Life as an Arms Master (Worm, SI)

[LSauchelli]

I started writing this story before "My own party of Heroes" or "Copy-cape". But after editing it a bit, I decided to post this as a first part. I will be updating this as well as Copy-cape along with MOPOH. Hope you like it.

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1.1
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There was no flash of light when it happened. Actually, when it happened, it was like nothing had happened. No ominous voice telling me I was about to embark on an epic quest to right all wrongs done to one Taylor Hebert; no wormhole transporting my mind to a character of my own creation; not even myself sitting in front of a computer, wondering what fanfiction I could write only to be sucked in by the void.

IT.

JUST.

HAPPENED.

One moment I was my old self, and one blink away I became someone else. I was confused at first, almost like my mind wasn't fully inside my new brain when it happened. For a minute or two I stared at my own reflection in the mirror.

I felt that that face belonged to me.

But I knew it didn't.

Memories from my other life started flowing into my new brain, catching up to my conscious thoughts. I fully remembered my whole life until that moment I just blinked away. But I also remembered all my years as a cape in Brockton Bay. How I triggered and how I got to slowly advance the ranks of the Protectorate, only to get to the dead end that was to be in charge of one of the least important cape cities in America.

I massaged my temples. Yes, I remembered Worm, I remembered all of it. Or at least as much as someone can remember a piece of literature that's over a million words long. At the very least I knew most of the important beats and storylines. I knew enough.

Cross-referencing my own memories as Collin Wallis, I knew I had yet to meet Taylor, so I could probably change everything. I smiled. Or rather, the Armsmaster part of myself smiled. With all the information about upcoming events I had, I could become a premier hero, and maybe even raise my ranks all the way. Maybe I could even get enough recognition to take Hero's place.

I shook my head and shuddered at the thought. Ok, Armsmaster was still there, but not as an active voice in my decisions. More like… a hidden personality. Something to take into account, perhaps. I wasn't really my old self in Armsmaster's body, I was both him, and me, at the same time.

I wasted no more time and walked out of the bathroom without bothering to wash my teeth -which, by the way, is what Armsmaster was about to do before our minds fused. It was early enough in the morning to allow me the legroom I needed to figure out where I stood and what I could do to change what was to come.

I sat in front of my personal computer and started typing. I went straight to Shadow Stalker's file. Considering she was already a member of the wards for a while, it was safe to assume that Taylor had already triggered, so that was fine. I wasn't sure what the moral imperative was on that issue if I had been given the chance to stop it. I mean, I would rather her not to suffer if I can help it, but in I way, that locker is exactly what saved her. And more importantly, what saved the world.

But if that had already happened, then I was at least free to work not on preventing the fact, but on correcting the wrongness of it all.

From Shadow Stalker's profile, I opened the file on Winslow High. The PRT had some thorough files on everything of note, particularly on gang activities and bullying since those could obviously lead to kids triggering. I paused for a moment, wondering why no one from the PRT or the Protectorate had bothered to investigate the locker incident, especially taking into account that there was a public record and the School had to pay for Hebert's medical bills.

"I suppose it's something Armsmaster should've done." I muttered to myself. Collin had tried to convince himself that matters with the Wards were Piggot's job, but the truth was that the lion's share of the blame was on his side of the court. I had relinquished my rights over the Wards. After all, I was the leader of the Protectorate, not she. At least, I still was. For now.

So I decided my plan of action. I'd have to set up a surprise visit to Winslow High, evaluate Shadow Stalker's status as a probationary member, and 'investigate' the locker incident. Perhaps I would even be lucky and 'find out' that Taylor triggered at the same time.

I paused at that thought. Would that change too much? Taylor's first fight with Lung kickstarted the whole series of events that led to Scion being defeated. I had landed myself in a Tinker, not a Superman, so I could not defeat the Endbringers on my own, let alone Scion. Would my way lead to a lighter path? Or whatever good intentions I may led to certain doom?

I closed my eyes and decided it didn't matter. I could not play the part of Armsmaster word for word. While I was still, him, I was also someone else at the same time. Hell, I didn't even remember everything he did and said in the original timeline, so maybe even when I tried to do exactly as he did, I could screw it up.

The timeline was already off-rails. I had to work my way to figure an alternative plan to deal with all the horrors that roam Earth Bet. If not, I could always have Panacea break the DRM on Taylor's passenger and have Khepri kill Zion, finish the story more or less the same as in canon. So, mental note, keep Taylor and Amy alive. They're important.

