This is a Fanfic based off of Worm(Which I do not own), one of the best web serials on the internet. If this story interests you should go the Worm main site. The link will be on my profile.
A woman in a navy blue suit sat at the table in a small room, lit by a single bare bulb. Leaving only her and the man opposite of her visible. Her eyes glowed a faint golden yellow, much the same color as the crystal lattices that ran across her skin, tracing the veins. Her short black hair was mostly covered by the hat she wore, as well as hid all but the eerie iridescence of her orbs in darkness. She finally spoke to person opposite of her, an older man, his chest wrapped in a bandage and a white cotton patch covering his left eye.
"Which of the Slaughterhouse 9 put you in this condition?" Her inhuman gaze seemed to pierce into the man's soul making him shiver.
"J-Jack Slash. One of his...um...'games'."
The woman nodded, not in any particular way of emotion, simply of acceptance.
"What kind of 'game'?" she asked, her voice as clear and beautiful as a midsummer sky, and yet there was obviously a darker element to it, bitter and angry.
"He...and the little blond girl..."
"Bonesaw."
"Yes, her...they strapped me and two others to spinning wheels. Slash, he was blindfolded and Bonesaw laid out some knives..." He seemed to turn a sickly shade of green, shuddering at the nightmare he had endured not a week earlier. The woman frowned, and in the darkness behind the male, a large, obese form moved closer, though who, or what, the shape belonged to was not revealed by the single bare light bulb.
A human voice with a French-Canadian accent seemed to slither from the lumpy shape.
"Should I relax him, or just end it?" The voice let out a dark chuckle but the woman shook her head.
"No, Pierre, let's see what Erik here has to say," the finely clad woman scolded, and holding up a golden latticed hand, there was a large crystal cluster in her palm, the color as the vein-like lattices that covered her face and the back of her hand. The obese form seemed to nod and backed off. "Continue, if you will. Erik."
The man nodded his face less green but much more pale from fright.
"Jack said he was going to choose a knife at random, he...he chose a butcher knife, like the ones you always see him carrying." Erik shuddered again. "He spun around several times to add more 'fun' to his game. He stopped and...pointed the knife at the person next to me. A yo-young Japanese or Chinese lady, not even twenty five. He slashed the knife at her and..." Erik's face turned sickly green again, his breaths becoming more and more rapid.
The woman in blue sighed, annoyed at the mans weak stomach. "Make him relax, Pierre."
There came a delightfully disturbed chuckle from the obese man behind Erik, whose eyes went wide and skin even paler. "N-No, please I-" His protests were cut short as he shuddered, as if impaled with a spear. His breathing instantly became calm and deep, eyes placid and distant, as if he was seeing something far away.
"Thank you, Pierre."
The fat man seemed to nod again and backed up once more.
"Now, Erik...tell me what happened." The woman said with a soft grin. Too bad Erik here would die once the organ on his back was removed. It made someone completely honest and able to recall anything in an instant, but the trauma to the nervous system either killed the host or rendered them braindead.
Oh well, there were plenty of other 'recruits' in Phoenix. The woman hoped this city would rise like its namesake from the ashes the Nine had spread, and in Burnscars case, literally.
"Jack Slash, he bisected the woman. Severed her clear in half. She was alive just long enough to see her organs fall out. Bonesaw giggled and said something about a 'belly ache.'" Erik spoke in a dull, uninterested voice. "Bonesaw released the woman's bonds, and three mechanical spiders took the corpse. I screamed and so did the other person, an teenage African-American boy. He called Jack and Bonesaw, 'Goddamn motherfucking freaks'. Bonesaw gasped and pointed at the teenager saying, 'No swearing in front of a child!'" The woman smirked grimly. Among the Nine, Bonesaw was the most dangerous, as Pierre could testify. "Jack spun around again, and when he stopped,he picked up a butter knife - it had been sharpened slightly, probably enough to give a small cut under normal circumstances." The woman put a crystal laden hand on her chin, her face showing obvious boredom. She hated it whenever Pierre had to use one of his little customized organs, even though she and every other member of their little 'group' had them.
"He point the blade at me and attacked - I felt my clothes and flesh being cut. As my chest was covered in wounds, one of the his attacks hit my eye, blinding me." That explained the eye patch. Bonesaw was known for taking the eyes of her victims, no doubt for more of her 'fun'. "I passed out after that, the last thing I heard was Jack saying I had 'won a prize'. When I awoke I was in triage center, being patched up."
