Disclaimer: I don't own Worm, although it is an awesome story. Nor do I own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Ah! My Goddess. I make no money from this, and wrote it simply for the pleasure of writing.
Wild Horses:
As the worm turns
By
Faerie Knight
Sam Masaki was quite use to being in danger. In the course of his long, some might say excessively long, life he'd risked death on a near constant basis. Then again he was a Hero. He put his life on the line so that others would be kept safe. When he was a young man Sam had gone through something truly horrific. Hundreds had died, all for the sake of an illegal experiment Sam had unwittingly been a part of. This experience had changed him. It had given a direction to take that he'd not backed away from since.
But after living for more eons then anyone should ever have to consider, let alone count, he'd been ready to die. Then he'd been pulled into a new life by divine beings. He'd been given the life of a teenage champion and forced to take up the fight once more. Stopping two apocalypses a year was nothing new. If anything it had felt like old times. Facing demons and monsters though, that had been new. And having a cosmic artifact be magically turned into his clone daughter, that too had been rather new. But now his time was at an end once more. Closing the rupture had hurt him badly. And the jarring impact against the ground didn't help matters any. He was dying, and knew it. Still there was enough time to say goodbye to those he cared for.
"I can bring you back," the red haired woman kneeling beside his broken form said in desperation.
Sam told her "You can't. I'm dying Willow. But it's not a bad thing. I'll get to see my wife and children again. You, all of you, made a tired old man feel young again. Thank you..."
And with that his eyes closed for the last time. Or rather it should have been the last time. When he next opened his eyes Sam once more was before two entities he'd not seen in five years. From their body language, the two were upset about something. Yet this ire didn't appear to be directed towards Sam. In fact Janus's rear female face adopted a sad smile upon seeing Sam. But why were the two entities staring off into the distance? With a mental shrug Sam decided to ask the question that was really on his mind.
"The hell am I doing back here?"
It was Janus who responded with the god's always odd double voice. "It (it) is (is) with (with) great (great) shame (shame) that (that) we (we) ask (ask) this (this) of (of) you (you). But (Really) your (sorry) skills (about) are (Sam) needed again."
The other entity then elaborated. "There's a girl who was suppose to be a champion of change, the herald of the end and savior of her branch of the multiverse. But she.. uhm... There was a miscalculation, and she's about to die. Would you mind, erm, taking her place?"
Her place?! Sam thought incredulously. "I'd be locked, wouldn't I?"
There was no answer. Instead Sam found himself opening his eyes once again. There also was the rather foul aroma of bio waste which had been left to rot. Right in front of Sam's eyes was an ethereal note. It read "Her name was Taylor Herbert. And remember, the right path isn't always the moral path." The stench made it hard to focus. As did the dizziness which kept washing over Sam. If the girl he was replacing had been trapped in this enclosed space long enough to nearly die, did that affect him now? Struggling to escape did little good. There was no leverage to be gained after all.
He didn't know what happened then. There was a bizarre vision of two things in a void. Next then Sam knew was that he was waking up in an uncomfortable bed. A god damn hospital? What the hell happened? He thought. Only then did Sam notice that the bedding didn't quite lay as it should. Sam also took note that he appeared to be a teenager, again. There was something else though. And this was a new thing. He, or rather currently she, could feel hundreds of insects.
It was rather disturbing when she thought about it. Even more so upon realizing Sam could tap into the senses of those insects. This ability was something she'd never had before. So where did it come from? Did it have something to do with that vision? Or was it a 'gift' to help take the Herbert girl's place like how Sam had become a mystical warrior known as a 'slayer' the last time? Either way, Sam could still feel her normal abilities. And that was more then enough, always had been.
There were also memories that didn't belong to Sam floating around her mind. They appeared to belong to the girl Sam was replacing, the one who was about to die. Wait, no, she had died. Sam had been entered into this dimension at the moment of Hebert's death. After searching those alien memories she finally located a number. A government funded super hero organization sat poorly with Sam, but she'd take what she could get.
Examining the memories of the last two years revealed something which made Sam sick. Herbert may not have consciously noticed it, but one of the three teens who'd tormented the poor girl probably had some sort of powers. And from the extensive coverup there was probably ties to some major players. The clues were all right there for someone with eons of experience fighting crime. Even she eventually had learned how to investigate. Boredom if nothing else had forced that.
