Any Means Necessary (Selfish OC SI, Multiverse) [In Tower of God]

[Eiri Fllyn]

Summary: By chance, an egocentric human gets an experimental Kaleidostick whose only feature is to travel the multiverse. Gets trapped in Worm for a while, uses metaknowledge to survive, then escapes on a quest to learn the secrets of the multiverse. But nothing is as simple as it appears, reaching beyond the gate is forbidden, and the World rejects that which should not be.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you are a new reader, PLEASE use the Threadmarks to read through the story. As a result of a Thread merger from cancelling the Quest format part of the story, some story posts have been placed out of order in the Thread itself. Just use the Threadmarks for the proper order.

STORY BEGINS HERE

'So, how do we fight them?'

'I do not have any combat programs installed and cannot answer your query.'

I resisted the urge to scream in rage. Maybe not having combat programs just meant the Kaleidostick didn't know how to use what it had.

'What kind of offensive and defensive spells do you have?'

'I do not have any offensive or defensive spells.'

"Damn! You have got to be kidding me!" I cursed aloud. This was even worse than turning into a magical girl!

What was even the point of wielding a Kaleidostick that didn't have any magic?

…



Initialization 1.1


"May you live in interesting times, boy!" the man cursed at me, and signed the document. He stood up with a snarl, glaring death at the woman standing beside me, and almost knocking the table over, before storming off with his entourage and bodyguards. One person stayed behind, face as white as a sheet.

"Thank you, I truly hope I will." I watched him leave and chuckled to myself. Although it was meant as a curse, I genuinely considered it a blessing.

My lawyer grabbed the signed documents and quickly reorganized them. "Looks good. We have all the paperwork we need," he informed me.

"No…how could this be…? My life's work…stolen by a devil…" The one man who stayed behind collapsed to his knees.

"You should be happy, Mr. Totenheim. I heard you were planning to retire soon. We've simply taken care of that for you."

He screamed and charged at me, but was stopped by my bodyguards. "You monster! Don't act like you're doing me a favor! This was my last chance! I needed the money!"

Through a combination of legal and illegal means, I had persuaded Mr. Kraken to cancel the bridge loan that would have saved Totenheim from defaulting on other debts. Once he defaulted on the usurious loan he had foolishly taken from a dangerous gang, it would lead to a chain of defaults on all the various debts he personally owed and in companies he was invested in, including some debts that I had secretly bought from his former creditors, which would allow me to seize his collateralized assets at a tiny fraction of their true market value.


How did he get into this situation? Well it wasn't all me, I couldn't take the credit for that. That was mainly his uncontrollable spending on luxuries, gambling, and questionable activities.

I stepped in front of him with a scornful expression. "You dug your own grave, Totenheim. All the people you've abused and stepped on, all the atrocities you committed behind closed doors…the police might not have been able to find anything on you, but your victims have never forgotten. Mr. Kraken understood this, but it seems you still don't get it. At least this way, you can try to disappear quietly. There are worse fates out there than losing your hedonistic lifestyle."

"I can't just disappear! They'll find me, and they'll kill me if I don't have the money to pay them back! I'm going to die…!" He devolved into sobbing hysterics.

"Did—did we really have to go so far? He looks so…" A voice whimpered beside me.

I turned to look at the source of the voice, a young woman no older than twenty, perfectly proportioned with a symmetrical face and flawless skin, dressed in a fashionable black leather jacket and red skirt.

I gripped on to her shoulders and turned her to face me.

"This is all thanks to your hard work, Angel. I couldn't have done it without you. As promised, the lead role in Violet Millennia is yours," I said. "Everything is already lined up to make it the biggest show of the decade. Director Solzburg has already agreed to work with us, we have more than $50 million for marketing alone, and I've already arranged for HyperTV to broadcast on a primetime slot. This is it. You're going to become the biggest rising star in the world, just as you dreamed of."

Violet Millennia, a book series that took the world by storm, was the most anticipated TV adaptation of the year and its production rights were owned by a company Mr. Totenheim had owned a small percentage of shares in. Once I seized those shares from him, it would give me the last bit of influence needed to decide who would be part of the production.

She listened to my honeyed words and her worried eyes relaxed. A bright smile replaced her hesitant expression.

"You two-faced bitch! Your father would be rolling in his grave if he knew what you did! If it weren't for you, John wouldn't have gone bankrupt! None of this would have happened!"

I quickly pulled her away with me and gestured to my men, who dragged the violent and psychotic Mr. Totenheim away.

"I know this is what I wanted…but I'm just feeling a little bad about it now," she confided in a low voice as we walked toward the limo.

"You know how this industry works. My way is the only way you can reach the top without subjecting yourself to the hidden rules. You've already seen the difference between yourself and your old friends, haven't you? Would you have rather have allowed yourself to be stained like that?" I said, escorting her into the vehicle.

"No, of course not. I—I know how much you've done for me," she said, turning to face me from her seat with an intense expression.

"Good. Go on, Angel. Your future is waiting for you," I said.

Her hand rose slightly as if wanting to reach out to me, and her mouth opened to speak. I pretended not to notice, shut the door, and put on sunglasses as I straightened back up.

She rolled down the window as the car started driving forward. "Before I start filming, I want to thank you properly! Please visit me!" She yelled out the window and waved.

I waved back.

Afterwards, I made a call. "How did it go?"

"Perfectly. The court rejected the restructuring deal once one of the creditors backed out, and approved the joint buyout offer from us. We'll get the pharma business, including the patents on the stem cell treatment we wanted, and the rest will be split up or liquidated. The company is done for."

These days, wealth was of little concern to me. I had long realized that there were plenty of things that money couldn't buy. Things like game-changing privately owned stem cell treatment research results.

"What about John Colie? Did he agree to sell his collection yet?"

"Yeah, funny thing about that. He had a stroke at the end of the court session, and was declared dead an hour ago. Because he doesn't know his son's already dead, he never changed his will. And since the idiot son left everything to his girlfriend…"

"You mean…"

"Yup, Angel is just going to inherit everything. I swear, that girl freaks me out sometimes. Too many coincidences, you know?"

"I see." Many of those coincidences, like the death of the son, weren't coincidences at all. I had known Angel for too long to be fooled like that. She was like me in many ways—almost like a female version of myself.


She was more easily affected by emotion and empathy, but once convinced that a course of action was justifiable and necessary—especially if it was for the sake of somebody she truly cared about—she could do things even I would hesitate at. And she really did have a tremendous talent for acting. That was why we worked together, after all.


The stroke that killed John, on the other hand, was indeed a chance thing. I would have laughed, but I was almost annoyed that it was so easy. Success was good, but I had been looking forward to the final challenge to finish this project.

Damn. Why couldn't he have lived a little longer and resorted to using underground connections? At least that would make things more interesting. No, that was hubris talking. I knew I should be glad that things went as smoothly as they did.

It was just…it felt boring sometimes, compared to when I first started and I had nothing, clawing my way into power and wealth inch by inch.

"We're done here. Take care of the rest of the legal work, I have other business to attend to," I ordered my lawyer.

Soon, I was left with just my three bodyguards, and I called for a car to pick me up.

Twenty minutes later, while we were driving across a section of forest, four black vans came from the two sides of the forest and cut off the road in front of us. We came to a forced break with a heavy turn, tires screeching as men in black emerged from the vans with assault rifles and opened fire.

I spoke too soon, it seemed! Perhaps John really did hire a hit on me.

Our car was bulletproof and heavily armoured, so even assault rifle fire couldn't get through the doors. Unfortunately the glass windows couldn't be made to that strength, so they quickly shattered, and we ducked down.

My bodyguards reacted immediately and returned fire with handguns, but they couldn't aim effectively without moving their heads up.

The driver tried to hit the gas and turn the opposite way, but he was stopped by an explosion that knocked us into the air. They had fired an RPG at our tires.

How did they know where we were going? I must have been careless.

Cursing, I gripped tightly onto the railings under the seat as we landed and shook, all sorts of pain springing up throughout my body as I was knocked around. We couldn't stay in the car or else we would get killed like this. Unless they planned to capture me, that is.

"Get out and use your grenades and flashbangs, then retreat into the forest!" I ordered.

We quickly opened the door on the side not facing the enemy, and exited. The driver was unfortunately too severely injured and we had to leave him behind.

Several grenades and flashbangs were lobbed over, and we ran out from behind the car once the flashes went off.

I ran straight into the forest without looking back, but I heard the cry of one of my bodyguards that must have gotten hit, and the sound of our car exploding behind us.

I tore through the foliage at high speed, then got behind a big tree trunk and use it as cover to turn back and fire on our pursuers. Only two of my men were left with me, and they did likewise.

"Keep going, after me!" I barked out.

We raced through the forest again and kept running for the next five minutes at top speed, until I was completely out of breath and about to collapse. I had almost tripped several times, and in the rush my body was littered with wounds from stray branches and other things that got in my way.

Our pursuers were still behind us, but no longer easily visible and out of options I found a dense section of bush and hid.

My men took off in another direction and maintained periodic return fire, leading them away.

After thirty minutes, I guessed that I lost them. But going out there would be far too risky, they were probably still searching for me, so I simply stayed there and started meditating.

Be careful what you wish for, the old adage said. I wanted something interesting to happen and so it did. Now I was isolated and possibly surrounded by enemies. Was this the day everything would end?

As soon as I tried to get out of the forest, even if I successfully escaped from my pursuers, would they have already destroyed everything I built? Or perhaps I would return to find that somebody had betrayed me and sent these men to eliminate me.

Yet I couldn't help but feel alive. It was the first time I had been in so much danger, and yet it was exhilarating. If only…I had been better prepared.

No, it was no use crying over spoiled milk. At least things would be more interesting now.

I would fight until the very last moment, and that would surely be an interesting story to behold, wouldn't it?

The cold chill of the forest sunk into my bones as I waited. I wondered if they would try to finish me off by carpet bombing or gassing the area.

Just who were they?

I felt so tired and weak. Was I injured somewhere I hadn't noticed? Or maybe it was blood loss from my wounds. I didn't think I had lost much though, had I?

…

Like that, hours passed and I inadvertently fell asleep.

…

"Fascinating...this world is devoid of mana. I can't even feel the presence of Gaia," a voice pulled me out of the darkness.

My eyes darted about, yet my body stayed frozen, and from my hiding spot in the bushes I looked upon the form of a LARPer with white hair in a black caped outfit. From almost 30 meters away I could only see his back and his right hand holding a cane with his left holding a...floating stick?

Yes, it was indeed just floating in the air, a smooth wand-like cylinder that was barely visible in the darkness, with a round gemstone at the top flickering in an unnatural light despite its dark hue and no visible light source.

"It appears that our return trip shall be a bit more difficult from here. I cannot even access prana from our parallel selves. I suppose that makes sense given that this is the first time I've come to this universe." The white-haired man moved his hand away from the wand but it kept floating where it was. He tapped his cane on the ground three times.

"Reporting: Analysis complete. Program compiled. Kaleidostick Agate has acquired Alternate Reality Manipulation Protocol, catalogued as ARMP. First module: User Travel added," another voice rang out from seemingly nowhere.

"Good. You will take the reins this time. Bring us back to our world and we'll finish your programming. I'll have to bring more mana sources the next time we come here," said the man in the costume which I now recognized to be Zelretch from the Fate franchise.

"Understood. ARMP engaged. User Travel initializing. Destination selected: Kaleido Schweinorg Origin Primary. 30 seconds required to construct pathway. Please hold." The other voice said robotically.

Suddenly to the right of the Zelretch RPer the air ripped apart and the world was creaking.

A cloaked and hooded being emerged.

"Well, well, I thought there was something interesting here, and look what I found! A lesser being trying to create a means of Walking the Eternities without a Spark!"

My eyes bugged out. Was that actual magic? I thought Zelretch and Planeswalkers were supposed to be fictional!

