Worm: The Rise of Skitter Chapter 2 (original chapter Chapter 112)
When Lisa pressed the 'X' button, the screen went black for a moment before it was covered in a white-outlined bug symbol that flashed on and off, obviously some kind of loading screen.
Then it cleared.
Appearing on the screen was a picture of the planet Earth that then multiplied and split into countless duplicates that stretched into the horizon. Then a familiar fedora-wearing woman's voice spoke up.
The multiverse. Infinite alternate versions of Earth and the other planets of the universe. Any possible reality that can possibly exist, does.
"Sheesh, she's being more cryptic than before." Vista remarked.
Suddenly, the camera panned over a countless number of Earths before coming to rest on one in particular, with the rest fading away. Then, Taylor Hebert's voice spoke up.
This is Earth Bet. On this particular version of Earth, in 1982, an amazing thing happened. The advent of the world's first actual superhero…
The image on the screen zoomed in until it showed the sight of a golden man flying across the sea, away from a boat.
…Scion. After this, the advent of Parahumans came upon us, not only on Earth Bet, but in Earth Aleph and other alternate worlds. The future looked pretty bright, or so I'm told.
"…why is she giving us a history lesson?" Imp asked blankly. "More than that, one that we know is wrong?"
That would be because the game presumes that anyone playing it is not in the know about the Golden Morning. Even then, you have to know the false or incorrect history for the truth to have any meaning. Context, when spoken simply.
The scene on screen showed four very familiar figures hovering in front of a rising sun. Taylor continued her lecture.
The greatest of the heroes to rise were a team that would later come to be known as the Triumvirate once other events came to pass. Alexandria, the indestructible flying heroine; Legend, a man capable of firing impossibly powerful beams; Hero, the most famous inventor of parahuman tech that existed; and Eidolon, the man with interchangeable powers.
Sadly…with the light, comes the darkness.
The image of a costumed man being clubbed over the head flashed across the screen.
The so-called 'Golden Age of Parahumans' came to an end with the violent death of the first parahuman besides Scion, Vikare, in a riot in Michigan, in 1989. His real name was Andrew Hawke.
Even before the death of Vikare, things had been getting darker. The Slaughterhouse Nine, a group founded by the Parahuman called King, was brutally taken over by Jack Slash in 1987. With the death of the Second Parahuman, though, things went from bad to worse.
The scene changed to that of a dry, sparse mesa…and a chillingly familiar sight rampaging across it.
"Fuck! Behemoth!" Lisa cursed, taken aback by the sudden appearance of the hero-Killing Endbringer.
In 1992, on December the 13th, the First Endbringer, initially known as Hadhayosh, appeared in the Khuzestan Province of Iran, near the Marun Oil Fields. Although all four members of the Proto-Triumvirate were present, they had only been present for earthquake relief. The fight was ultimately a draw, with several local heroes being slain. The year after, the Triumvirate were sworn in as founding members of the American Protectorate.
The screen shifted, showing another large, familiar figure rampaging through a large coastal city.
The Second Endbringer, called Jörmungandr initially, struck at Oslo on June the 9th, 1996. With Hadhayosh being the only one to attack thusfar, the defenders were caught off guard and great damage was done to both the city and its populace.
"Understatement if ever I've heard it." Defiant muttered. Dragon placed one hand comfortingly on his shoulder.
The screen shifted once again, this time showing three of the Triumvirate gathered around the bloody and shattered body of Hero.
In the year 2000, the Slaughterhouse Nine fought against the Triumvirate, resulting in The Siberian killing Hero and destroying one of Alexandria's eyes. The Triumvirate splintered with Hero's death, never to be truly united again.
"That makes it sound as if Hero was the one keeping the Triumvirate together." Parian mused.
"It isn't uncommon in social groups, as well as superhero/villain teams, for there to be one or more person to act as the glue keeping the group together." Tattletale replied. "Hero's death probably affected the Triumvirate badly, Eidolon and Alexandria especially."
"God damned Manton." Brandish growled, cursing the man who had projected the Siberian.
The screen changed again, showing an angelic, multi-winged female floating over a city.
