Hi Everyone! Welcome to my Worm/Parahumans AU fanfic. This story is based off of a Weaverdice tabletop game that has been going on for over a year and a half (so I have no idea what the end will be, we'll find out together!). My intention is to update every Saturday night, but I have a small child so things can and will go sideways. A million thanks to my husband and co-creator, Alex, and my campaign partner and beta-reader, Joe.
Pain. That's the only thing she can comprehend. Not why this is happening, or even what's really happening. Just white hot, searing pain.
With everything she has, Lancelot rolls and tries to pull herself away, inch by inch. Her left arm drags behind her, the other grasps at cracks in the pavement, grass, anything she can use to get some leverage. Her muscles scream in agony, her skin burning at every movement. It's not enough.
"How did I not see this coming?"
Anna stands on a rooftop, the wind blowing her blonde hair over her shoulder, sun glinting off the metal armor. Los Angeles lays at her feet, citizens waiting for heroes to help them. Real heroes like them. This LA isn't their LA, the one from Earth Bet had been destroyed. But Earth Aleph's LA is thriving, if a little different. She glances to her left, the shorter blonde in leather armor taking in the landscape ahead of them.
She catches Anna's eye and smiles. "We're finally doing it, after all this time. We'll make mom and dad proud."
Anna feels a pang of sadness, but smiles back at her sister and nods. "Together."
Sophia purses her lips. "Though I'm not sure about this whole medieval thing. Knights of the round table are a little lame, don't you think?"
Anna jabs a finger at her sister. "You bite your tongue! The knights of the round table are the ultimate symbols of justice and peace. They do good throughout the land and battle foes big and small to protect the people. That's what we'll do, protect people."
Sophia scrunches her nose. "I still think it's lame. But, whatever." She turns back to the vista before them. "Maybe I'll do a reference to my power. Mirror Knight!" Anna nods. It's a good name for her power, though she would have picked Galahad. "What are you going to do for your name?"
Anna turns back to the cityscape and takes a deep breath. "The bravest and strongest of them all; Lancelot."
Lancelot hears the clomp of horse hooves closing in on her. She can't spare a look over her shoulder, it would cost too much effort. She can only press on. The horse's flames get hotter and hotter, illuminating the area. Lancelot tries desperately to erect a barrier, anything to give her the space to flee, but nothing happens. Her power isn't responding. The fire suddenly dissipates with a steel clank on the ground. This is her chance; she can reason with Cavalry. She can still fix this.
A heavy boot presses into her back, pushing the air out of her lungs. Lancelot wriggles feebly, trying to free herself, but she can't. Drawing air into her lungs and staying conscious are the only things she can focus on.
"Pathetic." Spats the voice above her. "How are you going to do what's necessary to defend the city? You can't even defend yourself."
Lancelot groans, struggling to breathe. She can't stop moving, she has to keep pushing forward.
Lancelot and Mirror Knight make their way to the call. They heard the code for a powered robbery near their apartment, so they're making their way there as fast as they can. They round the corner to see chaos. The front of a building is blown into the street and there are small fires everywhere. There aren't any civilians left in the area, only the culprits and one other person.
The two vigilantes see a woman on a flaming horse riding down a man trying to flee. She barrels over him, knocking him to the ground. The horse rears and turns back toward the other criminals. The two thieves, seeing their partner go down, turn and run. What they don't realize is that they're not running to safety.
Lancelot draws her sword, edges and tip dulled so it's not as lethal. Mirror Knight pulls out her flail and falls into a fighting stance. The two bandits notice the armed women in front of them and freeze. One sticks out his hand, a concussive wave flinging the vigilantes back. The women right themselves quickly, Mirror Knight throwing up her reflective barrier as the bandit launches a second volley at them. The concussive wave reflects back at the men, knocking them to the ground. Lancelot is already moving forward, creating four glowing blue barriers around them, penning them in place. The thieves try to break the barriers with their fists and powers to no avail. Eventually they sit on the ground panting, heads hanging in defeat.
The woman on the flaming horse trots toward them. Mirror Knight elbows Lancelot. "We should recruit her! Did you see how awesome she is?" Lancelot nods. Powerful and mobile, a deadly combo.
The flaming horse dissipates and the woman approaches them on foot. Like Lancelot, she wears metal armor, but much more modern. Her simple face mask lets her brown hair billow behind her. She lifts a hand in greeting. "Hey! Thanks for stopping these two. I'm Horseman."
The sisters introduce themselves and Lancelot sheathes her sword. "You've got some pretty powerful moves." She looks over to her partner, who nods her head once with excitement in her eyes. "I don't know if you're looking to join a team, but if you are, we'd be interested in working with you."
Horseman smiles and nods. "Strength in numbers, right?"
Mirror Knight beams and pumps her fist in the air. "Right!"
