I opened my Email after a long day of work and scrolled through my unread mail. Most of it was spam, but there were a few emails which notified me of story updates and other subscriptions. There was one that really caught my eye. It was titled CYOA, nothing else. A straightforward title I thought. That was the reason it caught my eye.
I opened the email and inside the sender stated that he had been rereading my first ever story and that he was a big fan of mine. He wished that I would continue writing my old fanfiction. He stated that he was aware of the fact that I probably wouldn’t continue, but if I could do him a small favour and fill out the CYOA in the link then he would be ever so grateful.
I hadn’t received any comments or emails from my earlier works in years so it was heartwarming to see that someone still read my first story. I decided to check it out and clicked the link.
The page transferred me to was the Worm CYOA version 5 updated. I had read many Worm fanfics, so I was familiar with the story. I regret that I didn’t read the worm serial before the fanfic but I just couldn’t be bothered to invest so many hours of my time to read a story that was over 1.5 million words.
The first thing that I noticed when I opened the link was the length. I was astounded, most CYOAs weren’t very long, it caused me to be a bit put off but I did decide to fill out the CYOA.
Prior to this request, I had filled out a few CYOAs for various other fandoms such as One Piece and JJBA so I was aware of the “proper” way to fill out the CYOAs. I started by picking Gestation setting which gave me +15 character points and +15 shard points. This was the setting where cannon starts.
Next was choosing Paths, I could choose to become a Hero, a Villain, a Rogue or a Vigilante. I selected the Vigilante Path. I wasn’t a large fan of authority inside fiction, most of the time the governments were corrupted or stifled the characters’ potential. I still wished to help save the World, call it a childish desire if you will but I wished to feel the satisfaction of knowing that I saved someone.
I chose the Drop-in entry which granted me (+5 character points). Now I skipped over a large part and went to the flaws section and picked out the flaws that wouldn’t completely harm myself. I didn’t want to be a case 53, create my own nemesis or have amnesia.
There were enough problems in the apocalyptic world of Worm that I didn’t have to add any limitations to myself. I decided that I wanted an Overpowered self-insert so I tried to maximise that amount of points that I could take without overwhelming my character in weaknesses.
I read through all of the options and eventually settled on Slaughterhouse 9 which gave me (+4 character points and +2 shard points). I knew that I(my character) was eventually going to fight and kill the Slaughterhouse 9 so I might as well get some points out of it.
I chose Endbringer Target which granted me (+3 character points and +4 shard points) for the same reason as the S9 and finally Numbed Emotions, that gave me (+2 in shard points). I figured that it was the best alternative, if I was going to be killing people then I should probably not emphasise with them and let it get in the way of killing them.
I continued to scroll down and saw the path specific section. It would grant me more points depending on what I chose but in the end, I decided to choose the Anti-Villain option. There were other options such as Anti-Hero where I targeted the heroes and weeded out the corruption or Ambivalent where both the Heroes and Villains would hunt me down.
However, it seemed to me that that would be overkill and I would probably die within the first day or two. Anti-Villain granted me +3 character points and +1 shard points. It was at this point where I could start granting myself abilities and power.
For my costume, I chose to give myself the path specific stealth suit and a pair of blades. It would complement my choice of the Martial arts skill that I was planning to take. Ever since I saw all of the Korean martial arts movies, I had been enamoured with the idea of fighting many goons and the martial arts skill would help me.
The costume and blades took -4 character points which were quite a sizable sum because skills were expensive. I moved onto the skills section and decided to take Martial arts (-4charcter points), Stealth (-3 character points), Hacking (-1 character points) and Parkour (-2 character points).
I scrolled down to the advantages and looked at them. The only ones that really appealed to me were Blindspot (-3 character points and -4 shard points) and Second Trigger (-4 character points and -3 shard points). Unfortunately, they were fucking expensive.
The next section was the Shard type. In this section, I could choose between the Scion, Eden or Abbadon Shard. I decided to take the Abbadon Shard (-3 character points and -3 shard points) which was vastly better than the other types.
It was the only shard which cost points instead of granting them, but it gave many advantages. The most noticeable was the increase in the strength of powers and the fact that it had a much larger source of energy than the other shards.