The Third Endbringer, initially called Israfel and Ulama, appeared over the capital city of Switzerland, Lausanne, in December of 2002. Corrupting the entire populace and necessitating the deaths of every man, woman and child in the city. One man who was a part of this operation was James Tagg of the Parahuman Response Team.
"Is it me, or did Taylor's voice sound pissed when she said that bastard's name?" Tattletale mused as she eyed the image of the Simurgh warily.
"Probably. The guy was an ass." Imp snorted, with Bitch snorting in agreement.
Soon, the Endbringers came to be known by their more common names…Behemoth, Leviathan and Simurgh. Both individually and together, these three bringers of destruction did what nothing else could; forged agreements between Heroes and Villains. The Endbringer Truce, which basically halted all criminal activity and fighting across the globe during an Endbringer Attack, was established. In every battle, the heroes and villains of the world banded together and fought them with everything they had…
…it wasn't enough.
The scene changed to a familiar cityscape, one that all of those present were familiar with.
This is Brockton Bay, my home. In the aftermath of Leviathan, sea trade had shrunk to a trickle. Losing its lifeblood, the city started to degenerate into the form I know today.
Images of the flags of the three big gangs of the Bay appeared on screen. Each coming forwards as Taylor talked about them.
In the Bay, the Empire Eighty-Eight, the Azn Bad Boyz and the Archer's Bridge Merchants rule the underbelly. Neo-Nazis, Pan-Asian Supremacists and drug-addled drug sellers. There were more Capes in the three gangs than in the local branch of the Protectorate, even with the backing of the Protectorate Wards and local PRT.
Between the infighting of the gangs, the Cape battles between the gangs and the Protectorate and the slow, inexorable death by inches that the city was going through, the everyman on the street struggled to keep their heads above the water.
"I know it was bad when I arrived, but…was it really as bad as Kh-…as Taylor is making it out to have been?" The former Ward Foil asked.
"Yup." Tattletale answered before the native Brocktonites could. "Everyone here was mostly either not in the Bay, had a steady job or went to Arcadia or Immaculata. Taylor went to Winslow, where wearing gang colours openly was the norm if you were a member. She saw the worst of the city there. She saw how bad it was."
"Hey." Glory Girl said, offended.
"It's not a reflection on the Protectorate or New Wave, considering the former was being deliberately left understaffed and undermined thanks to fucking Cauldron." Tattletale glowered at the screen. "Not to mention the need for strong Parahumans for the Endbringer Battles."
On the screen, a scene appeared on the screen, of Taylor, younger than the others were familiar with, dressed in a black dress, next to her father, Danny. They were standing, heads bowed, in front of a grave. The camera zoomed in to show the epitaph on the gravestone.
Annette Rose Hebert
1969-2008
She taught something precious to each of us.
My mother, Annette Rose Hebert, died in a car accident a year before I started highschool. My father, Daniel 'Danny' Hebert, loved her with everything that he was. He fell into a depression that he couldn't escape from. It took his old friend from college, Alan Barnes, to get him to even try to take care of me, but sometimes he couldn't.
As for me…I was…surviving, for lack of a better word. My mom's death had torn a hole in our family, leaving two devastated people behind. We stopped using mobile phones, because mom had died while texting. It was stressful, and I withdrew and became quiet as a result.
"By the sounds of it, her mother was similar to Hero in that she was a stabilizing influence on her husband and daughter." Brandish observed.
"Taylor once described her mother as a physical presence in a room." Tattletale sighed. "Her personality filled the room and told those in it exactly how she felt. Taylor really loved her a lot."
Shadow Stalker eyed the screen, a little part of her with her survival instinct telling her that she was not going to enjoy what was about to come.
I went off to Summer Camp after graduating from Middle School. When I came back…my personal hell started.
The screen changed to show three figures standing in a run-down school corridor. One was Shadow Stalker…or rather, Sophia Hess. The other two were teenage girls as well. One was a redhead wearing fashionable clothes, while the other was a cute-looking brunette, who looked to be a late bloomer.
Emma Barnes, my childhood friend, had changed a great deal in the few weeks I'd spent away at Camp. She rejected our friendship and started hanging out with a girl called Sophia Hess…a name I would soon come to curse.
