Remove ads

Shining Example (WORM ORIGIN QUEST)

Reader mode
Ok, the next chapter is underway, but as I was writing I was reminded of something.

Rebecca and Alex are the only ones with their character backstories on the thread. You're going to be meeting David this chapter, and there's a good chance Charles is going to be showing up soon after that. You've already met Matthew, and that's all of the main cast.

So I have to ask, would you like me to start putting out their backstories now or wait till they're relevant?
 
IKN, listen to me.
If you spoil your own story I'm going to physically manifest in your house and throw a mountain at your face.





:V
 
Last edited:
Well peoples, I have an announcement. I am now out of the prison called School!

So I should be able to put out a lot more chapters more regularly. Unless of course, work is going to destroy any semblance of free time that I have. Thankfully, my boss has granted me mercy for the foreseeable future.

But then you might be asking, where is the chapter if you have free time? The answer, it is finished, but it requires a read through before it can be made presentable.

So in short, after this next chapter, expect chapters to come out every few days instead of once a week. Should help move things along and be better for everyone.

But sorry that it's taking so long, but thank you for baring with me.
 
Remove ads
2.1: Twin Titans
  • Threadmarks
    • You're not going to lie, your first choice is Rebecca.

    Learning how to fight with a familiar face would be a dream come true in this crazy place. On the other hand, you want to see everything you can do. Clint always said to keep a fresh list of your assets before you start a project.

    Then, you look at the final name on the list.

    If you're going to be working with and against people with abilities, you need to know what you are getting into. The file said that you didn't need to worry about hurting him. You don't know if the sheet had your powers in mind when it was written, but given how Contessa said she can plot anything to achieve any goal, you'll believe this.

    Looking down at your hand, you think back on how easy it was to turn a bit of metal into a projectile that could go through a steel roof effortlessly. You can imagine what would happen if that hit someone, but you'd rather not. You don't want to hurt anyone, least of all anyone willing to help you.

    You hand the file back to Contessa "I would like to work with David, if that's alright with you."

    Contessa nods "I'll let him know immediately. For now, you should get some rest." A small smile threatens to take her features, "You're going to need it."


    You yawn as life forces you out of the first peaceful night of sleep you've had in months. The sensation is enough for you to bury your head into the pillows just for a little longer.
    Damn this feel good.

    Honestly, you wouldn't mind just laying there and letting the day pass you by. But, you do have to do something today, and it's with someone that's going to be your teammate. Rubbing the sleep out of your eyes, you manage to catch the sight of a package sitting on the same chair that Contessa had been occupying. How did that get here? Did someone come into the room while you were sleeping? Maybe someone just teleported it in or something.

    Your eyes snap open.

    … the idea of someone just teleporting something in your room doesn't sound crazy? Forget learning to appreciate a good bed, your idea of crazy needs a serious reevaluation.

    You throw your leg to the side, starting the process of getting out of bed. Your foot stops a second over the floor as a thought brings a smile to your face.

    It is the morning, might as well stay lazy.

    You glance and the box and will it into the air. Waves shine around it as it slowly floats towards you. As it flies, your muscles groan as you force them to stretch. You're going to be training, and you'd rather not wake up tomorrow sore. As you go through the list of stretches your brother taught you for your mail runs, the box comes within grabbing distance. You return the waves back to their original position and the box falls onto your bed next to you. Besides a single note at the top, it's just a normal box.

    The note reads: "You're going to need this.

    -Charles

    P.S: The record is three minutes and twenty seven seconds. Try and beat it, I have a bet going.    "

    You blink, record? What record is he talking about? Wait, isn't Charles the name of the adaptation specialist? Why is he talking about a bet? You know what, never mind that, it's probably just some joke.

    At least, you hope it's just a joke.

    Throwing both the note and thought aside, you open the folds of the box and dump out the contents on the bed. Setting the box aside you glance at the contents and see clothes? Picking it up by the shoulders you hold it in front of you to get a better look at it. It's a skin tight bodysuit, like what you would think a superhero would wear. It was completely white with the exception of a series of golden yellow lines that traced the forearms and legs.

