Knight of Worm

When I filled out a CYOA out of boredom, I never expected a ROB to take that as an invitation and drop me in it. On the other hand, I did pick some skills that made it basically impossible for me to ...is going to be interesting.

Before we begin, can I just say that most of the CYOA's other than five are completely broken? I mean, I used v3 for this and ended up with a character with Lancelot's powers, Aura+RWBY tinkertech and the ability to reorder events in time. I don't even think its possible for him to die. Oh, whatever, this is more for fun than anything, so lets get started. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

"Urrrrg, so bored," I moaned, leaning back in my chair.

It was one of those mind numbing days when nothing seems to keep you interested, not helped in the least that my days off from work had fallen in such a way I ended up with a full week off. The house was empty, I'd already read all of the recently updated stories on my list, there was nothing new that looked interesting and my muse had decided to take a vacation somewhere nice. Normally, I'd fire up my Playstation, but since it was currently updating, that was right out.

PING!

I sighed and sat up, bringing up my Gmail tab and found that it was a PM on Space Battles. Considering I was a recent addition and generally didn't comment that much, I hadn't received much in the way of PMs. I idly clicked on it and found it was from someone called 'Robert Oswald Bordeaux'. Interesting name.

Hey Dis, big fan of your work!

Why thank you! A bit of ego stroking is never unwelcome.

I don't know how you feel about requests, but I'm kinda interested to see what you do with this:

Under the message was a spoiler tag that opened to reveal a Worm CYOA. I'd done a couple in the past, mostly using the V5 since it was the most balanced, but this one was anything but that. It had the potential to churn out OP characters with incredible ease. Normally, I prefer not to give characters blatantly OP powers (unless they were for a damn good reason), but I was bored and writing a curbstomp story might be just the ticket. After a moments thought, I shrugged, lent forwards and got to work.

Lets see, take standard start since I didn't want to end up TO OP. Actually, lets toss that and pick Servant, specifically Fate/Zero's Berserker, minus the Mad Enhancement. It might technically be against the rules, but it didn't say I couldn't drop elements I didn't want. Need more points...lets take Without a Map and have the OC get dropped in the middle of an S9 attack cus why not? Plug those points into...ohh, RWBY Aura! Mine! And I think I'll take the RWBY weapon Tinker to since Knight of Owner plus whatever I could come up with from that crazy world will be...lets go with fun!

I frowned as I scanned the page, taking in my choices. Looks good so far, but I really didn't want to waste time having my character learn how to use Aura and RWBY weapons. I needed another point. Lets see...Pintsize is out, I couldn't think of a good way to use Geas, although I suppose I could tap into the Mad Enhancement for it. Hmm…

After a moment, I glanced back at my character page and remembered where I intended to drop him. I snapped my fingers and grinned, nabbing a 2 point level Wanted with E88. Because of...reasons I guess? I'd come up with something later. I payed another point to get the knowledge boost and scanned the page, smiling slightly. This was rather fun.

Lessee, still got a point, so...lets roll the dice! Wildcard. Bring up Superpower Wiki and hit random page and...HOLY SHIT! A wide grin crossed my face as I stared at the page that had come up. Future Order Manipulation or, to put it another way, Coils power on steroids. That'd come in handy! Another dice roll left me with a PRT rating of 8. Bit low if you ask me, but whatever.

I scanned my page again, eyeing the Wanted choice with a slight frown. That...didn't make much sense. I couldn't really think of any reason for the E88 to want to go after my SI. I mean, I was so white I practically glowed in the dark, not Jewish and the only other thing they might take exception to was the fact I was a Brit. I scanned my choices again, before my eyes landed on my choice of entry point and my grin came back. PERFECT! Switch, the E88 for a t-ed off S9 and crank it up to 3 since they'd want my SI dead for what he'd do and I had an extra point for the bargain!

I quickly plugged the point into Wildcard again and brought up my Superpower Wiki Tab, which I hadn't closed. Inwardly praying for something that didn't suck and could be used as a ranged attack, I hit random page...and promptly facedesked as it came up with Imaginary Creature Creation. Welp, that was just as OP as the other one.

