Canary

Week 3: Brockton Bay

Fuck/Marry/Kill- there are three girls in the Brockton Bay Wards; Shadow Stalker, Vista, and Flechette. Sleep with at least one, kill at least one, and capture at least one one. It is your choice who, but you need to spread it around and order doesn't matter.

1- 2 credit, Character card: Cow Lady, unlock target tracker upgrade

2- 5 credits and Greater Waters of Lethe

3- 8 credits and Shroud Binding

Conclusively win a physical conflict with any member of the gang Empire 88, bonus if they are a parahuman member.

Reward: 1 credit, Bikini Armor (skintight latex supersuit), Unlock Armory Extension

Bonus: 5 Credits, Waifusion

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This arc takes place in arc 10 of the webnovel Worm and contains unavoidable spoilers for Worm before that point. I fully encourage you to drop my story right now and go binge Worm. It's free and has a fairly well made fan-audiobook.

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"Alright ladies, remember what I said." Gil cautioned the girls, "I'm going to scout first, and I'll come get you if it's reasonably safe. This place has been rated as high danger according to my sponsors."

Gil shouldered his well supplied backpack and stepped through the portal, leaving behind the girls. He didn't give them the chance to distract him with questions, which annoyed the redhead.

"How does he know?" Ireena asked, irritated.

"His sponsors talk to him with that little red hand mirror." Snow answered. "Haven't you noticed? I think that's why he's always looking at it. I can't read anything when I look at it, but nothing else makes sense."

"Yes, these mysterious sponsors." Ireena said, crossing her arms. "Sponsoring what?"

••••••••••

Gil stepped out of the portal through the flap of a tent. It was a moderately sized blue and gray plastic tent, not quite large enough to contain the portal. The pulsing blue light cut through the tent, though perhaps clipping was the more accurate term as it simply shared the same space, rather than damaging it in any way.

His surroundings were highly populated for a change, with dozens of people in his direct line of sight. He appeared to be in a camp of some kind, with many tents scattered around the base of a hill topped with a black obelisk. People were walking around with children and dogs, some even having picnics near the obelisk, so he classified the spot as relatively safe. He didn't assume The Company would throw him directly into danger, but that's the kind of assumption that ends tests early.

Most of the people he could see were humans in fairly dirty clothes; the kind of dirty that you get when men and women accustomed to having machines or magic clean their garments are forced to clean them manually. Combined with a number of very forced smiles on the parents and people staring into space, he could guess that something bad happened recently. Perhaps it hadn't stopped yet. Gil popped his head through the portal just long enough to inform the girls that the area needed a lot more scouting. He pulled back before Ireena could ask any questions and started jogging up the hill.

He was given a fairly good view when he arrived, allowing him to see a devastated city. Gil could see piles of rubble clogging city streets, visible between shattered buildings. A huge water filled crater dominated his field of view, perhaps ground zero of some kind of massive blast of energy. Gil's eyes darted around, trying to identify the cause.

Bombing was the first explanation that sprang to mind, but he dismissed it quickly. Much of the destruction implied a tsunami, perhaps, with the attendant flooding. Then again, he'd expect more uniformity in the destruction from a natural disaster like that. Many buildings stood tall and intact while their neighbors were piles of rubble. Rampant speculation would only get him so far, and asking around in a public space would make him stick out. He turned and briefly saw a flash of Rose examining the obelisk before vanishing like a trick of the light; he joined her.

The black obelisk had gray words etched into each face, which Gil moved in close to read. About half the words were names you might find in the United States, one of the handful of settings like Japan that were so common that Gil could recognize them even after repeated scrubbing. Each name was paired with another word, seemingly selected at random, but generally more evocative. Only about half of the strange words were paired with a name.

Escutcheon / Tyrone Venson

Erudite / Mavis Shoff

Fenja / Jessica Biermann

Fierceling /

Frenetic /

Furrow /

"Titles." Gil mumbled, only partially for Rose's benefit. "These are titles, with the real name added. This is a memorial, I think."

If it was a memorial, dozens of people had died to something sufficiently high profile to justify a memorial. Modern day? Check. Colorful code names? Check. High danger rating? Check. Big event that kills off a bunch of people with code names? Check.

"Superheroes." Gil nodded to himself. "Just after some kind of event comic, I'd wager."

"Super heroes?" Rose asked.

"It's a type of world in which magic tends to be very inconsistent," Gil whispered, very aware of the people around him. "Some people gain unique abilities. Frequently almost every individual has completely different powers that only they can use. Sometimes they are heritable, but they almost always make the people in question dramatically more powerful than those without and usually can't be reproduced on a large scale."

"So I assume these super heroes form the aristocracy, then?" Rose asked. "If they have all the relevant power."

"You know, it's kinda shocking how often that doesn't happen." Gil chuckled. "Usually they are too busy fighting one another over trivial things or grandstanding about their personal beliefs to properly oppress their lessers. There's also usually at least a few of the stronger ones trying to protect the status quo."

Super hero settings tended to crank everything up a few notches. In a mundane setting you have a computer glitch that might cause errors at the beginning of a new millennia in the local calendar, or an aggressive nation invading its neighbor based on resources or historical pride. In a superhero setting you have a computer glitch that causes everyone's toasters to become sentient and try to reenact the French Revolution, or an army of demons might invade France over a child custody battle.

Gil didn't know what this was a memorial to, but based on the rubble he saw in the streets around the hill, it was probably fresh. Possibly even ongoing, knowing The Company's sense of humor. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He was going to need to improvise.

Bombed out cities didn't often have curious tourists in weird outfits asking for directions; such a man was just asking to get his ass kicked. Even if this was one of those incredibly noble cities where everyone was pitching in to fix things up together, he'd draw attention. Gil deliberately didn't look right at Rose, instead letting her remain at the edge of his vision. It was, ironically, the best way he had to focus on her when she was invisible.

"Shit, I doubt I'll be able to get much shopping done, either." He sighed. "Can you go home from here?"

Rose flickered before responding in the affirmative. Good, that meant she could return to her skeleton across planar boundaries, bouncing back and forth between her spellbook and corpse. He might be able to use that, though he'd be very careful while he only had two anchors.

"Let Snow and Ireena know that there's been a large scale battle," Gil ordered, "given the likelihood of more danger I'd rather they stay hidden."

With that, Gil headed out to find someone with the right combination of helpful and isolated. He needed more information.