    As quickly as you could, you got changed into the offered training gear. It was a bit of a tight fit getting everything in, but once you did it fit a little bit better than your own skin. Clearly someone took your measurements while you were asleep. Curiosity leads you to sneak a glimpse of yourself in the mirror.

    Not bad actually.

    You didn't look as good as Matthew of course, but you at least sort of looked the part of a hero now. Strong, tight fitting and leaves little to the imagination in certain areas. Not that you had anything to show off, but it was the principal of putting on something like this anyway. It was a start. If it was going to be a hero's outfit, it needs something a little more. Maybe a helmet, a cape and some symbol on the chest.

    No Alex, get your mind back on track.

    Meet and train with your new teammate, worry about designing an outfit later. Again, you check the clock, and to your surprise you're not even close to running late. That being said, being early to something new was never a bad thing. You head out of your room and close the door behind you.

    The steps down the hallway towards the elevator are as effortless as the last few have been. As you walk passed, you see that the other rooms are baren. What time does everyone wake up around here? It was strange, but that doesn't mean it didn't make you walk a little faster. You thought about just laying in bed and here you have evidence of people waking up and working far earlier than you would have thought from the schedule you were given.

    First days can't all be good, you can at least make the rest of it work.

    The elevator doors slide open and it takes you all of two seconds to find the button labeled E-4. You press it, and the doors close instantly. You notice several collections of waves gather above and below the elevator, each one of them pressing against a different part of it. If one side of the elevator started to lean out of place, another wave would be added to the opposite side. The door slides open, and you step out of the metal box to the training room.

    Like all others that you've been to, it's utterly barren of decoration of any kind. But, The last time you walked into one of these rooms, a sonic blast hit you and you tore apart a wall of bulletproof glass. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility for something like that to happen, but you have a pretty good feeling that it wasn't going to happen.

    Mostly because the guy sitting in the middle of the room didn't seem like the kind of guy who appreciated getting blindsided by anything.

    Bluntly speaking, he looks like the exact opposite of Matthew. While he was supermodel levels of handsome, this guy looks more like the guy you expected to dress up as a superhero than an actual superhero. In fact, you'd say that you of all people looked better than this guy. Mostly because that scowl of his seemed glued to his face. But that could have been because you walked in on him. He wore the same type of bodysuit as you, but instead of gold his suit is lined with emerald.

    But despite that, the very sight of him is enough to take your breath away. It wasn't in the physical sense, obviously, but it felt like it was the kind of reaction you should have when you find yourself in the same room as the President or a King. Instinctively, you just knew to be in awe of this man. His position, his power, everything had to be admired and marveled, even though he hadn't done anything. The thought alone makes you smile, you're going to be working with someone who can get that reaction out of you, imagine what he could do in front of a crowd. He raises an eyebrow at you as you enter the room and then forces himself to his feet.

    "So, you're Alex?" he asks, his voice dripping with barely contained contempt.

    For a second, you can't help but plastering Doctor Manton's face over this guy's. It's enough to stop you from walking and force your smile to falter. It's… a bit much for first impressions.

    "Um… yeah that's me." you say.

    He sighs to himself and tries to distract himself by running a hand through his hair "And I am David, as you hopefully have already guessed. From the man who got Manton of all people to rethink the basics of his theory, I expected someone who looked the part. You don't, from what I have seen."

    You raise an eyebrow and scoff a little to yourself "Sorry I don't measure up."

    "Most don't."

    … this guy is going to be your teammate?

    Fan-fucking-tastic.

    "But, you have asked to work with me and I cannot turn down the training of another S-class hero."

    "S-Class?"

    David stops, and looks you over. There's nothing but pure disappointment in his eyes. The sight of it alone is enough for you to grit your teeth slightly. What did you do to deserve that?

