A Tale of Two Brothers

Hoo boy, this is not what I thought would happen when I did a CYOA for me and my brother. Now we're both stuck in the Worm-verse in body's seven years younger than we were, superpowers and no way home. This...is not going to be fun.

And we're back. This is gonna be fun. Enjoy!

Chapter 2

The moment I fell asleep, I found myself in what can only be called a black space with a large spotlight illuminating a computer and chair.

"Um, what?" I muttered as I looked around, "Where am I?"

Since it was the only thing around, I wandered over to the computer and looked at the screen. It took a moment, but I quickly realized what was going on. I'd picked the interludes gift, so it apparently manifested as this odd dream. I glanced at the chair for a moment, before pushing it aside in favour of sitting down on my tail. I could see not being able to use standard chairs becoming a pain in the future. Then again, it was rather comfortable. Guess fanfictions do occasionally get things right.

I reached for the mouse and lent an elbow on the desk as I started to read.

Interlude dream: Tattletale.

If Lisa wasn't convinced that Coil was trying to get her and her team killed before, now she was. Seriously, who in their right mind thought that attempting to rob LUNG was a good idea!? There was a reason why even the most evangelical E88 members rarely tried to do one of their occasional 'cleansing' attempts in ABB territory after all. To make matters worse, she only had three days to make a suitable plan. THREE DAYS! Even she had limits, especially when it came to making plans that wouldn't result in them getting squashed by a rage dragon!

Lisa scowled as she rested her elbows on her desk and rubbed her temples. Brian wasn't going to like this, even with the massive paycheck the boss had offered. That meant that, on top of planning around Lung and Lee, she also had to figure out a way to get her leader to take the job. Alec and Rachel would be easy since the former was only interested in money and the latter didn't care. That said, convincing Brian was likely going to be like pulling teeth. With a claw hammer.

She was completely right. As usual. When she brought up the bosses plan the next day, Rachel just grunted around her bacon, Alec asked how much they were getting before agreeing once he saw the number of zeros and Brian pointed out how utterly stupid annoying Lung like that would be.

"I am aware of that," she said, "But the boss believes that we can pull it off AND hes willing to pay us a hell of a lot just for attempting it. On top of whatever we manage to take, we'll be sitting pretty for a while."

Brian scowled.

"I don't like it Lisa," he said, "This is getting dangerously close to the big leagues. Right now we're just an annoyance, but if we start poking the bear…"

"I know Brian," said Lisa, "But the boss thinks it'll be fine and I'll make sure we don't end up BBQed. We'll be in and out before anyone notices and then you can treat your sister."

Lisas power helpfully picked up on the slight tensing of Brians body when she brought up Aisha. They both knew she had him and it rankled Brian.

"That was uncalled for," muttered the leader of the Undersiders, "Fine, we'll do it. But you'd better make good on that promise!"

Lisa gave her patented vulpine grin.

"Oh Brian, when have I ever let you down?" she asked.

Brian just snorted and headed to the living area where Alec was booting up one of his many consoles. Lisa let out a sigh of relief and slumped back in her chair. That had been far more exhausting than it had any right to be and it wasn't even 10am yet. She needed some fresh air.

She stood and headed back to her room to grab her jacket, shoes and bag, before heading to the door, just as Rachel was about to leave with her dogs. The Dog user glanced at her, but didn't say anything as they left the loft.

The two girls descended the stairs into the abandoned lower floors of the factory. It was rather dark, with the only light coming in from the holes in the ceiling and grimy windows, but it was enough to land on an oddly coloured mound of something that looked like green leather that hadn't been there the night before. Lisa paused and narrowed her eyes.

"Rachel, wait a sec," she said.

"What?" growled the larger girl.

"I think...I think someones here," she said, turning on her power.

Not leather, scales, reptilian. Alive Humanoid. Not a natural creature. Case 53. Sleeping. Not alone. Somehow knows we're present.

Lisa's eyes widened.

"Rachel, intruders!" she shouted.

Rachels eyes narrowed and her three dogs began to growl as they started to grow.

"Attack," said the red-head.

