Worm Protocol 4.1: Lesson 1: Don't Wake Sleeping Gankoomon

Location Brockton Bay January 17: Brockton Bay 9:00 AM

I liked to sleep in. It was the only bonus to being in this Yggdrasil-awful, human form I got. Which is why I did not enjoy being woken up by my specifically-made tinker-tech-phone, which really wasn't tinker-tech, but it was ahead of all the phones on Earth Bet, and had it's own made charger for it. Seriously, Duftmon, you overcomplicated bastard.

"This is Gankoomon speaking. Who is it?" I asked trying to put some tone of formality in my voice. I failed utterly, but I'd like to see anybody else do better after they were stuck in a room for 6 hours two days ago, and spent the next one convincing his student not to save every cat in the tree on the way back.

'It's still better than being here with the Taylor Issue.' I thought, before I was cut off from that train of thought by the other person speaking.

"Gankoomon, it's Daniel Hebert." and just like that I knew my dreams of a quiet morning were just shot. He was calling on my "work" phone for one. The fact that he didn't know Gary and Gankoomon were the same also meant I had to watch what I said.

"What's the problem, Daniel?" I asked, the man was a good one morally and could deal with my own particular personality, which from what ninety percent of the Digital World told me meant we were practically best friends already.

"The guys have been complaining about some Merchants causing trouble because of the ferry being rebuilt due to your generous donations. I was wondering if you can take care of them… The other thing is I'm pretty sure I've been tailed for the past two days, there's been this van at the end of my street, and at work I can look out my window and see it in the parking lot."

My face turned grim at that. Danny Herbert was the lynchpin of our operations here. If I could develop a working class base with him, once the villains were gone, Brockton Bay would flourish, and I had a nice contract saying where credit... And future public support would go to the Royal Knights. It was one of Duftmon's classics. Pompous overachieving ass.

"Well then it looks like I'm taking out your Merchant Problem. I'll watch out for this van," I stated. "...And maybe hold someone over a rooftop," I muttered to myself, though he heard it.

"Is that something everyone in your group does, or is that just Ulforce?" I'm surprised he had seen that video. Then again, anything related to us went viral, and considering the curriculum I pulled from Winslow High's records was going to be a topic in World Studies.

"If it's effective, don't knock it. Anyway I'll be there in a couple minutes. If gunshots start going off before I get there hide or something," I told him, before turning off my phone. I sent out a digisoul pulse alerting the Brat, that I was working. I felt a return pulse, and popped my neck. Amy was at Arcadia, so that was Magnus' problem taken care of, and my Brat could take care of himself.

I walked out of the room, quickly putting on some jeans, and a t-shirt, I walked out of the room, down the stairs and out into Brockton Bay's chilly air. I walked down the street, took a right turn into an alleyway and then entered through a cordoned off warehouse. I took a second to remember punching Ulforce in the face here and smiled.

I was enveloped in fractal code, and where once was a painfully short middle-aged Vietnamese man was a nine foot, red haired, asian man in black bodysuit, with a white coat hanging off of his shoulders. Yggdrasil, it felt good to be in this form.

I exited the warehouse where I entered and then. I rose into the sky, gravity being denied by my Digital nature. The buildings in Brockton Bay becoming specks to my eyes.

I could take care of the Merchants first, and then deal with Daniel's tail later. I had been very discreet when I met with him as Gankoomon when I gave him my number and the money to rebuild the ferry. So I doubted anybody had connected me to Daniel Hebert… yet.

I went to Ferry's Station, and I was greeted to the sight of repairman working on the titular ferry, some dockworkers at the side doing their own respective jobs, and on the outskirts... Bingo! There were the Merchants Daniel had talked about. And what do you know? In the parking lot was the van. Still, trash first then mysterious van.

I floated down behind the van the Merchants were using. I knocked on the door.

"Hey, Jimmy, you back alr—" A white man with rotten teeth and ripped jeans with an equally dirty shirt opened the van's back door only to find my smiling face. "Oh... Sh—" He was cut off as my fist impacted his face sending him to the van's floor with a worrying crack.

"Uggh," I grumbled, "Humans are so fragile." Still he was lucky to get off with me just crushing his nose.

"Now where's 'Jimmy'?" I muttered, when I heard a someone walk into the alleyway. I turned to see a man who looked almost as bad as the Merchant I knocked out with bloodshot eyes.

"Wow, just... I don't have anything to say to this," I grumbled before raising my voice. "You Jimmy?"