I looked at the screen one more time, and started redacting an e-mail to Director Piggot announcing my intentions for the day. Colin Wallis had enough time in his hands to do this kind of thing, after all, that's the whole reason why he never bothered to have any personal life of any kind. He was a full time hero.

I shook my head. I seriously had to stop switching from third person to first person. I wasn't my old self any more, neither of them.

I reviewed the e-mail, it wasn't fancy. But it would do the job.

To: Emily Piggot <epiggot@prt.gov.us>
From: Armsmaster <armsmaster@protectorate.ene.gov.us>
Subject: Winslow High
Dr. Piggot,
It has come to my attention that there's reason to believe that Winslow High management has failed to communicate the PRT and Protectorate multiple instances of cases of bullying and gang violence that might have caused a trigger event for at least one victim.

The Shadow Stalker situation is also a matter of interest. Looking at the comments her fellow Wards have made in their reports since her addition to the team, it's apparent that there are many discrepancies with the information the school principal is feeding us.

Due to all of this, I decided to perform a full examination of the school, and analyze Shadow Stalker's situation.

Attached I send files on some recent activity on the school that led me to this decision.

-Armsmaster

I hit send and waited a few minutes before I got a reply from Piggot, she replied with her phone with a simple "OK". Huh. I guess getting the go ahead was much simpler than expected.

I started putting on some civilian clothes but stopped myself as I reminded myself of something. I stared at the e-mail Piggot had sent me for a moment.

The Shadow Stalker situation… Taylor's bullying, it wasn't my fault. "It was you." I muttered.

I shook my head and decided to first focus on my current plan at hand and then go on and mess with the Director.

----

Later that morning, I met a highly irritated worm of a principal that is Blackwell. "This is highly irregular!" She said as I dropped a binder at her desk.

"Irregular? Maybe." I said, and pressed my index finger to the binder. "You know what's in here?"

She stared at it. I could smell the fear in her.

"I will tell you what's in here," I said when it was clear she was going to remain silent. "The way you've handled this school could be considered criminal in many courts."

That got a reaction from her. "Now, wait a second. I won't allow some middle management agent with delusions of grandeur to barge in here with these wild accusations!"

"Accusations?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't believe I have made any accusation yet. I just stated a fact."

She narrowed her eyes at me. "What do you want?"

I smiled. "Your report on my Ward, for one. How's she doing?"

"I can't provide you that kind of information at the drop of the hat, can't we reschedule so I can-"

I held up my hand, and interrupted her. "So you can come up with a nice cover for whatever she's up to?" I shook my head. "I don't care for your excuses. I hear she's on the track team, right?"

She relaxed a bit. "Yes, she's a star, actually."

I took out a small notebook and started writing. Nothing of interest, but it caused an impression. "Ok, sounds promising. She's not using her powers to get any kind of advantage, is she?"

"She's not that dumb!"

"Not that dumb" I repeated, making sure to intonate it like it was important. It really wasn't. I was just messing with this woman. But it was funny that she thought that Sophia was dumb, just- not that dumb.

She peered at my notes. "The PRT didn't send someone just to ask about miss Hess' extracurricular activities."

"Of course they didn't," I said, making a mental note about that. The didn't. They never bothered to. I guess it's possible it was Contessa's doing, and not just people being lazy at the Brockton Bay PRT . "Now, I understand Sophia has made quite a few friends since she started, hasn't she?"

"Why, yes, she's pretty popular!"

I nodded. "That's odd."

"Odd?"

"Yes, odd." I said, repeating myself. "You know what her fellow wards have to say about her?"

She blinked and looked around, almost like she was hoping there was a hidden camera, that this was some kind of test or that I'd just come around and tell her it was all a big joke. She sighed when it was clear I wasn't joking. "I don't know how popular she's with other Wards, but within Winslow, she's-"

"A bitch." I said, reading from one of Clockblocker's accounts.

"Excuse me?"

"A maniac." I said, quoting Kid Win.

"Now, I don't understand-"

"A bully." I said. Using Vista's choice of words.

I waited a moment to see her reaction and nodded to myself. "This is how her teammates view Shadow Stalker. She's not their friend. And most of the time she's not even their ally. She's just that asshole coworker that no one likes."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. I could almost hear her count all the way to ten before she allowed herself to talk. "Miss Hess is a valuable student here at Winslow High, she's a popular girl loved by many. And I'm not talking about just the kids, here, the teachers like her too."