After dialing a number on the bed's built in phone Sam spoke. "Hello, my name is Sam Masaki, and I'd like to report the murder of Tayler Hebert. Send someone to the hospital assigned under the Herbert name, preferably a mind reader and someone who can compel the truth from others. Just this once I'll allow someone to enter my mind."
XxXxX
The woman blinked. The Path she had followed for years had just abruptly vanished. The most recent step had gone off without a single hitch. And yet no new step was coming. The path's goal hadn't been accomplished. Yet it had already ended. The last step had been Cause Tayler Hebert to trigger. But what came next? Subtle manipulation had easily lead to a young cape tormenting the Herbert girl and shoving the teen into a toxic waste filled locker. This was the event The Path called for to cause Herbert to trigger. So why was the path not continuing?
XxXxX
It turned out there was no mind reader available. But the next best thing had been brought in from the west coast. A man who called himself Projectron had been brought in. He was able to project a person's memories into a three dimensional holographic image, but couldn't tell what the memory would be in advance. Fortunately Projectron was able to speed up the images, rather then being limited to real time. He'd also been able to place copies in some sort of storage and playback device.
Because of him the local metahuman authorities, or rather Parahuman as this dimension called them, had been able to verify that Sam was exactly who she claimed to be. It had taken some experimentation before Projectron had been able to preform his trick with the memories of Taylor Hebert. When the Locker Incident was displayed someone called Armsmaster was called in as well. The identities of three high school bullies really did appear to cause quite the uproar.
"As you can see, I am not Taylor Hebert. I was asked to take her place because the local Powers screwed up. They left Hebert in that damn locker too long. That said, most gods are rather big on free will. While they make plans, they don't force anyone to actually follow them. Which means you people need to look into why the high school did nothing even though there were plenty of witnesses to what happened, including at least one teacher."
Me, I need to do a hell of a lot of research. I need to know just why this world needs a 'herald of the end and savior of the world'. There was a warm glow that started up on the blue haired woman's chest. This caused her to reach for whatever was there. When Sam's hand encountered a long familiar amulet she scowled. The mental static caused by countless insect minds touching her own muted shortly after the amulet began to heat up. This did not sit well with her. Not at all.
Armsmaster also noticed the hammer shaped pendent heating up. But what alarmed him was the fact his scanners were showing that a newly grown part of the brain was shrinking. That was something that just didn't happen. Once someone triggered, they stayed triggered. Except that wasn't what was happening this time. Before his eyes the corona pollentia shrank until it completely vanished. Only once that had occurred did the hammer shaped pendent around the girl's neck cool off.
"What just happened?" Armsmaster demanded.
"Oh, apparently Hebert was suppose to control bugs. But whatever the hell gave those powers was an invasive entity. And as a champion of Thor, well he never did like things taking control of his champions against their will. Besides, I don't need them."
XxXxX
Being in high school for the third time was annoying. But the classes were just different enough to almost make it new. History had a stark divergence from her own world. While in Sam's original universe the first recorded Hero emerged in 1948, there were earlier unconfirmed stories about wandering vigilantes that went as far back as 1920. Here however there was no real mention of metahumans until 1981 or so. Of course, her research also showed this world had problems far bigger then a chinese dragon who peddles mind controlling drugs or terrorist organizations who love using robotics and genetic engineering.
This world had Endbringers. Three or four, she wasn't sure exactly, entities that go around destroying cities. And from the reports, they sounded far worse then fighting Apsu. And that had been horrifying. Thirty of Sam's best heroes had fought the dark god. And of them, only five had returned. Well, technically six, but Dream Chyld had been so injured she couldn't leave the dream realms again or she'd die. Sam herself had been hospitalized for six months after that battle. And she'd been one of the lucky ones.
Endbringers though, they regularly got fought by thousands of 'capes', the term used in this world for metahumans. And it was considered a win if half of them survived. These Endbringers had yet to be defeated, merely delayed until they leave on their own. It was, in a word, horrifying. So how the hell was it that one traumatized teenager with bug control powers had been expected to save this world? But that brought Sam's mind back to the current issue. High school, again. And not even a good school. Winslow High made the worst schools Sam had ever seen in the slums look tame.
