The Terrarian OLD VERSION (There's a Rewrite)

[Dawnk41]

2.1​

My new foster parents were probably nice people. Jeremy and Penelope Horst were very kind about the situation, but I couldn't help but resent them a little. I would never choose my mother being hospitalized over my ability to move about with near absolute freedom, but it was a silver lining to the situation. Now, though? I was having the worst of both worlds. Mom's condition was apparently worsening, and now I was stuck with a pair of people I didn't really know.

The following month was fairly… bland. I still attended school, though I had a bit of an unpleasant wake up call when my new group of 'friends' began making racist comments about one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Lee. After that day, I avoided eating lunch in the lunchroom, choosing instead to wander the school halls.

Taylor's group of tormentors had apparently chosen me in her place for her absence, as well. It didn't really affect me, though, as I don't think any of them knew where my locker was. They tried to insult me, but honestly? I was used tothat. They were, admittedly, more creative than the people that generally muttered "What a creep," as I passed them. Ramping things up to groups of people insulting me to each other. I wasn't really listening, though, and none of them knew me well enough to hit me where it hurt.

I was meandering down a hallway when suddenly, someone's foot interwove with mine. I tried to stop myself, but I hadn't realized what happened in time. There was a sickening pop as the ankle of whoever I had run into became dislocated, and my accidental victim tumbled to the floor.

"Shit!" Sophia Hess swore. I had stumbled a little, but now I stood more steady. My eyes widened. I held no love for Sophia, not after watching her actions towards Taylor over the past year, but I still felt bad about not watching where I was going.

"Oh, snap, sorry Sophia! Here, uh, let me help you to the nurse's office-" I reached out a hand to assist her to her feet, but she actually snarled at me.

She growled out a reply. "I don't need any help from you, Veder." I stepped back a little, mildly affronted. Well, fine then, you klutz. This hadn't been the first run-in I'd had with Sophia recently, in the past week or so, Sophia had stumbled into me about once a day. Seriously, I don't know how she stayed on the Track team if she was that oblivious to where she was going. I mean, in my defense, I had gotten a bit too used to relying on my Radar sense while I was going around. I had actually decided to take that off during school hours to try and get back my mundane situational awareness .

Pausing a moment, I returned her aggression. "Fine then," I said coolly. "Have fun getting there on your own, Hess." I turned away from her and continued my way down the hallway, passing Emma Barnes, who shot me a dirty look as she rushed by me, most likely to help her friend to the nurse. I rolled my eyes. I was just trying to be chivalrous, but some people just can't be helped.

OoOoO​

That night, I received an opportunity that I hadn't had since being moved into the Horst's home. Jeremy and "Penny", as she preferred to be called, had some sort of meeting with the other Medhall representatives. Apparently, they had been chosen as my foster parents because they were coworkers of my mom, and with her still hospitalized, they probably had a slightly heavier workload. It was surprising that they had managed to 'be there for me' for the month that they had. I managed to convince them I was staying at my 'friend' Sparky's for the night.

Needless to say, I had no plans on sleeping over anywhere, much less at the house of someone who I barely knew. My real objective was to do something I hadn't had the ability to do under the watchful eyes of my foster parents.

Patrol. Terrarian hadn't been able to slip into the city as long as Greg Veder had adults in his near vicinity. I had, however, gotten quite a lot done in Terraria. I had begun constructing an arena over the Corruption, in preparation for my future rematch with the Eater of Worlds, which required me to spend an inordinate amount of time growing and chopping down trees. It was odd how trees here had a habit of sprouting up from sapling to full grown while your back was turned. I had also spent some time making excursions underground, on which I had found some more crystal hearts, as well as an accessory called a Cloud in a Bottle, which allowed me to… Double jump, basically. Uber and Leet were gonna be jealous of me when they found out. I swapped out the Flower Boots for it.

Stepping out of the house after a quick goodbye to Penny, as Jeremy had left early to get to their meeting, I walked at a leisurely pace to one of my usual spots to equip my costume. I gave my customary once over to the surrounding location, equipping my Radar sense first to double check. I had an… odd feeling, but no matter where I looked, I couldn't identify where the feeling came from. After another minute of trying to pin it down, I gave up and equipped all my gear, then leaped to the roof. After a short jog a few roofs over, I pulled out the burner phone Shadow Stalker had given me.

After a few rings, she answered. "Hello? Terrarian?" Her voice was agitated. There was a strained undertone as well. "Damnit, you want to set up a patrol with me, don't you." She sounded… resignedly angry, now.

I hesitated a moment, which she took as confirmation. She sighed, and continued, muttering. "Of course you would show back up tonight of all times, ugh." Her voice sharpened. "What happened to you? You dropped off the radar for a goddamn month before popping back up!"

I replied in a quiet voice. "I, uh… I had a family emergency." She was silent on the other end of the line for a moment.

"...Sorry to bring it up." She muttered something unintelligible, and then resumed her normal tone. "Anyways, I can't do a patrol with you tonight. I've got an injury that won't let me move much." I decided not to correct her assumption, especially since it was close enough to the truth.

I was confused. "Don't the wards generally receive treatment from Panacea? Why are you stuck at base?"

She snorted in derision. "I got the injury in my civvie identity. Apparently, when you get hurt like this in front of witnesses, you gotta let it heal at the normal pace. Which is bullshit. Nobody important saw me, and I could make sure they didn't talk, but no. Apparently it's more important than having another damn hero on the streets."

I nodded in sympathy. "Dang, sorry to hear that. This was my first chance to patrol in a while, too, and I'm not sure when I'll get another." She groaned at that.

"Damnit, I was looking forward to being able to hit a real target with some backup, instead of just the normal gangers. Bah, we'll have to try and arrange something once my leg is better. Could be a few days. Damnit, this had better not cost me my spot on the Track team on top of everything else…"

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, because I was pretty sure that parahumans in the Protectorate weren't supposed to participate in sports, so I just stayed quiet for that. Maybe Arcadia didn't want it to be too obvious who weren't Wards because they were on a Sports team? Otherwise, it would be a pretty big piece of info for anyone hunting.

She deliberated a moment. "Alright, here's an idea. Since we can't do a tag team on somewhere big while I'm like this, you could score us both some brownie points with the higher ups. Let me tell Armsmaster that you contacted me with an offer to do another joint patrol with the Wards, then Piggot will be happy that you're a cooperative indie, and I'll get props for being a go-to gal for communication. Everybody wins."

I considered this. "Huh, yeah, that sounds good. Do you know who's patrolling tonight?" Hopefully, I could hang out with Clockblocker again.

I heard a paper rustle on the line. "Let's see, looks like Aegis and… Ugh, Vista. Sorry, you're gonna have to put up with her, she's such a little 'princess'." I'd heard racial slurs used less offensively. "Okay, I'm off to tell Armsmaster about the plan, I'll probably be on console tonight, with this leg." Our conversation over for now, I set off to patrol on my own until I heard back from her.

OoOoO​

I downed a Dangersense potion, and a short while later, now that the moon was out, I met up with Aegis and Vista in front of the PRT building. I hadn't seen as much crime as usual, only a drug dealer that I had to scare off. They were waiting for me when I arrived, and Vista jumped a little when I hit the street a few feet away from my jump off the roof.

"Gah!- Oh, it's you. Is your armor made of plants? I thought you had a suit of metal. Are you an actual Brute, or a Tinker making yourself tougher? Can you really regrow your arm?" Within a few moments of my landing, I was buried under a barrage of questions, and I stood back, astonished.

Before she could continue too much longer, Aegis put a hand on her shoulder. "Vista, give him a moment. I know you were excited to meet him, but at least let him answer something!" He laughed, and I immediately found myself relaxing around him. Weird.

Vista curled in on herself slightly, apparently embarrassed, though her visor made it hard to tell. "Sorry about that, it's just, from what everyone's said you're pretty cool. Heck, even Shadow Stalker is saying nice things about you." She stated the last line in a tone of bewildered awe, making me wonder yet again how Shadow Stalker treated her teammates.

I jumped slightly, realizing they were both waiting for an answer to… one of the questions she had asked, I guess. "Um, I, I think that I have an actual Brute rating. It's not a tinker thing, at least, I'm not much of a tinker. I'm a lot stronger now than I was before I got my powers, but I'm not any more muscular or anything. I can grow back anything that gets chopped off, but it's harder to hurt me in the first place now. I'm wearing this armor because it's stronger than the metal armor, I made it myself." I stammered a little, but I tried to answer most of the questions I could remember.

Vista seemed intrigued, and was about to continue asking me questions, I think, but Aegis swooped in and saved me from more. For now, at least. He interrupted her. "Let's save any more discussion for the road, alright? Let's get this patrol going. I straightened up a little. I could understand why Aegis was the leader of the Wards, he definitely had a bit of the air of command about him.

Seeing how they got about getting into the position to patrol was interesting. Vista did this… thing, with her power, and the roof of a nearby building was suddenly in position for her to simply step up onto it, before suddenly it was back where it was supposed to be, with her in place. Aegis simply took to the air. It was easy to forget that he was a Flier, because he really didn't look aerodynamic. Shrugging my shoulders, my Ivy Whip shot out of it's hidden crevices in my armor, swinging me up onto the roof next to Vista.

"Omigosh, that is so cool!" She gushed. "You're like Doctor Octopus!"

"Oh, you read the Spiderman comics from Aleph? I love those!" I suddenly had some common ground with the girl. Or so I thought.

From the motions her head had made, I assumed she had just made a face. Dang, face-obscuring masks sure made reading expressions difficult. "Not really, but one of the past directors used to have us go over fictional heroes, and what they did that was right or wrong. That didn't last long, though, like a three-week period four years ago." With that statement, I felt a weird jolt of remembrance. It was easy to forget because of her age, but Vista had been a Ward longer than anyone else on the Brockton Bay team, and was definitely in the top ten for the country.

Still, it was slightly disappointing. "Shame, they're pretty good." I tried to avoid getting too into this part of the discussion, because I tended to do so as Greg Veder, and you never knew if you were spilling your identity because of the manner that you geeked out. Honestly, I should have avoided the subject altogether, but I doubted that I knew either of them out of costume.

The three of us chatted for a bit, while Aegis and I looked about for any crime. Him, with what was presumably Night-Vision goggles in his mask, and me with my Radar and Danger senses. We were about two hours through the patrol, and had begun heading back, when suddenly, both of my senses spiked, and I spun around.

Suddenly, standing a few feet away from us, was Oni Lee. His demon faced mask was very distinctive, and I tensed up, preparing for a fight.

"Boy." The figure stated, and I glanced over to Aegis, but I was pretty sure that Oni Lee was talking about me. He confirmed this with his next sentence. "The Dragon has a message for you." I could only assume that he meant Lung, because I doubted that the man spoke for the Canadian tinker.

He continued. "We have noticed that you base most of your activities around the Docks. Lung considers this his territory." Here, the man stepped forward menacingly, and Vista squeaked. "Either you cease your operations, or you move them elsewhere. So says Lung." The man paused for a moment, and the tension slid up another level.