END INTERLUDE

My eyes snapped open, just in time to see three massive mutts barraling towards me. I took a moment to note that that was a FUCKING weird feeling to read about my own sleeping self getting discovered, before I jumped to my feet and smacked the lead dog around the mush with my tail. The heavy length of muscle hit with the force of a small car and sent the dog flying into a stack of rusted metal. The other two didn't slow down, so I snagged my brothers Animorph power and turned into a T-rex. The dogs skidded to a stop as they were suddenly confronted with a prehistoric alpha predator and promptly turned tail to cower behind Bitch when I roared at them. The sight of two massively mutated dogs trying to cower behind a comparatively smaller girl was rather amusing, as was the look of utter shock on Lisa's face.

To be honest, I probably wasn't that much of a threat to them at the moment since I couldn't actually move without making the Protectorate panic over a dinosaur rampaging through the Docks. Still, I'd made my point and switched back to Human(ish) form as Brain and Alec came tumbling out of their loft, fighting with their masks and scepter.

"Well, that wasn't the most pleasant way to wake up," I grumbled as I stretched out my back, wincing at the cacophony of cracks.

Note to self, being a lizard does not make sleeping on a hard floor any more comfortable.

"Who the fuck are you?!" snarled Bitch.

"And what are you doing here?" asked Grue as darkness started seeping out of his hands and mask.

I grinned, taking a small amount of pleasure at the way they recoiled slightly at the sight of my fangs. Hey, I might be intending to join them, but that didn't mean I liked being woken up by being a dogs potential breakfast.

"You may call me Lizard," I said, "And the pain in the neck whos still out cold is my younger brother."

"Inventive name," said Alec.

"Oh, like your one to talk," I drawled, "Anyway, as for why we're here, that would be because my Brother had a major panic attack and I spent most of the night either chasing him around the Docks or running from Oni Lee after hitting Lung in the face with a rocket launcher and telling him to go fuck himself."

The Undersiders stared at me in utter shock. I admit, I was a bit surprised as well. I'd never really been that confident in the past, but I guess knowing that, if they did attack, I could counter their powers perfectly made me a lot less passive than normal. Or Abaddon's Shard was having more of an affect than I thought…

"What are you?"

"Huh?"

I turned my attention to Tattletale, who was staring at me like she had no idea what to think of me.

"What do you mean Tats?" asked Grue.

"He...knows us," she said, "I don't know how, but he knows exactly who we are and...more things than anyone should."

My grin widened slightly.

"Oh, I really should have guessed you'd pick up on that Sarah," I said.

Lisa recoiled as if punched. The other Undersiders looked between the two of us in obvious confusion.

"Whos Sarah?" asked Alec.

"Well, you're not the only one to use a pseudonym after running away from home Jean-Paul," I said, "Oh, and if you make me twitch, I'll jam that scepter down your throat."

"How?!" demanded Tattletale, "How do you know this stuff?!"

"Now that...is going to have to stay a secret for now," I said, "You won't believe me and if you do there's a risk of driving you completely round the twist. However, before you start panicking, I have no intention of doing anything against you. In fact, I intend to help you."

"Help us how?" asked Grue.

"Lets just say that the snake has two heads," I said.

"Whats that supposed to mean?!" demanded Regent, who was holding his scepter in a white knuckle grip.

Lisa on the other hand went through a number of different expressions, but a massive grin slowly worked its way across his face.

"So thats how he did it," she breathed.

She turned on her heel and sprinted up the stairs into the loft.

"What the fuck was that all about?" asked Alec.

"I just gave her the piece she needed to finish a puzzle," I said as I dropped down to sit cross legged on the floor.

I was still knackered.

"You said you could help us," said Brian, "How?"

I sighed.

"Well, I have a few ways," I said, "But I won't do it for free. At least, not entirely. Due to...reasons, my brother and I have nothing but the clothes on our backs and our powers. We're both strong enough that the gangs will do just about anything to get us and I really don't fancy working for Lung, Nazis, drug dealers or the corrupt mess that is the PRT."

"Are you asking to join us?" asked Brain.

"Just me," I said, "I have a feeling Lucas will do his own thing. That said, I know that you guys are alright and don't deserve half the shit that'll get thrown at you. I can help you survive and even thrive."

