Worm - Justice For All

by SeerKing

When Taylor Hebert Triggered in the Locker, the Entities were slow to act. Instead of the [Queen Administrator], she was gifted with the seed of power known as an [Embryo], which becomes a powerful weapon one month after The Locker. How will this change the world of Earth Bet? Gamer!Taylor! Has a TVTropes page!

4. Session 1-4

Author's Note: Because I'm feeling generous, have an extra chapter.

"Iustitia!" – Regular Speech

'Mistress!' – Thoughts/Telepathy

[Justice for All]! – Skill/Ability being used.

Beta'd by BigCC

Session 1.4

In the aftermath of rescuing the Undersiders and fighting off a small horde of giant rats, the Wards, Glory Girl, Panacea and I did our best to rest. Iustitia went around and touched the corpses of the giant rats, dropping the loot and cash into my inventory.

I was exhausted from the constant fighting, and a couple of the Wards didn't look much better, let alone the beaten to hell Undersiders. We were literally in enemy territory, beaten, tired and without supplies. Oh, and there was the constant threat of being attacked by giant rats too. Plus, whatever the hell had attacked and beaten the shit out of the Undersiders, since I sincerely doubted the rats could do something like that.

They were more likely to rip someone apart than beat them senseless.

"Panacea, is there anything you can tell us about why the Undersiders are unconscious?" Aegis suddenly asked.

The healer raised an eyebrow at him. "They were beaten unconscious."

"Yes, but is that everything?" the flier pressed. "Unusual brain activity, oddities in their vital signs…anything like that?"

Panacea sighed and touched Tattletale. "Huh…now that you mention it, Tattletale's Corona Pollentia and Corona Gemma are both working overtime, far more than any Thinker I've healed before."

"What're you thinking, Aegis?" I asked, sitting up straight.

"None of this has made sense to me since you arrived." The leader of the Wards said with a frustrated sigh. "Going after the Wards is bad enough, but going after a Cape in her civilian identity? Going after Panacea? Alone, any one of those might get him Kill Order, but all three at once? If Director Piggot hasn't issued a request for one by now, I will be very surprised."

"Really hope it gets refused." Glory Girl muttered, sounding the smallest bit nervous. "Hamelin might be our only way out of this hellhole."

"Right." Aegis nodded. "But as I say, the level of backlash on him for everything he's done makes this either the actions of an insane man who no longer cares about the consequences or a planned strategy with a specific outcome. Justitia, you're the only person here who's actually talked to him. Did he seem unstable or insane?"

I considered that for a moment before shaking my head. "No, he actually seemed pretty lucid, if a bit overly dramatic. Then again, so do Jack Slash and Bonesaw, reportedly."

The Capes around me shuddered at the mention of two of the most prolific serial killers in the world. Even I shuddered.

"So, with that as caveat, I'm going to assume that Hamelin is either as sane as the next man or good enough at aping sanity to make it indistinguishable." The Wards Leader stated. "There has to be a reason that he kidnapped us all, a reason he'd deliberately risk himself in order to do so. A purpose…like selling us to the CUI, for example."

"For the Yàngbǎn?!" Vista squeaked. Most of the rest of us paled. The feared members of the Chinese Union-Imperial Parahuman Military were infamous for being brainwashed, tortured and indoctrinated into serving their masters.

"It's a possibility." Gallant admitted darkly. "The Yàngbǎn are known to prefer to get their hands on young Capes to allow them to mold and shape them with their methods."

"But that doesn't explain why their Pollentia and Gemma are going nuts." Panacea frowned as she checked the other unconscious Undersiders. "I've read Mastered and Trumped Capes before and this is…totally unlike anything I've ever come across. The only one who comes close is Eidolon when he switches his powers out."

My mind made a connection and I gasped, my eyes wide. "Holy hell…!"

"Justitia…?" Gallant asked, probably feeling my churning emotions.

"Our powers…he wants to take our powers!" I choked out.

The horrified expressions on the faces of everyone around me made it clear that this was not a desired outcome.

"But…but aside from Glaistig Uaine, there have only ever been power suppressors!" Glory Girl burst out, eyes wide with denial. "And even then, the effect's only lasted an hour at most per Cape!"

"Do you think Hamelin's some sort of power thief?" Kid Win asked seriously.

"No…not a thief, exactly…" I said with a frown. "More like…a power usurper…or maybe a power leech might be a better term. Panacea, you said that their Pollentia and Gemma are all still active, right?"

"Right." The healer nodded. "They're working overtime, in fact."

"That proves it them." I nodded firmly. "His power…I think it has to be the ability to usurp and use the powers of other Parahumans."

