Safe For Work Worm Ideas thread

TanaNari · Mar 20, 2015

The Protectorate often travels to other Endbringers overseas.

So do a number of teams.

New Wave almost certainly never did- except *maybe* Panacea after the fact to heal. If they had, they'd have lost members well before Leviathan.

OverReactionGuy · Mar 20, 2015

Zege said:
Revisions have been made to the previous snippets, primarily through the Armsmaster section of the third snippet. Hopefully, this time I got him right. That, and Taylor now has a nice red scarf to improvise a balaclava with!

Wish I'd thought of it earlier, to be honest.

Incidentally, does anyone happen to know what the extent of Cape travel there was for Endbringer fights? Like, would say New Wave show at a battle on the western seaboard, or British capes at an African battle? I'm fuzzy on who outside of the Triumvirate and Dragon appear at every battle.

Input on the revisions would be much appreciated!

Much better.

cyberswordsmen · Mar 20, 2015

TanaNari said:
The Protectorate often travels to other Endbringers overseas.

So do a number of teams.

New Wave almost certainly never did- except *maybe* Panacea after the fact to heal. If they had, they'd have lost members well before Leviathan.

Endbringer battles are over in a couple hours. Unless a team has access to parahuman transport faster than anything possible through modern science they can only travel to battles that are fairly nearby. The Protectorate probably has enough movers to make a good appearance most anywhere but smaller teams aren't likely to be able to make it to fights more than a 100 miles away no matter how much they want to.

This is part of the reason I don't buy the idea that keeping villains around for endbringer fights is a legitimate reason. They don't have the resources to show up to non-local fights anymore than most non-protectorate hero which means that only the villains in the attacked city count but protectorate heroes count for all attacks. Unless they expect a specific American City to be attacked allowing villains to prosper there even a single cape that goes villain that could have been a hero if being a villain wasn't such a good career move or a hero dies due to being handicapped means a massive drop in overall endbringer combat effectiveness. Keeping villains around as a major part of the defense only makes sense if they view it as every city for themselves.

Drak4806 · Mar 20, 2015

Hey quick question. When did Cherish join the Nine?

TanaNari · Mar 20, 2015

cyberswordsmen said:
Endbringer battles are over in a couple hours. Unless a team has access to parahuman transport faster than anything possible through modern science they can only travel to battles that are fairly nearby. The Protectorate probably has enough movers to make a good appearance most anywhere but smaller teams aren't likely to be able to make it to fights more than a 100 miles away no matter how much they want to.

Wrong. Dragon has plenty of ships used to pick people up in cities across the whole USA. That's how the Undersiders and most of the Wards got to the Behemoth fight in New Delhi.

And Dragon kindly transported them all back, despite being notorious criminals with one hell of a record, including conquering a city.

So basically everything you said is proven wrong in the story.

Drak4806 said:
Hey quick question. When did Cherish join the Nine?

Early 2011- no way of knowing exactly when, but probably before Taylor joined the Undersiders.

cyberswordsmen · Mar 20, 2015

TanaNari said:
Wrong. Dragon has plenty of ships used to pick people up in cities across the whole USA. That's how the Undersiders and most of the Wards got to the Behemoth fight in New Delhi.

And Dragon kindly transported them all back, despite being notorious criminals with one hell of a record, including conquering a city.

So basically everything you said is proven wrong in the story.

Dragon wasn't capable of building those until Defiant started to jailbreak her as they require some automation to function. They are also massive tinkertech devices which require a prior relationship with the villain group to make the pickup. Normal villain groups won't make the cut for pickup. VIPs like Lung would warrant attention but not most villians, and the Undersiders have showing of to the fights as part of their truce with the PRT and are more of a rival government/hero group by that point rather than villains. Not transporting them back would be a violation of the truce and give Dragon a one way trip to her own prison.

TanaNari · Mar 20, 2015

You say a lot of weird shit that's supported exactly nowhere at all in the story.

Zege · Mar 20, 2015

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.

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.

