Disclaimer: Don't own Worm or assorted referenced intellectual properties. They belong to Wildbow and their respective creators respectively!
AN: This is just the first something of some Worm one-shots I'll be doing for a story I keep planning to write, but constantly end up putting off because edits pop out at me again and again every time I sit down to write.
So eventually, I just decided "frick it" let's get something out there. See what people think.
This is marked as a multi X-Over for its intended AU nature, filled with quite a few Capes with powers and personalities based on characters from other series' besides Worm.
The Gosunkugi here, for example is based off of that one crazy, voodoo creeper in Ranma 1/2 that messes with magic when he really really shouldn't. Don't know how similar this rendition is to the original, because out of all the Ranma characters I know the least about that guy's actual personality, so he may feel flat. Other recognizable power offshoots will include Gaster from Undertale and Yandere-chan from Yandere Simulator. The main focus of the One-Shot, however, is more recognizable for his hybrid powers, and is simply an OC in personality, though not the primary one of the story.
Foundation: 0.?
It was pretty windy up on the roof of a six story office building.
It was also more than a little chilly up here, due to a combination of said wind and the lingering cold of late winter in the air.
He wondered if perhaps this hadn't been the best of ideas.
Eh, nothing had gone wrong yet.
Famous last words, those...
But he'd be totally fine!
Gary ("Call me Gar'!") Callahan stood atop the building right up at the edge with a pair of binoculars, not that he particularly needed them, but it was best to be certain.
As previously could be ascertained, the scrappy, redhead wasn't overly fond of his name. Who the hell even names their kid 'Gary' these days anyway?! His parents did apparently… Yeesh, that's like setting your kid up to be a lifetime thug!
The wind today was blowing in just a particular way that an unluckier idiot might have been shoved off balance and plummeted to their inevitably messy demise.
Gar' Callahan wasn't most idiots.
He was a special breed.
He'd decided to go out heroing without a mask today, in a bright-red, eye-catching, leather jacket, and carrying a similarly bright-red spear with a jagged, wicked-looking, barbed head and engraved with a plethora of arcane-looking, black lines.
And no, he wasn't particularly keen on suicide by Cape today. That was why he was standing so high up, where only a particularly paranoid nut with binoculars on hand would be able to see him. It was pure genius...
Ingenius, at least, anyway.
It wasn't like he was outright flaunting his secret identity or anything, being as high up as he was; he just wasn't going out of his way to conceal it. Gar' rather despised masks and the disassociation from one's actions and true self they could bring, despised how people could hide behind their alter egos to try and excuse their misdeeds in costume.
Along the same vein, he was of the opinion that he personally had nothing to hide. New Wave had nothing to hide, and they were getting along just fine without masks… aside from that one slip-up with Fleur and ignoring the collective damage toll racked up by 'Collateral Damage Barbie', Glory Girl, but that wasn't the point.
Why should he have anything to hide, when he was fairly certain anyone short of the ABB and E88 leaders wouldn't be able to beat him.
He wasn't suicidal.
Really.
He just had a different personal definition of a hero.
Besides which, he'd see just about any brightly-dressed, villainous Cape long before they saw him from his perch -excepting someone like Oni-Lee, and with his power, they wouldn't be reporting his presence back anywhere… ever. Even if they saw him.
He was baiting them was what he was doing.
He was Villain baiting.
And, really, wasn't that a novel idea? If Villains were too busy coming after poor, supposedly solitary and vulnerable him in his civvies, then they wouldn't be spending time going after other people and he'd get to kick their asses, when they inevitably failed miserably to off him... so long as the "they" in question wasn't a monster like Lung, anyway. Besides that, it was a win-win as far as he was concerned.
Again, not suicidal.
Just an idiot.
Gar' had decided long back that he rather admired New Wave's courage and gall, spitting in the face of tradition and being real, public heroes without all the complicated shit involved with a secret identity.
He wanted that too.
He wanted to be able to hero when he wanted how he wanted -and damn the consequences. He wanted the fame and recognition, and he wanted it to follow him in both his Cape and civilian life.
Anyways, back to the Villain baiting.
Gar was fairly sure he could fight and win against any Villain in Brockton Bay short of Lung or Kaiser… or that immortal bastard, Alabaster. Seriously, Grey-Boy-ing his body back to perfect every few seconds was so bullshit, and that was coming from him, even considering his own powers.
It wasn't even bragging.
When he'd gotten the long-lost love-child of Type-Moon's Archer and Lancer for a power, Gary had been ecstatic.
He could summon and launch countless numbers of blood-red spears, with precision guided by a Thinker power that let him designate targets that his spears would chase to the ends of the earth on point and without fail.
Well, it wasn't that awesome, but it was close enough.
For one thing, he was limited to a total of 200 summoned spears. That was why he didn't want to fight Kaiser, who could win at the numbers game any day with his steel forest impression.
For another, each spear only had a striking force of what he estimated was Brute-3 and then exploded with the force of a Blaster-3, unless he purposefully kept them from detonating. He could make a single, stronger spear that's striking force went up at about 1 Brute rating per 15 spears fused into it. This, of course, left him fewer weapons to fire and a single weapon that was only good for close-combat and would still not be enough for a powerhouse like Lung, unless he was willing to allocate every spear into a single one-shot attack, which would take a solid two minutes of battle easily for him to create, all while avoiding being set on fire and maimed, and would likely blow the immediate area and himself to nothing along with Lung in its explosion.
Currently, he was carrying a Brute-6 spear made of 46 allocated spears. Behind him, he had three spears planted in the roof: one more Brute-6 spear, and a Brute-5 spear for a total of 123 allocated spears -along with a single Brute-7 spear made up of 61 spears, which left him a mere 16 Brute-3 spears left to summon in an emergency.
After all, the most important thing to note was that once a spear exploded, it took a full minute to regenerate, so there was a risk to crafting allocated spears, because those weapons would take the same full number of minutes as their allocated mass to regenerate at all, which meant he'd only get the allocated spears back nearly a full hour later, but about half that time less if he simply dissipated them without an explosion.