"How do you figure?" Clockblocker asked doubtfully.

"Because he left the Undersiders alive." I answered, gesturing at the four villains. "Think about it; why leave the original bearers alive if he completely stole their powers from them? That implies he needs them alive in order to keep using their powers for himself. The same applies for why keep them in here if he's already taken what he wants from them? If he's using them as living power batteries then he'd have to keep them somewhere he has easy access to, someplace where he can keep them secure, and someplace where no one else could find them!"

"That…makes sense…but…" Aegis shook his head. "OK, assuming this guy's working according to your theory, what are his power's conditions for usurping a power?"

"Ummm…" I thought for a moment. "Well, this dimension is a big clue. It suggests that he needs a place that is absolutely under his control. The fact that the Undersiders were knocked out means that he had to defeat them in combat first. That in turn implies that the second condition is emerging victorious in a battle with the target whose power he wants to usurp. Then…then the fact that they're still here implies that he has to keep his victims here in order to maintain the usurpation…hey, is it me, or is Tattletale missing a chunk of hair?"

Vista blinked before looking at the head of the unconscious dirty-blond villainess. "Huh…you're right."

Indeed, Tattletale was missing a good chunk of her fringe. No self-respecting girl would go out without evening it out. Now that thought about it, Hellhound and Regent had chunks of hair missing too, and I could only presume the same was true for Grue.

"And there's the last piece of the puzzle; he has to have a physical part of the people he's usurping powers from on his person to use them." I smirked. "I'm guessing they're hidden under his robe or even woven into it. It would explain why he has so many random-seeming powers; I'd bet that there's a room or cavern around here full of Parahumans he's usurping powers from."

"But we would have heard about teenage Capes going missing!" Clockblocker protested.

"Wards, yes. Protectorate Affiliated Heroes, yes. But Independent Heroes, Rogues and Villains?" Gallant shook his head slowly. "If an Indie or a Rogue went missing, the PRT would chalk it up to the Cape getting either forcibly recruited, dying or moving away and rebranding. If a teen villain went missing, it would be a relief. Targeting them would be far easier than the Wards or a Protectorate-affiliated team like New Wave."

Pulling a face, I shook my head at that attitude. "That is a very stupid and short-sighted way of thinking about it. Before you say anything: this situation we're in now? Consider it Exhibit A."

Aegis had opened his mouth to argue, but his mouth slammed shut with a click at my point.

"Nice one." Clockblocker offered me an appreciative nod.

"OK, so we have the guy's power figured out, but what good does it do us?" Vista asked. "We're still trapped here with no way out!"

"The good it does us is that we've identified a weakness in Hamelin's powers, one that we can exploit." I answered the younger girl with a grin. "If we can find the place where he keeps his captives-slash-power sources, we can get him to come inside where we can hit him. I'd bet that he can get in here just as easily as he sent us here; he'd have to be able to do that in order to feed and care for the imprisoned Capes. If we can get our hands on Hamelin and remove the samples of hair he has on him, then we can disempower him and force him to get us out of here."

"I like this plan." Glory Girl grinned savagely as she smacked one fist into her open palm. "I've wanted to pound this guy ever since Ames and I were trapped here, and especially since I heard about him attacking Justitia in her civilian clothes!"

I was a bit startled by this until I remembered that a member of New Wave, Fleur, had been attacked in her own home out of costume and killed years ago. At a guess, I would say that New Wave feels really, really strongly about someone breaking the Unwritten Rules like that.

"Whoa there!" Kid Win threw up his hands in a calming gesture. "Shouldn't we, I dunno, not piss off the insanely powerful Parahuman who's holding us captive here?"

"Waiting would just keep us playing into his hands, Kid." I pointed out; an idea of what Hamelin had been planning for us forming in my head. "I dunno about the rest of you, but I haven't eaten in a while and I've used a lot of energy up fighting. If we don't do something quick, we're going to be so worn down and exhausted that Hamelin will be able to beat all of us easily. Unless you fancy trying to eat giant rats?"

That made several of the Wards turn green. Not that I blamed them. The thought of eating the flesh of a giant ravenous rat was enough to turn my stomach, empty though it may be.

"Urgh…pass." Glory Girl looked as if she were going to throw up.

"So, rats aside, has anyone actually got anything to eat or drink on them?" Clockblocker asked.

The result was a resounding negative aside from Panacea, who had a granola bar on her. Obviously it wouldn't be enough to feed us all. We discussed what to do and it was eventually decided to head back to the room where the Undersiders had been held. It was the direction that the giant rats had come from and I followed the logic of 'go to where the enemy is the most plentiful to find things they don't want you to find when in their home base.'

