How to Beat Fried Worms
Disclaimer: Worm is owned by Wildbow, and he can keep it.
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Chapter 12: Tick Tock
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The two days that Alec spent in New York were, when everything was said and done, oddly pleasant. Sure, he'd gotten lucky on the first day with Mantellum but the second day had been pretty good, too.
The tour bus had taken them around to a number of different attractions and historic sites while the guide talked at length about what had happened and what made them important.
Lady Liberty had apparently been bisected when Behemoth had absorbed and then returned a blast from Legend, amplified at least tenfold.
The memorial to those lost in the battle included the civilian IDs of the capes that could be identified. Those that had been incinerated beyond recovery were simply listed by the names they'd chosen.
In death, it didn't matter what color hat they'd worn. They all died as heroes.
And, speaking of heroes...
The last stop they took was to the memorial of Hero, the man whose loss had turned the Triumvirate... into the Triumvirate. He'd been slain eleven years in the past, bisected by the Siberian.
Everything Alec knew about the man painted him as being genuinely heroic. A man that stood against the dark, that steered his allies as a moral compass. With his loss, Cauldron... had lost sight of their goal.
From the Gamer's understanding, Cauldron gave William Manton to the Slaughterhouse 9 in exchange for Harbinger, the Number Man. And William Manton, the Master behind the Projection known to the public as the Siberian, killed Hero. Then Harbinger, in Hero's absence, had been used to refine Cauldron and their methods in such a way that they cared about saving as many Earths as possible... but just as they might save the human race?
They would sacrifice its Humanity.
Alec had several disposable cameras in his inventory, loaded with pictures of what the once great city had become. He'd like to get them developed so he could show the others what they were working to prevent when he got home.
He'd also spent a good bit of time grinding and learning a bit more about the abilities he'd collected. He'd likely lost a bit of time, here and there, where he just wasn't being 'optimal' about things but, really, he wasn't going to worry about burning a charge of Empowered Investor while he was in the bathroom or taking a shower.
With that said, he had been trying to use Empowered Investor consistently throughout his day and experimenting with Phantom Force at night while he was resting in the motel. So... probably about eighteen hours worth with Investor and an additional six with Phantom Force, give or take a bit.
His Multi-Tool was close to taking on its first abnormal trait and both of his guns were well above the charge level they'd had before, though Alec didn't quite know what that actually did for them.
He'd been focusing on making the guns more 'silent' with every charge while he wanted his Multi-Tool to be more 'versatile'.
That was Empowered Investor. It was, as always, rather straightforward. It hadn't leveled up, which was terribly inconvenient, but Alec got the impression that level 5 was where the easy levels stopped.
Phantom Force, he'd discovered, had a significant number of odd, fiddly little rules.
When Alec used the ability, it created a phantom that started off superimposed over himself. Once they left that position, they became tangible and were carrying copies of the equipment that Alec actually had on him.
They could reach into the inventory and either extract or place something but, if they did so, then the phantom would actually use up whatever they pulled out and end up dropping it when they faded away. Conversely, if Alec was holding something when the phantom was summoned, then they would use their copy without touching the resources present in the original.
Alec had tested it with a few rubber bands and watched like a hawk as the phantom copies faded away once the timer ran out. Even being placed inside of the inventory did not halt the timer, which was an interesting exclusion given that it normally did work to prevent objects placed within it from decaying.
So, he couldn't make and keep phantom copies of his weapons. But he could make and use phantom copies of his weapons, up until the timer ran down.
Among the other limitations, his phantoms could not make use of any other abilities that Alec had. Nor could he use 'Gift' to give them an ability that he had. Finally, unlike Crusader's ghosts, Alec's phantoms could not fly.
Even with those limitations to keep in mind? Phantom Force was incredibly versatile!
And, with all of that practice, it had reached level 6. Which wasn't much but it did mean that the phantom copies would linger for six minutes. Considering most fights lasted about 2? On the outside?
Alec... would actually need to find some other uses for the ability, honestly. He could feel a wealth of potential inside of it, just waiting to be exploit- explored. Just waiting to be explored.
Of course, ACCESS DENIED had leveled up surprisingly quickly but, well, that was part of the reason he'd offered to pay for Mantellum's dinner. It had given the man a chance to give On the Shoulders of Giants a test. The experience copying trait had reached level 3, ACCESS DENIED hit level 5 and things slowed down enough that he didn't feel it was necessary to hang around and make the Case 53's life any more awkward than it already was.
It would level up on its own, given enough time. Alec could practically feel it, now, when he fell under the ever-watching eyes of a Shard. Given how often that seemed to happen when he was in the shower, he'd rather prefer to work on leveling it up sooner...
But that could wait.
Alec had finished his business in New York. It'd been surprisingly unexciting, not that he was complaining. He'd been expecting to see some building-busting capes out and about somewhere, what with that being the hallmark of New York's villain scene, but he supposed that even they didn't want to deal with the winter weather in a north-eastern state.
Gods knew he didn't.
So, Alec made to leave. He drove out of the parking garage, paid a hefty fee, and then...
He had to drive deeper into New York.