    "You're… serious aren't you? How much do you actually know?"

    You fake a casual shrug "I've been awake for all of two days. I've gotten the base ide-"

    "So nothing of note?" David interrupts "Fantastic, another thing that I need to take care of."

    All around David's head, the waves scream for you to take control. Knock him off his high horse, stop him from looking at you like that. Your hand starts glowing, but you force it behind you. You could force his head into the floor so hard he dents the pavement, but you're choosing not to.

    No matter how tempting he's making it.

    He raises his hand, and it starts glowing silver. Despite the pretense of safety, it makes you tense. So, what's this guy's power that makes him such a hot shot?

    "We can get to that later. For now, you're here for training."

    He snaps his fingers, you blink, and you're suddenly not in the training room before. You're outside, or as near as you could figure. The sky rolls out above you and the ground is pure rock beneath your feet. The landscape is utterly devoid of any defining feature, just a straight, wide open expanse of rock going out for miles in front of you.

    There was no warning, just a snap and away you went.

    You turn around, but it's the exact same sight as the last. Miles and miles of open, expressionless rock. Holy crap you teleported. That… makes your thought about the box so much more applicable.

    David clears his throat, and you snap back around to look at him. He has his arms crossed over his chest, disappointment and annoyance still present in his demeanor. Lazily, he waves a hand in the air.

    "Show me what you can do."

    Again, his haughty tone didn't change.

    And again, you have the urge to smash his face into the rock.

    Yet again, you choose not to.

    You reach out, and focus on a small collection of waves. Willing a few extra underneath them, you force a rock the size of a basketball out of the ground. It floats towards you before stopping next to your head.

    David raises an eyebrow, "Is that all?"

    "I mean, I haven't had the chance to do much else with it. So I've been starting-."

    Whatever you were about to say is cut off as the rock explodes next to your head. The sound alone knocks you to the side, but at least a few waves added themselves above your skin to stop the rocks.

    That isn't to say that it didn't hurt like a bitch.

    Your eardrums bleed as the world spins. You feel yourself scream, but all that comes through is an screeching ping. Beyond that, you can feel the stone bite into your skin as you get a hand on the ground.

    Slowly, you manage to get one eye open. David is still in front of you, but he held out a single, still smoking finger.

    He… he shot you!

    Your knees nearly buckle and fall out from under you as you get up. It hurt, but you ignored the feeling as you choke out your words.

    "What the hell!?" You demand.

    David raises an eyebrow "Is there a problem?"

    You grit your teeth so hard you feel new waves add themselves just to increase the pressure. The man didn't even have the decency to look like he was sorry for that!

    "You shot me!" You say, gesturing at the smoking remains of the rock.

    "I shot a rock." David challenges.

    "That was next to my head!"

    "It was pathetic. As are you, from what I have seen."

    You gawk at the man, waiting, hoping, that's he's just putting up some show. But He isn't. He just doesn't give a damn about you.

    He smiles almost coldly "Prove me wrong."

    That's it.

    You focus on his head, making the waves roar to life around them. With a thought, you increase them. David's head jerks down so fast a small bit of you was afraid that he would snap his neck. He tries to stay up, fight against the waves, but it only takes another thought to increase the number of waves. He was barely holding on when it was just a few waves, adding one more forces him to the ground. His knees hit the rock and you hear something crunch.

    You try to hide it, but you know that you're smiling just a bit.

    David puts a single leg under him, but you look at the rock under his foot and it shifts. His balance slips, and he's back to square one. It's at that moment, that you see. It's so easy. A thought and he's all but bowing. You can feel the pressure on his neck, barely a love tap compared to what you feel you can do. It would be so easy to snap your fingers and increase the pressure until he's nothing but paste.

    It's so easy.

    And that's horrifying.

    It doesn't matter how much he tries, David can't even budge from under some of the smallest pressures that you can administer. And, he's like you. He has powers, but that doesn't matter. If you had gotten the drop on him, or simply stopped playing nice.