"...Well?" He demanded, and I suddenly realized he was waiting for an answer.

The thing is, I wasn't really afraid of Oni Lee. If it came down to it, I was pretty sure that his knives couldn't do much to my Ivy armor, and I was quick enough with my Shield dashing that I was confident I could dodge out of the way of any grenades.

I was, however, quite afraid of Lung. Still, I wasn't about to give up on the areas around my house. "No can do. I'm not going to leave that area to the gangs." I blustered, hoping that this wasn't going to lead to Lung leaping out of nowhere and squishing me.

He went still. "I see." Suddenly, my senses spiked again, and I whirled, materializing my Grass Blade as I went, sending the newly appearing Oni Lee copy sprawling, before it suddenly burst into ash.

Aegis grabbed Vista and took to the air, speaking hurriedly into his comm, probably asking for backup. I continued to spin, taking down the clones as they appeared, when suddenly, the assault ceased, and I had to dash out of the way of an explosion.

Suddenly, something pinged against my armor, and I felt a flash of pain. Glancing at the silhouette of Oni Lee that my Dangersense was showing, I noted the darkened hue of a gun highlighted against the man. What? Oni Lee wasn't known to use firearms, just his knives and explosives!

Cursing, I pulled out my Boomstick, spinning to pepper new clones with bullets. Each generally managed to get off a shot before imploding into smoke and ash, but now that I knew what was coming, I managed to avoid the bulk of the shots. My main problem was that Oni Lee himself wasn't taking any damage in this exchange. He had to be keeping his main body around here, if he wasn't risking it in the fight itself.

Attempting to pay attention to both the fight and a scan of the surroundings was taxing, and the number of hits that I took spiked as I split my thought processes. A great multitasker I was not, as my shoddy aim dropped into pathetic.

Still, I found what I was looking for. Crouched on a rooftop half a block away, I could spot the shape of a man. According to my Radar, he was hostile towards me, and so I prayed it was Oni Lee as I switched my weapon out for the Starfury.

A second later, the distant rooftop exploded into color as I peppered it with meteorites. All of a sudden, the battle around me ceased. I stood warily for a moment, confirming that it wasn't just a new tactic of his, before glancing back over to the impact site.

I couldn't see Oni Lee's silhouette anymore. Maybe being unconscious meant that he wasn't a threat anymore? That didn't quite feel right, and so I jumped and pulled myself over to it with the Ivy Whip.

Oh.

Being unconscious probably wouldn't make someone invisible to my danger senses…

...But being dead definitely did.

 

[Dawnk41]

2.2​

I stared at the slightly charred corpse, not entirely sure why I wasn't more horrified. I had just killed a human being, why wasn't I freaking out here?

I mean, I killed things in Terraria all the time. Absently, even. I could be busy chopping down trees, or minnig, and when something shows up on my Radar sense, I would just pull out one of my weapons and cut it down. Was my time in Terraria desensitizing me towards the idea of death in general? Unlike me, other people didn't come back to life each time they died, and I wasn't even sure that that worked in real life. I had a horrible suspicion that it didn't, so it wasn't exactly something I wanted to test. But while Brockton Bay might have been one of the cities with the highest villainy reports in the United States, it was still less dangerous to me than Terraria was.

The closest thing to people I had killed were the undead. Zombies and skeletons might look human from a distance, but up close? They were monsters, hell bent on killing me.

...Like Oni Lee. From what I'd read on him, he had a kill count in the dozens, and he had no qualms dealing out serious injuries to civilians. Did he have a kill order? I had no idea. If he didn't, why not? What was the cut-off point for, "That guy killed too many people, off with his head!" Who even made those sorts of decisions?

In the end, I decided that I had no reason to be horrified at my lack of feelings on the matter. I didn't kill people.

I slew monsters.

I figured that the backup that Aegis called for must be getting close by now, so I settled down on the edge of the roof for the wait. I wasn't waiting long, as it was only three or so minutes until a red blur came barreling over the rooftops before slowing down upon reaching the roof I had fought the clones. I made my way over to the man, who I assumed must be Velocity, Brockton Bay's resident speedster.

"Hey there." I said tiredly. I wasn't physically tired, but I had just had a pretty deep moment of introspection, so I felt a little drained. "Sorry, but you missed the fight."

Velocity, who had tensed up when I arrived on the roof, relaxed again. "You chased off Oni Lee? Nicely done, not even I like facing off against him." I hesitated a moment, because all of a sudden this conversation had become pretty awkward.

"Not… exactly." I hedged. At his inquiring look, I sighed. "Okay, um, just- just follow me, okay?" I leaped off the roof and used my Ivy Whip to pull myself over to Oni Lee's body. Velocity landed a moment after me, and looked down at the corpse. He froze.

"Is that- Okay, uh, I think we should probably wait for Armsmaster and Miss Militia." His tone was neutral, but I could tell that this had thrown him a bit.

I nodded, a sick feeling in my stomach. "Yeah, I understand."

OoOoO​

Two hours later, I was sitting once more in a debriefing room in the PRT base, except instead of a friendly chat with Miss Militia, I was having a rather tense conversation with Armsmaster. Miss Militia was standing nearby, though.

"Alright, so for the record. You, Aegis, and Vista were returning from your patrol. Oni Lee appeared, and challenged you to cease your activity in the Docks. When you refused, he engaged you. Was he using lethal force?" At the question, his tone changed from neutral to inquisitive, and I nodded.

"Yeah, he was trying to cut my throat, I think, but I could dodge that. The parts that I was having more trouble with were the grenades and his gun." I replied.

Armsmaster leaned forward at that. "Yes, the gun. This would be this firearm?" He slid a picture of what was, as far as I could remember, the same weapon that had been used against me just hours earlier.

"Yeah, that's it." I stated.

He continued. "How did you manage to find Oni Lee's original body?"

"I can see people's… aggression? I guess? In addition, I know the position of all the living things around me. I just scanned around me for a figure that was hanging back, and checked that it was hostile to me." I didn't mention that I could only see people's threat levels sometimes, as I usually drank a Dangersense potion before patrolling, so it would probably be moot anyways.

Armsmaster sat back at this. "Fascinating. Still, how did you manage to attack him? Usually, Oni Lee would teleport out if he saw an attack coming." His voice seemed puzzled.

"I…" I paused, suddenly unsure if I should be telling them these sorts of specifics. I mentally shrugged. Bah, whatever. It's not like the heroes will use this against me, right? "I hit him with a meteorite." After saying that, I lowered my eyebrows. That sounded a lot more impressive than it was, I think. "A small one." I amended.

"A… meteorite." Armsmaster said slowly. "You have the power to call down meteors?" He sounded horrified, and I didn't blame him. It sounded bad, but honestly? The sword wasn't capable of making comets large enough to wipe out the dinosaurs. They were pretty much a foot around, at the largest.

"Sort of. I used this." I put my hand on the table, and materialized the Starfury on the table. "If I swing this sword, I call down a small… star-like thing, on the location I focus on. This was the only weapon I had that has a large enough range and fast enough speed to take down Oni Lee from several roofs over. I wasn't trying to kill him, but…" I shrugged my shoulders. "I may have underestimated how powerful this is."

Armsmaster moved as if to pick up the sword, but as soon as his hands touched it, he jerked back. "Very well. Thank you for your account. Now, I have some things to tell you. First, know this: Neither the Protectorate or the PRT hold you accountable for Oni Lee's death. It was a clear case of self-defence." He took a breath. "But, I would like to emphasize that this is the exact reason that we have a Wards program. Membership in the Wards allows you to have a place to test your abilities in a safe environment, which can help you avoid accidents like this in the future. We're not trying to force you to do anything, but I cannot recommend it highly enough." His tone was grim, and I slumped internally.

I wanted to accept, I really did. But with the way things are right now? Impossible. "Sorry, but I can't join at the moment." I stated regretfully.

He nodded wearily, as though he hadn't expected any other reply. "I understand. Now, second: Lung is going to find out about this. When he does, he will be gunning for you. If you were a member of the Wards, the Protectorate would be able to do quite a lot to ensure your safety, but as an independent hero? You're going to have a lot of heat on you. Are you certain you can handle this?"

No, not at all. If I had to face Lung right now? He'd probably crush me. There was pretty much no way that I could take him on.

...At the moment. In another few weeks? That's another matter. "I'll have to lay low for a bit, but yeah, I can handle it." He must have heard something in my voice, because he gave me an odd look.

"...Very well, that's everything we need from you. Good luck, Terrarian, and well done." He nodded to me as I left, and a PRT officer escorted me out of the building.

As I wandered off into the night, I resumed my patrol, solo this time. After all, The Horsts thought I was sleeping at a friend's house, so I couldn't go back until tomorrow morning- technically this morning- at the earliest.

I almost wish that I could get tired. It would be nice to forget about everything and sleep for a bit.

OoOoO​

The next day, after a strangely tense breakfast with the Horsts, I returned to school. I spotted Sophia glaring at me a few times, but with her injured ankle, she didn't start anything. The verbal harassment was as bad as ever, but I saw a few of the girls falter when I yawned during one of their diatribes. Not that I needed sleep anymore, but honestly? They were having a good try at making me.

In computers, I decided to take a bit of a look online to see if anyone was talking about last night. What I saw caused my heart to sink a little.

■​

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■​

♦ Topic: PRT Informational Release: Oni Lee Dead!
In: Boards ► Brockton Bay ► Local News
Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted On Feb 12th 2011:
Alright, people. I know that there have been rumors flying around left and right but today I come bearing pretty good news! Oni Lee is dead as a doornail!

You may cry out that this cannot be, but I got this information directly from my contacts in the PRT. Apparently, Oni Lee picked a bad fight with the new Independent Hero Terrarian, and got offed. From what my informants tell me, the body was slightly... cooked, or something. Weird?

In any case, rejoice! A murderer has been brought to justice!



I froze up a little, horrified. Well, thanks PRT. Now there's no way that Lung won't be gunning for my head. It's official, I'm not going out on another patrol until I've killed the Eater of Worlds and upped my gear some more.

What else was being said about me?

■​

♦ Topic: New Independent Hero: Terrarian!
In: Boards ► Brockton Bay ► Capes
Dawgsmiles (Original Poster) (Veteran Member)
Posted On Jan 1st 2011:
So, new cape here in town, and even better, he's a hero! Not Protectorate or New Wave, he's independent. Goes by the name Terrarian. Let's go through what information we have on him.

First Appearance:
Rescued a black man and his son from some Empire toughs, and then fought off Cricket and Stormtiger with the help of Miss Militia. Was wearing a suit of wooden armor, and purportedly used a boomerang and sword of wood.

Second Appearance:
Now wearing a proper, metal suit of iron, with accompanying sword upgrade. He, along with the wards Clockblocker and Shadow Stalker, helped bring in Squealer and Skidmark, who have FAILED to be broken out, by the way. They're on their way to a federal prison for Parahumans. Terrarian exhibited fairly high speeds, as well as a decent Brute package.