I smirked.

"Besides, your boss'd love to have me and will likely be one of the ones chomping at the bit to get us. Might as well save him the trouble."

"Why are you willing to work for our boss and not the others?" asked Alec.

"Oh, I'm not," I said, "I'm willing to work with you. Your boss is easily the worst of everyone in the city, but Tats can come up with a method of offing him, especially with my powers."

"What are your powers?" asked Brian, "Other than being a big lizard?"

My smirk widened even further.

"I'm a Tinker," I said.

"Your hired," shouted Tattletale from the apartment.

"Um, shouldn't we vote on that?" asked Alec.

"Oh please, like we don't need a good Tinker!" said Lisa, "Besides, hes got big wads of cash and enough contacts to make the boss jealous."

"How the fuck do you know that?" I asked, more than a little taken aback that she knew that.

"I don't know!" she cheered.

The other Undersiders watched nonplussed as their know-it-all teammate danced skipped back inside, humming happily to herself.

"Well, shes in a good mood all of a sudden," said Alec.

Rachel just grunted and headed for the doors with her dogs on her heels. Grue sighed and looked like he wanted to rub his eyes.

"Alright, I guess your in then," he said.

"Thanks," I said, "Now I don't suppose you could provide some breakfast? I haven't eaten since yesterday."

My stomach agreed with a loud grumble. Grue sighed again.

"Fine," he grumbled, "Come up when your ready. I'm going to talk to Tattletale about what security means."

"K, I just need to wake my brother up and get him moving," I said.

Grue nodded and stomped back up the stairs with Regent on his heels. I turned my attention to my still unconscious brother.

"Hmm, how to do this?" I muttered, "Oh, I know!"

I reached down and prodded him in the side with a claw.

"Murrr, fiv' mo' minets," he mumbled.

"Yep, hes fine," I said and kicked him in the side, making sure to keep my claws from cutting him.

"OW!"

He jolted awake, sitting up at high speed and nearly nutting me in the process. He looked around in confusion.

"What the...where am I?" he asked.

"The same place as yesterday," I said, leaning back on my tail.

Lucas turned to me and stared for a moment.

"Um, Mark, why are you a big lizard?" he asked.

I sighed.

"I needed the points, so I took two in Case 53," I said, "This was the result."

"Um...OK?" he said, "What happened?"

"Do you actually remember ANYTHING from last night?" I asked.

Lucas paused, his expression going through various expressions, before settling on confusion.

"Oh god, thats embarrassing," he muttered.

"Not really, I told you that landing somewhere with no idea how would fuck you up," I said.

"Then why didn't you freak out?" asked Lucas.

"Well, reading all those fics made it so I pretty much know exactly what to expect," I said with a slight smirk, "Anyway, I highly suggest we sort you out something to hide your face before you go out again. Otherwise Lung'll rip your face off if he sees you again."

I clapped my hands before Lucas could respond.

"But first, we need to eat and I need to make sure that you don't accidentally pick a fight with someone who could use your bones to pick their teeth."

I grabbed him by the back of his shirt and dragged him towards the stairs in search of food.

My brother is under the impression that, if he found himself in an alleyway with no idea how he got there or where he was, while being inexplicably de-aged, his reaction would be '...huh, thats cool.' I call bullshit. Hell, the only reason Mark didn't freak out was because he had at least some idea of what was going on and knew that a panic attack in Brockton Bay would result in all sorts of bad things happening. My Brother doesn't read fanfiction or Worm, so he didn't even have that.

Anyway, rant over, onto my witty comments!

Yay for Varga references. I told you they were coming fast.

I had that interlude planned out pretty much from the start, along with the whole 'I'm a Tinker/your hired!' line.

Incidentally, Marks personality is going to be all over the map and I blame the Shards for it. True, Abaddon's Shards aren't interested in conflict like Zion, but they will have an affect on the brothers by making them more eager to fight. Not to start them or go looking for them like Zion Capes, but just give them more confidence and courage so they can fight. Their powers help to. It doesn't help that I'm a boring person by nature, although that might be because I don't have the confidence to be half as batty as Mark will be acting half the time.

Anyway, this is done. Don't forget to leave a review!