what? Oh. Oh shit, that made way too much sense. Not for the first time I wondered what the fuck is wrong with those girls. Oh! the host was still talking.

"-Bug control powers, and would use them in a series of unfortunate events which would end up saving not only her world, but countless others." I was a bit to emotionally numb to react to that, even though I had a feeling I would later. "Yes, folks; Taylor here is a real diamond in the rough." I idly noted that the crowd had once again burst into applause.

"Today, we're giving Taylor the choice to change her destiny and Choose Her Own Adventure." I could hear the title drop as the crowd once again burst into applause.

...Wait a minute.

"I have a choice?" The words leave my mouth before I could think better of it.

"Of course; all contestants have the right to refuse to play, in which case they're sent back to their lives with no memory of this."

"I see. So this... game?"

"There are countless worlds in the omniverse." He explains. "Some of them need help, and some of them have people in them that need help. What our show offers is the chance to go on an adventure of your choosing, on a world of your choosing, with advantages and disadvantages you choose ahead of time; all guided by our wonderful Wheel-Of-Adventure." He said as he motioned to the object I was standing next to. "Anything from a quiet life with a couple perks, to adventures that save entire multiverses."

Shooting me an award winning smile (that I could still make out, despite not being able to see any of his features), he continued. "So, Miss Hebert, do you want to give it a spin?"

Some questions immediately sprung to mind, "You said that I was part of saving the world." And countless others. "What will happen If I go?"

"Don't worry, Miss Hebert; someone else will get the job. Rest assured, Earth Bet will be safe. Also, any family you you wish to bring will accompany you on your journey, with their memories altered to make their new life appear normal to them."

For a long minute I stood there before finally coming to a decision. Moving so that I'm facing the wheel, I raise my hand (to much cheering from the audience) before giving it a hard spin.

For an agonizing minute, the brightly-colored wheel span before finally settling on a panel. A bell went off and flashing lights lit up as it did.

"Congratulations, Miss Hebert; You've won the meta-option of Immortality!" Six statues of her appeared on the other side of the wheel, each of them dressed in different outfits. "Meta-options grant you bonus perks in addition to anything else you'll pick wherever you go." He explained as he lead her over to the statues. "Take your time, and select whichever one you want."

I studied the statues for a while. I quickly disregarded The Little Girl; dealing with any of those things for eternity sounded like torture (although the porno one was kinda tempting, considering the lack of consequences those tend to have on things like pregnancy and STDs).

Genie was right out, also; I wanted some control in my life, dammit.

Vampire had a certain allure to it. Although I was never that much of a fan of the vampire craze that seemed to be sweeping the country, I couldn't deny the attractiveness of the thought. Bad sunburns and the need for blood would be a bit inconvenient at first, though.

Reborn sounded kinda handy, but a bit creepy.

As for Eternal Woman; I don't know If I want to be 50 forever.

Nova, on the other hand, sounded very handy if I wanted to be a superhero. From the sound of it, I made a pretty good one in the original timeline (or whatever it's called), and this could literally make me unstoppable for the 100 years I'd live. I was a bit leery on the 'Take Another Spin' clause, though.

So, Vampire or Nova. Both of them had powers and drawbacks. In the end, I walked up to the Vampire one and placed my hand on the bat motif on it (because I want to be able to fly, dammit).

"The winner is Vampire!" 'ROB' announced, followed by a resounding cheer from the audience. "And now, let's spin the wheel again.

I did so. As the wheel spun to a stop, the pointer lands on something called "Little Schoolgirl". Even as the Trebek sound-alike announced the result, I couldn't repress the grimace on my face; thoughts of my most recent school experience flashing before my eyes.

The announcer must have seen it too, because he immediately spoke up. "Don't worry Miss Hebert. Like I said, this is Choose Your Own Adventure." He explained as he lead me to the side of the stage, where more objects had appeared. "You get to pick what kind of experience you'll be having in your new school at whichever world matches your selection. Also, if you complete your task within a year's time, you'll have the option of returning to Earth Bet with any friends, abilities, and items you want to bring with you." That did console me somewhat, but I was still a bit leery of the whole thing.

After taking a deep breath to settle my nerves, I walked up to examine my options.

For Age, I decided to stick with 15. No sense making things overly-complicated.

After that I was given 20 golden-star tokens to use to make selections.

First up was selecting a challenge, which took the form of paintings of different scenes that I instinctively understood the meaning behind.