It was almost like he had an actual mana capacity or something.
He was like the Faker of The Faker...
Eh.
It was fun to dream, anyway.
That was his set up, those four spears. And now it was time to do as Archer would… and snipe the hell out of every criminal he could see.
Honestly, he was having far more luck today than usual, despite it being the late afternoon.
He'd chosen this time of day, because of the misconception that most young idiot newbies to heroing had in regards to the times crime was available to stop. Namely, most of them chose to go on their first 'patrol' of sorts in the middle of the night, looking to stop a mugging or two... or even a Villain. It was like they didn't consider that Villains and criminals needed sleep too. Honestly, crimes did happen at night -plenty of them, but the experienced Hero knew to stick to the afternoon; it was like criminal high-noon. This transition time between the end of school hours and midnight was a veritable Cape prime-time.
Also, this was Brockton Bay; only the idiots or the desperate went out at night any more, and the average lazy criminal generally wasn't going to sacrifice their own beauty sleep for a few bucks. Far more muggings happened during the daytime, so he was better off with his current strategy anyway:
Sniping criminals, where he could see near directly into alleys from above.
This had served him well over the past week, where he'd trek out to a different part of the city and create a few 'charged' spears of levels depending on what he could see from high up. He'd then spend the afternoon for the next two hours sniping crime of all colors with vicious warning shots, that sent muggers and would-be rapists limping back home to whatever dump they came from, and changing rooftops, when he thought he was spotted. So far, it was working out very well; he'd even managed to halt a car chase in its tracks the other day by pinning the vehicle fleeing from the cops to the road by its engine.
So why did he need four whole anti-Brute charged spears today?
Capes.
He was looking at five of them.
Four city blocks -over a thousand feet- away and below, the Protectorate Wards, Aegis and Gallant, were locked in heated combat with Empire 88 Capes, Cricket, Stormtiger, and Hookwolf.
Safe place to train their powers, my ass, he scoffed, wincing a little, as one of Stormtiger's wind blades liberated the rust-red, armored Aegis of his legs below the knees. The flier flailed a little but recovered admirably and threw himself into a reckless, full-body slam, barreling through Stormtiger's attempted wind gale defense and shoulder-checking him into the pavement, where he proceeded to beat the Villain's skull into the ground with a brutal barrage, before being intercepted by a half-transformed Hookwolf with a running tackle.
The two Capes proceeded to lay into each-other with shocking brutality, spraying blood, bone, and metal everywhere they rampaged, rolling over each other on the ground.
Meanwhile, Gallant was having a far less impressive time of it, the silver-armored, emotion-influencing knight, having his ass handily handed to him on a veritably silver platter by the brutal pit-fighter that was the cage-masked Cricket, whose disrupting of the Ward's equilibrium via her sound-waves saw the normally skilled fighter flailing about uselessly, as Cricket tripped and hurled him about with abandon -though her own blades were apparently unable to pierce his armor, dodging any emotion blasts he tried desperately to hit her with.
Case in point, Cricket had just ducked under a swing from Gallant, hooked an arm under his own and hefted him over her shoulder to slam head-first into the pavement. The ring was so loud, Gar' thought he might have actually heard the echoes from his perch. Maybe Cricket was amplifying the noise for some reason, making it louder inside Gallent's helmet or something of the like perhaps?
Aegis had honestly had his fight in the bag if not for Hookwolf's interference. Three on one sure wasn't too fair in the Cape world -or anytime really, especially considering the three were fully-grown adults, and they were fighting kids, albeit ones on the older end of the spectrum...
Time to even the odds.
As he hefted the surprisingly light, pike-like, red Brute-6 spear in his hand to a position over his shoulder, Gary mused that the Wards really should have received backup by now. After all, it had only been Cricket they encountered at the start behind the Empire 88 warehouse. One of them -probably Gallant- had surely called it in then, while Aegis engaged Cricket.
Gar' hadn't actually intended to interfere then; the two experienced Wards had had it well in hand between the two of them and their teamwork. Then Stormtiger and Hookwolf showed up, and everything went to shit.
For the next four minutes, Gar' had put his effort into crafting several spears that should decisively end the fight, one for each hostile, and one to defend himself, along with a few spares in reserve.
The situation hadn't really improved, since he started and had, in fact, likely just taken a turn for the worse.
But he was ready now.
His powers were, frankly, rather weird... and ever so slightly bullshit.
He'd gotten a primary power to summon and 'stack' spears and then a couple side powers that when added to his main, spear-summoning power made them far more devastating.
The literally perfect-aiming-every-time thing for one.
And eyesight that might rival an eagle's to supplement that ranged fighter style.
It was a Blaster/Shaker/Thinker combo that absolutely rocked.
He held up the binoculars again just to make sure and then took aim at the knee-cap of a recovering Stormtiger, who had just stumbled to his feet.
One down, he grinned, dropped the binoculars, as he took a stance, and threw.
He wasn't quite prepared for what happened next.
The charged spear was off like a rocket on steroids.
One interesting thing to note was that, despite the cost, each spear's base explosion, force, and speed of travel was multiplied by the number of spears put into the conglomeration. Gar' hadn't actually gotten wind of the implied scale of this… till now.
A normal spear of his would drag itself through the air at a measly approximate of 30 mph, hardly faster than a slowly cruising car and not entirely difficult to dodge if he wasn't having it heat-seek you, but when you have a spear made out of 46 of those suckers, it becomes a whole different ball game by a certain order of magnitude.
Case in point, the spear left Gary's hand like a feral thing possessed at just under two times the speed of sound, breaking said barrier no more than a quarter of the distance to its destination and blowing out nearby windows in a head-rattling boom that nearly shattered eardrums, blew Gar' backwards off his feet in a blast of displaced air, and speared through Stormtiger's knee to bury itself in concrete faster than the combatants could even begin to blink in an explosion of concrete and asphalt, accompanied by Stormtiger's sharp scream of agony.
