WORM Create Your Own Adventure

Bokuboy About 3,260 words.

“That was a very nice thing you did for Miss Lindt, even though we both know what she's going to do to him.” Dragon said from the earpiece and microphone I still wore. She had dropped me off in E88 territory to take care of Hookwolf and now I was back in neutral territory before I reached the normal PRT patrol routes.

I thought about making an argument about how many times Hookwolf escaped custody, then shrugged. “Did you check the feed on her PRT issued cellphone?”

Dragon was silent for a moment and sighed. “Her dogs took care of him. No evidence left.”

I almost laughed at the irony. “Hellhound has been after him and breaking up his dog-fighting rings for a couple of years. It's about time they were stopped.”

“And claiming the money in the safe?” Dragon asked.

“Spoils of war.” I said with a chuckle. “The dog rehab shelter they put her in charge of is going to receive a hefty donation of actual cash tomorrow.” I patted the stolen backpack I wore. “I doubt she'll bother asking me where the money came from.”

“What will you say if she does?”

“Helping others is more profitable in the long run and she has a lot of dogs to take care of.”

Dragon chuckled. “I thought you told me that you were with Vista?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, a little confused.

“You took down Hookwolf in minutes, destroyed his fighting ring warehouse, and saved all the dogs to bring to her. Now you're going to give her an obscene amount of money to take care of all those dogs.” Dragon pointed out. “What do you think a girl with her disposition is going to do when you meet?”

I stopped walking and blinked my eyes for several moments. “I think I better drop the money off anonymously.”

Dragon laughed.

I was barely a block into the closest PRT patrol route when a police car pulled up. “Evening, officers.”

“Myriad, right?” One of them asked and I nodded. “What are you doing out here?”

“I just came back from a super-secret special mission that had me cross international borders to take down the most infamous asshole on the planet.” I said with a completely straight face.

The two officers exchanged looks and then laughed.

“Well, Mr. International Spy, hop in and we'll give you a ride back to the station.” The driver said.

“Thanks.” I said and climbed into the back. “I hope this won't mess up your route.”

“It's a calm night, so don't worry about it.” The passenger said. “If we're needed, we've got you to cover for us.”

“Good point.” I said and gave him a casual wave. “Homeward, Jeeves!”

“Smart ass.” The driver said and his partner laughed, getting the old chauffeur joke right away.

“Are you sure you want to keep one of my devices on you all the time?” Dragon asked.

“Hey, guys? How have things been around here on the streets after what I did last week with the S9?” I asked out loud. “I haven't had the chance to talk to anyone about it.”

The driver made a weird sound and reached over to lightly smack his partner's arm.

“Right, I got this one.” The officer said and turned to look at me. “After the city-wide party ended after six hours, the streets pretty much cleared out on their own. Most of us and the BBPD were on escort duty to make sure nothing too bad happened, like a riot or something, and all that happened was a whole lot of celebrating and everyone going home happy.”

“Even the gangbangers?” I asked, surprised.

“Especially them.” The officer said. “We were all pretty relieved that no capes showed up in costume.”

“Wait, really?” I asked, again surprised.

“I reacted the same way.” The driver said. “We asked one of our regular informants and apparently orders from the top said if they did go out, it was as a civilian.”

I sat there and looked at the back of his head for a moment and then looked at his partner.

“Yep, I had that same look.” The passenger said with a chuckle. “Even the Merchants kept their shilling restricted to the light stuff.”

“Okay, wow.” I said and he smiled.

“I think that's why things have been quiet the last few days.” The officer said.

“They are all partied out and everyone's grateful the Bay's survived two city-wrecking disasters with almost no casualties.” The driver said.

I nodded and fell silent for the rest of the drive. As I looked out the window, I saw that the streets were relatively empty. It took me until they dropped me off at the PRT building to realize that it was because of me. I had made the city that much safer after I had gutted the ABB of their capes. The rest of the gang then dropped in importance from PRT jurisdiction to become the BBPD's responsibility.

That seemed to open the floodgates of evidence that had been either suppressed or hidden because of the capes protecting the normal gang members and the police tore into the ABB like a cat's claws through the arm of a new couch. Half of the illegal brothels in the city had been shut down and about 60% of the upper level gang members had been sent to prison for more than five years.

Of course, this left a good portion of the city open for the other gangs to move in to claim new territory. The surprising thing was that the previously repressed Asian communities under Lung weren't having it. Anyone trying to move into the area were viciously rebuffed by the residents, even when capes showed up.

Since one of the main enforcers for the Empire 88 was Hookwolf, and he was pretty much the only one that was bulletproof, it meant that the people were going to have a much easier time defending themselves.

I thanked the officers for the ride and entered the PRT building to report in. I had been gone since the incident with the S9 and I knew there were two people that were anxiously waiting for me.

The receptionist gave me a huge smile. “Dragon already sent word that you were coming back.” She said and waved me through the security checkpoint. “Go on up. Director Armstrong is waiting for you in his office.”

“Thank you.” I said and smiled back at her, only to see her blush and she looked flattered. That's new. I thought and went to the elevator. I rode it up to the right floor and went to Emily Piggot's old office. The door opened before I could knock and a stocky metal man with silver skin stood there in the doorway.

