Technomancer

To make it clear: All rights to characters, setting, story and central concepts in this story remain the property of Wildbow, Worm's author. This is just me playing in the sandbox. Worm can be found at parahumans dot wordpress dot com.

Trouble

October 15th, 1987, Thursday

I was on my way to school when I experienced a moment of consciousness-dimming vertigo. When I regained my senses I was standing on a street outside a white house with a broken second-floor window. Under the broken window on the ground was a body lying in a pool of blood. Blood was spattered everywhere. Two men were standing over the body.

"Bastard!" One of them shouted kicking the body. "Prick!"

"Jacob. We have company," the other man said.

My blood ran cold. Jacob, standing over a body? Fuck me, that's Jack Slash just after he and Harbinger killed King. I was so screwed.

Jacob turned, raising the blade in his hand. I ducked, afraid he was going to slice me.

"Ah, an audience! So who might you be?"

I slowly stood back up. "I'm… My name is Tom. Thomas Rue."

"Jacob, he just appeared out of thin air. He's either a cape or was sent here by one."

"Well, Tom. My friend Harbinger here tells me that you are special. Just how special are you?"

I was beginning to suspect which one of the CYOAs this little joyride was based on. This day was going to suck so much. "I'm not… I just… I have no idea how I ended up here. I was on my way to university when I nearly lost my consciousness and came to my senses here." I didn't have to fake the fear and nervousness I showed.

King's body was slashed almost to pieces, his guts spilled on the ground. Neither Harbinger nor Jack, no, Jacob, had injuries of any kind. The blood they were splattered with had to be King's. With his abilities not allowing him to touch either of them was probably wise.

Jacob saw me glancing at the body. "My masterwork, you understand. Now that I've got a taste of regicide I might have to take it up as a hobby."

"Jacob, please. We should just kill him and be on our way," Harbinger said.

I felt the blood drain from my face.

"Now, now. It might be a good thing to leave a witness. Who'd believe us otherwise? Or perhaps we could tell the others that it was him who killed King."

"They won't believe us. That a nobody like him could best King."

"We could buff him up. See if we can bring out the best in him."

Harbinger was silent for a while. "The likelihood is negligible but we have at least a day. We could try it."

Jacob was nodding. "And if it doesn't work out, we can always own up to it. Begin to make a name for ourselves."

"We have names."

"A reputation. Don't tell me you don't feel like there is something bigger, something better. You call yourself Harbinger. That's all about the things to come."

I listened with interest and dawning horror. The dialogue had resumed canon and I didn't like Jack's obvious intent to torture me into triggering. On the other hand, I didn't really see a way out. Harbinger was way out of my league, perhaps even worse than Jack but at least he'd just kill me. I theoretically had an edge on Jack because I didn't have a shard yet.

"His name for me, not mine," Harbinger said.

"But don't you feel it? Something bigger? The rush?"

"Yes."

"Forget the stupid names and spandex. Tell me your heart isn't pounding, that you've never felt more alive than this."

Harbinger shook his head.

"We can live this. Together. Every waking second…"

"Jacob."

"Jack," Jacob said. He kicked King's body again. "Fuck it. He always called me Jacob, practically purring. His little killer in training. As if I could match up to his Gray Boy. I want to be more than that. Get out from under his shadow."

"Okay… Jack."

"If it's a farce, a joke, let's run with it. We take simple names, dumb names, and we make people quake in their shoes at the sound. Jack… Slash."

"I'm… no. I won't."

Jack wheeled on him, knife in hand.

"You want to fight?" Jack asked. The smile had dropped from his face.

The look in his eyes… hungry.

"No. That's just it. I don't want to keep doing this."

"You said it yourself. You feel the rush, like you're on the cusp of something greater."

"I do feel it, but I think I can get there by walking a different road," Harbinger said.

I could see the disappointment on Jack's face. See the way Jack's knuckles whitened as he tightened his grip on the blade. I knew that Harbinger was prepared to defend himself. If only I could leverage this moment… I kicked a stone towards Jack, hoping to distract him and for Harbinger to make a move.

Jack turned and cut me across both my thighs. I screamed and fell. Harbinger took the opportunity to run. Jack slashed a few time in his general direction, not making much of an effort. Harbinger was gone.

"Now why did you go and do that, eh?" Jack asked me. He walked next to me and kicked me in the head before I could answer.

I blearily opened my eyes. I was in what appeared to be a child's bedroom. Posters were taped on the walls, there was a small dressing table with a mirror decorated with stickers. Probably a girl then. My hands and feet were bound and I was propped up against the wall under a window.

"Back in the land of the living, I see," Jack said. He was sitting on the bed, idly flicking his razor open and closed.

"Where are we?" I said.

"Does it matter? We're here to see if you have potential. If you're special."

"Where's the girl… the family that lived here?"

"Oh, they're gone. Don't worry, it was quick and relatively painless. Now let's see what it takes for you to break."

Holy crap that hurt. It was rather easier than I was believed for it to be but perhaps that was because my shard came from the third entity. Still, not fun. Better than what had preceded it but not fun. I could see Jack still out of it and took the opportunity to materialize a Glock 17. I took aim and shot only to see Jack roll off the bed, completely avoiding the bullet. Guessing what was to come I cocooned myself in three inches of bulletproof glass.

Jack rose up from behind the bed and slashed down at me. I could see him screaming and frothing while shallow cuts began to criss-cross the glass. After a couple of minutes, Jack seemed to get bored and left.

Once he was outside the room I dismissed my protective cocoon of glass and crossed the room to raise a similar barrier across the doorway. Then I turned back to the window to see if Jack would leave that way. I heard a door being slammed downstairs but I didn't see him leave. I waited for an hour before sighing.

I began to check how badly off I was. A bit woozy, probably from blood loss. Bleeding still from a couple of deeper cuts. Designs for several different ways to patch myself up with nanites came to mind immediately but I decided not to chance anything exotic in my current state. Instead, I created a standard medical staple gun and closed the wounds I could reach. Then I materialized a blood infusion kit filled with my own blood. Another awesome benefit of being a nurse in my other life.

The materialized matter was temporary in the sense that I had a mass limit and I could dismiss it whenever I wanted. I just had to wait for my blood to replenish naturally before dismissing the blood I had created.

I had a feeling that I didn't have much time before Jack returned with his friends. I would rather not meet them before being prepared. I laid back for a while and pondered while waiting for the infusion to finish.

I let my mind go through some nanomachine designs, thought about what was going to happen, and tried desperately to avoid thinking about what had happened. Picking that 'worst day ever' twice when filling out that CYOA was probably the stupidest thing I had done, ever. I do not recommend it. I shuddered to think what taking it thrice would have done if two was being tortured by Jack Slash until I triggered.

The infusion was done and I prepared to leave. I created a cloud of foglets around me and a neural interface helmet to control them. I also materialized a suit utilizing carbon nanostructures and nanoservos to act as an additional protection. I liked my Tinker specialization. Probably why I had picked it. I can recommend picking Infinite Treasury for any Tinker if you're planning on filling out a CYOA. Version 5 Gimel, to be exact.

Thus prepared I dismissed the infusion kit and the bulletproof glass covering the doorway. I walked out, trying to avoid seeing the slaughtered family downstairs. It was a glorious Friday morning and I had survived my first day in Wormverse.

I was going to crush canon so hard you couldn't see the remains with a scanning tunneling microscope.