Outsider Chronicles: Break the Cycle

Getting reborn into the world of Worm was...not a pleasant surprise. Being born in Brockton Bay was even worse. I have to admit, I wasn't really expecting to live out my entire life. Then, on a trip out to get milk one night, I found myself meeting a girl with rabbit ears and my life got complicated.

Right, well, this is an...interesting idea. Its one where the fact the character being an Outsider is actually intrinsic to the plot, as opposed to the jumping off point for the changes. Its also a crossover with a fandom I'm not entirely familiar with yet, so if your familiar with it, please be gentle if I get something wrong. I'll be keeping it to myself for now though. Oh, just a heads up, if you don't like characters like Rachel Alucard, I strongly suggest you avoid this one. Its not actually a crossover with Blazblue, but Rabbit is very much the inspiration for one of the characters in this. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

There are many different versions of Earth. The concept of the Multiverse is one that most people are at least partly aware of and a number of fictional settings use the concept as a core part of their narrative. However, for every world where Humanity rules, there are an infinite number where they didn't. On one such world, surrounded by colourful, rose-like flowers, lies a small house, inhabited by a woman who, despite her young appearance, was older than anyone on Earth, with the possible exception of the golden monster masquerading as a Hero.

This world served as a safe space of sorts, a place where she could be herself and allow the weight of the years and the masks she wore to fade away. A place where she could enjoy simpler things, such as cultivating her garden or a simple cup of tea. Of course, sometimes the outside world intruded upon this silent garden world, reminding the girl just what awaited her outside her home.

The dark haired girl paused as her power poked her and frowned softly as she glanced at the clock sat beside her teapot.

"I see, so it is that time again, is it?" she mused.

She sighed and sat up straight, staring straight ahead as her pupil expanded to fill her entire eye. Had anyone else been there, they would have seen the rather bizarre sight of what appeared to be a school corridor reflected in the now black orb rather than the strange flowers that called this world home.

"Once again, the curtain rises on the final act," said the girl as she watched a tall, thin girl open her locker and vomit as the stench hit her, "How many times has it been now? I already know the steps of this dance by heart."

She sighed and toyed with the idea of looking away. Its not like she'd learn anything new from this, even with the differences she'd noted in this timeline whos source she couldn't locate. However, the small spark of hope and compassion that still resided in her otherwise cold heart that still drove her to find a way to end this endless loop compelled her to keep watching. The poor girl deserved to have her suffering acknowledged by someone after all.

The young looking girl sipped her tea as she watched, her lip curling to reveal sharp fangs at the reminder of just how casually cruel some Humans could be. Alas, she already knew that attempting to do anything about this was a waste of time. She had done it before and, no matter how much it improved Taylor Hebert's life, the end result was still the same. So long as she was alone, she would continue to suffer.

Then, just as the opening act came to its end, an unexpected twist caught the jaded immortal by surprise as a new player entered the stage. She watched with interest as someone she had never seen before, not in any of the many cycles she had experienced, shoved his way through the crowd and opened the locker, catching the much taller girl as she tumbled out and ignoring the anger of the shadow girl completely as he checked Hebert over.

Feeling curious for the first time in what felt like forever, the girl looked closer at the boy. He didn't look like much, a short, blonde boy, with the only distinguishing feature being his startling green eyes. Then, she activated her power and got the shock of her life as she discovered that, unlike everyone around him, his life on Earth Bet only extended back to the moment of his birth. In other words, he had not existed until this iteration of the Cycle and was a completely new variable added to what was supposed to be a closed system.

"Well now, aren't you an interesting little thing," she murmured, "I think I need to take a closer look at this one."

Her eyes returned to their normal slitted red as she got to her feet and raised her head slightly.

"Custodian, please inform the Doctor that I shall be indisposed for an unknown amount of time," she said.

"Of course Miss Fortuna," said a soft, whispy voice from seemingly nowhere.

"Door to Brockton Bay," said the girl and vanished through the glowing portal that appeared before her.

You know, there are only so many ways life can screw you over. Ending abruptly at the hands of a drunk driver is one of them. Somehow getting you reborn into a world full of monsters and crazy people with superpowers is another. Yeah, I'm not entirely sure how, but I'd somehow ended up getting reborn into the world of Worm. Not fun

Oh for fucks sake, now I know someones messing with me! It had been three years since my rebirth and my Parents had for some reason decided to have another kid. Why, I don't know considering I could tell that cracks were starting to form in their relationship, but there's not much a three year old toddler could do. Besides, maybe they were thinking the baby girl would help fix things up. I didn't think that was likely, but then again, I'd never had kids. For all I know, she could fix things between Mum and Dad. I have my doubts though. Why? Well, I probably should have seen it coming, but my new baby sister was named Missy. Yeesh, this is gonna be...messy.

