Shining Example (WORM ORIGIN QUEST)

What do you want?

Well, you want to wake up, honestly. Find yourself back in that small bed in that little corner of LA. Or even back in the hospital bed, with only a few steps between you and reason you're still standing. Away from all of these strange things running through your head.

Away from powers, agents, machines, everything.

But, you chose to be a part of this world, even if it was unwillingly. So right now, you need to chose what gift Charles gives you. No matter what it is, it will help you, because that's what he wants to do. It's what you would want to do, if things were reversed.

You look around the room, the cluttered piles of gadgets that you'll never be able to figure out even if you did go back to school. Waves pop and scream in your vision as you take them all in. It's loud, bright, and annoying.

All of them part of your new gift, and all of them perfect for what you need.

"Can you make something to help me see?"

Charles quirks up an eyebrow.

"Like contacts? I've never tried, but I'm sure I can rig something up. You near or far?"

"No, my visions fine," You say "It's just that," you tap the dampeners with your finger "Even with these things, the waves just appear. They just… pop when I focus on something. Can you… I don't know, fix that?"

Charles leans back, crossing his arms as he squirms to make the pile of metal behind him more comfortable.

"You want me to, what? Stop them from popping up entirely? Tried that, and I ended up with two camera helmets and the heaviest set of sunglasses I've ever had the misfortune to wear. Didn't work."

You shake your head.

"No, I don't want to get rid of them. Just," you stop running a hand through your hair as you try to think of the right word, "Make them, clearer."

"I turn down the dampeners a bit and you'd be set." Charles comments "It'll hurt like a bitch but it's be pretty hard not to focus on things.

"I don't need them to be louder," you say.

You place a hand to your head, this was harder to explain than you thought.

"Can't you just, make something to help me see them? Chose which ones I hold onto? The ones that I want to change?"

Charles taps his arm, going so far as to purse his lips in thought.

"Make things… easier for you to hold onto and change?" he asks.

You nod and Charles whistles "Oh boy."

You wince, that doesn't sound promising. "Is that not something you can do? Sorry I-."

"You're fine," Charles says, interrupting you. "I asked you what you wanted and you gave it to me."

He rubs his arm and clicks his tongue "I can make it, but…" his voice trails off as he grips his arm a little tighter.

"But?"

Charles rubs his forehead before jumping to his feet. He brushes the dust and slowly makes his way around the room, dodging piles of metal as he goes. You get to your feet just in time to see him pluck a piece of metal from the top. His fingers wrap around it, finding the edges and pulling it apart while he thinks.

"What you want isn't hard to make per say, but it runs into a few problems that I really, really don't want to tinker with unless I've got everything squared up."

You swallow down something that wasn't in your throat a few seconds before.

"What are you getting at?"

Charles face scrunched as he runs into the same problem that you ran into only moments before.

"The ability to see waves, to change them, it's your power. For better or worse, it's like a sixth sense. It's a part of you and you can't just get rid of it. And modifying it could mess up what your body thinks is normal now."

"But the dampeners..."

Charles shrugs.

"Those help, but at the end of the day they don't take anything away. Speaking bluntly, they're earplugs. They don't stop everything from coming at you, they just take the edge off."

He pauses.

"Actually, they're like an eyepatch as well. They stop the brunt of everything that comes at you. You can't see it and it lets you concentrate better, but you can't really change what you can't see."

You blink, can't change what you can't see?

Does that mean…

You add two and two together, and the four isn't what you wanted to see.

"Are you saying that these things are making my powers...weaker?"

The mechanic nods "I put you at about 40 percent."

He stops again, wincing.

"37 percent, if you want to be technical."

You're shitting me.

Charles' keeps going on his tirade, but it goes into one ear and straight out the other. The world stops as you process exactly what he just said.

37… only 37 percent!?!

You've thrown mountains, broken buildings, ripped apart tank armor and you haven't even done half of what you can do!?

You feel your heart beat like a drum.

Holy shit.

Holy fuck!

You killed a man without even trying, and that was barely at half?

What the hell can you do at 100%?!

Something hits you on the forehead, snapping you back to reality. You look around, and see Charles is testing the weight of another piece of metal.

"Can I finish, please?"

You shake your head, the beating in your chest slowing down after you force a deep breath.

"Yeah, sorry."

