Prologue: Price of Power

High school is boring. This is a universal truth. Sure, some works of fiction spice up the high school with cool things outside of class, but even they never doubt that the classes themselves are boring.

So, it can be easily understood that when I fell asleep as a college student stressing over grades, and woke up in an obvious high school classroom, I was a bit upset. It didn't help that I woke up to a loud crack and a middle-aged woman's disapproving glare. She was pretty, with well-done makeup and a professionally fashionable outfit, consisting of a knee-length skirt and matching blouse, but most importantly, she was holding a ruler on my desk. Mrs. Hanson, my mind supplied.

My eyes flicked around the classroom, and 26 sets of student's eyes were on me. I knew all their names, but only a few of them actually stuck out to me. A red-haired kid named Dennis Miller, a brunet named Dean Stansfield, and a blonde beauty named Victoria Dallon. Now, the first two didn't really stand out name-wise, but Victoria Dallon? That's far more memorable, especially given how much screen time she gets compared to the others.

She didn't look like the fanart, art being art after all, but I remember her… from classes? Why— My brain throbbed, and on came a migraine. I clutched my head with a grunt as if that would somehow magically lessen the pain.

Looking up again, Mrs. Hanson seemed less upset and more concerned— I could use that. "I'm sorry Mrs. Hanson, but I don't feel well and I've got a headache. Could I go to the nurse?" She gave me a wary nod, and I staggered quickly out of the classroom.

I made it to the nurse's office in a fugue state and knocked pitifully on the door. The nurse was a younger woman, probably mid-20s at a guess, with black hair and a fitting white coat. "Are you okay?"

I shook my head gently, and she let me into the otherwise empty room. Sitting down, and gesturing at the chair across from her desk, she asked "I assume the problem is your head?"

I nodded slowly, and added "Also my stomach and ears, I think? I feel nauseous and dizzy." No, I didn't, but that drastically increased my odds of getting to go home, and my head was in such overwhelming pain that I had doubts that even tattletale would be able to infer anything but that. The nurse did some things to me, I wasn't really paying attention, and then handed me a few pills.

"Ibuprofen and Tylenol, sorry but that's all I'm allowed to give you. Take them, lie down for half an hour, and if you're still too unwell we'll send you home." I almost asked where the beds were until she opened up a door I'd missed, leading to a room with several leather beds with leather pillows— easy to sanitize. Nodding in thanks, I downed the pills and then carefully laid down, and drifted off to sleep within moments.

I came back to the nurse shaking me awake. "Get up Jason, I've let you sleep for an hour."

I sat up, lightly shaking my head, and focused groggily on her. "Thank you, I feel better. Still awful, but more like Armsmaster is beating on my skull as opposed to Lung... if that makes sense." My hands returned to my temples, playing up the pain I was no longer in.

She made a weird expression like she wanted to smile and wince at the same time. "Well, if it's still that bad, I'll call your parents to come get you."

I nodded, ignoring her as she walked away, and began to take stock of my current situation. That pain must have been my mind merging with Jason's mind because now that it was passed I realized why everything here felt familiar to me despite not being covered in Worm— I had two sets of memories. One from Jason Greenwall, a 17-year old junior at Arcadia High, and the other from Jason Black, a 19-year old college student. Since I could only remember Black's memories before the merge ended, I surmised that I was originally Black, though ultimately such existential crises are pointless.

What matters is me being in Worm. Now, having read all of Worm and a little of Ward (before I got bored of Glory Girl as a protagonist), I know I'm in for a shitstorm. Doubly so since I have a vague idea that even after scion dies, his death will be the cause of even more problems… I have no idea how Ward dealt with broken triggers and titans, so I guess I'll just have to figure it out along with everyone else. Dean was alive in class, so this is pre-leviathan at the minimum… after another few seconds of trying to puzzle out the timeline from context clues, I realized I was being dumb. I pulled out my phone and checked the date. April 8, 2011. I'm pretty sure that Taylor fights Lung on the 11th, so at least I'm not in the thick of things without any powers.

The nurse poked her head back in, "Your mother will be along shortly to get you," and then left me to my own devices once more without even waiting for an acknowledgment.

