Author's note – The first part has already been used by me in Guyver Naruto, but it can work as a set-up for so many different universes…
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Guyver Worm
Archanfel
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Archanfel lowered his weapon and stared emotionlessly at the ashes that had been the test subject prior to it donning the armour. His cape fluttering in the breeze caused by the superheated air rising to make way for cooler air, he turned back to face his masters, the beings who used the armour that they had tested on one of those he had been created from, beings who had lost an entire command ship and no less than four defence ships to a single, untrained primitive from the native species that they had adjusted to create an army that they could command.
This must not be allowed to happen again.
Archanfel didn't respond as the mental communication had not been aimed at him. Instead, he de-powered his weapon before shifting his grip on it, raising it above his head so that it could be reclaimed. As it was lifted out of his hands, Archanfel felt… something, sense of loss… of potential.
New weapons will be forged. Ones that cannot use the suits.
What happened today was… not as anticipated.
"Guyver." Archanfel whispered, giving the thought its closest approximation in the limited form known as speech.
Prepare the Grand Hammer for deployment and evacuate the planet. Leave whatever cannot be taken within the four-day, we must depart.
Archanfel blinked as the Advent floated away towards the distant ships, then he turned and looked at the distant shape of the damaged ship that was sinking into the lava, its self-repair systems already working to seal the hull. Nearby lay the unit that had granted the deceased primitive powers beyond the Advent and Archanfel began moving towards it, then he froze as a bolt of lightning from the clouds forming above lanced down and struck it. For a moment, it glowed like an earthbound sun, then it seemed to vanish as its dimensional storage systems overloaded and Archanfel felt another emotion.
Anger/Irritation.
The ground trembled as the first ship of the Advent lifted off and Archanfel watched them leave. Motionless, he waited for the last of his former masters to depart, uncaring that the process took over five days, and only then did he begin to move.
The ship that had been destroyed had been the one holding all of the records about where the caches of technology had been placed ready for use in building outposts. He had only learned the locations of five of them and several had probably been retrieved, but as long as at least one remained intact, he could use it as the base of his plans.
If any of the other units had been left in one of the caches, he would find it and would claim the power for himself. He would create weaker versions and use them to build his own army, his chosen ones leading the primitives to the stars, unleashing them against the Advent and seizing all that had once made them great.
But he could not do it alone.
He would need assistants. Helpers. Beings that he could empower so that they would be able to oversee events for him.
A slight movement in the skies above him caught his attention and, gathering his willpower, Archanfel rose into the skies, ascending into orbit with practiced ease even as his eyes searched for what had…
There!
A massive meteor, easily large and fast enough to ruin the planet… his planet, should it hit!
The odds of such an event occurring briefly crossed his mind, then he realised that it had been dispatched by the Advent, that the beings on the world below him would never become a threat.
That his plans, embryonic though they still were, would never come to be.
This could not be allowed.
Archanfel closed his eyes in concentration, although his senses could still feel the approaching planet-killer from its very mass. Calling upon all his reserves and channelling all the power of his twelve crystals, he unleashed it in a blast of ravening gravitonic fury that lanced out and slammed into the meteorite.
For almost a full day, Archanfel maintained the blast, slowly ripping the meteorite apart before he finally felt its central neutronium core dissipate. Drained and exhausted, Archanfel let himself descend into the atmosphere once more, realising that although he had save the origin of his eventual triumph, the cost had been high.
One of his crystals was cracked and he could feel it sapping his energy.
For the first time since he had been created, Archanfel knew what it was like to be tired.
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Worm
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It was official, yesterday had sucked.
Sophia had decided to pick up the bullying again. I'd hoped that the damned Locker would have persuaded them to back off a bit for fear of someone in authority actually doing their damned jobs for once, but I was wrong. I managed to overhear her as she gave four boys who were besotted with her some duct tape and instructions to use it to tie me to a pole. Then she spotted me and I ran. Naturally, she gave chase, but one of the boys must have kicked her foot by accident or something, because as I darted round the corner, I caught a glimpse of her falling.