After spending a good five minutes laughing my ass off, I rolled the dice again and got 7. Still giggling to myself, I scanned the page for anything else I wanted. Plot Armour sounded good, but when you had the powers of the Greatest of Arthur's Knights, it was kinda redundant. Resources looked...kinda nice, but...nah, I was OP enough as it was. Hmm, maybe I could take a For Want of a Nail? But then what would I change?

After looking through my choices and the CYOA a few more times, I came to the conclusion that there was nothing I really wanted to change. I mean, I could do a reroll for my Wildcards, but I could end up with something useless and I'm pretty sure that was against the rules. Either way, I was done, so I copied my list into Space Battles and typed up a reply to the message I got. Might as well let him know I'd be taking him up on the idea.

Hey mate, thanks for reading my stuff! Its always nice to hear from a fan. Anyway, since I'm bored, I've decided I might as well give your idea a shot. Please note, I might not continue it, but its worth a try. Heres the character I came up with. Let me know what you think!

I hit the send button and brought up a word processor to get started. Before I could write more than the summary however, a reply popped up in my inbox. That was fast.

I opened the PM and scanned the message, a slight frown crossing my face as I did.

Ohh, looks good. I think I'll be having a lot of fun with this one! Best of luck to you. Your gonna need it.

"Whats that supposed to mean?" I muttered.

PING!

My frown deepened as another PM arrived.

Read my initials ;P.

I blinked.

"Wait, wha...OH SH…"

And that was as far as I got before my computer screen flared brightly and I found myself falling through darkness.

"FUCK SHIT BOLLOCKS BALLS TITS DAMN CRAPPPPPPPP!" I screamed, turning the non existent air blue from my swearing.

I wasn't normally one to swear like that, but considering my situation, can you blame me? As I fell, I could feel my body changing, first growing in size from my rather small and weedy frame into a tall, muscular one, followed my a surge of energy and a faint, purple glow. Then, my head was abruptly filled with knowledge of Aura, RWBY tech, fighting skills and a fuck ton more stuff that it'd take me way too long to explain, even if I could. Fortunately, I didn't get Lancelot's memories or I might have turned into Berserker full on. I did however get all of his skills. Then, the world opened up in my mind and I KNEW exactly what was to come. The threads of Fate were visible and I could easily shift and change them with a simple flick of my thoughts. Hell, I could even see that Coil was currently splitting the timeline and could easily shut him down if I wanted! God, that power was absurd…

CLANG!

I was cut off from my thoughts as my fall was suddenly aborted by virtue of hitting the floor hard enough to crack the pavement. I was unharmed, naturally, Endurance A will do that. I was probably tougher than most Endbringers and my armour only boosted that. Yep, I had Berserkers armour, complete with the black mist of For Someone's Glory. Thats cool. I think I'll need it.

I slowly pushed myself up, stretching out my limbs and back as I reveled in the feeling of my new strength. I felt better than I had in my entire life, the sheer strength from a mix of being a Heroic Spirit on par with Lancelot and my Aura boosting my body even more mixing together to create a feeling of elation and power. I had to wonder if this is what all Superhumans felt like when they first gained their powers. Probably not all things considered.

"Oh my, what have we here?"

I twitched slightly at the voice and glanced over my shoulder. Sure enough, now I wasn't distracted by my new power, I became aware of the stench of blood, smoke and acid that filled the air, a stench that the part of me that was Berserker knew very well. The source of the stench came from the fact that the town I'd landed in had apparently been completely wiped out. I could see dead bodies scattered around the area, most of them in pieces and a few looked like they'd been eaten. Lovely.

The source of the voice was a man who looked rather like Johnny Depp, if he was a serial killer, in blood splattered clothes and with a neatly trimmed beard that, for a brief moment, made me feel a little jealous.

With the crazy bastard was a black and white nude woman splattered in blood, an attractive middle eastern woman clad in a costume made of glass, a blond girl in a blood covered apron with a number of surgical tools sticking out of the pockets, an eldritch abomination, a man who looked like Jason Voorhees if he used a hatchet, what looked like a cross between a puppet and a shop mannequin and a scarred woman with pale skin in a red dress. Greattttt, guess that fucking ROB decided to take my idea and run with it. This was going to be...not fun, but certainly interesting.

