279 Heroes of Taylor (Worm; Fate/Grand Order)

Maybe I will post another chapter today, maybe I won't, but I'm posting this for those curious.

1. There are four routes of sort in this quest. Past; Present; Future; Abyss. The quest begun with Present route, but you moved to Future route during it. Which Route you follow depends on your actions only, and offers a benefit that I find fitting for the meaning (and potential end, though that's far far far in future) of the Route. None of them is bad (except for Abyss route) or good, they describe more the philosophy of Taylor's way of living than the morality of it. The routes can be changed pretty much anytime, you aren't locked into one. No, I'm not saying what each route is about, or how to change them.
Also, you have used the benefit of Future route once.

2. How do you achive the end of the quest? Well, dying is the fastest way. Having the whole comunity abandon the quest is another (I'll write it as Taylor getting a very bad depression and eventually killing herself, so don't abandon the quest!). For the more long term scenario, it depends on your route, but is most likely to involve dealing with Scion.

3. Entities can travel between dimensions, but they can't reproduce Kaleidoscope. Because Kaleidoscope is infinite, access to it would have solved Entities' problem of entropy, but even after all Cycles, they have no idea it even exists. Probably for the best.

4. Do you remember how Legend knew about Scion in one of the earlier interludes? It was pointed out that in canon Legend would learn about Scion later. I said it was AU change. Now, I'll add three things. Legend had potential for a natural trigger. Legend's father was a magus. Contessa dropped a vial for low-level Breaker in a room of known abandoned building. Make of that what you will, though only two of the three have to do with Legend knowing about Scion.

5. Shards aren't creative. That's why they need hosts. However, Shards are really good at learning. Some of the oldest Shards even learnt some very basic creativity. It resulted in breaking three Cycles, so Queen Administrator got the job of eleminating those Shards. No one got the job of eleminating Queen Administrator though.

6. The reason Taylor keeps getting new possible Servants is that Throne of Heroes is huge, if not infinite, and even QA needs time to analyze them all. QA did try at first to do so as fast as possible, resulting in Taylor landing in coma. QA is taking it slow now.

7. Abbadon wasn't the one to make Eden crash. In fact, in this AU Abbadon is flying somewhere and will never have any effect on the quest.

8. The First Grand Order was complited successfully. Remnants have yet to be discoveres. Earth Bet isn't a Singularity or Pseudo-singularity, and there are no Demon God Pillars.

9. There is a reason you can roll and Install Solomon despite that.

10. Sometimes, Shards connect with other Shards. It happens when triggering, and it happens when the power given by the Shard has something to do with other parahumans. When it happens, other Shards always accept the connection. While QA has no reason to open such connections right now, she is no different than other Shards in accepting them.

11. Command Seals are tools to be used by Masters to make sure their Servants have to obey. Why would Taylor need them? Because QA can't communicate with her due to the rules she still has to obey. This way at least, Taylor can order it some stuff.

12. Install is very energy-consuming, so it's locked. Include is much less energy-consuming, so it can be used freely. QA is happy that its idea worked. It is wondering what else can be achived.

Ah, I see that I finally managed to make you panic a little! Muahahahaha! No, ok, I know I didn't. Let's just get back to the story.

---

As Tay finished talking with Taylor, she thanked Confrater for keeping the phone to her head. So The Teeth is causing problems again? Well, Taylor can take care of it, she is sure. She had her own job to do. Like transporting Confrater and her sister to Faultline. Or helping injured after that.

---

The stalemate was really annoying Eric, or Shielder as he was called in costume. Apparently, his power had a strange reaction to Season. He knew already that his shields could stop Stormtiger's attacks, he also knew that his shields didn't block gases. With Season though... it was like his power couldn't decide how to treat Season. The villain's control over air was amazing, but the power not so much. If he condensed the air enough, it would be blocked by the shield and not damage it too much, while weaker blasts could be used to topple people down, but his flight prevented that even if shields didn't. It wasn't really helping him attack though, because he was too busy shielding himself from all directions. Season kept bombarding him with stronger blasts from all directions at the same time.

Hence the stalemate. If Shielder attacked, he would leave himself open for air blast, and the stagger from being hit would only result in more hits. On the other hand, if Season tried to focus on something else, he would have to slow down the assault, letting Shielder take a shoot at him.

