Worm: She's Dead, Jim Part Two
DISCLAIMER: Worm, Parahumans, and the characters and settings of Earth Bet (and other places) were created by John "Wildbow" McCrae. I don't own them. This story was written for my own amusement, not for profit. If you are enjoying it, please write and post a review.
ADVISORY: Foul Language. The setting is in Brockton Bay.
Part Two:
It wasn't until I went up to my room that I realized that I hadn't gotten Sophia's cause of death. Blackwell might have shared it at the Assembly, but the PRT came in and the Assembly got canceled. Nobody said what it was in the hall or in the gym. Did somebody shoot her or what? If Sophia's attacker was some Cape, they'd probably have to come up with some bullshit cause of death. Maybe they'd say on the 11:00 news: in the meantime, I had to work on my homework.
I came downstairs shortly after 11:00 to see if my hunch had any credit. The television was still on and so was the evening news. I got pay-dirt: not only did the cops and the PRT announce that Shadow Stalker was dead, they had video footage. They started rolling shortly after they announced that there was a suspect and put out a BOLO notice.
The first scene was downtown. Somebody had had a working security camera. Several security cameras. I first saw some unknown cape wearing a dark black cloak with a metal skull mask carrying what looked like a magical wand. Magic wands, eh? Yeah, right, I thought sardonically. Magic is bullshit.
The scene cut to another location. Two mooks attempted to shake down the unknown cape, most likely for his wallet and valuables. Their mistake: the cape pointed his stick at one mook and a bolt of green light shot out of it. The other mook attempted to flee but was struck in the back by another bolt of green light. The mooks crumpled into limp heaps and didn't move. The cape stood there for a moment, shrugged, then went bent over them and took their wallets.
Cut to another scene and another security camera. The cape was walking down the street with a companion: some civilian. The civilian's body language showed that the civilian didn't want to be with him and that the Cape frightened her. The next segment was shot from another video camera and showed another pair of thugs trying to mug the Cape. The thugs' luck was as poor as the first two mooks: the Cape already had his wand out and used it to kill one of them. The second thug drew his gun and was aiming for the Cape when Shadow Stalker intervened, shooting the thug with one of her cross-bows. That was followed by Shadow Stalker confronting the unknown Cape. The video showed her making threatening moves and the Cape showed one of his other powers: he moved from standing right in front of her to standing right behind her. Then he zapped her with his wand. He stood over Shadow Stalker's body and nudged it with his boot. Shadow Stalker didn't respond. The Cape then turned to a blank wall and used his wand to draw a graffito on it. The surveillance footage ended and the announcer said that the Cape was armed and was considered extremely dangerous. The segment then showed a split-screen showing an artist's impression of the Cape and an image of his graffito: a fanged snake crawling out of a human skull. The announcer finished by saying that the Cape should be left alone and provided phone numbers for the PRT and the Brockton Bay Police Department.
Interesting, I thought. If that was Sophia, she was definitely dead. And she definitely wasn't coming back. I knew that I should feel sorry that she was dead, but I still hated her. Instead of grief, I felt a sense of relief, the other two members of the Trio were still there but their main muscle was down and for now Emma and Madison were off-balance. I'd have at least a few days of peace while they regrouped and got busy thinking about what they'd do next. Still, I had questions. Who was the cape? Was he still there? I made a note to myself to think about it when I woke up tomorrow. I went back up to my room and got back into bed. Despite the questions buzzing around in my head, I had no trouble falling asleep. I slept until my alarm went off the next morning.
-XXX-XXX-XXX-
Author's notes: I don't own the characters or characteristics of that franchise either. They're owned by JK Rowling, Warner Brothers, and Wizarding World.