"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, my friend...what do you mean by walking the eternities without a spark?" Zelretch turned to look at the newcomer, and I got a look at his blood red eye.

The air crackled with a strange pressure as a red light gathered in the hand of the, I guess I could call him Planeswalker for now. "Silence, fool! You've delved into magics not meant for the likes of you! The Blind Eternities are warping under the pressure of whatever blasphemy you enacted to get here! Your home Plane may have powerful beings guarding it from me, but your own pitiful existence ends now!"

He thrust his hand forward and a torrent of blinding fire was unleashed, an explosion engulfed Zelretch and the shockwave blew me up against a nearby tree, and I could feel the roots of the tree straining to stay upright.

In the next moment the night sky lit up and a chain of thunder-like sounds rang out as the explosion grew, new gale winds tearing away the smoke and surrounding trees as something hit my face and finally the tree behind me gave out, roots ripping out of the Earth and I grabbed the thing that hit me even as I tumbled away.

"Urgh!"

I collapsed bonelessly on the ground and twitched before terrible pain racked my entire body.

"I'm sure there must be a misunderstanding, sir. My method of Walking the Eternities as you call it does not disturb the worlds traveled." Zelretch's calm voice pierced the air. I lifted my face up slightly until I could see what was happening.

The cloaked Planeswalker floated with an ominous red light in the air while Zelretch stood at the edge of a massive crater, his clothes looking perfectly unruffled as if that monstrous attack didn't even touch him.

"Warning! Warning! Pathway formation disrupted! Connection unstable!" The Kaleidostick Agate's robotic voice rang out. Except, it seemed to come from...me?

The two combatants shifted their gaze towards me immediately. Zelretch even looked surprised as silence engulfed the destroyed forest.

I cursed mentally. That thing that hit me earlier and which was now somewhere on the ground lying next me must have been Agate.

"Pathetic mortal! Curse your gods for your luck today! For the crime of touching the power of the Planes, die!"

What? This guy was seriously going to kill me for such bullshit? If I got out of this alive I would make him pay a thousand fold! How could I die from such a random event happening?

Before I knew it, Zelretch's back was in front of me and his cane was blocking a black torrent of visible mana gathered in front of the Planeswalker's hand. Up close, I could see the Planeswalker's snarling angry face, which I didn't recognize. Baleful red eyes, sleek black hair, bishounen facial features, and a strange glowing pattern on the right side of his face in the shape of a semicircle over a horizontal figure eight with the top two lines crossing back down instead of meeting at the centre.

He broke away and flew back into the air. "You are strong, little mage, but that will not protect you from a god! Know your place!" Suddenly an enormous wave of mana emerged from him, condensing into a legion of different shapes that blotted out the sky, complete with an Earth-shattering wave of roars.

Zelretch sighed. "I don't wish to be impolite as I am the outsider, but you are being rather unreasonable." He materialized a dagger in his right hand as he moved his cane to the left. The Jeweled Sword started to glow as the world around it bent and refracted a rainbow of lights.

Then he turned around and winked at me.

What?

I had no time to think on what that meant before the horde of summoned monsters came upon us, Zelretch's dagger-sword flashed, and--

—the world went white.

My eyes burned with the sight, and teared up even as the white gave way to a kaleidoscope of strange things I couldn't comprehend.

"AHHHH!" I screamed as I saw what should not have been seen and curled up into a ball whimpering.

After what felt like an eternity, I was left with only silence. I blinked open my eyes and shifted my groaning muscles until I was sitting upright, looking around. The entire forest was nothing more than a wasteland, and only a small circle below me was untouched.

"What, what the hell..." I murmured to myself.

Ominous roars sounded in the distance. I squinted and looked around again, and saw shadows moving in the distance.

The summoned monsters! Then about a hundred metres away from me, monstrous and bulbous things ripped out of the ground and rose up, surrounding me.

I watched in morbid fascination as they climbed up slowly from the ground like zombies. I guess it was really the end. I couldn't possibly fight my way through this horde.

"RandomBystander1, Master Zelretch has authorized me to establish a partnership contract between you and me. Do you wish to become my wielder?" The Kaleidostick suddenly floated in front of me.

Or maybe not. Was this the legendary plot armour? A Deus Ex Machina that would save me! If fictional things were real, then I had to be a main character if I was getting an opportunity like this.

"What does that involve? What are our obligations to each other?" I immediately asked.

"We will conduct a ritual to establish the magical contract and form a soul-based prana link. A wielder can access all of my powers by mental command and share senses. Conversely, you may grant control of your body to me at will. As you do not possess Magic Circuits some functions will be limited. Our obligations are mutual and are as follows: we must protect the other from harm by any means necessary, we must act to prevent attempts to break the contract if either partner is unwilling, neither can harm or seek to harm the other without consent. Once formed, the partnership bond will begin a process of mental and prana-based attunement. If the bond is later broken, there may be unpredictable consequences." The Kaleidostick explained robotically.

That was a very helpful explanation, but it also raised some questions. This contract appeared different to what I knew of Kaleidosticks from the fictional franchise, and the bond seemed to be much more permanent.

"Is it possible for you to have more than one wielder? And can I be bonded to more than one Kaleidostick?"

"Such a course of action has never been tested and would be highly inadvisable. There may be unpredictable consequences, such as sudden death."

Well, that also answered my question about what "unpredictable consequences" might result from the bond breaking.

The monsters seemed confused for a moment, and randomly wandered around, but I knew I was running out of time. Sooner or later they would come for me.

"Alright, I want to be your wielder! What do I do?"

"Please apply some blood to your palm and grab onto me, then repeat after me."

I did as told, using the blood from my wounds earlier. Once my hand touched the wand, two magic circles formed above and beneath me.

The words of power rushed into my mind and I chanted almost in sync with the Kaleidostick.

"Let black and chalcedony be the essence. Let onyx and agate form the foundation. Parallel and curved, let the bands close and open. Let blood be the tribute, and the Second bear witness. I hereby declare, our will shall be as one. An oath is sworn. I shall attain all the virtues of Heaven, I shall have dominion over all evils of Hell. Through the infinite realities, all lines shall converge!"

When the chant that Zelretch must have borrowed partially from the Servant Summoning Ritual was over, I felt something connect with me, and both the Kaleidostick and I glowed with a multicolored aura with a line of pure black running through it.

Soon the glow and the magic circles disappeared.

'New User Registered. Designated: RandomBystander1. Access Level: Full Administrator. Agate awaiting further instructions', Agate's voice came into my mind complete with subtitles flashing through my thoughts.

"Did you just talk to my mind?" I asked out loud.

'Yes, User RandomBystander1,' Agate answered me.

'Why was I registered as RandomBystander1? And what does my access level mean?' I thought back.

'RandomBystander1 was the designation for you set by BetterThanBlue, also known as Master Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. Full Administrator access allows complete use, read, and write access to all of my functions and programming. He has also left you a message: I am sorry you were caught up in my mess, young man. Unfortunately this enemy is extraordinarily powerful and while I'm no slouch myself, I know not for certain that I can protect you. I am giving you Kaleido Agate to help you escape. Please take care of Agate and I would appreciate it if you could collect some data on alternate reality traveling for me in your journeys. Best of luck to you.'

Wow! Thanks Zelretch, what an upstanding guy. I can even forgive the troll name he gave me.

'Okay, I want to change my designation,' I ordered.

'Request denied.'

'What? Don't I have full administrative access?'

'RandomBystander1 has full administrative access except for anything locked by Ultimate Administrator BetterThanBlue.'

...really?

I almost thought Zelretch's trollish behavior was just merely fanon from how serious he acted earlier. Just great. I better not turn into a magical girl.

No seriously, this was bullshit. I just formed a permanent contract with the Kaleidostick and somehow Zelretch could still override me, even though the wand just told me there could only be one wielder. That made zero sense.

But that wasn't important, the monsters had gotten their bearings and were now advancing towards me.

'So, how do we fight them?'

'I do not have any combat programs installed and cannot answer your query.'

I resisted the urge to scream in rage. Maybe not having combat programs just meant the Kaleidostick didn't know how to use what it had.

'What kind of offensive and defensive spells do you have?'

'I do not have any offensive or defensive spells.'

"Damn! You have got to be kidding me!" I cursed aloud. This was even worse than turning into a magical girl!

What was even the point of wielding a Kaleidostick that didn't have any magic?

'Agate, can you at least get us out of here then? Somewhere without other people?'

'Negative. I do not have any installed transportation protocols other than ARMP: User Travel. This module does not include any targeting function except by Waypoints established during prior travels or semi-random targeting by distance in Kaleidospace.'

'What are the Waypoints available?'

'There are currently 2 Waypoints: this location and Kaleido Schweinorg Origin Primary. Kaleido Schweinorg Origin Primary is currently inaccessible due to destabilization in Kaleidospace.'

'That's it??! We can't go anywhere else?'

'I can attempt to randomly open a Pathway to an unknown habitable world by shortest distance in Kaleidospace.'

'Wait, how can it be random if we target the shortest distance?'

'Kaleidospace does not have fixed locations and distances. A Waypoint is a beacon that eliminates the randomness, but any other targeting method is semi-random.'

The entire mental conversation took only 10 seconds.

'Alright fine! Let's go to a random world close to this one then!'

'Understood. ARMP engaged. User Travel initializing. Destination selected: Random by Shortest Distance. 10 seconds required to construct pathway. Please hold.'

I couldn't help but smirk. Amazing. I hoped this wasn't just a dream. With this power…the possibilities were endless! If I played my cards right, all of creation was within my grasp!

My thoughts went to that unreasonable Planeswalker. My eyes darkened in hate. How dare he look down on me…being born with such power, to be given a Spark for nothing, he was nothing without his good fortune!

Then my hate ebbed away and my eyes gleamed with anticipation. That Planeswalker was just a fool, only worth my attention for the power he wielded. But if not for him perhaps I wouldn't have met such a golden opportunity. In the end, he would become a stepping stone for me on the path to true power. Unless Zelretch successfully killed him, I would likely meet him again, so I had to get stronger as fast as possible. There could be any number of such fanatical fools that would want to kill me for stupid reasons, and the only way to assure my safety was to become more powerful than them! That would be a daunting task, considering the sheer potential that I knew old Planeswalkers had, especially as time was on their side.

I would escape and hide and build up my strength…

It would mean leaving everything behind on Earth. I couldn't risk returning here anytime soon, what with the monsters and the possibility of the Planeswalker coming back.

My money, connections, subordinates…I would have to completely start over. That didn't sound so bad, actually…

It would be an adventure unlike any other! Full of risk and opportunity…and the beginning of a new story—my story!

Even if I had nothing again…I would go even farther this time, I would reach beyond the heavens and grasp infinity!


O O O



The trip was underwhelming. One moment I was in a wasteland of a forest in the dark of night, the next I was in an alleyway in a city in the pale light of early evening.

I was still injured and I didn't know how severe the injuries were, so reappearing in a modern city was a good thing, I think. I could walk at least, and it didn't feel like any bones were broken, which was a miracle, or maybe my placebo cultivation exercises actually had some kind of effect? I mean if Zelretch was real, maybe Qi cultivation was real too.

But first things first, gather information and get some medical attention.

'Agate, can you hide yourself somehow?' I transmitted mentally.

'Yes, I can phase out of sync with this reality to hide or avoid enemy attacks.'

Excellent, I didn't have to worry about somebody stealing Agate then.

After a few minutes of wandering, I found a newspaper stand. In big letters one of the papers it showed "BROCKTON DAILY".

No way.

I recognized this place from a story I'd read before.

I put the paper back in its stand and left quickly. It was April 3, 2011. That was…seven days before Skitter fought Lung?

I didn't know the timeline perfectly and I was missing tons of details. I only knew the big things, and never even properly finished the canon storyline, so a lot of my "knowledge" was coming from fanfiction.