"Yeah, man, like, when did you get red hair?" Oh no...

"My Lady, despite the fact that I joined after Imperialdramon Paladin Mode left, what have I done to deserve this?" Please let this be a joke.

"Dude when did you go religious?" The obviously high Merchant asked. I sighed, he didn't even notice when I was suddenly behind him

"When God's Shield punched me in the face," I said before giving him a light chop to the neck which sent him into blissful unconsciousness. I got out my phone and called the PRT.

"So this is Gankoomon speaking, I've got two unconscious Merchants. One with a broken nose and the other one's unconscious. I'm standing right by their van, and if you want to find me look out the window." I turned off my phone, and I manifested Hinukamuy until he was thirty feet tall. The instant I did I felt a digisoul pulse, and I sent back two signaling to the Brat I was fine. Really, did he honestly expect that these humans would give me trouble?

9:20 A.M.

"I leave them to you, gentleman," I said to the PRT officers. I walked out of the alleyway, and past the crowd of people had gathered, Hinukamuy's presence causing them to back off. I let loose a smile as I saw it leaving the parking lot. 'Good, lead me back to the nest. Let's see who you work for in the dark.'

Hinukamuy disappeared and I burst off the ground onto the sky. I aimed to get between my target and the sun, both keeping it out of my own eyes, and meaning that anyone looking for me would have to notice a black spot in the sun, most couldn't stand to look at it for more than an instant, so they had only that much time to notice.

I trailed over the van far above what a human would be able to see. I followed it for what had to be thirty minutes as it went around town. I was relatively sure they couldn't see me. So hopefully whoever they worked for was just paranoid, and not a parahuman with an unknown sight power. Because dealing with Examon on his good days was a fucking trial. I did not want a parahuman on the other side.

I watched as the van finally turned into the doors of a warehouse before dropping onto the roof. It had a overview window and I had Hinukamuy invisibly look through it. Only to see the van turned off, and nobody in sight… What?

I waited another ten minutes and still no sign of the human. I didn't sense any Taint in the area, so this guy was an ordinary human. I finally had enough and broke through the window. Hopefully, the van would give me some insight into who owned it. No plates, I opened the back doors tearing them off only to see an empty backseat, and a clean dashboard. ...No seriously, what the hell?

I turned around snarling only to hear a faint beeping sound. Wait, what was...

The blast wave hit me first, causing me to dig my feet in the ground. Only then came a torrent of fire blossoming up out of the ground, into the warehouse and out the roof. I pulled one of my arms in front of my lower face, and one guarding my hair. My visor would protect my eyes while letting me see unimpeded.

These flames were hot, They weren't boiling my skin off like Apollomon's flames would have, but it was still hot. At least military grade, as it's the kind of blast I could expect from the D-Brigade.I grit my teeth in pain as Hinukamuy manifested around me extinguishing any fires that had caught onto me.

Then the roof came tumbling down covering me in a vale of scrap and smoke. I thought on what had happened, just laying there not even bothering to move. I had been played, by some weak-ass pathetic human. They had known about my conversation with Daniel, they had realized he would call me, that I would come running, and using that they had led me here and then tried to kill me.

I sucked in a breath and then let my Soul Burn. "Well then, if you humans want to play it that way... Fine, I just want you to know. You better have fucking Scion on call, because whoever you are you're dead." In a show of power that was in no way subtle, I made the ruined buildingexplodeagain, revealing my dusty, but unhurt condition. Now to find the asshole who led me here. Mice jumped when they realized the cat wasn't dead.

I leapt out of the wreckage and looked around… Nothing I growled, the sound reverberating across the street. Okay, so maybe certain mice didn't jump when they realized an avenging God they tried to kill wasn't done breathing. 'Hinkamuy, we split up and find them.'

And then the hunt began… Five minutes in, still nothing. Twenty minutes, in still nothing. Forty minutes in and still fucking nothing. An hour in and I had nothing to show. Okay I would do one last check at the warehouse, and after that I was done. For today anyway, I would tell the others about the van and their little bomb trick. Few could stand long when they were against Duftmon.

I landed at the warehouse only to scowl when I saw PRT vans, police cars, and multiple Capes. Joy.

My scowl must have deepened because the approaching police officer halted, but that didn't stop Mrs. 'Murrica with her american flag wrapped as a scarf from approaching me.

"Gankoomon, we were hoping you'd answer some questions for us."

"Some asshole blew up in the warehouse I was in. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go check the building to see if my attempted murderer left anything of value."