I wanted adventure, so I dismissed the easier options pretty quickly. The horror one sounded rather intriguing, I'll admit. Then again, Emma was the one who got freaked out at horror movies, I usually enjoyed them. The war one sounded like my best bet to be a hero, but this would be an actual war, not superheros against supervillains. The one about the food-thief sounded intriguing, but there had to be a reason it was so cheap, compared to the others. The one about busting the bullies, I dismissed outright after reading the title. If I wanted to deal with bullies, I'd have stayed on Bet. I finally decided to go with 'Something in the Dark"; after all, as a vampire, I was uniquely suited to working at night.


Making my decision, I moved on to the choice of what kind of world I wanted to be sent to. It looks like there were a bunch of worlds that fit the criteria, but only one of them took place in the modern world, and that was in Tokyo. Looks like no matter what I choose I'll be out of my element. ...Odd, there are a bunch of different schools from different time periods throughout history. From what I remember, though; public schooling only really became a thing fairly recently.

There were also some more fantastic worlds including some with elves and other fantasy creatures, a bunch worlds with futuristic technology, and even a few with both. None of them sound all that appealing, though... wait a minute: this one is a modern-day magic-school (still in Tokyo, though). If I learn magic, I can go back to Earth Bet at the end of my time and teach others! The possibilites were endless!

3 stars later, and I was effectively registered for magic-school, my family having immigrated to Japan a year ago. I checked with ROB confirmed that I'd be able to speak Japanese with only a little accent.

After that, I got to play around with my appearance a bit. I made myself a bit shorter and curved, but I didn't change much aside from that. I'll admit, it was tempting to pick the 'beauty' option, but the rational side of my brain stopped me from wasting four stars on what I knew was a frivolous perk. Besides, despite what Emma and her friends said, I still held some hope that I'd be as beautiful as mom, one day. I'm also able to fix my eyesight for free, something I'm insanely happy about.

Next was... seating? Really? Well, I might as well take the front-row seat if I'm going to be learning magic and stuff, and it's only 1 star.

The next part was rather odd, since the paintings disappeared and were replaced by seemingly ordinary items. Interacting with them put the lie to that, though. The items represented perks and minor powers that she could use to enhance herself.

The chef's hat is tempting, and I resolve to pick it up if I have any stars left; as a treat for dad, if nothing else. I pass on the energetic candy, but the snow-globe sounds useful, so I pay the two stars for it. The staff was tempting, but if I'm already learning magic, it'd be a bit of a waste of stars. The glasses are also tempting at first glance, but I just fixed my eyesight, so why would I want to make it worse again just for some magical binoculars. The little steel blade... no; I can feel the blood-lust coming off of it. I pass on the headband, also; I can already shape-shift. The black teacup looks like it would go well with the vampire thing I have going, so I grab that as well. The safety razor... no. The teddy-bear is tempting, but I already have the snow-globe and the teacup; besides, I don't want to abuse my cuteness like Maddison did. I also decide to pass on the broom and pebble.

I stop as I get to the section about home-life. There are pictures of us moving to Japan. Picture of me with my mom and dad. Both of them. I break down crying tears of joy as I realize that, no matter what happens, I'll get my mother back out of this. It takes me a few minutes before I manage to compose myself from that.

Moving to the next section with a new spring in my step, I start looking through the list of friends and family they offer. An adopted sibling was definitely tempting; I've always wanted a sister. I decide to pass on any extended relatives. All six options for friends look pretty awesome, and since I have 12 points to spare, I decide to grab all of them.

Okay, since I have 6 stars left, I decide to grab Athleticism for 3, Mayumi and 'Uncle' Kojiro for one each (again, always wanted to have an older sister, and Kojiro sounds useful to have around, especially for dealing with whatever is haunting the town), and... the chef's hat.

Finishing up, I turn to address ROB. "Done." I state simply.

There's a cheer from the 'crowd' as I do. "Excellent! Good luck in your new adventure, Miss Hebert." With that, he claps his hands together, and the world slowly fades out, catchy show-tune music playing all the while.

***

This was oddly fun to write. I'll have to do it for more characters.

A lot longer than I thought it would be, though.

In case anyone's wondering, I rolled randomly to see what kind of CYOA she'd get. I took a few creative Liberties with the Little Schoolgirl CYOA in order to help it fit.

Edit: Made some quick changes to help with the flow, but it still could probably use some work.