My lips quirked into a smile. Black hadn't really had a mother, or rather she just had zero involvement with his life. Greenwall on the other hand had a wonderful mom. Kind, supportive… hot… forgiving-but-stern, playful, and a fantastic cook. She'd gotten pregnant young, unfortunately, but she and dad made it work. Or rather, they made it work until he caught a terminal case of getting shot four years back, and now me and mom were perpetually almost broke.

Shaking that off, I spent the next fifteen minutes trying to activate the powers I should probably have… but also very clearly didn't. If I remember the lore right, Corona Pollentia are common among even unpowered people, so there are solid odds of me having one despite no powers. Alright, if I lack powers, what other resources do I— my thoughts were intruded upon by the short recollection of a set of tinker-tech armor and a cauldron vial waiting for me under my bed at home.

Why do I have those? The possession of those items was oddly incongruous with Greenwall's life, and I had no memory of actually acquiring them. Wait… this is ringing some bells… was I here because of that CYOA? Worm v5, Update Gimel. I'd filled it out half a dozen times, but only one of those builds used Armor as the costume— a thinker-support build. Of course, it would be too much to ask to get my second trigger shard administration plus second trigger unlimited shard works build, wouldn't it? Or even my kingmaker-paramount build?

Whatever, fine, I'll deal with not being a super-overpowered trump. If I'd known this would be my real life, though, I would have tried a bit harder to get my second thinker power to second trigger. On the upside, I have three dope followers in this build, I just have to find them… on the downside, I don't control any 25 point powers because I thought most of them were bad at the time. All things considered, I still think they're bad, but I wouldn't object to having all of the Endbringers as my minions. On the other upside, only two of them actually exist, and they belong to the people most dedicated to saving our collective asses, one of which will get murdered by Scion before he can become a problem.

Was it strange that I trusted Contessa more than Eidolon? Hmm… eh, concerns for later.

In the now, mother finally arrived, and I could hear her whispering to the nurse about me. Shambling out of the room still holding my head, I beheld Marget Greenwall, just as I remembered her to be: a woman in her early thirties, shorter than me by a few inches, though still taller than average for a white woman at 5'7, with blonde hair and bright green eyes. She pulled me into a delicate hug as soon as she saw me, thanked nurse veronica, and then led me out to her car in silence.

Once we got out of the school parking lot, she looked at me in the mirror with an amused smirk. "You can stop acting now, Jason." I gave her my best confused look, and she just raised her left eyebrow.

I dropped my pretense of agony. "Thanks for picking me up mom, sorry if I interrupted your day. I just had to get out of there." Both versions of me liked school equally… that is to say, neither of them liked it at all. The burdens of being unpopular. Not that something as crass as bullying would happen at Arcadia, not to any significant degree, but it was amazing how unwanted the popular kids could make you feel without doing anything particularly egregious.

Mom gave me a sympathetic look. "Just don't make it a habit, okay?" I nodded, knowing I would need my school life to keep up my civilian cover in the future. She smiled at that, and then said "How about we hit up that Mongolian place you like? It's a little more dangerous to go there these days, but around now quite a few of the ABB's younger goons should be in school." I knew the place she mentioned well, and it was on the very edge of ABB territory… but I still shook my head. I had Worst Day Ever times three hanging over my head, and that sounded like asking for trouble.

"Could we just get some Dairy Queen instead?" She nodded, glancing off the road for a moment to smile at me again— and then my entire world was shaking and crunching.

When I finally came back to my senses, I realized that the front half of the car had been crushed into the side of a building's concrete wall by what looked like a Semi cab and that the whole car was tilted at an angle. I screamed "Mom!" and unbuckled, to try and find her. I pulled the broken seat back and out of my way with adrenaline-fueled strength, and the slight stinging in my arms told me I may have pulled something there.

I didn't really notice that, as focused as I was on my mother's corpse— and it was very clearly a corpse. Several sharp pieces of metal had her impaled in her midsection, her arms were pulverized, bloody messes and her neck was twisted at a sharp angle. I sobbed. Perhaps Black had no attachment to her, but Greenwall's memories were just as vivid, and I now had 17 years' worth of memories of the best mother a man could ask for.

And she was dead because Black wanted a few more shard points… the guilt was overwhelming, and even though I knew the next danger would probably be coming for me, I couldn't make myself bother trying to move. I'd basically just killed my mother for power, after all, I deserved whatever I would get.