Three different gangs went to the school. It was used as a recruiting ground, apparently. The faculty were even more apathetic then Sam remembered such schools being. And then there was the unaffiliated bullies. In anyplace else Hess, Barnes, and Madison would have been arrested after the locker incident. And probably expelled long before that happened. Hebert's memories included an incident of being tripped and falling down a flight of stairs. Since Sam could see many security cameras, why had nothing been done?
But that was part of the reason Sam was in this school. There apparently was no physical proof. And no students or faculty were collaborating what happened. The cameras didn't work, and hadn't worked for three years. The students were either too apathetic or were part of the bullying. And the teachers were again either apathetic or actively covering things up. The principle was definitely engaged in a coverup. Checking police records showed that the principle had convinced the first responders that there was no need to investigate.
Because of this Sam had agreed to enter this horrid school under cover, using the name Taylor Hebert. The girl's father had been informed of what had happened, and had agreed to take Sam into his home. Although it was doubtful that Mister Hebert believed his daughter was dead. He probably thought it was a 'trigger event'. To aid this investigation Sam was wearing concealed cameras and a 'tinker tech' listening device. Whatever that meant.
Not that it took long. The three ringleaders showed themselves almost the second Sam entered the school. At first it was minor things. Emotional abuse, taunting, and pushing into a locker. It took a lot of willpower not to respond to that. Then dumping juice on her head during lunch. To keep in character Sam had followed Hebert's usual practice of hiding in the bathroom during lunch. It wasn't until the school day was almost over that she hit pay dirt. Sam had felt their approach from behind easily. The remnants of that bug control power was just barely enough to create a twenty foot radius early warning system. But that was more then enough for Sam.
When the Hess girl pushed Sam forcefully down the stairs she didn't resist the initial push. Minor strength powers? That was harder then a normal person can achieve. Sam flipped herself in the air and pushed off against one of the stairs. This led into a triple somersault. Eons of training and use had polished her acrobatics skills and reaction time to a razor's edge. Turning around, Sam saw the Hess girl and her two cohorts staring dumbly. This clearly wasn't the way they had thought things would go down.
"No!" Hess exclaimed. "Your weak! You're Prey! Prey doesn't get stronger, it just dies! Why aren't you dead, the locker should have killed you!"
Sam noted that the other two teens paled at Hess's words. Clearly they hadn't thought about the full ramifications of their actions. They didn't realize just how psychotic their leader was. But that didn't absolve them of guilt. Got you! As Sam stalked towards the three bullies the air around her grew intensely cold. Her skin took on a blue cast, then became partly see through. Or rather her entire body became semi-translucent. Her cloths flash froze, then shattered as movement caused the now brittle fabric to break apart.
Underneath the civilian cloths was a white bathing suit with gray highlights. Only her belt had survived the experience. That, and the now visible wire that was taped to the front of the bathing suit. Her feet were now encased in thigh high boots, while elbow length gloves covered her hands. Both were a solid white, while the boots had a stripe of gray along the top. Only now did Hess start to realize how much trouble she was in.
"Shit, a cape!" Barnes exclaimed in panic.
"Thanks for the confession," Sam said with a smirk. "And Miss Barnes, I wouldn't count on daddy helping you with the murder charge you're facing. He can't represent you, conflict of interest after all. You are all under arrest of Taylor Hebert. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you can't afford a lawyer one will be appointed to you. Do you understand these rights as they've been explained to you?"
With a gesture ambient moisture in the air coalesced into a wall of ice behind the three students. Hess however shifted into some sort of shadow form and dove through the ice. This did leave the other two behind. Of the two remaining bullies, only Barnes hadn't been surprised by this stunt. She did appear to be alarmed at being abandoned though. This told Sam that the Barnes girl had been aware of Hess's powers but that Madison hadn't known.
XxXxX
It was a political nightmare in the making. One of the wards had confessed to committing murder while in their civilian identity, then outed themselves immediately afterwords. And to make matters worse it couldn't be covered up. Footage of the assault and subsequent confession had somehow been routed not only to the PRT headquarters, but to every news station in the world. And all Dragon had to say about it was to whistle in appreciation of the programing required.
There were none of the hallmarks of a tinker's work. And yet the rerouting program was centuries ahead of anything else being produced. It had been written in a programing language nobody had heard of. And by the time a team of tinkers and thinkers had managed to unravel it enough to figure out a counter measure it was too late. The last line in the code turned out to be a message. It read: Nobody is above the law-Ice Lady. There was also a badge number listed.