The woman sighed gently and motioned with her hand for Pierre to remove the organ from Eriks back. The lumbering shape behind Erik reached out and tore off the organ. The effect was almost immediate.
"Wh-what hap-" Erik asked, as if just waking up. He never got to finish his question. He suddenly seized up, eyes rolling and foam beginning to form in his mouth. His seizing stopped just as suddenly as it started, and he fell out of his seat.
With a small smile, slightly on the sadistic side the woman spoke, "You can take the body, Pierre. I'm sure you can use it in your lab. Remember, no sentients for now. Wait till we hit Tealrock."
Pierre grinned, and a large hand gripped the now braindead Erik by his ankle. He opened the door, and the light from the hallway revealed his rather ugly form. His body was morbidly obese, and yet also highly muscled. His most prominent feature was his massive gut, easily three-quarters his size. It probably accounted for most of his weight. His face, however, was almost frog-like in appearance. His mouth was at least four times what it should've been, fangs protruding down, and the flesh around his lips looked stained with blood. His eyes were large, obviously enhanced beyond any human capacity, baseline or parahuman.
His nose was the most normal looking - and disconcerting - feature of his face, small and disturbingly human-like.
"See you later, Lisa," Pierre said, with a twisted smile that revealed his numerous and extremely sharp small teeth. He left, closing the door behind him. Lisa sighed annoyed, stood up, and left the room. Down the hall she could hear Pierre singing loudly. It seemed he was having fun.
Lisa headed in the opposite direction Pierre did, her high heels clicking against dirty tile floor. She and her group had settled down in this run down, and half burned out, apartment complex. Burn marks from Burnscars attacks were still fresh, along with claws marks that were as long as her arm, Crawlers work, and blood splatters that seemed to cover entire rooms, either Jack Slash or Bonesaws doing.
Jack. The thought of him made her frown. she glanced down at her crystal lined. In some ways she could almost thank him, she was probably among the most powerful Capes in the world, but not very well known. Not yet at least. "Soon though...we'll be as feared as those monsters." Lisa said to the empty air.
She stopped walking when she came to the only cleaned room in the entire complex. There was a large eye-like creature on the wall, held up by four spiked 'feet'. Wires connected to the strange by way of tendrils. A quick creation of Pierre so they could keep up with the local news. In front of the 'eye' there were seven semi-cleaned chairs in a half-circle, around a medium sized coffee table that had several state and city maps. Her glowing eyes surveyed the room and stopped on a woman covered in severe burns, angry red wounds that would never heal, never feel anything again. Strangely enough she wore a white t-shirt and blue jean shorts.
"Roseline, I miss anything?" Lisa asked the burn victim who shook her head, turned to face the suited woman. "No, not really. More news coverings on the Slaughterhouse Nine attack." A surprisingly beautiful voice came from the burn covered woman who walked stiffly over to Lisa. "Where's James and Stephen? On watch?"
"Yeah, James is covering the roof and Stephen's got the back. Albert is out getting supplies. I think we're all sick of Pierres 'grub'" Roseline said with a shiver. "It might be nutritional, but it tastes like bile."
Lisa laughed and shook her head. "He'd be heartbroken to know you don't enjoy Grubby Mondays." Roseline waved it away with a burned hand.
"You get anything out of that Erik guy?" She asked, moving to take a seat down in her chair.
"Afraid not. Pierre had to 'calm' him. Sad though, really. He had such potential, too. There are others, though. We have an entire city to recruit from." Lisa said with small grin as her eyes looked to the burned woman. Roseline was watching the 'television'. "I'm going to check up on James and Stephen."
"'Kay boss." Roseline said giving a stiff, and brief, wave to Lisa.
As she left the room and headed to the roof via the organic elevator grown by Pierre, the man loved to show how his organic technology was superior to mechanical. The pod that was the 'carriage' closed and as it went up Lisa wondered why Roseline chose such an unexciting power set. Lisa looked down at her hand, palm up, the golden crystal cluster glowed with unearthly light. With her current charge whoever was chosen to be part of their group would be quite powerful, no matter what they chose as a power.