First and only disclaimer about ownership: This is Fanfiction. So I am here just to have fun and to help improve my writing. I don't own any of the IPs here.
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Waking up with the largest migraine I think I had ever had was not the best start to the morning. My head throbbed and my vision swam. A large part of me wanted to go right back to sleep, but I shook myself. I needed to get up.
Work was not going to wait for me… I paused, what work? I couldn’t remember anything about my job, but I was sure that I had it. It was tiring and boring, but a man had to eat. Damn it, what the bloody hell is going on.
I paused, no… I was preparing for an operation. The men and I were going to join… someone.
Again, I paused, momentary, disjointed flashes of memory pounded through my head as I tried to make sense of it all before suddenly it all cut out. I suddenly realized that I needed to focus. My memories wouldn’t help here.
Looking down at my hands, I made them into fists. These were not my hands. Or at least I didn’t remember these hands. Yet that didn’t matter, bodies could change. What was more important was I didn’t even remember my name… Yeah, yeah, this was getting really bad when I couldn’t even remember my name.
Another moment of determination made me want to pick something, so I had some sort of identity at least. Frowning, I looked up at the sky before clenching my fist again. I would be Max, it was generic, but also memorable enough to work for now. As I focused, my mind focused on what I needed to do. I needed to find more information, get supplies, and make a plan.
Looking around the alley, I tried to spot anything that might explain what was going on. I noticed my clothes were average. Blue jeans and a V cut black T-shirt. Nothing to write home about there. Reaching down and fishing in my left pocket, I pull out a wallet, but no phone. Looking inside, there isn’t any ID, but there is about $300 in cash. That isn’t much to live on long term, but it would be enough to buy food short term at least.
Working myself up by pushing out along the wall took longer than I would like to admit and I was a little worried about being mugged, but after I exited the alley, looking both ways for any onlookers, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary on the road or the few pedestrians or cars going by. Taking a closer look I tried to determine if anyone was looking for me or paying me any special attention. Maybe my attacker or whatever had gotten me in this mess was still around. There were a few people and a couple cars, but no one seemed interested in me now that I was mostly upright.
If anything, people seemed to be avoiding looking at me. I glanced down at myself. I couldn’t see anything wrong with me looking down. Glancing at my reflection in the shop’s window showed a nondescript mostly white young man, maybe about 20 years old, with brown hair and blue eyes looking back. In fact I don’t think I could have looked more generic if I had tried. That either meant that this was a bad part of town where everyone avoided strangers, or there was something I hadn’t noticed that was making people shy away from me.
Still I needed to figure out what had happened to me. If there was someone still after me I needed to know so I could avoid them. First I needed to know where I was. I could remember that I was American… maybe. So let's hope I was still in America, I guess. It would suck to have to explain to a Canadian cop why I was across the border.
Walking down the street I didn’t see anything that would tell me where I was for nearly two full blocks. However, when I finally noticed a paper in front of a door and picked it up I nearly wished I hadn’t. In clear block letters at the top I read April 4th 2011. Next to that date I noticed Brockton Bay Times and I nearly collapsed there and then.
After a few moments of vertigo I bit my lip and tasted the copper pang of blood. Taking a deep breath I tried to figure out what I should do from here. I needed to confirm. I needed to look through this paper and confirm this wasn’t just some joke. Then I needed a plan. A good one. Damn IT.
Glancing into the store to make sure no one would notice the paper being stolen, I grabbed it and tucked it under my arm and started walking. I nearly turned into the side alley before realizing that it would make me look like I was guilty of something if I was found there. Best to act natural, nobody would care about the paper, but I needed to be careful until I knew what was going on. Instead, I kept walking while unfolding the paper trying to keep my face, posture, and gait calm and measured.
However, internally I was screaming. ‘Damn it! Damn it! DAMN IT!
I am in God Damn WORM!’
Trying to stop my inward spiral I looked around and finally noticed that a cafe was just opening up. Deciding that I needed a second to try to breath I slid into line and ordered a breakfast burrito with juice.