The reverberating sound was like an angry war gong, bellowing its presence to the late afternoon of the entire city, in accompaniment to the crimson, laser-like streak, roaring across the burnt orange sky. There was not a single person who couldn't have heard that veritable declaration of war, that announcement of a powerful Cape's presence.
For the moment, however, only one thought fully registered to Gary, groaning in pain, as he laid on his back and tried regain a semblance of his hearing and balance: he'd overdone it… by far.
He'd never actually tried throwing a spear that powerful before, and he'd only charged the four spears he'd made that far in the first place, because he'd assumed it would be weaker than it was.
Mentally, he upgraded the Brute-6 spear to a tentative anti Brute-7 and gave the previous holder of that title that was still currently stabbed into the roof along with its fellows a dubious and apprehensive look...
Well, shit.
He was pretty sure that didn't look remotely heroic at all.
At least, Stormtiger was definitely down…
Maybe even dead…
Shit.
Hookwolf might take his rage out on the Wards.
What if he decided to throw those annoying, but convenient, Unwritten Rules out the window and kill them?
Stumbling -outright staggered crawling more like- across the rooftop and back to his feet, Gar' unsteadily peeked over the edge of the rooftop to catch sight of a badly mangled and bloodied Stormtiger missing his left leg being dragged away by an actually visibly shaking Cricket (whether in fear or from adrenaline was unclear), while Hookwolf in full beast mode beat a rather thoroughly shredded and thrashing Aegis into the ground with a wicked tail of steel hooks and spikes and ferally shook Gallant around with a gaping maw of inwardly rotating blades.
Well, Stormtiger appeared to be still alive, but that could change…
For a moment… Gary considered detonating the spear. If the raised speed was any indication, the explosion would be subject to a similar effect and would rather… permanently inconvenience both the wounded Stormtiger and Cricket.
And by that, one would imply they'd both be deader than a doornail. That would be two Villains removed and the city permanently improved to a degree -if a small one; he might even get Hookwolf too if he was lucky!
Unfortunately, the Wards would likely perish as well...
Really, the explosion would be monolithic.
Briefly, he wondered if he should be more worried about his own willingness to commit cold-blooded murder, and that the only thing stopping him was that there were witnesses and/or innocent subsequently resulting collateral victims... More worrisome, was perhaps how little he cared about caring now that the issue was broached...
Woah, video-games and graphic fiction in sufficient quantities did desensitize you to killing in the real world!
It didn't particularly matter now.
He'd actually underestimated himself.
Yeesh.
So that was right out. Very well then.
With a mental order, the spear down below dissipated into nothing but fading crimson motes that he knew from prior examination would be leaving no apparent residue. A fresh Brute-3 spear of his remaining 16 formed in his hand, along with five others that slid into existence hovering above his shoulders.
With a flex of mental effort, three spears were given an extra charge, reducing his reserves to 7, and the uncharged spear in his hand was thrown at a much more reasonable speed towards Cricket.
It took about ten seconds -give a few- for the thrown spear to clear the thousand foot plus distance.
Cricket jerked in surprise and hefted Stormtiger out of the way, making to dodge with a wild roll, as the demonic-looking spear actually pivoted through the air to stay on target.
It was futile...
For the Villain.
The jagged edge of the weapon found home in Cricket's left foot, pulverizing bone and muscle in a spray of blood and bone, to cruelly pin her to the ground.
With his ears no longer ringing as badly, it was easy to hear Cricket's echoing scream, obviously boosted by her powers, as it rang across the rooftops.
Hookwolf immediately ceased his beating of the Wards and bolted for his fellows, dropping the two like yesterday's trash. Apparently, he did have a sense of honor of sorts. It wouldn't help him or his comrades here though.
The three charged spears Gar' had sent his way didn't care about honor or chivalry of any sort, as they impacted Hookwolf's shifting, whirling shoulders and tail at 60 miles per hour. The shoulders were pierced deeply but seemingly did not hinder the Changer's movement. The tail, however, was speared into the shattered ground and halted the Cape where he stood with a sudden jerk and a collection of sparks.
Hookwolf's furious howl was a combination of an animalistic roar and a chorus of shrieks, like the teeth-grinding scraping of nails on a chalkboard. The Wards briefly doubled over in pain, before Aegis's body adapted and Gallant's mangled suit adjusted its sound receptors.
This time, Gary detonated the spears.
The first spear's explosion rocked Hookwolf's entire body to the right, blowing off the left arm its pierced shoulder was attached to and spitting a violent shower of metal from the whole in a cringe-worthy explosion of steel hooks and heat.
The second spear near entirely threw Hoofwolf's flailing form onto its back with its own crimson explosion, having less weight to work against due to the previously dismembered arm/limb/leg/thing and having Hookwolf leaning over it due to the first detonation. The second nearly ripped the Changer in half, arcing his body upwards above his tail and the final spear.
The third explosion did tear Hookwolf's already regenerating form in half, tossing his upper torso to the asphalt in a screeching shower of sparks and snapping metal.
Gar' didn't give him time to recover. The remaining two spears were charged and launched, leaving the teen with minuscule reserves of 5.
The first impacted the pavement directly beneath Hookwolf, tearing into him with its detonation and blowing him into the air once more in a shower of rent steel and shattered stone. The second caught his tumbling form midair with vicious, violent precision, spearing nearly straight through him, before it exploded, blowing his remains into another pair of broken, misshapen hunks of metal.
Both halves subsequently crashed lifelessly to the ground and lay still.
For -at the least- a full thirty, tense seconds, the battlefield was left unnervingly silent, save for the mangled Aegis taking the chance to achieve airborne status once more and Gallant whipping his head about wildly, obviously searching for the shooter, as he sharply barked something into a communicator on the left arm of his armored suit.
