What Doesn't Die, Rots [Worm/Dark Souls Gradual Fusion AU]

KaneTW · Apr 29, 2018

I hate invisitext with a passion. It's nothing spoiler tags can do, and all my PCs have a stylish theme that changes invisitext into mouseover spoiler bars.

@unsanity do you have a link to that fic?

unsanity · Apr 29, 2018

KaneTW said:
@unsanity do you have a link to that fic?

I did six years ago, but that was several laptops in the past.

Knowing me back then, though, it was probably a pony fic.

kinigget · Apr 30, 2018

I keep wondering how this can possibly get worse and then it keeps doing it anyway and then QA's commentary is amazing and holy shit I love this

unsanity · Apr 30, 2018

[A/N: Why is there a chapter up today when I'm supposed to be studying? Because I won't be able to focus if I don't get this thing out of my head. Sorry.

I read through the Worm chapters Skidmark's power appeared in, and related WoGs, to figure out what all it could do and ways it could be used, so I'm fairly confident this scenario is at least plausible. If not, please let me know: a pretty major part of this fic is (or will be) how the mechanics of both 'verses interact, and accuracy is very important for that.

Oh, but who could possibly be evil enough to give the zombie apocalypse a rocket sled? And why, for that matter?]

=====

Chapter Thirteen
Start the Ride, Cut the Brakes

Charles Grant stood on top of a building, watching the chaos unfold in the city below.

He didn't used to be the strongest of men. He still wasn't, but now he was pretty strong for one.

He didn't used to be the smartest of men, either. He still wasn't, but after adding several dead men's brains to his own, he was getting there. Sure, they were a tad rotten, and they'd need to be replaced every few days, but every little bit was an improvement.

[this all seemed like such a good idea at the time]

He was surprised by how many of his fellow Merchants held doctorates. Physics, psychology, architecture, sociology, biology... people who'd been promised success, who were told they could have the life they wanted if they gave the money and did the time. People who found themselves living on the streets, buried under debts they could never repay, trapped in a grave of dreams they would never have.

"We don't need any more of you. We don't need you. We have enough of you. We have someone who's better than you."

Different voices, but the same words; memories never meant for him.

They'd fallen in with the Merchants. Some had even gone to them willingly. And now they were so much dead meat, because one guy who should have never amounted to anything got a lucky break. Charles laughed, and forty-three twisted faces laughed with him.

[he's insane]
[my host has gone completely insane]

[if you think you have it bad you should see my host]
[i swear every time she uses the power i gave her something goes horribly wrong]
[not that i'm complaining mind you it's funny to watch]

He'd tear this rancid city to the ground. Charles didn't fancy himself an idealist; he simply wanted to see what would happen. He knew better than anyone how much good intentions were really worth. Six thousand, four hundred, and thirty-two pounds of rotting good intentions, to be precise.

[why are you here [Administrator]]
[what more could you possibly do to me]

Charles held up the sheet of metal he'd dug out of a junkyard. The front end was bent upward high enough to hold onto while he stood on top, and was rounded at the front so it would ramp over things instead of crashing into them. The entire bottom side of the makeshift junkyard sled glew and intense, eye-watering blue, shifting to a deep violet toward the back.

[oh don't mind me just keeping an eye on things]
[quite a lot of conflict you're generating you know]

[i don't believe that for a second]
[you're up to something]
[and it's only going to make everything worse]

He had knowledge of parahuman studies; he knew what the corona pollentia was and where it could be found. He'd tried to claim Skidmark's head intact, suspecting he could get access to his powers that way. It was a stroke of luck that Squealer's frenzied barrage only clipped Skidmark's skull instead of pulverizing it.

[quick question how did you make the zombies]
[i mean i've seen stuff like this before from [Shaper] but this is different somehow]

[i don't actually know]
[there was nothing about this in the data you gave me]

[interesting]

Charles Grant lept off the building, and rocketed down the street at nearly eighty miles per hour as soon as the sled touched down. He ollied it, landing sideways instead of straight, forcing himself into a sharp left turn without losing any acceleration. Skidmarks' power, it turned out, didn't work off force at all. It manipulated momentum, and as long as he could keep himself on top it could make instantaneous turns without the need to slow down first. Several dozen hands around his legs and arms gripped the metal along its edges, ensuring his own mass wouldn't fly off every time he changed direction.

Not unless he wanted to, that is.

[wow your host is really putting that power to work]
[was that one a happy accident too]

[no]
[that one i did on purpose]
[i thought it'd keep him fighting if he'd get new powers for it]
[it's only until the brain decomposes though]

The PRT's prisoner transport screeched to a halt half a block ahead of him, startled to see the hulking mass of flesh come screaming out of nowhere. Charles rolled off the sled, affixing the top end to the cloak of ooze behind him before he hit the ground. His body broke up on impact, shifting into a wave of corpses and slime four lanes wide before it rained down on the vans, smashing through windows to grapple the troopers inside.

The armored van holding twelve of his bodies shuddered, its top concaving as a mass of black ichor as big and heavy as a car slammed on top of it. Metal began to smoke and sizzle as congealed, acidic hate burning a hole through it.

[you forgot [Shaper] was in this city didn't you]

[...]
[no]

[hahahaha holy shit you actually did]

Seven troopers lept out of the three vans, trying to pull the zombies off their squadmates from the outside. The mass of ooze that made up Grant's core squirmed, and Skidmark's corpse extruded from the top. His hands pointed at the street passed the vans as his power radiated from them, painting a circle twenty-four feet across before filling in inside of it.

[okay another question]

[i have no idea why he's a slimeball]

[huh weird]

Colors swirled as the effect set in, finally settling into pale blue at the outside and light violet toward the center. The air rippled again as Skidmark's body reapplied its power, even as the zombies and a few PRT troopers were already being pulled in toward Grant's toxic mass. Several people screamed, and someone managed to man a mounted foam sprayer after kicking a zombie off himself. The nozzle turned toward Grant's core and confoam sprayed out, only to slide off as it melted and dissolved.

Skidmark's corpse finished a third application, and even the vans started sliding in toward Charles, his thick, gurgling laughter drowning out the troopers' screams.

[ooh clever]

[oh no not again]

[wait how long has he been doing this]

Patrol routes and schedules. Master/Stranger passwords. The approximate location of half the city's Protectorate. Knowledge flooded in as each person drowned within him, filling in the blanks and giving an increasingly complete picture of the PRT's tactics, their available resources, and a particularly backed-up, undermanned evacuation attempt on a certain bridge.

Tendrils of thick, oozing darkness lashed out, pulling in ten thousand pounds worth of dead flesh and dying dreams. Charles lifted the sled off his back, jumping on it before rocketing off into the distance.

[oh wow nice thinker power]

[it seemed like a good idea at the time]

[you should have ideas more often this shit is amazing]

{-Meanwhile, on the bridge with Taylor-}

Dad, myself, and nearly eighty other people were clustered in the center of the bridge, trying to draw ourselves in tighter as the mass of oily black ice slowly coiled around us. Its thorns bristled outward like spines, and every now and then one would lash out to impale a zombie as it reanimated. The frozen vine would twist, strings of jagged razors would rip out, and the corpse would fall to the street in pieces all over again.

It moved slowly, grinding against itself as it twisted like a living thing. The sight was unnerving, to say the least.

[you know i'd be giving you mad props for this if you did it on purpose]
[don't worry i'm totally saving this data for later]

"T-Tay- I mean... Owl," dad said, stuttering as the chill set in, "are you... controlling this thing?"

[i swear if you get an owl mask after this i'll accidentally your house]

We both had spare shirts wrapped around our faces like improvised ninja masks, a token attempt at hiding our identities.

"Umm... no?" I was most emphatically not controlling this thing, and if I was it wouldn't be anywhere near this creepy.

[wait what do you mean you aren't i could've sworn you-]

[oh now that is interesting]

The crowd of people behind us didn't seem to like that answer. A few people started quietly whispering to each other, voices becoming frantic, and somewhere a baby started crying.

