Chapter 2:
Chlorokinesis: The power to control plant life. Users can create, shape, or manipulate plants.
I gently placed the sick possibly dying girl down.
The girl's eyes flickered open for a second so I asked, "Uh, what's your name? The ambulance will be here soon for you."
"Taylor Hebert," The girl mutters while half out of it.
Oh. Taylor Hebert. Taylor. Hebert. Winslow. I blanched as I realized where I was. I was in Worm. I was in a world of fiction. In fact I was trapped in a world that some crazy dude imagined.
However, Worm isn't too bad a place, right? It could be worse, it could be something like... Aliens...or something.
Quickly departing from that line of thought, it wasn't wise to dwell on what might have been. My mind flashed back to the day of my death and... and the Worm CYOA I had started.
What had I chosen? My memory was blank, no, not quite, an image flashed in my mind. Complications. Geas. Wanted: Azn Bad Boys and Merchants.
Geas? Only plus one point. I cannot speak of Worm. Ah, that both complicates and and makes things more simple. I don't have to worry about letting things slip and I don't have to worry about revealing information to people like Coil in an alternate timeline.
Perks? I prodded my mind, hoping that I would receive another flash of memory. I did not, my mind stayed silent regarding this matter.
A shrill siren pierced the air closing in towards my location. I looked down at the girl, whose head was currently cradled in my lap. That brings up another question, I really didn't want to be first seen by anybody in this state. I really have to secure some clothes for myself first before I interact with anybody.
"Sorry," I told Taylor and dashed out of the school parking lot. Or at least I tried to. For some reason my path seemed to curve around until I ran straight into the blasted Oak that had stolen my clothes.
My body melted into the bark. And all light vanished. However my perceptions broadened in other spectrums. I could feel light, dim but present on my leaves, I could feel the heat of electrical wires and the cold of water pipes under and around my roots.
Wait! Leaves? Roots? I thought I was human! No, now I remembered being a tree my whole life. But at the same time I remembered being human my entire life. Which was I? Was I a tree that had been planted in front of the a school just after its completion over thirty years ago. Or was I a human that had lived in the suburbs of a city with family, friends, and goldfish?
Was I a tree that had endured countless storms and braved the snow of three decades? Eh, my mind replied helpfully, you are both. Well that is real helpful, you idiotic mind! Great, now I was a critic of my own mind.
Except, was it my mind that had been coming up with strange ideas or was it something more sinister? Like an ancient alien symbiotic snake that takes over peoples bodies by wrapping around their spines and convincing poor deluded Egyptians that they are gods?
No, my mind replied, in a voice that sounded exactly like mine, that was Stargate. Now, who is being stupid?
"Not me," I whispered to myself aloud and also whispered to my alien space snake. Which was pretending to be part of my mind.
My mouth than moved with no input from me, "I'm your shard!"
"You are not!" I replied heatedly, "Powers don't talk!"
"Well, you never had powers before," The voice, still borrowing my vocal chords replied, "How would you know?"
"Intuition? Maybe," I started before trailing off, "Are you a shard from Eden? Or are your from Zion?"
"Neither," The voice-shard-delusion-space snake replied easily, this time within my body, "I am merely the voice to your power, sort of like an instruction manual."
"One question," I asked, "How are you talking using my body when currently we, um, I am inside a tree?"
"It is too much for your feeble little mind to comprehend," the shard replied, "I nearly went mad trying to figure it out myself. Nearly broke the fourth wall."
"The fourth wall?" What did that mean? I had no knowledge of a fourth wall.
"Don't worry, I'm fine now," The shard replied, "Perhaps it would be best if we scout the city, Brockton Bay, was it?"
"Yes," I said. Scouting, that would be intelligent, "Ah, however we, I mean I, am trapped in this tree and the last time I escaped it the tree took my clothes as payment."
"Yes," The shard replied, "That was a nasty business, which is currently related to your powers."
"Yes? How so?" I inquired with a twinge of annoyance.
The voice struggled to say something before quieting for a few seconds, "It appears I am also the victim of a geas. I seem incapable of telling you your powers."
"Eh?" I said, "Then what are you supposed to be for? Making sarcastic remarks?"
"Possibly, one thing I can tell you is that your default appearance is quite inhuman. In fact your genetic structure is completely alien, I wouldn't advise you letting Panacea touch you. On other things you pretty much appear as a Case 53. Relatively mild but it is still visible."
"Just wait a second," I informed the shard and with another application of willpower I pushed just my face out of the bark to look at where I left Taylor. It seemed the ambulance had arrived while I was conversing with my shard. Two paramedics had just placed Taylor on a stretcher and were putting her into the back of an ambulance.
A police officer, which I had no idea of why he was here, was talking into a radio and looking at the schools door...
The same door that apparently was now mutilated by what looked like handprints. Oops. Was I on any security cameras? Did they know my face? Did I have a counterpart somewhere out there in this world? And then they would get picked up and interrogated ruthlessly by the evil Protecterate!
Or at least that was how some fan fictions went. I would have to be very careful before approaching the PRT about joining. That is if I decided to join, I was kind off leaning against it. Especially since I had inhuman DNA. For all I know Cauldron could be overly paranoid, think I am an alien, and have me mysteriously disappear.
Yeah, nope, no joining the PRT. I was gonna stay nice and undissapeared. That mean sf course that I would have to be doubly careful with my blood ann mucus and hair and other thingies that would be gathered up by a nefarious organization.
Oooh! A motorcycle! That must be Armsmaster! I didn't expect him to be so fat.
"That is not Armsmaster," My shard said in a deadpan.
I ignored it in favor of my scrutinization of Armsmaster. Hmm, In fact I had expected him to have more armor. Why was Armsmaster wearing a police uniform?
"I say again," My shard spoke, "Not everybody that drives a motorcycle in Worm is Armsmaster."
I nearly choked, that wasn't Armsmaster? It was just a motorcycle cop.
Mortified by my misidentification i pulled my face back into the tree. Not dwelling on the issue for long, at least I hadn't called out to the motorcycle officer, I considered something else I had noticed. My eyesight had improved, great so.
Where before I would have needed glasses to see stuff that are far away, a result of too much time on the iPad, computer, and sitting in dark rooms reading by flashlight, my vision was now perfect.
Nice. I wonder whether I have night vision? Only one way to find out, go and attack Lung!
"No!" My shard screeched, "That's stupid!"
"I know that," I replied, amused, "I was kidding!"
Authors note. I have a few questions I would like to ask the readers. First, should I make the chapters longer? What do you think of the chapter? From what you have read so far what gender do you think the main character, the self insert of the story, is?