Gar' soon let out the breath he found he'd been holding, when the left chunk of metal miraculously began twitching slightly, before slowly collapsing and grinding down to reform into the bloody, beaten, and now human form of Hookwolf, lying facedown on the ground. The Wards looked slightly relieved as well, if no less unnerved by the whole situation.
Hookwolf was alive; he likely wouldn't have been able to return to human form if he was dead. The three Villains were all alive, and it was frankly pure luck on both their and Gary's part.
Albeit, both Stormtiger and Cricket were bleeding out and currently crippled, but they were alive. It was as much as they deserved.
Ah, on that note…
Gary idly allowed the spear pinning Cricket's foot to dissipate. He could feel the three initial charged spears he'd thrown at Hookwolf finish recharging, refilling his reserves to 11. He was still weakened severely, but at least he was a bit more secure in his position now.
In any case, he needed to leave immediately. The PRT would surely be arriving on the scene any moment now, so the Villains wouldn't be dying today, but neither would they be back on the streets any time soon, not Stormtiger anyway. Gary was pretty sure Othala didn't do limb regrowths, and it'd be kind of ridiculous to call on Panacea for anything other than stabilization, unless the Heroes and PRT were actually concerned about having healthy, murderous Villains running about.
Besides which, he really didn't want to be caught right now as the perpetrator of the Empire 88 Capes' brutalization; forced Wards membership was not an unknown or entirely uncommon thing. It wasn't exactly public, but you could dig far enough into the matter with a bit of perseverance to know that Shadow Stalker was forced in and currently on probation, through for what reason was unclear.
Point was, he needed to go quickly.
Turning away from the edge, Gar' looked at the three spears still planted in the roof, now revealed to each be miniature WMBs of various degrees. Shuddering, he let the strongest of the three dissolve into particles. He was in no hurry to find out what that monster of a creation would do, let alone something stronger.
Those were Lung-busters if he'd ever saw any... at least if they were used early on before the dragon man could ramp up sufficiently.
The sudden realization that he might actually be able to take on a ramped-up Lung and win caused his eyes to glaze over a little in disbelief.
He couldn't actually be that powerful, could he? Certainly, it was a nice thought that he might be up there with the likes of the Triumvirate and Lung, never mind monsters like Glaistig Undine and the Siberian, but it seemed too unbelievable to be true. It was literally a one in ten thousand chance. The ability to stand on that level was something granted to so very few that it was absurd. He'd always wanted to be a Big Damn Hero, but he didn't know if he could handle possibly being that big.
Shaking his head, he took the remaining two spears into hand under his right arm and dashed to the fire escape, scaling down the building with encumbered difficulty due to his spears, but he was unwilling to let the two weapons dissolve quite yet in case of being found by the Heroes.
His other spears would be fully recharged in thirty minutes or less thanks to him dissolving them instead of allowing them to detonate, so no matter what happened, all he had to do was last that long and he could take just about anyone.
He eventually settled on tossing the two spears the rest of the way down to stick into the pavement of the ally and quickly skittered the last four stories down, jumping the last one to save time and taking hold of his spears once more.
He cracked his neck and sighed. Today had obviously been a wash. He was done heroing for the rest of the day... and probably the next week or so just to be safe.
"S-so, huh… That was pretty impressive…"
Gary abruptly jerked his body around a one-eighty to see that the person, who'd come out of freaking nowhere, had been a scrawny, unimpressive-looking teenage boy of apparent Japanese descent, who sported frumpy clothes, messy, unwashed black hair, and deep bags underneath his dark, slanted eyes. The boy flinched at the startled, wild look in the spear-wielding teen's eyes, as he turned to face him.
A tense, awkward silence slowly began to envelope the dimly-lit ally seconds later with the wearing-off of the initial shock, as Gary deliberated over what to do about the suddenly alarming situation and this clearly moronic civilian. The hunched, twitching boy standing before him was a vaguely familiar -if physically unthreatening presence, probably another student who was attending Winslow.
But... REALLY?! What was this?! What are even the odds of coming across someone who will just do something like this?
Seriously, what the hell was this? Who just does this kind of thing?
Momentarily, Gary snorted, shaking his head, before planting the stronger of his two spears into the ground with a sharp crack of the worn, grungy pavement, getting him a flinch from the honestly creeper-looking boy, as he leaned against it. Why was he worried? Wasn't this what he wanted, to be recognized for his triumphs against crime? Oh, but if his past self from bare moments earlier could see him now; he'd underestimated his own power, and that had very nearly dearly cost him -in front of other Heroes no less! He didn't want to be recognized for that!
A small chuckle broke out of him. It started off little, but slowly built up into a full-on belly laugh that soon saw him clutching at his planted spear to stand, before he finally managed to recompose himself and looked the other boy in the eye. Just what exactly was he doing being worried about a single civilian? Ridiculous.
"Yeah," he muttered. "Yeah, that was me -with the spears, I mean."
"A-ah, yeah. It was pretty mind-blowing to watch… Nearly had my eardrums blown out too though…" the scrawny boy muttered with a wry, pained chuckle.
Gar' winced a little. "Ah, yes~, that… I kinda' maybe misjudged how much power I was using. This is my first time pitting my power against other Capes, so I ramped it up as far as I thought was sufficient… Didn't actually know my shots could break the sound barrier…" He trailed off a bit awkwardly.
The scrawny boy let out a short laugh before abruptly quieting once more and reaching with his left hand to scratch the back of his head.
"So, uh…" Gary started, "I gotta' ask. Was this all just a chance meeting... -dumb luck, or have you been stalking me or something?"
"Ah-hah! Well, I wouldn't quite put it that way -stalking, that is, but, yes, I have been, err... observing you for a while, watching you do your… hero thing," he admitted.
"Oh?" Gary's right hand tightened its grip on the crimson spear he still held, as he grinned tensely. "For what purpose? I feel like I should recognize you; have we met somewhere before?"