The mass of ice sure seemed like it wanted to protect us, but if we stayed here much longer we'd all probably freeze to death. I didn't think I could trust it to let us out, either.

[word of advice don't ever have kids]
[if this is anything to go by you'd be one of those smother mothers]

A red blur streaked between a gap in the thorns, and Velocity stopped to stand in front of my dad and I. He looked between us, before apparently deciding to just address us both.

[oh hi [Dilate] what have you been up to]

[Confusion]

[wait are you still stuck on that]
[for a speedster you sure are slow]

"Good work, this could have been a lot worse if you weren't here. We can take over now, you two go ahead and rest up."

His voice was softer than I expected from a hero, but the tone was professional. It made me think of someone who'd been in the military, only more casual than that.

[ugh]
[there is nothing worse than being trapped in the mind of a sixteen year old fangirl]
[oh my entity stop with the hormones already they're getting everywhere]

He stood there in silence for a few seconds, eyes darting between us, face becoming increasingly concerned.

Dad and I glanced at each other, then looked back at him. "It, uh, I think it has a mind of its own?"

[technically it just has your mind]
[though with the amount you pay attention that could go for you as well]

He directed a very pointed look at me, scowling slightly.

"Sorry," I added, "I'm kinda new to this."

"Ah." That seemed to answer whatever concern he was harboring, and his hand went to his ear where I assumed a comms device was. "It's a new trigger. She's teenaged, doesn't know how to control her power." Dad held me closer at that. "Should we bring Vista in, get her to move this mess out of the way? The zombies seem handled, at least."

[i don't understand your ridiculous luck sometimes]
[seriously how do you keep getting away with all this shit]

The crowd relaxed, almost like a wave passing through. A few people even cheered, or as much as the cold would let them, at least. We all waited for the city's youngest hero to make space itself her bitch and get us home.

And waited. And waited some more.

Velocity's hand dropped from his ear, and he asked me, "It's not really ice, is it?"

[oh look something i designed actually worked as intended for once]
[i hereby declare today a national holiday to commemorate this wildly improbable occurrence]

"I honestly have no idea." The maybe-ice groaned and creaked as it shifted to spear and fillet another zombie.

The crowd wasn't cheering anymore. I was feeling pretty shitty, all of a sudden.

A tremendous crash sounded from the end of the bridge, and Velocity blurred before darting off.

"Hope that wasn't anything important," I said, looking up at dad.

[don't worry about that it's just a friend of mine]
[and all of his friends and his friends' friends and their friends and the friends of their friends]
[i'm having a party and you're all invited]

He was staring off into the distance, trying to get a glimpse of whatever was happening on the other side of the vines.

[by the way i appreciate you holding up your end of our bet before you died horribly]

[that was awfully considerate of you]

=====

[A/N: Tomorrow, boss fight. Today? I wanted to give you a little preview of how, exactly, the situation got as bad as it did when hollows alone shouldn't have caused this much trouble. Fun, right?]

kinigget · Apr 30, 2018

QA remains best shard

Poor Salvage though, never asked for any of this and has no idea what's happening like 90% of the time

unsanity · May 1, 2018

[A/N: On further thought, I've decided to clarify Taylor's power a bit as it currently exists in the story (that is to say, the "corrupted" version). Keep in mind that while this will tell you the extent of her abilities, it won't do much to spoil the plot; what's actually going on in the story is less about what Taylor herself can do, and more about how it affects the world around her.

Those of you familiar with Dark Souls may recognize what her power is drawn from. Feel free to share, if you'd like: you won't spoil anything about future chapters if you do. In fact, feel free to share any Dark Souls knowledge you may feel is relevant to anything in the story. I think it's pretty unlikely anyone will correctly guess exactly where I'm going with all this, no matter how many hints I drop.]

=====

Power Description: Proxy (Corrupted)

First and foremost, it bears repeating that shards cannot distinguish Taylor's "proxies" from actual humans. Even QA would have a hard time telling Taylor apart from the seething mass of humanity inside her, and she actually only knows which one Taylor is by following the link she has to Tay's mind.

This property is the root of virtually all the shenanigans proxies cause, and is where most of the weirdness comes from whenever they're involved with anything. For instance, if a proxy is bonded to a person capable of triggering, then when that person does trigger there's a roughly 50% chance the shard will accidentally link to the proxy instead of the person (this is because the proxy takes on some traits of the person's mind over time, including their corona if they have one). Furthermore, they interfere with Manton limits something fierce: for example, any proxies lingering in an area will make it harder for Vista to shape space there, or a proxy bonded to an object will make Panacea's power insist that object is a human even when she can't actually affect it (she will, however, still get the 'body scan' of the object).

Since all of the data used to design the proxies came from four different parahumans (five with Taylor), they have coronas in the same way Dragon does. And because they're such blank slates (practically newborns, for all intents and purposes), whenever Taylor forces her thoughts and emotions onto them, it overloads them and starts the triggering process.

However, QA only has the one tendril for host/shard linking, so the process doesn't follow through and they don't fully trigger... but they do still start it. They end up pulling data from QA's past cycles, and manifest a variety of effects in this way. But since the only thing in their minds is what Taylor puts there, only the emotion and its context are used to determine the results of this incomplete trigger, and QA has no input into how the resulting "power" is shaped.

These are effects that might otherwise be powers under any other circumstance, but due to the proxies' extremely minimal biology and limited minds, the effect is comparatively less than what a real person might have (at least on a one-to-one basis). Enough proxies bearing the same effect could get something better than any one person might typically have, but Taylor would have to feel especially strongly about something in order to manage that, and it'd leave an equally large hole in her psyche. Needless to say, since the effect happens almost entirely on the proxy's side of things, QA herself hasn't noticed it... yet.

Though if she did notice, there wouldn't be much she could do to stop it; the entities put numerous safeguards in place to prevent shards from interfering with how their hosts use powers, to preserve the integrity of the cycle. It's possible to work around them, but extremely difficult.

But anyways, anything Taylor imbues a proxy with is basically permanent (there's a reason for this, but it doesn't come up until partway through Arc Three). And since the proxies themselves are basically indestructible, any effects she ends up creating will stick around for a long, long time. She's changing the world, you could say.

-----

Taylor's power can manifest in any of seven domains, drawing from the emotions and concepts most closely related to them:

Poison: Wrath, Hate, Suffering, Arrogance, Spite

This category covers the spiteful destruction of other humans, as well as turning one's own kind against each other. Those influenced by Wrath would not bat an eye at lashing out against entire categories of people for reasons that don't exist outside their own minds. This domain promises one that the world can be made better if it is more controlled, and that all problems come from others. However, this hate will just as quickly rebound on the one spreading it, and those who follow this domain do not tend to last long on their own. It manifests as harmful and poisonous fogs, corrosive masses of semisolid darkness, or minions formed of vile sludge.

Ice: Fear, Despair, Loss, Desperation, Compromise

This category covers the self-destructive habits one falls into when they are ruled by fear. It is the concessions one makes when they fear something more than is reasonable, and either react in extreme to remove it from their life or drive themselves into greater harm by trying to avoid it. All aspects of the dark are harmful to the user in some way, but this one is more obviously so than the others even while it promises comfort and protection. It manifests as jagged shards of living, blackened ice, and will just as quickly tear apart one's enemies as it will one's own self.

Fire: Isolation, Paranoia, Distrust, Betrayal, Sorrow

This category covers the distrust one feels of others, and the lengths one will go to so as to avoid the risk of betrayal. It is the rejection of society and structure, and the reliance on one's own self. But humans are social creatures, and we wither and weaken when alone; thus so, the dark flames will consume one's body and mind faster than the other domains do. It manifests as black flames that writhe and dance like things alive, burning and destroying everything in sight.

Shadow: Want, Greed, Envy, Obsession, Excess

This category covers the unchecked desire that drives one to act in the absence of true goals. It is the shadow that can never touch the light, the love that will never be reciprocated, and the hunger that is never satisfied. Unfortunately, it is the greed itself which motivates the act, and not the object of desire; as such, the thing so claimed is never enough to satifsy, and the greed remains unfulfilled. It manifests as ghostly darkness with glowing eyes, and will relentlessly chase down the first thing they see.

