[disclaimer - Wildbow owns Worm, I do not own Worm]

I woke up and got out of bed, actually happy and already feeling much less depressed than yesterday - a good indication that my hormone processing implant was working - along with feeling much less squirmy and more distinct, localised dysphoria as compared to the general sense of absolute misery that I was feeling yesterday. This was a massive improvement and meant I was in a much better state to improve my tinkertech and think about a bit of long term planning (just a bit - I'm terrible at following any kind of plan). Brain fog was a problem however, probably due to my lack of food, and I could do with a shower. and internet access and other information.

The problem was, I now lacked resources, and the usual regions with resources were a massive beacon to anyone looking for new tinkers - the scrapyard and boat graveyard were both out. Of course, the Protectorate was theoretically an option, but in practise they upheld the status quo (and state power that was sort of merged into weird PRT paramilitary-esque structure, extremely undemocratic), and had a hierarchical command structure (and I presumed fixed hours), and were ultimately under the control of Cauldron, all of which made them a complete non-starter. Joining a villain team or independent hero team (or at least New Wave) was also a non-starter. Villain teams because they often did questionable-at-best things even if I don't care (ethically speaking) about the concept of legality at all, independent hero teams because they were ineffectual and didn't really solve the root causes of problems and just punch anyone who breaks the law. Essentially superpowered cops - like the Protectorate - which is rather depressing. What I wanted was to give humanity the collective power to punch a shitty omnicidal demigod in the fucking face and expand into the stars (and other dimensions) and make society more free. Amongst numerous other things, at least once my immediate survival and reasonable happiness was assured.

A big issue I knew I was going to have was the inherent power disparity due to my meta-knowledge of Worm (more of which I needed to check, but I really expected I was at some point in the canon timeline), much amplified with the capes of Brockton Bay and events here, which meant forming social relationships would be pretty difficult - the only information-gathering thinker in Brockton who could even approach equal informational power without me having to say anything (a dangerous prospect with Cauldron around) or verify it was Tattletale, and she was a teenager (and talking to her would imply Coil obtaining anything I know too, of course). Isolation was not healthy for me to go through for extended periods of time, so I needed to come up with a solution, which would probably involve the internet, or high speed travel.

I wanted to inform Case 53s of their true origins as well (specifically in this case, those with Faultline's Crew, as they were the most accessible for me to speak to one on one), but that required some pretty powerful precog and Clairvoyant-blocking technology to avoid Miss "PtV-shard-wearing-a-fedora" shanking me in my sleep - technology that was a couple orders of magnitude out of my ability to produce at the moment. I also needed to be wary of my own power drain - at the moment any electricity I was using was coming straight from the grid, and anything more than those hair removal lasers would probably trip tinker monitoring systems. Long term, I was looking for self-defence against any Trump powers (I was quite attached to my lovely interdimensional eldritch abomination and didn't want anything to happen to it if my instincts about what it had available matched up to reality - as it had so far with the behaviour of my tinker charges). Importantly I didn't want the larger shard network discovering the negentropy, or I'd have thinkers and tinkers drooling in front of me as their shards decided to hijack their body to look at juicy [DATA]. Hell, maybe Zion would decide to bring out his fuck-you beam and kill me before I could kill his arsehole self, just to steal my shard.

While following plans was hard, having a list of some tasks to do helped at least a little bit. Though all this thinking had distracted me - once again - from finding an actual source of food. Going outside was going to be difficult - even in my much more peaceful original Earth, I struggled with anxiety outside without people with me, and Brockton Bay was a significantly more shithole-ish place than where I lived before, which made it much worse. I also lacked any actual money (or a way to get it) other than beating up gangsters which I wasn't really strong enough to do.

And then the revelation hit me. I didn't need to be that strong, just enough to take a single gangster, which didn't even require a powered suit or anything - just a few bits of metal in the right places, perhaps spikes, and I'd outclass a sufficiently low-level gang member even as my gangly and slightly overweight (and very dysphoric still) self. Spike-studs on the end of my shoes, a few bits between my fingers, and I'd be set if I punched them in a vulnerable area. Hell, I only needed one gangster with money on them! And there were lots of Nazis ready to take money from too, with pretty much no ethical qualms at all, even if doing so in practise would probably need me to psych myself up significantly.