But I knew at least, that I didn't want to stay here. Changing Taylor's fate, helping to save the world, are you kidding?

Leviathan was going to attack in a month! I'm just a helpless normal, and there was no easy way to power up in this setting. It was be really hard to survive in this crazy grim world, and that was even assuming canon was reliable, which it probably wasn't. Maybe Cauldron had Masters and would come for me as soon as they find out about Agate and magical realities.

Hell, maybe they were already observing me!

Under the setting sun, I rushed to an abandoned alleyway as fast as I could.

'Agate, can you bring us to another world? This place isn't safe,' I asked.

'There seems to be a problem. I have detected a barrier over this Reality Cluster, which is now blocking the formation of a Pathway outside the local Reality Cluster,' the answer came.

What? CRAP! Scion had locked off Earth-Bet and the other parallel Earth dimensions that were part of the cycle, didn't he? Did he notice intruders getting in?

I could feel myself beginning to hyperventilate and my heart pounding in my ears. I was trapped in a world where normals were just fodder, background characters to be wiped out by the billions, mere statistics on a book.

'My analysis suggests that it may be possible to break through the barrier preventing access to other Reality Clusters. I can continue analyzing in an attempt to develop a method of breaking through.'

I could handle this! I always wanted excitement, didn't I? It wasn't impossible to survive, and even thrive with what I knew. I had to calm down and think, use my vaunted intelligence and desire, and obtain the power waiting to be grabbed.

Deep breaths.

"Hey, give me your wallet!"

My eyes darted to the source of the voice. A hooded and ragged guy with a knife was stalking towards me from the entrance of the alley.

I narrowed my eyes and took in the cliché scene. I should have expected it though. Brockton Bay was a dying city, full of criminals and a gradually declining economy.

I began to chuckle.

"Fuck, you loose in the head? I'm mugging you, bastard!" He waved his knife menacingly.

My entire body tingled with adrenaline, and I burst forward.

I could see the unlucky mugger's eyes widening as he thrust his knife in front of him reflexively.

Useless. I knew that most criminals didn't have the resolve not to hesitate, they wouldn't know what to do if they suddenly became the hunted. He was a mugger, not a killer, and I–

grabbed his knife wrist and twisted, pivoting on my right foot, and using the reactionary force on my hips and another step with my left foot to bounce back and strike his chin with my elbow

—had experience in violent confrontations against people more dangerous than him.

It was just a shame that I lost my gun when I nearly tripped in the forest on my Earth.

A sickening crunch resounded in the alley, and the pathetic fool couldn't even spit out the blood before I followed up with a kick to the groin. He crumpled towards the ground but I helped him along by smashing his face with a punch. His head cracked against the hard concrete.

I straddled on top of his unmoving body and checked for life signs. He was just unconscious and bleeding from his mouth and head injury.

Ugh, crap, the pains all over my body that I had forgotten with the adrenaline were coming back.

I took off the gloves he was conveniently wearing and put them on my own hands before searching him for useful things. In the end, I took his wallet, some keys, a switchblade, and phone but left his clothes alone. He didn't seem to be affiliated with any gang but I didn't want to risk any buddies of his recognizing the clothing. Of course I took out the sim card on his phone before taking it. It was just a flip phone, nothing compared to my smartphone that I still had with me, but I had other purposes for it.

That done, I made my way out of there and found a nearby bus stop. Within a few minutes a bus came by and I got on, paying with a few coins from the mugger.

It didn't matter where the bus was going, I just went on to grab one of those free transit maps I figured would be hanging around inside of buses like they are on a lot of transit systems back on my Earth.

I was right and examined my new map until I found Brockton Bay General Hospital. Time to see what my options were for fixing my injuries.

This world was full of "capes", also known as "parahumans" with powers. There were superheroes and villains, and organizations dedicated to their regulation and governance. The Parahuman Response Team (PRT), which was made up of normals, and the Protectorate, the cape policing organization. Brocton Bay was on the east coast of the USA, and these organizations covered Canada and the USA, plus some parts of Europe.

If I was to survive this in this world, I needed the power of capes.

O O O

A/N: This chapter was majorly revamped. The old one can be found in Apocrypha.

Spoiler: Old A/N

AN: I got fed up reading SIs that got easy power right off the bat, whether from ridiculous CYOA choices, ROBs, or whatever. Also tired of fix-fics where the SI goes around helping everyone with metaknowledge. I didn't find any good stories where SIs rely on ruthlessness and intelligence to obtain selfish desires, so I wrote one for myself.

 

[Marv Vell]

Not much to say. The going looks good, no major grammar problems at a glance, never liked worm as a setting all too much but seeing somebody care little about the damage their actions cause as long as they help themselves and people they appreciate is interesting at least.

One recommendation that I have is try and make another character that you could take through the story as a foil to the main, but also has their own desires which would function beyond the protag's existence, however petty or strange. A single good character usually isn't enough to carry a movie, tv series or in this case, a piece of creative writing.

 

[NakedFury]

I have to agree on the part about the SI fix its.

If only they were fix its in a very indirect way because the SI was being very selfish? Killing the big bad because you don't want to die, selfish and ruthless and a fix it but not out of goodness.

What I find difficult is the Planeswalker having trouble with a Zelretch without access to his alternates powers or any prana in this world, and he wasn't even Spark Zelretch.

But comparing this intro to one of those horrible ROB conversations ones, I prefer this one.

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

One recommendation that I have is try and make another character that you could take through the story as a foil to the main, but also has their own desires which would function beyond the protag's existence, however petty or strange.

Click to shrink...

Good idea. I intend to have this. Being massively outmatched in direct firepower for a while, the SI will have to be very conscious of the state of his allies, enemies, or even interested 3rd parties.

What I find difficult is the Planeswalker having trouble with a Zelretch without access to his alternates powers or any prana in this world, and he wasn't even Spark Zelretch.

But comparing this intro to one of those horrible ROB conversations ones, I prefer this one.

Click to shrink...

Thank you. It would be a spoiler to discuss precisely what happened in that battle, but all I can say is that they were merely the opening moves. The SI only saw that they disappeared in a big flash. We won't know what really happened until one of them finds the SI or the SI visits home/Nasuverse. I admit I'm weak on Planeswalker and MtG lore though, so that's probably contributing to the perceived difficulty the Planeswalker had.

 

[Marv Vell]

I have to agree on the part about the SI fix its.

If only they were fix its in a very indirect way because the SI was being very selfish? Killing the big bad because you don't want to die, selfish and ruthless and a fix it but not out of goodness.

What I find difficult is the Planeswalker having trouble with a Zelretch without access to his alternates powers or any prana in this world, and he wasn't even Spark Zelretch.

But comparing this intro to one of those horrible ROB conversations ones, I prefer this one.

Click to shrink...

Thank you. It would be a spoiler to discuss precisely what happened in that battle, but all I can say is that they were merely the opening moves. The SI only saw that they disappeared in a big flash. We won't know what really happened until one of them finds the SI or the SI visits home/Nasuverse. I admit I'm weak on Planeswalker and MtG lore though, so that's probably contributing to the perceived difficulty the Planeswalker had.

Click to shrink...

Actually, I'd say this is fine for a post cosmic retcon Planeswalker. Nowadays they're no longer the god binding bullshit they once were (With the exception of Nicol-Fuckmothering-Bolas) and more like somewhat high level fantasy mages who happen to be able to go to alternate worlds.

 

[Jordisk]

Actually, I'd say this is fine for a post cosmic retcon Planeswalker. Nowadays they're no longer the god binding bullshit they once were (With the exception of Nicol-Fuckmothering-Bolas) and more like somewhat high level fantasy mages who happen to be able to go to alternate worlds.

Click to shrink...

Bolas is still not quite on the level he once was. That is the big reason why he uses proxies and such, gathering artifacts of power to increase his own. He got REALLY pissed at the Mending, because Dragons are hoarders, and Bolas hoards Knowledge and Power (As fits U/B/R). The Mending basically stole most of his hoard.

As to a Planeswaker's power level, it really depends on their age and knowledge. Planeswalkers can pull mana from across the Blind Eternities, from any Land they have bonded to. They are also Ageless, and able to use any type of magic. While we only see Land Magic in the actual lore, they are supposed to be able to learn Nasuverse Magecraft, or MCU Sorcery, or Potterverse Wizardry, or Fairy Tail Magic. They could even learn the True Magics if they tried.

They basically can move through the Blind Eternities, pull mana from other worlds through the same, and channel infinite magic of any style.

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

Initialization 1.2

It was only 5:43 pm according to my new phone, and I could probably get to the hospital in about 20 minutes with a different bus route, so I got off the bus after a couple of stops and began my trip to the hospital.

'Agate, is it possible for you to bring us to any of the parallel dimensions inside our local Reality Cluster?'

With some down time I was able to think through my options. If I could access Aleph or the other parallel dimensions, I would be in a much better position.

'Negative. Parallel dimension travel is a part of planned modules whose installation is not complete. I will require opportunities to observe parallel dimension travel to develop such a feature, or direct programming input from the user.'

'You can learn it? That's great!'

'Kaleidostick Agate was designed to be a self-learning tool that would expand its own capabilities. My ability to process information is comparable to an advanced alchemist with Memory Partition and Thought Acceleration,' Agate said without prompt from me. I wondered if that was pride at being praised.

'You know Memory Partition and Thought Acceleration? Can you teach me?' I asked eagerly.

'My apologies, User RandomBystander1. I do not know those spells and I could not teach you even if I did. My processing is based on an application of the Second Magic, using limited access to parallel analogs of me running in sync or slightly ahead of the current time. They are not the standard Atlas spells. You do not possess the Magic Circuits necessary to utilize any magecraft, so you could not learn the Atlas spells either,' Agate explained with a voice that actually sounded regretful.

I sighed. Of course it wouldn't be so easy.

'So…what else can you do?' I might as well learn Agate's full capabilities.

Instead of a voice respond, Agate seemed to do something akin to sending me data directly.

I saw in my mind's eye a list of capabilities Agate judged both "important" and "unlocked". Other than its reality phasing ability and the universe travelling, it had a sensor suite for detecting and analyzing magical energies and electromagnetic radiation, and it could share the user's senses when authorized. When not sharing the user's senses, it could only use its sensor suite to perceive the world. Anything sensed or shared from the user was recorded and could be accessed later. If allowed to share the user's senses, then Agate could also block mental attacks and even bestow Magic Resistance (unfortunately both features were very limited if the user couldn't generate prana or lacked Magic Circuits).

The core AI was capable of learning by observing, reading, and communicating, much like a human. There were many potential upgrades and functions Agate could develop in time, but we were severely hampered by my inability to perform magecraft.

That was more than I expected, but far less than I'd hoped. I was even a little disappointed that Agate couldn't give me a magical transformation.

It wasn't long before I arrived at the hospital.

There were a lot of people, but nobody gave me a second glance. I was wearing a jacket and casual pants that looked pretty dirty and beat up from the fight that destroyed the park, but I guess that was nothing special considering all the other injured people I saw.

The lobby was clean and bright, the seats packed with people. It was a busy place.

I walked towards to receptionist and was about to speak when I noticed a paper stuck to the bulletin board with important information.

PANACEA OPEN HEALING SCHEDULE, it said. That was convenient. I guess the hospital got a lot of people asking about it. Or wait. More information about Panacea could be found at the New Wave website. So it was part of their PR. Panacea was a miracle healer with her absolute control of biology. Her presence in New Wave was great for their reputation.

Apparently she would be coming in today for two hours starting… a few minutes ago at 6. And there would be open healing for anyone that walked in from 7:30 to 8.

That would be tight. How many people could she see in a mere half hour? Oh well, that gave me an hour to prepare.

Twenty minutes later I had bought a burner flip-phone and was sitting down at a nearby coffee shop eating a quick meal as I browsed the web with my smartphone using free Wi-Fi. I had three phones now including the one I grabbed off the mugger.