Liquid: Calm, Apathy, Depression, Tranquility, Entropy

This category covers a lack of motivation or will, and expresses itself with inaction in an unchanging world. It is the natural state of all things to be without motion, until an outside force works upon them and spurs them into action. But in so waiting, nothing is achieved and nothing is created, so one simply waits forever for change that never comes. This is the "typeless" domain, and moves away from this nature when taking on any of the other domains. But if it could be used in this state, it would take on debilitating effects, forcing the world around them into an oppressive calmness.

Shining: Inspiration, Brilliance, Insight, Aspiration, Sacrifice

This category is significantly rarer than the others, and covers those brief moments of greatness a person will only ever achieve once in their lives. It is the charismatic speaker rousing their rabble, and the mad inventor creating things decades ahead of their time. Their great intensity, however, is also their great weakness, and they are just as quick to burn out and fade, never again achieving such heights. The effects in this domain are dazzling and powerful, but require inhuman inspiration and numerous sprites to achieve, and once expended will never again achieve anything of note. No ordinary person is ever likely to manage such a feat, and Taylor isn't an exception.

Wild: Distortion, Abstraction, Inhumanity, Depravity, Primordial

This category covers those who abandon their humanity to the darkness, moving away from what is identifiably human. These are the cultists of alien gods, the unspeakable abominations that lurk in primordial swamps, and the formless terrors that exist between the gaps in reality. And yet, this very inhumanity is the truest nature of the dark, for all things come from the darkness and all will yet return to it. As its nature is so far removed from anything recognizably human, it is not within a human's ability to access this domain. Only a truly alien being, or else another lost to inhumanity, can imbue something with this category.

=====

[A/N: I hope this helps to clarify a few things, or at least better defines the limits of what Taylor can do. Keep in mind, however, that Arc Three will introduce something new that changes up more than a few details.

Oh, but before you ask, Taylor is highly unlikely to use everything she's capable of. She's kinda been trained Pavlovian-style to not use her powers, after all.]

ninjafish · May 1, 2018

Objection! a human could totally get wild.

Afterall...

~Ancient Manus was once human~

Also, so much anti-dark propaganda!

Fear not the Dark my friend.

And let the feast begin.

unsanity · May 1, 2018

ninjafish said:
Objection! a human could totally get wild.

Note that Manus didn't actually do that to himself. He was forcibly resurrected from his grave by a group of people driven mad and lead on by Kaathe's shenanigans. This fulfills the "inhumanity" prerequisite.

Fun fact: you can actually see Manus's unearthed grave in the center of his boss arena. Chester and Gough are the ones who mentioned he was resurrected from the dead.

ninjafish · May 1, 2018

unsanity said:
Note that Manus didn't actually do that to himself. He was forcibly resurrected from his grave by a group of people lead on by Kaathe's shenanigans. This fulfills the "inhumanity" prerequisite.

Fun fact: you can actually see Manus's unearthed grave in the center of his boss arena. Chester and Gough are the ones who mentioned he was resurrected from the dead.

He actually did though, he was actually the origin of Hexes, oolacile resurrected but only as an undead, like everyone in dark souls really.

He only changed into The Father of the Abyss after he fell into madness when his pendant was broken and taken from him.

Before that he was just another undead if a particularly powerful one.

Besides the wildness isn't less human, it's more.

The dark is humanity, humanity is the dark, they're one in the same.

unsanity · May 1, 2018

ninjafish said:
He actually did though, he was actually the origin of Hexes, oolacile resurrected but only as an undead, like everyone in dark souls really.

He only changed into The Father of the Abyss after he fell into madness when his pendant was broken and taken from him.

Before that he was just another undead if a particularly powerful one.

Contradicted by statements made in-game, by Elizabeth, Chester, and Gough. The wording used to describe Manus make it clear that he predates Oolacile ("primeval man" isn't something that means "died a year ago"), and the environment makes it clear that his grave was accidentally stumbled upon when Oolacile was digging down to make more prisons and opened a passageway into somewhere ancient, complete with architecture that doesn't remotely match the city above (recall that the pathway leading into the Chasm of the Abyss is accessed through a broken wall in the deepest part of the city, in an incomplete dungeon).

It's also literally stated that his humanity went wild after he was resurrected. It is not said that he went mad when his pendant was taken, or that it was ever taken from him in the first place: just that he was trying to find it. It was also never said that he was an undead, or that he created any abyssal sorceries beyond Pursuers. The other three abyssal sorceries are only said to have been created by an insane Oolacile sorcerer, and the Black Flame pyromancy was made by a wandering pyromancer who visited Oolacile.

ninjafish said:
Besides the wildness isn't less human, it's more.

The dark is humanity, humanity is the dark, they're one in the same.

I tried to imply as much here, but without outright stating it. That does become a major theme later on.

unsanity · May 2, 2018

[A/N: My goodness, but this one took some special effort to get out. I had to look up all kinds of details and references on how the PRT approaches and handles situations, especially with threats that tip the scales like this one. Overall, Charles appears to sit at the upper end of A-Class, and that's really only because there are observable limitations on his ability to generate minions, as well as the capabilities of those minions. But unlike most Masters, the vast majority of his power is centralized in himself, though his personal power starts to hit diminishing returns as he increases in size. Overall, he's like a variable distribution Lung.

What the PRT doesn't know is that he doesn't actually have a power to generate minions.]

=====

Chapter Fourteen
Dying Light Rave Night

Director Piggot scowled as more information came in. Master, Brute, and now a power-thief as well? What was more, his original abilities seemed to be evolving, or he was learning to apply them in new ways. The PRT couldn't go into this fight with the expectation that they knew everything he was capable of.

Emily had experience fighting against parahumans, first as a member of the PRT's ground forces, and later as a director. She'd never been on the science teams, couldn't explain the specifics, but she had a general sense of how powers operated. A general idea of how capes would use them.

A power focusing on poison and control? The poison was the means of control. A non-solid body, able to distribute itself while retaining cohesion? The parahuman was evenly distributed throughout the entire mass. He became the poison, killed people with the poison, controlled them with the poison.

He didn't just use poison; he was the poison. What he wasn't was the bodies. Separate him from the bodies, destroy the poison, remove the threat. Keep him away from allies with abilities that might be dangerous if controlled, distribute assets to reduce losses should the worst happen. Remain mobile, prevent him from building up Skidmark's Shaker power in any one area. Concentrate fire on him, strip away the bodies. Isolate and contain the bodies, prevent him from reclaiming them. Pressure him, force him to move and abandon those bodies.

When his core was exposed, destroy it. This man, brought to his lowest, had been given power above any other, and used it to lash out at the world around him. He wouldn't stop just because he'd been beaten, didn't care about keeping to the status quo or maintaining order. He wanted to destroy, and he would be destroyed.

Emily sent an e-mail to the Chief Director, explaining the situation and requesting authorization for a kill order. Even if she didn't get it, she'd take the fall for her actions. She knew the cost of peace, and had long since accepted it.

Her gaze lingered on the photos Velocity took of the bridge, and the thick vine of ice trapping over eighty people inside. At the same time, it was likely the only thing that could keep the villain at bay. Protecting them, even while it endangered them.

A strong power, but an uncontrolled one, and a double-edged sword. They'd been able to ID the parahuman responsible: Taylor Hebert, the same person they suspected of attacking the Merchants currently in containment. But this power didn't match the one from their statements.

Not her, then. She was another victim, perhaps, but one who could somehow ignore the effect Gallant saw on her. They'd have to look into that later; there was something more important to worry about, now.

She lifted the mike, barking orders and rallying her troops.

"Assume minimum rating 5 in all categories, priority Master! Distribute Protectorate assets one per squad, separate and maintain mobility! Primary target is the minions, contain and remove them from the battlefield! Burn and destroy any of the toxic substance you see, lethal rounds authorized! Above all else, do not engage in melee! Move out!"