Everyone stared at Shadow Stalker. The two original Undersiders with disdain and dislike, while Imp, Parian and Foil looked suspicious. Everyone knew the tale of how Taylor Hebert had been tortured into Triggering by Shadow Stalker; it looked as if they were going to hear the general details now.
"You're fucked, Psycho Stalker." Tattletale said flatly. "Just hope you know that."
"Fuck you, bitch." The former vigilante and former Ward snapped at her.
I had a full academic scholarship to Arcadia, but I had turned it down in order to go to Winslow with Emma before going to Summer Camp. That is a decision that I would come to regret. For about a month after school started, things were normal…but then the bullying started.
Each of who I called The Trio had a role to play; Madison Clements, a cutsie-girly-girl, was in charge of the immature, juvenile pranks, like 'accidentally' tipping shavings from her pencil sharpener over me on her way to the bin, putting glue on my seat and other things like that. Sophia was the physical one, tripping me up, pushing me down stairs, jabbing me with her elbow as she passed, deliberately throwing dodgeballs too hard at me, that kind of thing.
Of the three, it was Emma who hurt me the most. I could ignore or overlook what Madison and Sophia did, but with Emma, she knew every psychological weakness I had, every secret I had told her…and she used the against me ruthlessly.
As Taylor spoke, images of everything that the three girls had done to her appeared on the screen, making the watching occupants growl with anger.
The bullying wasn't just restricted to the Trio, of course…I wasn't that lucky. Eventually, after a year-
Tattletale paused as Brandish cursed loudly. "A YEAR?! What were the teachers doing?!"
Keeping a Ward on the premises. If memory serves, the PRT pushed Principal Blackwell to be lenient with her. I suspect she might have taken that a bit too literally, with the staff taking their lead from her.
"Y'don't say?" Glory Girl eyed Shadow Stalker with displeasure. "I don't much like Skitter, but at the time she didn't deserve any of that. What the hell were you thinking?!"
"That Hebert was weak and fucking prey." Stalker snarled. "Hell, if it wasn't for me doing this to her, we'd be fucked. Look at it like that, Glory Hole!"
She then cursed again as another watermelon dropped onto her head.
True enough, but a war criminal who saves a country is still a war criminal. You're out of prison because of the amnesty given to all supervillains, but I do believe that you are worse than those you struck down both as a vigilante and as a Ward. I think it's only a matter of time before you find yourself in trouble with the law again once you leave this place. Either that or you'll rage at someone who has no tolerance for your brand of bullshit.
Continue please, Tattletale.
After wondering for a moment why SeerKing had a thing for dropping watermelons on her head as a way of punishing Shadow Stalker, the blond Thinker complied.
-almost every student of Winslow, of every year, was complicit in the act of bullying me, either by action or by inaction. The teachers mastered the act of watching without seeing and I withdrew further and further into myself. Somehow, the Trio had gotten into my locker and stolen my mom's flute, destroyed it and then befouled it. It was repairable, but the cost would have been too much for me to pay by myself, and I didn't want to bring Dad into it.
Oddly enough, by the time the Christmas Holidays of 2010 came around, the pranks had died off. I was a social pariah, sure, but that was leagues better than being bullied by the whole damn school. I had hoped that they had lost interest and moved onto other things.
Unfortunately…the beginning of 2011 heralded immense change, both for me personally and for Earth Bet as a whole.
The last image vanished as a wave of insects swept over the picture. When the wave passed, another banner hung there.
Episode 1: Gestation (Trigger)
"Hold on!" Tattletale exclaimed in alarm. "You aren't going to make us watch her Trigger Event, are you?!"
The disturbed looks on the faces of every Cape in the room aside from Shadow stalker agreed with the Thinker's dislike of the idea.
Seeing what she went through is essential, so yes. On the bright side, it's only a Trigger on a screen, so you won't be knocked unconscious by the event.
"That's not even remotely close to the point!" Panacea barked angrily. "A Trigger Event is the most personal and traumatic event in a person's life up until that point! It's wrong for us to watch it! It's…it's perverse!"
Sadly, I cannot alter the game, Panacea. You will have to endure it. If you wish, I can remove your memories of the event before you leave, if you like?
"You can do that?!" Glory Girl looked disturbed.