Dreadis · Mar 20, 2015

Zege said:
and killed in front of her family. One

May want to check the word order here.

And the rankings seem fine for a preliminary, though the tinker shaker thing should be a trump rating with tinker as a subrating since she was copying tinkertech that was nearby, and the trump label is for when designing restrictions to what is allowed to be fielded against a copycat style cape. You send mooks with guns against power copiers without their own powers, not Alexandria after all. In this case it would be a general moratorium against letting tinkers get close/engage based on what they witnessed.

Navrin · Mar 21, 2015

A fairly simple "alternate" power... Taylor doesn't double-trigger, for whatever reason. Maybe she fell unconscious too soon after triggering for it to happen. Regardless of the reason, she must make do with a power that is, in many (but probably not all) respects weaker than what she had in canon and likely would go about heroing in a VERY different way.

Peanuckle · Mar 21, 2015

Navrin said:
A fairly simple "alternate" power... Taylor doesn't double-trigger, for whatever reason. Maybe she fell unconscious too soon after triggering for it to happen. Regardless of the reason, she must make do with a power that is, in many (but probably not all) respects weaker than what she had in canon and likely would go about heroing in a VERY different way.

IIRC the second-trigger was the multitasking. So she'd only be able to use a very small amount of insects at any given time. Much weaker, and it'd call for a totally different style.

Navrin · Mar 21, 2015

Indeed, though I believe she would be at least as good on the sensing side, plus she'd probably be a lot more sane. Both from less trauma and from being further away from the shard mindset.

She'd probably either join the Wards or focus on giving the PRT and Police information. After all, her power would probably be fairly lackluster as far as active heroing goes.

Zege · Mar 21, 2015

Is there a timeframe for when Trainwreck infiltrated the Merchants?

Andrew Greaves · Mar 22, 2015

Drak4806 said:
Hey quick question. When did Cherish join the Nine?

TanaNari said:
Early 2011- no way of knowing exactly when, but probably before Taylor joined the Undersiders.

Actually, a lot later. Perhaps even after Leviathan struck. It wasn't yet known that she'd killed Hachet Face in order to replace him on the Nine when they showed up in Brockton Bay.

Drak4806 · Mar 22, 2015

Did Bonesaw have a deadman switch linked to a bunch of bioweapons or is that fanon?

Nervaqus987 · Mar 22, 2015

Drak4806 said:
Did Bonesaw have a deadman switch linked to a bunch of bioweapons or is that fanon?

At most, she had some plagues in her body that would be unleashed if she died.

No idea how potent, because the scene it's mentioned in, Defiant points out that the nature of the room they're in plus his sealed suit meant the plagues wouldn't amount to shit.

Bonesaw having scattered plague box deadmen's switches is fanon though, and never hinted at.

Kolarthecool · Mar 22, 2015

Not sure on a name or if any one has posted this idea before but here it goes.

Basically a worm/nasu crossover. Alaya twigs on the threat that Zion and his children will pose to great swarths of humanity, better send in a counter guardian.

With the variety of threats posed against humanity and the diversity of parahuman abilitues, who better to send than the guardian with a vast array of weapons to suit each issue.

And that's how Counter Guardian EMIYA finds his way on earth bet, a world populated by villains and the superheroes he once aspired to be like.

Zege · Mar 22, 2015

Kolarthecool said:
Not sure on a name or if any one has posted this idea before but here it goes.

Basically a worm/nasu crossover. Alaya twigs on the threat that Zion and his children will pose to great swarths of humanity, better send in a counter guardian.

With the variety of threats posed against humanity and the diversity of parahuman abilitues, who better to send than the guardian with a vast array of weapons to suit each issue.

And that's how Counter Guardian EMIYA finds his way on earth bet, a world populated by villains and the superheroes he once aspired to be like.

Stop giving me ideas!

I'm already doing UBW!Taylor, and planning Prisma!Shirou-in-Bet, plus have ideas for Aionion Hetairoi!Taylor. Now you spark an EMIYA in Bet idea?