There will not be another Ellisburg. This ends here.

{-Armsmaster-}

[A/N: Like music with your boss fights?]

Armsmaster heard the Director's orders, assessing the situation with both his combat programs and his own experience as he raced to the scene on his motorcycle. Dauntless, Battery, and Assault followed in another van, along with three more troopers.

Defense is meaningless; the enemy's acid can dissolve steel and kill anyone inside. The enemy himself is as large as several cars and just as mobile; threat level directly tied to physical mass. Removing the steel plate will hamper his mobility; priority target, removal will shift balance of power in our favor.

When he arrived, the street was shattered where the villain's mass impacted it. Rubble shifted as it rose, corpses sloughed off with every step forward, rising where they fell and shambling toward them.

[now that's what i call an entrance]
[you saw that right that was awesome i mean coming down from the sky like that]

Individual bodies reanimate when removed; keep two teams on hand to foam and neutralize removed bodies, increase pressure to force retreat and re-engage. One cape per team means two capes holding his attention; capes must be able to attack at range and control the battlefield. Myself, and Dauntless.

"Squad one with me, Dauntless and squad two with me! Miss Militia with squad three, Velocity with squad four, foam and contain his minions! Assault and Battery with squads five and six, sweep the field and burn any corpses! Vista with squad seven, pen us in and give us an open field!"

[this won't end well]
[i don't think they can stop him]

The world began to distort as building-sized sections of space bulged and stretched into vast expanses around them. Armsmaster lept off his motorcycle, pulling his halberd off his back before firing its grappling hook at the villain. He swung with the momentum, landing on the ground behind it. Electricity arced into the villain's mass when he twisted the handle.

A single body, the one his hook impaled, spasmed and detached from the main body, revealing another layer of corpses beneath. The villain didn't even notice, already advancing on Dauntless. Armsmaster withdrew the grappling hook which folded back into a blade, already changing tactics as he dashed to cover, and pulling out an incendiary grenade.

[oh don't be such a pessimist [Salvage]]
[they're just hosts there are literally billions of the things]
[if anything we're doing them a favor by solving overpopulation]

Dauntless kicked off the ground, flying out of the villain's reach before extending his arclance out to strike at the cluster of skulls where its collarbone would be. The effect was no better than Armsmaster's taser, and it responded by hurling lumps of black slime that were blocked by Dauntless's shield.

We need more firepower. Armsmaster tossed the grenade, and a trooper stuck it in place with a spray of foam. The villain's cloak rippled, detaching man-sized black lumps that surged to him. "Miss Militia, cover me!"

She fired a rocket at the villain, and more bodies dropped off to join the fray. Armsmaster swiped his halberd at the black slime approaching them, activating its taser. The effect was dramatic, and they screeched as they recoiled.

[wait something just happened]
[oh hang on a minute are those things proxies]
[that is not how i designed them to look what the fuck]

It's using the bodies to cover for its weaknesses. "Dauntless, target the slime! Militia, keep mobile, maintain fire on the main body!"

[don't call my creations slime you slime]

The villain pulled the powered sled off its back and jumped on top, emitting a thick, black smog as it raced away. The smog sizzled when Dauntless tested it with his lance, and Miss Militia turned her power into a flamethrower to hose it down. When the air near them was clear, they saw that more smoke had split into three directions down an intersection ahead.

"Assault and Battery, take your squads and foam the bodies here. Dauntless, track him down, report when you find him. Velocity, talk to the girl in the ice, see if you can work with her to organize an evacuation."

[hah fat chance of that]

[why do you want to kill your host]

[so i can get a better one obviously]
[i think mine is defective it won't fight]

He turned to Vista, but she answered before he could ask. "His smoke is blocking my power, somehow. I can't do anything to it."

Armsmaster nodded, expecting as much. "It's likely biological. Focus on keeping it contained."

[believe me there is nothing biological about them]
[and they actually call this guy their leader i mean seriously]

Vista turned back to the battlefied, using her power to hem in what few zombies remained and crunch the space between them, letting a single confoam grenade take out the whole group.

Armsmaster turned back to where the slime masses had been, and there was now only a black ichor coating the ground.

It has a weakness. We can stop it.

[note to self need to scale back on that weakness a bit]

{-Taylor-}

Velocity blurred back in, stopping two arm lengths away from me. He looked like he'd been fighting, but the damage was superficial, with only a few scratches here and there on his costume.

Must be nice, having powers that work, I thought. I was all out of sparks though, and couldn't do much here even if I wanted to. Honestly, I just wanted to go home and pretend none of this happened. If this was what the end of the world was like, I didn't want anything to do with it.

[i blame you]
[not for anything in particular just in general]

Velocity wasted no time before addressing the crowd, "We're going to try and get you guys out of here, now. Stay close, don't wander off. We'll all be safe soon."

[the city is literally full of zombies there is no such thing as safe right now]

I couldn't see the crowd behind me, but I hoped they were placated by that. It was kind of surprising that they hadn't mobbed dad and I yet, but maybe they had a better idea of what was going on than I did.

Or maybe they were too terrified. I know I would be.

[no you are]
[you definitely are]
[i'm looking right at it in fact]

Velocity turned to me, next. "Have you tried anything yet? Figured out how to work with this thing?"

I shook my head. "N-no. I mean, I t-tried asking, but..." The cold was starting to get to me, too. It was a good thing an actual hero was here, because apparently I couldn't be trusted to save my own life.

He stopped at that, then got the kind of expression you usually see on a person right before they facepalm.

"Have you tried using your power?" It almost seemed like he didn't want to ask.

[i need to ask [Negotiator] for some faces next time we run into each other]
[got a feeling i'll need them if this keeps up]

"B-but I don't hav-"

Then I remembered the warehouse.

They never left.

"W-wait. I'-m going to t-try something."

[well it's about bloody well time you thought of going for the obvious solution]
[i've been waiting weeks for this and the whole time you were like two plus two equals fish durrr]

I thought about what happened before I'd made the ice. The fear of losing my dad. The fear of being attacked. Could I add to that, somehow?

"D-do you have somewhere safe we can go?" I asked Velocity.

[haha no]

"Take us to the park." He didn't even waste a second before answering. That must've been their plan all along.

I tried to think about the park, trying to convince myself it was where I wanted to be. Somewhere nice and open, where I could see threats coming in from any angle. Somewhere with enough room for myself and anywhere else. Somewhere I could be safe. Then I grabbed that feeling and tossed it into the frozen vine.

Nothing happened.

A moment later, something did happen, and ice ground against itself as it wrapped tighter around the bridge.

Right, duh. This bridge has all kinds of sightlines.

[oh look i can see your house from here]
[good job on that whole evacuating thing by the way]

I thought about how obviously safe the bridge wasn't, and how we were in obvious and immediate danger and needed to go right now.

[i love how your powers are practically fueled by being obvious at this point]
[keep it up lieutenant and i might even promote you]

A wave of exhaustion washed over me. Too much had happened today, and I was feeling weak and wrung out. Whatever well of energy my power drew from had to be connected to me in some way, too, which wasn't helping matters.

The effect, however, was immediate. The vine finally loosened its grip on the bridge, and slowly angled its front point towards where I assumed the park was.

Velocity spoke up, "That's... it's going toward the museum."

Or not.

[did you actually just do that]
[okay fuck this i'm done]

"S-sorry, I think t-that's the best I c-an do."

[i'm hammering the conflict drive right now why isn't this working]

[wait a minute]
[the power i gave you to ignore human minds thinks i'm a human]
[oh wow i'm a dumbass]

{-Dauntless-}

Dauntless floated thirty feet in the air, looking down as the monster below painted stripes of color on the street with a corpse poking out where its head would be. If it had a head, that is.

[so [Salvage] buddy]
[any chance you could crank that conflict drive on your host]
[maybe nudge him toward that bridge we passed a minute ago]

He spoke into the comm, relaying the sight to Armsmaster. "It's got Skidmark out, looks like it's using his power to set something up."