This is my world. I can do pretty much as I please. Like this.
Shadow Stalker yelped as she dropped into a pool of water that appeared underneath her, chair and all. She thrashed in the water for a moment before she was sitting back on the chair, as dry as a bone.
"Okaaaayyy…" The other members looked pretty freaked out by SeerKing's ability to control their environment. Tattletale eyed the screen where a prompt had appeared for her to press the 'X' button to continue. "Well, let's get it over with then…"
After Lisa pressed the 'X' button, the banner vanished and two lines of words in white appeared in its place.
3rd of January, 2011
Winslow High School, Brockton Bay
The screen changed to show a pair of feet walking across tarmac and concrete before halting. The camera panned up and zoomed out slowly to reveal Taylor Hebert looking up at Winslow Highschool with a look of trepidation on her face. She was dressed in drab, dowdy clothes that practically forced her into the background. The camera then moved to Third Person perspective over Taylor.
"This brings back memories." Tattletale sighed. "It took ages for me to convince Taylor to wear clothes that suited her, and even then, it was to better suit the social situation, not suit her."
"A common effect of bullying is that the target becomes convinced that they are not pretty or attractive." Dragon said coolly. "Frequently, they dress down to try and avoid attention. That is the case here, I believe."
{Game Start!}
{Welcome to Worm: The Rise of Skitter!}
{Follow the objectives banner in the top right of your screen to advance the story!}
{Tutorial Part 1: Movement}
{Use the right stick to make Taylor move. The speed that she moves at will be determined by the situation.}
"OK then." Tattletale whispered. "Now I feel like I'm Mastering my friend. This sucks."
Glory Girl, who usually disliked the Thinker, actually grimaced in sympathy for her.
Tattletale made the figure of Taylor walk towards the front doors of Winslow, even as almost every person she passed looked at her. A few even smirked at Taylor, making her flinch away and speed up for a moment to get past them.
"OK, that's creepy as hell." Imp stated.
"They knew that Shadow Bitch and her two flunkies were planning something." Glory Girl said in disgust. "Look at this place! Gang colors worn openly, gang tags on the walls…I think those metal detectors are broken too. What a shithole."
"Vicky, language." Brandish said absently. "I do agree with you though…Winslow really was an appalling school."
"I think Taylor once mentioned that the gang kids carrying knives wasn't entirely unheard of." Tattletale remarked as she steered the figure of her friend through the corridors of the highschool.
I knew that something was up that day. The way people looked at me that day wasn't the typical 'oh look, it's the pariah' looks I usually got; it was more like 'oh look, it's the pariah, let's see what's going to happen now' kind of look. Had I known what was gonna happen…I'd have skipped school.
"Just to warn you, this is not going to be pretty." Tattletale warned everyone else. "Taylor told Grue, Alec and me about her Trigger Event and I came very close to hurling from what my powers told me she was saying."
Taylor's figure drew close to her locker and she eyed the nearby figures of Emma, Sophia and Madison with nervousness. Then, the scene shifted into a cut-scene, removing any control that Lisa had over what was about to happen.
Taylor wrinkled her nose as she caught scent of something disgusting coming from her locker. 'So they put something foul in it this time? A bit of a backslide, so maybe it was Madison's idea. Well, let's just get it over with.'
Grabbing the lock, she spun it open and flung the steel door wide. The sight of what lay within horrifying her. The locker was full of used tampons and pads that were rotting and covered in bugs.
"Great good god!" Panacea gagged.
"Fucking Christ!" Glory Girl agreed, jumping up with a hand over her mouth.
"That…is utterly disgusting!" Parian shuddered. "Oh god, I think I'm gonna hurl…!"
A bucket appeared next to her.
Use that. Anything placed into it won't emit a smell.
Gratefully, the former Rogue used the bucket, with Foil rubbing her back comfortingly. Brandish, Vista, Tattletale, Bitch and Defiant each managed to hold on to their lunches, albeit with great difficulty.
On the screen, Taylor leaned over and threw up from the sight and smell of the horror that was the contents of her locker, as well as her own disgust. Then the camera moved back to show Sophia moving in and reaching a hand out to grab Taylor's hair.