I was completely correct. As it turned out, despite my wishful thinking, having a big brother did absolutely fuck all to prevent Missy from Triggering. Honestly, I'm not sure I could have done anything to prevent it considering our Parents were arguing practically every day by this point and any attempts to try and mediate the situation only made things worse. Still, I was rather annoyed with myself when Vista appeared as a member of the Wards a few weeks after Missy turned 11. I also wasn't best pleased that no one had thought to inform me that my sister was running around fighting villains, but I guess I was deemed to be in the 'doesn't need to know' column.

Still, I didn't let that distract me from my goals. I might not have any powers and I certainly didn't have any intention of going in search of them, but that didn't mean I couldn't try to help people. With that in mind, I was aiming high with the hopes of getting into medicine. With any luck, I might even be able to help patch up my sister in the future. Or, failing that, help save some lives and make the world a slightly better place.

That said, I wasn't completely helpless. Actually, I wasn't helpless at all. Why? Well, my Grandfather was a former member of the Special forces from before Capes were a thing and made it a point to ensure that both myself and my sister were able to keep ourselves safe in a city that had basically gone to the dogs. As a result, the pair of us were a lot stronger and quicker than our slight builds suggested, even before Missy got extra training from the PRT. He trained us in hand to hand, knife fighting and even how to use some of the guns that made up his rather impressive collection, much to our Mothers horror, although she did calm down once Grandpa calmly pointed out his reasoning.

Anyway, leaving aside my skills, I fortunately never had to use them. While we did live in Empire territory, a family of blondes didn't really have much to worry about on that front, although I was glad to have the skills once I got into Highschool and Dad insisted on sending me to Winslow, despite the fact I had the grades for Arcadia easily. Why? Because the man was stubborn as a bull and refused to listen to reason or arguments once he put his mind to something and he had attended Winslow back before it had become the Gangs main recruiting ground. That particular trait was the main reason why he and my Mother were constantly at each other's throats, although I can hardly say Mom was any better in keeping the peace.

So yeah, Winslow. What can I say about it that hasn't already been said? No, really, it really is as bad as depicted in practically every Worm story ever. In my first month there, there was two gang fights in the cafeteria, one stabbing and three gun scares. I ended up asking Grandpa for a knife, which he handed over without complaint or question. I did know how to use it after all.

Leaving aside the nessesaty of being armed at fucking school, lets take a look at the other thing that Winslow had, namely Taylor Hebert. She was...well, pretty much like you'd expect. Shy, sad and not really willing to interact with anyone. Can't really blame her to be honest. I did what I could, but the official apathy was strong and Sophia and her band of sociopaths just wouldn't quit. It certainly didn't help that I had my own pest in the form of a foul mouthed lunatic by the name of Carmine who had decided that he really didn't like me and kept trying to pick fights. When he wasn't suspended and even bothered to show up at school at least.

For some odd reason, that reminded me of something, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was.

On the subject of sociopaths, I had originally planned to get some evidence of Sophia's misdeeds and splash it all over the internet where the PRT would (hopefully) see it and deal with her, but as it turned out, that was a waste of time. Not because the PRT are useless and more interested in PR, but because Sophia somehow managed to avoid getting press ganged. Gangsters still showed up with bolt wounds on occasion, but never to the point of crossing that line that tipped Sophia from violent vigilante into full on Villain. I have no doubt that the PRT would prefer her to be off the street, but she hadn't taken that extra step.

That said, the fact that the school was letting Hess and Barnes get away with what they did without Sophia's handler leaning on them was all kinds of fucked up.

Wondering why I didn't mention Madison? Well, that would be because she'd disappeared. A few months into the school year, Madison had collapsed and ended up being taken to hospital. A few days later, she vanished from her room, leaving nothing but a note and some very large gouges in the window ledge that looked uncomfortably like claw marks. All very mysterious and sad, but I was just glad that I didn't have to deal with three idiots giving Taylor a hard time. Well, at first. Then I remembered that the Bitches Three had a whole coven of other bitches to draw from to round out the number.

Whatever the case, I at least managed to keep Taylor from suffering too much in the Locker and, if Sophia's lack of keeling over was anything to go by, even managed to keep her from Triggering. I somehow doubted that anything much would come from that from above, but at least Taylor wouldn't have to suffer to much more and would hopefully start to trust me. And no, I'm not going into detail about the Locker.

Of course, I really should have known that something strange would happen today, but in my defence, I didn't really expect my life to run on story book logic.

With the inevitable circus that surrounded the Locker incident over and the school shut early for decontamination (which I really, REALLY hope they did properly), so I got to enjoy an extra day at home with my new batch of games I got as birthday/Christmas gifts (incidentally, being born on the 26th of December makes things so much cheaper for my relatives. They only have to get me one sat of gifts per year after all. On the down side, only one set of presents per year. Bummer) and have fun annoying my sister by waving the extra free day in her face. It was well worth getting jumped on, even if she did make me play Mario Cart with her as an apology and I suck at that game.

