Fanfic #153 Arch by AbyssRay(Worm)

This fanfic is kind of a self insert into Worm following an original character. I really like this fic because it has a really original storyline and it keeps the mc's past a mystery so we can explore it throughout the story.

Synopsis: After Boston's Convention, leaves are scattered towards the Bay. Benjamin balances the memories of a parallel him, the records of the future, and his new cape career steered thanks to the legacy of his Mother. He holds no great firepower, he is dependant on others' patronage, and most importantly... he wasn't alone when he Triggered.

Rated: M

words: 41k

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/arch-worm-si.963481/reader/

Here's the first chapter:

I caught the flies before anyone else, not sure if there was even going to be an "else"; maybe Tattletale would figure it out, but I didn't picture her mentioning it. Enhanced vision was like that, it made it easier to see the abnormal patterns, ones too orderly for simple-minded creatures like bugs.

I filtered out the banter going on between Regent and our resident Thinker, it was slowly dying out anyway and I already knew who was going to win; I was more focused on my newest project. The tinkertech heart was working wonders on my body, but the beating was irregular, I'll have to tune it up back at the workshop… maybe if I replaced the fibers-

"And she arrives," Tattletale crowed, "Pay up."

Regent's scowl deepened for a second, and he fished in his pocket for a wad of bills, which he forked over to Tattletale.

"You bet on whether I would show up?" Skitter-yet-to-be-Skitter ventured.

The discussion continued, not unlike the canonical one, I felt my teeth grind harder at the thought but kept it under wraps; if Lisa casted a glance at me she'd Sherlock me up before I could say: "Wait!". My fingers almost twitched in my pockets, the urge to Tinker to distract myself was strong, but I abated it by planning to install something new today.

Right on time, by the way.

"Benjamin." I didn't make any overt moves other than a jaunty wave, it wasn't like that was my real name anyway.

"I'm Alec," Regent informed her, with a quiet voice, then he added, "And Bitch is Rachel."

"Which raises the question," Taylor cut in, "What is the aim of this meeting? I'm a little weirded out with you guys revealing your secret identities like this, or at least, pretending to."

"Sorry," Brian apologized, "That was my idea. I thought we would make a token show of trust."

Taylor's head went very still but it held a scanning nature to it, tiny twitches not unlike the very creatures she controlled seemed to happen under her mask, flicking from Lisa to Alec to Brian and then to me. I suppressed the instinct to squirm under her gaze.

"Why, exactly, do you need my trust?" She finally asked.

Brian opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked to Lisa, who bent down and picked up a plastic lunchbox. She held it out to the bug-themed villain-to-be.

"I said we owed you. All yours, no strings attached."

Without taking the box, she tilted her head to get a better look at the front, "Alexandria. She was my favorite member of the Protectorate when I was a kid. Is the lunchbox collectable?" Not like Lisa didn't choose Alexandria as a cover on purpose, probably one of the redundant tangents of her power.

"Open it," Lisa prompted her, with a roll of her eyes. She wasn't as annoyed judging from her body language, playing it up to warm the mood.

Taylor took it, trepidation painting her movements. She seemed to measure the weight and the motion of the contents inside it as if it was a bomb, the thought was both funny and sobering at once when I thought about Bakuda.

"Money," she breathed, caught off guard by suddenly having so 'much' in her hands; funny how your perception of money changed when you saw bigger amounts in your pockets frequently. Well, until they were whisked away into tinkertech.

Nonetheless, Lisa stopped her before she started counting, "Two grand."

Taylor closed the box and did the clasps. The scenario seemed to have taken the girl off her feet, kindness could hit like a truck when not given for months, Tattletale was more than capable of inferring that.

"You have two choices," Lisa explained, "You can take that as a gift. A thank you for, intentionally or not, saving our ass from Lung last night. And maybe a bit of incentive to count us among your friends when you're out in costume and doing dastardly deeds."

Her grin widened, and why wouldn't it? This was her whole philosophy, cops and robbers, heroes and villains, teenagers having fun. She elaborated, "Between territory disputes, differences in ideology, general power struggles and egos, there's a rare few people in the local villain community who won't attack us on sight."

"And the second option?" She asked.

"You can take this as your first installment in the monthly allowance you're entitled to as a member of the Undersiders," Brian spoke up, "As one of us."

She shifted her gaze between the four of us, I imagined she was thinking we were shitting her. Lisa had a bit of a smile, as is her default expression. Alec looked a little bored, if anything. Brian looked dead serious, like with anything regarding leader duties to be honest.

"Two thousand a month," I don't know if she noticed or not herself, but the palpable trepidation in her tone almost made me imagine the whole 'Hook, Line and Sinker' jingle going on in my head.

"No," Brian cut in, "That's just what the boss pays us, to stick together and to stay active. We make, uh, considerably more than that."

Lisa smirked, and Alec chuckled as he swished the contents of his coke bottle. I gave her a non-smile, joining the group image for PR. Inside, I was screaming since yesterday, aware that things were railroading as intended without me making a chink in the armor.