“It's nice to meet you, Myriad.” The metal man said.

“I might say the same if I knew who you were.” I joked and he chuckled.

“Are you wearing any rings or jewellery on your wrists?” He asked instead.

“No, although that does give me a few ideas of who you are.” I said and held my hand out.

The metal man smiled and took my hand to shake it. “My name's Weld and I'm the new leader for the Wards.”

I flexed my healing power as soon as our hands clasped together and Weld let out a short cry of pain as several small jagged pieces of oddly-colored metal were expelled out through his skin and clattered to the floor.

“What did you do?” A man's panicked voice asked from inside the room.

I ignored him and let my Nilbog power 'feel' Weld. “They really fucked you up good.”

Weld's pained face changed to surprise. “How did you get those impurities out of me?”

“It's my secondary power. I absorb damage.” I said and looked down at the floor. “I'm not sure why I didn't absorb those things, though.”

“I think that's because it wasn't biological damage.” The man's voice said from behind Weld. “Weld, step away from the bare metal pieces. You don't want to absorb them again.”

“Good lord, no.” Weld said and let my hand go to carefully step back and to the side. “Those things were like an itch that I couldn't scratch and a cold I couldn't shake combined.”

The man behind him chuckled. “I'll grab them and...”

“No!” I gasped and held a hand up to stop him.

“What is it?” Weld asked, concerned.

“Your body's composition can absorb metal and makes it a part of your body. If those fragments are things that you can't absorb and made you sick and itchy, what kind of radiation are they giving off?” I asked them and both the real man and the metal man stepped back from the fragments.

“That is a good point.” The man said and walked back over to his desk. “Armsmaster? I need a containment capsule a foot long and a set of tongs to pick up some metal pieces.” He said and looked back at the floor. “And a Geiger counter if you have one, just in case.”

I nodded and stepped back out of the doorway to give Armsmaster enough room to work. Only a few minutes later, Armsmaster was there with a lead-lined container and a giant pair of tweezers. He also had a small square box and ran it over the fragments. Two of them made it beep and the needle moved.

“It's only a minor isotope contamination at the strength of receiving several x-rays.” Armsmaster said and put the pieces into the container. “It's not a concern for humans if you shake Myriad's hand.”

I immediately held my hand out to him and he shook it. Armsmaster nodded to me and walked away without saying anything else. I chuckled and turned to step into the office with my hand held out to the man inside.

“If you hadn't guessed it yet, I'm Director Armstrong.” The man said and shook my hand. He took in a sharp breath and let it out. “Damn, that's a great handshake.”

I couldn't stop myself from making a joke. “Did you have a testicle grow back? Frank loves having his back.”

Armstrong looked surprised and Weld barked a laugh.

“That sounds like an... interesting story.” Armstrong said and let my hand go and motioned to the chair in front of his desk. “Have a seat and we'll get your debriefing done.”

I nodded and sat where he wanted.

He did a couple things on the laptop. “All right, tell me about what happened when you arrived back from your vacation in Australia.”

So, I did and I told him everything that happened, from Tagg's idiocy to dealing with the Slaughterhouse Nine. I then mentioned needing to recover from that trauma by accepting Dragon's authorized invitation to visit one of her manufacturing plants and then accepting a rushed executive order to deal with Heartbreaker while I was already in Canada.

The wide eyes on both Armstrong and Weld would have made a great picture.

“And why were you walking back from E88 territory?” Armstrong asked.

“Dragon needed the room to land her rocket plane, so we picked the best deserted road that was just long enough for her to safely land.” I explained. “It was the same deal out on the highway when she picked me up. That thing can really go when she kicks in the afterburners.”

Armstrong nodded and did a few more things on the laptop. “Thank you for telling me all of that.”

I shrugged. “I was going to write it all out anyway.”

Armstrong smiled. “You have been diligent in your duties, even when restricted to console duty.”

“I couldn't sit there and do nothing but stare at the monitors.” I said with a smile. “I also submitted a new procedure for downtimes and basic patrols while Wards are on monitoring duty.”

“I saw that. It was quite innovative.” Armstrong said with a pleased smile. “I quickly adopted it back in Boston when Armsmaster submitted it to the national database and added his own recommendation.”

I was surprised by that, actually. I knew he was a bit anal about me not writing the report up as soon as I could, I just never suspected that it was because he wanted to give it to every Protectorate office in the country. I guess making every Ward's console time more efficient was really important to him.

“I appreciated it as well.” Weld said. “Keeping some of the other Ward members properly motivated was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.”

I had to think about that. “Well, if you made more of an effort to sit and eat with them and maybe talk with them more, you might have an easier time with things.”

“I don't really need to eat.” Weld said. “Or sleep.”

I made a motion with my hand and then pointed at him. “You just made my point.”

Weld opened his mouth to respond and then closed it.

“Exactly. You don't really need to eat; but, you should.” I said and smiled. “Fake it until you make it.”

Director Armstrong chuckled. “I should have booked you time here instead of with Dr. Yamada.”