"From the burns we found, the blast was caused by multiple napalm explosives and claymore mines. There is nothing left now if you will ple—" I was impressed that her tone being civil, but fuck today.

"Nope," I said, moving past her and into the wreckage already manifesting Hinukamuy, who guessing from his rage was equally infuriated by our lack of an assailant or something to punch.

He tore through the wreckage, making sure to crunch any scraps of metal before I finally made it to the warehouse floor. The blast had come from below the warehouse. So it stood to reason there was something under the warehouse that allowed the rat to set up that little light show. I made to punch the ground when I felt a hand on me.

"Under the PRT agreement with the United States of America, any matters not involving Parahumans shall be investigated by the normal police," The police chief finally spoke up.

"So the fact that I'm a Cape and got blown up means that I can't try to figure out who did it?"

You'd think them believing me to be a parahuman and the target would make me "Involved" by default.

"However, since Gankoomon is a Parahuman, and was the victim here, this matter is the PRT's to deal with." Mrs. Militia retorted all civility gone from her voice. Then she rounded on me. "And, Gankoomon, if you want to further pursue your case I suggest you work with us…"

The woman had some spine. I felt my mood improving. "Hehehehe. Okay, before the explosion went off, I heard a beeping sound from below. Considering I was bathed in fucking napalm a second later, I'm betting that whoever tried to kill me planted explosives underground." To punctuate this, I finished the punch that I had been holding back, cracking the already weakened foundation.

The floor gave way to an underground basement with an epicenter of scorch marks. I looked around, in twenty seconds after entering the building the guy I had been tailing had been able to go under here, and then detonate this. So it stood to reason... My eyes landed on a charred husk.

"Fuck me running," I growled an hour down the drain and an expendable mook had been used to do it.

"Hey, Mrs. Militia, since I've been so cooperative with you guys, could I get the records on who used to own this place? Since they obviously have enough money to build a hideable, and what used to be very nice looking basement."

"Nope." My train of thought halted,

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Militia, what was that?" I replied Hinukamuy rumbling, and I felt the other Capes approach.

"So are you like a mixture of Power Rangers, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure?" Assault asked almost without regard to his own continued survival. Before Hinukamuy growling started to rumble the building. I was actually impressed that he knew about Jojo, considering in this world it had only been a manga and OVA series that Leviathan cut before its time. And even then it wasn't always popular in the West.

"It's a PRT matter. We'll get back to you, tomorrow after we've taken a thorough analysis of the building." I sighed, not like I couldn't just look it up online myself, but it was more legwork than I was comfortable with.

"Fine," I growled. "But get back to me tomorrow with what you've found, I don't care how small." And with that I flew into the air and away from my headache.

9:00 P.M. Westside Brockton Bay

"So what you're saying is, she told you off and you got blown up after being played like a Rookie?" my ever-infuriating Student asked with a hundred watt smile.

"So what you're saying is, you want to have your next training exercise in a volcano under fire from Examon?" I asked in reply, making my voice go into a mockery of his.

"You're evil," he muttered, smile disappearing. Hah, try to sass me Brat! I know everything. "Anyway, I found out her power," He continued, slipping into a morose tone. '...And back to Taylor. What is he, Partnered to her?'

"Okay, Brat, what is it?" I asked already preparing mentally for his angsty segway.

"She controls bugs. About a block of range. I don't think there's vocal feedback but I think there is visual because one crawled into my pants, and she turned really red like the one time I took off my shirt."

"Brat, one day you will find out what that means—" 'Even if I have to beat it into you.' "—and on that day, I will start laughing until the end of time. Or Omnimon uses All Delete on Yggdrasil. Whichever comes first."

"Whatever, Master." I could see his brain deciding to never figure out what Taylor turning red meant, for the sheer sake of not giving me any reason to laugh. 'Like that was going to stop me.'

"Anyway you get the most inferior morons, and I'll get the shame of all Asians everywhere. I mean seriously "Azn Bad Boyz." What type of name is that? Have enough pride to spell correctly at least."

"Yes, Master," he replied before skating away. Rene was the only projection he had on him. Atho and Por know each personally protecting one of the Heberts, which was the closest equivalent I bet this world would have to Craniumon's Avalon being active all the time.

I sighed before leaping into the air, going to where I knew some ABB thugs were. Which is of course when a man in an Oni mask teleported in front of me and exploded.

End Worm Protocol 4.1: Lesson 1: Don't Wake Sleeping Gankoomon.

AN: I'm going to have fun with this Arc.