Taylor cut through my thoughts, "So Bitch didn't come because she was against the, er, recruitment?"

"Yeah," Alec said, "We voted on it, and she said no."

"On the plus side, the rest of us voted yes except one," Brian hurried to add, giving Alec a dirty look, "She'll come around. She always votes against adding new members to the group, because she doesn't want to divide the money six ways."

"Except one?" Her voice hardened for a moment and I decided to nip this in the bud.

"I was against it, since we did just meet you," Lisa shot me a look, which Brian followed, "but the cape scene is like that, you need to seize opportunities and all." I drawled as her eyes fell on me. Of course, that wasn't the only reason, I didn't want Taylor to go down the slippery slope of villainy; but there wasn't much I could do about it.

No really, I didn't go to Winslow and I didn't get to choose. Not with my previous records. I had a lot going on in my life, and worrying about Taylor; while sweet, wasn't something I could afford yet.

Perhaps I was rationalizing, but I was honestly lost on what options I had. They may say you always had a choice, but if you couldn't see it, then it might as well be absent.

"Besides," Lisa tacked on, like a nurse scrambling for gauze to bandage a bleeding wound freshly formed. "I like to think I'm a good judge of character." She stepped back, glancing at Brian, tributing to the leader; it's an apology for interrupting his byplay with the new recruit.

It was amazing how much you could notice about people's behaviour when you knew the way they thought, and Lisa always seemed to worry about overstepping her bounds and irritating Brain in a way that damaged his pride as a leader. This wasn't enough to get a talk about it—but I wouldn't be surprised if he remembered this specific instance in the future.

"So you've done this recruiting thing before," Taylor began, as if preparing herself for something.

"Uh, yeah," Brian looked a touch embarrassed, he rubbed the back of his neck, "It didn't go well. We tried with Spitfire, and she got scared off before we even got to the job offer. Our fault, for bringing Rachel along that time."

And mine for letting it play exactly like it should've been, too scared of the butterflies that'd happen. If there were six of us, Tattletale might've not been able to push for Taylor's recruitment, which for me would've been amazing!

Except then, there would be no one to kill Coil and inspire Tattletale to seize his assets at the right moment. And Taylor would be solo, which means she might die by independent statistics. And that's without discussing Faultline's operations without a notable member in her roster, which might mean Labyrinth would not be around; which would then remove the portals made by Scrub needed to escape to Gimel.

Butterflies, everyone. Yet, I wasn't going to give up so easily, not for what I had in mind.

"And then she got recruited by someone else," Alec added.

"Yeah," Brian shrugged, "She got snagged by Faultline before we got a second chance. We've made an offer to Circus, too, and she told us in no uncertain terms that she worked alone."

"Taught me a few new curse words while she did it, too," Alec said.

"She was pretty vocal about how she flies solo," Brian admitted.

"So you're going the extra mile, with no costumes as a show of trust and a cash bonus up front, to get me to join," Again, that tension that slowly ramped up, like someone looking over a cliff and convincing themselves to jump.

"That's the gist of it," Brian agreed, "Long and short of it is, especially with Lung taken out of action and the ABB diminished by his being gone, there's bound to be some pushing and shoving over territory and status among the various gangs and teams. Us, Faultline's Crew, the remaining ABB, Empire Eighty-Eight, the solo villains, and any out of town teams or gangs that figure that they can worm in and grab a piece of the Bay. If it comes down to it, we want firepower. We haven't screwed up a job yet, but the way we four figure it, it's only a matter of time before we end up stuck in a fight we can't win, with Bitch and Siren as the only ones of us who can really dish out the hurt; and Siren is pretty valuable."

Of course I was, Coil loved Tinkertech as much as he loved himself.

"I just don't get why you want me," She said, "I control bugs. That's not going to stop Alexandria, Glory Girl, Harbor or Aegis."

I snorted pretty loudly, and everyone looked at me. I started explaining, "Alexandria still needs to breathe, invulnerable or not, and you've shown your willingness to choke people with bugs. If anything, you're one of the most dangerous things she can face if she doesn't find you while you swarm her."

Brain looked annoyed, mildly uneasy and yet pensive. Lisa seemed contemplative, probably weighing whether I was bullshitting or not; and Alec—well, the best approximation of it was whenever he got a kill in the video games he played. Still bored, but you could imagine the internal, "Nice." going on in his thoughts.

Taylor was an open book, not only did she flinch but a new weariness seemed to have set on her shoulders. She looked ready to throw a retort at the implication she'd do something like that on her favorite Triumvirate member, and I felt some sort of grim satisfaction at the thought. You think you're a hero, but are you really? I didn't know where this vindictive streak came from, but I imagined it must be where all my frustration went.

"You fucked up Lung," Lisa continued my argument as she spoke, "Good enough for me." She added with a shrug. I don't think the others could see it, but she was still thinking about what I said.