I'm bad enough at sitting on ideas as it is, I don't need more.

Kolarthecool · Mar 22, 2015

Zege said:
Stop giving me ideas!

I'm already doing UBW!Taylor, and planning Prisma!Shirou-in-Bet, plus have ideas for Aionion Hetairoi!Taylor. Now you spark an EMIYA in Bet idea?

I'm bad enough at sitting on ideas as it is, I don't need more.

UBW! Taylor? Why have I not seen this fic before, reading it right now!

As for Emiya in bet, do it

, you know you want to.

Zege · Mar 22, 2015

Kolarthecool said:
UBW! Taylor? Why have I not seen this fic before, reading it right now!

As for Emiya in bet, do it , you know you want to.

Eh, it's just some snippets for now, and not particularly good ones at that. I'm trying though. Maybe I'll get enough practice and rewrite what I've got in the future.

Kolarthecool · Mar 22, 2015

Zege said:
Eh, it's just some snippets for now, and not particularly good ones at that. I'm trying though. Maybe I'll get enough practice and rewrite what I've got in the future.

Just read it, its pretty decent, better than a majority of fics and snippets i've stumbled across.

Sucks that the power doesnt come with a full arsenal of weapons but I guess thats more realistic. Cant wait until she gets her hands on Dauntless' Arclance or Jack Slash's knives if she can replicate the abilities used on certain weapons.

Zege · Mar 22, 2015

Kolarthecool said:
Just read it, its pretty decent, better than a majority of fics and snippets i've stumbled across.

Sucks that the power doesnt come with a full arsenal of weapons but I guess thats more realistic. Cant wait until she gets her hands on Dauntless' Arclance or Jack Slash's knives if she can replicate the abilities used on certain weapons.

Thanks!

As for replicating abilities, that's not something really applicable. Tinkertech isn't fully recreated, and the effects applied by powers are incapable of replication through her shard. So no go for most of that.

I do intend on giving her plenty of opportunities to record weapons with all sorts of interesting histories though. A certain pair of Chinese falchions, forged from odd magnetic metals, will come into her records eventually...

OverReactionGuy · Mar 22, 2015

A 10 year old Taylor ends up with Kaledostick Ruby complete with a set of cards. A vastly nicer Earth Bet Geae learns of this and empowers her more because she rather not blow up because of Zion. Causing her to be able to do things like spam 12 excaliblasts at once.

Can Broklen bay handle the coming of the magic girl?!

Will Zelchtrich stop eating popcorn?

Will Anetta live?!

Will the Endbringers Lolnope Out of the universe?!

Will Taylor become an eternal 10 year old magical girl due to Ruby being Ruby?!

Fuck if I know, I am not going to write it.

Snake/Eater · Mar 23, 2015

I have this idea of a Worm crossover with Stephan king's the Darktower series with Alec in the role of Jake.

welcome to mid-world...the birth world of the entities and the end of our existence

Zege · Mar 23, 2015

Snake/Eater said:
I have this idea of a Worm crossover with Stephan king's the Darktower series with Alec in the role of Jake.

I... Can't really see Alec taking Jake's role. Jake was the solemn heart of the ka-tet, the one who encouraged communication and honesty amongst the band. Alec is a damaged teen who uses humor to cover the depth of his problems. He feels more like Eddie in that respect.

But a story about Roland being the father Alec never really had would be an interesting read, even if it would change the dynamic of the ka-tet so much. I'd read it, but it would take careful plotting to hold my SOD.

TheAnt · Mar 23, 2015

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.

TheAnt · Mar 23, 2015

Since other have been posting ideas, I thought I would put some notes I had for other fics I have snippets and one or two chapters for. Named them after colors since I am terrible with names. I am going to try and focus on the Blasto fic, but I think when it finishes I will focus on one of the following since I have some stuff for already. I did mention that I like alternate worlds right?

Reality Green- Taylor with Blasto's shard. Ideas from the first three fics will be used in story.

