Wildbow owns Worm and I have no intention of trying to wrest it from him.
Marvel & DC own the other characters.
Any OC's are mine… sorta.
Contains planned IS4 Spoilers.

The first part is taken from chapter Extermination 8.5

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The Worm Saga

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I gathered my bugs to me, sent some to him, to better track his movements. As he climbed up, I gathered the swarms into decoys that looked human-ish, sent them all moving in different directions, gathered more around myself to match them in appearance.

With the effects of my slash of the Halberd combined with the damage Armsmaster had already done, Leviathan didn't have the mobility with his tail he otherwise would. When he attacked my decoys, he did it with slashes of his claw and pouncing leaps that sent out afterimages to crash into them. A swipe of the claw's echo to disperse one swarm to his left, a lunge to destroy one in front of him. Another afterimage of a claw swipe sent out to strike at me.

Water crashed into me, hard as concrete, fast as a speeding car. I felt more pain than I'd ever experienced, more than when Bakuda had used that grenade on me, the one that set my nerve endings on fire with raw pain. It was brief, somehow more real than what Bakuda had inflicted on me. Struck me like a lightning flash.

I plunged face first into the water. My good arm on its own wasn't enough to turn me over – the road just a little too far below me. I tried to use my legs to help turn myself over. Zero response.

I'd either been torn in two and couldn't feel the pain yet or, more likely, I'd been paralyzed from the waist down.

Oh.

Not like I really should've expected any different. Neither case was much better than the other, as far as I was concerned.

My breath had been knocked out of me at the impact, but some primal, instinctual part of me had let me hold my breath. I lay there, face down in two or three feet of water, counting the seconds until I couldn't hold my breath any more, until my body opened my mouth and I heaved in a breath with that same instinctual need for preservation, filled my lungs with water instead.

The lenses of my mask were actually swim goggles, it was a strange recollection to cross my mind. I'd bought them from a sports supply store, buying the useless chalk dust at the same time. Durable, high end, meant for underwater cave spelunkers, if I remembered the picture on the packaging right. Tinted to help filter out bright lights, to avoid being blinded by any fellow swimmer's headlamps. I'd fitted the lenses from an old pair of glasses inside, sealed them in place with silicon at the edges, so I had 20/20 vision while I had my mask on without having to wear glasses beneath or over it, or contact lenses, which irritated my eyes. I'd built the armor of my mask around the edges of the goggles so the actual nature of the lenses wasn't immediately apparent, and to hold them firmly in place.

Even so, when I opened my eyes, looked through those lenses for their original purpose, all I could see was mud, grit, silt. Black and dark brown, with only the faintest traces of light. It disappointed me on a profound level, knowing that this might be the last thing I ever saw. Disappointed me more than the idea of dying here, odd as that was.

Through my power, I sensed Leviathan turn, take a step back toward the shelter, stop. His entire upper body turned so he could peer to his left with his head, turned the opposite way to peer right. Like a dog sniffing.

He dropped to all fours, then a massive impact sent him flying backwards. Shocked, I managed to lever myself up to see what had just happened.

Where he had been crouched, a group of figures had appeared. I fought down an incredulous chuckle as I realized that one of them was dressed in a manner very similar to the fictional Earth-Aleph superhero, Superman.

Flanking him were others that my pain-addled mind couldn't recognise. A teenager in a black bodysuit with a dark red vest. A black man clad carrying a shield with three stars and vertical stripes on it. A woman in a kimono. Another clad in what looked like a bodysuit based on the UK flag. A bipedal black cat… no, a man dressed as a cat. And a final man who changed form even as I watched, unleashing a blast of red light from his eyes, a blast that sent Leviathon tumbling.

"Morph, Guardsman, you're with me!" The superman-cosplayer stated. "Lady Briton, try and scan for anyone who needs help. Gatekeeper, evac protocols. Patriot, sorry, but…"

"Yeah, against something that big?" The shield-carrier noted. "I'll aid with the medical stuff."