When checked, the badge number was legitimate, and belonged to a new member of the Brockton Bay Police. A young woman by the name of Sam Masaki. When asked, the chief of police had gladly informed Director Piggot that he was aware that Officer Masaki had powers. He then informed the local PRT director that no, Misaki did not fall under the jurisdiction of the PRT since she was not, in fact, a parahuman. This was then confirmed by Armsmaster when he showed the scans detailing the shrinking and disappearance of the corona pollentia gland.
In the week since Shadow Stalker's outing, becoming a fugitive, and the arrest of two civilian girls the PRT had been struggling to figure out exactly what went wrong and why. Increasingly the answer was becoming obvious. Even more, Armsmaster noted that his boss looked worried. Which was why he decided to question Miss Militia. Cornering the heroine however had proven harder then expected. It wasn't until nearly ten at night that he managed the feat.
"What's your take?" He asked.
The heroine frowned in thought. "You mean about Officer Masaki?"
Armsmaster nodded slowly. "Yes. Her."
"She's surprisingly effective. And completely fearless. Scuttlebutt says she fought Lung last night."
That caused the tinker to pause. "And she walked away?"
"No, I hear she won. Responders claim she said 'he's not the first dragon I fought or the toughest'."
Blinking in shock, the man decided to look into that. Lung was not someone he'd want to fight alone. Hell, he would rather not fight Lung at all. Not without a large team of heavy hitters and a lot of preparation. So how could one officer take down the leader of the Azn Bad Boys? He was still in a daze when he reached his lab. These days it was far more then just a workshop. The first thing Armsmaster did was check for any cameras that recorded the fight. He was in luck, one had.
That was the first shock of the investigation. Only one camera had recorded the confrontation. Nor was there any records of massive property damage. That was unusual for when Lung got into a fight. Watching the recording raised even more questions. Among them was 'why didn't I think of that'. It turned out there hadn't really been a fight. Officer Masaki had simply encased Lung's head in thick ice until he passed out, then put some sort of unusual looking handcuffs around Lung's wrists.
The video then showed Lung waking up and trying to break the cuffs. That was the key word, trying. Even more shocking was the discovery that Lung was currently being held at the precinct. Which raised the question of how the police were managing to hold him there. For all his talents, for all his experience, the man couldn't think of a single way that was possible. Yet it clearly was. Then again he also didn't understand how someone could have powers without being a parahuman.
XxXxX
She'd been sent as a honey pot. Her abilities were suppose to help even further. Yet when Lisa finally did manage to meet Officer Masaki things didn't go as planned. Activating her power gave the information Hero! Mother. Champion! Father. HERO! It also gave the fastest Thinker headache she'd ever received. So who the hell was Officer Masaki? And why did Lisa get the impression of great age?
"Let me guess, you're a seer and you tried to look into my past?"
Lisa scowled due to annoyance and headache. Cold, burning. Arcs of electricity. Death. Cold. Her powers 'helpfully' informed Lisa. She'd not consciously activated them this time. Fear, darkness black all consuming, loss sorrow. The headache kept growing. It took a lot of willpower to suppress the next attempt to draw out more information.
"How did you know?" She asked the officer while wincing.
Sam merely smiled sadly. "For I have walked the ages, and eons have walked me. The stars they did grow dim their light no more to see. No rest though weary does the cosmos give. Joy and sorrow in their time so long as you live. To stop, to sleep a peace at last! Journey's end welcomed with wide arms! Nay nay they say not now, new life ahead for you. For duty pulls ever on a hero's tired tread."
The headache magnified yet again as Lisa suddenly got even more Insight. "You can't be tempted, can you?"
"I can tell your a good kid," Sam told her. "Misguided maybe, but a good kid. But I sure as hell can't help you or your friends unless you give up what you're doing. Your boss will go down. So you have to ask yourself, do you want to go down with him? Or will you make something better for yourself?"
XxXxX
"...be on the lookout for Thomas Calvert of the PRT, he is to be considered armed and dangerous Lethal force has been authorized. Repeat, this is an all points bulliton. Coil has been identified, be on the lookout for Thomas Calvert of the PRT. He is to be considered armed and dangerous. Lethal force has been authorized."