1. Echidna- Taylor gets nilbog's shard. First thing I ever wrote, and I even emailed Wildbow asking about details of Nilbog back when the story was around the Echidna arc. Details Taylor dealing with all the ethical issues and trying to be a hero. Some of the issues with ruling the docks as a hero with a creepy power are used to heavy effect in the Blasto fic.
2. The Cowboy of the Void- Greg has Voids power, see above, gotten from a Cauldron vial, and his journey as a vigilante. I got this idea from a fic that sadly hasn't been updated in a while where Taylor sells powers. This one is similar in that Greg will have a power in the story, though we won't see him for some time. Some of the characters and the plotlines will be used for the story. Though I need to work on it since it gets very dark. Greg will start as a naïve, socially awkward hero, who really does not think about the consequences beyond the short term. He will be painfully made aware of this, and will be forced to face some things he really isn't ready for.
3. The Rise of the Undersiders- Similar to other fics, this was time travel fix fic. But has every member of the Undersiders have their consciousness travel back in time to almost a year before Taylor's trigger event. They come together earlier, and try to change the future for the better, becoming the anti-cauldron in the process with the goal of freeing dragon, killing Eidolon, stopping Jack, and preparing to kill Scion now that they know how to kill him. Parts of the story I will use will be the Undersiders becoming independent from Coil and becoming a faction on their own much earlier in the story. Since Taylor will become a warlord before the Undersiders are first put together and makes them an offer to work with her.

Reality Black- The Simurgh tries an alternate anti-Scion plan early with the Travelers, which works and she goes into hibernation afterward. Scion commits suicide the day Taylor triggers. This causes all shards to behave similar to the butchers where the first person to kill a parahuman, normal people included, gets a watered down version of the shard, though it only works once and you can reject it at some cost due to the serious mental issues/side effects including case 53 monstrous looks or going crazy even from just one watered down shard. Though cauldron shards can be taken more than once. Taylor's great mult-tasking ability allows her to hold many such watered down shards without mental issues and the story explores her growing in power as things go to hell as people start killing each other for parahuman shards all over the world. Events:
The 9 come to town much earlier in canon and take advantage of the chaos, - Lots of deaths/murders. Hookwolf kills Kaiser, Noelle kills oliver and heals herself, assault is killed by bakuda, who is killed by battery in revenge, and will eventually be killed by Taylor due to trying to build a bomb that would kill a lot of innocents. Blasto is forced to join Cauldron, though is killed by jack later in the story. Dragon will copy some of his tech to try and clone a new Hero and Richter. Cherish leads the teeth by controlling the butcher similar to her plan was with the 9.

Coil tries to assassinate Dinah, but fails due to this Dinah becoming much more aware of the dangers of the world early. Lisa and the Undersiders go independent almost immediately as Lisa does not trust Coil to not try and kill her, and they will be forced to kill to save themselves from people trying to pick up some easy shards from rookie parahumans.

Uber and Leet are killed and replaced by two regular humans who try to take their place. Gallant is killed after Glory Girl accidently reveals his identity to some friends, and new wave moves to another location as there quite a few assassination attempts on them and Panacea.

By the later Leviathan attack, Taylor would have weakened versions of Batterys, bonesaws, and echidnas shard that she got from a newly returned class S Cody who killed Noelle, Trickster, and accord.

Nasty world with quite a few new triggers dying or going insane. Parahumans will have giant targets on their backs by other parahumans and regular humans who want their ability, and paranoia will be a fact of life for rogues/villains. There will be very few large-scale villain organizations because many parahumans will be unable to trust each other leaving many more independent villain parahumans in the city. In fact several will try to join the Undersiders for the perceived security.

The PRT actually becomes stronger and swells in membership from parahumans joining for perceived security/safety including a few canon villains. Behemoth will still be killed at great cost by heroes/villains that have new shards, but no new endbringers will show up due to david's death by Contessa. Leviathan will be active all the time, and as the only endbringer will attack once a year, but still makes travel by ship so dangerous that oceans almost become impassible. Contessa with Eidolon's power is the only reason the world hasn't gone to hell from killing numerous new S-class threats before they are created to recharge Eidlon's weakened shard and using her power to keep things from descending into anarchy. Cauldron's crimes and their connection to PRT will not be kept secret in story, which will cause new problems. Contessa's new goal to lessening the number of parahumans that are created. This is a world were being a villain that doesn't kill makes you a very attractive person to work under.

