Question 20

Kidpen · July 13, 2018

1 minute ago, The Young Pyromancer said:

The chapter where, in the comments, a bunch of people said they were quitting Worm.

Snare 13.9.

One word:

BONESAW.

I've been reading on my kindle, so I wouldn't know about the comments. I think I'm a bit past that though, so i'll take a look to remind myself...

That one. Bonesaw is amazing. And I agree that that chapter was fantastically written.

the winter system · July 13, 2018

I’ve been working on a bunch of OCs for my hero aca, who, if tweaked a bit, could work just as easily in the reckonerverse. I might not end up using them here but if you like any of their powers, feel free to use them.

Spoiler

Epic Name: Crane

Real Name: Haru (None of these characters have last names yet.)

Primary Power: She can bring anything in the shape of an origami crane to life, so long as she made it herself. She has a strange sort of understanding about what they ‘see’ and ‘feel’ that’s hard to explain.

Secondary Power: Healing factor. (When recovering from wounds, the area looks like it’s being covered by paper)

Appearance: she’s Japnese. Her hair is ever so slightly pinkish solid crimson and goes down to around her chin. She wears a bright green jacket and has a bunch of tattoo cranes which she usually keeps on her neck. (She did this by tattooing her right hand—she’s left handed— and moving it.) Her right eye has a long jagged scar through it, which she received post Calamity but before becoming an Epic. Her shoes are combat boots.

Age: 21

personality: It’ll be different in this setting than the original so... shrug

Spoiler

Epic Name: ...shrug

Original Name: Nio

Primary Power: Repulsion Gel. She can shoot the orange and blue gel from Portal out of her finger tips.

Appearance: A dark brown bun and ears pierced with simple studs. Grey eyes. Also japanese.

Spoiler

Epic Name: ...shrug

Original Name: ...shrug

Primary Power: Blink. Basically a teleporter. She can close her eyes and dissapesr from existence. Once she opens them again, she appears as many yards away as many seconds as she had her eyes closed for.

Appearance: A work in progress.

Spoiler

Epic Name: Another work in progress

Original Name: Emi

Primary Power: She’s basically a coin shot and a Lurcher in one but she doesn’t have to burn metals and she isn’t limited to affecting one particular material.

Passive Power: No Fall Damage. What it says. Anything she hits feels the impact of her body but she doesn’t feel it. Piercing weapons work, blunt trauma doesn’t.

Appearance: She’s a 22 year old trans girl with shoulder length braided red hair and a REALLY bad burn scar on her right cheek that she had to have sew closed. She’s been pretty athletic since before calamity— she was an acrobat, which came in handy when paired with her power.

I have more but the rest probably wouldn’t work in this setting even with tweaking.

**Comatose** · July 13, 2018

Okay, here we go. I'll want to proof read and fix it up a bit since I just wrote through, but let me know what you think. I'm still trying to decide if that's where I want to end it, or if I want to keep going a little:

Spoiler

Glimmerstrike cursed as Jenn unloaded another round on him. "I think we are wearing him down, Greg. Grab me another round." Not wanting to let up, while Greg was grabbing her more ammunition, she grabbed a grenade from her belt, pulled the pin, and chucked it in the epic's direction. The explosive detonated in mid air, no doubt as it came into contact with one of Glimmerstrike's projectiles, but even still it flooded the street with smoke, and when it cleared Jenn was locked and loaded.

"What's the matter Twilight Sparkle? Can't finish a fight if your girlfriend's not there to help you out?" Jenn ducked around the corner for cover before one the light-blades Glimmerslash could generate took off her head. "I hear some sixth graders are looking for a pitcher for their t-ball team. You should try out. You could use a reality check!" Judging the angle of Glimmerstrike's next shot, Jenn angled her weapon around the corner and unloaded another magazine in Glimmerstrike's general direction.

What? she mouthed to Greg, who gave her an incredulous look as he handed her more ammunition.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

Instead of answering, Jenn loaded her weapon and whipped another grenade around the corner. Instead of waiting this time, she ducked around the corner and ran, guessing that Glimmerstrike's focus would be on detonating the explosive before it reached him. Before the smoke could clear, Jenn was already firing, Glimmerstrike reacted quickly, parrying a fair number of bullets with blades of light, but she got two hits in on his right arm and leg.