The next stage was choosing a Gift, this could be knowing the plot of the story to the tiniest detail or knowing how your actions affect different people via dream invasion. I decided to choose Payoff, an ability that would allow me to keep all of my powers in our world after Scion was dead and I would be returned back to my earth.
And now to the most awaited part- power selection. There were so many to choose from, I looked at my remaining points and saw that I had an adequate amount. I couldn’t get the strongest powers but I could get any other power that I wanted.
I browsed through the powers and stopped. Is that really there? I rubbed my eyes and squinted, yes there it was clear as day. Sitting on the screen was the option Stand (-7 shard points).
As a huge Jojo fan, I instantly picked the power and read the description.
I could have any amount of powers as long as it is in the 10 point limit, that was so overpowered.
I immediately decided to second trigger the power (-4 character points and -10 shard points), essentially any power that the stand got was the second trigger version. There were limits however, it couldn’t have any trump, tinker, thinker or master powers, but it was a fair flaw.
I chose Flight (-3 shard points) which allowed the stand to fly at 150 Km per hour but with the second trigger version, it could fly at 350 Km per hour. The next choice was Pocket Room (-1 shard points), an ability that grants the user his own small private dimension where time is frozen. The second trigger version allowed the user to store living things in the pocket dimension.
The implications of this power are just insane, The stand could potentially carry anything that I wanted like weapons or even bombs. Or steal whatever I wanted and that wasn’t taking into account that I could simply just hide inside my stand’s space and safely control him from there.
Elemental (-3 shard points) was the next power that I chose. It essentially allowed the user to turn into fire, water or wind. This was essentially being untouchable to most of the world with the exception of a few tinker tech devices and esoteric abilities. Then there was the second trigger version, which allowed the user to turn into any material around them and gain their attributes and abilities.
Razor Hand (-2 shard points) was next it allowed the user to turn their hands into sharp claws, it was pretty strong but there were many other powers that dwarfed it in power or utility.
The reason that I chose it was that the second trigger version allows the user to cut things at the molecular level! This was an incredibly powerful ability. It was practically a crime that it cost so little, but whatever. It's good for me.
The final choice for my stand was Peak Condition. It was an ok power not very useful but the second trigger version was the reason I chose it, this truly was Overpowered. It gave my stand infinite energy. I could think of so many combinations that it wasn’t funny.
For example, I could combine it with Elemental and create an endless amount of an element. I could also use my powers with no restraint as my shard would be powered forever with this power.
The stand was overpowered and it was incredibly cheap, compared to how much each power would have cost me individually. I didn’t know if I should get more powers, I had decided to make an overpowered character but this would be overkill I could take any parahuman solo. But who am I kidding it’s just for fun anyway so I continued on.
The next power was the Unlimited Shard Works (-7 shard points). I also second triggered it. This power allowed me to copy a power that I could see for a single-usage before losing it. For example, copying Miss Milita’s power and then summoning a gun.
After finishing the magazine then the copy disappears. The second trigger version of Unlimited Shard Works let me copy any power that I could see forever.
I was down to two points so I looked through the remaining one and two-point powers and chanced upon Presence (-2 shard points). It let the user essentially be aware of everything that was going on in a 25-metre circumference of myself.
It was like Observation Haki from One piece only without much range. I looked at my points score and saw that there was one character point left. I went to Perks and chose Plot convenience. I didn’t have enough for Blindspot so I chose the next best thing. I went over my choices again and I was satisfied with my choices. My character would stomp over all of the Wormverse. With sufficient time he could solo kill Scion.
As I was preparing to send my CYOA to my fan, I thought to myself that this was what usually happened before a ROB(Random Omnipotent Being) sends you to the world of the CYOA with your choices.
I knew that such a thing was impossible in the real world because there was no way in hell that there would ever be a ROB. And even if there was why would he choose me of all people. I sent it to him. A few minutes later I received a short email saying “I loved it, Enjoy.”
My last words were “Oh Fuck” before I blacked out.
****************************************************************************************************
I woke up sitting with my back against an old dirty brick wall disoriented and sleepy. I opened my eyes and looked at my surroundings. It was nighttime and there was one crappy wall light that was glowing dimly. The light that it gave off was enough to let me survey where I was. It appeared that I was inside a narrow alleyway full of discarded trash, broken glass and rotten food.