Gunshots echoed around me, and suddenly staying in the car felt like the right decision, so I continued to just sit in silence. A short while later, I heard the sounds of fighting but didn't actually bother to stand and look out the window. After a while, which I spent staring at what used to be mom, the sky-facing rear door was ripped off, and a blonde head peeked inside.

I sighed despondently, refocusing on mother as soon as I'd identified her. "Hey, Victoria. Fancy meeting you here." I'm sure it would have sounded vaguely smooth under normal circumstances, but I was a bit busy crying and dying on the inside to put any real effort into it.

She winced when she saw what I was staring at. "That's... I'm sorry Jason. Do you want a ride home? The police are almost here and you'll need to give them a statement first, but after that…?"

That was kind of her, and probably for the best. Walking through town like this— because I was not getting in another vehicle today if I could help it— would be pretty dangerous today. "I'd like that, yeah. Thank you."

She sat on the window awkwardly while I just continued to burn the image in front of me into my memory. Her life was a part of the price I'd paid for my power, and I had enough decency not to run from it.

Soon enough the cops arrived, and I gave them my statement while visibly trying not to break down entirely. I left school with a headache, mom came to get me, and I didn't even see the semi coming until it had plowed us into a building, then I sat there staring at her until the police arrived. Oh, and there was also a fight wherein Glory Girl probably beat up the ABB-looking thugs who were in the process of being arrested, but I didn't see it.

Flying with Glory Girl was rather enjoyable even in my depressed state, in part because she was hot and holding me against her chest, but mostly because the view was great and she went really fast. Well, she tried going slow-ish at first, but I asked her to go faster so we wouldn't be such an exposed target up in the sky, not that I gave her the reason. Knowing how shitty Worst Day Ever was, I wouldn't put it entirely past Oni Lee to grenade us (by which I mean me since Glory Girl has her force field) in an attempt to avenge the thugs.

She seemed to realize that I was enjoying the flight because she pulled a really spooky dive on me at the end of it that had my adrenaline singing. I gave her a little smile as she finally set me on my doorstep. "Thank's Victoria, I needed that. See you in school… whenever I come back, yeah?"

She nodded. "See ya then Jason, I need to get back to that though. I'll let the principal know what happened, alright?" I nodded, and she flew off with a wave

My doorstep was actually the porch of the little duplex Mom rented since we couldn't afford the payments on our old house without Dad's income. The building was a pale green that I didn't particularly like, but we didn't have either the money or the permissions to repaint it. I pulled out my key, unlocked the door, entered, and locked the door behind me. The door wasn't particularly sturdy, but it should buy me a few seconds at least. Luckily I was white and living in Empire 88 territory, so I shouldn't have to deal with the local gang right now.

I stipped on my way to the bathroom, trying to ignore how dead my home felt, and set my phone to blast youtube music for me while I took a shower. Said shower was a welcome relief, shockingly car accidents are dirty affairs, and I hadn't even noticed that some of mom's blood had gotten on my hand when I moved the seat.

Around minute seven of scrubbing that one hand raw, I heard a loud banging on my door. Knowing this couldn't be good, I jumped out of the shower and ran to my room. I practically tore out the drawers of my dresser and threw on the first things I grabbed, still soaking wet. Then I grabbed my wallet from my misplaced pants, my phone, and the pocket knife I carry outside of school.

Dad had been a soldier, although he was unfairly dishonorably discharged, depriving us of his pension. He taught me to use said knife when I was little and put me through a lot of Ju-Jitsu lessons too. Trips to the closest shooting range were one of my favorite good-grade rewards in middle school.

Finally opening the door, I saw two bald white guys in their thirties. Both of them had prominent E88 tattoos on their exposed shoulders— clearly, that was the reason they were wearing wifebeaters because their 'muscles' sure weren't impressive enough for it. I put on a fake smile for the gangbangers and said "Can I help you?"

The one of the left grinned and leaned on my doorframe, using that position to tower over me more. "Yeah, you can. See, we saw you with Glory Girl just now. What's that about?"

The confusion on my face wasn't faked. Victoria was white with blonde hair and blue eyes, and she had strong powers. She was literally the Aryan ideal, so my brain failed to understand why these guys cared. "I was in the crossfire of an ABB shootout earlier, probably with coil's guys since it was up by Arcadia but don't quote me on that. Glory Girl offered to fly me home since our car was wrecked."