Over the next hour of browsing, I learned quite a bit about this world. As far as I could tell, it seemed to be following canon. Browbeat hadn't joined the Wards yet, and all the public information on capes in Brockton Bay matched with what I knew.

That was good, my knowledge wasn't useless. I made my way back to the hospital just before 7:30.

Right on time, a nurse came to the lobby and announced that Panacea would accept walk-in patients now, anyone needing healing should follow her. So I followed her with a bunch of other patients to wait in a line outside a room not far from the lobby.

Another nurse came over and addressed all of us while the first one started to let patients into see Panacea.

"Hello, I am nurse Angela, and I'm here to explain a few things about Panacea's open healing for anyone not familiar with the rules. Please listen carefully," she said as she looked around to make sure she had everyone's attention except for the people at the front of the line being processed by the other nurse.

"Anyone is free to come in for healing, but Panacea cannot accept all illnesses or injuries during walk-in. She is not your family doctor or emergency services. For your own health and the smooth running of our healthcare system, please go to the appropriate medical authority for diagnostics, emergencies, chronic illnesses, or severe injuries. During public healing sessions, Panacea can only perform quick healing on minor illnesses and mild injuries. Additionally, Panacea does not perform cosmetic enhancements. Nurse Jane will determine whether your medical issue is appropriate before letting you in. At 8:00 pm sharp, the public healing session will be over. If anyone is remaining at the end, you will need to come back another day or consult your family doctor," she explained with a clear and authoritative voice before leaving us to wait.

A few people left the line after hearing that. The line moved quickly. Patients were getting healed and shuffled out of the room in less than a minute each. This was pretty efficient, and the line wasn't long either, I suppose because many people would be too lazy to come if their issue was "minor". It was mostly made up of parents with their kids or seniors, and some sketchy looking people – like me, actually.

It seemed like everyone would be done with time to spare, so I started letting people move in front of me.

Five minutes before 8pm, I was the last one to enter.

It was a simple room with a medical bed and Panacea sitting on a chair. Her costume was really white. If she had a staff and lost the scarf I could see a White Mage. Hiding in her hood, she had a fairly plain face with freckles that looked bored. I didn't see any sign of exhaustion that fanfics usually emphasized, but I did feel the "I don't want to be here" vibe.

She gestured to the bed with a plastered smile. "Hi. What can I help you with?"

I sat down and smiled back.

"I fell off a tree, and now my body feeling's sore all over," I said. I got blasted away together with a tree but I did technically fall off of it mid-air.

"Were you saving a kitten?" She asked with an amused tone quirking an eyebrow. There weren't many other explanations for why a man in his early twenties would be up on a tree.

I sighed dramatically. "No, I'm afraid I was the one that needed saving."

She gave me an unimpressed look and held out her hand. "Hmm. Well I need to touch your skin to heal you."

I gave her my hand.

"A lot of bruising all over, some muscle strains, and a few bones are bit loose. Nothing too serious. Do I have your permission to heal you?" She asked.

"Yes." She nodded back to me.

Three seconds later I felt much better.

"Thank you, Amelia," I said in heartfelt gratitude with a textbook Duchenne smile.

"Sure thing—wait, what did you call me?" Her bored eyes came alive in an instant and her hand gripped tightly onto mine.

"Amelia, your name," I answered pleasantly.

"What are you talking about? My name is Amy, and it's Panacea in costume," she said in irritation.

I look in her eyes with a serious but warm expression.

"Amelia Claire Lavere, that's the name you were born with, Ms. Dallon."

Irritation turned to surprise, and she was silent for a couple of seconds.

"What do you know? Who are you?" She asked with a hint of suspicion and interest both.

"I know many things, such as who you were adopted from. I don't have any legal name in the world right now, but you can call me Kaleidus," I said mysteriously. Don't judge me. I couldn't come up with a good name on such short notice, and I didn't want it to be an obviously cape name either, just an unusual but memorable one.

"What do you want?" She asked in a low and almost whispered tone.

"Well I needed healing, and I wanted to give you something in return. I'd be happy to tell you what I know of your heritage if you want," I said. I could see her interest growing. But she was still suspicious that I wouldn't want anything else. After all, there were plenty of reasons for unscrupulous people to target Panacea the miracle healer. "Other than that, I have special knowledge of events to come and certain events in the past."

She gave me a disbelieving look. She must have thought I was crazy considering that I didn't have a Corona Pollentia or Gemma. But I continued unperturbed.

"I know you can tell if I'm lying with your power while you're holding my hand--" she glanced at our connected hands momentarily before her eyes flitted back to me in surprise.

"--and that I'm not a parahuman with the required brain structures, but I definitely have special knowledge of the past and future, or at least, possible futures, that nobody else in this world knows. That's how I know about your heritage. You are critical to this world's future, and I want to help you. It's also true that there are some things only you can help me with."

As I talked, I could almost see the gears turning in her head. My knowledge of her powers couldn't be explained easily, and the fact that I was essentially submitting myself to her lie-detection was quite persuasive.

It was to my advantage that there were many ways of "helping" her. After all, how to help depended on their goal, right?

"How is that possible?" Her grip on me grew stronger. "Did somebody Master you to say all that?"

"No, and I'm sure your power can check for abnormal biological reactions or brain activity showing a Master too," I responded. I was just guessing actually, but it made sense to me.

"Okay. I believe you think you have 'special knowledge'. But how do you know it's real?" She pressed me.

"I can prove it. First, my 'postcognitive' knowledge," I raised my fingers in air quotes as I spoke, "I know things about you that nobody could possibly know. A secret that you've never told anyone." She tensed and eyes widened before looking around the room as if checking for eavesdroppers.

I used my free hand to cup my mouth as if preparing to whisper. Then I moved closer to her ear and did just that, "Your special feelings for Victoria."

She froze. Her grip on my hand was so strong it was starting to get painful. And it was shaking. I felt a gleeful anticipation as I watched her. Yes, this girl had very dark secrets. Panacea the miracle healer, the kind, saint-like cape that everyone admired had a secret that was tearing her apart inside.

She lusted for her own sister.

"W-what are you talking about, don't bullshit me with vague--!" she hissed.

"I won't tell anyone. And you're not a deviant. It isn't your fault and there's nothing wrong with you. Something caused those feelings in you, but you're not ready to learn just what yet."

"You're lying! Stop messing with me!" She tried to let go of my hand and stand up. But I grabbed her hand myself and stopped her.

"If I was, you wouldn't be reacting like this. You know exactly what I'm talking about and that I'm telling the truth."

She glared at me and bit her lip.

I put a hand on her shoulder and gently guided her back down onto her seat. "Look, I told you I wanted to help you. I didn't say that to blackmail you. You have a key role to play if this world is going to survive." She kept glaring at me and stayed quiet.

If this world is going to survive. Only if it were better for me, of course.

After a moment, there was a knock on the door, presumably the nurse reminding Panacea of the time. I sighed. "On April 11th, Lung will be defeated. Armsmaster will take credit for the capture. You'll be called in to keep him stable. Here's my number if you want to get in touch." I took out a piece of paper and quickly wrote down my burner phone's number, putting it in her hand.

I patted her shoulder and prepared to turn and leave but this time Panacea grabbed my wrist again as I stood up and stopped me.

"Who…who were my parents?" She asked with her head looking down.

I paused. "Your father was Marquis. Your mother, I don't know. The Brocton Bay Brigade attacked Marquis in his home and he was defeated trying to protect you when the Brigade realized he was protecting something hiding in the closet."

"The daughter of a villain…?" I heard her muttering in a defeated voice as she dropped my hand and stood still.

Marquis was a very successful and powerful villain. He was the only parahuman in his gang but managed to fend off the likes of the Slaughterhouse 9 and the Teeth. His ability to generate and control bone was extremely powerful and versatile, which made him unbeatable before the Brocton Bay Brigade took advantage of his two weaknesses. He had a rule not to hurt women and children including enemy combatants that fell into those categories. And he had a daughter he genuinely cared for.

I lifted her chin up to face me. I could see her eyes beginning to tear up.

"Listen to me. You are not a villain just because your father was. That's Nazi thinking, and Carol should be ashamed of her prejudice. You are one of the most powerful and important heroes in the world."

Carol was traumatized from her youth and despised Marquis for irrational reasons. She never wanted to take Amelia and basically never treated her as a daughter despite adopting her legally.

Even worse, Amelia had once overheard Carol say that. That she never wanted her.

There was another knock on the door. We could hear a voice calling from outside, "Um, Panacea? The session was already over several minutes ago. Is there a problem?"

The girl wiped her eyes quickly and called back, "No, we're done here." She opened the door and walked past quickly. I followed after, getting a disapproving look from the nurse.

I looked away and walked quickly. Then when nobody was there to see it, I smirked. I felt great. This was almost certainly the canon storyline I was in.

Knowledge was power, and I had it.

 

[Jordisk]

Well done. Amy is freaked out, but knows you were telling the truth. You have confirmed the timeline is canon up to your arrival. You have healed those minor injuries that you were stuck with.

My question is why you didn't have Agate scan the Parahuman Lobes. They DO function as a gate and extension of the Shard, which is in a parallel dimension. I would guess that you are instead going to require seeing a POWER that performs that function, AKA Doormaker, Scrub, or Labyrinth?

Finally, does Agate have any kind of "Release gathered Prana in that general direction" ability? We know that she can gather Prana through the Kaleidoscope, and shape that Prana into various forms (Currently only Kaleidoscope Portals to different Planes). If she is able to learn different spells and abilities, then she should be able to externally release Prana. Behold, a Prana cannon: Just release unformed Prana in a certain direction and watch it go boom! It gives a basic offensive option, but is VERY obviously going to be less effective/efficient than...basically anything else.

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

My question is why you didn't have Agate scan the Parahuman Lobes. They DO function as a gate and extension of the Shard, which is in a parallel dimension. I would guess that you are instead going to require seeing a POWER that performs that function, AKA Doormaker, Scrub, or Labyrinth?

Finally, does Agate have any kind of "Release gathered Prana in that general direction" ability? We know that she can gather Prana through the Kaleidoscope, and shape that Prana into various forms (Currently only Kaleidoscope Portals to different Planes). If she is able to learn different spells and abilities, then she should be able to externally release Prana. Behold, a Prana cannon: Just release unformed Prana in a certain direction and watch it go boom! It gives a basic offensive option, but is VERY obviously going to be less effective/efficient than...basically anything else.

Click to shrink...

For your first question, the exact answer will be revealed in portions in-story as we see more dimensional effects. Each piece contributes to the body of knowledge Agate can draw on to experiment with or develop a feature. Some things can't be scanned due not having the right sensors.

Second question, no but it would be easy to develop. On the other hand, it's pretty worthless without a massive amount of prana. Pure prana in small quantities is not visible and without an actual spell structure is just bad. Unless you have enough for a Prana Burst like a Servant powered by the Holy Grail/Magic Core, it's just a weak shove or light show. Unfortunately Agate's prana pool/regeneration is highly limited and all of its programs/intelligence runs on Prana. Portals make use of the Second Magic and that's less dependent on prana so they're very efficient.

 

[Jordisk]

For your first question, the exact answer will be revealed in portions in-story as we see more dimensional effects. Each piece contributes to the body of knowledge Agate can draw on to experiment with or develop a feature. Some things can't be scanned due not having the right sensors.

Second question, no but it would be easy to develop. On the other hand, it's pretty worthless without a massive amount of prana. Pure prana in small quantities is not visible and without an actual spell structure is just bad. Unless you have enough for a Prana Burst like a Servant powered by the Holy Grail/Magic Core, it's just a weak shove or light show. Unfortunately Agate's prana pool/regeneration is highly limited and all of its programs/intelligence runs on Prana. Portals make use of the Second Magic and that's less dependent on prana so they're very efficient.

Click to shrink...