However, as soon as the waiter at the counter left with my order I was spiraling again. Opening the paper I read through the notices with as calm a face as I could make. However, internally I was screaming. What am I doing here? Taylor, god-damn queen of escalation, Hebert is going to go out and start her career in like a week by stopping Lung, a literal transforming rage dragon. Dinah, arguably one of fiction’s most powerful precogs, is going to be captured a few days later making Coil, the pedophilic super villain with a pseudo save-scumming ability nearly untouchable. Meanwhile, the mad bomber Bakuda is going to start putting bombs in people’s heads and a week later the city is going to start exploding.
Seriously, if I didn’t do something then this city would be a warzone in less than two weeks.
It was at that moment that I was interrupted. I took a deep breath and tried to smile while I picked up the orange juice and burrito from the tired looking waitress before heading towards a corner seat. Putting my food down I tried to eat calmly. However internally I was still panicking thinking of the story. All of that chaos before is just the warm up though. Absolutely nothing when combined with the fact that in a month and a half from now, Leviathan, the nearly unstoppable water controlling, 30 foot tall, monster, will hit and nearly sink the city. Then if that wasn’t bad enough, it is followed by the bloody slaughterhouse nine, literal murder hobos with tens of thousands of bodies to their names.
Eating slowly I tried to get my mind to stop spiraling and realize something was weird here. I could remember the story of worm fairly well, but all of my identity was just gone like someone erased it. A sudden chill passed through me and I looked around as subtly as I could. That was right. Cauldron, this world’s illuminati was very much real and very much willing to do anything for the proverbial “Greater Good”. Human experimentation, assassinations, blackmail and torture were a small subset of their crimes, all to try to stop the power granting entity god like being masquerading as a golden man named Scion. The question was, was I one of their failed human experiments in giving people powers?
No that didn’t make sense either, their failed experiments always ended with the subjects in question being somehow disfigured, completely naked, and amnesiac. My quick glance at the window to double-check my reflection confirmed that I still seemed fairly normal from what I could tell. Plus now that I was acting more normal the people around me also didn’t seem to be giving me any special attention.
Plus the Cauldron angle wouldn’t explain how I could remember the story of Worm just fine. The best Precogs in this world weren’t supposed to be able to see any info about Scion or the Endbringers.
It was only then that I realized that Cauldron were supposed to have an entire group of thinkers and precogs looking for people who would reveal their secrets plus one of the scariest battle precogs in literature. Were they going to find me and remove me now that I knew their secrets? I waited, glancing around furtively. After another minute, I slowly relaxed. Apparently, just thinking about Contessa and her group didn’t mean I got a bullet through my head from said portal using, boogie woman. That said, I probably shouldn’t even think about them whenever possible.
Getting up I threw away my trash before I walked towards the sun. I obviously didn’t know my way around town, but this town faced the east coast so heading towards the sun should lead me towards the boardwalk. The boardwalk was reported to be the safest part of town so it was best to stay there while I figured out my plan. The newspaper had already told me that it was a Monday so the boardwalk should be too busy either. Then again, I couldn’t remember if it was canon for the boardwalk to have their own security team called the enforcers or if that was fanon. Looking down I considered my clothes, but shook my head. I should look clean and organized enough to look like a normal tourist or college kid. If they started harassing me for loitering I could even buy something, but since I was already $6 down with that breakfast and I had no way of making more money it would have to be cheap.
Pushing away as many thoughts as I could I walked towards the sea and eventually found the boardwalk. It turns out I had ended up just a bit north of the actual boardwalk, but had managed to avoid ending up in the dangerous part of the docks based on the gang tags further along to the north. That was probably a good thing as I definitely didn’t want to end up in gang territory, especially since I couldn’t even remember whose territory it was. Even if I doubted that any gang bangers would be awake at what appeared to be about 7am on a weekday it wasn’t a good reason to risk it.
As I eyed the stores that were just now opening up I stuck my hands in my back pockets and paused. There was a piece of paper in my right back pocket I hadn’t noticed before. Pulling it out it looked like a note. Maybe this would give me a few answers. Looking around I found a bench next to the ocean that would ensure that I wouldn’t be interrupted or have anyone else reading over my shoulder.
Inside the letter I read the intro and immediately felt my eyebrow begin to twitch.
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Heyo~
This is your friendly neighborhood random omnipotent being. That is a bit of a mouth full so you can call me ROB for short.
So I might have accidentally severed your soul from your body when I passed through your universe. Oops. Well before I noticed your presence, I moved on. So bad news, I am not sure exactly where I picked you up from and to be honest I really don’t care since I am gonna continue my trip through these doomed realities. Such interesting places. As for you, well, I don’t really want to drag you around anymore so I left you here with a new body.