"You mean, they like the security she brings. Don't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... " I tried to find the words. I shook my head. Armsmaster wasn't good at this. "I mean every member of the faculty knows who she really is, correct?"

"Correct."

"So, having her here, being a jock and hang out with popular kids, it serves a purpose for the school, besides the financing the PRT provides."

"Get to your point, please."

"I noticed from other reports that your school is infested, Blackwell. You got white kids joining the Empire left and right, asian kids joining Lung's gang, and the rest goes to the Merchants or form their own junior gangs. No good guys in your school."

"I suppose that's not just my problem."

"You suppose right. The PRT -and the Protectorate or that matter- considers the gang problem to be the number one priority right now." I tapped the binder one more time. "Bullying is a close second."

"It's the second time you mention bullying, but I am afraid I don't know what you're talking about." Lie. She knew what I was talking about. Huh. The lie detector attached to my fake glasses works phenomally well.

"Then you're either corrupt or a moron," I said and opened the binder, and sent her way the first of the printouts I had set up. "Recognize this?"

It was a legal document. One where Winslow High accepted its part in Taylor Hebert's hospitalization and agreed to pay for her bills.

"Of course," she said, looking it over. "We never found out who did this, you know. What do you want me to do? My hands are tied, and I have bigger problems with the gangs I-"

"Really." I said, no hint of humor in my voice. "You have no idea who could've possibly done this?"

"I'm not a master investigator for the PRT, mister Wallis." Truth. Well, it wasn't really hard to figure that one out.

"But you do have a functioning brain, do you not, Blackwell?"

"If you're going to be like that-" she said and started to stand up.

I raised my hands, acknowledging that I had stepped over the line. "I'm just saying, who did miss…" I pretended to read from the report, and purposely missread Taylor's last name, "'Herberr' piss off? Who are her friends? Who were her friends?"

"I don't personally know." She said. Lie. I took note that she didn't even bother to correct my pronunciation of Taylor's last name. Maybe she really didn't know? "But we're not sure it was someone else who shoved her in the locker." Lie.

I narrowed my eyes. The picture was grim. "You're saying it was a set-up? That she wanted people to feel sorry for her? So She just jumped inside a locker full of dangerous chemicals?"

"Perhaps." Lie.

"Then, why did you agree to pay for her medical bills?"

"This is a school, mister Collins, we don't really have the money to pay for litigation." Truth.

I shook my head. "You know as much as I do that that's not the reason why you agreed to pay."

She was now glaring at me. "No, I do not know what you mean." Lie.

I rolled my eyes. "That question, a minute ago?"

"What question?"

I smirked. "The one about Taylor Hebert friends, you remember that, right?"

"I do." Truth.

"Well, I already knew the answer to that question, actually. Hebert and Barnes used to be, and I quote 'best friends forever'. That is, until our very own Sophia Hess came to the scene."

She swallowed, but tried to keep herself strong. "Your point?"

"My point, is…" I looked at the binder and fetched a bunch more printouts. "That Miss Barnes was at Hess' audience. It was her testimony along with her father's that even allowed Shadow Stalker to become a Ward. To be anything. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't even be here. Maybe I would have barely heard about this school due to the gang violence. But it wouldn't affect my sleep schedule."

"There's nothing linking either miss Barnes, nor miss Hess at the scene of the crime." Lie. I was starting to really hate this woman, and maybe the lie detector a little bit as well. It really showed how scummy people are.

"Scene of the crime." I repeated. "You see? I knew you could have a bit of an investigator in you." I sighed. "Any way, you don't really need hard evidence to put two and two together. You know that, right?"

"I can't go around accusing my students without evidence!"

"But you have evidence. Like for example, Miss Hess' fingerprints on Hebert's shirt."

"Wait, what?"

I smiled. No, I didn't have any fingerprints. But she had no way of knowing that. "But you didn't really need that to know Shadow Stalker was involved. Now. My next question is… why?"

"Why what?"

"Why didn't you defend Hebert?"

She took a deep breath but didn't bother to count to ten this time around."She's hardly the only victim of abuse in this school." Truth.

"Oh? She isn't? I guess your administration must really leave a bad taste in the mouth, doesn't it?" I stood up. "I think we're done here."