Edit: Third Appearance:
Arrived at a throw down between Lung, several Empire capes, and several members of the Protectorate. Apparently single-handedly took down Rune from the skies. Information on this fight is sparse, so it's unknown if he's a flier too or something else.

2nd Edit: Fourth Appearance:
At the tail end of a patrol with the wards, he's engaged by Oni Lee.
Now? Oni Lee's dead! Again, not too much information is known on this encounter.

All in all, Terrarian's career has been pretty eventful!

■​

I nodded to myself. Not a bad reputation! Overall I think that people are having a pretty positive attitude towards me. Normally, I would be more involved in the comments on PHO, but ever since I actually became a cape, I'd put all that behind me. Shame, really, people probably missed the keen analysis of xX_VoidCowboy_Xx.

But oh well. Anyways, for now, I'd better try to last through the school day. Either tonight or tomorrow night, I would face the Eater of Worlds.

 

[Dawnk41]

Author Note: By the black demon Shol-Shoggoth, I command thee to RISE - Wait, I'm the author. Does it still count as Necromancy? Ach, well, in any case, I live once more. Which means, in turn, that so does this story. Those of you that are returning, thank you for still reading this, I'd like to apologize for the hiatus, as a great deal of huge things happened in my life that made this the lowest priority. However, I once more have a great deal of free time on my hands, so hopefully I can keep this up. If you're a newcomer, welcome! I was trying to make one of the weirdest crossovers with Worm. Did it work?

2.3​

With a swing of my Blade of Grass, I killed another of the horrifyingly silent creatures that haunted the Corruption. Looking around to behold the massive structure I was building, I grinned grimly to myself. Operation "Slay the Eater of Worlds" was proceeding quite well, in my opinion. When I had asked Trent for tips on how I should kill the monstrosity, he suggested I build myself an arena where I would have the advantage. He also informed me how to summon it without being surrounded by millions of tons of rock at the time.

Apparently, the… disgusting pieces of meat which I would sometimes receive from killing the Eaters of Souls, the strange, silent beasts in this place, could be fashioned into lures for the titan, if properly seasoned with the powdered remains of the purple mushrooms that also grew here in the corruption. While I was loathe to touch the disgusting materials, I held my breath and muscled through it, as it was all for the cause of becoming strong enough that I could fend off Lung long enough to stay alive, should he come to avenge his lieutenant.

Once I had my bait, and a finished "Slaughter Zone" for the Eater of Worlds, I used the Ivy Whip to travel up the supports to my platforms high in the sky. Holding the bait above my head, I concentrated on it.

Which is when it disappeared, accompanied by a rumbling of the earth. Quickly, I brought out another recent acquisition, which I had purchased in bulk from a new arrival at my little village. Grenades. I had considered using the Ball of Death, a large flail that had dropped out of one of the Shadow Orbs I had broken the first time I had summoned it by accident, but Trent assured me this would be more effective.

Thus, I rained hell down upon the Behemoth-wannabe.

OoOoO​

It took me several hours to mop up the stragglers, as the fight had progressed well, up until the point in which the monster had begun to split into smaller and smaller segments. The very smallest of which, it turned out, were somehow capable of tunneling fast enough to fly straight up out of the earth to me in my little haven above the corruption.

Also, Trent neglected to mention that every square foot of the thing spat acid at me. Luckily, it failed to dissolve my platforms, and I merely had to roll my grenades into the carefully prepared pits that I had been going to drop the grenades out of, so it wasn't a huge wrench in my plans, just a minor hiccup.

Now though? I had managed to gather up everything it had dropped throughout its death, piece by piece. At least, I hoped it was everything. I suppose I'd never really know.

Let's see… a great deal more of that strange, purple metal that I had gotten from the Giant Eye, as well as some almost, but not quite, reflective scales, which don't quite resemble anything I actually saw on the Eater of Worlds, but I disregarded that fairly easily, compared to some of the things I saw here in Terraria. Some health potions, a heap of cash, and a bag, styled after the Eater of Worlds himself.

Remembering the awesome shield I had received from the Eye, I tore open the bag, excited to get another awesome piece of loot. More of the metal, more of the scales… and a rather grotesque, yet oddly fashionable, scarf made to resemble a giant purple worm. Equipping the item in place of the Shackle, I attempted to gauge what it did.

It didn't take me long. The instant I put it on, I felt… tougher. A lot tougher. I couldn't put it into precise terms, because how could you? All I knew was that my skin appeared to be a great deal more durable, yet no less flexible. Oddly enough, the scarf didn't increase my armor level at all, and I wasn't at all sure what to make of that. I rendered the scarf invisible, before gathering up the materials dropped by the boss. Time to see what my next set of armor looked like.

OoOoO​

Pretty sweet, it turned out. While I hadn't been certain that purple would look very intimidating, I had to admit that it really was. At least, it was intimidating if the purple was very nearly reflective, but appeared to only display roiling clouds of black mist. Putting it on, I was surprised to learn that it wasn't that much stronger than the Ivy armor had been. Surely there was more to it than that? Getting up from the forge, I stepped outside and began to dash away from town. Maybe I could unlock some more of this armor's secrets in combat, like I had the Ivy Whip.

I quickly learned that this armor did more than merely protect me. As I moved and fought, the world seemed to slow slightly while I took each step or swung my sword. Enemies that before seemed spry and dangerous were now slow and lumbering. Though admittedly, Zombies had stopped being dangerous roughly a week before.

I grinned to myself. Another speed boost was quite welcome. At this rate, I might be able to someday outpace Velocity! I returned to the cottage and placed the rest of the ore and scales in one of my chests, as it was about time to return to the real world. I'd figure out what weapon I should make out of the few remaining "Demonite" bars later, as Trent informed me they were called. For now, sadly, school awaited me.

OoOoO​

I ambled through my classes, not quite aimlessly, but I couldn't quite focus on schoolwork when I was worrying about my ability to continue doing hero-work without getting jumped by Lung. I hadn't gone out for almost a week now, and while last night had been a HUGE increase in my capabilities, I still doubted I would last more than a minute against mother-fricking Lung of all people.

I passed Taylor's main tormentor, that red-haired girl, in the hall, and she gave me a glare. Their hassling had pretty much died off soon after Sophia dislocated her ankle, but I could have sworn that I had seen either her, or Sophia herself watching me from around corners occasionally. It almost got me to re-equip my Radar, but I wasn't about to let them unknowingly ruin my attempt to regain my unassisted situational awareness.

All in all, Winslow continued to be a zone of blah. Even the guys that had been trying to bring me into their social circles had been slightly less friendly recently, after I constantly rebuffed their invitations to hang out. Couldn't blame them for that, really, though it was slightly disappointing. It had been nice to feel… popular, for once.

After school, I got onto the bus, and continued the dreary routine that life in the real world had set for me. School was such a waste. If I could get away with spending the time I spent in school either patrolling or improving myself in Terraria, I would do so in a heartbeat. Sadly, I still had to at least pretend at a normal life. Now especially, seeing as if my cover was broken, Lung might send people after my mom. However, the boring run the day had bestowed on me ended pretty much the moment I stepped into the Horsts' home.

"Ah, well if it isn't mister Veder!" A voice I could honestly say I hadn't been expecting rang out once I entered the dining room. Startled, I looked towards the table to see none other than Max Anders, the same man I had met in my mother's hospital room almost a month earlier.

I fumbled for a response. I glanced over to see the Horsts chatting with an unfamiliar middle aged man wearing a suit that matched Mr. Anders, though I didn't recognize him. "Umm, hello sir. How… how are you?" I managed to say. Small talk had never been my forte, and by the way that my life was going, I doubted it would ever become a strength of mine. It was a lot easier to fight your way through an encounter than use diplomacy to defuse it, in my experience. That wasn't always an option, however.

Mr. Anders, however, seemed to eat and breathe chatter. "Quite well, my boy, quite well. Actually, we were just discussing something you might want to hear! Medhall is having the yearly Company Picnic this Saturday. You'll come with Jerry and Penny, won't you?" He was, of course, referring to the Horsts. I still didn't quite feel comfortable saying their first names, a probable consequence of my resentment that I needed a foster family at all. Not that I was going to inform them or Mr. Anders of this.

I blinked for a moment, trying and failing to come up with a viable reason to decline without sounding odd. In the end, I gave my assent. "Sure, I-uh, I'll come." I tried not to show my inner reluctance much.

Still, later that evening, long after Mr. Anders and his companion had left and I had escaped up to my room, I decided that perhaps it wouldn't be all that bad. I guess I could use a bit of a break from the stress of worrying about Lung. Just before crossing over to Terraria, I resolved to myself that I'd do my best to enjoy that picnic.

 

[Dawnk41]

Author Note: Ah, I believe I'm getting back into the groove. The goal is to get back to the point where the story is flowing smoothly enough through my brain for me to go back to daily updates, like I did back in the beginning. I already know where I want the story to GO, it can just be hard to put it into words.

2.4​

Friday night, and I was making my way across the world of Terraria, in the direction that Trent had suggested the Dungeon would likely be. From what he had said, the Dungeon was the next step towards getting stronger, and so, off I went.

I had been frustrated to learn that the Light's Bane, a sword I had made from the leftover Demonite was actually worse than the Blade of Grass. The sheer waste of materials made me feel ill inside. I could have made myself a pretty powerful bow instead with the materials I had used to create it. I shook my head, trying to stop thinking about it. No point dwelling on it now. I trudged over another hill, alert, but not overly worried, as I had never been threatened much by pretty much anything on the surface in daylight. I only ever really saw Slimes.

That was when I saw it. A massive, green structure, larger than the entire village I had built combined. I approached it cautiously, and discovered an entryway, with stairs leading up to an open-air hallway, supported by thick stone pillars leading up to a small door. Standing in the middle of the hall was a pale, ill-looking man in shabby rags. He hadn't appeared to have cleaned himself in recent memory, and my sense of smell corroborated this. I quickly ceased breathing through my nose.

He stared at me through red-rimmed eyes, and opened his mouth, which contained a nearly-white tongue which nearly made me gag a little. He spoke in a raspy voice. "Greetings, traveler. This is the Dungeon, though you will not be able to enter."

This distracted me from my disgust. "Wait, what? Why not?" I asked, mentally setting aside the issue of his hygiene for now.

He chuckled, which sounded painful. "My captor rules this place, and he does not tolerate the living stepping foot on his domain. If you enter here, he will kill you swiftly." He swallowed, presumably attempting to wet his throat a little. "If you come here at night, you can challenge him, and free me from his curse. However," The man looked me up and down, and shook his head. "You don't stand a chance as you are now. Come back when you have gained in strength, stranger. You will not win this fight."

I felt unnerved, but also insulted. Too weak? Too weak? I had slain a giant Eye-demon thing, and a worm the size of a subway, and this guy thought I couldn't take on whoever this Dungeon Master was? However… I was getting a really bad feeling about this place. It might have just been in my head, but I was getting a strange chill up my spine at the thought of stepping towards the Dungeon door.