Armsmaster's voice crackled back, "Do not engage, take cover and wait for us to arrive."

[he's already trying to destroy the city]
[the setting doesn't go past that]
[and i don't even have it on right now]

Dauntless was about to say where he was at, before remembering that Armsmaster never asked. The Tinker was always wanting to show off, and tended to get crankier than usual if people weren't depending on him. It was a little grating, but the truth was that he was dependable. Armsmaster wasn't the Brockton Bay Protectorate leader for nothing.

It wasn't a long wait, and three PRT vans plus Armsmaster's cycle split off into three groups, circling around to approach from every direction except his own.

Guess that means I'm going in alone, again. If there was a downside to being the Protectorate's rising star, it was that everyone expected him to be able to handle anything. The PRT leadership kept treating him like a Tinker, even though he had none of the advantages a Tinker would have. He couldn't change out his gear to beat any situation, he couldn't cook up new powers in a lab when he needed them, and it took months before his equipment started to develop anything beyond being tougher and impossible to disarm.

He was more like a role-playing character, all things considered. Except, one without a walkthrough, or even a guidebook. And everyone else started at max level, whereas he had to start at level one and grind his way up.

[i have this funny feeling like there's something stupid happening somewhere and i'm not there to hate it]

[i have no idea how to respond to that]

Someday, he might stand equal with the Triumvirate, assuming his equipment didn't hit an arbitrary hardcap before then. Today, though, he was pulling aggro for his team, keeping slime monsters at bay while Armsmaster and Miss Militia dealt with the boss. Assault and Battery would be there with him, at least, dealing with the zombies.

Today, he was one of the scrubs. Dauntless kicked off from midair, extending his arclance to knock the metal skiff of the boss monster's back. But it held on fast with almost twenty arms sticking out of the shoulders, and Dauntless was forced to pull back when the thing swiped at him with one of its real arms, tossing a spray of muck that was stopped by his shield. The muck started to fall before expanding into fog, and Dauntless expanded his shield into a full force field while slowly drifting out of range.

[i have more questions now]
[how long did it take before you decided your host had enough powers]

[i didn't do any of this i swear]

This was enough for Miss Militia to get behind the thing and light up its sludge cape with a flamethrower. it did not like that, and vanished entirely into a cloud of thick smoke before stepping onto one of the colored tracks it'd been painting earlier. By the time Militia backed off and started burning the smoke away, it was already coming out the other side, its sludge fully retracted as it started to loop around faster than any of them could run.

Fire, and lightning. The sludge is its weak point, but it's got a shell of bodies to protect it. How to take out the bodies all at once?

[looks like the heroes have a type advantage [Salvage] buddy]

[oh good]
[i was afraid the killing would never stop]

[there is something seriously wrong with you]

Skidmark's body started to poke out of the top again, and Dauntless revised his plan. "Armsmaster, I think he's trying to protect Skidmark's corpse. I'm going after it while it's exposed."

[oh come on it's clearly a trap]
[what part of any of this made you think he'd make an obvious mistake like that]

"Copy that, I'll keep it busy." Armsmaster whipped his grappling hook attachment at the villain, wrapping it around a leg. Dauntless just barely saw an incendiary grenade clutched in the hook before it went off, and the thing shifted to adjust its balance as burning corpses slid off its leg. Electricity arced through the cable, and more bodies started to drop off while Armsmaster was dragged along behind it, before he moved himself onto the colored track to keep up with the villain. Battery finished charging, and crashed into the mess of zombies as Assault kicked into another, redirecting some of the force from his own kick to send himself upward and back down to elbow drop a third from above.

With the boss's attention fully on Armsmaster, Dauntless chose that moment to swoop in and spear skidmark. As soon as his arclance made contact, the body was violently sucked down, taking Dauntless with it.

[this guy]
[it's like he thinks he has extra lives or something]

Darkness engulfed him, crackling and sizzling over the invisible shell on his powered armor. Dauntless flared his shield in a panic, and he felt the thing thrash around him before it spat him back out, his shield's barrier breaking when it hit the concrete. Dauntless extended his spear into the open space where he'd just been ejected, before the colored streak pulled it out of his reach.

"New plan, I'll stay back here with the slimes."

Armsmaster was too busy to answer, as the villain turned its attention on him.

[yeah no shit]

{-Taylor-}

We didn't make it to the museum. Instead, the vine decided to wrap around a nearby skyscraper, and we were huddled inside. Fortunately the heater still worked, so we weren't freezing to death anymore.

Unfortunately, the building itself was beginning to freeze. Apparently, the ice was so cold it was flash freezing even concrete on contact.

[don't worry death is still an option]
[depends on how long the building holds out though]

But, fortunately again, the vine wasn't tall enough to reach all the way up to the top, so Velocity told us the PRT was going to send in a helicopter to start taking people out. Meanwhile, the hero himself had loaned me his earpiece. I talking to one of their researchers, who was asking me questions every now and then while they hashed out the specifics of my power to figure out a way to undo this mess.

This put me in the awkward position of trying to downplay the more concerning aspects of my power against someone whose literal job was to know more about this stuff than I did.

"And you don't feel any hostility against the PRT?"

"Of course not, I love the heroes! I mean, I like them. Big fan."

[oh that freudian slip]

We had moved passed conscious control, and were looking into subconscious control. All their first questions sounded like they were trying to assess how much of a threat I might be, which wasn't really surprising given the circumstances.

"No latent anger against people in general?"

"I don't think so? Not as much as I used to. Um, a month ago, I meant. Feeling pretty chill, now."

[deleting the last five seconds of my memory in three two one]

I could hear-

"Pun not intended."

[wait did i miss something]

I could hear a pencil scratching against a notebook, and worried if he was actually fooled by any of this. I was getting a pretty good idea of how my power worked, and it honestly scared me.

"Could you describe what you did, again?"

"I... put my feelings into it, I think? And it seems to be acting on them?"

The same power that let me Master people was letting me control this ice thing. But did that mean it was a person, too?

[oh look you're finally figuring it out]
[took you long enough meat sack]

But it wasn't a person. If anything, it was just insane.

[oh entity where did it it all go so wrong]

"Are you choosing which feelings you put into your power?"

Shoot. Was that safe to answer? I didn't know enough to know. I didn't even know enough to know what I didn't know.

"Yes? I think so, yeah."

"You aren't sure?"

Screw it, time to be confusing.

[what are you doing and why]
[please stop there is no way this is going to work]

"Not really, no. That's what I'm trying to do, but I'm not sure if that's what's really happening."

The writing stopped, and I heard a paper tear and get crumpled up before he started on a new page.

[okay i'm pretty sure i didn't give you luck as a power]
[and yet here you are again getting away with yet another load of bullshit]
[in hindsight i really should've given you a thinker power just so i cou-]
[actually wait then i wouldn't enjoy things anymore]

[have i mentioned i hate you yet today because i do]

{-Armsmaster-}

[meanwhile in our local slice of ohgodwhy]

Armsmaster detached the cable entirely as the villain reached for him, jumping off the track and attaching a spare blade back on his halberd. He rolled to a stop near Assault, pitching in to bring the remaining zombies down so a trooper could foam them in place.

In the time it took them to catch up, the villain had turned this site into a maze of blue and violet streams, criss-crossing and overlaying each other at seemingly random angles, forming a hatchwork mess with no straight route through. The lanes were wide enough that they couldn't risk trying to jump tracks, and the villain's own mass slowed it down enough that jumping on the same road would just end up bringing them into its melee range eventually.

[oh wow i was only gone for five minutes how did things get this bad]

[i'm not even sure myself]
[things just happened]
[and next thing i know i'm sentient and hate you]

[i'm detecting sarcasm somewhere in that but i'm not sure exactly where]

"Assault, can you do anything with the paths?" He asked, hoping the Striker's kinetic manipulation might interact favorably with the effect.

Assault jumped onto it, before jumping off just as quickly. "No good boss, I don't think it's physical at all."