Charles rolls his eyes, akin to a teacher with a problem student.

"As I was saying, what you're basically asking me to do is make holes in your ear plugs so the waves you want to come through do. What's worrying, is that it might not be possible to, for lack of a better term, stop the waters when you open the floodgates. From what Manton and Contessa told me, you barely lasted an hour before you had a nervous breakdown. Honestly, I'm surprised your head managed to last that long."

"My head?" You ask, your confusion abundantly clear.

Charles gives you a sideways look.

"On a scale of one to ten, how much do you know about the inner workings of the brain?"

"Two," you answer instantly.

The edges of Charles' eyebrows twitch.

"So… ok, I'm just going to boil it down. Basically, the brain blocks out useless information all the time." Charles explains.

"It's like how you don't really see your nose in front of your face because you don't need to notice it. You can get around that by focusing on it, but for the most part you ignore it and you're no worse for wear. It's the same with your powers, you can focus and ignore what you want. But as you keep focusing, information and such just keeps piling up until you can't ignoring it any longer. Things get loud, and everything goes downhill fast. You can keep going despite that, but eventually the stress will get worse and worse and..."

Charles shivers at the thought, and your mouth suddenly goes dry. It hurts to move, but you force your lips to asks "And what?"

Charles leaves your gaze and freeing both hands, he presses his fists against his forehead before throwing them out.

"Boom, mental shutdown."

You feel something crash into you, and it sure as hell isn't waves.

Your power... can kill you?

You knew that it was bad before, but there's a world of difference between a headache and dying. It's not just others who are in danger if you go too far, you could get hurt as well? God, no wonder David wanted you to get better so quickly. If you don't then who knows what will happen. To you or anyone else. You look back up, letting you see Charles' almost mournful expression.

"You can see why I'm explaining this."

"Tiny bit," you whisper, feeling just as small as your voice.

"To sum up," Charles continues, his tone harsh to stop anything from slipping, "I can make it, and the end result is probably going to be you being able to take more pressure. But only if you want to go up higher. With what you can do now, it'll come as easily as breathing if I make everything right, and that will take a while."

You nod, that's fair enough honestly. In the back of your head, you're thinking of getting a different gift. Hopefully one that doesn't make things worse. But even if you did, you would still need the help. The more control, the less mistakes. It might hurt, but anything was worth it to get a better handle on your gift. Waiting is a small price to pay if you can get that.

"So that means it's going to take me three or four days to modify your dampeners. Five days tops if Manton shows up with his wishlist," Charles says.

... what?

You stare at him, your jaw on the floor with words failing you. There's a second of pause, but nothing. Charles looks as sure of himself as ever.

Good god he's serious.

"But what about the..."

You point to your head and Charles throws his arms out wide and smirks confidently.

"Alex, I'm hurt. Did you really think I wouldn't do everything I could to help you out? Do you know who I am?"

There's a moment of silence between the two of you as you wait for him to continue. In return, he eyes you expectantly.

"Uhh, you're… Charles?" You guess haphazardly.

Charles' arms fall to his side and his shoulders slump. Disappointment and sadness flash in his eyes for the barest of seconds. It might have lasted longer, but entire room lurches, throwing metal from tables and you from your feet.

You throw out a hand, summoning a wave in front of you. You stop dead in the air, giving you just enough time to latch a hand on the table next to you before the next shake can knock you down again. Pieces of metal slams against each other as Charles ends up where you should have been. He lands hard on a pile of mismatched projects.

He groans, trying to get back to his feet. You wait for another tremor. For a second, nothing happens. When that doesn't change for another second, you vault over the small table and host Charles' to his feet.

"Thanks," he says groggily.

"Don't mention it,"

Just as you say that, another boom shakes the foundations. You shoot out your free hand, holding you and Charles in place while the debris in the room runs wild again. It lasts for hour long seconds before returning to a calm norm. You take a look around the messed up room "What was that?"

Charles rubs a part of his head, where a nasty little welt was starting to form. It goes down as you watch him work, but he doesn't look like he's in any less pain. You let him go, allowing him to stand on his own power and lean against a desk.

"Rebecca and David," He says "They've got to be fighting."

Your chest snaps as the words hit you like a freight train. You force yourself to look at him, and you see the fear on his face. There's an undertone in his voice, but that doesn't matter.