He thought for a bit about just leaving. Protectorate can take care of this stuff, right? He wasn't even in costume! He just wanted to spend some time with his friends, maybe hit on some girls. Not fight to exhaustion and risk injury or death!

Then he looked down, and was reminded why he wasn't going to leave this lunatic alone.

The street below him, next to the building Season used to stand on before the hero arrived, and probably other streets all around the building, were filled with bodies. But they weren't normal human bodies. No, the bodies had nauseating colors, like bruises covered every part of exposed skin. Some of the bodies also had deformations, especially in chest area. None of them looked to have died peacfully.

The answer came to him when he found Season, focusing on something. Just approaching him was giving him headache, but a single laser destroyed villain's focus, and all returned to normal. Eric, as opposed to his sister, was good an physics, so it didn't take him long to understand the situation. Pressure. The pressure air puts on everything due to atmosphere is pretty big, but we can't feel it due to being born to withstand such pressure, meaning the internal pressure of human body is also quite high. But, Season can take the air away, which means being capable of reducing the pressure that affects humans. And big enough difference of pressure inside and outside the body leads to lungs and blood vessels exploding.

Of course, he might be wrong. Though, the other most probable option involved Season not being Manton limited, and he really doesn't want to consider that posibility.

Whatever the case though, the sight below made him angry. Why?! Why murder those people?! He wasn't naive, he didn't believe all, or even most of them were completly innocent. This was Brockton Bay after all, and the street was in one of the worse territories. But to just get killed like that?! Eric wasn't the most heroic material out there. He wasn't a paragon of justice, he did some stuff he hoped his mom would never know, like that time he bought some drugs from Merchants. He was rather lazy, and often wished he didn't have powers, even if girls liked capes. But dammit, he wasn't going to accept such meaningless slaughter! He knew that if Enbringers ever attacked Brockton Bay, he would go fight, even if his death was very probable, all because he his moral compass wouldn't let him look into a mirror if he run away. And for the same reason, he was going to stay there, blocking attacks from Season until Scion himself came if he had!

---

It wasn't often that Faultline accepted bodyguard missions, and never before did it happen in Brockton Bay. Her policy was to stay away from any jobs in the city, after all. But times were changing, and she had to adapt.

Her three charges were talking with each other in another room, with Greg keeping an eye for them. Relief has already left, to heal those injured in recent explosions probably. Elle was having a bit worse than usual day, and Emily was currently feeding her lunch. Newter was with her, though he was too busy with something on his phone to talk. That was fine, she was busy thinking anyway. She looked out of the window, considering the future on full-time employment under a hero. That, combined with her experience, allowed her to spot a bunch of people moving in a strange way, like they were making very high jumps, but using air to step on and jump again. They were also moving in line, one after another.

Faultline didn't know how it worked, but she understood something else. They were the men working under Sage. They could be here only for one reason.

"Newter, inform everyone. We will soon be under attack."

The case 53 was professional enough not to ask questions and perform the order. Meanwhile, she continued watching the men through the window. They seemed to be gathering on the roof of one of the nearby buildings. After all men (she counted about ten of them) were on it, they discussed something, then moved again, probably to surround the building. During the action, another group of men arrived, this time walking, and they approached her club.

Now that they were closer, she could see more. The clothes they were wearing didn't seem to have any motive, like they just decided to attack in whatever clothes they were wearing. All of them though were wearing masks. They were simple black domino masks (make them rather hard to spot on some of them). Some of them had visible spikes on their bodies, all over the place. One man had his spike in his neck, another in left arm, another in chest, and one even had it going through his eye. Others didn't have visible spikes at all. None of them were glowing yet.

The group also had 15 men, all stopping some distance from the club. She felt herself getting angry over that. Who do they think they are? Trying to threaten her like that...

One of the men left the group and approached the entrance on his own. Was he hoping for negotiation? She will see. But first, orders to her crew.

They have all gathered in the room, even Circus and his sisters. She took some time to observe him and Confrater. Their younger sister was obviously scared, but they? They had the look of grim determination on their faces (she still doesn't know why they decided to unmask to her crew, she wasn't going to offer the same). She knew what they were thinking. They were ready to fight, probably having enough of running away. She could respect that. But she wasn't going to accept that. Her job was to protect them, all three of them.