Reality Blue- My old favorite, and a sort of silver age Worm filled with Tinkers- Alternate universe where Zion and Eden destroyed a alien civilization that could reproduce any power with their tech though in weaker strength, and infected the shards they used with a virus to send a warning/preserve their knowledge and culture/set a trap for them.

All shards allow an unconscious choice between canon powers, or weaker abilities that have built in tinker knowledge about said shard. No one remembers this choice during your trigger as it is by instinct, with most choosing the perceived greater power. This knowledge allows parahumans to build tech to diversify their existing abilities, such as Brian building a teleporter for a mover rating similar to his echidna clone that could use darkness to teleport. As an added bonus, this tech can be used by regular people to have weaker versions of canon powers.

The Tinker version of shards is rare among case 53's, and tinker shards have less drive to conflict. Monstrous capes that choose tinker shards use their tinker abilities similar to Trainwreak did in canon.

Tinkers are thus much more common in world. Canon tinkers have extra additional power that allows them to manipulate matter in small amounts letting them build/experiment/repair much faster with few if any materials. This pushes them to the end of their tech tree much faster, and allows them to equip more people while still having time to innovate.

While tinker's tech reproduction problems are still present, the world's tech is much more advanced due to many more rogues, though not too widespread due to issues with infrastructure and the Endbringers presence. Toybox is the largest cape organization in the world.

A normal human vigilante with tinker tech killed Jack years ago and what's left of the 9 are wanted fugitives. Crawler is in the birdcage, Siberian still at large, and Mannequin is the most feared former member who is intelligent enough to be able to steal/use other Tinkers stuff from his victims. The moon has been cracked in two though, and there are many more villains like Blasto and Labrat.

The Undersiders will all be tinkers. Taylor uses tech to become Khepri lite from start of story and becomes a powerful/feared independent hero that many consider a myth. Dragon is open as a AI and renowned as most powerful hero in the world. She will married Armsmaster, and has adopted bonesaw. Saint is seen as terrorist/murderer for killing Dragon's "brother" who was created just before Richter was killed.

There was a relatively short war to destroy Nilbog, but the state was destroyed and has been quarantined as some of his creations are still around and breeding. Many more independent heroes like new wave. Normal people using tinker tech as villains/heroes is much more common. Is considered normal for canon tinkers, haven't thought of a good name for them in this world, to equip several people with tech. Many charge them for use of tech, and villain tinkers have been known to act like loan sharks with requiring those they sponsor to pay a certain amount every month. Hero canon Tinkers often sponsor their own hero teams made up of normal civilians. Kid win for example has a small team of four that use his tech as heroes. The most famous of these are the Dragon Teeth.

Uber and Leet are major players thanks to that extra power allowing Leet to more easily repair his old tech. Their "guild" has beaten the merchants and absorbed some of their members. Leet is currently dating Squeeler and are rivals with the 88 and the ABB. Bakuda is not part of ABB as she joined a group of "pure" (Dual? True?Canon?) Villainous tinkers. The ABB has two new members recruited and their only tinker is Lee. He is much more coherent as 2nd in command with regular members taking turns using his teleporting tech to avoid sideeffects and seen as initiation into gang. The 88 still has some of Allfathers infamous old tech but can barely make use of it as Kaiser is not a Tinker. But the 88's hated arch enemy Golem has managed to steal and use it with his own tech to great effect against them. The only two tinkers in the 88 are purity in her power armor and rune.

Coil and Dinah unchanged. Travelers are still around but Cody became the monster and is a known S class threat that is causing quite a bit of trouble in the Chinese imperial union and Asia. Noelle has Cody's power, and Oliver's tech has made the travelers wealthy/famous rogues since it greatly helps monstrous case 53's look more humanoid and good looking. Debate among group whether to try and go home or not, with most liking their place in Earth bet.