Of course, the boys kept coming after me and I had to run for ages to escape. Finally, I lost them by hiding in one of the odd places that marked where the freelance parahumans known as Faultline's Crew had been operating.
Although I generally don't follow cape news that much, even I knew about Labrynth. One of Faultline's operatives, she could apparently unfold imaginary locations into reality or something like that, and she didn't always fold them back.
And this one looked… rather plain, actually. A copse of cherry trees with a small stream-bed and a wooden bridge over it.
Hearing the sound of distant voices, I ducked into one of the low bushes and paused. Half-embedded in the ground was an odd circular device. The device was an odd blue-green and trilaterally symmetrical which what appeared to be armoured panels over a coil of cables which held a metal sphere in the middle.
Odd.
I reached out carefully and tapped the edge, then the central sphere. Nothing happened, so I took a small breath and reached out to pull it out of the ground. After all, the PRT ran a bounty for tinkerteck that was handed in to it and despite Dad not saying anything, I knew that we were hurting for money.
Taking a strong grip, I pulled hard. The device came loose with surprising suddenness and I toppled out of the bush, the device banging my forehead as I tried to roll to my feet and only succeeded in sprawling. For a moment, I thought that my vision was blurring, then I realized that I had somehow activated the device and the coils inside it were moving.
"Oh shi…"
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I opened my eyes and looked round in confusion. I was outside my house, but in the back yard.
How?
Was the device a teleporter or something?
Pulling myself to my feet, I fumbled for my keys and let myself inside.
A nice cup of tea seemed just the thing.
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Partial transcript of interview with Shadow Stalker (Sophia Hess)
Interview conducted by Armsmaster (Colin Wallis)
Witnessed by Battery (-classified-)
A: Time is now six forty two PM, location is interview room seven. This is Armsmaster acting as primary interviewer.
B: This is Battery acting as witness.
SS: Shadow Stalker. What the hell was that thing, anyway?
A: We will get to that. You were in the area when the unknown Tinker appeared. Please describe him for the record, along with any other observations that you made.
SS: Seriously? You got pictures of the damn Tinker and you want me to…
B: (Interrupting) It's protocol, I have to do similar things.
SS: Right. Fuck. Alright. Ummmm, armor. Never seen anything like it before, not metal. Looked kinda like an insect. Odd eyes and weird circles in the gaps of the helmet, they seemed to move like eyes or something. Freaky. Ummmm, the mouth had two silver orbs, one above the other, blades on its arms and one on its helmet… cannons in its chest.
A: For the record, please explain how you know about the cannons.
SS: 'cause I saw fucking HOOKWOLF try to attack it! Bug-armor guy just backhanded him into a tree, then pulled open half his chest and fired a goddamn ray of death at the fucking nazi!
B: Stalker, calm down…
A: For the record, the unknown Tinker managed to kill Hookwolf. DNA tests on the few portions of him left after the attack prove that it was him.
SS: Yeah, fucker was just vaporized. The blades left over, damn things were glowing. I think a few even melted. I almost felt sorry for that Nazi.
A: Then what happened?
SS: You showed up, tried to talk to him and he just flew off. I couldn't do anything and I wasn't even in my uniform, so I left and came straight here.
A: For the record, that was the correct decision given the circumstances.
SS: …gee, thanks.
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I still had no idea of what had happened to that disc, but in retrospect, it was probably something made by L33T.
That was a scary thought. I'd heard tales of how L33T-tech kept exploding.
It had affected me, though. I was faster and stronger. Not all that much, but I could jump half-again as far (and high) and my arms were more than strong enough to let me pull myself up walls without getting tired.
It really was a boon for my patrolling. Coupled with my bugs (and somehow, I was actually seeing through their eyes… L33T's tech seemed to have boosted my range to almost four blocks), I could find trouble and get to it quickly.