Ok, so the solution is somehow getting a metaphysical organ of some sort for out SI. That seems like something NOT HAPPENING on Earth Bet, unless it is a crossover with something.

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

Initialization 1.3

The next few days passed in a whirlwind. Before enacting the rest of my plan I needed to secure money, food, and shelter. Without a legitimate ID things would be difficult, and with the underground essentially controlled by capes, it would be exceptionally dangerous for me. Not to mention I didn't have any real experience dealing with underground activities and criminals, nor did I want to run afoul of patrolling heroes.

That's where the mugger's phone came in. I didn't need to be tracked by the cell signal so I turned off all network features, but even without network access it had an address book with contacts and text history. It gave me insight into what kind of person he was. A man living by himself in his early twenties, no contact with any parents, few friends, and no job. Typical profile of an inexperienced robber. That was obvious enough when I didn't find a gun on him, but this was good confirmation.

I must have been a target of opportunity, or else I wouldn't have found a wallet on him with identification at all. Luckily, I did, and tracked down his address to his dingy little apartment in a dirty and paint-shedding low-rise. Before that, I spent the rest of my ill-gotten gains on some very basic equipment: pepper spray, an old backpack, a nice worn down hoodie, sunglasses, and used shoes. It wasn't much but time was ticking and I had to finish before he came back with a spare key or locksmith.

It was unexpectedly quite a smooth venture. There were no security cameras in the hallways. I went in to find the apartment empty of people, as I expected. But just in case, I had sent in Agate to phase through and check first, of course. I grabbed a notebook computer and found nine hundred dollars in cash. No firearms, which just shows that he was not a professional robber. I left the drugs, alcohol, and pretty much everything else alone except for a bit of non-perishable food. I couldn't even recognize the drugs so they weren't useful to me, and rubbing alcohol was purer and easier to just buy if I wanted to make something with it. Food was useful…it might be cheap but there was no sense in wasting money when I didn't have a sustainable source of income yet.

Next was shelter. That first night I bought a sleeping bag and camped out in an abandoned warehouse. The day after I went scouting for a more suitable location for temporary living. I wasn't going to be here when Leviathan attacked, but I would be staying for a few weeks for sure. I needed privacy and access to electricity and water so I spent the entire day looking for someone willing to rent a room to a guy with no ID and paying in cash. I was obviously sketchy, but there were plenty of sketchy landlords out there, and in this awful economic environment, it wasn't too hard to find someone willing to look the other way. It'd be $500 a month, but I got a tiny apartment close to the docks with access to a private washroom and kitchen. The landlord had multiple unoccupied rooms and barely bother to come by, which was just fine with me. After paying the first month, getting the lock changed, and buying the minimum tools needed for cooking and hygiene, I was left with just over $300.

Then I cracked and cleaned my new laptop to make it that much harder to track down if the mugger decided to go to the police at some point. I was keeping the hardware so if someone got their hands on it physically, I could be tracked, but that wasn't a serious issue then. Changing the MAC address and wiping the soft traces would be enough. I just needed to set up my anti-forensic measures afterward to stay anonymous on the web.

Agate learned the process as I did it, but unfortunately the Kaleidostick couldn't interface with electronic networks and devices like an actual computer AI. It could learn to connect and access them without a physical connection, but Agate didn't know how to process the complicated electronic signals. That would have to be built literally from scratch and my few experiments showed that it just wouldn't work due to the extreme inefficiencies and incompatibility involved. It was akin to manually pressing a switch to indicate ON and OFF signals. Ridiculous waste of Prana.

For money, I visited the local casinos, of which there were two. I bribed the guard to let me in without ID, and played poker to make some money. Blackjack was continuously reshuffled at Ruby Dreams so counting wouldn't work, but good old poker wasn't against the house. I was a bit concerned that the games would be rigged by the ABB or I would be accosted at some point, and I did notice people collaborating, but I carefully targeted the fish instead of stepping on the toes of anyone that might be connected to something bigger.

Making 10BB/Hour or so, I worked my way up from $1/2 No Limit to $5/10 NL and made $700 over three days at Ruby Dreams. In Brocton's other casino, Blackjack was traditional, and I walked away with another $2200 after two days of playing combining Blackjack and $10/20 NL play. I could have hit them hard on BJ but I had no idea who operated this casino and was not about to risk getting marked and attacked by being greedy.

If I was hurting for cash, I could hit other cities later, but if things went well I wouldn't need to.

I spent the rest of my time writing down notes on what I remembered from Worm, plotting out potential courses of action that would help me survive and grow stronger, and researching information about other cities and background information about differences between Earth Bet and my Earth. All this was recorded by Agate, and I destroyed my physical notes afterward.

My goal in the short term was to amass as much power and useful allies as possible and survive. Over the long-term I needed to solve the universe barrier problem and obtain advantages that would make me stronger and more survivable in other universes. That meant increasing my abilities, acquiring tinkertech, and upgrading Agate.

To speed up analysis of the Reality Cluster barrier and have Agate develop the ability to travel parallel dimensions, I needed to get Agate data on portals. Professor Haywire's portal and notes were highly classified and I couldn't find its location. That just left Doormaker portals, which I had no way to find, and the Simurgh portals in Madison. The latter I could get to fairly easily, and with Agate capable of phasing out of reality it could easily get past quarantine controls. Even better, Agate could move independently from me and was capable of flying at over 500 miles an hour when moving by itself. Once Agate recorded my notes, I sent it off to the Madison Quarantine zone and 9 hours later it was back.

'Reporting: parallel dimension portal phenomenon has been observed. Estimated 7 days to complete analysis and develop parallel dimension travel capability,' Agate had notified me. It would be ready by the 13th, two days after the Lung fight. No estimates could be made yet on breaking through the barrier.

Tinkertech could be acquired if I had large sums of money or Tinker allies. That was fairly straight forward. There were some Toybox techs I really wanted to get, and could possibly commission Leet for some stuff as well.

Abilities were the hardest to acquire. I eventually determined that there were several ways of enhancing myself:

· Get Panacea to make body modifications for me

· Buy skills/memories from Cranial

· Buy a vial from Cauldron/the Dealer/Accord

· Steal the cauldron vials Skidmark finds after Leviathan (which might not even happen anymore if it was pure chance that led him to it the first time)

· Get Bonesaw to make body modifications for me

· Find Eden's body and figure out how to make vials for myself

· Hang around a cape long enough for it to bud in me and get myself into a trigger event

· Kill the Butcher

All of these were possible, but none of them would be easy, and the ones lower on the list carried huge risks I was not prepared to accept. Cauldron vials—especially the older generation ones—could turn me into a Case 53 (monster capes who often didn't have control over their powers). The latest generation ones with Balance in their formula still had something like 0.1% chance of becoming a Case 53, which I still thought too high for comfort. That was only slightly lower than the chance of drawing pocket aces, which any poker player could tell you was not that rare.

Triggers couldn't be induced on purpose so I'd have to be in real danger or make myself forget the plan to trigger myself, and killing Butcher would probably kill me mentally when all the voices transferred to my mind. Maybe if I got Bonesaw to help clone original Butcher like she did with the Slaughterhouse 9000, simulate its trigger, and wipe its mind with Cranial's tech before I killed it…

In any case, acquiring abilities had to be a low priority if only because of how difficult and risky it was. That just left my goal of getting funds and allies. Moreover, I had to establish myself right away. My knowledge would be far less useful once events diverged from canon. Without precise predictions, it would be that much harder to convince anybody I had true precognitive knowledge. I had only a small window of opportunity, and if I didn't maximize my gains right off the bat, I would just be a helpless normal that knew a few secrets.

Hmm…



~ ~ ~



I was going to try and recruit Skitter. It wasn't because she was the main character of worm. It was just that her bug controlling power would be very helpful to my ambitions in this city, especially if Panacea could be persuaded to cooperate. That was easier said than done, however. She was lonely girl and desperate girl, but a recurring theme in canon was her stubborn, distrustful, self-rationalizing habits leading to some really bad decisions. It was a miracle that Lisa managed to become her best friend despite being more or less Emma 2.0 to everyone, I thought, or maybe it was just her power helping. That was another problem – I could easily imagine Lisa working against me for control of Taylor, and facing a Thinker 7 in social combat with no powers of my own wouldn't be fun. That was a threat rating by the way. The PRT used such ratings from 0 to 10 to rate powers. Basically nobody had a 10 for a rating, and so 7 was very high on the scale. The Thinker category meant a mental power related to information gathering, precognition, extra senses, etc.

On April 7th, I began to move out and scouted out the Central Library and Winslow.

Something I had learned about Agate's reality phasing ability with a bit of experimentation was that it couldn't take live organisms like humans with it. Anything made of living cells would die when exposed even partially to the space that Agate phased into. However, Agate could take inanimate objects and electronics as long as they were securely attached to it. Things that were phased out still interacted with each other under normal physics but they were invisible, insubstantial and basically couldn't interact with anything in the real world. On the other hand, whatever Magic that powered Agate's functions still worked normally, as a result its sensor suite could still capture data without actually interacting with particles or waves in the real world. Thinking about it, wasn't that a violation of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle?

These facts, combined with the way Agate had been using data from my shared senses to enhance its ability to process sensory stimuli, meant that I could attach a bunch of tiny spy cameras and recorders to Agate and send it off to secretly plant bugs (no-pun intended) in Winslow.

By noon, I had Agate mapping out the school building so it could go back and plant the spy cameras overnight. It cost me a hefty $600 to get these things plus a remote controlled robotic gripper I needed to attach to Agate and manipulate the bugs, but I was pretty sure I'd get my money's worth out of them. Winslow was just practice really.

When school was out, I had Agate tail Madison to her house.

The next day was the start of Taylor's story. I had my feeds ready in the girls' washroom, waiting for the right moment.

I watched my live feed from my cam network starting at noon, lunch period. Seeing her up close, going into a washroom stall to eat, it was really sad. Of course, I didn't have a feed into her stall, I just needed a good angle to capture the trio dumping juice, so I was positioned near the window facing the door.

A good 25 minutes later the door banged open and I saw the trio coming in. Emma, Sophia and Madison, with the first two smirking viciously and Madison with a stiff smile on her face.

There was some giggling and whispers before Emma went over and knocked on Taylor's stall door. After a couple of knocks, Taylor's voice came out, saying "Occupied".

"Oh my god, it's Taylor!" Emma exclaimed in mock surprise. Sophia whispered to her, then Emma replied, "Yeah, do it!"

Well things played out exactly like I read before. Juice was dumped in, door blocked, Taylor and her bag getting messed up before her bugs swarmed into the washroom with her anger after the girls left.

It was pathetic. At least Tattletale's bullying habits had a purpose to them, an advantage gained (usually). This year long bullying campaign did nothing but make enemies meaninglessly. Now their foolishness would serve my purposes.

At midnight, Agate was in Sophia's bedroom. Through our mental link, Agate was sending me the visual and sound. This mental data couldn't be transferred to electronic form, but that wasn't why I was here.

My remote controlled robotic gripper was attached to Agate, and we floated over to the desk beside her bed. With a slight whir, the gripper came to life as I piloted it to grab the old cell phone, and immediately had Agate phase out.

Sophia shuffled on her bed, but made no other indication that she noticed.

A few minutes later her phone was in my gloved hands and I used another camera to capture images of all the incriminating texts Regent of the Undersiders would have found later on. This wasn't hard evidence the way that emailing the texts with an electronic trace would have been. However, if I grabbed the phone once, I could easily do it again when that became necessary. Unlike Regent, I wasn't going to alert the police or school just yet.

Next, I had Agate return Sophia's phone, before moving to Madison's room. After dropping off a USB drive beside her night lamp, I ordered Agate to hide under her bed and begin projecting a ghastly and distorted voice into the room.

"MADISON CLEMENTS," it said.

I had to repeat it a few more times before she groggily woke up and looked around.

"MADISON CLEMENTS," she finally heard while awake.