Well, while I wait the 3 seconds for your body to be created I might as well give you some info. This is a failed WORM reality where due to some extra stress and less support for Taylor and her friends (mostly from Cauldron screwing up) Taylor won’t save this local multiverse and everything ends. I can already hear you cursing me and Karma is a thing so I left you some power of your own. That way you can get yourself out if you want. You can thank me later.
Anyway, I made you a high level soul and dimension mage. (Yes those two things are intrinsically linked). No you don’t have the power to just leave by yourself yet so just listen. And yes, you can do pretty much anything from your fictions that you can imagine a soul mage doing, but you are going to have to figure out how.
Oh, wow… I can feel you bitching from here already.
Ok, fine, I will give you some basic instructions. First, you can bind people’s souls to yours. This will ensure they will always come back no matter what happens, even if you might need to get them a new body. You should also be able to take them with you when you jump to another world. Yes, this means you can bind people to you and make your own personal harem of beautiful women… or reverse harem of burly men if you wish, I don’t judge.
More relevant to this world. You will be able to modify any superpower with a soul or dimensional element and every power in this world counts for that.
On that note, as I was saying, this reality is doomed and you have about two years to get your ass out of dodge… or significantly less if you start pissing people off or screw things up even more. Good news is the surrounding realities are slightly less doomed, so you can head there if you want… I really don’t care regardless. Anyway, your new body is just about done and so I am going to stop writing now.
Good luck or whatever. Your friendly neighborhood ROB
1. Oh, I realized I never explained how to leave like I promised. It is simple and sorta the same process as binding one. You bond a soul to you by wrapping yours around it and enveloping it. Alternatively, to get more power in order to leave you “pop it” instead. It will empower you enough to open a portal to another world. However you won’t be able to hold all that power for long. A more powerful soul pop will let you go further so I recommend a cape for this first jump.
Anyhoo, that took longer than expected so I don’t think I will bother with giving you a background in this world. Again, good luck or whatever.
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As I finished reading the paper I had to bite back another string of curses. Slowly lowering the paper to my side I rubbed my forehead, but before I could read it again, the paper suddenly disappeared. Damn it… I wanted to rage, to stand up, to start throwing things. However, I think a part of me realized that this would be incredibly stupid. The last thing I needed was to draw attention to myself if I didn’t exist in this world.
Sitting back I tried to breathe deeply. It was time to pause, examine my situation, and think. I was in the death world Earth Bet with powers, but with no idea how to use them. That was better than nothing, but I was far from safe. The super powered people in this world were called capes and they were almost always press-ganged into one group or another. Again, the last thing I needed was attention… from anyone really.
Leaning back I stared into the sky as the sun started to crest above the ocean. A part of me really wanted to help save the world but this was god-damn Worm. If the letter was to be believed, Cauldron was going to actively harm any attempt to save the world. Yeah, most fan fiction I had read about Worm had Cauldron opposing the main characters trying to save the world just because it was different from their plans or simply because it was out of their control.
I wasn’t sure what this version of Cauldron would do, but I didn’t have much hope even if their powers weren’t somehow corrupted. Seriously, the cannon Contessa seemed to be following her power ‘path to victory’ that picked the most bloody and terrible way to achieve their goals. And this Contessa was apparently somehow just worse.
So yeah, best to leave some information with the heroes on how to save the world and let everyone else try once I was gone.
The question is who I should bring with me when I leave. Yeah, let's not beat around the bush. I knew myself. I had always liked the idea of a harem. The idea of a variety of women who all loved me, maybe even belonged to me was incredibly hot. A jealous part of me was nearly gitty at the idea. Especially if a few of them were bisexual enough to have threesomes.
On the flip side of that I also needed to pick whose soul I would pop for the power to leave. Ironically, that was perhaps an easier question. Coil, Lung, or Bakuda were all at the top of my list. Yeah some people might point out the literal Nazis in the town, but as disgusting as they were I was definitely going to target the torture loving pedophile, sex and human trafficking dragon, or civilian suicide bomber first. Those three crimes made normal racism, homophobia, and murder of most of the nazi capes look nearly mundane in comparison. Oh, I wouldn’t hesitate to pop them as the Nazis well, they were somehow not at the top of my list and that was saying something. Seriously, Fuck Nazis.