"Circus, Confrater. While I understand why you feel the way you do, you are staying inside with your sister and Labirynth. Keep the two safe if we let some of them get inside. No objections, understood?" They nodded, with visible relucance, but also greatfulness. "All in all, there is about 30 of men against us. 15 of them are probably surrounding the building, and seem to have some strange way of moving, like jumping on the air, so watch the sky. In front of the entrance, another 15 are standing, with one of them approaching the building, likely for negotiation. Newter, you will go talk with him, see what he wants. In he shows any sign of aggression, get back. Spitfire, you will be in this room. When the fight starts, aim for both the group on the ground, and the area in front of entrance. We know the other exits, they don't, so blocking the main entrance will be to our advantage. Be careful not to get shoot or set the club to flames. Greg, you will be on-field commander, and will help Newter with the ones that enter the building. I'll be using one of the secret exits, and will try to eleminate the ones surrounding the building. Any question?" There were none. "Good. Get moving, people!"

---

As the stalemate continued, Shielder felt himself getting weaker. He couldn't say if the same was happening to Season though. Hopefully yes, but he wasn't going to bet on that. If he didn't get some help soon, he will have to change the tactics, but he didn't have any ideas.

At least every civilian nearby should have evacuated by now. Still, he continued defending. He wasn't certain about that after all, and with such control over wind, Season should be capable of getting back to murdering really fast.

Until finally, the cavalery arrived in the form of Armsmaster. The older hero forced Season back by shooting something from his motorcycle. Feeling the as the attacks on his person stopped, Eric felt something inside him relax. Finally. He then remebered that he should still help with the fight. He prepared to shoot a laser, but the world suddenly started moving? Before he could think further about the situation, he lost consciousness as a result of exhaustion and bloodloss from two injuries he got. How did he miss them? Maybe the adrenaline stopped him from feeling the pain? Or maybe at that point he was too tired to even comprehend anything other than "block the attack" and "don't let him pass"?

Battery, who managed to catch him before he fell, wouldn't know the answer. She would only wish she managed to deal with other capes from Teeth that tried to stop her and Armsmaster sooner. She lied the boy on the ground and tried to stop the bleeding, only to see Armsmaster start helping her. At her questioning look, he spoke.

"Season retreated, changing into misty arm before I had the chance to do anything."

Before Battery had time to say anything to that, she heard a voice in her comms. It was Console, providing information.

"Season was recognised to be the current Butcher. I repeat, Season is Butcher."

She felt numb at those words. She wasn't sure whether it was because she knew Alexandria was last seen flying to deal with the real body of Season, or because the boy lying next to her suffered almost fifteen minutes of continued attack from the hands of that psychopath.

---

You went after the leg. Something was just bugging you about the whole situation. You can't really say what, just that it felt like leaving Season to Alexandria felt like a bad idea. And so, you went after the leg. It was hard, the leg was going through wall like they weren't there, yet you had to move above or around the buildings. The leg was also fast, almost as fast as you. In time, the distance between the leg and you grew so much you could barely see it. But at that point, you no longer needed it. The whole way was one straight line, after all, the leg never turned, so all you had to do was follow the line.

Untill finally, you found the place, if the members of Teeth lying around on the street were any indication. You could hear the sound of fighting inside the seemingly unremarkable building, so you went inside. Just to see Alexandria squashing Season's head like some baloon.

You froze in place at the casual display of brutality. Probably hearing your footsteps, she turned her head in your direction, but while she looked surprised as well, she didn't freeze.

You didn't know how to react. Until you saw the misty leg forming next to Alexandria. You sighed from relief at that. That was only a projection, and the one you were fighting at that. You are really happy you didn't actually see such hero casually murdering someone in such brutal way, that would have traumatized you for sure. You still might have nightmares.

Further thoughts are stopped when you feel a... force? That seems to be the best way to express it. You more feel than see a ray of energy in form of pure force coming at you. You let it hit you, and nothing happens. Both Alexandria and real Season, now that you looked further inside, have surprise visible in their body language, You guess it's because Alexandria seems to be stopped from approaching Season by the very same force, though she is slowly getting through it.

You guess that Magic Resistance is protecting you. As such, you charge at Season, only to be stopped by Alexandria's voice.

"Wait, Hamartia! That's Butcher!"