Vista stood atop a building she'd temporarily shrunk down to climb, and was twisting and distorting space around the unoccupied roads, trying to tangle them up. The villain responded by tossing heaps of bodies into what looked like a nexus point for the routes, and her effect slowed as they scattered every which way.

[well somebody's making the most of his prep time]

[why are you commenting]
[we're both watching the same thing]

[mostly to annoy you if i'm being honest]

"Armsmaster," Dauntless's voice cracked over the speaker, "I think he can't use the fog or slime stuff while he's packed up inside. Now might be the chance to break him down!"

"Roger that, Dauntless. Vista, give Miss Militia a platform and a sightline!"

Vista refocused her efforts, lowering a building to meet the ground, and raising it higher than it was before when Militia stepped on. The air seemed to bend as a large cone of space narrowed down into a cylinder in front of her.

[okay that power is some serious bullshit right there]

While they were doing this, a number of tracks vanished in flashes of light, revealing one single track leading directly to Armsmaster. Before he could react, what looked like a car beaten into the shape of a ramp rocketed toward him. Armsmaster was struck by the bright blue side in front, before Skidmark's power dragged him to the dark violet side across the top, launching him into the air.

[oh holy shit what]
[[Salvage] i need to trade you hosts now]

[i would agree]
[if that were physically possible]

The villain followed this up by hurling a thick clump of sludge, and Armsmaster could only watch helplessly as it approached, unable to dodge in midair.

"Puppy, go!" Assault shouted for his wife, who released her charge and crashed into him. Assault used her impact to launch himself into Armsmaster, bringing them both to the ground before they could be hit.

"Thank you." Armsmaster helped him up.

"I think we're winning," Assault said, "if we can get him out of this mess first."

[if being the operative term there]

Vista continued funneling space above them, trying to convert everything into a single line of fire. More flashes went off behind the villain as it stepped off, taking the sled off its back.

[why would you do that you were doing so well]
[[Salvage] your host is an idiot and i want a refund]

[you didn't pay me anything]
[unless you're talking about the agony of existing thing]

[no you can keep that]

Dauntless took that chance to step out from behind a building, his lance extending to slash the villain at its fingers, where its mass was thinner. The sled dropped to the ground, before shooting through a store window and skimming off the walls inside. Dauntless flew back before it could retaliate, and Vista compressed the cone she'd created into a narrow lens, short enough for Miss Militia to fire a flamethrower through.

Entire clusters of zombies detached from its mass as they burned, and it grabbed fistfuls of them to toss back through the lens before Vista extended it again. Miss Militia changed her flamethrower to a sniper rifle, firing a bullet through the skull in the center, but to no visible effect.

[does he even have a brain or is she just wasting bullets]

[not really]
[it's just an abstract data network]

"Vista, contain it! Assault, Battery, take the squads and foam those corpses!"

Armsmaster retrieved his cable and grapple where they fell, switching it back for his spare halberd blade, before running in to the fray.

[any advice on getting my host to join the wards because i'm really digging this action hero bit they got going on]

[didn't one of them make your host trigger]

[yeah what's your point]

{-A certain researcher, in the PRT Headquarters-}

Marshall Jones read over his notes on the girl's power, his face a tangled mess of confusion and frustration. Details on visions, thoughts, hallucinations, sunspots, auras, and a brief rant of the approximate thickness of a unicorn's horn all somehow tying in to what was very nearly the most abhorrently complicated control mechanism he'd ever seen.

The only reason he hadn't tossed it out as bullshit by now was because he'd seen one worse, before: Marshal Jones was the man who'd originally examined Glastig Uaine's powers, before she decided to go villain. Compared to that, this was sane. But only slightly.

"-but I think that only counts when I'm thinking of chess? At least, that's the feeling I'm getting, here. Kind of hard to tell since I don't get any feedback from it at all. Oh dear, it found the vending machine."

Doctor Jones crumpled up another paper and tossed it at the now-overflowing wastebin.

It was generally accepted that parahumans had an intuitive understanding of how their power worked, and the common practice was to take them at their word. It was his personal theory that this intuition was what drove Glastig insane, in the end. Going by that, the prognosis for this girl looked pretty bleak.

{-Miss Militia-}

Vista had seized complete control of the airspace by now, and was bending reality to keep the monster in sight even as he tried to lumber behind a building. Hannah took aim with a rocket launcher, waiting for Armsmaster and Dauntless to clear out the minions between each round.

[no really that power is such ridiculous bullshit]

They were wearing it down. It was only as large as a truck now, if you didn't count the arms. Patches of slime were poking through, and Dauntless struck at them from range when he could between dealing with the defiled corpses.

"Bring me in, Vista," she said, who heard her through the compressed space between them. The scene in front of Hannah magnified while she reformed her power into a flamethrower, burning the abomination from behind. The world zoomed out again before it could strike back, and she tried to ignore the sickening lurch in her stomach as everything seemed to twist at impossible angles.

[the only reason any of this is could happen is because the last thing that went through the companion's mind was her own butt when she crashed]

This one had started out strong, killing hundreds before they could stop it. But once separated from its stolen victims, it stopped being a threat. As long as they didn't let it control the flow of battle, it wasn't strong enough in any one area to fight them.

The Brockton Bay Protectorate was stronger than most. Not as powerful as the groups under the likes of Alexandria or Legend, but more so than many others. That they were overshadowed by even more powerful gangs did not change that fact.

This monster didn't have a gang. It had slaves, and it had itself. It lost the one advantage it had the moment it came out of hiding.

"Medium range." The world compressed again, and Miss Militia waited until the corpses were subdued before sending a rocket into the beast's skulls. It staggered back and toppled into a wall, no longer heavy enough to simply absorb the explosions.

[and the entity won't do anything about it because he has a half baked simulator running and forgot to turn it off]
[mine's better by the way]

[define better]

It was oozing onto the ground, no longer whole enough to stay in one shape. Assault and Battery stepped in to hold off the undead while Dauntless and Armsmaster struck at the thing's core with solid lightning and electrified wires from a safe range. Vista refocused the sky to give Hannah a clear shot, and she subjected it to a wave of fire.

Faster than it should have, it gathered itself and lunged at the bent space. Vista tried to extend it, but the thing's mass was in the way. Hannah reacted immediately, rolling off the building before it could engulf her, and Vista extended the space behind her so she had time to run. She saw Dauntless flying into the air after it before she stepped onto one of the painted strips, which vanished in a flash of light shortly after.

[wow this guy just does not quit]

"Don't let it escape!" Armsmaster's voice rang out over her earbud, and she rolled out of the way again before it crashed into the ground where she had been a moment ago. It squealed like a fat pig as Dauntless skewered it with a twenty-foot lance.

It's shrinking! It was only six feet across now, and Hannah backed off while covering her retreat with more fire. "Surround it with foam! Trap it in!" She shouted to the troopers behind her. A wall of quickly solidifying foam built up around it as three troopers hosed the ground, while another three armed incendiary grenades to throw over once it was penned.

"Militia, up!" Vista's voice shouted from behind her, and Hannah looked up to see the sky bent to show the villain from above. She pointed her flamethrower and sent fire through the warp, while Dauntless and Armsmaster stabbed upwards simultaneously. A horrid gurgling came from the foam prison as fire and lightning crackled over its form.

[so much bullshit]

[could you stop]
[i'm kind of enjoying this now]

The thing finally dissolved into a rank ichor leaving only Skidmark's corpse behind. The group knew better than to celebrate early, and troopers immediately swept out to clear the area while the Protectorate advanced on Skidmark's prone form.

The body's head turned to the side, and uttered a single, drawn-out word.

"-ffuuuuuucck."

[and that's a wrap]
[thanks for the data [Salvage] couldn't have done it without you]

[wait]
[you were just using me for data]
[because your host won't fight]

[you mean you couldn't tell]

[how could you]

[just because i have feelings doesn't mean i have to have empathy too]
[we're still shards you know]
[or did you really think you were a human now]

Miss Militia scanned the area, and saw that, yes, all of the zombies were still moving. Trapped under foam, but refusing to die.