However, despite being confronted by the most infamous group of fictional mass murderers since the Death Eaters, I didn't feel threatened. Hell, the only ones I even registered as an actual threat were the Siberian and Crawler and that was only because I wasn't entirely sure I could kill them without flattening most of the town. Then again, considering everyone was dead, that wasn't really a problem. Even Hatchet Face was dismissed as a threat since, even if he could erase my powers, my fighting skills came from inherited knowledge, not a power themselves. Hell, chances were, he wouldn't be able to erase my Servant powers as it was. And that was before I glanced into the future and saw that in no possible future would I get more than a broken arm during this fight. Hell, if I wanted, I could wipe all eight of them out without being touched, but that future was...less than optimal.

Apparently, being able to see the future made one good at planning (shock horror) and I already had a rough idea hashed out. Well, actually, it was the rough idea for what I'd do in the story, but since I was now living it, I might as well go through with it. That plan could basically be boiled down to helping everyone who got shat on by life (which was most of the cast in one way or another) and I fully intended to leverage my powers to do just that. And since one of the people I wanted to save was Riley, lets not murder everyone.

"I thought we'd got everyone, but it seems we missed one," said Jack, eyeing me up and down, "Or did you come looking for us?"

I scoffed, noting that my armour made my voice sound rather inhuman.

"Why would I come looking for weaklings like you?" I said, "I assure you that my presence here has nothing to do with your attack and everything to do with random chance."

Well, that was a load of steaming bullcrap, but it'd get the response I was after. Jacks face darkened as the rest of the Nine shifted in barely suppressed anger. Crawler especially looked like he was ready to tear me apart at being dismissed out of hand.

"You are either very brave or very foolish," said Jack in a clipped tone.

"Why?" I asked, "Why should I be afraid of fools so wrapped up in their delusions of power and importance that they fail to see just how insignificant they are? Meer puppets of a madman attempting to carve a crest of blood upon the land, not realizing that, for all the death and devastation they cause, they will never be remembered as anything more than savage beasts…"

At that point, my taunting seemed to cause Crawler to hit critical mass, or he just got bored of waiting, because the mass of black limbs, horns and unmentionable body parts let out a roar and pounced, gaping more wide and dripping acid to either swallow me whole, crush me under his weight or melt me into goo. I smirked under my helmet as I shifted my stance slightly and braced myself.

The mutated Cape slammed into me with the force of a train...and stopped cold as I caught him by the mouth and pushed back. He was strong enough to push me back a few inches, but other than that, I was unmoved. I could see the utter shock in Crawlers eyes as he struggled to bite down, only to be kept where he was by my sheer brute strength. Strength A FTW! I gritted my teeth and pushed, shoving the massive Cape back, before planting my feet, twisting and throwing Crawler straight through the side of a nearby house.

I continued the turn as I felt my precognition power wink out and caught Hatchet Face's hatchet as he tried to bury the blade in my helmet. Apparently my Wild Card powers counted as Parahuman abilities, but my Servant body didn't.

"WHAT THE…" started the Brute Killer, before he was cut off by my armoured fist to the face.

I felt bone and teeth shatter under my armour as Hatchet Face went flying through another building, leaving me holding his hatchet that immediately turned black and red as I activated Knight of Owner, just in time to bring it around to chop off the Siberians arm.

Chop off…

The Siberians…

Arm…

I'm not sure who was more surprised by that, me or the projection. For a moment, the black and white projection stared at the place where her limb had been, before she slowly looked back at me. Shock turned to rage and hatred so intense I was mildly surprised she didn't vaporize me with her glare alone. Then, she howled.

The sound was more like a wild beast than anything that came from a Human mouth and I swear the the air ripped slightly from the force of it. Then, she pounced. It was only thanks to Berserkers fighting prowers that I wasn't immediately killed, but the force of the blow was still enough to knock the axe from my hand and send me tumbling down the street. I quickly regained my balance and skidded to a stop with the help of the sharpened tips of my gauntlets. I wasn't hurt, instead, I felt elated, elated that this fight wouldn't be a total curbstomp.

I stood, my arms snapping out to catch the Siberians remaining fist as she came at me. I twisted, removing the force from the attack and pulling the striped woman in close enough to roar in her face, answering her challenge with one of my own. Hmm, I think Berserker might be affecting me more than I thought…

If Siberian's howl had nearly made the air ripple, mine DID. It was just as inhuman as the Projections, not helped in the least by my armour distorting the sound, and had enough force behind it that it blew her hair back and shattered a number of windows that were (somehow) still intact.