    He would be dead.

    And you would have been the one to kill him.

    You feel the bile try and force it's way up your throat, but somehow you manage to keep it down. David might be a bit of a dick, but this has gone on long enough. Holding out a glowing hand, you start to reverse the effects of the waves on him.

    "I didn't come here for you to call me pathetic."

    You take off another wave, lessening the burden.

    "I came to train how to use my powers."

    Another wave off, David has a foot underneath him now.

    "Now, if we can start again," Another wa-wait, where are they?!

    Effortlessly, David puts both feet under him and rises to his full height. He even starts rubbing his neck without a care in the world. You blink and waves shine all around him, but there isn't a single wave connecting to him. You can't feel anything radiating off of him. Nothing on his clothes, the air around him, even the dust from the rocks on his suit!

    He's there, but nothing is moving him.

    You see a waveless, purple flash coming from below. Then, you feel something run down the side of your head. You tentatively reach up and touch it. When you pull your fingers back down, they're stained red.

    Suddenly, it's a lot harder to breath normally.

    You slowly force yourself to look at David, his finger still glowing purple. You focus on the digit, but no waves show themselves. You look to the ground, and the waves shine in greeting. But David… nothing.

    "Better," David admits. "But not good enough. Try again, but this time, actually do lasting damage."

    Now, all that bravado about things being easy seems really really far away.

    You hold up your hands "H-hold on here,can't we talk about this?"

    The comment only seems to enrage him further. His hand glows green for a second before he slams it into your gut. Your world spins as you lose the ability to breath. But, It doesn't stop there. You feel yourself hit hit the ground shoulder first, hard enough that if waves hadn't placed themselves between the ground and you, you probably would have broken just about everything in your body.

    You skip along the ground once, twice, then you skid to a stop. The rock bites into your skin beyond the protection of the waves, ripping the skin off the side of your face and making the world fade out as every sensation is filled with the biting pain. Everything hurts, all at once. You're honestly surprised you're still conscious at this point.

    Instinct alone makes you get to your feet, because god knows it's not you running the show anymore. A crackling sound rings through the clearing, forcing your attention skyward.

    Honestly, you wished you hadn't looked.

    David flew, arms crossed with arcs of pure lightning dancing around him. He simply motions a hand, and a bolt streaks towards you. Your body goes on autopilot, jumping in any direction that would take you away from harm. In this case, it's left.

    The bolt doesn't hit you, but the heat and the explosion it causes certainly does. For the second time today, the world spins. You don't know what hits the ground first, you just know that your nerves are going overtime to tell you that you're in pain.

    And that you would give anything to be anywhere but here.

    Seriously, what the hell is this!? This is supposed to be training, you're not supposed to be in any real danger.

    "It seems that Manton's assessment was wrong. You aren't as powerful as he made you out to be." Despite your head ringing, everything hurting, you can still hear David's smug ass tone clear as day. "If you're going to be this pathetic, you should just allow me to kill you. Save someone else the trouble."

    For some god damned reason, you laugh at that. You don't know why that's funny, it just is. The guy, who is supposed to be training you, is going to kill you? Damn that is hilarious!

    "Hey, if I wanted to die I would climb up to your ego and jump off." You hear yourself say.

    … if you live through this, you really need to get your head checked.

    "... at least you have battlefield banter down."

    You manage to look up just in time for fire to add itself around David. You watch as it mixes with the lightning, forming a solid stream of light that circles around him. He simply looks at you, and the light forms into something resembling a spear. For a second, you can't move. There's only one way you can describe what you're looking at right now.

    Biblical.

    You don't know the science behind what he's doing, but you know that it's more power than anyone should be able to have. And the worst part about it is how effortless he makes it look. The ground around you is shaking, the air around him sparks with power, and he looks like he's just on a nice walk through the woods.