"Hmm, well, we both go to Winslow, but, no, we haven't interacted personally prior to now. I'm rather something of a… 'background character' in the world, as it were," the boy calmly replied, shrugging in a 'what can you do' way. "As for what I want? From you? Nothing personal, really. No blackmail to be found here or mysterious Villain for a boss pulling the strings. For you, on the other hand? Now that is a different story."
"You know, if I were a more pessimistic sort, I might take that to mean you wish a swift death -for me, of course, but we could go either way from here. I can deal," Gary tense smile widened warningly. This guy was too confident; his earlier assumptions were being lobbed out the mental window. Until further notice, this guy was mentally labeled as a parahuman until proven otherwise.
The mystery boy laughed in an all too creepy way, but waved his arms up in surrender. "Oh, dear Kami, no. That couldn't be farther from my intentions."
"Well then, spit it out already; I need to get out of here before the Protectorate think to triangulate my spears' launch position or some crap like that, and I don't have time to fight another parahuman," Gary growled. The other boy's twitch confirmed his suspicions, and his grip tightened on his spear.
"You know Winslow is shit, right?" the boy asked. Aaand~ that was right out of the blue. The hell did a school have to do with this unwelcome distraction?
"Well, duh." Gar' was almost curious, as he shifted impatiently on the balls of his feet.
"As you have correctly assumed, I am indeed also a parahuman, and I've decided to do something about the situation. I even managed to procure Principal Blackwell's blessing for my little endeavor."
Gary's eyebrows were edging his hairline. What the hell was this utter waste of his time? And what good could come from anything Winslow High's principal was involved in? "Eh, why would whatever you're doing concern me?"
"Like I said, Winslow is a cesspit of unrepentant crime and villainy, so I'm putting together something of a club… a safezone for students, if you will," the scrawny boy replied, shrugging. "I want a safe place, filled with supporting peers and students of like situation. I want a place where the gangs have no hold. I want a place where students can study to their fullest potential and graduate with honors. I'm sure I sound quite overambitious, unbelievably naive, and silly even, but I think it can work. There's only one real problem…"
"Oh yeah?" The guy did sound like a moron, but at least he was conscious of it. He was also rather surprisingly longwinded for his slight form...
"As you're probably thinking, I'm not an impressive person physically, nor do I have any particularly positive charisma to my name, and my power is utterly useless for anything even remotely heroic. I- The club needs a vanguard. What better option than parahuman students of sufficient moral quality?"
"You want parahuman bodyguards for your school club?" Gar' muttered, more than a little disbelieving. Really longwinded... Also completely nuts; can't forget nuts. Nuts are important to remember, because the crazier ones tend to try and shank ya' when your back is turned.
"It sounds stupid, yes, but power talks where even numbers and determination don't. No-one even has to know the seniors are parahumans; they just have to suspect it enough to be warned off. And if there's enough of them -gathered young Capes- in the club, even the gang Capes will be warned off; power in numbers and all that."
The Creeper of Winslow. That was who this guy was! He was some creepy-as-all-hell son-of-a-gun, who the avid student watcher could often locate skulking around on the edges of gossip crowds or crouching in dark corners and under furniture, managing to fit himself into absurd places that really shouldn't have been large enough for a teenage boy. Needless to say, he creeped the fuck out of students and teachers alike. Though for some reason, he got along great with the janitor. Most people ignored the guy and left him to be bully fodder.
So lonely, ignored, creepy little shit and universal punching bag of the school gang members… and just about any bully, really...
Yeah, there was the potential to Trigger there, if it ever got bad enough.
"I want to create what is essentially an anti-gang within the school to directly oppose the gangs' recruitment and influence."
"An anti-gang?" What the hell? How did that work? Gary wondered.
"Yes, under the guise of an unattractive Occult Research Club, one that veritably anyone who isn't a bullied, intimidated child with nothing better to do won't be interested in, it is a program with the potential to flourish."
"Honestly, I'm confused here. I'm seriously baffled over your reasoning for being so blunt about this. Is this supposed to be some kind of half-assed recruitment pitch, buddy? Because it's both one of the worst I've ever heard, and I'm not really in-"
"It's a plead." His hands clasped together, and his eyes gained a light to them that Gary was very sure he didn't want to understand. Words briefly failed him, as his brain gave a little fart.
"..."
"..."
"Are you high?"
"I'm not asking you to join the club. I'm not even asking for your powers to be put to a cause not your own -though the powers certainly helped with my decision to ask. I'm begging only for your assistance in keeping the club afloat before it can be buried and trod upon. I need help making this dream a reality, but if you do say no, I'll just leave. I won't ask again…, and I won't tell anyone about your powers; I've got my own to hide, after all, ignoring the shit that'd get rained down on me by the law for outing a Cape... They really take that stuff seriously…. So, yeah… You say no, and I'll just have to look elsewhere. So, please! I, Gosunkugi Hikari, beg you, Gary Callahan, to help me for even a little while, to help me make a difference!"
Yeah, he rather doubted that's all the little creep wanted.
Wait? What is he-? Is he actually-? He is!
Gary blinked and then cringed, as the other teen actually stooped over and bowed to him on the dirty, ally ground. "Shit, get up, damn it!" Gosunkugi did, and the redhead at him, causing the scrawny boy to cringe. "First off, it's 'Gar' to you; Gary is a stupid name, and my parents were being stupid when they gave it to me. Makes me sound like a half-wit thug. Second… You… are a complete and utter moron."
Gosunkugi looked away, shoulders slumping.
"This, what you're doing right now, is going to get you killed… fucking fast. I really despise secret identities, but they're unfortunately important to keep morons like you alive, especially newbies to this crap, who have a -as you claim to possess- useless power. More than that, a lesser person would have very likely killed you where you stand! You can't go stalking Capes and then letting them know you know their identities like this!"
Gosunkugi's form wilted with each statement, but he seemingly knew they were true. Thank everything.
Gary blinked and shook is head in disbelief. "But you… really are desperate enough not to care about that stuff for some reason… stupid… or just plain ignorant and jumping into this entire Cape thing wholesale without any preparation period!"