Yes, it was video game logic, but as my power was a video game-esque one, I thought it would work.

First things first though…

I looked through the loot that I got from the giant rats. It was fairly basic stuff; fur and the like. There were a couple of swords, which I took out and gave to Vista and Clockblocker. They were short swords made of bronze and they were definitely low-tier stuff, but it was better than fighting monster rats barehanded.

"How-? Where the heck did you get those?" Kid Win asked as Clockblocker carefully hefted the blade I'd given him.

"I told you, my power is similar to an RPG." I answered with a smile. "That means I have levels and skills and get EXP and Loot from fights. Iustitia must have played about with exactly what I got, because I don't need a weapon as long as I have her."

"Thank you Mistress." The Maiden of Justice preened happily.

"So…what 'level' were those rats?" Aegis asked. I could almost hear the air quotes around 'level' but I gamely ignored them.

"Level Three. Beginner-level stuff." I shrugged. "Right about the proper level for me, because I'm only a Level 4 [Swordsman] right now."

"You have jobs too?"

"Yeah. Actually…Iustitia, what're the High Level and Superior Jobs that you can get after the [Swordsman] Class is maxed out?" I asked my Embryo.

"The High Class Jobs known to me are [Sword Master] and [Sword Hunter], and the Superior Jobs are the [Sword Saint] and [Heaven's Sword] Classes." Iustitia answered immediately. "Of course, as you gain and level other jobs, more shall appear once their unlock conditions become fulfilled."

I then went on to question her about the conditions needed to unlock them all. [Sword Master] merely required me to max out the [Swordsman] Class, while [Sword Hunter] required [Swordsman] to be at least Level 40 and I had to have broken 100 sword-type weapons. [Sword Saint] required both [Swordsman] and [Sword Master] to be maxed out, as well as requiring me to defeat a certain number of enemies with a sword and my Strength and Endurance had to be above 60 each. Finally, [Heaven's Sword] had some form of special requirement that Iustitia couldn't tell me about, which I thought was totally bogus but she had told me the truth every other time, so I guess that there were some things that even she didn't know.

As we talked, we approached the cavern again and entered it. It was still covered in the debris of buildings and I wondered aloud of there might be anything in them of use.

"Nice thought, but I don't wanna risk going in them to find out." Aegis shook his head. "They all look ready to crumble."

Dammit.

Passing through the cavern and into the tunnel on the opposite side, we were almost immediately ambushed by five giant rats. While they were dispatched easily, I was only receiving 45 EXP per rat now, when it had originally been 75. At a guess, it was being reduced by 15 points for every level I gained past Level 2. Why it didn't change between Level 1 and Level 2 was a bit beyond me, but I rolled with it.

Anyway, the point was that pretty soon, these little buggers wouldn't give me any EXP at all, or at least such a pathetically small amount of EXP that it was barely worth the trouble. The thought of ten EXP per rat was making me twitch with irritation.

I killed three giant rats, so I received 135 EXP. Add that onto the 53 EXP I had after that fighting retreat and I had 188 EXP, with 212 EXP until I levelled up again.

"Still, I do wish that my stats weren't being raised so unbalanced towards the physical side." I grumbled to Iustitia as she reverted back to her Maiden Form.

"Once I reach my Second Stage Form, I will be able to grant you level-up bonuses as well, Mistress." My Embryo comforted me as she patted the corpses of the giant rats to retrieve loot from them. "Ordinarily, Embryos do that even just with their First Forms, but I am special in that in exchange for not granting you any bonuses aside from my presence, forms and skills, I automatically grant you the accumulated recompense in the form of levelling your untouched stats by the same amount as was added to your other stats as soon as I evolve into my Second Stage Form."

It took me a moment to work out what she meant. "So by ignoring my Intelligence and Wisdom as I'm doing now, I'll be granted a large lump of points for them when you do evolve? What about afterwards?"

"At that point, I will add to your Intelligence and Wisdom by 5 points every time you level up, and to your Strength, Endurance and Toughness by 5 every other level." Iustitia answered.

"In addition to my jobs? Wow…" I muttered, mind racing as I thought of the possibilities.

"What do you mean 'other forms'?" Kid Win asked. "Can't your projection just switch between a girl and that sword/scales combo?"

"Humph. As if a Maiden Embryo could be satisfied with just that low level of power." Iustitia snorted. "A Maiden Embryo starts off with two forms; this image of a young girl that you see now and my initial weapon form. Other Embryos start off with one form. As we and our Masters grow in strength and experience, an Embryo can evolve into another form. Sometimes the change is permanent, other times we can shift to whatever form is needed. Those who unlock the seventh and final form of an Embryo are a rare breed, but I believe my Mistress will do so for me."