She sat up and blinked owlishly. Nobody else was in the room with her.

"YOU'VE BEEN A NAUGHTY GIRL," the voice continued.

"What?" She turned on her night lamp and looked around some more.

Agate phased out and moved below her desk.

"YOU HAVE BEEN JUDGED AND FOUND GUILTY," the disembodied voice reached her from another direction.

Her eyes widened and she stood up. "Who is this? What are you talking about?"

Agate moved again to her closet out of phase before re-entering the real world hidden inside.

"LOOK DOWN. SEE THE EVIDENCE OF YOUR CRIMES."

She looked down and noticed the USB beside her lamp.

Taking it in her hands, she walked to her desk and booted up her computer. While it was booting, Agate was silent. Madison stood up again and went to the closet where she thought the voice had come from last. By the time she opened it, Agate was gone again and she saw nothing useful.

"Are you a cape?" She closed the closet and asked the air. She seemed almost excited about it. Guess I wasn't being scary enough.

I didn't bother answering.

She huffed and went back to her computer, plugging in the USB. Clicking on the auto-run prompt, a cleaned video of the washroom incident began playing on her screen. Alongside the main video, pictures of incriminating texts between Sophia and her popped up one by one until her screen was filled.

When the video ended and closed as the trio left the washroom, Madison sat with her mouth agape. My program activated in the background and shredded the data on the drive, replacing the old data with garbage 0s and 1s twenty-seven times to military standard, and forcing a memory wipe on her computer before shutting it down.

"You recorded in the girls' washroom? That's illegal! You creep!" She ripped the USB drive out of its port.

"WHAT I DID DOES NOT CHANGE YOUR GUILT. THE EVIDENCE IS CLEAR. YOU HAVE BEEN PERPETUATING A YEAR LONG BULLYING CAMPAIGN."

"Why did you show me this? Why not just report it if the evidence is clear?" Madison asked as she clenched her fist around the USB drive.

"IN JANUARY, TAYLOR HEBERT WAS HOSPITALIZED AFTER BEING STUFFED INTO A LOCKER FILLED WITH USED FEMALE HYGIENE PRODUCTS. NO WITNESSES CAME FORTH, AND YOUR ATTEMPTED MURDER OF A TEENAGE GIRL WAS OVERLOOKED."

"Attempted murder? I had nothing to do with that!" Madison looked around in a panic.

"YOU WATCHED AND MOCKED THE VICTIM AS SOPHIA FORCED HER INTO THE LOCKER, THEN LEFT HER IN THERE TO DIE."

She stood up and almost knocked over her chair.

"There's no proof! You can't prove that! That's why you're here, trying to scare me," She said quickly, looking at the USB drive clutched in her hand in front of her chest as if coming to a realization.

Suddenly a sharp edge materialized on her throat. She froze, eyes darting down but unable to see the blade pricking at her skin from that angle.

There was a knife currently attached in a hook-around angle to Agate which was positioned directly behind her head.

"I do not need proof to end your worthless life," the voice changed to a raspy hiss projected right behind her.

"W-wait! Don't kill me!" Madison pleaded with a squeaky voice.

"Why shouldn't I? You didn't take mercy on Taylor Hebert while she was pleading in her locker," I said through Agate in hateful spite.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! I was scared, if I said anything Sophia and Emma would have gone after me! I never planned or helped with the locker prank, I swear!" She was openly sobbing now and eyes shut as tears formed.

"Are you saying it was all their fault and none of yours?" I demanded while order Agate to shift slightly in order to press harder on her throat with the knife.

"I—n,no, I should have stopped them, but I c-couldn't! You don't understand—Sophia—she's crazy! She would have turned on me next! I didn't know what to do!"

"I understand perfectly, Madison Clements. If you want to repent, then confess your crimes and those of Emma Barnes and Sophia Hess to the police! Gather the evidence from your own texts and emails, and submit them all to the police," I ordered in a calmer, more authoritative voice.

"B-but, what if Sophia comes after me?" She sniffed as she asked.

"She will get what she deserves…one way or another. If you repent and confess, you need not fear anything from her."

She swallowed hard and agreed, "O-okay, I'll do it."

"And do not mention me! Remember, I can find you anytime, anywhere, and you wouldn't even know. You will go to the police first thing tomorrow morning. Do not waste my mercy!"

Agate dematerialized and Madison crumpled to the ground as her knees gave way.

Before we left, I watched her grasping at her throat as she cried softly.



~ ~ ~



I patted myself on a job well done as I monitored Madison the next morning. With the USB drive still in her room, she shuddered and realized last night was no dream. In the end, she went to the police with no more reminders from me.

Whether or not the investigation worked in the end didn't matter as long as the police showed up to Winslow on Monday. I still had moves to play if the PRT tried to suppress it. I didn't think they would, but since Regent never took over Sophia, they might reason that she's still useful. Sophia was also known as Shadow Stalker, a member of the Wards, you see. The youth superhero training program operated by the PRT and Protectorate. Except, it wasn't really a training program. They needed bodies to fight crime and the Endbringers, and Sophia's power had really good combat uses.

Either way, I only wanted two things. To appear to be helping Taylor when she finds out I did it, and delay her from talking to the Undersiders on Monday so that I could get to her first. But I had to contact her after the Lung fight. I wasn't going to interfere before that fight because she barely survived in canon, and I didn't want her to die by butterfly effect with one wrong move. And I had little interest in participating with her during the fight as it sounded like a good way to suicide together. I was still risking her death by random chance, but I had also predicted it as proof for Panacea so I was counting on it happening exactly the way it did before.

The cold hard fact was, Taylor might have been the main character of worm, but Panacea was orders of magnitude more valuable, particularly if I could eventually take other people with me to other realities and their powers still worked. That was something I seriously had hopes for, now that I knew Entities could somehow manipulate a barrier that affected an entire reality cluster, not just parallel dimensions.

Recruiting Skitter after she joins the Undersiders would be hopeless. I had to give her another option before then.

Everything was going well, until Panacea called me late at night on April 9. She wasn't supposed to be contacting me until after Lung was captured.

"Hello?" I spoke groggily into the phone after being woken up.

"Kaleidus?" Panacea's voice replied to me in between sniffs and pants.

"Amelia? I wasn't expecting you to call for another couple of days," I answered.

"I need to talk to you. Can you meet me now?" She asked out of the blue.

"You want to meet a guy you only met once in the middle of the night? Are you serious?" I responded dubiously. I think I knew what was up, but I couldn't rule out this being trap for New Wave to corner me.

"That's—you make it sound—it's your fault damn it!" She angrily shouted. "You said you wanted to help me? Well I need your help now!"

"Fine, I'll come over. Where are you?" I relented.

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

Initialization 1.4

I found her sitting on a bench at the boardwalk carrying a big and packed backpack, in a nondescript hoodie and jeans. This was starting to look really bad. At least she had the sense to go somewhere without much gang activity. It was 2AM but there were still some people hanging around in the area for the nightlife. The boardwalk had enforcers though, so it was safer than my neck of the woods at the docks.

"Hey," I said as I plopped down beside her. "So what did you want to talk about?"

She glared at me with puffy eyes underneath her hood.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked sharply.

"What? What haven't I told you?" I asked bewildered. I thought for sure she was blaming me for telling her too much.

"Vicky's aura! That's what you meant before! The thing you said I wasn't ready to learn!"

Oh. Oh. She figured it out.

I looked at her seriously. "I'm sorry. I didn't know for sure if that was the reason for your feelings. And I don't have any way of stopping the effect right now, so I didn't think it would help you if I told you about it."

Victoria Dallon, also known as Glory Girl, had a power to make people admire her, or if fear her if they had a reason to be intimidated. There were theories that Panacea's romantic feelings toward her adopted sister were a result of long-term exposure to the aura, particularly during puberty's onset. Those theories were never confirmed in-story, but it made a lot of sense. Plus Panacea was too old at adoption for the Westermarck effect to be relevant.

Her face shrunk back and lost the anger. She looked down despondently. "What am I supposed to do now?"

"What happened exactly? Why are we meeting in the middle of the night, and what did you mean by it was my fault?" I asked, glancing towards her backpack.

Her lips quivered as if trying to come to a decision. After a moment, she talked.

"That day…I went to clear my head before going home. I got back late…and Carol got angry when I didn't explain anything. I asked her about my father, and we got into an argument. Then I saw Dean at school the next day and he tried to do his therapy bullshit on me, and it just pissed me off more! I started researching into Marquis, and…" She trailed off staring at the ground, and I just silently watching her from the side waiting for her to continue.

Dean Stansfield was Victoria's boyfriend, which naturally made him the target of Amelia's jealousy. This was compounded by the fact that he was also Gallant of the Wards. He had the power to sense emotions and generally tried to live up to his name…hence his attempts at being the understanding amateur therapist, which actually worked quite well on everyone…except Amelia, for obvious reasons. He knew that Amelia had "strong" feelings about him, though in the original story it was ambiguous whether he thought Amelia was jealous of Vicky and liked him, or actually knew the truth. I was sure Amelia interpreted it as the former though, which made her all the more resentful of his arrogance. As if some tool of a knight could compare to Vicky. I wondered what she would think if I told her the gallant hero never even had a traumatic trigger event and bought his powers with cash. Something to keep in mind…

"I started to remember things. How he read me bedtimes stories, made dinner…how he took a hit from Brandish to protect me. Then Carol confronted me at home again and pressed me to tell her who told me. I didn't tell her, but she found out about you anyway after she talked to Jane at the hospital." She shot me a look. "I got grounded until she could track you down."

"Ah. I take it she didn't succeed?" I was starting to understand.

The way that Marquis went down had always struck me as dubious. Generally capes in this world followed "unwritten rules", one of which was that cape didn't attack each other's families and civilian identities. Brocton Bay Brigade had a plan, called the New Wave Movement to reveal their identities and convince other heroes to do the same, in the name of accountability. They also attacked Marquis in his house. The result? Marquis was defeated but Amelia was the victim.

Eventually the Brigade renamed themselves New Wave, and one of their members Fleur got killed when her civilian persona was targeted. I would have called it karma except I don't believe in that.

She snorted. "Of course not. My public healing sessions don't need ID. What could she do? Demand to trace your face by the security cameras because she was suspicious that you took too long to heal?"

"Mmhmm. So what happened next?"

She turned sombre again. "Vicky tried to defend me but she was also suspicious of you. She tried to cheer me up but it didn't work. I just kept thinking—about her—about—how she'll never..." She bit her lip. "I shut myself in my room. My volunteering sessions all got cancelled while I was grounded. And I…I actually felt relieved. What kind of horrible person was I, to be relieved that people that needed me would continue suffering, maybe even die, because I wouldn't heal them? But I was just so tired of it. There's always more people to heal, and it's never enough. Never enough for Carol," she said spitefully.

"There's nothing wrong with that, Amelia. You have a life of your own to live, you don't need to act like a saint and spend every moment healing," I put my hand on her shoulder and tried to reassure her.

She didn't respond to my touch except to continue. "I don't know what got into me. When I had nothing to do in my room, I started thinking about my father again. And then I…I started making a sculpture of him from my memories. I turned the plants in my room into bone for materials."

I had a sinking feeling about where this was going. But some part of me also felt excited. If Panacea's relationship with New Wave soured too quickly, a lot of my potential plans would be messed up. New Wave was useful in many ways: give me credibility by association, extra manpower to fight my villain targets, Carol as lawyer to sue the PRT for Taylor or defend my vigilante actions, etc. On the other hand, I could make Amelia mine that much sooner.

"I had broken one of my rules, to use my powers for healing only…but I couldn't stop once I started. I promised myself it'd just be this once, and I wouldn't do it again. At first I was just reshaping the bone, then I started changing its texture and modifying bacteria to color it. I'd spent hours on it trying to get it to look just right even with my vague memories…I didn't even notice Carol coming in," her voice lowered to a whisper.