Japan is still around with Leviathan's attack being very damaging but not as severe thanks to the famous mass fabrication tinker greatly expanding Japans power. Japan's Sentai Hero Corps are the main counter to china's Yangban and have a pact similar to Nato with other counties against aggressive moves by the Union.

Cauldron's goal is to find Jacks old lab whose tech is theorized by Dinah and others to destroy or save the world when used. Though Jack has set a trap with a "mind" virus that will cause trouble. Eidolon is braindead thanks to Siberian, though his tech has been used by Contessa/Hero to destroy Leviathan by teaming up with Dragon during the battle. But his tech is becoming harder and harder to maintain/fix by Hero. New Endbringers are showing up much earlier but acting weird, and the world is more hopeful that they can be beaten. The Smurf is even more feared because she can use others tech, was the first endbringer, and has similarly targeted many others like mannequin and richter. A world half full instead of half empty, and much more hopeful for future. Taylor would sort of be seen as a dark figure of myth as she keeps herself secret easily with her tech.

Reality Red-Only crossover story. While I have two chapter written for it, they pale in comparison to the other much better written/horrifying fic that has the Simurgh attack Brockton Bay. So I'm not sure I will focus on it. In this crossover inspired by Deadman Wonderland, Taylor triggers as the wretched egg/Red Man. Very dark fic.

The Simurgh attacks Brockton Bay to target Taylor, though she doesn't come near her, to prepare her as an Anti-Scion weapon for the future. The Simurgh takes steps to keep parahumans from fleeing, opening a dimensional door to cauldron's storage, raining down case 53's and numerous vials. Echidna shows up early to try and kill her but is killed.

Taylor escapes the locker as the school is destroyed by the Simurgh, finds a vial from Cauldron, and finds her father dead and being eaten by something. Distraught and angry she drinks the vial turning her into the wretched egg and causes a massive earthquake in Brockton Bay. The story would be similar to the arcs after Leviathan attacked but with no one able to leave and even less order in the city. Strange alliances are formed trying to survive in the new city wide prison.

Taylor has the ability to use any branch of sin, can implant a blood crystal into others that gives people random/new branches of sin, can communicates telepathically with anything her blood touches, is able to heal from a single cell, and is immune to thinker abilities. Her skin and hair have become pale white, and the story details her struggling to survive and help others in the city, while hiding another personality that she blames on the Simurgh that likes to destroy and kill and can use the wretched egg's ability.
Three months down the line she would slip into that other personality briefly, easily escape, and kill Behemoth when he shows up. This is besides causing another earthquake in another part of the world. Though Taylor will not be conscious of doing this…at first. Dragon will build the mother goose system after studying Behemoth's corpse, that can weaken or shut down ALL parahuman shards in its range thanks to some new information, unknowing given from the Simurgh. The mother goose system is built around a Brockton Bay that is strangely becoming bigger on the inside due to the still open portals.

After a almost successful escape attempt by the Fairy Queen, she moves all of the birdcage inhabitants to Brockton Bay. Sort of prison survival story. The few wards/heroes that got caught trying to get families out team up with Coil and Piggot enters relationship with him. Taylor teams up with Undersiders and Bakuda for safety. She will also find and protect an unknowing Sophia and Emma.

Panacea and Glory girl get stranded on their own before Pancea starts making creatures similar to Nilbog for defense and meets her dad. Hookwolf leads remnants of 88 that didn't escape. The merchants swelling in power/members like in canon. The city is VERY dangerous with numerous case 53s in city, crazy echidna clones, weird monsters, and the portals lead to a impossible huge building with no exit.

Emma becomes a case 53 and joins Taylor. Though she will go through some dark times including losing her family, and try to redeem her friendship that she had with Taylor. Sophia eventually leaves to be her lone wolf predator, before coming back and nearly dying. Numerous fights over resources/dropped supplies with other groups. Taylor will also have to use diplomacy, and negotiation while ruling over a large civilian population that she will try to help. Taylor "adopts" Dinah who informs her that they will be let out in two years and knows that Taylor will be important at the end, though she is unware that Taylor will either save or destroy the world.