"Black Panther…"

"I am getting some odd readings from that thing." The man dressed as a cat said. "I need to get closer. I cannot make sense of these readings at the moment."

"Then let's move!" The leader said, hurling himself into the air at the recovering Leviathon. The shifter grew a pair of wings and rose into the air while the teen tapped a control on the bracer he wore on his left arm. A moment later, he growled and hurled himself into the air, following his team-mates.

"Over there!" A voice called and I saw the one called Lady Briton pointing at me.

The world went dark.

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I awoke to find myself in a tube. Before I could start to panic, it cracked open and I sat up, looking around in confusion. Reaching up to adjust my glasses, I froze as my hand touched my face.

I wasn't wearing any glasses!

The door opened and I reflexively tried to cover myself as someone entered. Peeping over the edge of the tube in which I had awakened, I found myself looking at the kimono-wearing lady.

"Good morning." She smiled. "You were really banged up. We managed to get you into a med-pod before you could flatline, but it was fairly close. I brought some clothes for you."

I took the proffered bundle and donned the panties and bra that were on the top. Wrapping the kimono around myself and tying the sash, I paused as the sides of the tube folded down, turning the pod into what seemed to be a large table. Swinging my legs off it, I carefully stood up.

"What happened?" I asked and the lady motioned for me to follow her.

"You managed to buy enough time for us to get there." She smiled. "My name is Sedara Bakut, although I tend to go by Gatekeeper. I'm a member of the Protectors."

"Oh." I managed. "Ummm, the one who is dressed as Superman…?"

"Is Superman." She chuckled. "We're from another world. The metahuman called Labrynth opened a portal and we stabilized it from our end before coming through. A good thing that we did, that psionic construct did a lot of damage before we could drive it off…" She finished with a sigh.

Psionic construct?

"We've established a base just outside Brockton Bay using one of the new Embassies." Sedara continued as if I understood what she was talking about. "We're looking to hire local talent to form teams to help this world get back on it's feet. Clark believes in offering everyone one second chance… are you interested, Skitter?"

I blinked. "I… don't know…"

"No rush." Sedara shrugged. "We're approaching the Undersiders as well but in the meantime, Clark was hoping to talk to you."

I paused. "Um, can I have a mask? I know it's a bit late, but secret identity and all that?"

"Oh, of course." Sedara said in surprise. "Sorry, where I come from, many of us don't need to worry too much about keeping our identities secret. Not since the carnage incident, anyway."

The what incident?

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"Ho. Lee. Shit." Grue managed once the presentation had finished. "I… I mean, I knew about other worlds, who doesn't? But… really?"

"Really." Clark nodded, helping himself to one of the divine cookies that he had placed on the center of the table before beginning. "With the infusion of K-Tech which is going to occur, plus the Gate to the Moonbase in my reality, Brockton Bay is going to become a boom town and a magnet for criminals. My son and his… girlfriend need experience, so with your permission, they'll join you as one of the official hero teams here."

"Do it." Lisa said from where she was blissfully nibbling at a cookie. "Of course, we need help to take down our former boss, he has a weird probablility power. Changes the odds of things."

"Intersting." Clark mused. "Another odd power, like the one that seems to split and re-combine timelines."

Lisa froze as her mind worked, then she slapped her head.

"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" She ranted. "That's his power! He makes temporary timelines and learns from them! No wonder the coin toss trick was slightly off!"

"Tattletale's a Thinker who deduces things." Regent drawled, then he leaned forwards. "Why couldn't I affect you earlier?"

"I'm not human." Clark smiled and Alec looked at Lisa, who nodded as she took anotherr bite from her cookie.

"S'trth."

"So… how do we take Coil down?" Grue asked and Clark smiled.

"I called in reinforcements." He said as the door opened and a bunch of new heroes entered, led by a woman with a large squirrel-like tail. "Meet the West Coast Guardians, led by Squirrel Girl…"