"Yeah, it's probably a little bit of all those things…" Gosunkugi admitted.
Gar' gaped at him. "You… are complete fool."
"I've been told so often, yes… But this kind of thing, what I'm trying to do, it can't be done without a fool's determination. I have to believe this will work, because I might as well just lay down forever and give up otherwise."
"..." Well, that just got way too heavy.
"..."
"Dude… you're not suicidal, are you?" Wait, maybe that was a bit too blunt.
Gosunkugi twitched and then sighed. "Not as such, but I don't have room for hesitation. This needs to happen. There needs to be an alternative to the gangs for young teenagers and Capes; there needs to be an alternative to the traditional Cape scene, even from the Protectorate… No, especially from the Protectorate and their bullshit." The last part was stated with particularly surprising vehemence.
"Hey, wait a sec'. That sounds like something a bit bigger than schoolyard tussles… by an order of magnitude, if I'm hearing right. Do you mean to say, that you intend some kind of… 'third faction'… a second Hero organization, because the Guild has kinda' already done that, buddy."
"It sounds ludicrous, I know, utterly absurd. It sounds like I'm trying to be something far bigger than I am, but someone needs to actually try. Indeed, I don't even really care about having a leadership role in any of it as long as it actually happens. Someday, yes, that revolutionary alternative is exactly what I would like it to be."
"Why though? Seriously, man, you're still not getting across your point. Just shut up, and tell me what you want. Tell me why the hell I should care."
"Because the status-quo needs to change," the thin boy actually growled. "Again and again the 'Heroes' practically deliberately allow Villains to escape from prisoner escort, employ Wards in their crime-fighting, who should have never been seeing combat in the first place, and plainly lie to the public every day that they are actually doing something other than simply mitigating damage! The 'Unwritten Rules' are just moronic excuses for incompetence on their part. The Endbringer Truce wouldn't even need to exist if they'd just get their shit together and crack down on Villains hard. The Birdcage still remains the only proper parahuman prison with no fair middle ground, and its threat is is hardly any object, when most of those sent there should have simply been executed like a common criminal. What you did there with those Empire Capes, deadly force in response to deadly force -the way the law classifies powers? Those are methods I approve of wholeheartedly, even if it was just an accident on your part this time... Those Capes of the Empire are all universally murderers and poor racist excuses for human beings, and the fear of the gods is the least of what they deserve to feel for their crimes. The current society is unsustainable; Thinkers have predicted that as things are going now, we may have a total societal breakdown and fall into a reenactment of the Dark Ages within the century! So if the law isn't going to do something about the state of the world, there need to be people who will." He was breathing rather hard by the time his rant began to lose steam.
"I'm getting the feeling you have some sort of vendetta with Heroes and Villains," Gar' observed rather dryly.
"Not really. I feel that way about all criminals."
"..."
"..."
"…Ah." Gary could only wonder with worry about whether or not Gosunkugi meant what his words vaguely implied about him calling the Heroes, themselves, no better than the Villains they fought. He chose to ignore it presently.
They were silent for a moment, before Gar' finally sighed to the sky.
"Okay, look, I can see you want this 'club' of yours to happen pretty badly, and, honestly, it doesn't sound like a such bad thing you're trying to do, but you're going about it all wrong, taking it way too fast, especially in the Cape recruiting department. If you're trying to create some sort of Hero team, y-" he paused. "Who were you planning on 'recruiting' after me."
"First, not a Hero team. I want a group that is dedicated solely to protecting the interests of the common man and their independence from a forced life of crime. And ah, one Kosuke Hiragana is the guy I was looking into next. If I'm right in any way about his powers, he might just be the most powerful candidate so far."
Gary raised a red eyebrow, choosing for now to ignore the casual outing of another Cape in favor of his own peaked curiosity. "What do you think they are? His powers -that is."
"Full-on, unlimited dynakinesis, the only wielder of it since Behemoth," he replied rather giddily.
"…" Gary's mouth opened and closed like a gasping fish, eyes bulging wide, before he groaned. "I- I have no words. There is hilariously stupid, and then there's apparently whatever you are."
"Oi! I told you my reasoning!"
"It's not your damn reasoning! It's the very idea that you think any dynakinetic would want their powers to be a matter of anyone's knowledge but their own! The public Endbringer hate they would receive and witch hunt they'd be subjected to are too overwhelming to comprehend! Ignoring that, every organization, Hero or Villain, would be doing absolutely everything in their ability to gain command of that person and their power. A person like that would almost definitely kill you! Frankly, they'll probably kill you and anyone even remotely nearby they think might have overheard your moronic assertion of their Cape-hood just to be safe!"
As Gary fumed and muttered angrily under his breath, Gosunkugi quietly spluttered in protest, but his arguments died a swift death in his throat a second later.
"Sure is a good thing I'm not a dynakinetic then, isn't it?" cheerfully snickered a new voice above them.
Gary fell instantly into a crouched position and ripped his second spear back out of the concrete, while Gosunkugi jumped in alarm and then froze in place entirely, shaking a little, as he joined Gar' in searching for the source of the intrusion.
It suddenly dawned on them a second later -after turning about to no avail- to look up.
Slowly, jerkily, and almost simultaneously the two teens turned their gazes upwards to catch sight of a short, lanky, asian boy, wearing a grey t-shirt, blue jeans, black sneakers, and a large, entirely conspicuous, black trench-coat, currently standing high up on the side of the ally wall completely vertically, like some kind of ninja, and waving cheerfully with a grin that was all too smug.
"Yeah, people never seem to look up, despite all those warnings movies and quite literally life nowadays -with all the Capes mucking about- have been giving us over the years… S'up, bitches," he cracked, grinning wider at their stunned silence.