A few metres from my foot was a few empty discarded syringes, as I looked around I could see more and more syringes. There were even a few old couches. I understood that this was a place frequented by druggies, it was the perfect place for you to get lost in your hallucinations. Nobody would come searching for you.
My head was still woozy and I couldn’t remember how I arrived in this trashy alleyway. I was sure that I wouldn’t have taken drugs if offered when sober, however, when I was drunk I couldn’t be too sure. I tried to understand how I arrived inside such a horrible place but I couldn’t remember.
I was disgusted by the revolting filth that surrounded me and I scrambled to get off the ground rubbish filled ground. I started walking in the direction of the entrance of the alley when four big men entered the alleyway.
They were all caucasian, each man was wearing a leather jacket and was covered in tattoos. I assumed that they were in their twenties, acting brash, and impulsive with no thoughts or regard towards their surroundings. In fact, they appeared to be in a gang. One man, who I presumed was the leader had an SS tattoo on his hand. They advanced in my direction slowly and dangerously. It was clear that they were drunk. I was getting some disturbing vibes from them.
By now I was wide awake and alert. But I surprisingly wasn’t feeling scared instead all I felt was calm and clear-headed. This was despite the fact that I had never been cornered like this. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on but I instinctively knew that I could use something inside of me to help fight these men.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
So I pulled on that sensation and felt a weird tingle in the back of my head and all of a sudden I could see everything around me. It wasn’t using my eyes though, instead, the closest I could compare it to was a 3d sphere-shaped model of the area.
I was aware of every little detail that was in my range be it the tiny pills that were spilt on the ground, the gaps in between the bricks even the small sign on the building that was near the entrance of the alleyway.
I could even read the small handwritten sign that was stuck to the door and read the Sam’s Barber Shop and in smaller letters the Best in Brockton Bay.
I was in Brockton Bay. I was in the Wormverse, where everything would end in two years if I didn’t stop Scion. But now was not the time to think about that. The guys in front of me were from the E88- Neo-Nazis who would love to abuse and kill people who didn’t look or follow their beliefs. Now I knew I didn't fit the Aryan type, I was at an average height of 1.77 metres’ with tan skin, short brown hair and brown eyes.
I had Jewish roots throughout my entire family, in fact, my mother was Jewish. Though I counted myself as an atheist.
The fact that I was in the Wormverse meant that I had powers, I had picked 3 powers. The Stand, Unlimited Shard Works and Presence. The power that allowed me to know everything around me must have been Presence. Now what to do with these pieces of shit.
My thought process was interrupted as the leader, a tall bloke with blond hair, blue eyes and pale skin took a closer look at me and said to his friends “Look at this Fucking Jew and his big ass nose.”
“You’re a Jew aren’t you? Get the hell out of Brockton Bay and America we don’t want your filth corrupting our city and our country.
You Jews make deals with the devil that’s why you’re so successful. But first, we’re going to have to teach you a lesson, otherwise, you won’t learn that you need to die. If you survive, pass the message to your leaders.”
He said to me with a sadistic look in his eyes. I felt rage flow through my veins, how dare this idiot threaten me right after I come to this world. I was practically a god compared to him. I could destroy a city by myself if I really wanted to. I could rival the Endbringers in destructive potential only using my stand.
I could beat them in so many ways. Burn them to death, suffocate them, cut them into little pieces, stab them, mutilate them to the point that their own mother wouldn’t recognize them. This was only a tiny amount of ways I could kill them and despite this, they were threatening me.
Fine then, I decided that I would have to beat them with my fists the old fashioned way. I had had anger issues throughout my life and it seemed that it wasn’t any different here.
“I would leave but your mother would protest. She enjoyed our time in bed last night too much to allow me to go.” I replied as I prepared to use Presence alone to beat these fuckers into the ground.
They tried to rush at me, the keyword here is tried. It turns out that the reason that they were all walking so slowly wasn’t because they were trying to intimidate me. It was because they were so drunk that they couldn’t move any faster.
