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.

Prologue

Magnus was uncomfortable. Hell, more than uncomfortable. He regretted, momentarily, his decision to volunteer for the procedure. Not that there were many alternative test subjects in the Alliance Navy. His ability with Magic, Biotics, Psionics and Force was very nearly unique.

The procedure itself was a success. He now had a functioning set of experimental Mechanicus Implants. Waking up, now that hadn't been a success. A wave of exquisite confusion, vertigo and disorientation startled Magnus enough that he had momentarily lost control of his abilities. Combined with a surge in his new implants as they activated, he was shunted through the Warp and rendered unconscious.

This time waking up had been far more controlled. Magnus examined his strange surroundings, failing to recognize anything. Sure, he was on Earth, that much was familiar. Everything else, though… It was strange. He seemed to be in the past. The level of technology and surroundings suggested late twentieth or early twenty-first centuries.

He was looking out of the window. The city beyond was unknown to him. He read the newspaper on the table next to his bed and was baffled. To his knowledge there hadn't been a city called Brockton Bay on Earth. Ever. His new Mechanicus Archive agreed. There were other things that indicated that he had probably ended up in an alternate dimension. There were superhumans, or parahumans as they were called here, on this Earth.

"Ah, you're awake," said the woman stepping into his room. She was dressed in combat fatigues of the era and had covered the lower half of her face with a shemagh in the colors of the United States flag. Magnus recognized her as Miss Militia, one of the parahumans associated with the Protectorate. She was mentioned in an article in the newspaper.

"Miss Militia," he said, turning to face her fully and nodding.

"What happened to you? You were found unconscious and practically naked near Boardwalk."

Caution was the key here. He was uncertain of how the people of this Earth felt and dealt with dimensional crossovers. Lying, preferably by omission, was the best course.

"One part of my implants spiked suddenly and before the others could compensate I was rendered unconscious. Experimental technology, you understand. It should be fixed now."

"I could ask Armsmaster to check out your implants, make sure there aren't other problems with it," she said.

Magnus almost smiled. "I don't think so. Good try, though. Am I free to leave or do the good doctors want to check something? Or perhaps you need to ask something?"

"Have you thought of joining the Protectorate? What should we call you?"

"I have and I won't be joining. I'd like my technology to stay my technology."

"I assume you are aware of how short the careers of independent Tinkers tend to be?"

There were some foreign terms there. Magnus hesitated.

"I think I can defend myself well enough. I have some tricks up my sleeve."

"I understand. And your name?"

Magnus had considered this for a while. He was the first of the Omegas, his Mechanicus Implants prototypes developed by the technologists of Mars. "I am Omega. Well, Omega Zero, if Omega is too final for you."

She was quiet for a moment, staring at him. "Well, the doctors say that there appears to be nothing for them to do as they have no idea what your implants do. So you're free to go."

"Good," Magnus said. He gestured and spoke a word of power. An armor based on N7's but upgraded for the Omegas appeared on him. Another word and gesture made him disappear.

"Tricks indeed," Miss Militia said and grinned under her shemagh.

So maybe teleporting randomly wasn't a good idea, Magnus thought as he dodged another swipe from the lizard cape. He was huge, almost a foot taller than Magnus, built like a tank, and slowly turning into some kind of ugly dragon. He was also on fire.

Behind them on the roof a girl dressed in black with a bug mask and burns was cowering. She was probably behind the bugs attacking the lizard man, even if the bugs didn't do much except sizzle as they hit the flames.

Magnus flung the lizard man off the roof with a Force Throw giving himself some breathing room. "You O.K. ?" he asked the girl.

"Fine, I think. Little burned," she allowed.

It was only a moment before the flaming parahuman jumped back to the roof. "Fuck," Magnus said. "Time to up my game."

Magnus raised a biotic Barrier and threw a Warp towards the flaming man. Apparently the fucker had regenerative abilities like the krogan, so he hoped that Warp would work against him as well as it worked against them.

The lizard seemed to think it could simply tank the Warp only to find out that he was wrong. One of the more powerful biotic attacks in Magnus' arsenal, Warp turned the left side of his opponent's abdomen to hamburger meat, totally disintegrated the left side of his pelvis and ripped off his left leg. It also pushed him off the roof again. This time Magnus went after him to the edge of the roof. Down below he saw the flames diminishing and the lizard man was reverting to his human shape. The wounds caused by the Warp were closed but the regeneration was slow and the man was unconscious. As a human he wasn't much bigger, if at all, than Magnus himself.

Magnus muttered a few arcane words and gestured towards the fallen human, making sure that he stayed down. Then he returned to the girl. After a quick application of Force healing she was almost as good as new.