“No, he still needs professional help, especially since I fixed his distorted emotional center and his senses of taste and touch.” I said and both Director Armstrong and Weld stiffened and stared at me. “You might not notice all of the changes at first, since you're so used to ignoring those aspects of your physiology.”

“You... how...” Weld whispered.

“It's one of my abilities. I absorb damage.” I said and then tapped on my temple. “If you hadn't had your mind wiped to get your powers and to become Weld, I would have fixed that right up, too.”

“H-how?” Armstrong asked.

“I spent a lot of time on vacation in Australia not that long ago.” I hinted and hooked my thumbs together and pretended my fingers were wings. “I also helped some refugees deal with a few things. Unofficially, of course.”

Armstrong looked like I had slapped him across the face with a two-by-four.

“It was a test.” I said and stood. “I expect an invitation to spend my next vacation somewhere like Sweden.” I held a hand out to Weld again. “It was nice meeting you, Weld.”

Weld shook my hand without saying anything.

I smirked at him and held my hand out to the director, only for him to give it a pointed look. “Maybe next time.” I said and turned around to walk over to the door. I opened it and neither of them told me to stop, so I shut the door and walked down the hallway to the next office and leaned against the wall to listen.

“Is he really only a Ward?” Weld asked. “He looks like he's 20 years old.”

“It's a result of his copy power. Just before the Leviathan fight, he knocked out three quarters of the capes there and absorbed some or all of their abilities.”

“What's his limit?” Weld asked.

“According to his file, only physical powers. Anything mental based like stranger or thinker abilities can't be copied, because he physically can't use them.”

“That's both limiting and unbelievably powerful.” Weld said. “If he could get even half of Alexandria's powers...”

“He has them.” Armstrong interrupted him. “He also has Legend's energy beams somehow.”

“They're physically generated.” Weld guessed. “Like his flight.”

“That makes sense.” Armstrong said. “He's also invulnerable.”

“Like me?” Weld asked.

“No, he's completely invulnerable.” Armstrong said and there were several clicks from a keyboard. “Look at this.”

They both fell quiet and I heard the last line I said to Dragon. “I'm going to miss having hair.”

The sound of the explosion was barely a fraction of what it had been at the time and I still winced.

“He... he took a nuke to the face.” Weld said, his voice a bit shaky. “I knew he had some fortitude after watching him take down the S9... but that... what am I supposed to do to lead someone that can do that?”

Armstrong chuckled. “You just lead. Just because he has different experiences than you, that doesn't mean he won't benefit from you teaching him.”

Weld sighed. “Why would he ever listen to my orders? He is so far over my own abilities that it's not funny.”

“He will listen to you for the same reasons you listened to me when you first joined the Wards.” Armstrong said.

Weld was quiet for a few seconds. “If you're sure.”

“I am.” Armstrong said. “You've had experience in the leadership role and he hasn't. Let that guide you and everything will work out.”

“What about the unauthorized fraternization between Wards?” Weld asked. “It's against regulations for underage members to engage in any kind of sexual relations, no matter the reasons.”

Armstrong sighed. “Director Piggot handled that whole mess badly. She should have sent it off-base and not included either a Protectorate cape or another Ward in that situation.”

“What are you going to do about it?” Weld asked.

“I've already updated the proper clauses in the new Ward contracts and also pointed out the failings of the previous administration to the Ward in question.” Armstrong said. “I can't reprimand Miss Militia for handling things like she did because I wasn't the senior PRT officer onsite at the time. Retroactively giving her a demerit wouldn't sit well with either the Protectorate or the local PRT officers.”

Weld huffed. “They need to get with the program and follow proper procedure. Any inappropriate contact should have been reported, not covered up by claiming it was a sex education class.”

Armstrong sighed. “There's nothing we can do about that. Miss Militia used proper procedure to report her actions and privacy is guaranteed, especially after the fiasco at Ellisburg and that idiot revealing he had dozens of videos and hundreds of pictures of Wards all across the country.”

“He deserved his 20 year jail sentence for keeping personal copies of official records.” Weld said.

“That's not why it was so harsh. It was because he corrupted all of them and they all believe that whenever they are in a similar situation, it's okay to completely disrobe and do anything they ask the Ward to do.”

“That... that really is a problem.” Weld said.

“Yes, you believe it, too.” Armstrong said. “We have a lot of work to do to get this place in order, so I hope I can depend on you to help me get this done as soon as possible.”

“You can count on me, sir.” Weld promised.

I stopped listening and stepped away from the wall as I thought about things. I tapped the earpiece I wore and spoke. “Dragon, piggyback on my cell phone in my room back at the Rig and send a text to Vista, Hive Queen, Carol Dallon, and the Youth Guard representative.”

“I'm ready.” Dragon said. “What's the text?”

“I absolutely refuse to sign the new Wards contract. It breaches personal boundaries and I will not let the government dictate when or how I can hug and kiss the people I love.” I said and Dragon didn't say anything. “Send it, please.”

“Alex, do you really mean...”

“Yes, I do.” I said and left the office and walked down the hallway. “As of this moment, I am no longer a member of the Wards.”