Two of the E88 goons fell as they lost their balance while the leader managed to reach me. I entered into a fighting stance as I tried to remember what I had learnt all those years ago. Presence showed me that he was going to attack using his right fist.
As he did so I dodged to the right while instinctively punching him in the stomach with an undercut punch. It hit him with full force knocking the air out of his lungs. This caused him to collapse onto his knees as he cradled his stomach. The other thug that was running at me didn’t have any balance, so a simple leg sweep and push combo knocked him on the ground. He hit his head on the gravel and broken glass when he landed and fell unconscious, blood started oozing out of his head.
Presence alerted me of the other two goons that were getting up. This time I was the proactive attacker as I rushed them and slammed my knee into the first thug’s face. Using my other leg, I used a roundhouse kick to hit him cleanly across the face. I heard a satisfying crack. They didn’t get up.
I went back to the leader who was the only one conscious and pushed onto the ground before repeatedly smashing the man’s head into the concrete pavement. His head was bleeding heavily, but he was still breathing faintly.
Well, it appeared that buying the Martial arts skill was worth it. I didn’t know how to use these moves intentionally yet, but my body responded automatically with the appropriate attack.
Because I was wearing a T-shirt and Jeans in the chilly streets of Brockton Bay, so naturally I was cold. Even the small workout that I had just now didn’t let me heat up. Brockton Bay was a seaside city and therefore had a sea breeze.
This meant that when it was chilly, they would amplify the cold dramatically. I took off the thugs leather jackets and tried them on before picking the least offensive one. Additionally, I took a hoodie and pulled the hood up. I went through their pockets and every single one of them had a pistol.
It appeared that I was lucky that they were drunk otherwise if they had been sober they could have just shot me. I wasn’t sure if I could have summoned my stand in time if they did. I also didn’t know if presence allowed me to dodge bullets but I didn’t want to try until I had copied enough brute powers. There were so many things to find out.
I also found 124 dollars when I went through their wallets. I kept one wallet and put the money in it and added my own meagre 100 dollars. After pocketing the money I tried to understand what I should do.
The adrenaline rush certainly wasn’t helping. I had just beaten 4 men, most of them bigger than me with ease. Now I wasn’t a violent guy, throughout my life I had only been in two fights. I knew that I couldn’t call the police because most of them were corrupt. The E88 members would be out within the hour, so not only would it jeopardize my anonymity by them knowing my face. They also wouldn’t get punished.
If it had been any other person in this alley, be it, man or women, they would have been either beaten to an inch of their life, shot, died or been raped. These men clearly weren’t good people and it was my duty as a soon to be vigilante to make sure that they would be off the street.
So after coming to a decision, I decided to rid the streets of their influence. I stomped on their knee joints and elbows with all of my strength. There was a sickening crack and the only way they would survive was if they received Panacea’s treatment.
But knowing her personality if they were to get an appointment with her, she probably would heal these criminals. If there was a chance that they would return to terrorize innocent people then I would have to remove the threat.
I held the guns and examined them. There was a silencer on one of them. This was probably given to the leader as the silencer cost as much as a normal pistol. I steeled my heart and methodically shot the E88 gangsters in the head. I reasoned that I was doing the world a favour by wiping out these scum and I left the alleyway immediately, pocketing the gun as I did so.
****************************************************************************************************
In front of me stood an old warehouse I had scouted out and decided would be a good testing site. I broke the rusty lock after analysing the weak and worn down sections with Presence. I entered and peeked my head cautiously inside. Presence had a range of 25 metres, that meant that I couldn’t sense anything after that range without using my natural senses.
I didn’t know if anyone was inside because the warehouse was larger than I expected. It was however abandoned as I had anticipated. The floor was made of broken concrete and gravel that was made when the owner must have removed the original machines. There was a row of small windows near the roof of the warehouse that were meant for clean air to come in but they were all broken.
All in all, it was a dump. But that meant that it probably wouldn’t be visited, which was good for me. I had decided that after the clash I had with the E88 members I would have to learn how to use my powers.