    Just looking at him awakened some primal sense in you; and it was screaming for you to run. You needed to get away, leave this place as fast as you can and then go faster. You try to move your legs, but they're locked in place. Even if you could, you know it wouldn't matter.

    He would catch you.

    And even if you did run, even if you could live through this, you wouldn't really. The first challenge put itself in front of you, and you just ran from it. You didn't think, you just ran. Whenever you woke up, you would remember this moment, and try to think of what you could have done to be better.

    If you ran, Danah wouldn't hold it against you. She would give you a hug and tell you that it was ok. There would be an undertone that she couldn't hear, but you would. Your father would pop open a beer, and tell you that you made the right choice. Some challenges come to men who aren't ready for them. But Clint, he wouldn't say anything. He would just look at you with the same disappointment that he saved for your mother.

    He would never say a word, but he would never let you forget.

    You look up at David, and he still looks as impassive as ever. He still doesn't care. You take a step back, but not to start running. No, you're just planting your foot in the ground. You meet David's stare with your own, and for a second, your breath returns to normal. He's going to throw that spear, and you can't stop him from doing that. He has power, but so do you.

    It's not as much, far from it, but it's still something. So if he is going to kill you, then you're at least going to make him work for it!

    David raises his hand, and you raise yours as well.

    But, you don't focus on him.

    You pull on the ground, as many waves you can grab onto at once. David snaps his fingers, and the spear soars through the air towards you. With a scream, you force every collection of waves up.

    There's no shift, no sound, until a mountain flies from the ground. Hundreds of tons of rock shoot skyward on your order, ignoring all laws that might have kept it down. It feels like someone attached a dumbbell to your head, but you ignore it. What you can't ignore, is the sound of the spear crashing against the rock.

    The explosion spits the mountain as easily as you would crack an egg. Dust and rock flies everywhere, and their waves shine out clear as day. You grab hold, and add as many waves as you can against them in the opposite direction. A shotgun blast of a thousand rocks and dusts flies towards where you think David is. You hear them hit something solid, but it sure as hell isn't a body.

    The dust settles, revealing David, perfectly at ease behind a wall of light.

    Teleporting, lighting, fire, stopping your powers, flight.

    How many powers does this guy have!? Whatever the number, it's cheating!

    David raises an eyebrow before disappearing in a puff of smoke. In the corner of your vision, you see the same smoke. You focus on the ground beneath him, forcing it skyward as well. A twenty foot section of earth soars into the air in accordance with your will. You feel David hit the side of it, and you grab hold of the rock once again. You order the pillar back down to earth, as fast as you want it to. It screams as it cuts through the air, and the world cracks as it smashes against the earth. Tons upon tons of rock force dust into the air as it hits the ground. You hold up a glowing hand, and a wall of waves appears in front of you. The debris hits the wall and does as much damage as a fly when it hits tank armor.

    You feel a hand grab your shoulder before an arm locks around your neck and throws you to the ground. You barely feel yourself hit the ground, but David's heel on your chest, that gets through. You crack an eye open long enough to see his fist glow green. You see it come towards you.

    It hits, and everything goes black.


    Well, you're not dead. If you were, you wouldn't be hurting this much. You force yourself to lean up and rub the dust out of your eyes. When they finally open and focus, you see David sitting on a rock. He gives you a sidelong glance and all feeling of fatigue and pain is gone.

    You scurry back and focus on the rock under him. The waves shine for a second, but they just disappear a second later.

    "Don't bother," David drones, "it will only end like last time." He pauses, it's slight, but noticeable. "That being said, if it were anyone else other than myself, there wouldn't be a next time either."

    You get to your feet "What are you talking about?"

    David looks at you and smirks. It's not his normal cocky smirk. He might be happy about something, but you have no idea why. He says nothing, simply gesturing at the expanse before him. You walk up beside him and look out.

    The sight of it makes your jaw drop.