Sitting up I looked around. Now, how exactly do I practice with my abilities? Closing my eyes I turned around like I was just enjoying the sunlight which was now starting to hit my back. However inside I tried to feel out my soul.
Initially I felt nothing and I had a moment of panic that I didn't actually have powers. If I didn’t have powers I really was screwed since this world was apparently ending.
No, I couldn't think like that. I needed to just keep trying. Taking another deep breath I tried to relax and focus harder. Before long I lost track of time. However, slowly like opening a new eye and letting it get used to a bright light, I started to sense the world around me. That was good, but what exactly was I sensing here? I could sorta see the people around me, were those souls? Still that didn’t exactly help much.
Still, the ROB had said I was a dimensional mage. So I needed to figure out what I could do with that. I tried thinking about the surrounding space as hard as I could, but I couldn’t seem to get anything to change. Damn was I glad no one could tell what I was doing. Maybe if I tried to reach out with my body? What about if I reached out with my soul? But how the hell was I supposed to do that?
Once again I lost track of time. I probably sat for another 20 minutes before I started to notice something inside of me. In my chest going from around my belly button up to about my heart was a roughly round sphere. The edges rippled and flexed slightly as I thought about moving them. That was incredibly interesting and just a little creepy. Still something in me realized that this wasn’t normal so it was probably an aspect of my power. As I looked down trying to study it, that same instinct told me that most souls were supposed to be more like wells of power and awareness within them. My soul was different, it moved and flowed as I focused. Pulling on the edges I was able to pull some of my soul down my arm into my hand and I realized that I could even push it outside my body. However, the effort to keep pushing outward increased tremendously once it was outside my skin.
Another part of me seemed to instinctively know I could bind someone to me by encasing their soul in a layer of my own. That chain would then sink down inside and become a permanent part of them. That knowledge was strange as I couldn’t see how I would know that so it was probably a gift from ROB. However that same source also explained that if the connection was broken before I completed the encircling then all efforts to bind them would be reset. I could also tell already that the process would take my full concentration for perhaps hours at a time and so I would either have to subdue my target or convince them to stay still.
I suddenly froze. I was a soul mage. The ROB said I could do most things that soul mages in fiction did. That meant that I could make myself a lich. I leaned back and bit my lip. Yeah, I could sorta envision the process. I would have to pull my soul out and place it inside something stable and strong. Then that same ROB instinct seemed to be showing me how I could tie my soul back to my body to puppet it. That would make me a full blown lich as long as I could attach myself to another body even in soul form. And yeah, that same ROB instinct seemed to be showing me I could do that as well. The instincts seem to show that my body wouldn’t die or rot as long as part of my soul was still there. The question was how I was going to perform that remote control when stretching my soul was extremely difficult. That, unfortunately, was where my ROB given instincts really didn’t have a direct answer. I suspected that most soul mages leveraged their formalized magics. The same magic I didn’t have, so I wouldn’t have any of their unending stamina, magical prowess, or complete status effect immunity like they had in a few D&D rule books I vaguely remembered. Well, not yet at least. Still, there had to be a workaround, especially since I was apparently a dimensional mage as well.
So, yes, making myself into a lich was definitely on my to do list now. It would make sure I wouldn’t die and it would probably make it a LOT harder to control my mind and human control effects, usually called Masters here, were one of my worst fears.
Hell, I would probably also do it for all of my wives as well.
I paused, yeah, I might as well admit it. The moment that the ROB had implied I could have a harem, I was all for that. So I might as well call my companions, my wives. It wasn’t like I was a cruel person and I wasn’t about to enslave and rape every woman I saw. But I was self-aware enough to know that I was definitely possessive. I could tell already that I wanted to find a few women I could bind myself to. Then once they were mine I would never let them go. Especially since I was going to make sure we ended up immortal. So yeah, if I was going to go that far, I might as well think of them as my wives. Especially since I had every intention of treating them like queens.
I paused, but what about those who don’t deserve that? I hummed to myself, maybe I would consider keeping a few women who needed to redeem themselves as well. I sighed. Taking villains away and giving them a chance to improve was better than killing them, but maybe not by much. Something shifted… reaching up I rubbed the ridge of my nose. I would have to consider that more later.