Out of ammunition, but knowing she would be sliced and diced if she didn't press her advantage, Jenn lifted her gun to her shoulder and heaved, putting her shot-put talents to good use for the first time in years. Glimmerstrike flicked his fingers and yet another shining blade appeared, sawing the gun in half before it could hit him, but Jenn followed after. With a leap, she tackled Glimmerstrike to the ground, and shoved a cocktail wiener from her satchel into his open mouth.

"That's right, we figured it out. You had us going with the whole 'vegetarian' thing. To bad for you we found an archived photo of you at a burger joint shortly before you got your powers. I hope the burger was worth it" As she spoke, Jenn kept one hand on the epic's jaw, holding it closed as he struggled with his one good arm to push her off. With her other hand, she took a re-purposed epi-pen from her bag and rammed it into Glimmerstrike's leg. The epic's eyes widened for a moment, and then started to droop. By the time Jenn reached the count of ten, the sedative had done its work.

"All right Greg. If you haven't wet yourself you can come out now. Let's get into position. It's only a matter of time before she realizes we have her boyfriend."

Greg came out from the alley, and started unfolding a stretcher equipped with an anti-gravity motivator from his large pack. "The comet has burned out," he said, sending the message to the rest of their team that Glimmerstrike had been captured. Jenn helped Greg lift their captive on to the stretcher. Then, as Greg adjusted the restraints, Jenn took another cocktail wiener from her bag and broke it into tiny pieces. Taking care to ensure Glimmerstrike was in no danger of choking, she carefully placed several pieces in different corners of his mouth. Then, for good measure, she stuck a couple pieces in his ears, and took a third wiener from her bag to stick up one of his nostrils.

"That's disgusting." Greg grimaced.

"That's art." Jenn said. Popping one of the tasty snacks in her own mouth, Jenn whipped out her mobile and took a selfie with Glimmerstrike, nose-meat and all. "What do you think?"

"Move over Annie Leibovitz."

"You ready?" Greg checked the restraints and nodded. Taking a deep breath, Jenn hit send on her mobile

******

Greg was trying very hard not to have a panic attack as he wheeled the consort of arguably the most powerful epic in the city through the street with a cocktail wiener sticking out of his nose. While he couldn't help but be grossed out, Greg had to admit Jenn's method's were effective. If the woman's most impressive talent was killing things, then making them incredibly angry was likely close behind.

Even then, as they rushed from corner to corner, Greg couldn't help but marvel. Taller and more muscular than most women, Greg would have expected her movements to be stiff and awkward, rather than the deadly grace of an apex predator.

She moved like one of them.

Finally, they reached the arena where Connie and Bryce, two more members of their team, were waiting.

"What's our status?" Jenn grabbed a new hair tie and began re-secure the unruly curls which had come loose in her tussle with Glimmerstrike into a tight bun.

Connie, who was, ostensibly, the team lead for the operation, grimaced at Jenn's easy way of taking command of whatever room she walked into. "Assuming we have the original identified correctly, she's on the move. Hard to tell yet if she's heading to where you grabbed him, or to our location. We have eyes on several of her agents and doubles, but we should be prepared in case some slip through our surveillance."

"And the site is secure?"

"There were a couple of squatters, but I think I convinced them all to clear out."

"You think?" Jenn, with her unbridled confidence and titanic sense of self, always had difficulty sympathizing with Bryce's tendency to question everything and avoid decisive answers.

"The area's as clear as it's going to be Jenn. I'm sure Bryce did a good job, and we don't have time for another sweep." Thankfully, Jenn set her jaw and nodded rather than pressing the point further. It was an old argument, and not one worth hashing out again when they were likely all about to be killed. Or worse, tortured and then killed. Or...

Greg shook his head, and did a few mental exercises to keep his rising panic from growing. They had a plan. They could do this.