However, when their tense lack of response persisted after than a few seconds more, his smile faltered and abruptly gained a sharper edge to it, as he turned his gaze to Gosunkugi. "So… tell me more about this little anti-gang plan of yours." With that said, he suddenly dropped from the ally wall to land crouched between the two with a solid, sharp crack of spider-webbing concrete - a sign of his slender form belying tremendous weight, as the temperature began to instantly -and with alarming rapidity- skyrocket within the ally in accompaniment to hissing, boiling cracks that began to climb across the teen, Kosuke's, visible skin, glowing orange with red-hot heat, and dark brown eyes that had turned a murderous, demonic, burning crimson.
"If I like what I hear, then we're in business. If I don't… well... Your guess about my powers was way too close for comfort," he grinned cheerfully once more, but it didn't seem very friendly. "Spear boy had about the right idea…"
AN: So yeah, Gary's power is a bit OP under the right circumstances, but it does have potentially devastating and crippling weaknesses, like a charge time and a finite resource. (Shard: Piercing Artillery)
Kosuke's power isn't dynakinesis… it's better. Make of that what you will, but it is also Striker touch limited. For now, I'm tentatively labeling his shard Lord Administrator, which governs only the physical spectrum instead of the mental like QA, until I think of a better name.
Gosunkugi makes Voodoo dolls that actually need a part of his opponent (hair or blood, for example) to work, but if he makes one successfully he can even bypass Alexandria's durability when inflicting reflected wounds (though how he'd get a part of her is beyond me). (Shard: Reflector)
So as you can see, Gar' is something of a slight hypocrite and an idealistic glory-seeker. He wants to be an amazing, public and celebrated Hero, recognized for great accomplishments and read about for years to come, but he doesn't want to deal with people whining over the way he does things, taking care of crime the way he believes it should be, nor does he wish to deal with negative consequences.
Luckily, he's not the main character of the theoretical story, just a powerful guy playing a support role.
Doesn't mean he's not a decent guy; he actually really is and is perhaps the most actually heroic and purely good-intentioned member of Moonlight aside from Occult, even if he revels in that a bit.
Anywho, this is mostly just to get this out there, so I have a place to throw my one-shots for this story and see what people think of the characters and their powers.
For reference, I actually went to check Wildbow's power rating system and PRT threat assessment on Spacebattles, and this is what came out for what the PRT would be rating him once they've seen enough:
Name: Unknown.
Codename: [Lancer] (pending).
Rating: Blaster(sub Shaker),Thinker, Mover, Breaker
Disposition: Dangerous Vigilante.
Location: Brockton Bay, Massachusetts, USA.
General Information: Lancer is a vigilante currently operating facelessly within Brockton Bay. His modus operandi thus far has been to apparently take a position on top of a tall building (different every time, as surveillance of previous known locations has yielded no image) and to 'snipe' criminals of all colors with deadly-accurate -but non-lethal- shots of his spears [see Assessment].
Personality: Early methods suggest an inclination towards violence [see ENE Wards Patrol Incident eb7fj-2, Cricket, Stormtiger, Hookwolf]. Previously has displayed no such level of aggression. Witness reports suggest a preference for simply running criminals off with brutal -but non-lethal- injuries. Possibly holds personal enmity for Villains, but Thinker support suggests critical injuries inflicted to be an accident.
[Current official PRT rating as of this incident]
Base ratings not created yet.
(Maximum Public Rating)
Assessment:
Blaster(sub Shaker 2) [6]6+(9):
[Ability to create upwards of at least 150 blood-red spears simultaneously, having jagged heads and being engraved with unidentifiable, black markings. Spears are summoned midair and are noted to be used both for ranged attacks and melee with no discernible preference. Spears are capable of being 'charged' and have been witnessed to easily break the sound barrier and explode violently. However, 'charging' a spear seems to temporarily limit subject to fewer weapons.]
Mover 4+(6):
[Has demonstrated ability to move at high speeds, clocking in easily over 100 mph under his own power. Speed is subject to change if holding onto one of his fired spears and is ramped up to match the held spear's current speed. Is also observed to be able to leap tall distances of upwards 30 feet.]
Thinker [3]6:
[Attacks never miss the intended target. Ever. Spears have a heat-seeking component that has been noted to allow spears to follow a fleeing target for over half a mile before finally catching up. Lancer is known to be specialized in pin-point accuracy from long distances, which suggests eyesight far better than the norm. Also possesses sufficient reaction time to direct precise melee attacks at his own top movement speed. Reflexes escalate in unison with the charge of one of his held Blaster spears.]
Breaker 2(4):
[Subject is not unnaturally durable, but has been witnessed to suffer no ill effects from 'riding along' on one of his spears' supersonic flight or from returning to the ground after deliberately leaping high up. Has never been left with worse than being knocked on his back and a quickly recovering headache after being subject to the sound and shockwave of sonic booms produced by his higher-tier spears, nor do his weapons' explosions harm him directly. While he is holding onto a sufficiently 'charged' spear, he is capable of using his own body's limbs to strike foes, instead of his spear, to no detrimental effect, unless being simultaneously struck by a greater, directly opposing force than his own.]
Notes:
[Despite methods, appears to be more heroically inclined, as Lancer had ample chance to kill both Stormtiger and Cricket after initial barrage in his encounter with them. Only chose to utilize spears' ability to explode against Hookwolf, who could take it, and used less powerful spears than the first one even then. Current theory of Thinkers is that his initial attack was accidently overpowered, and this is supported by him immediately toning down afterwards.]
Recommended Strategies:
[Attempts should be made to make contact. If encountered, suggest PRT affiliation and power testing non-provocatively. Wards should immediately inform a Protectorate member of the encounter, before engaging in interaction. If Wards age, use polite discretion in suggesting a place for Lancer there. In the case of combat, an evasive retreat is recommended with emphasis on gathering a more complete understanding of Lancer's powers. Do not deliberately antagonize.]
Chief Director's Eyes Only:
[Clearance Level S6]
Name: Gary Callahan
Verified A-Class Threat.