You react to that by jumping back from Se... from Butcher. The man reacts by laughing. Coupled with his look, he is really creepy. He was sitting on a wheelchair, wearing almost nothing except some leather armor with skulls attached, the same his projections were wearing. He was bald, with some tattoos on the head. He also didn't have limbs. Well, with the exception of misty brown and blue legs in place of his real ones. The legs also seemed kinda weak, especially the brown one, so they probably needed some form of regeneration before they were usable again. But in this condition the legs were only adding to the creepiness.

"Perfect! Now we can get both Hamartia and Alexandria! We usually avoid this method as much as we can, as it breakes the spirit of Teeth, but for you, we can make an exception."

He teleported behind you, only to recieve a kick from you. You felt another wave of force hitting you, doing nothing. You tried to follow up the attack with a punch, but he teleported again. At that moment, one of his arms flew into the building and attached itself to Butcher's arm. At that moment, the force that was greatly slowing down Alexandria disappeared, and the hero flew at the villain. The arm soon disappeared though, and a new projection appeared. While you tried to stab it before it became a problem, Butcher teleported out of Alexandria's arms and appeared in front of your spear. You expected it though and dematerialized the spear as soon as he did that, instead punching the real Butcher.

That's when he did something strange. Instead of attacking, or teleporting out, or anything like that, he did something to stay in place after your punch, while also returning his arm from the projection. He used the arm to grab something from the floor, but you stopped him by grabbing the arm with your own, the other stabbing at his eyes. To be honest, you had no idea how to deal with Butcher, but blinding him seemed like a good idea. And you can feel guilty about making someone lose their eyes later.

He didn't scream, surprisingly, but you felt it, you destroyed his eyes. It didn't seem to slow him down though. He teleported out of your arms, only to get his throat grabbed by Alexandria. She also grabbed his arm, and squeezed... The arm just popped. Some dark part of your mind noted the fact that both you and Alexandria, despite being called heroes, can be more brutal than villains. Other part, the one that felt horrified at what you did with his eyes, felt additional horror at seeing the arm popping like that. The biggest part of your mind, however, knew that you are in the middle of something important, and you can deal with those things later.

The arm, even with the state it was in, changed into mist form and returned to Butcher's body, but stayed misty like his legs. The villain was visibly losing breath from the way Alexandria was grabbing his throat. He was also smiling.

That's when you realized. He was smiling the whole fight. But why? He was obviously losing. You were hurting and tiring him out without killing him. And if he didn't die, he wouldn't take over your bodies.

Butcher teleported again, only to fall on the floor. He looked pathetic, lying like that without limbs or wheelchair, blood on his face, bruise on the throat. Nothing like the creepy horror you saw at first. But he was still smiling. If you didn't know better, you would have thought that the expects to die from bloodloss and take over one of you this way. But you knew better, Butcher five was a parahuman that could survive with no blood inside his body and could make weapons out of said blood. It was also confirmed that the next Butchers had both powers, but the weapons from blood were too weak for Butcher to bother.

His other arm returned while he was still on the ground. You ran at him, Alexandria staying back, probably to prepare for his teleportation.

"You've hurt me enough."

He did teleport. Between you and Alexandria. You spun in the place, trying to hit him a despite that. Alexandria tried to grab him again. He made his new arm change into projection behind his back, but it wouldn't be enough to stop you or Alexandria. You've realised too late that wasn't the purpose of the projection. And now, with Butcher being stabbed into neck by his projection, you had very short time to do anything before he died and his power activated.

[] You try to jump away
[] You move closer to the body
[] You punch Alexandria to throw her back
[] You punch the body to throw it away
[] You don't do anything
[] You try to Install before Butcher is truly dead
[] Command Seal... *

---

Shielder is a good guy, even if few times he is an important character. Even in Worm he gets killed by the first Endbringer attack we see. I mean, in a family full of lasers and hard light, a guy that ends up with the most protective power gotta be the true hero among them all, right?

But that doesn't interest you, does it? No, of course not. Everyone cares only about Butcher, and Alexandria, and Taylor. The characters that we know better and are more important to the story of Worm. Not about the nameless or almost nameless masses that heroicly die fighting Endbringers, despite having their own lives, yet not reciving even a minute of respect. Well, that ends now! From now on, Eric will be the main character! And I will kill out all the popular characters one by one!

Ok, but seriously, think carefully about your choice this chapter, because this is the last chance. Originally, I was planning to make Alexandria next Butcher if you didn't follow her right away, so I decided on being mercyful after a talk with a friend. Don't expect me to show mercy the second time...

6h moratorium as always. Good luck