"Thank you," the girl said and opened her mouth to say something else just as they heard heavy thumps from behind them. Three huge shapes had landed there and people were sliding off them.

"What the hell man?! You took out Lung?" one of the guys exclaimed. He was dressed foppishly, in a Renaissance fair costume. He even had a scepter and a coronet.

"Lung? How imaginative," Magnus muttered. "Well, yes. He attacked me. Should I have let him kill me?"

The fop stared at Magnus. "Well, no. I'm just saying that it's Lung. Lung!"

Magnus was utterly nonplussed. Perhaps Lung was some kind of local legend.

"Thank you for taking care of Lung," said the guy dressed in motorcycle leathers and helmet with a crude skull painted on the visor. He was slightly smaller than Magnus, and there were rivulets of dark vapor misting down from his helmet.

"Hey, back to the important things," the lanky teen interrupted. "What the hell did you do to Lung? He's still missing his leg."

A girl dressed in a lavender and black bodysuit with a utility belt diagonally across her hips walked over to the edge of the room. She watched at the shape on the ground for a moment and grimaced. "Wasp and bee stings, fire ants and spider bites, and something else that I can't really figure out. His regeneration is suppressed."

Magnus glanced at her. Information gathering specialist?

"Biotics and magic. Mostly biotics, magic's just keeping him unconscious."

They watched Magnus as if he was utterly crazy. "Oh, you're one of the loony ones," the fop said.

"Regent, don't annoy the guy who took out Lung, please?" The girl pleaded.

"Right. Sorry," Regent apologized. It sounded extremely insincere.

"So what was it said that sounded crazy?" Magnus asked.

The guy in the leathers turned to look at Magnus. "I have no idea what biotics are but generally speaking magic doesn't exist. Even if Myrddin and the Adepts claim that their powers are magic."

"Ah. Well, I can see why you'd think I've got a few screws loose."

The girl in lavender was watching Magnus and rubbing her temple with a grimace. "What ARE you?" she said.

"I'm called Omega. I'm, well, you could call me a combat engineer. I also dabble in various forms of energy manipulation."

"I'm thinking you do a bit more than dabble," the girl said.

"Well, I suppose it's time for introductions," the man in the leathers said. "I'm Grue, she's Tattletale. The fool over there is Regent and these are Bitch's dogs Brutus, Angelica and Judas," he said, pointing first at the butch girl and then towards the spiky monsters they had ridden on.

"You're villains, then?" Magnus said. "I can't really see a hero calling herself Bitch."

Grue hesitated. "Well, yes. We're Undersiders. The PRT calls Bitch Hellhound."

Bitch growled. "Stupid motherfuckers."

There was a moment of stillness and quiet, then Tattletale turned her head. "We've better go, hero incoming. I'm guessing neither of you wants a ride?"

"No. We're fine," Magnus said.

Grue shrugged. "Fine. Bitch, let's go." He jumped on one of the dogs and pulled Tattletale up with him.

About a minute later Magnus heard an engine roar and moved to the edge of the roof to see what was coming. The vehicle was a thing of beauty, all sleek curves and still managed to give the impression of power. On the motorcycle was a man in power armor, his helmet open so that he could be seen to speak. His beard was meticulously shaped and Magnus wondered if this was the current fashion trend or just the man's affectation.

The man took a halberd from the bike and changed somehow it's shape until he had a grappling hood instead of a blade visible. Then he shot the hook to the roof and let it pull him up, landing on the roof with practiced ease.

"Hello there. You are Omega, yes? Miss Militia sent a file on you to my armor's systems," the man said. "Who's this next to you?"

The girl grimaced. "I haven't decided on a name yet, sorry."

Magnus saw the man nodding and asked: "And who might you be?"

There was a flash of sour surprise on the man's face before he answered. "Armsmaster, leader of Protectorate East-North-East."

The girl was watching Magnus like he was an alien. "Wait, what? You don't know Armsmaster?"

Magnus turned to face the girl. "Nope," exaggerating the popping sound at the end of the word. "Well, yes, now I do, obviously."

"What happened here?" Armsmaster asked.

Magnus gave him the abbreviated version of the fight and its results. Armsmaster asked a thing or two and then went to check on Lung. Magnus watched as he took some kind of cage from his bike and set it over Lung.

"I guess our work here is done," Magnus said to the girl.

Spells used:
- Disguise Self, 1st level Wizard spell
- Teleport, 5th level Wizard spell
- Deep Slumber, 3rd level Wizard spell

Force Powers used:
- Force Throw
- Force Healing

Biotics used:
- Barrier (not needed but reflexes are reflexes)
- Warp

Psionic powers used:
- None used consciously