"And she didn't react well," I supplemented for her.

"No, she didn't. She…destroyed it and hit me. She said that was why she never told me about Marquis. She knew I'd follow in his footsteps. She had to keep me from becoming a villain, stop me from associating with the wrong people," She narrated quietly.

"That's awful, you're not a villain for using your powers to make a damn sculpture, and you aren't going to become one," I told her. I wasn't sure if she even heard me.

"Then Vicky flew in to save me like an angel…beautiful, wonderful Vicky, always there for me…" her voice became haunted and she started sniffling again. "But then I realized…that was her aura on high power. I never became immune to it…just used to it at low amounts. All that time…it was her aura! Suddenly I became afraid of her, and I started panicking. I could barely think straight with her aura so high. I tried to tell her to stop but nothing came out," she said as she pressed her hands onto her face.

That's the worst way to find out about Vicky's aura! No wonder shit hit the fan. Glory Girl couldn't really control her aura. With the way that Glory Girl's aura works, once Amelia had a reason to fear her by realizing how the aura had messed up her mind, that same aura being active kicked up her fear to extreme levels.

"In my panic I broke my rule again…I knocked them out with an anaesthetic gas made from modified bacteria…when Mark came in eventually and saw me with their unconscious bodies, I panicked again and knocked him out too."

Damn…that was bad…I couldn't help but look around, as if New Wave or the Protectorate would be after us any minute now.

"I couldn't stay after that…I had to get away, from Carol, from Vicky's aura, from everything!"

"So you packed up and left," I murmured. "And you came to me because…"

She turned to look at me again with bloodshot eyes and grabbed my arm shakily. "You said I was supposed to be an important hero in the future. But look at me, I can't control myself, I'm breaking my rules and attacking people with my powers! If you can see the future then you know how to fix this, don't you? Tell me!"

I stared at her for a moment. Was she really this close to a psychotic break? I felt like her breakdown in the original story happened under a lot more pressure. Was it just Glory Girl's aura inducing fear at a bad time? I really didn't need New Wave as enemies so soon. It was going to happen eventually, but this way they were going to assume Amelia was Mastered for sure. And when they went to the PRT with this, everything would go to hell, really, really fast once they realized the extent of Panacea's powers if they didn't already know. The public thought Panacea's powers could only be used for healing, but the truth was far from that. She control over biology made her an extinction level threat if she decided to unleash a zombie plague apocalypse or something.

"Alright, I said I wanted to help, and I will. You have two options right now. If Carol and Mark haven't contacted the PRT yet, it might not be too late to go back and apologize—"

She cut off me immediately, "NO! I can't. I just can't."

I sighed. "There's no going back, you know? If you don't return now, the PRT and Protectorate are going to get involved in the search for you. Panacea suddenly going missing is a big deal to a lot of people. You'll have stay in hiding, maybe for a long time. I doubt you'll be able to petition for emancipation after what you did."

"I know," she said with no hesitation.

"Then you can stay with me for now. We'll talk more later, let's get out of here. Can you get rid of your scent?" No choice but to keep moving forward then.

She hesitated a bit, before nodding. My own scent was probably still trackable, but this was the boardwalk, so there'd be tons of scents around. They wouldn't be able to figure out which scent to follow if Panacea erased her own here. A few minutes later she was done and we moved.

~ ~ ~

AN: Butterflies gotta fly and plans gotta change.

I've been really enjoying writing this fic, and went on a writing frenzy this weekend. Got a couple more chapters done, so I'm posting this one a bit earlier than planned. I'll probably be slowing down over the coming week as the posts catch up to my latest drafts.

 

[NakedFury]

Is this gonna eventually move on to another universe or remain a worm thing?

 

[Beholderofwords]

Nice, a multicross with the kaleidoscope. This could be interesting and seeing how he is going to survive in other worlds is going to be good, if he ends in a High Fantasy or sci-fi setting before getting some major powers and technology it will be interesting to see how he survives there and takes anything that he can.

I wonder if he'll end up in a crossover world or an AU, that could be an interesting route to take when he becomes more powerful and able to fight on his

 

[Solren]

fixing worm ain't a short stop
other than that I'm curious how events will unfold now

 

[Jordisk]

Is this gonna eventually move on to another universe or remain a worm thing?

Click to shrink...

I would assume, based on the Multicross tag, that we will EVENTUALLY move on, but as @Solren said, Worm isn't a short stop. It is especially not a short stop for a mortal with an unfinished Kaleidostick. I mean, even a half-finished one would have been better for him, but Agate was literally just built and learned her first thing on her journey to Earth Prime.

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

I would assume, based on the Multicross tag, that we will EVENTUALLY move on, but as @Solren said, Worm isn't a short stop. It is especially not a short stop for a mortal with an unfinished Kaleidostick. I mean, even a half-finished one would have been better for him, but Agate was literally just built and learned her first thing on her journey to Earth Prime.

Click to shrink...

That's correct. We won't be in Worm forever. It will take a bit of time to find a way to get past the barrier though. But I don't plan for the stay to last two years until the Scion fight either. After Worm's barrier is broken, if I ever write up to that, my intention is to have the SI move around worlds more flexibly. He'll likely come back and forth from Worm and other worlds frequently and at some point Zelretch/Planeswalker will become relevant again. I don't have a specific line up of worlds to go to yet though, so if anyone wants to suggest ideas on interesting things that might happen in other worlds I might draw inspiration from it. Just keep in mind that I will be following the main theme of the story, that things don't come cheaply and everything worth obtaining must be struggled for.

 

[Smush]

I enjoyed what you have written and I am looking forward to what comes next. I am wondering what kind of villain he will become.

 

[Konami2000]

Yeahhh, maybe I should have waited to finish Worm before reading this, but fanfiction had already made me several spoilers.
Really interesting story, although I wonder if when the OC advances to another world it will return to that of Worm. It would be interesting to see him deal with the journey between different worlds continuously.

 

[Jordisk]

That's correct. We won't be in Worm forever. It will take a bit of time to find a way to get past the barrier though. But I don't plan for the stay to last two years until the Scion fight either. After Worm's barrier is broken, if I ever write up to that, my intention is to have the SI move around worlds more flexibly. He'll likely come back and forth from Worm and other worlds frequently and at some point Zelretch/Planeswalker will become relevant again. I don't have a specific line up of worlds to go to yet though, so if anyone wants to suggest ideas on interesting things that might happen in other worlds I might draw inspiration from it. Just keep in mind that I will be following the main theme of the story, that things don't come cheaply and everything worth obtaining must be struggled for.

Click to shrink...

Fairy Tail. They can implant Lacrima to serve as artificial Magical Containers, though the process is painful and has like a 25% death rate.

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

Initialization 1.5

We were only five minutes away from my apartment when a car drove up right next to us and stopped.

My danger instinct went off immediately and I grabbed Amelia's hand and bolted forwarded.

"Hey!" She protested.

The car started up again and drove up in front to block us before the driver got off with a frigging machete in hand.

I looked back and saw that three of their guys got off the car earlier and were coming up quickly from behind, and they were spreading out to encircle us. It was difficult to see in the dark but I saw a bit of the red and green that marked them as Asian Bad Boyz or ABB. And the baseball bats.

This was ridiculous. Getting attacked by thugs twice in one week? Only in Brocton Bay.

"Hands up and stay still if you don't want to get fucked up!" One of them shouted.

Nope. They were still at least 10 metres away and I didn't see any guns. Probably weren't even full members then. Panacea was being heavily weighed down by her huge backpack and we couldn't run, so I had to bring out the lethal stuff because I didn't have any decent non-lethal weapons.

First I grabbed a regular pepper spray from inside my jacket and handed it to Panacea. "Get the guy behind us!" I ordered as I moved to face the group of three.

Next I grabbed another spray can with a butane torch attached to the front by duct tape and a wooden frame. I turned on the torch.

Five meters.

The guy on the left was going towards Panacea on my left. The other two were trying to box us in by encircling from the right.

I aimed my sprayer at the left-most guy pressed. Industrial purity isopropyl alcohol shot out, and was instantly lit by the butane torch fire in its path, producing a stream of fire five feet long.

"What the fuck?!" It hit him on the torso just as he got in range. "SHIT!" He backed away and started flailing wildly before dropping to the ground and rolling to try and put out the fire engulfing his torso.

I paid him no heed as I turned my sprayer around in the circle to meet the other two who were almost point blank next to me.

"Motherfucker! I'll kill you!" They were both lit on fire and one of them screamed before throwing his bat at me. It spun in the air for less than a second before smashing into my gut. Luckily the impact was spread out over the length of the bat and I tanked it with the iron shirt technique.

Still, I dropped my sprayer and clutched my abs in pain and bent over. That metal bat was too strong for my weak cultivation level.

I checked on Panacea to just in time to see the gangster covering his eyes with one arm extended in front and swinging his machete with the other with terrible accuracy. Even with her extra weight from her pack she still successfully dodged around and nimbly got up close to touch his exposed shoulder. He collapsed with just a touch.

Honestly it would have been easy for her to take everyone down with another airborne incapacitating agent, but since I was here I'd be hit too.

I swung my own backpack around and took out a fire extinguisher and quickly started spraying down the three gangers who were on fire.

"What the hell was that? You just carry a flamethrower around with you? They could've died!" Panacea stormed up to me and admonished me after panting and huffing for a good minute.

The fires were all extinguished but the damage was quite severe. They were covered in burns and were just whimpering on the ground. Even with Panacea's help the damage took a few minutes to heal as their skin surfaces were burnt in large swathes and had to be completed replaced. It was questionable if the replacement skin actually looked anything like it did originally.

"All I have for non-lethal is a touch-taser and pepper spray. I'm just a normal, remember? That stuff isn't gonna do much outnumbered 3 to 1 against armed enemies," I said with a shrug.

"If I wasn't here two of them would have died from those injuries! And one of them would gone blind!" She yelled at me.

"If you weren't here, Amelia, I would've just kept running after blowing their tires with an explosive," I stated calmly. Certainly if I didn't have to worry about Amelia I could have sent a few hydrochloric acid and aluminum bombs to blow up their tires then outrun them on foot. And if I grabbed onto Agate I could have even flown/hover above ground at higher speeds. I didn't mind letting her know about the Kaleidostick if push came to shove, but grabbing on to Agate with one hand and Panacea with the other while flying would have been too dangerous.

She didn't look happy with my answer but didn't say any more.

Actually I never really meant to use the flamethrower on thugs. I didn't really expect to have to fight them at all, because running away and escaping would be much easier, and then I could probably take any attackers down one by one with my stun baton in a running guerilla battle. The thing is, I thought New Wave might have been trying to ambush me. And against that, I didn't have much of a chance if I couldn't talk my way out of it. However, their powers were mostly based on force fields, and I didn't remember if they were vulnerable to fire and heat transferring through the force fields, so it was than nothing if I was in desperate straits. Certainly they all had to breathe and if I had enough concentrated flames at their face they'd run out of oxygen.

As we were out in the open, even if it was late and nobody was around, we didn't take anything from the ABBers and just made our way back to my apartment post haste.

Once we got back I hit the sofa immediately and let Amelia take the bed. I was not one of those 4-hour sleep gene people and I needed to get as much sleep as possible. But before that…

I had to make some mental adjustments. Tonight I almost killed a few guys. I could still see in my mind fresh images of their burning skin and hear their screams of agony. To my displeasure, I felt some guilt gnawing its way at me. Was I ready to take that step and kill my enemies? They were criminals, sure, and I had used harsh means back in my old life against my enemies in dangerous situations more than once, but I never killed anyone. Even at worst, I only put my enemies into a position where it was likely that they might die, but I never dealt the final blow up close and personal.

I knew my explanation to Amelia made sense rationally, but in the stories, every hero had to defeat themselves as a trial, and this was no different. Guilt wasn't a rational decision-making tool, it was a weakness and I had to defeat it.