Reality White- Another one that I have some stuff written for. Attempt to write Worm as more street level, which has been defined by a friend of mine as where a group of thugs with guns is a very dangerous threat for everyone, and the police have ability to deal with most threats though at great cost. Eden's accident was a true attempt by Abbadon to kill her which succeeded. He also used a large ability to weaken all of her and Zion's shards before Zion managed to destroy him at great cost.

Thus all powers are canonically weaker or have more limitations that limit their effectiveness. Except for 4 exceptions including those that have a 2nd trigger, those that were weak to start with such as Skidmark, Tinkers since their power is based off of knowledge, and certain classes of Thinkers including Precogs. Coincidently case 53s with altered forms are more humanoid/rarer.

On a scale from 1 to 10, most parahumans are 2-4. With higher numbers being MUCH rarer. There are no S-class threats except a greatly weakened Zion at the end. Though there is a strong possibility that he will leave according to Cauldron. The Endbringers, and what would be S class in canon are the only A class threats. The militaries of the world are still around though greatly damaged, as even weakened the Endbringers have done a lot of damage. The Endbringers are similar to canon except not as tough, and they do no escalate when things start to go against them.

The military have started to relay more on parahumans and the PRT for defense. The world is still fated to be destroyed by the Endbringers but in over a century, and one endbringer will have be killed without Scion, and another will skip a turn after being hit by a nuke. Scion will have to spend several hours destroying a county instead of waving a hand to do it and has a finite powersource that has to recharge. That is if he does not leave for greener pastures elsewhere.

Jack was an infamous serial killer who rampaged with the 9 for over a year before being killed by a special FBI taskforce. Hero is still alive as Siberian's range and control was not as great and they figured out her power. Manton still around but has nearly been killed several times and thus only rarely attacks. Cauldron is still around but not as influential, as Contessa can't use her power all the time and has to be choosy with what to focus on.

There is a large anti parahuman movement with the Empire being very anti parahuman and thus its canon members are in different places/circumstances. Dragon and Armsmaster are more influential as Tinkers are the same as in canon. Since the militaries are more involved fighting Endbringers, though they are starting to relay more and more on parahumans, the world is much less tolerant of villains. The birdcage has a much bigger population/kill orders are more common.

The ABB is led by bakuda who beat Lung with a custom bomb and put a bomb in his head as a leash. The 88 still led by Kaisar who is hiding that he is a parahuman. Purity is a known hero, and has custody of Aster she threatened to reveal his power if he tries anything. The merchants are more powerful since their powers are unchanged since they were weak already in canon. One of the gangs is a large and influential mob alliance that has no parahumans but does hire parahuman assasins/tinker equipment. Coil's power is the same, and he is seen as much more powerful and holds the most territory in the city as a Kingpin figure.

Dinah is not seen as any more accurate than other precogs, which is because she can now lie in exchange for a few less decimal places in her predictions, and is left alone. Though she does make some extra money one the side while hiding her identity since the 88 goes after lone parahumans. Leet is seen as washed up rather than a joke since he was much more effective with his tech in this world.

Taylor enters a much weaker world with her canon power which is seen as overpowered rather than weak, becoming THE hero of Brockton Bay since her ability to track people over a large area makes her very dangerous to criminals. Story would be similar to Taylor becoming a legendary figure that strikes fear into criminals.

Reality Purple- Sort of attempt to make a Worm Noir story. Like the world, but its difficult to write clever/intelligent characters effectively and come up with numerous new OC tinkers, strangers, and thinkers. Due to poor economic prospects, Leviathan attacking much earlier in the timeline, city wide bankruptcy, and thinker think tanks suggestions, Brockton Bay tries something drastic. They legalize gambling, prostitution, and marijuana, while also offering free drug rehab clinics, and making many drugs a misdemeanor. Thanks to Coil, with Cauldron's help, many of the ordinances are allowed. The Extra money helps the city grow as a sort of similarity to Reno and Vegas.