I turned away from the old man, and pulled out my Mirror. As I held it up to my face and activated it, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the disheveled man lower his face into his hands.

I left.

OoOoO​

I spent the Terrarian night in the caverns below the surface, trying to find more Heart Crystals. I had found a few, and some ore deposits, but I had failed to find any more underground houses. I wasn't entirely sure why I was gathering the ore at this point, as I doubted it would even come close to the Demonite, but I gathered it all the same.

I was just about to start tunneling further down when all of a sudden, I had a feeling of wrongness. Something of mine was under attack. I didn't hesitate to teleport back. As soon as I arrived, Trent spoke up.

"Ah, Greg, thank goodness you returned. Goblins are attacking the town!" He spoke quickly, and I blinked a little. There were things that attacked the town? I couldn't even recall Zombies or Slimes spawning here recently. That was… kinda scary, honestly. I still wasn't sure how time passed here when I wasn't present, so I just hoped that nothing could attack while I was in the real world.

Nervous musings on the future were shoved from my mind as I tore out threw the front door, to the sight of chaos. The Arms Dealer was sniping attacking goblins with what looked like a rifle, the Demolitionist was tossing grenades to great effect, and the attacking goblins weren't even getting close to the Dryad's hut, with her hurricane of leaves providing an intimidating defense.

I pulled out the Blade of Grass, and got to work.

OoOoO​

I bisected another of the Goblin Sorcerers, and as if it was some sort of signal, all the goblins remaining turned and fled. I stared in slight disbelief. What the hell? They show up, wait for a few hundred of themselves to die, and then run away? What were they hoping to get out of this raid? I considered chasing after them, but I was already tired of fighting them. Plus, I was pretty sure I should be waking up soon. Today was the day of the Medhall picnic thing, after all. For a moment, I considered feigning sickness, in an attempt to get out of having to go. After all, when it came to a choice between working on gathering enough strength to make Lung reconsider coming after me, and going to a great big gathering of people and having to be social for a few hours, it wasn't really a choice.

But… at the same time, I didn't want to offend Mr. Anders. I mean, I didn't really care to offend anyone, but it seemed like an especially bad idea to offend corporate bigwigs. It would probably be for the best to just go along with the picnic. I sighed a little in unhappiness, but returned to considering the drops I had gotten from the goblin invaders.

There were two things, mainly. One, was a few stacks of a strange little spiky metal ball. Looked like they were projectiles, like my shurikens or throwing knives. The other, was much more exciting. Some sort of gun, I think? I aimed it off into the distance away from the village, and fired it.

Something instantly shot out of the barrel, but it looked like it was still connected to the gun. After whizzing through the air for a couple seconds, gravity finally took ahold of it and it hit the ground. It immediately began to retract until it had replaced itself inside the gun.

I blinked a few times. "Was that… a harpoon?"

OoOoO​

The picnic was going exactly as I had feared. I would stand around, uncomfortable around so many people. I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong, but things just weren't going my way. I had quickly gotten myself a plate, and made myself some hot dogs. Getting so close to the table had been uncomfortable, as the blueprints that flew through my mind quickly converged and informed me of all the different meals and dishes I could prepare with what was on hand, but I had pushed them aside and made myself a pair of simple, plain hot dogs. With relish.

After getting my food, I had spied out a fairly lightly populated corner of the pavilion, and slinked over there. But within minutes, I had begun to be bombarded by people. I tried to politely say as few words as possible to the seemingly endless stream of altogether too cheerful picnic-goers.

After too long of this, the stream died down into a trickle, and then stopped. Once I had gone a whole five minutes without being spoken to, I sighed in relief and dug back into my food. After polishing off the second hot dog, I threw away my plate and looked longingly towards the parking lot. It had only been about forty-five minutes, so I doubted we would be leaving soon, but I held out hope that something would occur to cause the Horsts to leave early

Though I doubted I would have such luck. I sighed again, this time in mild despair. Then, I tensed slightly, as another person was ambling over to me. I glanced over at whoever it was. A boy, close to my age, I think. Slightly… overweight, I guess. Taller than me by at at least half a foot. Blonde hair, like most of the people here. When he got to within about ten feet of me, he took a seat at one of the nearby picnic tables. I waited for about twenty seconds before he spoke.

"Hey, uh… I guess you aren't too fond of the crowds either." He said, haltingly. I paused for a few moments, before nodding. "Yeah, me either. I'm Theo, by the way. Theo Anders." My eyebrows rose. Anders? I mean, yeah, he looked a lot like Mr. Anders, but I wouldn't have thought him the man's son. Heck, half the people here looked like the man. Maybe Medhall was into Nepotism, or something.

"I'm Greg. Greg Veder." I replied. At this point, my knowledge of social etiquette stepped in. Wait, I meant lack thereof. Yes. The silence began to grow awkward. After a fairly uncomfortable few minutes, yet another person began to approach us. A glance in their direction revealed that this time, it was a girl. I bit younger than me and, presumably, Theo. Light brown hair, and a bit shorter than me.

"Hey Theo." She said. She pointedly ignored me, which I was completely fine with. "What are you doing over here?" She slightly stressed the last word, which I didn't really understand. Was this part of the pavilion somehow worse than the others? I sniffed quietly, to check if this place smelled bad and I just hadn't noticed, but I couldn't smell anything. I hope it doesn't smell.

Theo shifted uncomfortably. "Oh, hey Jane. I just… wanted to get away from Max for a bit." I was confused at the way he had worded that. Who called their dad their first name? I had always called… well, I had always referred to him as my Dad. Not recently, of course.

The now named 'Jane' sniffed derisively at that, but sat herself down next to Theo. They began talking quietly, though it was mostly from Jane to Theo, who didn't exactly seem eager to chat. I continued to stare off into the distance and tuned out the two. I began to make my plan for the near future. I had to make my way into the Dungeon, but I don't think that I would feel comfortable doing so unless I could find some sort of power-up underground that changed the game a little. Maybe a potion of some sort could solve my problem? If I could somehow make a potion that would give me a big boost for at least a short time, I might be able to use it to kill whatever the Dungeon Master is.

After a short time, I was interrupted from my musings by Theo speaking up. I hadn't quite heard what he said though, so I looked back over to him and shook my head slightly. "Sorry, what was that? I zoned out a bit."

Theo looked a little pained, as though being chattered at by Jane was chipping away at his soul. "Oh, that's-that's fine, sorry to bother you, I was just wondering if you had any favorite… video games? Maybe?" From the snort of disgust that Jane made at that statement, I had to guess that she wasn't much of a gamer.

I had to actually give the question some thought. It had been quite a while since I had played a video game, not counting the time with the Wards and Assault, of course. I didn't even know what sorts of games had come out recently. Best to play it safe, I guess. "I don't know what new releases have happened recently, pretty much the only game I've played in a while is Super Cape Duelists 4."

Luckily, Theo seemed to know where this conversation should go. "Oh, yeah, that one's pretty fun. I heard that the 5th game might be coming out this summer, actually. Who's your favorite cape to play as?" From there, the conversation proceeded more amicably, with even Jane joining in after a bit. Weird, I hadn't thought she gamed.

When the Horsts, with Max Anders, approached us, I glanced up to realize that several hours had passed. The picnic was being packed up, and at least half of the people that had attended were gone. I stood up, and said goodbye to Theo and Jane, who responded enthusiastically and reluctantly, in turn. I guess Jane didn't like me very much.

On the drive home, Mrs. Horst looked back at me and spoke up. "So, looks like you made some friends at the picnic, wasn't so bad, right dear?"

While it always made me uncomfortable when she used an endearment to me, I had to admit that the picnic had been more enjoyable than I had expected. I couldn't remember the last time I had had a nice conversation with anyone. Winslow sure wasn't really the place for it. "Yeah, Theo's a pretty good guy, it sounds like."

When we got back to their house, it was about 4:00 in the afternoon. I went up to my room for a bit, and pulled out my gaming system. I went about setting it up, and in short order, turned it on. I played the game for about half an hour, before putting it away. It just wasn't as fun to play it on your own. In the end, I turned the system off and got up. It was too late in the afternoon to take a nap, but too early to go to sleep, so I wouldn't really be able to get away with returning to Terraria. I guess that I'll just go downstairs and find out what the Horsts are up to.

I had started walking down the stairs when I heard the news article that Mr. Horst was watching on TV, and I froze.

"...casualty levels are at a fairly high level for non-Endbringer threats, and the Boston Protectorate is calling for reinforcements from surrounding Protectorate teams in the hopes of dealing with the cape known as "Echidna", a case-53 that appears to have gone terribly wrong. Talk of calling in the Triumvirate has been put forward, and it is highly probable that Legend himself will come from New York to assist. If the battle goes on for too much longer, I have been told that Echidna's threat assessment may be raised to S-class-"

My breath hitched as the television was turned off. My mind racing as I tried to figure out what to do with the information. An S-class threat? Like Ellisburg? Boston was pretty close to Brockton Bay. If this Echidna person had the potential to be as bad as Nilbog, but less restraint, it could easily spill over from Boston to here. Should I go to help?

It didn't take me long to decide to go. The only thing now was to figure out how to get over there without spilling my identity. I walked down the stairs as casually as I could manage, and spoke to Mrs. Horst. "Uh, P-Penny? I, uh, just wanted to know if I could go hang out with my friend Sparky, alright? I, um, I'll probably spend the night, too." I spoke nervously, I couldn't help it. I had no idea how to go about these things.

Luckily, it would appear that the magic word in this case was 'Penny', as it was the first time I had referred to her as she had requested. "Oh, of course dear! Would you like to eat dinner before you go?"

I shook my head. "Oh, no thanks, I'll be, um, I'll be eating there." Or, more likely, not at all seeing as food was no longer necessary. Not that she needed to know that. Still, permission obtained, I said goodbye to them both and walked outside. I made my way along, quickly equipping my Radar, and dodged into an alleyway once I was certain there was nobody around. From there, I put on the rest of my equipment and was racing towards Boston.

 

[Dawnk41]

Author Note: Good lord, this chapter was hard to write. I went through roughly seven different drafts of it before I finally found a version that I could live with. Sorry for the radio silence!

2.5​

It took me just under an hour to reach Boston after leaving Brockton Bay, as I could move in a roughly straight line, rather than just following the roads. Once I got to the outskirts of Boston, I slowed down and started to move more cautiously. I didn't exactly know what the situation was here, let alone what people were already doing in order to fight Echidna. While I was running, I noticed some policemen setting up warning signs. I squinted over at them, trying to read what they said. Looked like some sort of warning to anyone coming into the city that there was an emergency. Huh, in retrospect, that kinda thing seemed kinda obvious.

Running across one of the outlying neighborhoods, the skyline of central Boston became visible. It had more tall buildings than Brockton Bay. I wasn't sure if they qualified as skyscrapers or not, but Boston definitely had a lot more people in it than the Bay. Once I reached a part of the city that I figured had to be in one of the busier parts of town, I stopped. Okay, I had to admit that I didn't really know where to go from here.