She just stared at me. Not really knowing what I was going to do.

"I will stay at school for the remainder of the day, of course," I said, and looked at the clock on my phone's screen. "I need to perform some interviews with students. Maybe I'm wrong about Shadow Stalker and she really is the darling you paint her out to be?"

"You ca-"

"Of course I can!" I said, not letting her finish her sentence. "I have full authority here. All that government money thanks to Shadow Stalker attending this poor excuse of a school? It comes with a price."

I turned on my heels. "Have a good day, Blackwell." I said to her, while wishing the complete opposite. I was going to find a way to ruin this woman's life, one way or the other.

 

[LSauchelli]

1.2

"Okay," I said suppressing the urge to strangle the man in front of me. I looked down at my notes and read from them, repeating his words back at him. "You're saying that everything is OK in this school, that there is no gang activity, and bullying is pretty much non-existent."

He carefully nodded, but frowned at the way I had phrased it, and paused, looking like he was thinking it over. "No." He finally said, slowly shaking his head in a way that looked like he thought I was some sort of moron. "I said that, in my class, bullying is non-existent, and gang members respect me enough to not bother each other when I'm there." He scoffed. "So I wouldn't know about anyone actually being in a gang, or bullying anyone else."

I really was doing everything in my power not to leap at him and pummel him to the ground. Counting all the ways I could kill him before he could react proved have a calming effect on me. Forty-six was the happy number. I made a mental note to improve that number to a nice round fifty. "So you don't know anything." I said, closing my notebook. "You don't know if the kid in the back is being laughed at, or if the one by the window is worried because his gang boss ordered to stab someone."

"I wouldn't know." He said. "I focus on my class, and my students respect me enough to not act up in my presence." He smiled rather widely. "I mean, everyone here calls me Mr. G. I'm popular with the kids."

Students started coming inside and I stood up, forcing myself to keep an unreadable face. "I guess that's it, Mr. Gladly." I said and before I left the classroom I looked over every student that entered the classroom.

I swallowed. There she was.

Taylor Hebert didn't look like how I had pictured her in my head. For one, for some reason I imagined her to be tall enough to be a basketball player or something. Don't get me wrong, she was tall for a kid her age, but she just wasn't absurdly tall. Maybe it's a perspective kind of thing? As Armsmaster, I'm 6' 3" tall, after all.

Her eyes also weren't as big or far apart from each other as she often described herself in the story, but her lips were a bit larger than normal. While her figure wasn't exactly what I'd call gawky, her posture was a bit awkward and made her look a bit weird. But all in all she wasn't the toad she often thought of herself.

I nodded at her as I left the classroom. She barely registered my presence.

I sighed when I was well away from Taylor. It was real now. She was an actual person to me, and not some random character I'd like to see triumph. I wanted to hurt her bullies, but I had to be smart about it. I had to build a case from my findings, but I had to act smart enough to not make it look like I'm focusing too much on her. After all, before I was merged from two people, I wouldn't have bothered to inspect Winslow High.

Yeah, if the merging hadn't happened, I would've probably been too busy training and tinkering to even bother to care about what the probatory ward did or didn't do in her spare time. Still, I had to pretend that this operation had its inception in my tinkertech. I had already begun doing some tests on the prediction software and thankfully, it did point to Winslow as a source of stryfe. That was a good enough reason for me to start digging and finding everything I had found so far.

I would like to think that that was enough for Piggot to not believe I had been mastered or replaced by a stranger.

I looked down at my notes and nodded to myself, I had to interview one more teacher in my list. Some math teacher that had not even been named in canon Worm and had never actually taught Taylor. I sighed. Interviewing teacher after teacher had proved to be much more troublesome task than I had initially expected. Even teachers whom I expected to be respectable, like Mrs. Knott, were very much aware of all the bullying and gang activity that happened in the school, and specifically knew about Taylor's bullying, but didn't do anything about it, with the excuse that no one had actually complained. At least most of the teachers weren't like Gladly, who just pretended he didn't know anything about anything.

My thoughts lingered for a moment back to the idea that I would have to endure the Master/Stranger protocols. I wasn't worried for myself, because I actually am Armsmaster and know how to answer each and every question they might ask me.

------

An hour later, the bell for lunch break rang. I frowned, because there was something in the back of my head that made it feel almost like an Endbringer alarm to me. I quickly excused myself from the math teacher and started walking around the school.

