Ultra Worm (1)

A/N: Hey, remember Ultra Worm I wrote a pilot chapter some time ago? Well, it's back.

-x-X-x-

It only took me a month, a little less than thirty days for me to make enough powers to become the head of one of Brockton Bay’s major gangs. After creating a gang from scratch, almost entirely by myself. Master powers truly were terrifying, much more than the common citizen of Earth Bet could possibly fear. Being able to summon a veritable army that was absolutely loyal, could function autonomously and only kept growing with time would certainly earn me an S-Class threat assessment and a kill order to boot.

But Legion - the name which I dubbed the Master power as - did not stop there, because my greater Architect power still allowed me to give my minions powers for themselves, which is where the one month wait came in.

Shaker powers that could easily generate materials and Tinker powers to put them to use were only the tip of the iceberg. I gave them Thinker powers that allowed them to teach themselves how to act like veteran soldiers by just watching. I didn’t even need to go on a trip to the hospital to copy Panacea’s Shaper and award it to a minion, considering we shared a class and bumping into her in the hallways of Arcadia was oh so easily engineered it wasn’t even a challenge. With Architect, the only limit I had was my own imagination.

“Adam.” A voice called, it was smooth and soft, shy even, in a way completely unlike the image I had pictured of Emma Barnes in my head. She smiled awkwardly when I turned to meet her, flushing lightly at my smile. She tucked her hair behind her ear, not meeting my eyes with pink cheeks and a pretty smile on her face. “Um, hey.”

“Hey yourself,” I smiled, checking her out just as she devoured me with her eyes. Her winter coat was a light gray that matched well with the dark thigh high boots she wore that day. It and the virgin killer dress - because of course it had to be one since it was our first Valentine’s day and she was trying really, really hard to impress me - meant she looked pretty sexy, and that my eyes kept going to what little of her milky white thighs that was left exposed like the starving animal of a hormonal teenager I was. “You look gorgeous.” I decided to say, earning a cute girly giggle from the redhead who smiled in response, approaching me with a sly smirk on her face.

“Thanks,” she said, stepping up and placing both hands on my chest. “You look pretty good yourself.” She complimented, raising to the tip of her feet before leaning up to deliver a peck on my lips.

Almost on instinct my hands wrapped on her waist to hold her as our kiss deepened more than was intended. But who cared? Certainly not me, I thought, slipping my tongue inside Emma’s willing mouth to earn a cute moan from the redhead before she finally pulled back, not meeting my eyes with her face thoroughly red.

“Let’s go.” She decided with just a whisper, grabbing my hand and lacing her fingers with mine before dragging me away.

But how did I get myself in this situation?

To be quite fair, I didn’t really know myself. I guess all I really did was just go with the flow.

Being reborn in Earth Bet, specifically Brockton Bay was not something I wanted, even if at the end of the day, I did make a build for the CYOA that turned all of this reality. Aside from the power, I remember all I really did grab was being stupidly handsome, which lend itself well to me. I was by far the most popular guy at Arcadia, and also probably the smartest one as well, and that was without any kind of cheat. And because I was always exceptionally handsome, mom put me to a modeling gig after my own insistence, which is how I met Emma.

Did I ever expect to start a relationship with the main character’s bully? Not at all, but hey, she was very pretty and a redhead to boot, a personal weakness of mine. And she didn’t even act like a bitch next to me, so I was entirely too willing to ignore whatever metaknowledge I had about her and see how it turned out.

So far, after two months of a pretty enjoyable experience, I could say it was all going pretty well.

“And then Mr. Gladly made a face that screamed like, ‘what the hell is this kid saying’, and-”

“Emma,” I cut her off, something that left the girl reeling back jarred for a second as she blinked several times in confusion before falling quiet for a moment. “Can we have a talk?”

“O-Oh, a… a talk, um,” she muttered, cheery mood falling forgotten to be promptly exchanged by a somber one. “Is… is everything alright?” She asked. She didn’t meet my eyes, so I couldn’t piece together what sort of emotion was going through her mind, but I felt how she tentatively squeezed my hand despite her nerves, in hope that everything was fine.

“Yeah,” I nodded, squeezing her hand back in return to get a relieved sigh from the redhead who almost sagged. “I just wanted to tell you something. It’s pretty important.”

“Oh, um, okay then.” Emma nodded numbly, and for the first time on that cold weekend, I was the one dragging her around to a bench.

It was cold outside. We were still at the height of winter, even if the worst of it was already probably left behind. The bench we sat on had a view to the bay, a perfect centralized image to the Brig, the headquarters of the local Protectorate, almost a fortress removed from the city. It sat distantly as a dark silhouette on the horizon, shrouded by a white mist on that windless day.

I gave Emma my coat so she could cover her legs. She tried to make herself look tough, but I knew she had underestimated the cold on the outside, and after a quiet muttered thanks and hand in hand - my own arm over her shoulders just to give her a tad more security and warmth - I revealed.

“I have powers.”

It took her a second then two, and then she inhaled sharply. “You…” she tried, trailing off after a moment where she worked her jaw and made the impression of a fish.

She clicked her mouth shut.

“Why…” she tried another time, still struggling to find words. “Why did you tell me this?”

A hum escaped my lips.

Why?

“I thought you deserved to know,” I decided. Having powers didn’t really change who I was, but I thought I should at least be honest with her on this. I wouldn’t ever tell her, or anyone for that matter, about my past life, but at least this I could. I shrugged. “I dunno.” I just felt like it.

It was perhaps the complete nonchalance, or perhaps the ease in my stance, but Emma remained at a loss of words for several seconds more before settling with a “thank you” and resting her head on my shoulders.

“Wanna join my gang?”

-x-X-x-

A/N: So, hello once again. Sorry for not posting Dragonborn Ascendant 18 last week, but I got really sick, and in my brilliant mind, I decided to rewrite the chapter a third time.

To not leave you guys with nothing until the moment I had it ready, I decied to return with that little Worm story that didn't get posted further than the first chapter. I made this based on the interactive Worm cyoa - which I'll put a link and the codes for the build bellow this, or in a comment -, and the build I used is certainly a considerably less hammy than I could do, even if it's really strong regardless. Definitely, the old Ultra Worm was much more broken from the get go.

The link: https://ltouroumov.github.io/worm-cyoa-v6-fork/viewer/

The codes: ck5v,yedw,bxz5,cjqy,b0pr,xy6v,udrw,6dri,8mhz,0wyi,dstd,eqhz,9d7l,jfl2,kht1,mhk8,fxb5,i7bw,u4dy,j4uh,1hpc,myd7,a8nj,gma7,kb60,13z7,wu6i,1ro4,weh8/ON#3,txtt/ON#1,bke2,hl2k,6o4j,cal6,ucs6,gtmb,d0mx,ezx6,fede,7f72