    No longer was the ground a long, unbroken chain of expressionless rock.. Now, it looked like the surface of the moon. Hundreds of small craters dotted the landscape, a few dozen not too far from where you now stood. There were two long gashes carved into the earth like something had been dragged across it. Both of them broke apart at times, making the lines disjointed, but clearly connected. On one side, you can see spikes of rock stand like spires, casting shadows over a canyon. On the other, a melting collection stones. Near the center of it all, two huge holes bore into the ground. You don't know how deep they are, but you probably wouldn't be able to tell even if you were at the edge. Even if you were, the damage stretched out for miles.

    "Like many others, this rock wasn't here before we started training, it was probably buried hundreds of feet down." David says, snapping you out of your thoughts. He pats the rock beneath him before leaning down and picking up a baseball sized rock "And this rock is what remained of the projectile that made that crater right in front of us."

    "Well, you do cheat," you say, all but spitting out the words.

    Your comment only makes David laugh. He glances at you, as if checking if you were really serious. You just glare at him, and he gets the message.

    "That I do, that I do," he admits, "but I'm not the one who made this place into a warzone."

    That throws you off "What?"

    David gestures at the ground again "Most of this, all you. You were barely even thinking and you managed to turn this nice place into a hellscape."

    He smiles, and gains a thoughtful look in his eyes "Imagine, what you can do with a little more practice and training."

    "I'll gladly learn," You say "But sure as hell not from you."

    "Are you still mad about the rock?" He asks.

    "You tried to kill me!" You scream.

    "How else do you get a pacifist to cut loose?"

    You don't bother stopping the disbelieving cough as it comes out of you. David slowly gets off the rock and looks at you dead in the eyes, his gaze holding utter conviction.

    "You are a good man Alex, and I respect that. I truly, truly do. But niceties will only go so far. We're going to be fighting against others like us. People who most likely wouldn't give two shits whether you lived or died. You don't want to hurt people, but tell me something, what happens when you're all that stands between innocent people and a villain you can't just throw into a wall?"

    You open your mouth, but no sound comes out. David waits, but you don't say anything. You don't have an answer.

    "You chose to help people, to learn what you can do. But you were never going to go all out against people, were you? You had me at your mercy, but you couldn't even stomach a few seconds of it, could you?"

    You nod. David nods and for a second, he almost looks mournful "I did go a bit far, but you needed to have your eyes opened. You're powerful, Alex. If you don't know just how powerful, you're going to slip and hurt someone. Be it yourself, or those you are protecting."

    His hand glows silver and he snaps. You blink, and the two of you are back in the training room.

    "So for my first lesson, I showed you just a taste of what you can do. For the next, we're going to be working on practical applications."

    He stops for a second "That is, if you still want to work with me."

    You look at David, the man who probably held more power than you can even imagine. The man who hurt you, who kicked the crap out of you.

    Just so you could see just how different you were.

    And how much power you really have.

    [] Stay and work with him. Despite his intense methods, you did ask for this. Besides, if it were anyone else other than him, you might have killed them. He's not the nicest man, but he is trying to help.
    [] Go work with someone else. You don't give a damn if he was trying to open your eyes, he hurt you, without remorse. You can thank him for the lesson of how much you need to learn, but you can learn the rest from someone else.
    [] Work with no one, if David is any indication, things can go out of hand fast. Better be on your own than hurting someone.
    Adhoc vote count started by IKnowNothing on Jun 12, 2017 at 9:58 AM, finished with 245 posts and 59 votes.
    Click to expand...
     
  • Threadmarks
    • God this took a lot longer than it should have. I am so sorry, I have a lot more time no a days, so things should be speeding up from here on out.
     
    [x] Stay and work with him. Despite his intense methods, you did ask for this. Besides, if it were anyone else other than him, you might have killed them. He's not the nicest man, but he is trying to help.

    God Damn!!!! That is some intense training.
     
    [X] Stay and work with him. Despite his intense methods, you did ask for this. Besides, if it were anyone else other than him, you might have killed them. He's not the nicest man, but he is trying to help.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top