As such, I switched my tinkering specialty to hand-to-hand combat and fugued with the few remaining smaller CNC machines to produce knuckle-spikes and ejectable toe spikes for my shoes, installing the latter during the fugue, which I came out of about 30 minutes after beginning. Equipping both sets of equipment, I stalked out of my door (closing it gently behind me) and began engaging in Nazi hunting. Hiding from both E88 patrols around the area and the groups of civilian people who were out in the middle of the day (all white, gender conforming, and heteronormative in general, what a coincidence!), I headed towards where the Medhall building tore into the Brockton Bay skyline. The logic here was that further towards the core of Empire 88 power, the patrols would likely involve less gangsters, and I could probably take a single gangster out before there was a chance for a cape to get involved. Other than for resources, right now I really did not want to involve myself with any street level fighting if I could avoid it. I wasn't used to physically hurting people (even if I was willing to do so, as was generally the case with Nazis), so this would be hard. Hell, I could barely manage confrontation of any kind without freezing up, which meant that I had to take out a Nazi fast, before they could strike back and call for help or I got so anxious I couldn't keep going.

So it was with great trepidation, then, that I found my first isolated Empire gangster about halfway between my hidey-hole and the Medhall building. I snuck behind him as quietly as possible, psyched myself up for several seconds, then jammed my left arm around his stomach and slammed my right fist into the side of his neck. Twisting in front of him, I kneed him in the crotch and he keeled over, clearly completely out of it within about 3 seconds of the final smackdown. Baseline human versus baseline human fights with lack of significant training did tend towards quick, one-sided knockouts, though it was a goddamn shock to experience that I had just physically smacked down a fucking Nazi in all of about 20 seconds flat.

Well, there was no point waiting around. I opened his wallet and grabbed the $43 he was apparently carrying on him, then bolted as fast as fucking possible before anyone could see me, jamming the spiked knuckles into my trouser pockets so they weren't visible. The moment I got back to my personal warehouse, coming down from adrenaline, my body violently shook and I felt sick probably from hunger and physical exertion as well as the first serious physical fight in my life. I just lied on my bed for about ten minutes, calming myself down from the whole ordeal, then I removed the toe spikes from my shoes and put them back on. Opening the door, I stepped outside - uncomfortable in my still-unwashed clothes and anxious around the small groups of chattering people walking down the street in front of me, not paying me attention in the slightest. I needed food first, to think clearly, so I began the trek towards the richer part of the city, towards the boardwalk. Maybe I'd get to try the mythical Fugly Bob's, but for now I wanted something quick to recover from the issues that going 3 days without food would likely cause when eating too much at once. As I moved towards the boardwalk, I came across just the place - a cozy corner shop that sold those nice cheap take-away sandwiches, pasties, and sausage roles of all flavours.

I would have picked tuna and sweetcorn, but it was much more expensive than on my home world - a subtle but sobering reminder of the effect of the horrors known as Endbringers. Hope-killing monsters that were suffocating humanity in the cradle on Earth Bet. I idly wondered whether the Endbringers here could be converted to Friendbringers, but that was a long-off question to answer and I'd probably have the means and need to kill them before I got much of a chance. Regardless, I picked up a beef and onion and an egg and cress sandwich for about $3 total, then ravenously consumed them in probably as many seconds.

Still hungry, I walked down the boardwalk, almost bouncing in joy at finally eating, and I saw a blonde with freckles and green eyes in a coffee shop - probably Tattletale, given the way she gaped at me and looked like she was about to run after me - but I started jogging before she got any chances to catch me. I really didn't feel like dealing with someone as adept at social-fu as Tattletale was right now, I was already mentally tired enough from the whole Empire goon thing and worrying about all the other shit I'd dealt with over the past couple of days. She seemed to get it after a minute or so, though, and chose not to pursue me as I slowed down and walked to a more expensive takeout with greasier and more filling food (still not Fugly Bob's, but frankly I was still too hungry to wait any longer). I ordered the most meaty, cheese-rich burger I could see on the menu at a reasonable price (about $6) and absolutely devoured the thing. It was fucking amazing, after 3 days of no food - and I ended up ordering another one to take home with me.

While I was sufficiently close to the trainyard (I could just about see it from the end of the boardwalk) I decided to go investigate and pick up some plants that were probably laying around, since I fully intended on biotinkering (I actively relished the idea of messing with biology, contrary to the admittedly understandable prejudice this world has against it even if it allows for unparalleled morphological autonomy and solutions to tons of problems, with it's self-repairing nature meaning it pretty much never needs maintenance - Piggot would hate me the moment any of my stuff became public, though). An uneventful trip later, and I was walking back down the boardwalk - this time Tattletale looked at me, glanced at the plants, paled, and whispered intensely into the ear of the boy who'd appeared next to her (who was clearly Alec). She recognised at the very least that my power involved tinkering and biomass, and, well, yeah, this world was home to the likes of Bonesaw and Nilbog.

I ran back to my little warehouse, exhausted but happy I'd managed to grab food. The sun was just shifting over the middle of the sky and I definitely needed rest, so I decided on a nap for a couple hours. Then I was thinking I'd go on my next important objective - information.

[end of chapter - nya~]