Worm

by John Mccrae Wildbow

  A second passed.

  “You’re not with the PRT, are you?” a cape asked.

  “No,” I said.

  “So you don’t have to wake up tomorrow and go to work, pretend like everything’s normal?”

  “No.”

  “Work beside someone, wondering if they lied about their trigger event? If they maybe got their powers from a bottle, something made only because some psychopaths,” he spat the word out at Alexandria, “Decided to experiment on innocent people and sell the results at a profit?”

  “No. I don’t really have to wonder about that.”

  “Then where the fuck do you get off, telling us what to do, then?”

  “Calm down, Jouster,” Miss Militia said.

  “It’s fine,” I said. “You’re right. It’s not my place,” I said. I looked at Miss Militia and Chevalier. Clockblocker was just a little ways behind them. “Thanks for hearing me out. Good luck.”

  Atlas flew to my position. I drew my bugs around me and took flight, rising well into the air and hiding myself in the mass of bugs before pausing to adjust to a sitting position.

  I saw Legend hovering in the air. His fists were clenched, and he was looking down. He looked agonized.

  If I’d had any idea what to say, I might have approached him. I didn’t.

  With a command, I directed Atlas away from the discussion that could decide history, maybe even the fate of the world.

  ■

  I sat on the railing of my balcony, Atlas’ body hidden behind the towel-covered railing, serving as a footrest while I fed him a much-needed meal. Unfolded pieces of paper sat in each of my hands.

  I couldn’t stand to be there any longer. I’d said what I could, for what little it was worth, but I was too tired, the stakes were too high, and Jouster had been right. The consequences might have been world-spanning, but it was ultimately up to the Protectorate to decide what happened next. I didn’t like feeling that helpless.

  Beneath me, some kids from my territory were carrying boxes of treats I’d ordered two days ago. They’d take more than their fair share, but they’d distribute the treats to the other people in my territory, people who had likely gone a good little while without a chocolate bar or bag of chewy candy.

  There hadn’t been any clones in my range as I zig-zagged my way to the North end, no signs of swarm activity. I’d stopped by home, checked things over with my bugs, and my dad was there, more or less fine.

  I’d go home in just a little while. It wasn’t a peaceful place, though. This was. My territory, being with people I’d taken care of, people I’d protected and fought for. My heart was easier here than it was around my dad.

  I was aware of the approaching figure, twisted around to get a look at Lisa.

  “Can I come up?”

  I pointed at the door, followed her movements as she navigated her way past Charlotte and up the stairs. She reached the balcony and stepped out to hop onto the end of the railing opposite me.

  “I own the land the hole to the other universe is on,” Tattletale said. “Or Coil’s fake name does, and I can finagle that so I have control over it.”

  I nodded. “The meeting? Did they decide?”

  “Legend left first. Then Alexandria and Eidolon. The heroes were still talking when I left.”

  “Okay,” I said. That didn’t mean anything, not exactly, but it was better than the alternative. The longer they talked, the more tempers would cool.

  Perversely, I almost hoped that Cauldron had the clout to silence a few angry voices. I could only hope that they were few and far enough between that the story wouldn’t reach the public.

  “Rex,” Tattletale said.

  “Hm?”

  “His name was Reggie, but he got into sports in high school. They started calling him Rex, until everyone used the name. I don’t mean this to be insulting, but you were kind of opposites in a lot of ways. He was this popular guy, charming.”

  “Your boyfriend?”

  She laughed, a short sound. “My brother.”

  “Oh.”

  “My family was well-to-do, I think that’s come up.”

  “Yeah.”

  “When you’re that rich, when you have people working under you who do the chores and handle the stuff that you’d normally do with your family, sometimes it’s hard to stay a family, you know?”

  Not really, I thought, but I nodded.