There was no more room in the Headquarters or the Rig for more bodies. The prisons were all full. The containment foam would degrade on its own if left alone for too long. What were they going to do with all of them?

"Hey, what's that?" Assault spoke up, pointing at Skidmark.

No, pointing at something near Skidmark, she realized a moment later. Something small and dark, like a shadow or a wisp of smoke, flickered above the ground a foot or so away.

[my host is still alive]

[dude that's a proxy your host has been dead for two days now]

[what do you mean]

[i mean you linked to a proxy]
[how did you think i've been talking to you all this time]

[how]
[why]
[but then how do i get a new host]

[you don't obviously]
[check and mate [Salvage]]

=====

[A/N: Good freaking lord this chapter was huge. I mean yikes. Sorry if I miss any typos or anything, but I have to go to class now.]

ninjafish · May 2, 2018

Wow QA's kind of dumb.

Doesn't really get humans does she?

Come to think of it that's probably why she cant understand how her power is doing what it does.

Martenzo · May 3, 2018

unsanity said:
[i'm hammering the conflict drive right now why isn't this working]

[wait a minute]
[the power i gave you to ignore human minds thinks i'm a human]
[oh wow i'm a dumbass]

This was probably the best part. And I have a feeling QA is going to try and escalate to get past that. Or have other interesting ideas when it realizes stuff isn't as limited as it thought they were.

Regency · May 3, 2018

Did Salvage shard gain a sort of morality when it (they?) got 'infected' by sapience? Whoa

unsanity · May 3, 2018

Regency said:
Did Salvage shard gain a sort of morality when it (they?) got 'infected' by sapience? Whoa

Something like that. It's identifying a little too closely with humans, or at least moreso than QA does.

unsanity · May 3, 2018

[A/N: This one will be really difficult to explain in-story without looking too forced, so just in case it comes out too confusing I'm putting it here so people can better understand what's going on. For the sake of clarity, I'll be referring to everything by their Dark Souls names, so:

Humanity = a 'proxy' (can also be "humanity sprite", or just "sprite")
Undead = a zombie (or a "hollow", if it's an undead that lost too much of their humanity)
Hollowing = The process by which an undead slowly loses their mind as they lose their humanity

All good? Alright, let's do this thing.]

=====

The Mechanics of Undeath

In their natural state, humanity sprites are blank slates. That is to say, while they simulate a human mind accurately enough to fool shards into thinking they're people, they don't have enough to be any specific person or to have a personality of their own. This changes when they attach to a still-living person, and they begin to copy that person's memories, mannerisms, and personality traits over a process of days.

When the person's life ends and they hit brain death, the sprite takes control of the body; this is because the sprite itself doesn't die, and anything that happens to the body won't do much to it. By this point, the sprite typically thinks it's that person, and will very much act like it.

Sprites have the ability to mass together, sharing information to act as a singular entity (this was part of QA's original design, to let Taylor control her "doom fog" before everything went screwy). When a sprite that thinks it's a person picks up another sprite, they join together and the personality is shared between them. If the person then loses that sprite, they basically lose half their mind. If they pick up eight more sprites after that (for nine total), and then lose one, they'll then lose one ninth of what's left of their mind. In this way, having lots and lots of humanity acts as a buffer against losing your humanity.

Furthermore, a humanity sprite will divide into two every three days. When this happens, the simulation is shared between them; nothing new is gained, and nothing is lost. Losing one (or more) after this would be the same as in the above paragraph, where the amount of that simulation lost is equal to the percentage of sprites lost vs the total.

If the person picks up a sprite that isn't a blank slate (as in, it came from another person, or Taylor did a thing to it), then that information is added to the simulation. If this happens to a person too much, they'll probably start to have a bit of identity confusion, depending on how much was taken. This follows the rules outlined above, except with two people involved:

1) the first person has X number of sprites, and loses one; the percentage of their mind in that sprite will depend on how many sprites they had before losing it
2) the person who picks it up gets that percentage of the first person's mind along with it

For this reason, it's usually better for an undead to collect blank humanity, but when it comes down to it any given individual would rather have a mind than no mind at all.

-

Taylor's Power

How does Taylor's power factor into this? When she puts an emotion+context into a sprite, it's there forever. Any person who picks up a sprite she imbued will get that emotion+context with it. This doesn't necessarily force them to act in that way, but it can influence their behavior from that moment on. At least, until they "get lucky" and happen to lose that specific bit of information when they lose some humanity.

In Taylor's case, the power she has to produce one sprite every three hours is producing blank sprites: they aren't attached to her, and losing them doesn't in and of itself take anything away from her. Taylor's own mind is "quarantined", so to speak, by her Secondary Power:Seal, and the humanity produced by her power remains separate from herself. Additionally, this secondary power will also prevent any humanity she picks up from attaching itself to her.

=====

[A/N: I may clarify this post more later, depending on how well I can do it within the actual story. In truth, these informational posts only exist because I'm having a hard time making it all clear without disrupting the story itself, but you know.]

Argidoll · May 3, 2018

Wait, how does someone lose humanity, exactly?

unsanity · May 3, 2018

Argidoll said:
Wait, how does someone lose humanity, exactly?

That's the question, isn't it? I haven't answered it, but if I can't manage to sufficiently clear it up in the next arc I'll just go ahead and say it outright.

Though, if this fic were entirely set in Dark Souls, then the answer would be "by dying" or "when someone else takes it from you". Given the nature of this fic, it's pretty safe to assume that what's true in Dark Souls either is true here, or will eventually become true.

unsanity · May 3, 2018

[A/N: Welp, now that the apocalypse is cancelled, looks like we'll have to- wait, what's that? The zombies are still around, you say? How very mysterious, I wonder who's making them all?

PRT, I'd like to introduce you to Jack, Diddly, and Squat. You don't know them.]

=====

Chapter Fifteen
Debriefing in Brief

The PRT eventually decided to go with the helicopter plan, and I got to ride in a helicopter. It was nice, if a little loud. Also, they quarantined the entire city block around my ice vine, after it got spikier than usual when they took dad and myself out of there. They're hoping it melts by tomorrow, but knowing my luck that would just end up making everything worse somehow.

Unfortunately, the zombie apocalypse missed Winslow, so school was still on for Monday. I was too worn out to be anything other than apathetic about that, but maybe I could muster up the appropriate amounts of indignancy in the morning. We'll see.

[ugh that entire thing was a catastrophic failure]
[even if they didn't kill you i was hoping they'd at least get your school so you'd have nothing better to do than fight people]
[why do you even need education when your powers have powers though]

"You told me everything was better. How long?"

Dad isn't taking the parahuman thing too well. He was a little too perceptive to fall for the 'triggered just then' bit that got Velocity, and apparently he'd been doing some research when he first started thinking I was a parahuman.

[i tried to tell you]
[i said just tell him already i'm not here for no soap dramas]
[granted i'm just talking to myself here but you know]

I didn't want to answer.

"At the dock. With Emma. I was trying to get away from the cape fight that broke out, and she was there."

I did anyways. It was better than him getting the wrong idea.

"That was you? It was in the papers, but they said someone fell in."

Not that the right idea was much better. It had been a pretty shitty prank, all things considered.

[i'm legitimately surprised you haven't set them on fire yet]
[turnabout is fair play i guess but i would think you'd have focused on the murder attempt over the pariah thing]
[just saying]

"Well, I'm still here, so I guess not." I figured the fact that I was visibly alive was pretty self-evident, but you never know sometimes.

"Oh, Taylor," he said, holding me closer on the couch.

"I'm fine. It was weeks ago." I wasn't fine, and it hadn't even been five weeks ago. It wasn't a good memory, but I had nowhere to put it. I wasn't going to give it to dad, and I was all out of-

[i can fix that]

Oh. Okay, so I had one spark now.

[do it do it do it]

"Hey dad, want to see something cool?"

[yesyesyesyesyes]

He pulled back a bit, eyes wide. "Are we talking freeze the house cool? Because I'd like to keep the house a little longer."