Omission of the truth made all the sense, telling them his guardian died would be just asking them to take advantage of him. The speaker hummed in thought, and the other one spoke up. "You know her then? She should be in school now, right? So if she flew you here instead of just letting you walk, it means you're friends right?"

I shrugged. "I have a class or two with her, but we're not really in the same social group. She's basically the queen of the school, and I'm just a peasant. Why?"

They shared a look, then the first one took over again. "If you asked her to come out here for something, would she?"

I shook my head. "Doubtful, she doesn't have time for nobodies, or at least not that much time. She flies fast, so even flying me across town like this is basically a minor detour for her, whereas actually coming to do something would eat into her day."

The second one leaned in. "See that sounds reasonable… except I don't believe you. You're a shit liar."

I glared at him. My lying was fine, just not when I'm severely emotionally compromised. Ignoring my glare, he grabbed my shirt and pulled me out the door. "Look kid, you're going to call her, and then you'll give her a nice poisoned drink that we'll make for you. Heh, Kaiser'll promote us for sure if we bring him a Cape!"

Why did I do this to myself? None of this was worth it. I flicked out my pocket knife and, with ease of practice, slashed out the man's throat. The other one tried to punch my lights out, but I ducked and his throat was just as vulnerable. He didn't even tuck his chin to protect it.

I rolled their bodies off my front step, then went back inside. Running back to my bathroom, I finished rinsing the conditioner out of my hair, then toweled it off. I dug through mom's room to find her Glock and the bullets for it, illegal but necessary in a city with crime like this. Our old house was in ABB territory, so it was absolutely necessary, but mom didn't even carry it anymore, since we moved to the commercial district (and thus E88 territory). Being white was as much a pass as anything else here, as long as we paid the protection racket.

In their defense, the protection racket wasn't 100% bullshit… more like 60%. E88 territory had the lowest random violent crime rate in the city, and fewer drugs than either the ABB or Merchant territories. Not that they actively policed anything, but they themselves rarely committed crimes in their own territory (apparently by Kaiser's order) unless it was against an 'uppity' minority or someone flouting the racket, which meant that the police had less tying up their resources in this part of the city.

Of course, by killing his guys I'd just thrown off whatever protection my skin offered me. I probably had half an hour at best before a group of mooks stormed the place. I grabbed a backpack and started filling it with everything I'd really want— mom's jewelry box, my laptop, all the necessary cords, and the family photo album. Also some clothes.

I opened the front door to see exactly what I didn't want, a shirtless man with what appeared to be a small tornado funneling air into huge claws on his right hand. I got the distinct feeling he was grinning at me through his white and blue mask. "Look, Stormtiger, this is really just a misunderstanding..."

I heard him growl, and he sent his charged wind claws flying at me. I jumped forward and to the left, just barely avoiding being cut into little pieces, before my side of the duplex was torn apart by the decompression of his 'claws,' functionally exploding my house to bits. Part of me absently noted that his control was pretty damn good to avoid destroying the other side of the duplex, and the rest of me took off sprinting.

I wish I could say I was cool enough to calculate the target destination of his claws based on the sound they made on approach, but really I just jumped to the side every time I heard him throw his claws at me. "That's it, run you little shit!" Clearly, he was playing with me.

I took a turn down an alley to escape a double set of claws and realized… that I fucked up. The most egregious cliche in the history of chase cliches, running into a dead-end alley. I stared at the wall in horror, and thought; that's it, I really did it, I deserve to die now.

Stormtiger's heavy footfalls approached me from behind, along with the sound I recognized as him charging up one of his claws. "Well, it's been fun kid, but I've got other shit to do today." I turned around to see his claws charged, not as much as the ones that destroyed my house, but enough that I knew they'd explode me to bits.

And just as he began to throw it at me, the world went cosmic.

I shook my head, throwing off the unsettling recollection of my vision. Noctis cape was something I selected every time, as it fulfilled so many personal desires for only one shard point, and in doing so I ensured that I'd remember my trigger vision… not that I really needed to since I already knew the lore.

Regardless, Stormtiger was now... dying? Okay, maybe blacking out while holding a super-compressed air construct wasn't great for your health. I was laying against the dead end, and everything hurt, but Stormtiger was lying against a cracked brick wall with a very broken-looking arm and coughing up blood. In other news, my backpack was destroyed in the impact, or rather everything inside it was. My clothes were fine, by the jewelry box and laptop were broken, and the bag itself was ripped open.