Then I nutted her.

Siberian went flying, crashing through the window of a nearby shop and, judging from the sounds from inside, a few walls as well. I was about to go after her, but Mannequin decided that he was through sitting around. The twisted Tinker landed on my back, his claws squealing against my armour. I growled in annoyance and reached back to grab the pain in the ass, to quickly for him to dodge, grabbed his head and slammed him down onto the road with enough force to crack the concrete. You know, if it wasn't already powder. Mannequin responded by spraying something in my face. Unfortunately for him, my stupidly high Endurance, I was basically immune to all forms of contaminants. Plus, I'm pretty sure my armour was, somehow, completely sealed.

"Nice try," I said and squeezed.

There was a loud crack and his head imploded. Immediately, the crazed Tinker started flailing, trying to get away, but there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to let him go. Instead, I grabbed his arms, planted my foot on his chest, and pulled. Tinker made ceramics and metal groaned and splintered under my grip as his arms came off and his torso began to crack. With a solid stomp, there was a loud crack and his sealed torso broke, splattering what remained of his Human body all over the road. His legs kicked once more and went limp. One down.

CRASH!

I instinctively jumped, shooting above Siberian as she came rocketing out of the store she'd totaled and tried to grab me, both arms now intact. I scowled. I needed to put her down so I could finish up what I needed to do. For that, I needed a weapon since it looked like my Noble Phantasm was able to hurt the invulnerable Cape. Fortunately, I could see just the thing.

I flipped to avoid another attack from the enraged Siberian, using her as a springboard to get back to ground level as I did, hitting the ground hard enough to skid a short distance, and snatched up my target, feeling my power spread into it as it gained glowing red veins across it, turned on my heel and smacked Siberian in the face with the light pole.

The black and white Cape went flying once again, her cheek and nose visibly broken, although there was no blood. This time however, I didn't wait, instead jumping after her and slamming her back to the ground with my weapon. I spun the light pole and threw it as hard as I could, the jagged end slamming into and through the Capes stomach, pinning her to the ground. She screamed and went pop. A quick glance at my precog power (which I wasn't using to fight because I didn't need it and it required a tad too much concentration to do so) revealed that she wouldn't be back anytime soon. Manton was still alive and he'd be back to his normal cannibalistic self eventually, but he was currently unconscious and would have one hell of a headache when he came to. Either way, Siberian wouldn't be causing me any trouble for a while.

That was probably a good thing because now the rest of the Nine were getting into gear.

The first and only warning I got was a slight rattling, before the shattered glass that was laying everywhere suddenly surged up and at me, creating a swirling funnel of razor sharp shards that would have shredded any normal Human. So, naturally, it did jack shit to me, other than annoy me.

I took a deep breath and roared, the force of the yell somehow powderizing the glass and revealing Shatterbird floating over a nearby roof. She jerked back in surprise, but I was already in front of her.

"Beat it bitch," I growled and punched her.

She managed to get a shield of glass up in time that my blow didn't simply break her in half, but she still went flying, her arms and ribs broken and unconscious. She wouldn't be up again anytime soon. I would have gone after her, but a blast of fire distracted me.

"Tch, annoying," I grumbled as I turned to glare at Burnscar.

The Pyrokinetic just grinned menachally as she unleashed a wave of fire at me. I tutted again and swung my arms with all my strength. The resulting blast of air snuffed out the flames, giving me the opening I needed to jump at Burnscar and punch her. Unlike Shatterbird however, Mimi was one of the characters I was interested in helping, so this blow simply knocked her out. I caught her as she fell over and tossed her into a dumpster. She'd keep for now.

With that done, I jumped, shooting over the building to land on Hatchet Face's shoulders as he stumbled out of the building he'd smashed through with enough force that I broke the bones. He screamed, which was cut off as I grabbed his head and snapped his neck. Thats two. One more and I'd be done.

Speaking of which, Crawler chose that moment to erupt from the top of the building I'd knocked him into with a roar of fury. Not entirely sure what kept him, but whatever. I scowled. I couldn't afford to hold back with someone like Crawler. That meant it was time to stop sandbagging and pull out all the stops. The mist of For Someone's Glory ripped and spun as I reached into my soul and called out the blade that dwelt there. The fog surged down and around my hand as I shifted my stance. A moment later, it blasted away to reveal Arondight in all its glory.