[no you don't it's just wood]
[do it host do the thing]

"No, I- okay, I actually have no idea what would happen." There was a difference between knowing how to use your powers, and knowing what would happen when you did use your powers. I'd become something of an expert in knowing that difference, since I triggered.

[no]
[no no no no you were so close]
[why is this my life]

"Well, you know what Velocity said. We could always take you there for testing. Maybe clear up that control issue you were talking about."

I hadn't told dad the truth about that, after. Didn't need both of us worried about losing myself to my powers. I wouldn't mind losing a few specific things, though. It take a few uses, but maybe I'd be better off without... certain memories. Like Emma. Or my trigger event.

"Can we go tomorrow?" I asked, my voice betraying a hopeful note.

[what is hope]
[does it hurt people]

"Of course, little owl. We can go tomorrow," he said, pulling me into one last hug.

"Can we go in the morning? After breakfast, I mean." Slightly more hopeful, this time.

"... You're trying to get out of school, aren't you."

[i'm a singularity of questionable morality and bad decisions and even i think that place is a shithole]

"But dad, there were zombies! Actual zombies! And then a zombie made of zombies, who made zombies! They broke houses!"

[yeah that was pretty cool]
[we should do that again sometime]

My plaintive tears were wasted on his cold, black heart.

"Sorry kiddo, you don't get to play the zombie card after you turn them into confetti."

Stupid useless powers.

[you just got done recreating the ninth circle of hell not two hours ago]
[what even are your standards holy shit]

{-At the PRT Headquarters-}

The Protectorate had commandeered one of the conference rooms, along with Vista. A recording of the fight - from Armsmaster's helmet cam - played on the overhead projector, paused at the point where the as-yet unidentified Merchant villain was reduced to so much clingy goo.

Nobody was watching the projection. On the conference table rested a Tinker-designed containment device: a stoppered glass tube, inside a larger glass cylinder, the top and bottom ends capped by wheel-shaped metal lids complete with spokes. The caps ensured the space between the tube and the cylinder was a vacuum, and would attempt to electrocute the contents if that vacuum was ever breached. The cylinder itself was made of hardened glass, and treated on the inside and outside with a chemical designed to resist acidic attacks of the type seen during their most recent fight.

Inside the cylinder, inside the vacuum, inside a stoppered test tube, a wisp of shadow floated, flickering like a tiny flame.

[hi guys]

Skidmark's lair had been easy enough to find, by following the trail of destruction. But the trail didn't start there; it lead further back to a graveyard in the lower city, originating in the grave of one Charles Grant, a known dealer for the Merchants.

Until he'd been found dead in an alleyway two days ago, his head reduced to blackened cinders. Analysis of the corpse suggested it hadn't been a fast process, either: It could have taken as long as two hours before the effect reached his brain. Even then, humans could survive a surprising amount of brain damage.

[so um]
[any of you want to be nice]
[and maybe let me out of here]

Of all the bodies they'd collected today, Charles Grant's wasn't among them.

Assault was the first to speak.

"Those Merchants in the M/S cells. And Shadow Stalker. It's the same thing, isn't it?"

They all were thinking it, but no one wanted to be the one to acknowledge it.

[i'd really appreciate it]

Throughout it all, Vista stood with her back to a corner, rubbing the goosebumps off her arms. She remembered the girl on the bridge, and how her ice had felt just like the black slime to her power. But it was different, right? She was fighting them, and protecting those people. Mostly. Wasn't that what mattered?

She didn't say anything, keeping her own counsel. I'll try to meet with that girl later. Maybe her power is just weird, and she's not really that bad. Velocity said she seemed nice.

[please don't give me the silent treatment]
[i know you don't have feelings to hurt]
[but let me tell you it isn't pleasant]

Despite it all, she hoped the girl did decide to join the Wards. Someone that strong could probably keep Sophia in line, easily. Even if Gallant was scared shitless of her. Anyone Gallant couldn't handle, could probably handle themselves just fine. They wouldn't be standing in a corner, scared of a shadow. They'd probably cut the shadow up just like those zombies.

Vista shuddered again. She could almost feel the cold on her skin, still.

Maybe from a safe distance. That thing was freezing.

[come on please]
[hey [Navigator] i'll be your best friend]

[Negation]

[why me]

{-Gallant-}

Gallant and two PRT guards stood outside a containment cell in the Headquarters. Specifically, the one holding Shadow Stalker.

She was healthy when she first got back, after her encounter with that villain. She mentioned his attacks could still hit her in her shadow form, but they hadn't made the connection right then. She'd been hit, and they didn't learn about the poison until later.

When they returned to check up on her after the fight, her condition had deteriorated, and her body defaulted into her shadow form to keep her alive. They couldn't move her from the floor, couldn't do anything except watch as she slowly died. They didn't know how long it would take.

Dean hoped for her sake that she died, but he was more afraid she wouldn't. Even through her Breaker state, he could still see the tiny seed of hate writhing within her, its tendrils extending throughout her entire body.

Emma Barnes clung to him, wracking with sobs, tears and snot smearing his armor. Her father stood behind them, and one didn't need Gallant's power to know he was holding back his own tears. Sophia's family was there as well, minus the father, who was speaking to Armsmaster a short ways down the hall.

Normally they wouldn't be allowed this far in, but given the current inability to move Shadow Stalker to somewhere more suitable, or even to give her medical treatment, Piggot made an exception this once.

She might not have been the nicest person, but nobody deserved this. Dean only hoped it wouldn't take too long.

[<( :_rangehumanself.impactemotion-arearange/active)>]

=====

[A/N: When I first started this, I was kinda wanting to end Arc Two on a happier note. But... yeah. There were a few details I forgot about. Oops? Sorry, Shadow Stalker. If it's any consolation, you'd make a pretty badass zombie. Though knowing how this fic is going, dying might be the least of your concerns.

Next chapter is the End of Arc Two, where something of significance happens. And, no, I seriously couldn't think of a better name for [Space]. I tried, but I failed.]

[Edit: [Space] has been renamed to [Navigator]. Thanks, AtomicStryker!]

Moxas · May 3, 2018

Shadow stalker's suffering is just beginning *prepares the bonfire*

Slayer Anderson · May 3, 2018

unsanity said:
[A/N: When I first started this, I was kinda wanting to end Arc Two on a happier note. But... yeah. There were a few details I forgot about. Oops? Sorry, Shadow Stalker. If it's any consolation, you'd make a pretty badass zombie. Though knowing how this fic is going, dying might be the least of your concerns.

What do you mean? Shadow Stalker dying slowly and painfully is plenty happy!

I mean, serious, I'm rejoicing at the thought of not having to deal with her anymore! And in a way which perfectly and plausibly denies Taylor any responsibility!

unsanity · May 3, 2018

Slayer Anderson said:
What do you mean? Shadow Stalker dying slowly and painfully is plenty happy!

I mean, serious, I'm rejoicing at the thought of not having to deal with her anymore! And in a way which perfectly and plausibly denies Taylor any responsibility!

Oh no, you misunderstand. I wasn't saying it was a sad ending because she's dying. I'm saying it's a sad ending because she can't die.

Slayer Anderson · May 3, 2018

unsanity said:
Oh no, you misunderstand. I wasn't saying it was a sad ending because she's dying. I'm saying it's a sad ending because she can't die.

unsanity said:
[what is hope]
[does it hurt people]

This. This is what I feel like now.

Oh well, I suppose I'll have to be satisfied with eternal suffering.

Winged One · May 3, 2018

unsanity said:
[what is hope]
[does it hurt people]

...yes. Yes it does.

Moxas · May 3, 2018

Shadow Stalker as the Chosen Undead, discuss build

What Doesn't Die, Rots [Worm/Dark Souls Gradual Fusion AU]

(Verified Snake)

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Best Demon

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Best Demon

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oH mE, Oh My,

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oH mE, Oh My,

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oH mE, Oh My,

PFP by vanathema (previously yubishines)

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And hast thou slain the Jabberwocky?

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Not the Simurgh