Then, I looked back over to the 'skyscrapers'. I might not be able to tell where anyone was from here… but surely I'd be able to see something from up there, right? I didn't have any better ideas, so I started running again. Hopefully, I wasn't too late to help.

OoOoO​

Once I was at the base of one of the taller buildings I had set my eyes on, I glanced up at the higher floors, before glancing from side to side. Boston was just too big. I wasn't sure if even going to the top of this building would be enough for me to find anything in this city. Hopefully, I was just underestimating how visible a cape fight would be. I mean, if this was the potential S-class threat that they had been talking about, it must be a pretty big deal, right? I quickly shot out my ivy whips and pulled myself up the side of the building. I spun around in a circle, doing my best to scan the horizon for anything that might be a sign of a battle. Nothing was obvious, sadly. I saw a few locations that looked like the remains of a cape fight, but there wasn't anything moving in those spots now.

After wasting another few minutes failing to see anything of use, I jumped off the side of the building and grappled over to another, making my way across the rooftops to the next tall building that I could find. Why on earth was it this hard to find out where Echidna was? Maybe I should have watched the news for a bit longer, that might have given me a few more clues on where to look. As I practically flew over the streets, I was unsettled by how there were almost no signs of life below me. Was everyone in an Endbringer shelter? I was pretty sure that it was pretty much standard procedure to send everyone to those in the event of most of the higher-class threats, though in the case of an attack by the Slaughterhouse 9, most people just left town. You could never figure how long they might stick around.

After reaching my next destination, I made my way to its roof and began to look around again, beginning to lose hope that I would be able to do anything to help here before it ended, one way or another.

Which is, of course, when I spotted a yellow glow bursting across the city out of the corner of my eye. I quickly whipped my head around in order to look in that direction, and off in the distance, I saw a floating figure bombarding the area beneath him with a beam of light. That... that was Legend! A member of the Triumvirate! Which made sense, of course. We were relatively close to New York, Legend's area of the Protectorate. If a borderline S-class threat appeared near him, of course he would show up to fight it. Heartened, I scanned the area of the city between me and the fight, before pausing at the river in the way. I checked my inventory, and groaned. Of course I forgot to bring a Waterwalking potion this time. I did, however, have something almost as good. I downed a Gravitation potion and, as an afterthought, a Featherfall potion. This sort of flight wasn't incredibly practical in the middle of a fight, but it should help me get to where I need to be pretty quickly. I braced myself mentally and started running in the right direction, twisting my center of gravity so that I began to float upwards.

It wasn't quite as terrifying as it had been the first time, both because of my experience, and the fact that the Featherfall potion was slowing the rate at which I fell into the sky. Shifting back and forth as I slid across the sky, I waited until I was almost above the chaos before descending.

The sight I was met with was confusing, but I put all that aside to focus on the creature that Legend was fighting. It appeared to be some sort of dragon, though without a tail. It was dragging itself forward across the street while spitting streams of fire in controlled jets at the hero. For some reason, its back legs appeared to be immobile, as while it was moving, they simply hung behind it. Was this Echidna? If so, where were all the other heroes? Something didn't seem right here, for as scary as the beast was, it didn't quite scream 'S-Class Threat.' As soon as I touched down on the street, I dashed forward, pulling out the Blade of Grass. Since its attention was still focused on the threat in the sky, it didn't notice my charge until I plunged my sword into its chest.

A moment later, it gave a surprisingly human scream, and the surface of the dragon flickered and pulled in on itself. It turned its head away from the air and lifted one of its legs to swipe at me. I backtracked swiftly, watching the limb strike the road with a resounding crack. I sure hoped that the city could afford to repair the streets after this, because they definitely needed it. Legend took advantage of the creature's momentary lapse of attention and fired an intense wave of heat at the dragon's neck. Again, its skin seemed to sink and distort, and I noticed that it was actually getting smaller. Now that it seemed overwhelmed and weakened, I quickly circled it and closed in on the creature's side, swinging my blade through its spine.

Abruptly, the dragon vanished. Laying on the street, there was a girl with misshapen legs and pockmarked flesh. I reared back. Holy crap, that was a person? They were definitely dead, it looked like I chopped right into her back. Was this Echidna? She had seemed to be shrinking over the course of the fight, maybe she had been colossal at the beginning, which would explain the fearsome rating. My thoughts were interrupted by Legend descending to the street next to me.

"Thanks for the assistance, but I thought that I had requested that everyone with a Mover rating like yours ensured that none of them escaped the area?" His tone was questioning. Them? There were more of these?

"I just got here, uh, sir. What's going on? Where is everyone? This lady wasn't Echidna, was she?" I was a little bewildered at this point.

The floating hero made a sound of realization. "Ah, a new arrival. We've managed to pin Echidna and her clones in the Bunker Hill area. If you can hurry over there, you should be able to meet up with one of the squads preventing her clones from breaking through. The most important thing you can do right now is keep any more of them from escaping into the rest of Boston while our heavy hitters get rid of the few that are still at large. Great work, young man." At that, he shot back into the sky and off into the distance. Still a little confused, I made my way up onto the roofs and began to travel in the general direction that he had pointed me in.

After yet another jaunt across the city, I noticed a small group of people on my Radar sense, hiding on one of the taller buildings nearby. A jump and grappling later landed me on the roof they occupied. One of the figures - A girl in a purple bodysuit, - spun around and aimed some sort of weapon at me. I stopped moving and raised my hands in a non-aggressive gesture instinctively. Another of the figures, a girl in a red and black outfit, spoke up.

"Not an enemy, Flechette." The purple-clad girl relaxed a little, though her weapon was still at ready. The speaker continued. "You're here to help us with the perimeter?" I nodded, getting the idea that this girl was a Thinker of some sort. "Great. I'm Roulette, she's Flechette, and he's Jouster." She pointed to herself, the purple girl, and a guy who was wearing... actually, he was wearing something that resembled some of my past armors. A bit more stylized, though.

I hesitated to respond just long enough to make the situation a tad awkward, before I coughed. "Um, hello. I'm Terrarian. I just reached Boston about ten minutes ago, would you guys mind filling me in on what we're doing here? I took off as soon as I saw what was going on in the news, and I think that I missed a lot of stuff I probably should have figured out before leaving." Roulette waved at Jouster and turned back to the city, presumably watching for any of the... clones? They were probably keeping watch for any that were trying to leave the area.

Jouster began to speak. "Echidna, an S-class threat, appeared in the middle of Boston earlier today. After an initial panic and rampage, it was discovered that any people that touched Echidna caused her to spawn a clone of them. The clones are incredibly tough, and psychotic. Most of the clones immediately began to go berserk, attacking everything and everyone around them. Worse, if a cape is cloned, the clone has a variation of the original cape's powers. That is why Echidna has been declared such a high threat. The current plan is to keep her and the majority of her clones contained while our heaviest hitters, like Alexandria or Myrrdin, clean up the clones that managed to escape the quarantine area. Once they finish with that, they'll join us here, and we'll begin to systematically shrink the quarantine area and try to flush Echidna out, so that she can either be captured or killed. Any questions?"

I considered the massive info-dump that I had just received. One point came to mind. "So... they aren't people, then?"

He seemed a little taken aback, but he rallied himself. "Not people - well, I suppose that's true, in a sense." He fell silent, and leaned against the railing again, though I saw him glancing at me over the course of the next few minutes.

Satisfied with the response, I turned back to Roulette. "So our job is to make sure that none of the clones escape the area? I'm guessing that you're using your power to see any of them coming?" She nodded, but remained quiet, suddenly focused on something below.

"Yes on both counts, and speak of the devil and he shall appear. Looks like one of the Harmonic clones is down there, with what looks like a clone of... Lightslinger, maybe. They're covered in some kind of coat of light, anyways. Jouster, what do you think, should we wait for help? Lightslinger is pretty good, so clones of him..." She looked at the armored lancer, who walked over to her with me and looked down at the pair of clones. A woman - no, a monster in human form, with light blonde hair and bumpy, unnatural looking skin. Near her there was a vaguely human shaped blur of light, swirling in on itself. I didn't know much about Lightslinger, even though he was a Protectorate member of one of Brockton Bay's neighboring cities, but I could vaguely remember hearing something about him using the light produced by streetlamps as weapons in some engagement against some of Blasto's creations.

Jouster broke into my attempts to recall more with a firm declaration. "Call it in, of course, but let's hold them up before they can get too far. Flechette, you know the drill. Terrarian, I assume that you're good for some close combat?"

I grinned in response, though I knew he couldn't see it. "Definitely."

Then I jumped off the roof.

 

[Dawnk41]

2.6​

Due to my method of descent, I reached the ground a great deal sooner than my companions on the roof. Which, in turn, meant that I was the only one fighting the clones for at least half a minute. I probably should have thought that through a bit more. Oh well. Stepping forwards quickly, I mentally reviewed my options. Blade of Grass? It was probably my best close quarters weapon. The Starfury was incredibly powerful, but it was also not that easy to aim when I was actually thinking about it. Swinging it without thinking hadn't failed me yet, but unlike what the other students at Winslow thought, I couldn't stop thinking at will.

In the end, I decided to go with something with a bit more brute force, but still at range. My Ball of Death, a massive purple flail on a chain that didn't quite behave how gravity would prefer, was flung out towards the pair. The Lightslinger clone quickly slid aside, but the other, a Harmonic clone, I think? She wasn't quite so mobile. The impact with my flail flung her across the street, but she crawled to her feet a moment later. Some sort of Brute, I guess. I didn't have much time to analyze that, however, as the Lightslinger clone attacked while my flail was returning to me. The mass of light moved in a way that was smooth, but changed directions erratically. I only had a few seconds to consider where the attack would come from before a spear-like protrusion was disgorged from the clone.

Fortunately for me, with all the speed boosts that I had, a few seconds was more than enough. Sidestepping the attack, I moved into my flail, withdrawing it into my inventory as I did so. Sweeping out the Blade of Grass in another smooth motion, I bisected where I thought the center of the ball of light to be.

The result was instantaneous, as two halves of a corpse fell to the ground near me. Now that the main threat was gone, I turned my attention back to the Harmonic clone, who was now attempting to stagger away from me, supporting herself against a building. Apparently her Brute rating, assuming that whatever had saved her from dying on impact with my flail had been a Brute rating, was very, very low. Shrugging to myself internally, I pulled out the Harpoon gun and shot her with it. Just to make sure, I shot her with it a few more times, making sure to hit her in the chest and head. She didn't get up this time.

I heard a clanking thump as Jouster finally made it to the street. He was breathing heavily, but when he looked at me, and then around me, he gave me a tentative smile. "O-oh, wow. Um, great job Terrarian. Lightslinger is really good, and based on some of the earlier ones, it looked like his clones inherited his skills. Taking one of those out is really impressive."

I looked at him a bit blankly. "Really? Huh. That wasn't... Well, anyways, what do we do now?" Normally, I would have been all too content to bask in some admiration, as when did I ever get that? Right now, however, there were, presumably, at least a few clones running around out there, not to mention Echidna herself.