"Um, not really," She replied, "In case you missed it, you're the ones who stopped him from executing me last night. I think you're overestimating me." That, or maybe you're basing your opinion on your low self-esteem barely surviving after a long bullying campaign. I'd imagine the Administrator would throw a fit if it heard you insult its power.

"Honey," Lisa said, "Entire teams of capes have gone up against Lung and got their asses handed to them. That you managed as well as you did is fantastic. The fact that the asshole is lying in a hospital bed because of you is the icing on the cake."

Her reply stopped before it even left her mouth. "Hunh?" Was the eloquent reply that came after that blue screen Lisa threw at her. Thinkers being Thinkers.

"Yeah," Lisa raised an eyebrow, "You do know which bugs you had biting him, right? Black Widow, Brown Recluse, Browntail Moth, Mildei, Fire Ants-"

"Yeah," Taylor cut her off, "I don't know the official names, but I know exactly what bit him, what stung him and what the venoms do."

"So why are you surprised? A couple of those bugs would be fucking dangerous if they bit just once, but you had them bite several times. Bad enough, but when Lung came into custody they had him checked over by the docs, and the idiot doctor in charge said something like, 'Oh, well, these do look like bug bites and stings, but the really venomous ones don't bite multiple times. Let's arrange to check on him in a few hours'."

She could tell where the story was going. She put her hands over her mouth, whispering, "Oh my god."

Tattletale grinned, "I can't believe you didn't know."

"But he regenerates!" She protested, hands dropping limply by her sides, "Toxins aren't supposed to be even one percent as effective against people who heal like he does."

"They're effective enough, I guess, or his healing stopped working somewhere along the line" Lisa told her, and that's where I stopped her.

"Not her fault," Yep, I know you're mad but you gotta listen to this, Lisa, "Armsmaster tranquilized the guy, yeah?" I directed the question at Taylor, who nodded absentmindedly, still shocked.

"It's what I would've done, in relation to Lung's properties, it was probably meant to stop his regeneration. It would've been fine if he didn't add that on top of your venom, but it's the kind of thing Tinkers do." Lisa snapped her fingers, having an "Eureka" moment.

"He must've been preparing the thing for a while, wanting to catch him. But since you'd already taken him down, he needed something of proof to take credit, it fits his profile. He must've not known about the venom then, unless you told him?"

"No." I could hear the frown in her voice—is she blaming herself? She is, isn't she?

"By the time they got to him, the big guy was just beginning to suffer from large scale tissue necrosis. His heart even stopped a few times. You do remember where you had the bugs bite him?"

Taylor's shoulders slumped, as if just now noticing the weight of the implications Lisa was making.

"Let's just say that even with the ability to heal several times faster than your average person, Lung is going to be sitting down to use the toilet."

"Okay, that's enough," Brian stopped Lisa before she could go on, "Lung is going to recover, right?"

With the look Brian was giving Lisa and me, I suddenly realized we've both started tag teaming on Taylor without noticing—well, for me that is, Lisa might've been riding the wave knowing all along. She shrugged and I let her speak, "He's already recuperating. Slowly, but he's on the mend, and he should be in good working order in six months to a year."

"You'd better hope he doesn't escape," Alec said, his voice still quiet but bemused, "Because if someone made my man bits fall off, I'd be out for blood."

Brian pinched the bridge of his nose, "Thank you for that, Alec. Way you three are going, our potential recruit is going to run off to have a panic attack before the idea of becoming an Undersider even crosses her mind."

"But, that's also why it'd be a good idea to join us, no?" I said, extending an olive branch. "There's strength in numbers, and you'd be safer with us than dealing with it alone."

"How do you know this?" Taylor asked towards Lisa, not denying my point. When Brian turned her way with an expression like he thought he had said something to offend her, she clarified, "Tattletale, or Lisa, or whatever I'm supposed to call you. How do you know this stuff about Lung… or about the fact that I was at the Library, or that the cape was on his way, last night?"

"Library?" Brian interjected, giving Lisa another dark look.

Lisa ignored Brian's question and winked at her, "Girl's gotta have her secrets."

"Lisa's half the reason we haven't failed a job yet," Alec said.

"And our boss is a large part of the rest," Lisa finished for him.

"So you say," Brian grumbled, "But let's not go there."

Lisa smiled, and I knew the deed was pretty much done.

"If you want the full scoop, I'm afraid the details on what we do only come with team membership. What I can tell you is that we're a good group. Our track record is top notch, and we're in it for fun and profit. No grand agenda. No real responsibility."

And while Taylor discussed her infallible plan of being an undercover spy, without any of the professional training someone like that would need for such a task, I reminisced of simpler times where Coil gave us easy jobs which matched with resources I could scavenge. I knew, from now on, that the Queen of Escalation would drag us all down.

It felt like I was signing a deal in blood, standing here, subscribing myself to the court of the Noblesse shard and all. I also remained silent about the fact Lung will get out thanks to Bakuda, since that might mean she'd be cowed into not accepting; and while that might be what I'm going for… well, butterflies, and Grue would have my head.

"Alright then, count me in," Taylor told us.

And I knew, at that moment, it was already too late.