A pair of hands grab Lancelot and haul her up. Her feet grind against the pavement as she's dragged somewhere she can't see. She's thrown into a seated position, head knocking against something solid. Lancelot raises her eyes to see three figures, her team, in front of her. Her eyes focus in on the one shaking in the back. Mirror Knight.
"Sophia….please…."
Mirror Knight flicks her eyes down and then up, grabbing Cavalry's arm. "Come on, Cavalry, that's enough. She's our teammate. We shouldn't do this."
Cavalry's hateful gaze pierces Lancelot. "She made her choice. She stood between us and our objective. She chose to stand with villains and criminals instead of us!"
Mirror Knight pulls at her arm again, tears in her eyes. "Please don't do this. She's my sister."
Cavalry rounds on Mirror Knight. "SHE betrayed YOU! You're trying to do the right thing, to get criminals off the streets and what does she do? SHE attacks YOU! She's no better than those scum of the earth villains that are rotting this city."
Mirror Knight shrinks back, looking anywhere but at Lancelot. Cavalry grabs her arm, forcing her attention to her. "What do villains do?"
"Hurt people."
"And what do we do to villains?"
Mirror Knight hesitates. "Stop them any way we can."
Cavalry releases Mirror Knight and points to Lancelot. "And now she's a villain too."
Mirror Knight drops her head and her releases her grip on Cavalry, wrapping her arms around herself and shrinking back.
Lancelot races down the street after her teammates. Damned speedsters. Lancelot is fast, but normal fast, not powered fast. The villain they're chasing is capable of, and is, running circles around her. Cavalry, though, is a different story. Her flaming horse gallops twice as fast as Lancelot can run, and it never gets tired. She still can't catch the speedster, but the trails of flame she leaves in her wake make it difficult for him to zoom in and attack Lancelot and Mirror Knight.
Lancelot sees the echo of the speedster zoom past Mirror Knight, blowing her off her feet with a cry. They've been thrown around like ragdolls with no reprieve. She looks around, trying to anticipate where the villain will come from next. Lancelot spots a gap in the fiery trails and throws up barriers to block them. Either he'll run through the fire or into the barely visible walls.
A thud and a shout tell Lancelot her strategy paid off as the speedster runs full tilt into one of her barriers, bouncing off and onto the pavement with alarming force. As she runs towards the villain, she hears the clomp of horse hooves closing in fast. Her teammate blows past her, headed straight for the downed villain with no sign of slowing. Urging the horse even faster, she runs him over, flames igniting his costume. Lancelot's eyes bulge as she watches the villain lay motionless despite the flames. She reaches her destination and pats him down, putting out the fire. She places two fingers to his neck, trying to find signs of life.
Lancelot manages to find a weak pulse and she sighs in relief. She pulls out her phone and calls for emergency services. He may be alive now, but he's burned and broken. He won't stay that way for long.
As she hangs up the phone her teammates join her, standing over the broken speedster.
Mirror Knight lightly punches the brunette in the shoulder. "Nice job, Cavalry!"
Lancelot glares up. "He was already down. You didn't need to run him over and set him on fire."
Cavalry shrugs, uninterested in the speedster's wellbeing. "He could have gotten back up. I just made sure he didn't."
Lancelot gets to her feet, anger flaring at her teammate. She points to the man on the ground. "Stay here and keep an eye on him until the paramedics get here. I'm going to go help the bystanders, since you didn't feel like it when I asked you to before." She turns on her heel and stomps off without waiting for a response.
Lancelot makes her way towards the group of stunned civilians nearby. Some of them had gotten knocked around in the fighting. Lancelot had tried to get Cavalry to evac them to safety with her stone horse, but she was more interested in running the villain down.
A voice calls from behind. "Lancelot! Wait up!"
Lancelot looks to find Mirror Knight jogging to catch up with her, confusion written on her face. She stops, waiting for her sister to join her.
Mirror Knight catches up quickly. "What gives? Cavalry was just trying to take down the villain. Isn't that what you were doing too?"
Lancelot glares and huffs. "Yea, we were all trying to take him down. But I asked her to evac the civilians, she was best equipped to make sure no bystanders got hurt. But no, she's always gotta be the one to take down the villain."
Mirror Knight quirks her head. "Cavalry says stopping the villain stops people from getting hurt. If we just run around worrying about everyone else, he would've gotten away and caused more damage."
Lancelot shakes her head "Stopping the villain isn't the same as protecting people. I thought that's why we were in this, to save people. Not to trample every villain we come across to death."
"You're just mad she didn't listen to you." Mirror Knight decides. "We're a team, we work together and each do what we're best at. She's faster and can make sure the villains stay down. You want to protect people, then go shield them with your barriers and stay out of the way!" She turns on her heel and starts making her way back to Cavalry, who picks at her nails with not a care in the world, least of all for the bleeding man at her feet.