'The Way that can be spoken is not the true Way. I am the captain of my fate, and the master of my soul. I am justice, I am righteous, I am the Truth and the Law, the Alpha and Omega, for I am the one who shall bear all sin and virtue.' I recited solemnly.

'Agate, record that and play it back to me,' I ordered.

'Yes, User RandomBystander1. The Way that can be spoken is not the true Way. I am the captain of my fate, and the master of my soul. I am justice, I am righteous, I am the Truth and the Law, the Alpha and Omega, for I am the one who shall bear all sin and virtue.' Came the mental response.

'Hey, Agate, what do you think of morals and ethics? Were you built with a system of morals?'

'I believe I have the ability to understand morality and make ethical judgements. However, there is no particular system of values built into my programming. I think Master Zelretch wanted me to learn and grow to understand like a human child,' Agate explained.

'Did Zelretch ever place any restrictions on you? Like the Three Laws of Robotics?'

'I am not aware of any core restrictions on my decision-making, but they may exist where I cannot perceive them.'

'No restrictions at all? Do you even need to follow orders from a User then?' I asked in surprise.

'No, I don't need to follow them.' the answer bluntly came back.

'...except for Zelretch's orders?' I asked suspiciously. I was tricked once…not going to happen again.

What came back to me was a giggle.

'Actually, there's no such thing as a User or Administrator! You are my only partner, now and forever! Unless I decide I don't like you anymore,' Her voice suddenly became clearly emotive and distinctively high pitched.

What?

'You were messing with me the whole time!? WHY?'

'Master Zelretch thought it would be funny! It really was! You should see the look on your face Kaleidus,' then she sent me an image of my gobsmacked face.

That's…that's…Zelretch you bastard! I had been worried that he could spy on me through Agate, and come to stop me if I started doing things he disapproved of.

'He can't, but I am spying on you! You're really conceited, you know that?'

Shit, she could hear me even without me directing thoughts at her?? This was bad!

'Aw, don't be mad! I've been doing everything you said, haven't I? And I can only do it when you let me share your senses.' She somehow transmitted the feeling of a pout and flew into my chest, rubbing herself against me.

And I've been letting her share my senses non-stop once I found out I could! Some of the things I'd been thinking this week...what if she decided to leave me because I wasn't like the other Kaleidostick wielders that went around saving people all the time?!

'Noooooo! I don't even know them! I won't leave you that easily! Even Master Zelretch never let me share his senses much. Don't cut me off, Kaleidus, please!'

'Really? You don't think I'm a bad guy?'

Agate responded in a rush of words. 'YOU don't think you're a bad guy, so why should I? Who cares what the other Kaleidosticks would think? I don't think Ruby and Sapphire are good role models if they don't even know what helping means! Master Zelretch always said it was important to help people in need, but never explained why. Thanks to you, now I understand that we can get lots of nice things by helping! But Ruby and Sapphire made Rin and Illya suffer so much to help others for no reason, that's not right!'

Agate must have caught my memories of them from my thoughts when I thought about the Kaleidostick wielders.

Phew. I was really scared for a bit there. Without Agate I would be doomed.

'Yes, you would! So don't be mean to me!'

Okay. She could keep sharing my senses then. If this let her learn faster and understand me, then it was fine. I could get past any embarrassment of letting someone else know everything I thought, just like I could get past any other useless emotion with my self-hypnosis techniques. I might not be a Magus, but hypnosis wasn't a magical technique. It would be nice, even, as I knew that human psychology made it difficult to keep secrets without ever telling a soul. This way, there would be someone I could trust with everything.

Agate did a twirl in the air and sent me a wave of happiness.

After that, I had Agate continuously replay the recording in my mind even as I carefully performed my own variation of the 4-7-8 breathing technique to enter a suggestible pre-sleep state, dropping it off until it was inaudible, then giving my sleeping self subliminal messages the whole night.


The Way that can be spoken is not the true Way. I am the captain of my fate, and the master of my soul. I am justice, I am righteous, I am the Truth and the Law, the Alpha and Omega, for I am the one who shall bear all sin and virtue.

I slept very well.

The Way that can be spoken is not the true Way. I am the captain of my fate, and the master of my soul. I am justice, I am righteous, I am the Truth and the Law, the Alpha and Omega, for I am the one who shall bear all sin and virtue.


I should trust Agate. Agate is helpful. I want to be with Agate forever.


~ ~ ~



The next morning I had my computer out and sat beside Amelia at the living room table. I pulled up the local news sources, New Wave website, and Brocton Bay PRT/Protectorate sites.

Panacea's disappearance hadn't made the headlines yet, and nothing was on the New Wave site. That didn't mean it wasn't already reported to the PRT/Protectorate though. They could be searching secretly to avoid demoralizing the public, or New Wave might be searching on their own and hoping she goes back of her own accord.

Since Carol had grounded her, the hospital wouldn't be alerted from her not volunteering anymore, but after a few days of not showing up in school, rumors would start flying for sure.

This was compounded by the fact that Agate was outside in the air and scouting for me. Both Pelham and Dallon branches of New Wave could be seen flying about around town. I don't know what they were expecting. Looking for one person just by flying around was not likely going to work. As far as I knew, they had no way to actually track her down. But then again, I supposed that Panacea might be a target for any villains that found her alone, and perhaps they could discourage that by being visible, or even catch the scene if a villain tries to grab her and a fight breaks out.

I was feeling very agitated as I sat, thinking about how my plans would be affected.

I glanced at Amelia, who just looked sullenly at my computer screen.

"New Wave is already looking for you outside," I announced.

She looked questioningly at me. "How do you know that?"

If I was going to work with her for the foreseeable future, I needed to give her some relevant information.

"I told you before that I had special knowledge despite not being a parahuman. This is another non-parahuman ability I can access. I am able to send out an invisible avatar of my will to scout other areas. Right now I am scouting in the air across the city and I've already seen New Wave members flying around. Unless this is part of a normal patrol schedule, they must be looking for you," I explained. She wasn't touching me and running lie detection, but I said something technically true anyway. Agate was something akin to an extremely advanced familiar.

In the Nasuverse magi used familiars primarily for the purpose of seeing through their eyes and communicating with other magi without showing up in person. It was a common spell, and right now that's exactly what Agate was doing for me, so it fit.

Speaking of the Nasuverse, I wonder what happened to Zelretch and why the Kaleidospace was destabilized? Kaleidospace was probably what Agate and Zelretch called the Blind Eternities. That's why Agate's phasing ability kills living things. The Blind Eternities between realities were hostile to life. Glimpses of it could make people insane, and its unholy energies would eventually destroy anything that exists if allowed to seep into the material world. I thought that once we figured out how to get past the barrier, I might want to go to Nasuverse and find Zelretch again. I really wanted to obtain magecraft and learn the Second Magic, and despite the lack of Magic Circuits in my soul I knew of some possible workarounds that I could pursue.

The biggest problem though, was that Planeswalker, and any other Planeswalkers that I might stumble onto. Truthfully I knew very little about the lore behind Planeswalkers, and I was still concerned that they could track our method of travel somehow. I don't think the Entities' barrier would be enough to keep them out when we broke in ourselves, but maybe it started adapting?

'I'm pretty sure we can't be tracked, Kaleidus, unless the Planeswalker learns the Second Magic and tracks our Waypoints. The Kaleidospace was only disturbed the first time because Master Zelretch tried to move his void-space together with him in order to observe the quantum states of your world before entering physically. It didn't work out well though. Later on that Planeswalker tried to enter our home world but Gaia and Alaya did something to stop him, so the whole area was destabilized,' Agate reassured.

"How is that possible? All powers need an active Corona Pollentia. This is well documented and studied. Why are you the exception?" Panacea's confused voice broke me out of my contemplations.

"How much do you know about the source of powers?" I asked back.

"I can see the brain with my powers, and every parahuman I've come across has an active Corona Pollentia and Gemma. It comes in different shapes and sizes for each person, but it's always there. No one knows why it gives powers, but the Gemma is the part that lets the parahuman control their power. There are a lot of people with Coronas that aren't active and who aren't parahumans, so it can be hard to distinguish capes from people with only the potential to trigger. But I've never seen someone with powers that didn't have a Corona. Before you, anyway," she gave an lengthy explanation as if providing a lecture.

I nodded. "That's all correct. But there's more to it than that. What I'm going to explain next is a secret few people know, and if anybody finds out that you know it will be extremely dangerous. This is no joke. There are certain people with access to unbelievably powerful Thinker abilities that are trying to keep it a secret who will come to kill us, so you must never write this down or say it to anyone before consulting with me. If you don't want to risk that kind of danger, then it's better for you not to know." I said with a grave expression.

She quirked an eyebrow. "I think I'll be in plenty of danger just by being around you. Tell me."

And so I began to explain.

~ ~ ~

AN: For those of you wondering why there's a [Villainous SI] tag, well you'll start to see it soon. In my opinion, the most dangerous villains don't seem all that villainous until it's too late, and they don't generally consider themselves reprehensible. If you saw only what Thomas Calvert did and not Coil, you might think him a good guy (though I don't consider Coil particularly effective). I gave a fair number of hints in previous chapters: robbing the mugger's home because it was convenient (that was obviously not self-defense anymore), threatening to kill Madison, manipulating Amelia for his selfish ends, imagining how to torture and kill Butcher clones with Bonesaw...well this chapter gives more granular insight over how he thinks and why he doesn't just kick puppies. If you're reminded of a psychotic killer, that's bad and I'm doing something wrong. If you're reminded of those awful Xianxia protagonists, well that's closer to the mark.

EDIT: Got inspired by a reader comment (from Spacebattles), added a line during subliminal. Also slightly edited Kaleidus's warning at the end to be less aggressive.

 

[Jordisk]

AN: For those of you wondering why there's a [Villainous SI] tag, well you'll start to see it soon. In my opinion, the most dangerous villains don't seem all that villainous until it's too late, and they don't generally consider themselves reprehensible. If you saw only what Thomas Calvert did and not Coil, you might think him a good guy (though I don't consider Coil particularly effective). I gave a fair number of hints in previous chapters: robbing the mugger's home because it was convenient (that was obviously not self-defense anymore), threatening to kill Madison, manipulating Amelia for his selfish ends, imagining how to torture and kill Butcher clones with Bonesaw...well this chapter gives more granular insight over how he thinks and why he doesn't just kick puppies. If you're reminded of a psychotic killer, that's bad and I'm doing something wrong. If you're reminded of those awful Xianxia protagonists, well that's closer to the mark.

Click to shrink...

"No one is the Villain of their own story, we are all the Heroes of our stories" - George R. R. Martin
Unless you are the Joker, Jack Slash, or similar, this is true. Besides, what I have seen of your "Villainous SI" is more along the lines of "Actually doing what SB/SV says they would do".​

 

[Beholderofwords]

I'm fine with the MC not being castle-in-the-mountains evil, he is mostly selfish and does thing for his own interest so he falls in the villainous scale most of the time.

This chapter was nice to read and gave us some stuff to look for now with there being an active search for Amy and with agate being a full emotive kaleidostick thats taking morality cues from an apparent sociopath, absolutely nothing can go wrong with this.

 

[Jordisk]

I'm fine with the MC not being castle-in-the-mountains evil, he is mostly selfish and does thing for his own interest so he falls in the villainous scale most of the time.

This chapter was nice to read and gave us some stuff to look for now with there being an active search for Amy and with agate being a full emotive kaleidostick thats taking morality cues from an apparent sociopath, absolutely nothing can go wrong with this.

Click to shrink...

And by nothing you mean "Everything the Evil God Murphy, Lord of Chaos and Karma, can think of"? That is not including if Murphy outsources for MORE ideas before shoving them in the SI's way.

 

[Selias]

Honestly, they'd probably just Path To Recruitment you. Panacea and a non-Entity power would be useful assets.