  She gave me a funny look, but she didn’t call me on it. “It gets to this point where, you know, your cool older brother only spends time with you because it’s his duty as a sibling. And when you realize that, it sort of hurts. Makes it insulting. I think I caught on to that around the time I started high school. I stopped accepting those token offers of siblinghood. We were brother and sister, we lived in the same house, went to the same school. Our paths crossed, but we didn’t interact. We were strangers. He was caught up being the popular senior, and I kind of resented him for it.”

  “For not being a brother?”

  Lisa shrugged. “Don’t know. More for acting like a brother than not being a real brother. For being the popular kid, being the favorite child, heir to the family businesses.”

  “What happened?”

  “I started noticing, he was in rough shape. The smiles seemed fake, he’d get angry easier. Was bottling something up inside.”

  “What was it?”

  Lisa shrugged. “I’ve dwelled on it so long I’ve imagined possibilities and derailed my train of thought. Even with my power, I can’t guess.”

  “And something happened?”

  “He slowly got more and more distant. He’d fake more smiles, get a little more angry, a little more reckless. And then one day he offed himself.”

  Just around the corner, some kids were screaming and shouting as they played. One boy was pelting another with chocolate pellets. The victim shrieked in pain.

  My bugs swept over the boy with the chocolates, and the pair froze. They looked around, trying and failing to see me, then ran for the nearest alleyway, fight forgotten.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “So am I,” Lisa sighed. “I’ve spent so long trying to figure it out, but I couldn’t. You’d think the star athlete might be gay, but it wasn’t that. Something else. I let on to my family that I’d noticed something, after, and they started blaming me. They were grieving, but that doesn’t excuse it, does it?”

  I shook my head.

  “Calling me stupid, an idiot,” Lisa looked away. “It got to be too much, like I was in a pressure cooker, everywhere I went, it was about him, and there was always this feeling, like everyone was aware that I’d known something and hadn’t spoken up, hadn’t done something to help. I think I had my trigger event while I was asleep, tossing and turning and dreaming about it all. And then, boom, I wake up and I start figuring stuff out, with killer migraines on the side. Maybe if I’d caught on that it was powers sooner, I might have been more secretive, but my dad caught on. Did a complete turnaround. Faked affection, hid the real feelings, all to get me to use my power for the family’s benefit.”

  Lisa shrugged. “I was already seeing too much ugly, even before the powers. Seeing more of it? Seeing when people were being fake, when everything else was still screwy because of Rex’s suicide? It was too much. I took more money than I should have from my parents and I ran.”

  “And Coil eventually found you.”

  She nodded. “And I eventually found you. I took one look at you, and I had a grasp of what was going on. Didn’t take too long for me to notice that you had that same air around you that Rex did. Maybe I did what I could to save you because I couldn’t save him.”

  “Earlier, you said that you couldn’t talk to me about the problem because I was the problem.”

  “I saw it when you pulled the trigger, offed Coil. You saved Dinah, and you described how you felt adrift in the aftermath of it. But you found a new focus. You could fight Echidna. Save the city. Me? When you shot Coil, I rea
lized I was done. I’d helped you out of the same trap of despair Rex had been in. Don’t know if the road I helped you down was a good one or a bad, but I’d finished.”

  “But why be reckless? Why take the risks?”

  “Because I did what I had to do, I helped you, and I still feel like the stupid, self-obsessed little child that let her big brother die. It wasn’t conscious, but maybe I felt like I needed to up the stakes. Pull something dramatic. Show that, with these crazy smart capes like Alexandria and Faultline around, I could still be the smartest person in the room.”

  “And do you feel like the smartest person in the room?” I asked.

  She stared out over the cityscape. “Maybe- maybe when the interuniversal trade takes off. Can you imagine? With me and you as the top dogs? The whole world will pay attention to us.”

  I hopped down from the railing, walking around Atlas as I made my way to Lisa. I wrapped my arms around her, and she returned the hug.

  I crumpled the papers in my fists.

  19.y (Donation Interlude #2; Parahumans Online)

  Welcome to the Parahumans Online message boards.

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  You have six infractions and two warnings. You were last banned on September 03, 2010. Your probationary status expires in 63 days, on September 07, 2011.

