How to Beat Fried Worms
Disclaimer: Worm is owned by Wildbow, and he can keep it.
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Chapter 15: Dance!
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Back when Alec picked up the little countertop convection cooker he'd put next to his microwave, he'd picked up a few extra outfits. Slacks in a few different colors with matching long and short sleeve button up shirts.
He'd always intended on using stealth in Worm. Being obvious was a great way to end up dead.
Unless he was willing to rack up a serious body count? Stealth, subtlety and subterfuge were the winning words.
Which was why Alec was backing up to the garage of Victor's home, wearing an outfit of gray slacks and an almost-matching long sleeve shirt. Combined with a ball cap that said 'Wirt's Plumbing', he could easily be mistaken for, well, a plumber. Or an electrician, exterminator, really any sort of 'blue collar' worker.
Hell, give the man a ladder and a hi-visibility vest, he could probably sneak into anyplace that wasn't the Protectorate Headquarters out in the bay or the PRT Main Office down town.
Setting the parking brake, Alec sighed, his nose whistling unpleasantly-
He... was going to hit up the hospital, in the morning. One of the many odd benefits to being legally broke? He was on the government health plan.
Ugh. He almost regretted putting his attribute points into Intelligence and Wisdom. 500 SP at 25 per minute was great, yeah, but it wasn't helping to make his face stop hurting.
-as he turned to the side and bent over, his head throbbing, to untie his shoes. Slipping them off, he opened his inventory and hovered over the human silhouette's feet before sliding his finger over. The act removed Victor's shoes, which Alec let drop out into the real world, and the man began the unpleasant process of wedging Victor's size 10s onto his size 11 feet.
That done, Alec stood up and walked down the back of his van. He slipped Victor's keys out of his pocket for a moment to press a button on one of the two fobs and the garage door began to open before Alec had even stepped out of the back of his vehicle.
The man breathed in deeply, the scent of salt strong in the air so close to the bay, and pulled a pair of latex gloves out of his pocket. He left the rear door of his van open and took a deep breath to steady himself.
He wasn't going to get more than one shot at his plans, so he didn't plan to mess them up. He'd had a serious attempt on his life.
It wasn't amateur hour, anymore.
Alec stepped into Victor's garage, the skill thief's car absent, and raised his right hand up next to his ear.
He snapped his fingers.
Alec walked through the garage entryway into the Victorian house and made his way towards the bedroom-
A phantom of Alec walked through the garage entryway and into the Victorian house and made his way towards the kitchen-
A phantom of Alec walked through the garage entryway and into the Victorian house and made his way towards the living room-
A phantom of Alec walked through the garage entryway and into the Victorian house and made his way towards the guest room-
A phantom of Alec walked through the garage entryway and into the Victorian house and made his way towards...
Victor had a lot of nice things... Guns, ammunition, money...
It'd be a waste to just leave all of that in the hands of a bunch of Nazis, now wouldn't it?
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Max Anders, the CEO of MedHall, was a tall and well-built man with a pair of brilliant, striking blue eyes. He wore many hats and many titles, he'd earned countless accolades throughout his life and his career was one marked by more successes than failures.
Recently, however, he'd been rather stressed. As might be evidenced by the near-empty bottle of absurdly expensive whisky on his side table as he stared out across Brockton Bay from a rather comfortable chair within his high-rise condo.
Crusader, one of his lieutenants, was dead. The man represented an important nexus of capable powers, his ghosts, and would be inordinately difficult to replace.
The power to create a flood of phantasmal copies of himself, that could fly and pass through walls? There were few better combinations when it came to hunting!
The loss of Othala, however, was far more damning for a number of reasons. The woman, barely more than a girl, really, wasn't worth a damn on the front line of a fight but outside of it? She could grant a number of different, brief powers to other people but most valuable had been her regeneration.
It made the rank and file brave. If they could survive a fight in the name of the Empire 88? Then they would get pushed to the front of the line for her healing.
It kept Brad, -Hookwolf's-, pit fights profitable. His best and bloodthirstiest fighters could get in the ring and take an absolute beating, then go on to do it again, and again and again. As often as they could stomach! At least, so long as Othala had been available to heal them up in between fights.
Gesselschaft? Othala's healing had been worth a lot of credit with the Empire's parent organization. Without her, Krieg was going to have to work harder, make more difficult promises, to maintain a positive relationship with the Europeans.
Max... barely believed the story Nathan had fed him, about how two of his best and most valuable tools had expired. Worse had been the cause behind their deaths.
A pie.
An all-American apple pie, brought to a dinner party Nathan had hosted as he was feeling out a potential recruit. Filled with enough rat poison to kill four people and then some, according to the labs at MedHall. How none of them had tasted it, Max couldn't begin to fathom.
