A/N and Disclaimer: A little something different. A meeting point where characters from other works brush up against Worm.

Worm is owned by John C. "Wildbow" McCrae
John Wick is owned by Summit Entertainment

Rebecca Costa-Brown glanced up from her computer as a doorway opened.

A woman in a tailored black suit and wearing a fedora entered. The door—which was neither Rebecca's office door, nor the door to her office's closet, nor even the one to the very small but adequately comfortable suite of rooms she used when working late or emergency dictated she remain available within the PRT Headquarters—closed behind her.

"Rebecca."

"Contessa," Rebecca said.

"The kill-order you are in the process of requesting, erase it."

"No."

Both women stared at each other.

"He is a distraction," Contessa said at last.

"He killed a dozen of my men," Rebecca said in a voice like a granite crag.

"He is a distraction. One that we cannot afford."

"Distraction from what?"

Contessa arched an eyebrow.

"You are joking," Rebecca said flatly. "He is one man."

"That one man," Contessa said evenly, "is John Wick."

Rebecca looked at her blankly.

"He once was an associate of ours," Contessa continued.

"I never heard of him."

Contessa continued as though Rebecca hadn't spoken, though her tone turned oddly contemplative. "We called him 'Baba Yaga.'"

"I know the myth," Rebecca said. "Russian. You mean to say he thought to style himself a boogeyman?"

"John isn't exactly the boogeyman," Contessa smiled a wintery smile. "John is the one you would send to kill the boogeyman."

Rebecca blinked. 'The Boogeyman' was one of the nicknames for… "You're joking," she said again, this time feelingly.

Contessa inclined her head fractionally. "John is a man of focus. Commitment. Sheer will. I once observed as he killed three high-level brutes in a bar with a pencil." Pause. Stare. "With a fucking, pencil."

Rebecca arched an eyebrow for the other woman very rarely slipped into profanity.

"And then one day he asked to leave. It was for a woman, of course. And the…arrangement we have in New York with Legend was unsuitable. So, Doctor Mother made a deal with him. She gave him an impossible task. A job that no one could have pulled off."

Rebecca's eyebrow reached for the upper atmosphere as she looked pointedly across her desk.

Contessa gave her a bland look in reply.

"I never heard of him," Rebecca said again.

"A requirement of his," Contessa said evenly. "John's power is subtle. Something that you know very little about, Rebecca."

"Subtlety is wasted effort," Rebecca replied. "What is his power?"

"On its own his power is so slight he is not any more dangerous than any of the civilians out there."

Rebecca snorted in contempt.

Contessa continued to regard her evenly. "Left to his own devices, John is no more dangerous than any non-cape out there. Well, perhaps more so than most, but that is a matter of training, skill, and experience than whatever ability he gets as a cape."

"I take it he gets more dangerous then?" Rebecca asked. "Some form of escalation changer?"

"In a way," Contessa agreed. "But not on his own. In fact, leaving him alone renders his powers inert. Around those not actively hostile to him, he is no more a threat than what he is on his own. But if he is in danger, if he is around those that wish to hurt or kill him, this is quite a different story. He gets faster, stronger, more resilient, smarter, his weapons become more durable, his armor more difficult to penetrate, his blades sharper, his shooting more accurate…

"It is a field-effect. The more potential danger-sources within the area of effect, the more dangerous those sources, not only makes him more dangerous, but the field itself grows. There is no endpoint. He will, always, be individually as dangerous, or more, as all those who would wish him ill. The best way to deal with John Wick is to leave him the fuck alone."

For several terse moments the Director of the PRT and Contessa stared at each other.

"You aren't trying very hard to convince me," Rebecca said.

"If I used the Path you would know I used the Path. It would work in the short-term. But at length you would reconsider. You would come to a different conclusion, and I no longer have the time or energy to spend keeping you from making a mistake."

They stared at each other some more.

Contessa shook her head. "You can't just let him walk away. You can't swallow such a public blow to your image."

"I have a dozen men dead!"

"You have only a dozen men dead," Contessa countered. "Pursuing this matter will only consume time, and more men, which will in turn force you to send still more men and spend more time."

"With a kill order I can sit back and pick up the pieces."

Contessa laughed. "Did you not hear a word I said, Alexandria? I said the more people you send after him, the more powerful people, the more dangerous he becomes. Let me try again. You leave John Wick the fuck alone. You do not kill his fucking puppy. You do not steal his fucking car. You do not bring him out of fucking retirement. And you do not send as many powerful, dangerous capes against him as you can.

"Now," she checked her watch. "I have a man I need to meet with before he does something particularly stupid. Doorway to Rome."

Rebecca Costa-Brown turned back to her computer

Name: Baba Yaga
Civilian: John Wick
Classification: Trump (See Notes)
Alignment: Rogue (former Villain?)
Sex: Male
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Age:~50
Nationality: American?
Marital Status: Married (Wife Deceased)
Family: None Known
Employment: None. Formerly assassin-for-hire (see list of suspected kills). Note, all known and verified work has been against criminal enterprises,
people associated with organized crime, or villainous parahumans.
Known Skills: Close Quarter and Hand-to-Hand Combat, extensive knowledge of organized crime

Note: Exhibits an escalating Trump power that increases his threat potential in proportion to the threats presented to him. This isn't limited to merely parahuman assets, but does seem to draw from an area-of-effect field the size of which increases as his power ramps up. As such, extreme response packages are discouraged.

Recommended Response: Direct response should be avoided at all possible. Fortunately, subject appears open to reason and suggestion. Low-key approach with request to keep combat away from civilians.

If PRT/Law Enforcement is targeted, open investigation into targeted persons or facility.

If apprehension is deemed critical, plan capture from a distance of at least 1000km, bring overwhelming but non-lethal force to bear in a minimum of time. It is hypothesized that something silly and obviously non-lethal, a prank taken to extremes, might not trigger his power.