I could meet any gang member on the streets of Brockton Bay and that included capes. While I wouldn’t have any real trouble with most of the capes in Brockton, Lung, Armsmaster and Kaiser were examples of parahumans with much more experience than I. Experience was a large factor in the fight and I didn’t have much of it. While I did have incredibly strong powers at my base level I was only a normal human at the moment.
This meant that I wouldn’t be able to tank any blows from these kinds of capes. But that would change incredibly quickly.
At the moment, the cape that I really didn’t want to meet was Oni Lee. According to my memory, the ABB had recruited Bakuda already and that meant that Oni Lee was equipped with many bombs with many strong effects.
I currently have 3 strong powers. The first was the stand. It would be my primary power until I copied powers using Unlimited Shard Works.
Unlimited Shard Works had the potential to be the most powerful of my abilities but to balance it out meant that I would be rather weak in the beginning compared to the future. I could copy any power that I could see forever.
It meant that in theory, I could copy the Endbringers’ powers and perhaps even Scion’s himself.
That brought me back to why I chose to come to an abandoned warehouse. Here I would test my stand. I would learn how to combine my stand’s powers to amplify its offensive power.
I walked to a relatively flat spot on the ground and sat down in the lotus position. I closed my eyes and started aligning my breathing to my heartbeats. Once I achieved this I started to metaphorically search within my body for my powers.
I sat there for a few moments totally still. Inwardly I was commanding my stand to come out of hiding and assist me like it was willing to when I fought the gangsters. As I was willing my stand into existence, I “pulled” on my desire to hunt down the scum of this earth and punish them and felt something snap inside.
Before I knew it, in front of me was a tall humanoid figure floating a few centimetres off the ground. The stand was tall and muscular, with glowing white eyes and hair made of white flames. Its body was made up of a combination of fire, water and air constantly shifting.
I stood up and looked closely at him. I mentally commanded him to float to the right then to the left. The stand responded immediately before I had even finished thinking of my command. It felt like it was an extension of my hand.
I started out with the most basic test checking out his brute strength by making him hit various objects. It was straight-forward and simple, but it was effective. It first hit the wall and punched a hole through the plaster and wooden wall. The next thing it punched was a broken slab of granite that was lying on the floor. This time it only managed to make small cracks in the slab. However, its hand dispersed into flames after making impact before taking a few seconds to reform.
It appeared that it was able to damage granite however it cost my stand its physical shape. I commanded it to become granite using his elemental powers and try breaking the slab now. It punched the slab and this time there was a large boom and its fist created a small crater.
This was good, turning into solid and durable materials caused it to gain a brute factor. Combined with its ability to channel and become the elements allowed him to be incredibly strong as it could essentially tank most hits and regenerate.
Next was his speed. My stand floated off the ground and flew across the room and started doing some aerial tricks turning instantaneously. It was fast, not quite on the level of the Triumvirate but fast enough.
I felt no need to test its durability or regeneration factor as it was essentially an element so it could always become something sturdy and if that wasn’t enough then it would reform.
The next of his powers on the list, Razor hand. It was a power that manifested by creating long blades that sprouted from his fingers and allowed him to cut through molecules. Essentially they were the better version of Armsmaster’s Nano-thorn technology that he used against Leviathan.
I activated them and from the stand’s fingers ten 30 centimetre long blades sprouted. They were made of the element that was making up its hands.
I commanded it to slice the slab of granite that I had used earlier using its claws. They sliced through the granite-like a hot knife through butter. This was an incredibly deadly power but it wasn’t all that practical in group fights until I could combine it with other powers.
I decided that I would only use this power on the strongest threats I fought since they would probably be the ones that were either too arrogant to fight in a group or opponents where conventional methods wouldn’t be helpful.
I moved onto the next power, Pocket Room. I told the stand to open it up, once he did so I entered. Inside the pocket room was my costume and my swords. I had wondered where they were when I had made my way to the factory.
I would check them out later and looked around at the pocket room. It was in the shape of a cube, merely 3 metres in total. I sat down and controlled my stand from safety. I should have entered the pocket room in the beginning and it would have saved me the hassle of finding a good place to sit.
Now that I was safe I commanded it to put a small piece of concrete that was lying on the ground into the pocket dimension with me. It did so easily. I removed that rock and pushed it outside the space. Once again it left easily.