"No…you didn't!" Panacea recoiled in horror before whirling around to glare at Shadow Stalker for a moment, who seemed utterly unmoved by what her past self was doing on the screen.
Grabbing Taylor's hair, Sophia picked her up and threw her into the mess inside her locker before slamming the door shut and locking it. The crowd around the locker started laughing as Taylor started to shriek and scream in horror. Then the bell for Class and Homeroom rang…and they just left her there.
Inside The Locker, I could barely breathe without wanting to throw up. I actually did throw up until all I could do was dry heave. I shrieked at the bugs crawling over me and gagged at the foul stench within the locker. It was so small that my arms couldn't move from my sides and I couldn't turn around.
All of that was bad enough, but it was when I realised that people had watched me get shoved into the locker, had seen exactly what I had been thrown into…and they let it happen. As time passed, I realised that I had been abandoned by them all.
Then…
-[Destination]-
Two massive beings entwined together in a spiral…
/[Agreement]/
Always together, unable to be separated…
-[Trajectory]-
Splitting apart, they would one day return to their former selves…
/[Agreement]/
Taylor hung in the air as two jeweled pieces of glowing light separated from each, spinning together into one as it sped towards her, the light engulfing her vision before she blacked out.
-/[Intersection!]/-
"Holy…!" Defiant swore. "That's very similar to the vision that Miss Militia described to me once!"
The Trigger Vision, as it is called, shows The Warrior and The Thinker, known better to you all by the names Zion/Scion and Eden, during their arrival at Earth Bet. Miss Militia is the only person to remember her Trigger Vision due to her perfect memory.
"I'm…an AI." Dragon frowned. "Why did I forget? Technically, I have a perfect memory too."
"Only Parahuman perfect memory abilities can negate the memory-erasing abilities of the Shards of the Entities, I suspect."
Panacea didn't really care much about that. "Hess! Why did you do that?!" she growled. "Do you have any idea how close you probably came to killing her?! There's a reason why used feminine products are discarded separately!"
"What could have happened?" Glory Girl asked with a frown.
"Blood poisoning, numerous diseases and infections…and that's just if they had been fresh!" the healer shuddered. "That locker looked as if they'd been left to rot and ferment for weeks! That wasn't just used feminine products anymore; that was fucking toxic waste! I'm amazed that I wasn't called in to heal her! it's even more amazing that she didn't go into system shock!"
The utter horror in the girl's voice convinced the rest of the occupants of her sincerity, who glared at Shadow Stalker, with Imp struggling to hold Bitch back, making Defiant go over and help, despite his own glare at his former subordinate.
I don't remember anything from after that, but I discovered later that I was locked in that accursed and foul metal box for over an hour; a janitor found me and got me out just before First Period ended.
"Christ…!" Brandish blanched. "An hour in that hellhole…I'm surprised that she didn't develop claustrophobia!"
I figured out my power while I was in the hospital. Bug control. I could absolutely command all of the bugs within my range. After going through Silence of the Lambs-level crap, all I could do was control the little bastards that had crawled over me in The Locker.
God, was I pathetic or what?
That didn't stop me though. I was going to be a hero, even with a pathetic, low-tier power like insect control. I'd just have to be smart about it. So I wasn't an Alexandria-type like I'd always secretly wanted to be; big wow. If I couldn't fight harder…I'd just have to fight smarter.
"That is an impressive resolve." Dragon sighed. "After everything she was put through, she wanted to be a hero. What next, do you suppose?"
"This is still the tutorial, and it's chronologically about three months before she went out in costume for the first time, soooo…" Tattletale grinned. "We're gonna be looking at using Taylor's power, I'd say."
Here's the second part of this ficlet series. I'm probably only going to go up to the Lung fight with this, as this is way more time-consuming than I'd thought it would be. Still worth it though.
As an aside to those wondering why certain people aren't there; Kid Win and Clockblocker are dead. Clockblocker for certain and Kid Win, almost a certainty. Piggot isn't there because I doubt she survived the Golden Morning, unless she's popped up in Ward recently. Danny is with Taylor and I, as the 'deity' in this fic, see no reason to rip them apart. Plus, I doubt Danny could keep Taylor's survival to himself, so the reason he's not there? Plot.