Las Vegas is badly damaged and rendered uninhabitable due to a severe water crisis caused by behemoth when he attacks. Phri See comes to vegas ahead of time to kill Behemoth, but has his timebomb repurposed by a team of villains that use it to transport vegas though time and space to a similar city. As a consequence, parts of Vegas and Brockton bay merge. The villains that did it are seen as heroes, turning Brockton Bay into a city divided between old and new vegas.

Lung still creates the ABB, but presents himself as a legitimate businessman owning a casino with numerous others and tries to help the large Japanese immigrant population. The 88 are struggling against the veritable invasion of new strangers, tinkers, and thinkers who have come to claim territory. Despite their large roster, they are slowly losing ground against enemies they can't just hit. The merchants are largely gone or driven off. Squealer has gotten clean and joined Haven similar to another well known fic. Haven has sent a large group to fight against the new city of sin's far larger than normal number of villains and the large amount of fallen who have started trying to fight for territory.

City has the largest number of independent villains/mercenaries that don't join organizations in the world. The city is divided between the old town and new town, with a much larger population. Taylor's dad is much more important, and thus Emma changes tactics against her. This causes Taylor to trigger with Teachers power. Story would focus on politics, negotiation, and the occasional cloak and dagger. Taylor slowly building up her powerbase, trying to make a positive difference in the world, and dealing with both new/old enemies. The Las Vegas heroes join the canon ones and Taylor is the one who brings the Undersiders together instead of Coil. Instead of a Endbringer attack, the city will be invaded by the Elite triggering mass preparations, uneasy alliances, and nasty fighting for control of the city similar to Wildbow's PRT quest. Then the 9 and echidna will show up at the same time. Hilarity ensues.

Sol Mark-1 · Mar 23, 2015

OverReactionGuy said:
A 10 year old Taylor ends up with Kaledostick Ruby complete with a set of cards. A vastly nicer Earth Bet Geae learns of this and empowers her more because she rather not blow up because of Zion. Causing her to be able to do things like spam 12 excaliblasts at once.

Can Broklen bay handle the coming of the magic girl?!

Will Zelchtrich stop eating popcorn?

Will Anetta live?!

Will the Endbringers Lolnope Out of the universe?!

Will Taylor become an eternal 10 year old magical girl due to Ruby being Ruby?!

Fuck if I know, I am not going to write it.

Finally a Gaia that is not a dick.

Maybe

He will always find a way to entretain himself, in other words you have to be careful, also most of his apprentices end a little insane.

Maybe, and maybe both Anette and Danny are/were heroes.

Nah they will still ruin the world, but wont get near of Brockton Bay.

Maybe she will let her grow but she will be a little moe.

The real question how big is going to be her fanclub, what kind of people are going to be members, and who are going to be the members.

I could do more questions but that would go to NSFW section.

OverReactionGuy · Mar 23, 2015

Think I might actually write a crack oneshot of the idea. It keeps on bothering me. But right now I need sleep.

Jack of Olives · Mar 23, 2015

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.

Safe For Work Worm Ideas thread

Verified Dick

The only Sane one left

I trust you know where the happy button is?

Well worn.

Verified Dick

I trust you know where the happy button is?

Verified Dick

It's Magic, I ain't gotta explain shit.

No idea whats going on

Experienced.

Versed in the lewd.

Experienced.

It's Magic, I ain't gotta explain shit.

Wonderseeker

Well worn.

Well worn.

From dusk till dawn

It's Magic, I ain't gotta explain shit.

From dusk till dawn

It's Magic, I ain't gotta explain shit.

From dusk till dawn

It's Magic, I ain't gotta explain shit.

The only Sane one left

Myth Maker of the North

It's Magic, I ain't gotta explain shit.

Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?

Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?

Experienced.

The only Sane one left

Knows just enough to be dangerous.

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