Othala died in the hospital. Justin's corpse had been found, bent over the toilet in his bathroom at home. Nathan had nearly died as well, if not for recognizing the symptoms Othala had been suffering under upon waking up and finding her missing from his bed.
Nathan, after recovering enough that he could move, had been livid. That someone would come into his home, would laugh and joke and look him right in the eye as he was betraying Nathan's trust...
It spoke of a level of cold, ruthless cunning that Max... really just didn't believe could be found in a bottom-rung janitor.
It was something that Max would do, rather.
Nathan had demanded vengeance. The hateful, maddened gleam in his best enforcer's eyes had promised retribution.
Max wouldn't, couldn't stand in the way of that. He'd suggested Nathan at least try and be smart about things, to take a few extra men as insurance but... well, Nathan was nothing if not confident.
The Kaiser was brought out of his frustrated musings by the sound of his phone rattling on the side table, next to his tumbler of whisky. Picking it up, Max was forced to sigh as he read Nathan's message-
N.Bauerdick: You were right. Caught the fat bastard when he came home from the hospital. Fucker thought Ronnie gave him food poisoning. Barely needed more than a little persuading to talk.
M.Anders: Will you need help cleaning up?
N.Bauerdick: He's alive. If he goes back to the hospital, he might even stay that way.
M.Anders: Merciful
N.Bauerdick: A message to his handler. He talked about a friend that directed him to the range and helped him make the pie.
M.Anders: I doubt his handler cares. Your recruit was in the hospital as well, wasn't he?
N.Bauerdick: Only alive because he got sick on the way home.
M.Anders: So a patsy. A disposable one.
N.Bauerdick: His friend was a fed.
"...Fuck," Max whispered as he read that last word, his mind racing.
N.Bauerdick: I think someone found out about our business out east. Possibly in Boston.
N.Bauerdick: I'm going to hunt the bastard down.
N.Bauerdick: I'll be going to ground. I'll contact you when I can.
"No!" Kaiser demanded, his fingers fumbling over the screen. "You idiot, that's the last thing you should do!"
M.Anders: Nathan, no!
M.Anders: Nathan we need to talk
M.Anders: nathan gt bak hre now11!1!!
Message not delivered...
"Fucking..." Max stared at his phone, his blood pressure spiking. "That proud, stupid, fucking..."
Kaiser's left hand flexed painfully as his right hand wrapped around the neck of his whisky bottle. He was tempted to throw it, right through the window in front of him, but...
Max slumped in his chair and brought the bottle to his lips, skipping his tumbler entirely.
The Empire had 20 capes. The largest figure in Brockton Bay. They'd had the widest variety of skills.
Had...
Othala and Crusader were dead. And Victor just went AWOL. They were down 15% of their capes...
Over one pie.
One. Fucking. Pie.
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Alec leaned forward, exhausted, as he slipped Victor's phone back into his inventory.
The Nazi's home had been a treasure trove. He'd had almost eight-thousand dollars stashed in various places throughout the house, along with dozens of guns and enough bullets to run a war.
Most of which Alec wasn't really going to bother with. He just didn't want them ending up in the hands of anyone else, ready to be used on him if things went wrong. Again.
Especially the Barret 82A1. That weapon was stored directly in Alec's inventory, rotated so that it was situated next to Victor's corpse. The gun, at 57 inches (144.8 cm) long, took up a two by five block. Combined with Victor's three by five block, half of Alec's inventory was completely... blocked off.
Alec chuckled, then froze as his face throbbed in pain.
With a groan, the man started his van and got moving.
His face hurt. His feet hurt. He... was ready for bed.
Today had been profitable, incredibly so.
Didn't mean it sucked any less.
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Worm Version 0.1.5: Character Sheet
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| Stats | Details |
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Level: 8
HP: -10/100
SP: 500
-STR: 1/20
-VIT: 1/20
-DEX: 1/20
-AGI: 1/20
-INT: 5/20
-WIL: 5/20 |
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Empowered Investor 7/20: You can invest your energy into an object, repairing it by 7%, empowering it by 7% of its original value and investing 7 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
Decimation 1/20: Imbue your weapons with an effect that increases the severity of wounds and causes additional damage! Duration: 30 Seconds per level. Cost: 10 SP
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ERROR! Previous skill levels not allocated!
Axe 1/20
Hand to Hand 2/20
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 2/20
Sneaking 3/20
Running 1/20
Driving 6/20
Mechanics 1/20
Metalwork 2/20
Carpentry 2/20
Trapping 7/20
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On the Shoulders of Giants 4/20: 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
Timed Hits 2/20: It's not just a matter of where you do something, but also when! And now you've got a better sense for when the right time to do something will be!
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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)
.50 Caliber Rifle (Barret 82A1)
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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 (Legendary) (+750)
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