I'd just managed to convince Missy to switch the game to something I was a little better at when Mom poked her head around the door.

"Hey Noel, do you mind nipping down the shops to grab some milk and coffee?" she asked, "It looks like your Father has used the last of both and hasn't bothered to tell me."

I rolled my eyes at the venom in the word 'Father' and the latest example of childish sniping between the two supposed adults, but rolled off the sofa and sprang to my feet.

"Sure thing, let me just grab my coat," I said.

I did just that and accepted the note Mom handed me as I headed out the door. It being the middle of winter, night had fallen and it was more than a little chilly. Normally, going out after dark in a place like Brockton Bay would be a terrible idea, but our neighbourhood was one of the safer ones and the full moon, hanging low and bright in the sky, threw out more than enough light along with the street lamps that I could see easily. Plus, I had my knife and I wasn't going far so I should be fine.

Of course, I didn't exactly account for literal monsters in that assessment. Well, I guess I did, just not in the way I should have.

I was on my way back from the shop, bag containing the groceries swinging idly from my arm, when it happened. The first indication that something was off was when things suddenly got very quiet. Since Brockton is rather quiet at night for a city (when things aren't exploding at least), I didn't notice it at first, but it didn't take me long to realize that something was stalking me. I slowed down, reaching into my jacket and taking hold of my knife as I rounded a corner and stopped.

For a moment, I stood still, waiting for whoever was following me to round the corner. After a couple of moments, I relaxed slightly when no one appeared.

"Huh, guess I was imagining i…HOLY FUCK!"

I jumped about a foot in the air as something small, black and very fast shot out of the darkness and sank shadowy fangs into my leg. My knife shot down, biting deep into shadowy flesh, before I wrenched the creature off and stomped down hard, feeling whatever it was squash under my heavy boot and dissipate into shadows.

"What...the...fuck...was...that?!" I gasped, feeling rather out of breath from the fright and sudden pain.

I pulled my trouser leg up and stared at the strange looking wound that seemed to be leaking some kind of purple mist and was rather large considering the size of the creature that bit me.

"Oh hell, that can't be good," I said, "Was that some kind of Parahuman pow…errrrrr…"

The world began to spin, making me stumble and slump against the wall next to me. I could feel a strange, icy heat flowing through me from the bite, almost as if something had entered when the thing had bit me.

"D-did that thing p-poison me?" I slurred, "I think I'm gonna…"

My vision started to darken as my muscles went limp, leaving me to slide down the wall and land in a heap. By this point, I was almost completely numb and could hear nothing but my heart pounding in my ears. Then, just as I was about to pass out, a pair of black heeled boots landed in front of me.

"Well, this won't do at all," said a haughty, female voice from above me, "I can't have the only interesting thing I've seen this Cycle die like a dog out here in the cold."

I shifted my eyes, the only thing I could still move, and looked up at the girl stood in front of me. Thanks to my failing vision and the moon behind her, all I could see was a pair of black pigtails and what appeared to be rabbit ears. The figure bent down and I caught a flash of red eyes that almost seemed to glow in the night.

"Time to go little Dog," she said, "You will not die here if I can help it."

She reached for me as I slipped into darkness.

And you know what? Its a bit short, but I'm going to leave this here. Its more of a proof of concept anyway. Plus, it'll be interesting to see if anyone can figure out what the crossovers with. Heres a clue, although its not Blazblue, Rachel has actually appeared in a game that is a crossover with the other world in this particular crossover.

Fun fact, did you know that Noel is a unisex name traditionally given to children born on or near Christmas eve in France? I didn't. Its amazing what you can learn on a Wikiwalk. On a related note, I didn't actually intend for Noel to look like...Noel from Blazblue, despite the fact that his role is somewhat inspired by her. That was entirely accidentally and not indicative of anything, although its not impossible that I'll include some callbacks to that now that I've noticed it.

So, anyone want to take a guess as to whats going on with Fortuna? Not Contessa, not anymore. If your interested, I'll tell you in a PM, but I kinda want to keep it to myself for now. It'll make for an interesting twist.

Incidentally, because this is a true crossover, some Worm characters will be modified so that, instead of Parahumans, their powers come from the new crossover, although their powers will generally be similar. There will also be some non-Parahuman chracters who have powers now thanks to the crossover. So far, we've met one, but there are a few more. In many ways, it makes the world better, but in others it makes it worse. MUCH worse. Mainly because one of them is Jack Slash and, well, lets just say that Fortuna isn't the only one channelling Blazblue.

Not sure what I'll do with Taylor yet, so I left it open as to whether or not she Triggered in the Locker. She might have a role, she might not, but if anyone can figure out the crossover and suggest a suitable power she could have from it (assuming I don't decide to just give her all the bugs), I might consider using it.

And with that, I'm done. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out and...have a good Night.