"Let's go then. Thanks for the back-up, babe." Greg rolled his eyes in response to Jenn's playful wink and finger-gunning. Grabbing the hover-plank with her free hand, Jenn took off into the arena and start making her way out on to the field.

"Well, I guess that means the rest of us should get into position." With Jenn gone, Connie didn't bother to mask her frustration. "Move out."

*****

While she waited, Jenn amused herself by hiding her remaining cocktail wieners in Glimmerstrike's pockets, and taking more selfies to send to Doubletake.

"So, little human, you think it's wise to mock one who should be your Goddess, do you?"

Jenn turned towards the voice, but, predictably, found no body to associate with it. Titan, one of Doubletake's favourite lieutenants, had a limited invisibility power, and could only be seen if the observer was within two meters of her. Usually by the time anyone saw her, Titan was already in the process of crushing them.

"A Goddess who's too scared to come and rescue her boyfriend in person? I think a little mockery is the least of her concern." As she spoke, Jenn notice a glimmering silver mist beginning to materialize on the ground around her.

"Jenn..." Jenn pulled out her ear piece before Connie or Greg could voice their concerns. They had waited too long to let the Dream Storm stop them now.

"Oh, she's here. Even now she's likely killing off your comrades, one by one. You didn't think you could trick an epic with precognitive abilities into such an obvious trap, did you?"

It's only a trap if we guessed her weakness correctly. The mist had shifted in colour slightly, becoming a light blue, and had thickened as it spread out to cover the entire field. The storm would start soon. "A trap? If you say so."

"What else would you call kidnapping her consort and taunting her with images of him? Don't think you'll secure any ransom. Doubletake has given me the honour of personally destroying you, and I do not intend to fail her now." The voice was close. Jenn slowly began to shift her stance, trying to keep an eye out in every direction at once, preparing herself for Titan to strike.

"You epics are all the same. Always thinking everything revolves around you." Jenn lifted her gun and shot Glimmerstrike between the eyes. Diving to the side, with a handgun in each hand, Jenn fired in the direction where she had heard Titan call out from. That was the direction I heard her in, right? All around her, tiny droplets of blue light were starting rise upwards from the ground, falling towards the sky. Frowning, Jenn continued to watch her surroundings and replaced her ear piece.

"Calamity take you Jennifer, what were you thinking?"

"Glad you are still alive too." Jenn fired a few more shots in a direction she thought she heard overgrown turf rustling.

"Greg and Bryce have engaged a couple of doubles, but we don't think we've encountered the original yet".

"Are we sure she's here?" Jenn continued to scan her surroundings searching for any hint of Titan's location. Titan did not have a prime invincibility, and aside from her limited invisibility, her only defensive power was tied to emotion. She would be cautious about engaging someone like Jenn.

"Fairly certain." After the initial burst of anger, Connie's voice was calm and collected. "If not she'll want to confirm Glimmerstrike's death personally. He's really dead, right?"

Jenn didn't answer and fired a few more warning shots, trying to be mindful about saving her ammunition.

"Jenn?"

"With any luck she won't get to me, right? Let's just keep her inside and off the field." Jenn pretended to fiddle with her mobile, hoping that a percieved moment of inattention would draw Titan into an attack. Jenn felt an unnatural chill creeping down her spine. The Dream Storm had started in full now, millions of droplets of light were rising from the ground, painting ghostly constellations in the sky as they reached their destination. It was beautiful.

What was she doing again?

"Jenn?"

Jenn shook her head. "You're going to need to walk me through this Connie. The storm's getting worse."

"Are you sure you don't want to come in? We have contingencies for this."

"No, just keep talking to me."

"Here, let's try something, say 'Watch for Titan, kill Doubletake'".

"Watch for Titan, kill Doubletake?"

Jenn heard a few sharp clicks as Connie's hands flew across the keys. She was on site, but hidden. Doubletake shouldn't be able to find her. "There."

In the background, Jenn's voice began to play back to her, on loop, through her ear piece. "Watch for Titan, kill Doubletake? Watch for Titan kill Doubletake? . . ."

You can do this Jenn. Just focus. Focus on . . . what was it again?