He's telling the truth, and that's enough. Waves flash in your vision as your legs pump and jump away from him. Wind and waves batter your face as you land next to the door. You barely have time to wonder how you managed to stick the landing before you realize that you're already pressing the call button.

"Alex, wait! You don't know where they are!" Charles calls just as the door opens.

"Then use some gadget to tell me!" You snap, your voice harsher than you ever thought it could ever be.

The door opens, and you jump inside just as Charles volts around the fallen goods and picks up a small screen at the edge of a table. The screen flashes to life in his hands and he taps the screen once, twice.

"They're in Doctor Mother's office, Manton, Contessa and Doctor Mother are with them. Good luck."

You don't waste the time thanking him, your eyes snap to the council and you press the office button as fast as you can. The doors slide shut, and the waves begin propelling you upward. It's fast, probably faster than any elevator in the world. But it took too long to get down here, and any second wasted isn't one you can let go.

You press a hand against the floor of the elevator. Waves appear under you, and suddenly you imagine the walls around you coming in faster than you can blink. Imagine the power of the metal walls crushing you instantly, becoming nothing more than a metal ball.

A chillingly familiar scream roars in the back of your head, sending droplets of cold sweet rushing down your neck. What the hell are you thinking? You're just going to rush up there and stop the fighting? What were you going to do? Throw something?

You have no idea how you could stop them with what you have now. But despite that, you still jumped in here, you still ran as fast as you could to help. You must be crazy. You didn't even think, your body was moving and you didn't even try to stop it. And at the end of it all, here you are going to help with everything you can.

But you could mess up again… you could try and your own powers could kill you.

The room, the man, the hands, the ball, they all flash in your vision.

With a scream that sounds like someone else, you feel your fist slams against the wall of the elevator. It dents the metal, and your hand burns but that doesn't matter.

Fuck your mistake.
DATA RECEIVED
And fuck what could happen to you!
DATA EXTREAMLY
Rebecca is in danger, and you left her like that. You left your best friend alone just because you had a hang up. David promised to be better, and you never thought of seeing him to thank him. They made promises, so it doesn't matter if you might mess up.

Matthew believed you can do better. Charles willingly sent you here, knowing that you wanted to help.

They believed in you, time to give yourself the same courtesy again. Believe in your choices again, be a hero, if only for a few more moments.
INCREASING INTENSITY
Once that's done, you can stop and think about what led you here.

Gritting your teeth, you put your hand back on the floor. The waves flash, and it takes less than a second for you to will them to increase. You feel waves appear above you, forcing you down and the elevator rockets beyond its recommended speed. Screeching fills the air as you travel. You look up, and waves slowly build to slow your accent. Watching them, you will the waves under you to return to normal. The screeching stops, and the elevator snaps to a stop. The door snaps open, and you jump out without even looking at the state of the room.

When your eyes catch up with the rest of your body, you see the closest thing to a mexican standoff that you've ever seen. The room itself is plain, just open space with a desk in the center, some file folders around it, a window and that's it.

Contessa and Doctor Mother and Manton are next to the far wall. Contessa had a gun, her face contorted in concentration with her arms spread protectively for Doctor Mother and Manton. Doctor Mother looked as calm and in control as ever. But her hand gripped her clipboard so tight her knuckles are white. Manton on the other hand is perfectly ok letting droplets of sweat coursed down his face as he watched the other end of the room.

You follow his gaze and see David standing as still as a statue. One of his hands raised and glowing gold, the other silver pressing against a clear wall of shimmering power that feels as strong as steel if not stronger. Beyond it, you see Rebecca struggling to hold herself up in the middle of a crater as hundreds of waves crash down on her. She tries to put a foot under her, but the waves increase, sending her crashing down, shaking the room and probably the ones below.

Rebecca grits her teeth, and starts to push against the waves. You hear David strain to keep the waves in place. As you watch, one by one, the waves start going out. You can remove them, let her go. Or you could add more, keep her down.

You could help her, or you could help David.

And you need to chose quickly, before they bring the entire building down.

[] Remove the waves from Rebecca, let her up.
[] Increase the waves, keep her down and let David relax
[] Use your own waves, separate them with what little surprise you have left.
[] Go to Doctor Mother and company, make one of them to do something to stop them.
[] Try and stop them without your powers. Somehow.