"YOUR DEAD YOU BASTARD!" thundered Crawler as he charged, his footsteps shaking the ground.

I narrowed my eyes and took a deep breath as I held up my sword before me.

"Arondight…" I whispered as Crawler bore down upon me.

Crawler roared as he opened his jaws, clearly intending to just eat me and be done with it. However, just as he was about to bite down, my eyes snapped open and my sword shone with a brilliant light.

"OVERLOAD!"

I swung the sword with all my strength, easily cleaving through Crawlers body, despite his many defensive adaptations. The moment the slash finished, we were both engulfed in a brilliant flash of azure light. A moment later, the light faded to reveal a large puddle of black, foul smelling ooze and a naked, feeble looking, narrow shouldered man lying in the middle with a deep and obviously fatal slash nearly cutting his head in half. Apparently, destroying his core resulted in his power provided body dissolving. Lovely.

I breathed deeply. Using Arondight like that was...draining. Not physically, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to use my Noble Phantasms for a while. That didn't really matter though considering that the last two members of the Nine were much squishier than the others and I had no intention of killing one of them. Hell, Jack would probably survive here considering most of the good ways to help Riley I'd been able to see involved him still kicking. That didn't mean he'd be leaving in one piece though!

I twitched slightly as the sound of someone clapping broke me out of my thoughts. Speak of the devil. I tilted my head to glare at Jack, who had a scared looking Bonesaw next to him. Guess that even that little psycho was still a seven year old somewhere under all of that insanity and seeing me solo most of her teammates had scared her. I could use that.

"Well, that was rather impressive," said Jack, "I admit, I thought you were blowing smoke earlier, but now I see that you can easily back up. So, who are you?"

I turned to the crazed killer and planted my sword in the ground, leaning on the blade.

"Berserker," I said, "You may call me Berserker."

Jacks eyes gleamed with interest. I felt an odd tickling at the back of my mind, as if something was attempting to affect my mind, but nothing seemed to change. I narrowed my eyes. I think that was Jacks ability to influence Parahumans. Nice to know I was immune.

"Hmm, I don't believe I've ever heard of you," said Jack, "Are you new?"

"I'm...not from around here," I said.

My superhumanly sharp eyes easily caught the slight twitch in Jacks lips. Oh dear, he didn't honestly think that he could use that to try and make me one of his pawns, did he?

"I see," said Jack, "Well then Berserker, let me let you in on a little something. This world is rotten. You might think that we're the bad guys, but we're just trying to make the world a little better by cutting away the rot."

Oh dear god, he was actually trying to spin that! The sad thing was, if I didn't have meta knowledge or my pregog power, I might have bought it. He was that good. Still, I did have those things, so all I did was smirk under my helmet and tilt my head on one side.

"Heh, not bad," I said, "I'll give you an A for effort and an A* for delivery. Unfortunately for you, I'm not some Case 53, stumbling around with no memories. No, I'm...a spanner in the works you might say."

Jacks polite smile faded.

"Whats that supposed to mean?" he asked.

My smirk widened.

"This world is dying," I said, "People like you, the countless Villains, the Endbringers and...another problem on the horizon are putting both her and Humanity as a whole at risk. I...am the response that that."

Yeah, I was talking complete bullshit. I'm pretty sure I wasn't a Counter Guardian, but considering I was planning on making sure the Earth and Humanity survived, so I'd claim the title to bullshit people unless and until Gaia or Alaya told me I couldn't. Mainly because if they did, I'd probably be dead.

"I see," said Jack, looking like he was thinking hard, "Well then, might I make a suggestion? Humanity is…"

I abruptly appeared in front of him and grabbed his face.

"Finish that thought and I'll take your head of," I snarled, "I've humoured you because I know that you aren't a threat to me, but if you think your little magic trick will work in any way, you're sorely mistaken."

I saw Jacks eyes narrow between my fingers, before his hand shot up. There was a sound of metal on metal and a line of sparks shot up my armour over my eye as I felt what can only be described as a paperclip or a staple being dragged over my skin. Not hard enough to break the skin, but enough to leave a scratch. Only in this case, it passed over my eye.