As the man known as Coil listened to the police scanner he frowned. How his identity had been compromised he didn't know. The fact it was the BBPD that was hunting for him though, that felt more then a little surreal. Actually what felt surreal was the fact the BBPD had put away more capes in the last two months then the PRT had in the last ten. The director of Brockton Bay's Protectorate had also been arrested on charges of conspiracy and accessory to murder.
Sitting back in his chair, Coil split the timeline.
He leans forward and plans.
XxX
He enters the room. The girl is huddled in the far corner, like usual. She demands candy, whines about how she needs it. The price is that she answer five questions.
"What is the chance of the police finding me?"
The girl doesn't even hesitate. "One hundred percent."
"What are the chances of me escaping in an hour?"
She sounds even more gleeful. "Three percent."
"What is the chance I escape if I leave right now?"
A female voice Coil doesn't recognize speaks from behind him. "Zero percent, you're under arrest mother fucker."
Coil collapses the timeline.
XxX
"Well that didn't work. Once more he split the timeline.
Coil continues to plan. After about twenty minutes he hears a pounding on the door. Not as if someone knocking either. More of an even and measured thumping sound. The door soon breaks open, revealing a police battering ram. A dozen officers surge into the room with their guns drawn.
Coil collapses the timeline.
XxX
He stands and exits the room. As he makes his way towards a secret elevator Coil begins to hear gun fire in the distance. Soon he's having to hide fairly regularly to avoid police who are searching the bunker. By the time he's made it to the elevator it's very clear something catastrophic to his plans has happened. The elevator after all is descending.
XxX
When the doors to the elevator opened they revealed five members of SWAT.
XxXxX
"A god told me the right path isn't always the moral path," Officer Masaki said to the gathered heroes. "That's fucking bullshit. I've lived long enough to know the right path is always one of morals. If the choice is to save one life or save a hundred, the correct choice is always to find a way to save everyone. There's no such thing as achieving good by doing evil. And the lesser evil is still evil. When I gained my powers I swore an oath
"Never again. Never again would an innocent die because of my inaction. Never again would I stand aside. I dedicated my life to upholding that ideal. I can't count how many times this oath has nearly gotten me killed. Hell, it has gotten me killed twice. Like many of you, I started as a vigilante. I worked outside the law because the law was corrupt. And it would have been so god damn easy to sink to the standards of the criminals. But as I said, the lesser evil is still fucking evil. And you can't save lives by doing evil.
"The Protectorate would have you believe stopping the Endbringers is impossible. I'm telling you it isn't. We're going to fight Leviathan, and we're going to win. We aren't going to do this by fighting a delaying action. It wont be because of fighting to slow the damn thing down. We fight to win. I've faced an actual god to save the entire multiverse. And I did so with far fewer allies then we have here. Many of whom were no stronger nor durable then a regular human. The fact you all are standing here today should tell you who won. I wont lie, there's a good chance many of us wont walk away. But we're god damn heroes.
"This is what we do. We step into the breach. We face impossible odds simply because if we don't, who will? When the shit hits the fan, were the god damn umbrella keeping the streets clean. When Armageddon comes knocking, we're the ones who punch out the fucking apocalypse. And should we fail the universe will know we tried our best. No, not our best. Because when our best isn't good enough we dig down deep. We find strength we didn't even know we had, and we give it three hundred percent.
"So let's get out there and save this city. There's an Endbringer to put down, and we're the ones to do it."
Elsewhere
A phone rang, and a platinum blond woman answered. "Urd, there's something really weird going on in Quarantine. Remember that virus that formed in there? It just shattered. Oh Father, it's leaving Quarantine... No no no, I'll call you back when I get the chance."
Author Notes:
I'm still working on Wild Horses Sometimes Breed's next chapter. In the mean time, here's yet another installment in the overarching story. It's not really connected to the others, other then tying into Wild Horses: Wish Upon a Star at the beginning. This is intentional. Wild Horses and Wishes was set in the far distant future for character timeline wise, and based off the final scene in Wild Horses can't be Tamed. The series goes (in order)
Wild Horses Can't Be Tamed
Of Fish, Ponds, and Wild Horses
Wild Horses Sometimes Breed
Wild Horses: Wish Upon a Star
Wild Horses: As the worm turns