It wasn't until I encountered Lung that I discovered what else it had done.
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"…and if any of them go down, double-tap them to be sure. I want those kids dead!"
I hadn't caught most of Lung's speech, so I didn't know who he was referring to, but the important thing was that he had just declared he wanted to kill some children.
That wasn't right!
I knelt behind a chimney and concentrated. Every single bug in range started to gather, the flying ones swooping down to carry the ground-bound bugs. Wasps, flies, butterflies, spiders, roaches and many others all obeyed my call and within a moment, a swarm was coalescing above Lung and his minions.
The sheer mass of insects was enough to be audible because Lung looked up and peering round the chimney-stack, I saw him tense up.
"There's a Master nearby!" he roared, flexing his muscles. "Find him and bring him to me!"
I ducked back behind the chimney and unleashed my swarm on the ABB, spiders weaving thread to pin them as hornets stung and my other bugs covered them in a living carpet. The Black Widows I reserved for Lung. As a regenerator, I needed to take him down fast or…
Oh hell.
I felt the bugs swarming him blotted out in a wave of intolerable heat, then more of them died as he moved towards me.
How the hell did he know where I was? Had he spotted me ducking into cover?
A crunching noise snapped me back to reality and I threw myself into a roll as a huge fist shattered the stack I was sheltering behind. As the broken bricks landed behind me, I flipped myself to my feet and spun round…
…just in time to be slammed into the parapet as a large hand partially covers in scales closed around my neck and Lung's head loomed above me, his face warped enough that his metal dragon mask was now dangling over one ear, held by a single strap that was fraying even as I looked at it.
"''ooo ell eye!"
I tried to swallow, but Lung's hand, growing hotter by the second, prevented it.
They say that when you are about to die, your life flashes before your eyes.
They're wrong.
It was just a word. One I'd never heard before, one that almost forced its way out of my throat.
"GUYVER!"
Lung's eyes widened an instant before a sphere of energy formed around me, knocking him backwards. Cables wrapped around my body and pulled armor plates out of thin air. My strength increased and my vision sharpened to the point that I could see every tiny pore on the portions of him not covered in scales.
Lung roard as the energy dissipated and dropped me back onto my feet. The feeling of energy snapping through me was indescribable and as I dropped into a basic defence stance, I could feel the blades on my arms start to vibrate, making a humming noise.
"You have a chest blaster!" A female voice shouted, causing both Lung and myself to half-turn to see a trio of quadrupedal monsters with four riders. The lone rider of the lead beast raised her hands to her mouth and shouted again.
"You just need to pull open your chest-plate and focus!" She yelled. "You've done it before! When you took out Hookwolf at the park!"
I blinked.
I had?
I mean, everyone was discussing the insect-themed tinker who had used his power armor to…
…armor…
…armor just like I was wearing…
…my armor!
Reaching up, I found my fingers slipping smoothly into the space between my chestplates. Pulling gently, I felt it swing oipen and the energy flowing through me started to pool over my heart before lancing out and hitting Lung.
...holy crap!
As his smoking remains landed on the ground below, the girl called out again.
"Nice one, thanks for the assist! let's go!"
I glanced at their disappearing forms, then back down at the injured Lung, just as a motorbike pulled up beside him and the armored rider dismounted.
Armsmaster!
I wanted to stay, but I didn't know how long my power boost would last, so I turned and ran, launching myself off the roof and…
…wow!
I can fly!
"Wahoooooo!"
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"In the news today, the ABB suffered a severesetback with the capture of the parahuman criminal Lung. The man who once faced off against Leviathon and who faced down the Triumvirate in single combat was rushed to hospital with extreme injuries. Only the intervention of the healing cape Panacea saved his life.
"Although Armsmaster was the one who brought in Lung, the cape who defeated the Dragon of Brockton Bay was the same Cape who killed the criminal known as Hookwolf.
"A cape about whom almost nothing is known except for his name.
"Guyver."