Walking across a sea of students proved problematic enough, but as soon as I noticed a stairwell I darted to it and went up to all the way to the third floor.

I roamed the third floor for a three minutes and a half before I noticed a group of girls going for the stairwell, laughing among themselves. I pressed a button on my watch, and proceeded to shot the girls with three miniature listening devices, which immediately picked up what they were saying.

One of the girls was giggling louder than the others. "Do you think she'll show up like that to the next class? I so~ want you to take a picture of that!"

Another snorted. "No way, she's totally going to bolt!"

"I bet she's going to tattle." A third one said, speaking in a tone that made me think she liked to pretend she was smarter than what she actually was.

"Let her," the second voice said. Sophia. "The little worm will wish she had died in that locker if she does."

I closed my eyes. I was too late. I hurried to the door that was labeled as a girl's bathroom. I heard someone moving inside. I hesitated, wondering if I should go inside.

""What the fuck!?" Someone screamed, and I stopped myself.

Yes. It was that day. Exactly the day the story began. I had failed to notice, expecting to have at least a few days before I had to deal with this. How much time did I have before Coil attempted to kidnap Dinah? How much time before Leviathan attacked?

I looked to my side and then back to the door. I could either go after the girls that had done this, or I could console Taylor. I felt my power nudging at me, telling me what would be the most efficient way to solve this particular problem.

Huh. Did my shard also work like that? I figured it only served as a way to improve technology.

If I waited for Taylor to leave the bathroom, I could maybe convince her to go to the principal. But if I did, I would have to explain why I was so interested in this one girl Having her speak against her bullies would maybe end up being a thing about she-said vs I-said, kind of thing.

Of course, I could go all CSI on this, prove that the girls had touched the bottles of juice and soda. But that was probably going to be seen as an exaggeration, and Piggot would wonder if I had been mastered, and when Taylor was revealed to be a master, she'd wonder if 'controlling bugs' was just Taylor sandbagging by pretending she couldn't control humans.

I shook my head. Now, that was a weird tangent.

I heard the skittering of Taylor's swarm inside. I think she was using it to calm herself down enough to gather the courage to not go Carrie on her tormentors. I respected that. If it had been me, I would've probably force-fed flies to the girls, and stung them with hundreds of hornets.

I walked away from the bathroom. I knew she could survive her first night out. I knew I would meet with her then. I could change that meeting, make her reconsider her actions. And if not, I would at least be able to actually give her a hand with her little undercover operation.

I walked down the stairs and reached where the girls were. I glared at their backs.

"Sophia! Sophia Hess?" I said, loud enough for them to hear me.

They all turned. Emma had a look on her face that made it apparent she thought I was some kind of pervert. Madison was a bit afraid, for a split of a second she almost looked like a cornered mouse.

Sophia? She just narrowed her eyes at me.

"Yes?" She started tapping the floor with her foot, indicating she didn't want to waste time with me.

I raised an eyebrow. She didn't recognize me. "I know what you did." I said motioning upstairs.

"What? Who the hell are you?"

I caressed my beard. "Your worst nightmare." I said, and showed her my PRT badge. "I have to tell you, I didn't expect to catch you doing anything sketchy. I was just gathering information about the school and what a bad little girl you've been so far."

Emma froze in place, and looked worriedly at Sophia, who kept her eyes narrowed at me.

"What! This is entrapment!"

"I will be speaking with Blackwell about this, and my superiors."

Sophia looked like she wanted to complain, to cuss at me. But she closed her mouth, and kept it shut. She just nodded, but didn't stop glaring at me.

"Come on, you better go to the principal, and confess to what you have just done. If you don't, I will know." I said, and looked up. "Now, I will go find that girl you traumatized."

When they stayed there, I made a shooing motion. "Did I stutter? Go!"

They didn't need to be told I third time.

I sighed, walking up the stairs again, hoping this stunt wouldn't get me stuck with Master/Stranger protocols. Going for the perpetrator before helping the victim, knowing that the victim wouldn't die in the interim. It was more efficient that way. It was the Armsmaster way.

Last thing I needed was to not be available to Taylor when she went against Lung.

By the time I got back to the third floor, and to the girl's bathroom there, there was no sign of Taylor anywhere close. Not even inside the bathroom.

Now, that was troublesome.