After we had returned to the vantage point atop the roof, we settled back in to wait once more. I wasn't too happy with that, as I felt that I could make a much bigger difference if I was some sort of mobile reinforcement or something. With my speed, any group having trouble with their opponents could call in and I was capable of reaching pretty much anywhere within a couple blocks in half a minute, give or take. Sadly, it would seem that I was getting the 'Ward' treatment, which meant pretending I was made of glass.

I understood why they did it, I mean, what sort of organization would the Protectorate be if they took in young people with unfathomable powers and sent them off to fight in battles that nobody had a great chance of surviving? Obviously, to reassure the public, the Wards' families, and even the Wards themselves in some cases, they had to take a gentler approach. I just objected to being lumped in with them. I wasn't assigned here. I chose to come. I know the risks, and I made the decision anyways. All the same, I'm being told to sit and wait here with these Wards when I could be out there helping. It was incredibly frustrating.

There were monsters out there, and they needed to be put down.

After what seemed like an hour of grinding my teeth, but was probably closer to ten or twelve minutes, we received a message on Roulette's radio.

"Echidna has come into the open. She is engaging the first responders on Eden street. All direct combatants and support capes are to meet on Bartlett street where a more detailed plan of attack will be drawn. Command Close." The voice was crisp and clear, but I recognized it from the news and from videos on PHO. Dragon was directing this herself. That honestly made me feel better already.

I quickly turned to the others. "I'm from Brockton Bay, so I don't know where those places are. Do any of you know?" I had to get there as fast as I could, but all the speed in the world wouldn't help me if I didn't know where to go.

Roulette nodded and pointed in a direction. "Bartlett is in that direction. We should probably head there on-" But I didn't hear the rest of what she had to say, because I had already flown into the air. The Gravitation Potion's effects were still up, and I took advantage of the ability to ignore all the obstacles in my way.

Ten seconds later, I touched down on what I assumed to be Bartlett street, as a small crowd of capes was growing. It was mostly disorganized, but that was quickly being fixed by a group of Protectorate members led by Alexandria herself, organizing people into groups. I looked on for a few minutes before suddenly, a man was grabbing my attention through the sudden invasion of my personal space.

"Are you capable of delivering a moderate attack, say, on the level of a rifle, from a distance of 50 feet, minimum?" The question was rather specific, but asked in a very bored tone. I could only wonder at how many times this man had had to ask this question in the past five minutes alone.

I began to reply. "Yes, I can-" But I was cut off almost immediately.

"Good, go report to Lightslinger." He pointed at a cape wearing a mostly intact armored body suit, though it was missing one of the sleeves from the elbow down. I had an odd feeling, remembering killing one of this man's clones not fifteen minutes earlier. All the same, I did as instructed and strode over to the specified cape, around whom there was already a sizable crowd. Which wasn't very odd, come to think of it. I mean, among capes with powers that can dish out some damage, the power of a gun was rather low on the spectrum.

Lightslinger waited, rather impatiently from what I could tell, until the stream of people joining us had slowed to a trickle, at which point he spoke out to the group. "Alright, each of you are going to be paired with either a Thinker or someone that can provide battlefield awareness, as well as a Brute. Each of these cells will be expected to work in tandem when required, but by and large, our jobs are going to be to provide a slowly shrinking perimeter and to ensure that no threats escape into the city at large, which may sound familiar, as many of you were already engaged in that on a wider scale. Well, that's because this is still really important." He paused to take a deep breath to calm himself. "We aren't expected to engage Echidna directly, because that has ended badly a large number of times. Instead, the heaviest hitting Blasters and Shakers, like Legend, are going to be hitting her from a distance while keeping her as immobile as possible. Got it?" After a round of nods and sounds of agreement, people were picked out of the crowd, one by one, and grouped with a pair of other capes.

My group consisted of a rather solidly built teen made of metal that I recognized pretty much immediately. Weld was a pretty popular Ward, and I had read some articles on him on PHO before. He was probably our Brute. The other was a female cape that I didn't recognize.

"Swarm." She said, a curtain of bugs around her shoulders buzzing out the word as she spoke it. I shuddered, and stepped back a little. The bugs themselves weren't that bad, I had seen larger ones in the caverns in Terraria, but the general effect of her appearance was more than a little unsettling. "I control bugs." Underneath the creepy buzzing, her voice sounded... dead. As though she were reading the words off of a script rather than speaking her mind. She was pretty tall, and her costume was pretty dark, predominantly black and grey, with green lenses over her eyes. Bugs of various kinds were crawling over and around her, including among their ranks, that I could see at least, cockroaches, spiders, and various other kinds that I couldn't quite recall the names of at the moment.

After waiting a moment to see if she would elaborate any further, Weld spoke up. "Weld, a Ward here in Boston. I'm pretty tough, if I do say so myself, and over time, I can manipulate the shape of metals on my arms and such, turn my arms into weapons and so on."

They both looked at me, and I fidgeted a little. "Terrarian. My power is... weird. But what's relevant here, is that I have a variety of weapons I can pull up at a moment's notice." I quickly cycled through a few weapons, like the Blade of Grass, Ball of Death, Boomstick, and Harpoon gun. "I'm also a Brute and a Mover." I didn't really want to get any further into my powers, so I clammed up then.

Weld just nodded, and proceeded. "A bit like Miss Militia, then, but with some good accompanying powers. Nice. Alright, our area's over here. You've heard the plan, we just have to make sure that no clones or any other threat get past us into the city. At certain intervals, we'll be ordered to close in a little and shrink the perimeter. Swarm, can you tell us if there are any clones coming through?" She nodded, but didn't say anything.

Weld continued to try and make small talk, but the conversation was quickly strangled after I quickly downed a Hunter Potion, Nightowl Potion, and a Dangersense Potion before setting up vigil on a rooftop. On occasion, I would pull out the Harpoon gun and take out a clone that scrambled towards us, but while it was fairly common to have to deal with them at the beginning, after a short time, the incursions ceased. We were waiting for about five minutes in silence, keeping watch, when a message came from our radio.

"Eidolon is down, repeat, Eidolon is down. All cells, converge on Eden street. We are beginning Contingency Seven. Repeat, We are beginning Contingency Seven. Cell leaders, explain as you move. Command out."

OoOoO​

Author Note: Just wanted to make note, Eidolon was NOT cloned in this instance, he was taken down by an especially clever combination of clones by Noelle. This chapter feels a little short, but I think it needed to be gotten out of the way so that the REAL excitement can begin. (Boss fight in Earth Bet, yeah!)

 

[Dawnk41]

2.7​

I jumped off the roof and joined up with Weld and Swarm, who were already speaking quietly. My mind was blank for a few seconds before it kicked back into gear. "What's Contingency 7, and which way was Eden street again?" The big question came first, but the second wasn't exactly irrelevant.

Weld waved us in a direction and started moving there. "Contingency 7, while there is a bit more to it than this, it basically boils down to; 'Everybody come and try to beat up the bad guy.' We're gonna stay smart about things, try and avoid getting anyone else cloned, but it's kinda important that Echidna goes down. If she manages to get away from everything today... well, she could become a massive threat." I nodded in response, and Swarm remained silent. I was a bit torn. On the one hand, I could just fly ahead like I had the last time. However... that would probably reflect badly on me seeing as I had been assigned to this cell. Also, it might mess up the logistics of the upcoming fight a little. This was going to be a coordinated battle, and that meant going along with the plan.

As much as I didn't like it, I decided to stay with them. Which didn't mean that I wasn't hoping that we could get a move on. Setting a brisk pace, we were heading towards Eden street as quickly as Swarm could manage. She wasn't exactly slow, per se, but she definitely wasn't used to this much physical activity in such a short amount of time. Which made sense, for a Master. Most capes with minions of some sort tended to stay put and direct a fight from a distance.

After what felt like far too long, we managed to reach Eden street. What we found there... it could only be described as chaos. There were at least a dozen different fights going on, and those were probably just the ones that I could see from here. The big question was, however, where is Echidna? After looking around for a few seconds, I decided that she would probably turn up sometime soon, and that I couldn't afford to waste time looking if I could be spending that same time helping some of the capes in the alliance finish their fights quickly. Now... where should we put ourselves?

Almost as if in answer to my silent question, Weld spoke to me. "Terrarian, does your suit protect you from Radiation?" I blinked back at him for a moment, and considered the question. Radiation... how would that register to my power? A debuff? Damage over time? Would it even affect me? All in all, I decided that my power would probably blunt the effects at least, and I could always just rely on potions to keep me alive long enough for someone else to help me out, if worse came to worst.

"Yeah. It protects me from almost anything like that." Of course, it wasn't exactly my armor that did that, but that didn't really matter right now.

"Good, good, alright, can you help out with that Harmonic clone over there?" He pointed at a portion of the battlefield where someone that I recognized was fighting. Shielder, one of New Wave's younger members, was wrapped up in one of his namesakes, while being attacked by the clone, who seemed to be using some sort of energy projection from her hands to try and cut away at the shield, to no avail. I assumed that those energy fields on her hands were the cause of the aforementioned radiation. Alright, seemed simple enough. I began to move towards the fight while pulling out my Harpoon Gun. It had been what finished off the last clone of Harmonic that I had dealt with, and thus seemed like one of the better choices for a repeat of that task. I carefully took aim at the clone's torso, the part of her that moved the least, and let loose with the harpoon. It hurtled through the air towards her and-

-Clang! Bounced off of a suddenly appearing energy field that sprang up around her midsection. Her head spun towards me and she snarled. She began to move towards me and rose her arms, forming a new pair of energy blades from her hands. However, in so doing, she had taken her eyes off of the other combatant in this fight. After taking a few steps away from him, Shielder dropped the bubble for a moment and let loose with a beam of light. It struck the clone in the legs and she screamed as she fell to the ground. Wrapping himself in a new bubble, he pulled out a radio and stood over the clone while speaking into it.

I guess he had to report in to command or whatever, but since he was busy, I'd finish this for him. I walked towards him, and put away the Harpoon. I spent the few seconds reaching them deciding which weapon would best suit this task. Quickly coming to the conclusion that the Blade of Grass would be the most precise tool for the job, I pulled it out, and in one swift motion, decapitated the clone.

Shielder jumped back a little and spluttered. "What the- What the hell are you doing!? She was disabled, we were going to bring her to command, try to find out more about these things, what on earth is driving them to fight us!"

I looked at him in confusion. "What is there to understand?" Did he not see this? These things were monsters, killing them was the only option. "They're driven to fight us in their very being, they were literally made to turn on us. This isn't over until all of them are dead."

He took another step back, and began trying to muster a response. However, a notification popped up in the back of my mind.

Irradiated - Physical capabilities reduced by 20%, taking minor damage over time. 60 seconds remaining.

My eyes widened. "Get back! She's growing more radioactive!" He froze for a moment before taking to the air. Meanwhile, I looked down at the corpse, noticing that the energy fields she had been controlling earlier were now running rampant through her body, which was withering away as I watched. Was she breaking apart and releasing the radiation? Cursing to myself, I wracked my brain, wondering if I had some way to make this better. Absently consuming a Health Potion and, for good measure, a Regeneration Potion to help stave off the health loss from Irradiation, an idea came to mind.