In lieu with the standard procedure for all information reported by Protectorate ENE Ward, [Redacted], from S-Class Threat, Yandere's, dropped timelines, this will be a report of the highest security. Lancer is -or will be- a founding member of the nominally low-key young Parahuman support group, Moonlight [see Moonlight Organization], and is one of their more powerful members, only being known to be decisively defeated and/or killed by S-Class parahuman, Yuno [see Yandere], personal intervention by Alexandria (he killed Eidolon and badly injured Legend once when sufficiently provoked and enraged in a timeline, where the Protectorate attempted to bring Moonlight to heel), or an Endbringer.
Full Ratings: Blaster 10, Mover 7, Thinker 6, Breaker 4, Brute 2, Master/Shaker (-2)-(7).
(Master/Shaker:)
['Charged' spears emit an involuntary, omnidirectional energy, which imposes feelings of fear and warning on observers and escalates with the intensity of the 'charge' and the vulnerability of the potential target(s). Danger 'aura' at higher levels is able to cause opponents' bodies to involuntarily lock up in total terror. [Redacted] includes in their report that even Endbringers have been shown to react to this energy if it [the charge] rises high enough and will make all due effort to kill Lancer, if he ever charges a weapon that much, because you can (supposedly) only truly feel the full 'aura' if it [the spear] is currently capable of killing you.]
(Brute:)
[Lancer takes the term "human determination" to simply ludicrous levels, despite having no actual Brute power. His sheer tenacity and determination qualify him for a functional rating in this. He has, in fact, been known to consistently force his own Second Trigger in order to deal with fighting stronger opponents of the caliber of the likes of Yandere or Endbringers through sheer refusal to die like some kind of damn anime protagonist. Doing so gives him the Changer/Breaker ability to expel spears from within his own body and turn everything beneath his skin into his spears to no detrimental effect, a legitimate Brute power in the form of a small regeneration factor, and a greater number of spears to use outside his body by at least an additional hundred.]
CRITICAL:
Lancer's spears are formed within -and summoned from- a pocket dimension, which he has limited access to. Having further Triggers gives him deeper access to the dimension, and a potential dual Second and Third Trigger in his battle against Yandere has seen him capable of overlapping almost the entirety of that pocket world onto reality. Inside such a world, he nearly killed Yandere for good, despite her power, by cutting her power's access off from the real world to keep her from time jumping back past when he first summoned the full dimension. If he should ever achieve his Third Trigger again, Lancer will be labeled as S-Class and receive additional ratings of Shaker 9, Changer/Breaker 5, and Trump 4.
Due to their source, the very tips of his spears are inter-dimensional in nature, allowing Lancer to harm even the likes of Alexandria to a degree or pop The Siberian's projection under the right circumstances, though his spears will not pierce far unless they have a significant 'charge' fueling their speed and force. On this same vein, Lancer is one of the few parahumans -along with The Siberian and Protectorate Ward, Fletchette, who is capable of killing an Endbringer given the right opening.
In more than one timeline, Lancer also holds the title of End(bringer)slayer and is often the only member of Moonlight to actually achieve that title (even considering Lucifer's presence), and he is always the target of Leviathan's 2011 attack if he still lives. If not, Leviathan's machinations will invariably lead to the eventual unleashing of the 'Baby Endbringer', Echidna [see Echidna]. Lancer's survival till the Endbringer Event comes to pass should be encouraged. Lancer must fight Leviathan primarily solo at first in order to pull off a win. If at any moment he is distracted and forced to worry about protecting others (aside from Protectorate ENE Wards, Vista and Clockblocker)(and he WILL prioritize saving people to actually fighting the Endbringer), Leviathan will kill him. No matter what happens, the fight must not be interfered with. The timelines where he loses generally result in a 'Bad End' for the world, thanks to Lucifer going full HAM on the Endbringers and Scion. In about half of his victories over Leviathan, his victory hinges on his additional Trigger over the inability to prevent the deaths of many civilians and/or his relatives as a taunt by said Endbringer, assuming he didn't already Second Trigger from Yandere. On a side note, in nearly a fourth of timelines following his victory over Leviathan, Lancer can be successfully (and non-reluctantly) recruited into the Wards.
Lancer's Second Trigger literally deprives him of any physical capacity to feel fear for his own personal well being, leaving him entirely incapable of reacting favorably to threats and pressure from authorities of the law. When this fact is leaked to the public, he is sometimes called "The Fearless Hero".
As with all members of Moonlight, it should be assumed that successful action against him will likely provoke retaliation from S-Class Threat, Kosuke Hiragana [see Lucifer], along with other high-Rated members of Moonlight, and hostilities should not be encouraged under any circumstances.
And there we are.
It should be noted, that I did the ratings based on the actual system. Worm Parahuman Ratings -for those not in the full know- are not an expression of power but a warning of the threat they'd be to a standard PRT team.
The rating system goes something like this from what I can recall off the top of my head:
1): No threat. A civilian could handle this power; it's so insignificant.
2): Moderately more difficult. Caution advised. A civilian could still handle it, but it is not altogether wise.
3): Likely would require a well-trained or well-prepared civilian at the very least.
4): Full PRT team practically required.
5): Truck mounted weapons and containment foam are authorized. Parahuman support recommended.
6): Allow parahumans to engage primarily and gather information, intervening only if safely possible.
7): Parahuman team should consist of no less than 2-3 members. PRT team should focus on civilian evacuation.
8): Leave fight to parahuman team. PRT should avoid conflict and focus on evacuating civilians.
9+): Intercity missiles may be authorized depending on the situation and potential effectiveness.
10+): Potentially S-Class. High ranking Protectorate members may need to be called in to deal with the situation (a.k.a. Triumvirate and the like).
So... yeah, R&R! let me know if anyone wants to see more of this in a full story, and tell me what you liked and what you didn't. Tell me where I went wrong or what could be better! Point out grammar errors if you want, and I'll be all too happy to hunt them down. I'm something of a grammar Nazi sometimes...
Till next time...