The action was so smooth. This time I tried to manually place the rock into the pocket dimension with my own hand but it appeared that I couldn’t. Only the stand could do so.
I left the stand and tried to test its range. I commanded it to move away from me to the other side of the factory. It did easily and I learnt that its range was truly long. The factory was at least 200 metres long. I had moved to the back of the factory while my stand was in front of the entrance with no problem.
It caused me to realize that despite being a stand it was also a Projection. This meant that I would have to test out how it differed from the normal Jojo stand to a Wormverse projection.
I moved onto the final power- Elemental. It was the stand’s strongest power. It allowed the stand to turn into a sentient element, that meant that it could turn into living air/wind, water or fire. It would also have improved strength in its chosen element’s environment (I.e water element would be amplified in the sea).
There was also the second trigger version of the power which allowed the stand to turn and create any material that was within a certain range. I decided that I would test out fire first. So to be safe I entered the pocket room first. Then I changed the stand into granite and reinforced the walls and ceiling with half a metre of granite to make sure that the fire wouldn’t burn down the warehouse.
Only then did I make the stand turn into its fire form and first started out small. It conjured a small flame that I morphed into a ball and then into a straight line. I slowly increased the flame’s heat and size. This continued for a few minutes. I then made it eject a wave of fire and instantly stopped it.
I continued to experiment with my powers for the next few hours and came to a few conclusions:
-I could only control the elements that my stand conjured at the moment. I would need to do further testing to understand if I could control the chosen environment of the element.
-I could generate an endless amount of my element when combined with Peak condition.
-The stand could dissolve into air and accompany me wherever I went.
-It could not be injured at all by conventional means.
-It could only create elements from its body, they couldn’t be conjured out of the surroundings.
-My Razor Hand could not extend with the ejection of the elements.
-I could not condense fire into solid objects. Air I could turn into simple shapes but each required me to constantly focus on the object.
While I could simply turn water into ice, it required a large amount of concentration and time and it would melt within a few minutes. Additionally, it wasn’t durable enough and shattered almost instantly when I hit it against a myriad of objects.
-The stand could accelerate and decelerate instantly with no buffer time.
-My stand could not enter my body like the Jojo stands, however, it could materialize partially by solidifying its limbs from air.
-My powers clashed with the pocket dimension. While I was inside it I couldn’t use Presence and had to rely on my normal senses. I also came up with the conclusion that I would have to see the power in-person to copy it. So while I was safe it also severely restricted my potential.
-My stand had to be within a 50-metre range of a material that wasn’t his original 3 in order to become the said object.
-The stand would be able to turn into a material and then create any amount of said material. It meant that once I amassed a large enough collection I wouldn’t have any shortage in resources.
After coming to these conclusions I went to the local supermarket and stole a pad of paper and some pens. The wonderful thing about having an invisible and intangible stand with a pocket dimension was that he could easily become a master thief.
I had simply walked through the shop and pretended to browse through some clothes while on the other side my stand simply took the pad and pens from the back of the stack.
I returned to the warehouse and wrote down my lists of goals. I was going to be a vigilante and a powerful one at that. I had to choose my targets according to my level of strength. I would start with the weakest gang of Brockton Bay and move onto the stronger ones until I removed all gang activity in the city before moving onto the rest.
I would copy the powers of each parahuman that I saw and I would do without limitations. I would have to copy Panacea’s power first. With Biokinesis I would be able to sense the thoughts and thus see and sense what the parahuman in question is able to. It would allow me to copy tinker, master or thinker powers.
It essentially let me bypass the main weakness that Unlimited Shard Works had. I would move onto the merchants after gaining my first copied power.
****************************************************************************************************
Hi everyone
I am attempting to write a Worm CYOA after reading so many different ones. I initially started writing this when I didn’t find enough villain main characters. So I decided to write my own.
I haven’t written in almost two years so I am rusty. I will gladly read and respond to your reviews and comments.
Now The SI will be an evil and ruthless bastard, because of Numbed emotions and the vigilante route. The shard grants him his powers and perks and thus also disadvantages. He will not make a gang or become a Hero because the shard mentally influences him to follow the vigilante path. These aspects of his character will not change.
Until next time...