They might be temporary, but a quick stone casing around the body should, at the very least, limit the spread. Thus decided, I moved a stack of stone from my inventory to the list of 'Active' items in the back of my head, mentally selecting it. Then, I rose my hands, and began to gesture around the corpse.

Almost as though through magic, stone began to materialize around the body, quickly obscuring it from sight. For good measure, I added another two layers. Hopefully, this didn't somehow poison the water supply. I checked my status again, and grimaced.

Irradiated - Physical capabilities reduced by 45%, taking moderate damage over time. 173 seconds remaining.

I actually felt the effects of the debuff, my arms feeling heavier, and when I began to hurry away from the stone tomb, my steps were a little unsteady. I hadn't made it more than ten steps when a massive crash came from the other side of the street. Looking up, I saw her. Echidna. It couldn't possibly have been anyone else, but I couldn't understand how she had appeared out of nowhere. I tried to look around and see how some of the fights around me were going, but my vision was swimming. Stumbling a little, I fell to a knee. People were saying things, but I could barely make out the words.

"-ickster swapped Myrddin away, he lost his hold on the Banishment. At least he didn't manage to get Myrddin captured, the last thing we need are clones with dimensional shenanigans." Someone was talking about something really important, but when I focused on that voice, it slipped away. I gritted my teeth, and thought about my health. It was dropping steadily, though Regeneration was alleviating it a little. I quickly drained another health potion, and did a little bit of mental math. I couldn't be certain that I had calculated it right, seeing as the numbers were wavering a little as I tried to gauge things, but I was pretty sure that I shouldn't run out of health before the debuff ran its' course.

Which is when, of course, I abruptly found myself somewhere else.

I swung my head around, blearily and frantically trying to figure out what had just happened. I must have been delirious or something, because I found myself face to face with a horse's head. It screamed at me, and I'm not entirely sure I didn't scream back at it. Then, I either fell towards it or it leaped towards me, because the next thing I knew I was swimming in darkness. Was I hallucinating? I hadn't thought I was still capable of that, but I guess that I was. I looked back to the debuff to see how much longer I'd have to deal with this, when I found something that made my blood run cold.

Ingested - Movement arrested. Combat disabled. Ongoing.

No. No no no, how had Echidna gotten me? I had been a block away! This, this didn't make any sense-

xX_Space_Cowboy_Xx has joined the world of Earth Bet.

What? What did that mean? I began to feel myself drift off...

xX_Dune_Cowboy_Xx has joined the world of Earth Bet.

There was that message again... or was it different? I couldn't quite tell...

xX_Blood_Cowboy_Xx has joined the world of Earth Bet.

That was probably important, I should do something about that...

Terraria claimed me once more.

OoOoO​

Author's Note: You guys have no idea how impatient I've been to release this chapter. It's been planned for months, I just had to work out how to get here.

 

[Dawnk41]

Interlude 2.A
Pharaoh​

The second clone came to his senses moments before he erupted from the side of a mountain of flesh, feeling an odd stretching sensation as he fell to the ground. Coughing and wheezing he dragged himself to his feet. Clumsily swaying back and forth, he glanced around to a vaguely familiar sight. People were fighting in the street next to the alley he was in. Near him were his... brothers? Fellow clones, at least. They too were tottering unsteadily as they rose. He reached out with an arm that felt slightly too long, in an attempt to help one of them up. When he noticed the oddity of his limb, his motion stilled for a moment, and he examined it in more detail. He was tall. Too tall, and he noticed that he was at least a full foot taller than either of the other clones.

What was going on? The last thing he remembered, he had been fighting that radioactive Harmonic clone- Wait, no, that was the old him. He hadn't done that. The old him had been taken down in a fit of weakness, succumbing to the aftereffects of that battle. He still wasn't sure what had happened to the original right before he had been captured. Regardless, that didn't have anything to do with the current situation.

His mental ramblings ended in a snap as battle instincts arose, hard won throughout a great deal of effort in... some place? There was some place that he went, at night, to get stronger. But he couldn't remember where that was. What did he do there? He remembered returning from that place with things, equipment, potions, weapons. The Inventory! Did he still have that? Focusing his attention on that familiar place in the back of his mind, he saw that he did indeed still have access to the Inventory.

It didn't have any of the things he had expected to find in it... but it wasn't empty. He equipped the armor that he found in there, finally covering himself. Being naked wasn't comfortable, though not for the same reasons the old him would have considered such. Nakedness meant weakness, being unprepared. Without his armor, he was nigh defenseless.

But not anymore. He stood, covered in bone like plates, much thicker than the bones of a human, which were held together by an amber coating. The armor didn't look like any of the armor he remembered wearing before, but all the same, it was... familiar. He could see himself making this, going through the process in his head. But the armor, while very important, wasn't the only thing he found in the inventory. There were a few stacks of knives, and one of spears, both of which were made of bones, like his armor.

But the thing that made up the majority of his inventory was sand. Stacks upon stacks of it, at least hundreds- no, thousands- of tons of it. With this, he could... what should he do with it? What should he do at all? He felt a sudden impulse to go and find the creature that had spawned him, him and his brothers, and defend her from the... heroes? No, not heroes. What were the people that were trying to kill his mother? He struggled to remember the word, a word with a definition that had grown more and more vague... Oh, yes, now he remembered.

Monsters. He needed to go protect her from the monsters that wanted her dead. She was important, not from an emotional standpoint, but on a more primal level. He wasn't quite sure why, but as long as she was alive, his own prospects were a great deal better. She was halfway down the block. How was she that far away? Hadn't they been born but a minute before? As confusing as that was, though, it would have to wait. Fight! Yes, he had to fight. Why couldn't he focus? His mind kept on wandering. One of the others, however, had a bit of a firmer grasp on things, apparently. He looked up in surprise as the stockier of his fellow clones, now garbed in a purple bodysuit and helmet with a metallic sheen, took to the air using jets on his feet. He really needed something to call them other than 'Brother' or 'Other Clones'. For now, he'd go with the name Pharaoh, for his obvious Desert theme. Which was pretty sweet, honestly.

But seriously, Rocket Boots? That was so unfair. Taking another glance into the Inventory, he noticed some things that he had passed over in his search for weapons. A bottle of- surprise surprise- SAND, and a carpet. What the hell. He mentally went to hold them, and discovered that they were both accessories. Not at all sure how they could measure up to rocket propelled flight, he slotted them into place, and plotted out how to get to mother. He jumped towards the wall of one of the buildings adjacent to the alley, and felt a strange feeling in his feet, like there was a possibility of solid ground in mid air.

That feeling was familiar, and it came from the Cloud in a Bottle. Perhaps the bottle of sand wasn't as bad as he had assumed. Jumping yet again, he was slightly afraid when he abruptly found himself at least thirty feet in the air- and still rising. Panicking, he braced himself in the air and froze up. Which is when his expected descent didn't happen. Creaking open one eye, he saw that he was suspended in the sky atop the carpet from his accessories.

A magic carpet. Just when he thought his power couldn't get any more ridiculous... Still, he grinned, and angled himself towards mother. His brothers were already engaged in fights, the purple suit clone wielding an honest-to-god laser rifle, and damn was he jealous, while the other, sporting blood-red armor and attempting to use a wicked looking pike to stab- was that Chevalier?

A feeling of calm washed over him. These people were trying to kill mother, and by extension, them as well. With sudden determination, he decided to support his brothers from above. Taking careful aim, he threw a javelin of bone directly at Red's opponent. He readied another and was taking aim with that one as well. Suddenly, something exploded against him and he found himself falling to the ground. Instinctively, he reached out with the Ivy Whip and-

With a sickeningly dry crack he impacted the street. After a few moments of stunned surprise, he rushed to his feet, whirling to search for the one that had attacked him. Then he looked down, at his body.

"Oh." The ghost of Pharaoh rasped, though none could hear him. What was he supposed to do now? Haunt the enemy? Then, he felt a pull. Glancing in the direction that was calling to him, he saw Mother. As the pull grew stronger, he floated towards her. As he got within arms reach of her, the pull was almost too strong to resist. He felt his spirit get sucked into Mother, and then, he felt sensation again. This time, when he stepped back onto the street from the fleshy confines, he grinned.

OoOoO​

Author's Note: I wanted to write a chapter from a clone's perspective, though I had to write it again in something other than first person's perspective, because that was really confusing when taken with the other chapters. Please, tell me what you think, I might not be averse to rewriting this chapter, in fact, I might wonder what the hell I was thinking when I wake up in about five hours. Maybe writing on sleep deprivation isn't the greatest idea.

 

[Dawnk41]

Author's Note: This chapter is the result of something I felt needed to be addressed. Many people have told me that I am writing Greg out of character. They have a valid point, Greg, as portrayed in Worm, would not act like Greg the Terrarian. At least, not without some major events in his life to change his perspective...

2.8​

I feel like I'm drifting down a stream of oil, slowly getting pulled further and further below the surface. It's been so long since I last dreamed... This is a dream, isn't it? Opening my eyes changed little, and my attempts to look around felt like my head was encased in jello. Still, while I scanned my surroundings with as much focus as I could muster, things seemed to be falling into place.

Literally. A world was being pulled together, right in front of my eyes. It began with soil flowing from places unseen into reality, a few rolling hills and shallow valleys dotting an otherwise smooth ocean of dirt. Once the land was brown as far as my eyes could see, rocks began to grow from nothing, dislodging pockets of dirt, on the surface and presumably under it as well. Grass began to spread, and flowers popped out of the ground. Trees exploded into being, and the world was suddenly lush and forested. Off in the distance, something massive burst out of the earth. A familiar looking purple mountain.

I was incredibly confused. This place was starting to look like Terraria. In fact, I was pretty sure that this was Terraria as it was before my arrival. But... I wasn't the first person here. When I had first found myself in this world, back before I had believed it to be a real place and that I had powers, there was someone waiting here for me. I looked around, trying to spot the familiar pale-grey shirt. Where was Trent? He had been here when I had first shown up. Failing to find any sign of him, I tried to take a step and start searching more thoroughly. However, when my foot phased through the ground and completely failed to move me at all, I narrowed my eyes in confusion. This place felt... wrong. Fake. This wasn't the Terraria that I knew. Also, I appeared to be a ghost, or something. I tried to will myself in a direction, but that failed as well. I spent an indeterminate amount of time trying everything I could, which wasn't much, to get myself in motion. Nothing worked. Without much else to do, I settled in place and waited.

I couldn't know how long it took, as I had no real way to measure the time passing, but after some time, I heard the first sound that was ever made in this world. A strangled yelp. I glanced up in surprise, only to see... myself. I wasn't wearing any of the equipment that felt like a second skin to me these days. Just a white undershirt and my pajama pants. I still had those, in fact. The other me looked around in confusion, seeing straight through me. He began to walk around, and I felt myself being abruptly pulled towards him. Within seconds I reached him, and then continued on, until we were one. Suddenly, I was seeing the world in more vibrant colors than before. Smells assailed my nose, the feeling of saliva in my throat, all these things reminding me that I was alive.