The van, despite being almost four times as fuel efficient as a normal vehicle, was nearly out of gas. Filling up took a while, considering the tank could hold about 83 liters, which when combined with the difficulty of actually finding a gas station meant that the sun was setting about the time that Alec was actually trying to leave New York.
He'd managed to get a few blocks away from the fill-up station when something happened that caught his eye.
"Get back here!" a thunderous voice roared, somehow managing to screech above the din and roar of the late-afternoon traffic. Alec leaned forward in his seat and looked around to try and make sense of the noise. "Get back here you damned rat!"
Alec's eyes were drawn to a flash of silver that darted out over the intersection. He didn't need to look close to know that it was a saber. He'd... had a lot of experience at both ends of one.
There was a brief flash and a bit of static in the air and a woman appeared, her hand latched around the hilt of the weapon.
"Nya-hah!" the figure chortled as she landed in a three point stance. "Sounds like someone's a little cheesed off!"
Alec... almost couldn't believe his eyes. The woman had a shield on her left arm with a symbol made up of three circles on it. One big one in the middle and two equidistant to each other from the top. She wore a white breastplate with the same symbol emblazoned on her chest and similarly white leggings with a blue skirt. Topping everything off was the helmet. A simple, open-faced piece of apparel with a pair of big, metal mouse ears on top.
She was a living, breathing, joking monument to copyright infringement!
"Move your ass, March!" the shrieking voice demanded as another woman sprinted into the intersection. This one was wearing a skintight red and black suit with a set of bandoliers across her chest, loaded with knives. She had a pair of gloves on, though the fingers were exposed. "I want the rat dealt with or you're not getting paid!"
Following along behind the first was someone else. They looked almost like a conductor, or at least someone who spent a bit too much time in a marching band or color guard. A teenager, if Alec was any judge- Which, unfortunately given his time working with the Young Justice team, he was- with a rapier on her hip and a rabbit mask over their face.
Ravager and March.
A living Mouse Protector, Ravager and March.
"Come on, slowpoke!" Mouse Protector shouted back before she launched her sword forward. "You're like a mouse on a wheel! All that running and you're not getting any-"
Mouse Protector cut off, disappearing in a burst of static as Ravager got a bit too close. Whipping his head around to the side, Alec could see that she'd reappeared further up the street, her hand around the hilt of her sword again.
"-where!"
That... was actually an impressive, if simple, use of her Mark and Recall ability. It was a shame that she was a hero, in a sense. Alec would love to have that kind of Mover power.
"I'll kill you!" Ravager screamed, her voice howling over the oppressive silence that had fallen over the city. "I'll make you wish you were-"
Alec... didn't bother waiting for them to get out of sight. He pulled his foot off the brake, put his right hand on the gear shifter and hit the gas.
"-dead!" Ravager shrieked, her focus locked on the protector of mice and stealer of cheese.
"Nya-hah!" Mouse Protector laughed ungraciously, her arm pulled back for another throw as she turned to look at her pursuer. "You'll never catch- Dodge!"
"You seriously think I'll fall for-" Ravager started to snarl.
Alec never even had to switch up to second gear to catch up. March, clearly being the brains of the bunch, turned her head at the sound of the Alec's engine and literally leapt out of the way, the van only clipping her foot.
Ravager...
Did not dodge.
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Worm Version 0.1.2: Character Sheet
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| Stats | Details |
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Level: 6
HP: 40/100
SP: 400
-STR: 1/20
-VIT: 1/20
-DEX: 1/20
-AGI: 1/20
-INT: 4/20
-WIL: 4/20 |
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Empowered Investor 6/20: You can invest your energy into an object, repairing it by 6%, empowering it by 6% of its original value and investing 6 points into it. Once that investment value reaches 600, the empowered object will develop a special trait. Another trait will be revealed at 1000 investment, then they will be improved or added to for every 1000 points after that. Cost: 100 SP
Gift 1/20: You may gift a copy of your own ability, equal to half that ability's level, to a target (Limit: 1 ability, level 1 for 1 minute) Cost: 10 SP
Phantom Force 6/20: Create a ghostly duplicate of yourself to perform additional actions! (Limit: 1 duplicate. At level 10, creates two duplicates, with an additional duplicate per five levels afterwards. Duration: 1 Minute per Level) Cost: 25 SP
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ERROR! Previous skill levels not allocated!
Axe 1/20
Hand to Hand 1/20
Short Blade 1/20
Long Blade 1/20
Pistols 7/20
Rifles 7/20
Cleaning 5/20
Repairs 3/20
Cooking 3/20
First Aid 1/20
Sneaking 2/20
Running 1/20
Driving 5/20
Mechanics 1/20
Metalwork 2/20
Carpentry 2/20
Trapping 7/20
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On the Shoulders of Giants 3/20: Slowly gain experience in skills and abilities when in the presence of people with higher scores than your own!
ACCESS DENIED 5/20: ACCESS DENIED
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Poisoner 1: Poisons you inflict cause an additional 10% damage per tick
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Weapons
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9mm Pistol (+403)
9mm Carbine (+403)
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Equipment
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Multitool (Pliers, knife, screwdriver, can opener, scissors) (+498)
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Miscellaneous
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1990 Chevrolet Step Van (Perfect) (+314)
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