"Is there any rhyme or reason to the weapons?" the Tinker prodded curiously.

"I am currently a Maiden-with-Arms. That means I take the alternate form of a weapon or piece of armour. My next form could be anything; a guardian monster to protect my Mistress, a castle to grant her a safe retreat, a barrier to entrap her enemies…it all depends on how my Mistress and I grow and develop."

"And you can have seven different forms?" Clockblocker whistled. "Definitely at least Trump 7 or 8 for that."

I knew about the system of ranking that the PRT used to rate the various Capes, even if I thought that rating them by how potentially dangerous their powers were was a bit stupid. I would personally rate them by the strength and utility of the powers themselves, but hey, the government makes stupid decisions all the time.

We were attacked by Giant Rats three more times as we walk down the tunnel and I gained enough EXP through those fights to level up again. I was now a Level 5 Swordsman and now had the [Small Stamina Boost] Passive Skill, which added 50 to my Stamina bar, which was much appreciated.

"That…is a very big door." Clockblocker remarked as we came to a halt in front of it. I fully agreed with him, as it was a door that made bank vaults look flimsy and weak by comparison. It had to be at least four meters square and a couple of feet thick at least. Shining steel and possibly titanium in construction, I believe.

"Kid, tell me that you can bullshit your way into it." I said calmly.

"Depends if this is a Tinker construction or not." The Ward frowned as he looked the door over with a critical eye. "Gimme a minute."

"OK. Backup plan is to try and get Glory Girl to rip the door off." I sighed.

"Not sure I can." The girl known as Alexandria Junior said as she eyed the door dubiously. "Batter it into submission, maybe, but I'd need too much leverage to pry it outta there considering the weight of the door and the size of the locking bars on that thing."

She saw a few raised eyebrows (figuratively speaking) sent in her direction and snorted. "Blonde does not equal stupid, duh." she added the 'duh' in the most sarcastic Valley Girl impression I've ever heard.

Unfortunately, the familiar sound of four legged monsters charging towards us, from behind this time, broke up the session. Kid Win worked on the door while the rest of us minus Panacea kept the rats away from him. As I was only getting 30 EXP per rat now, I was not anticipating levelling up anytime soon, as Gallant had grabbed Kid's laser pistol and was blasting away like it was going out of fashion. I think the fact that his Blaster power was the next best thing to useless in this situation was something of a sore point for him.

"Any time now Kid!" Aegis shouted as he punted a rat back several feet with a snap kick.

"I need more time!" the Tinker shouted back. "Whoever put this together did such a kludge job of it that I'd be amazed if it actually opens!"

"Just hurry the fuck up!" I roared as I bisected a rat of my own. "We're getting overwhelmed here!"

"Oh, what the hell!" the red and gold armoured teen snarled and messed about with the wiring inside the hatch he'd somehow managed to pop off. With several hiss-snap sounds and a groan of heavy metal, the door opened wide.

"Fall back!" Aegis ordered. Following his command, we slowly and painfully withdrew as the tide of rats grew ever thicker. Once we were through, Kid Win slapped the controls and the door slammed shut, crushing half-a-dozen rats to death as it did so.

"That was…fun." Clockblocker said faintly as he collapsed onto his ass, his borrowed sword clattering down next to him. "Let's never do that again."

"Seconded." Vista piped up.

"Uh…guys?" Kid Win said faintly. "We…may have a problem."

Turning around, I felt my jaw drop at the sight I beheld. Rather than just a random cavern, this was a cavern with an entire town inside it! There was even a curtain wall surrounding the place, and on top of it were…

"Are those people?" I asked in disbelief.

"Only about as much as those rats are." Gallant replied after he presumably used his helmet's zoom function to have a look. "They may look like the real deal from a distance, but their faces are flat and their eyes are pure white; no iris or pupils. I'd bet they're more projections like the rats."

"This…could be a problem." I sighed. Regardless of the likelihood that these were indeed human-like projections, the Wards were not trained to fight other humans to the death, which this would likely lead to. Real or not, we had to get out of here, and of the only way to do that was to go through the people guarding the town, then real human or not, that is what I would do.

"Kid, can you fly up and see if there's another way out of this cavern or if this is the last place we have to look." I requested. "Panacea…can you wake up the Undersiders? We need to talk to them."