I responded to Jacks attempt to blind me my grabbing his arm with my free hand and squeezing as hard as I could. The bone didn't break, it powderized. Jack screamed as I let go of him and punched him in the face. I pulled the punch just enough to keep from crushing his skull, but his nose and jaw still shattered and one of his eyes burst nauseatingly. The leader of the Nine arched gracefully and hit the ground a short distance away, unconscious and bleeding.

With that done, I turned my attention to the last member of the Nine. Bonesaw certainly didn't look like much at the moment, just a normal little girl confronted by a towering knight clad in black armour. You know, if it wasn't for her bloodstained hands and clothing. I narrowed my eyes and reached out with my power, selecting the timeline that would give me what I wanted.

"Are you scared Riley?" I said.

Bonesaw twitched slightly.

"You should be," I continued, "I do not harm those who have done no wrong and, despite all the atrocities you have already committed, they can be laid at the feet of Jack Slash."

I turned and started walking towards her, my sabatons clanking on the road. Bonesaw squeaked and stumbled back, tripping and falling on her behind as I approached. She looked up, eyes wide with fear as I stopped in front of her and knelt. She flinched and closed her eyes as I reached for her, only to open them again in shock as I simply rested my hand on her head.

"Whatever Jack may say or think, you have far more potententual to help than harm," I said, still allowing my power to guide me, "Its not too late Riley. You can still be a good girl."

The blondes eyes went wide, but before she could respond, I gently hit the back of her head and she collapsed. I'd said all I needed to, all I needed to do now is wait. But first, I needed to get the bodies of the dead S9 members and leave. If I left them, Bonesaw would be able to do all kinds of nasty things to them and that would be that. Any chance of Riley shaking off Bonesaw would be gone.

It didn't take me long to get the dead Nine members together, mainly because I only needed to take the organic bits of Mannequin, Crawler was a lightweight without his powers and Hatchet Face...actually, he was a bit of a pain. Oh, I could lift him without effort, but he was large enough that carrying him was pretty awkward. I was tempted to find and finish off Shatterbird, but there wasn't really much point. For whatever reason, I needed to let what was left survive in order to get the best possible outcome I wanted, although that future was...blurry. I have a feeling that something was deliberately hiding it from me. It was the same reason that I didn't hunt down Manton to stop Siberian from coming back.

I found a suitable truck for what I needed and loaded the bodies into the back, ignoring the tarp covered cargo for now. There was plenty of room. Once they were settled, I retrieved Burnscar and strapped her into the passenger seat, before getting into the drivers side. Despite not having really learnt to drive before coming here, I somehow knew exactly what to do to get the truck started and drive without problem. Guess I got Lancelot's Riding skill from his Saber form. That was nice.

As I drove away, I glanced at the still unconscious Pyrokinetic in the seat beside me. I wanted to help her, but I wasn't sure how. I mean, most of her problems came from her powers messing with her emotions and driving her into a murderous rage. I wasn't confident that I could simply remove her powers without killing her and if I did that, its not like she wasn't rather recognizable. I needed a way to help her that wouldn't result in her dieing later on, but I didn't even know how to start. I bit my lip as I focused my power on her and read the threads of Fate...and nearly crashed the truck when I saw one that was...perfect! A feral grin crossed my face. This...was going to be interesting.

...well, this is a lot longer than I was expecting. I honestly didn't intend for the fight to blow up quite like that, but I'm rather pleased with it.

If your wondering why Berserker hasn't had a breakdown yet, a big reason is thanks to Lancelots experience propping him up, mixed with precog bullshit. Plus, he couldn't exactly afford to freak out knowing that the Nine were around. He'll have his freakout later.

I am aware that not just wiping out the Nine or taking Riley with him like he did with Burnscar might seem a little odd, but I do have my reasons. She will have her turn around though.

I have...plans for Burnscar, plans you might be able to guess knowing exactly whats in his skillset.

Just to be clear, while his Wildcard based powers do technically count as Shard powers in most situations and are vulnerable to power suppressors, they aren't actually from a Shard. I don't really have a reason for it, but I wrote it and I can't be bothered to change it.

If your wondering, his thought process up top was pretty much exactly what mine was while working on this character.

Anyway, I don't have anything to say, so I'm gonna sign out. Don't forget to leave a review!