  ■

  ♦ Topic: What the Fuck Happened?

  In: Boards ► News ► Events ►America

  Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

  Posted on June 22nd, 2011:

  I admit it. I’m a cape geek. You know it. I know it. I’m the cape geek the OTHER cape geeks go to for the crusty, juicy details on what’s happening and where. Look at my badges^. I’m the guy in the know, and everyone on the News boards knows me.

  Except I’m not in the know. I’ve been calling in every contact I know, some CAPES, even. I’ve been watching four different news channels and scouring the internet, and I’m CLUELESS.

  Someone clue me in? I’m desperate. What the hell happened in Brockton Bay?

  EDIT: Board rules say I’m supposed to contribute something if I’m starting a thread, so here’s what I do know. Someone help fill in the blanks:

  • June 18th: Mayor Christner of Brockton Bay flies to Washington. Makes argument against evacuation. Surprises more than a few people. At the same time, multiple Dragon suits are reported in the city.

  • June 19th: Explosion at Brockton Bay town hall, after supervillain Coil attempts coup and tinker equipment misfires in the ensuing skirmish. Christner and Director Emily Piggot hospitalized and sent to ICU. Thirty or more people reported dead, including Coil and subordinates Über, Leet and Circus, and a number of field reporters.

  • June 20th: Massive deployment to Brockton Bay. Unspecified class A threat. Cape wives on the boards confirm: something’s up.

  Two hours later: Threat level upgraded to class S. All Protectorate capes who subscribed to the emergency response measure and accompanying pay increase now forced to get over to Brockton Bay and help. Legend and Alexandria are among them.

  We have a report (see link) from White Fairy, one of three more notable board members on the ground in Brockton Bay, who says they started establishing quarantine procedures around the site of the battle.

  Cape wives on the boards report calls from their husbands and wives saying they’re ok by about noon. A few casualties, Myrddin among them. No report on what happened and who the cape was on the opposing side.

  • June 21st: Almost a day later, capes start filtering home. Still no reports. Brocktonite03 (second of the three excellent people on the ground that are giving us reports) travels all the way out of town to get his hands on a working computer. Reports Shatterbird attack and apparent quarantine procedures in the middle of an empty lot downtown. White tent and beginning construction around it.

  And then nothing. Help me out!

  (Showing page 242 of 243)

  ► Ekul (Brockton Bay Refugee)

  Replied on July 6th, 2011:

  The theory makes sense. Huge clean up involving a hundred plus bodies, portal to another world, it would be something that they’d want to keep from the public, and you could even call it Class S if that world had capes of its own. Which they’d have to, if they wanted to kill Myrddin. Were we at war with another Earth on June 20th?

  ► AverageAlexandros (Cape husband)

  Replied on July 6th, 2011:

  Does that fit the Class S scenario? If nobody can answer I can ask my wife if she’ll let me look through her regulations handbook.

  ► Lolitup

  Replied on July 6th, 2011:

  Class S includs situations where threat can produce more threats which can produce more etc. In scenario with a whole alt world of capes on par with our own they could have powers like that. Sitch got upgraded to S after the first showed up?

  (Posted from phone, sry)

  ► XxVoid_CowboyxX (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay)

  Replied on July 6th, 2011:

  Scary [censored]. Imagine if they had their own Endbriners or Alexandria.

  ► Robby

  Replied on July 6th, 2011:

  Two things:

  1) You don’t need to censor yourself.

  2) Doesn’t fit with what we know of alternate Earths. Breakdown of Haywire’s research says we can’t get to alt. Earths that are too close to our own. Closest Earth to our own is Aleph, and deviation from that world started 30 years ago, the moment Scion arrived. Anyone over 30 was born in both worlds, anyone under 30 wasn’t, or the odds are almost impossible (same sperm, same egg, same time of conception required to have the same kid, and that’s ignoring all the environmental influences during the pregnancy, and everything post-pregnancy that shapes the personality.)