But I wasn't in charge. I could feel my head moving from side to side without my direction, my eyes darting from place to place but not under my control. What on earth was- Oh. These were my memories, weren't they? Of first appearing here in Terraria. I could feel the tar-like mist from before clouding my thoughts and I fell back into the dreamlike state. But this time, the memory grew clearer in turn...

Past Greg​

"Hello? Anyone?" I called out into the empty woods I was in. How had I gotten here? The last thing I remembered was getting into bed and trying to fall asleep. I had felt so tired after having to answer the police officer's questions, and finally hitting my bed had felt like a godsend. But... now I was here. Wherever here is. I walked past another tree, and was startled by a sudden voice.

"Greetings Greg! Is there something I can help you with?" I jumped and spun towards the sudden voice, throwing my hands up in an atrocious fighting stance. There was a man, roughly a foot taller than me, with brown hair and a slightly ragged, well-worn white shirt and jeans. He was just... standing there. Looking at me expectantly. Who was this guy? What did he want?

I didn't say anything for a moment, still unsure if this guy was about to attack me or not, but then I managed to get out some questions. "How did you know my name? And-and who are you?" I was trembling slightly. This guy kinda had a bit of a 'Serial Killer' vibe to him. I mean, he didn't look angry or anything, but that didn't exactly disprove anything. Lots of sociopaths don't look angry while they're carving your heart out of your chest. Probably. I mean, I read an article about some serial killer in Philadelphia the other-

My train of thought was forcibly placed back on the rails when the man spoke. "I am the Guide. My name is Trent, and I'm here to give you advice on what to do next. You can come and talk to me if you ever get stuck." He spoke calmly, almost professionally. That didn't make his words make any more sense though. Advice? If I get stuck? Stuck doing what? I tried to figure out what I should ask him next, and managed to decide on a rough order in which to ask my questions.

"Alright, if you're here to help me," Something I wasn't actually sure of yet. "...then where are we? How on earth did I even get here?" These were probably the most important things to know.

His expression grew a little confused at my second question, and he began to answer. "This place is called Terraria. As for the latter... I do not know. You didn't bring yourself here?"

"Bring myself here? No, I just... fell... asleep." Realization struck me. "Oh! This is a dream- alright. Okay! I didn't think they were usually this detailed, but I never remember my dreams anyways, so that's probably it." Trent looked like he wanted to interject, but I spoke past that for a moment. "You said you were here to guide me? Alright, what should I do first?" Glancing around at the forest around me, I gave it a critical stare. This looked like a pretty boring place to have my dream in. Why couldn't I have dreamed of something cooler? Like, exploring space or even being a cape at an Endbringer fight or something? That would be awesome! Still, this was pretty early in the dream. Maybe this would ramp up to be more exciting?

At my question, all of Trent's confusion fell away. "Well, first of all, here." He held out some things towards me, and I took them gingerly. There was an axe, a... mining thing? I didn't remember what that was called. Oh, and a short sword thing too! They were all... bronze, or something. Except they were really light. "You'll need these to get started here. You should chop down some of these trees and make yourself a shelter. You can use the pickaxe-" Oh, yeah, that's what that thing was called. "-to dig and try and find some ore, and the sword will help you fight off any of the monsters in the area." At the last statement, my eyes lit up. Monsters? I could fight monsters in this dream? Well, that sure won out. Like hell I was gonna spend my dream building a house, who knew how long this would last? I was gonna spend as much of it as I could kicking ass and taking names!

Gripping the sword in my hand, I set the other two items on the ground. "Watch those for me, will you? I'll be back if I get bored before this ends." At that, I turned and strode off, ignoring the man's startled question. It's not like he's real anyways, he'll disappear when I wake up, just like everything else.

I had been walking for a few minutes, getting a little angry that there didn't seem to be any monsters in here. Did Trent- I mean, did my dream lie to me? Could dreams even do that? I'd have to look up dreams or something tomorrow. Maybe there was a topic on PHO, wait, probably not, dreams didn't have anything to do with capes. Maybe the AcceptableMomentum forums would have something-Oh hey, a slime. My musing was ended when I spotted it. It was huge, easily coming up to my waist, and looked like it was made of green jello.

Of course! Slimes were the classic early game mob, I guess my dream was taking an RPG turn. Maybe I could level up! Well, it probably wouldn't last that long. Maybe it could pick things up tomorrow night? I grabbed my sword with both hands, and ran at the slime, yelling as I swung the blade with all my might. The blade collided with the creature and I fell over from the sudden loss of momentum in my arms. The thing rippled away from me, sliding a few feet, and I climbed to my feet. Dang, I didn't kill it. Actually, it didn't even look hurt. Then again, would a slime? It probably had a health total or something. Maybe one or two more hits would kill it? I'd have to swing a little less hard next time, and I would keep my feet a bit more steady.

Suddenly, the Slime rippled again, and pounced. It landed on me, and I fell to my back as the world exploded into pain. I think I was screaming, but it sounded like it was coming from far away. The Slime's gooey body was slowly enveloping my arms, as I tried to push the monster off of me, but everywhere it touched me burned and how the hell was this happening dreams weren't supposed to hurt or anythingandohgodohgodimgoingtodie-

My screams were silenced as the Slime covered my head. The pain grew so great that I couldn't even think, my yelling rebounding in on my head now that my mouth couldn't let them out.

The pain didn't last much longer though, it all seemed to drain away as the world fell away into a black void. I was sobbing and hugging myself, so, utterly grateful that the burning was gone. Shaking and rocking my head, my gasps and wheezing slowed, and I eventually opened my eyes again. Once more, I looked around, still breathing hard, and studied my surroundings. The black wasn't quite as empty as I had thought, off in the distance, there were stars, dotting the... sky, I guess. Well, they weren't normal stars, though. They were purple, and red, with the occasional, rare, blue star intermixed. I only got to look at them for a few more seconds though, as I felt myself getting sucked away, towards a green star, one I hadn't noticed before. It got larger and larger and the world burst into color as I landed, lightly, on the ground. Shaking, I jumped back onto my feet, whipping my head around to figure out where the hell I was this time.

No. No, no, nonononono, I was back, back in that forest. The sun was much further in the sky than it had been before, but the forest around me was all too much the same. My shivering grew worse, and I hugged my arms to myself as I shook, sweat rolling off of my face as a whimper arose in my throat. I stood, like a frightened rabbit, ready to bolt at the slightest glimpse of a green ball of goo. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, and I jumped away, losing my footing as I slid to the ground. I desperately scrambled away, until my back hit a tree.

"Greg? Ah. There you are. Here, the axe and the pickaxe, you really should keep them with you." It was Trent. I didn't feel any better in the slightest. This guy, he had started all of this! If, if this was a dream, all I wanted to do was wake up, escape, escape and never come back. Out of desperation, I squeezed my eyes shut and curled into a ball, muttering to myself. "Gottawakeup. Gottawakeup. Wakeup, wakeup, wakeupwakeupwakeup."

Suddenly, there I was, a familiar texture under me. This, this was my bed. I cried again, this time in relief. Eventually, I uncurled myself and got myself mostly under control. "It was just a dream." I murmured. I wasn't too sure I believed myself. "It's all over now. Over and done with." All the same, I didn't close my eyes again for the rest of the night.

Not even to blink.

OoOoO​

Author Note: Please don't take this as grimderp-ness, I'm trying to give people a little of an idea of what happened to Greg to make him become the Terrarian, and remember, people trapped in Echidna can have nightmares that dredge up the past.

 

[Dawnk41]

NOT A STORY POST.​

So, as the title says, I've begun to flag a bit, see more flaws in my work than I normally do. Obviously, this distresses me, because I like the story concept, I usually enjoy the act of writing it, and I love seeing people's feedback to my stuff. Honestly, I really only write these things because of you guys. I mean, I already have a mental model of the story. Imagining it can be pretty fun, and probably better than whatever mess I can dump into a story post.

Anyways, on with my point. Thing is, I've been re-reading my older chapters, and I've seen a lot of my mistakes... I'm going to outline a few of them here, and ask whether or not all a yall agree or not.

• That first chapter. I mean, Ugh. I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote that, although in my defense, I went around, frantically asking people on some of the Worm Fanfic IRC's how I should start my story, and Wildbow himself suggested this method. However... I think I botched it. I've had so many better ideas on how to start this story since then.
• The fighting! I started out with an amateur word flow, but a decent fighting mentality, and sadly, moved on to the opposite. A better grasp of how to write the fights, and a poor mentality on how the fights should go in order to have an engaging narrative. I'm still working on improving that.
• Related to the previous one, another fault of mine is that I kinda... took a great deal of the tension out of the story by having a string of repeated 'One Hit KO's! Greg too strong, pls Nerf' fights, and it wrecked pretty much everyone's idea of how fights should go with Greg fighting anyone , as he beat too many people stronger than him (In retrospect, some of them really should have been,) easily. Ruined my pacing, and disturbed a great many of you for good reason.
• I probably wrote Greg a bit wrong, as I was projecting myself into his shoes. (I've always seen the most of myself in Greg. Or Kid Win. Both, really.) I mean, I'm a kinda nerdy, runt of a human that was awful with social interaction in Junior High, I probably just didn't realize that Greg was... worse. I've been reading some of the canon chapters that he's in, and the kid's gullible, naive, and a bit of an airhead. Yeah...

If any of you can come up with any more, please comment and tell me, I'm trying to overhaul my writing style. I'm pretty sure that one of the reasons that my posting rate has suffered because of a subconscious sense of disgust with myself for writing some of the recent chapters.

And now, we come to this. A crossroads of sorts. I'm going to set up a poll in a little bit, about the following: Should I do a rewrite, or continue with trying to fix up this version?

Arguments/Notes for each one:

Rewrite: I'm leaning towards this one myself, because I've made a real mess of this version, and thinking about trying to build on this rotten foundation could end badly for the story as a whole. However, in a rewrite, the plot would be vastly different. If I rewrote this story, it would be, on the whole, a very different story, with a different path for Greg and everyone involved. Might change up Greg's family, might change up how he interacts with some other capes, heck, I might even change up how he interacts with Terraria. Maybe remove the alternate world completely and have him interact solely with the real world. (Loot system, maybe?)

Repair the Original: This would require a ton of work, and it would heavily delay any future chapters, as I try to piece my way through the chapters and see what I can salvage before progressing into a better plot progression overall. Would probably include tweaking a few older chapters, (especially that first chapter, *shivers*) which would also delay new chapters a bit as I figure out how I want to change some of the older chapters, and actually doing it. Yeah. Basically, choose this one if you loved this version in all of its aspects, or hate the idea of rewrites in general or something. I dunno.

Please, tell me your thoughts on either of these options, suggestions are welcome, additional critique of my writing up to this point. All of that jazz, please!