Extra: Fury of New Wave

Sarah Pelham, better known as Lady Photon, lost control of her powers for the first time in years and vaporized the cordless handset of the house phone. Making a sound of disgust with herself, she made a note to buy a new one later, once the current crisis was over with.

"Dear?" Neil, her husband, asked delicately. Crystal and Eric, her daughter and son, looked over at her with wide eyes. It had been a long, long time since 'Photon Mom' lost control of her lasers like that.

"That was the hospital Amy was at today." Sarah ground out, anger licking at her words. "The man who kidnapped the Wards ambushed Amy and Victoria as soon as they met outside the doors and they just…vanished. The PRT suspects a kidnapping."

"Holy shit!" Crystal muttered in shock, before her temper seemed to flare to mimic her mother. "What's the plan, Mom?"

"Everyone, suit up." Lady Photon said grimly as she started to make her way to her room. "We are going to track this man down and get our family back. Neal, call Carol and get her and Mark ready as well."

"On it." Manpower nodded.

It took less than five minutes for every member of New Wave who wasn't kidnapped to gather at the Pelham Family home. Brandish looked positively furious, with even Flashbang showing some emotion at the kidnapping of his daughters.

"We're going to spread out and patrol the entire city if we have to." Lady Photon stated firmly. "I have requested a basic description of the perpetrator from the PRT. Whoever it is that has our girls wears a form-concealing technicolor robe with a hood. He also carries a flute of some description. Current power rating is Mover 6, both for the teleportation effect he uses and for his superspeed. He uses the speed to flee from pursuers and is fast enough to escape from Battery and avoid Triumph's sonic howl. Another tentative rating that the PRT have given him is Stranger 3, as no one saw him until it was too late, despite his loud and obvious costume."

"As he has shown a preference for going after young Capes, Laserdream is being assigned to be with Brandish and Flashbang, while Shielder is being assigned to myself and Lady Photon." Manpower added. "Remember, we need him conscious in order to discover the whereabouts of Panacea and Glory Girl, so be careful with your fire."

Grim nods came from the gathered Capes. The last time that a member of New Wave had been targeted, she had ended up dead before they had even known about it. Fleur's death had broken the spirit of New Wave and cost them Lightstar, Fleur's boyfriend.

This time, they had lost the two youngest members of their team; the ever-shy and hardworking Amy and loud, boisterous, but kind, Victoria. This time New Wave would find the one who had taken their team members and wring the location or locations that he had stashed their members before he had a chance to do anything to them.

"I find it hard to believe that someone could keep Vicky away from her sister." Flashbang said with a frown. "They're probably together. Stay alert for any signs of Vicky's aura."

"Agreed." Brandish said frostily. Once again, Lady Photon promised herself that once this crisis was over, she was going to sit her sister down and get to the bottom of her attitude towards Amy. It was becoming less and less subtle as the years went on and she was certain that Amy was perceptive enough to have noticed it long before now.

'First things first, Sarah.' She told herself. 'First rescue your nieces, then do something about your sister's attitude towards the one not related to her by blood.'

As far as she was concerned, Amy was a member of the family. Regardless of the kind of man her father was, Amy herself was innocent. Perhaps that was what was getting Brandish upset.

Later

Lady Photon tore along a street, becoming increasingly frustrated. It had been over an hour and the only sighting of the madman who had kidnapped Panacea, Glory Girl and the Wards had been when he had somehow infiltrated the Wards Base beneath the PRT Building to try and kidnap Shadow Stalker as well!

'How is he doing this?!' she thought angrily. 'He would have to have Breaker AND Stranger powers to infiltrate the Wards base! And then to escape Armsmaster and outrun Velocity?! Just who are we dealing with here?!'

Grab-bag Capes were usually of two flavors; ones that had three to four powers of moderate strength and ones who had seven-plus powers that were weak separately. This robed man had displayed strong teleportation and superspeed for his Mover Rating, the cage of light he tried to capture Shadow Stalker in earned him a Shaker Rating, the ability to remain unnoticed until he had started to teleport someone away had earned him a Stranger Rating and he had even shown a powerful Blaster ability of some kind.

"Fuck off, ya glowing dildo!" a familiar, not very welcome, voice interrupted her thought process. Looking around, she spotted Skidmark standing at the head of about twenty armed Merchants.

"I do not have time for this!" Lady Photon snarled and blasted the lot of them before Skidmark could get his shields up. She held back enough to prevent any lethal or serious injuries, but she was also not gentle with them. All twenty-plus of the drug-ridden idiots fell in less time than it took to eat a peanut, Lady Photon speeding off elsewhere, absently letting the PRT know about where Skidmark was as she did so.

It was going to be a LONG night for her.