I dragged myself shakily to my feet and ran out of the alleyway. A few blocks down I found a bus stop and sat down on the bench. I needed safety and rest, a bus could get me one while on the way to another because just walking around in E88 territory was a hazard right now. I focused inward, on my powers, and grinned. My powers were there just as desired— Save and Reload, second trigger Fake Telepathy, and second trigger Power Fluctuation. With them in my grasp, I was already one of the most powerful capes around…

No longer under threat of immediate death, my adrenaline faded and I recalled the cost of my might. At least I had what I bought though, as opposed to only the void of hurt in my heart. In an effort to distract myself, I made my Save Point and reached out with my fake telepathy. There were so many people in the city that I found it nearly impossible to find anyone I recognized, unfortunately, so instead, I just listened to the thoughts of everyone around me.

Off to my left, I heard a screech, and two dozen minds all scream some variation of 'oh fuck.' Looking, I saw the bus, clearly broken in some way and hurtling straight for me. I jumped forward and just barely managed to avoid the bus as it plowed into a few other people waiting for it and then into a building.

I could have sat around to make a statement, but clearly it's better if I keep on the move. Down around the corner, I stopped a woman and asked her for the time. She checked her watch and told me it was only 1:30 in the afternoon.

All this in, what, three hours? Insane. And I still had over ten hours left. But at least it would get better after today… hopefully.

A/N:

CYOA BUILD EXPLAINATION:

As you can see, this OC built his new self in the Worm Gimel CYOA. He'd done it several times, but whatever ROB sent him though chose his least OP build. Not that it's necessarily weak, but he doesn't have access to any of the most egregiously broken abilities from it- Unlimited Shard Works, Kingmaker, Paramount, Masquerade, anything 25 points, etc. He has 3 followers and 1 nemesis waiting in the wings, and his cauldron vial will make an effective healer (surgery + regeneration + peak condition), but he notably lacks access to anyone with a teleportation power.

He had Rough Start x2, which is why I destroyed his house/everything of worth he salvaged from said house and had them be basically broke beforehand. So he's a homeless orphan now, but not particularly in debt and is only a minor pariah at school. He's got Endbringer Target and Slaughterhouse 9 Recruit waiting for him in the future too, but those are problems for later. Plot convenience at least saves him from getting murdered instantly by Contessa tho, which is nice.

For Skills, he took Martial Arts, Marksmanship, Strategy, tactics, Parkour and Banter.

His Gift was going to be Interludes, before I realized that Noctis Cape invalidates that super hardcore, so instead he took Plot Relevance. He's a Villain with an Abaddon Shard. For his second-trigger telepathy, I simply say his range starts at city level with minor concentration, and will eventually get bigger. For Save and Reload, nothing changes because that doesn't strike me as a power that has much by way of growth potential. I've also decided that he has to take a few seconds to concentrate on Reloading, so he can't do it in a split second. Lastly, second-trigger Power Fluctuation can go from 50% to 300% naturally, and if a single target, nullifies one person or boosts one to 500%. Bear in mind that not all powers can reasonably be boosted (like, if he buffs Tattletale to 300% or debuffs her to 50%, what would that even do for her?). A lot of thinker powers are like that, either they work or they don't, so the only thing he can really do to them is turn them off.

Also, regarding changer powers or biological powers, turning them off does nothing. Like, if he turns of Aegis' power, that will stop him from flying, but not suddenly revert his redundant biology. Similarly, if he uses it on Bitch while her dogs are big, she won't be able to shrink them, but they also won't suddenly shrink back to normal. It prevents powers from being used, but doesn't undo the already-present effects of said power.

OTHER STUFF:

I've got a vague idea of where I want this to end, and it will be including Ward stuff when we get there, though that's a long way off. Frankly, most of muh boi's plans are for that time, and everything up to Gold Morning will be him trying to prepare for GM and beyond. To that end, he's probably willing to work with cauldron should Contessa come knocking, so we'll see how that goes.

Muh boi Jason isn't a self insert, he's an OC very loosely based on me. He will be a classy villain, and he'll be good at it— certainly better than I'd be lmao.

Also, I'm planning to skip the rest of his Worst Day, and just summarize some of the more absurd bullshit that happened to him during it. That's fine, right?