  ► TheGnat

  Replied on July 6th, 2011:

  But Alexandria is over 30, isn’t she? It’s not impossible they’d have a version of her.

  ► Robby

  Replied on July 6th, 2011:

  With powers? Improbable.

  I doubt this alternate world we’re talking about is exactly as far away as Earth Aleph, anyways. I’d assume the point of deviation occurred more than thirty years ago, which lowers the chances even more.

  In brief: I doubt we have to worry about Endbringers and an evil Triumvirate. This isn’t the movies, and evil alternates are so overdone.

  ► XxVoid_CowboyxX (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay)

  Replied on July 6th, 2011:

  I censored myself because I don’t want an infraction and a ban for swearing.

  ► Chrome

  Replied on July 6th, 2011:

  @ Void Cowboy: they don’t give out infractions for swearing.

  @ Everyone else: I get that it makes sense on a lot of levels, but nothing’s confirmed. Any other theories?

  ► TRJ

  Replied on July 6th, 2011:

  I’m going to get called a tinfoil hat, but what about that thing where the guy was talking about posts with the word C*auldron getting screened if they weren’t censored?

  End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 … 241, 242, 243

  ■

  ♦ Private message from GstringGirl:

  GstringGirl: i started to play it. i’m not good with the controls.

  XxVoid_CowboyxX: Takes practice. You gotta at least play through the individual template packages. that lets you unlock the skills and takes the skill cap off for the individual traits. Then you can build your own class and play in the Hero League with me. I can show you the ropes and help you
figure it out.

  GstringGirl: i have it figured out. i read the forums and watch videos. i understand all that stuff. its the controls i struggle with.

  XxVoid_CowboyxX: Practice, practice practice!

  GstringGirl: i have a 33 percent win rate. makes it so slow to unlock everything. i liked that other game more.

  XxVoid_CowboyxX: Don’t even mention that game to me. I’m still mad about it.

  GstringGirl: sry. and i have to go now. my parents want me off the computer. sister wants a turn.

  XxVoid_CowboyxX: Sorry I didn’t reply. Was in game. Guess you already went to bed. Listen, I’ll be traveling this summer with my family. Could swing your way, if you wanted to meet up. Grab coffee?

  GstringGirl *New Message*: Oh. Wow. My parents are really strict, so I don’t think I’ll be able to.

  GstringGirl *New Message*: You haven’t replied, so I sent you a text. I can’t receive texts back, so PM me, plz.

  ■

  ♦ Topic: The Ground Zero Badge (Veteran Member) (At Ground Zero: Brockton Bay)

  In: Boards ► Places ► America ►Brockton Bay ►Ground Zero (Private Board)

  White Fairy

  Posted on June 31st, 2011:

  I’m getting kind of fed up with this. I talked about it with Alathea and Judge (the two original Brockton Bay board moderators) and Bagrat (major guy in the news section). We got special dispensation to issue Brockton Bay Refugee and Ground Zero badges. The goals were:

  • It automatically give more weight to those of us who know more about what’s going on in Brockton Bay, either because of our familiarity with the local capes or because we’re there.

  • It’s a way to get aid to people in trouble. This was essential early on. Someone’s low on food or needs medical attention, the fact that they have a badge and that the badge is (presumably) validated means we can take a cry for help as something serious rather than a hoax. (And for the record, I don’t think a temporary ban is enough for the scumbags who faked cries for help – in the early days, traveling across the city to deliver supplies was life threatening)

  • It furthers the interests of Parahumans Online, to disseminate information and allow network among people in the right positions. The badges let people know who can be contacted for more information or people we can coordinate with for certain tasks. Case in point: Bagrat contacts Brocktonite03 about the incident a week and a half ago, Brocktonite03 goes and finds the quarantine tent and construction. I can then contact Brocktonite03 and we organize a way to take turns visiting the construction site and then report progress to the boards, with picture progress so you guys can speculate or offer your own expertise.