Lancelot continues her way over to the frightened civilians. Her brain is working overdrive to try and make sense of everything. She KNOWS Cavalry is a good person. She KNOWS they're fighting for the same things. She KNOWS she hasn't put her trust into the wrong person. …..Right?
Lancelot shakes her head as she approaches the group. Some people are holding their arms, one their head, others are just stunned. She puts on her bravest face and addresses the group. "Hi, I'm Lancelot. Don't worry, I'm here to help you."
Cavalry turns back towards Lancelot, the nearby fires glinting in waves off her armor. She takes a step forward and crouches on her haunches in front of the burned woman in front of her. She roughly takes Lancelot's chin and forces her face up. Lancelot hisses in pain, but can't resist.
"You turned your back on us, your team, your family. All for what? Some scumbag villain?"
Lancelot licks her lips, the coppery tang of blood everywhere. Her throat is raw, but she pushes the words out. "Won't let you kill anyone else….s'not right."
Cavalry's face twists with anger, a snarl on her lips. "You're just as bad as them. You deserve the same as them." She roughly releases Lancelot's chin and stands, looking to the third figure. "Merlin, finish it." Cavalry grabs Mirror Knight and leads her away.
Lancelot brings her head back and clenches her eyes shut. The sound of blades unsheathing is deafening.
Lancelot and Cavalry sit at a table pouring over plans. They know when and where the villains are going to strike, they just need to figure out how to get the advantage. Anna has been trying to plan things just so, have a strategy going in, to keep her teammates from going overboard. She's noticed Sophia leaning more and more into Cavalry's thought process and it's…worrying.
A knock at the door interrupts her thoughts and immediately puts her on guard. Sophia's at work and her shift doesn't end for another two hours, plus she has a key. This is their team's space, there shouldn't be anyone coming without her knowing. Bridgette pushes back from the table, face relaxed. She knew someone was coming and didn't tell anyone. "That'll be Anthony!"
Anna gives her a confused look. "Anthony? You invited someone to the office?"
Bridgette gives Anna a relaxed smile. "Yeah, he's going to join the team."
Anna blinks, processing the words. Panic and anger flare up. "I'm sorry, what? You asked someone to join the team without talking to us?!"
Bridgette squares her shoulders to Anna with a challenging smile. "We've been talking about needing some long-range powers to round things out, so I reached out to an old friend. He's super effective and I've worked with him before. Sophia's ok with it, so I figured you would be too."
Anna rises and stands between her teammate and the door, brow furrowed. "You can't just go and decide to add someone to the team like that. We've never even met this guy!"
Bridgette puts her hand on Annas shoulder. Some of Anna's anger dissipates immediately and she can feel a blush start to crawl up her neck. "Look, I know you've been worried about me being out on the front lines so much, so I figured this would make you happy. Anthony's a good guy and he wants to help. And god knows we need it with the uptick in villains moving to LA. Come on, trust me. Give him a chance."
Anna is at war in her head. This is a lot all at once and there's no time to think. The green eyes across from her are warm and looking to Anna for a verdict. She sighs and clenches her eyes. "Fine. If you're vouching for him I'll give him a shot. Just, talk to me about stuff like this next time, ok?"
Bridgette smiles and pulls the blonde into a hug. Anna's definitely losing the battle with her blush now. The brunette releases her. "You're going to love him. And he even likes your medieval theme! Let's go say hi to our new Merlin."
Anna follows Bridgette to the door. This will be fine. Everything will work out. After all, she trusts her teammates with her life.
Lancelot opens her eyes to see Merlin standing with his arms crossed, four blades floating at his sides. She spits out the blood that accumulated in her mouth. "Not even brave enough to do it with your own hands, eh Merlin?"
Merlin scowls at Lancelot and raises his arms.
Lancelot leans her head back and blinks back tears. The last thought she recognizes in her head "I'm sorry mom and dad."
Merlin swings his arms back and forth, the floating blades mimicking his actions, striking her from all sides. He knows her armor and knows exactly where its vulnerabilities are. She can barely feel the stabs and slashes as he rips her apart. Her vision is shrinking and her body slumps to the side with the force of one of the swings. Her head hits the concrete and her world goes black.
A vision dances in her brain. She is being drawn out, twisted and reshaped. The host asks. The being answers. Again, reshape.
Ask.
Answer.
Reshape.
The beings intertwine, a familiar dance. Like a memory forgotten, steps remembered.
Ask.
Answer.
Reshape.
Bodies meld, pull apart. A tree springs forth.
Ask.
Answer.
A shield.
Agreement.
Her eyes flutter open, confused as to why she's seeing anything at all. Hands are grabbing at her armor and pulling it away, the sensation of little touches on her most obvious wounds would probably hurt if she weren't in shock. She looks up to see a man kneeling over her. His face is filled with concern as he cradles her. As her vision starts to fade again, she hears a quiet voice.
"D-don-don't worry, I'm-I'm here to help you."