The next question and technique I needed to explore was that dimensional comment left in the ROB’s note. It said I was a dimensional mage. It even said that I could modify the powers in this world. That would definitely be the lynch pin in this whole situation. I couldn’t have the shards of my wives’ powers reporting everything I did back to Scion or I would be slapped down before I could leave. Poking around in my soul didn’t seem to give me any ideas so I poked around outside myself. Moving my fingers with my soul inside them made me realize that I could feel something. I wiggled it around for several minutes before slowly, oh so slowly, I felt something like a small tear brushing my soul. Picking at it I could feel a little of the possibilities.
Still, learning how to use this power was not quick. I ended up taking a full hour in which I sat and pretended to read the newspaper while trying to open portals with my other hand under the table. As far as I could tell I could open a small portal to anywhere I could visualize. I could also tell that if I metaphorically reached deeper I could go further. The problem is when I grit my teeth I tried to reach as far as I could go, it felt like I was pushing against a magnet. The closer I got to my limit the harder it got. I could open hundreds of portals a few dozen feet long for the same effort of one ten times that length. Sighing I closed my fingers and thus the portal and shook out my hand. My upper limit seemed to be a few hundred feet at the moment but it was growing.
Sighing one last time, I got up and looked around. Sure enough there were already people walking up and down the boardwalk. I considered as I looked up and down the boardwalk. The first order of business was probably finding something to use as a phylactery for myself and my eventual future wives. Then there was the problem of how to protect and hide it. I paused and nearly facepalmed. I needed to hide my phylactery somewhere safe. Where safer than a pocket dimension? Pocket dimensions were definitely a thing here, a lot of tinker tech could make them so why couldn’t I? Still I would need to attach them to this reality somehow. I hummed. Maybe I should pick something common for now, like an abandoned house. Moving the attachment point should be extremely easy since it would be my soul’s power powering the pocket dimension instead of some sort of tech. Based on what I was just doing, I should be able to open a pocket dimension a hundred feet wide and power it indefinitely with nothing more than my soul. A thought crossed my mind and I grimaced. The ROB instincts seemed to be telling me that traveling between realities while maintaining a pocket dimension would be an order of magnitude harder and each person I took with me would increase that load further. I sighed. Well, that was unfortunate, but I would need to find a workaround for that as well.
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Getting up I looked up and down the street one more time. I had a rough plan now. It wasn’t fully flushed out, but it was best to get started. So, first things first. I needed something for a phylactery. A diamond, sapphire, or ruby would probably be best. Looking down the boardwalk I noticed a jewelry store a few stores down. I smiled to myself and walked in. I could see the bouncers eyeing me annoyed as I didn’t look like I had much money on me but in the end they didn’t say anything. It probably helped that I looked mostly Caucasian, maybe with a little something else mixed in, racism for the win I guess. Still, jokes on them since if it was a question of my wives or my safety vs stealing then I had every intention of stealing the gems.
Looking at some of the gems I winced. They were way out of my price range so it looked like buying things legally was already out unless I stole a whole lot of money. Each of my wives would need their own gems after all.
Looking around I blinked as I noticed a small E88 tattoo on the bouncer’s arm as he gave me another narrowed eyed stare. I turned away and shook my head slightly. Well, they hired Nazis here apparently, that just took all of my reservations away. Always good when a plan comes together, I guess.
Tamping down on my amusement, I needed to be smart about this though. I could scout now, but I didn’t want to take anything tonight. Maybe not even tomorrow night. They wouldn’t go through 12-36 hours of footage to take note of me. Unless they had a cape with a thinker rating I was just a random guy who just looked through the store, touching nothing, before leaving.
Still as I worked my way around the store I was disappointed to note the lack of large gems. I could tell already that powerful souls would need larger gems. My instincts also told me that souls grew when they gained more power. So the biggest gems would probably be best. That said, I was pretty sure I would just move my soul later like a hermit crab when I grew larger, but I didn’t want to. Those same instincts seemed to imply that moving my own soul to a gem would be extremely painful since I would have to be conscious the entire time, unlike my wives.
It was on my second search through the store that I spotted a large ruby on a necklace hanging in the back. On a whim I pushed my soul into my eyes and realized that I could tell it was real. Or at least a valid type of gem for a phylactery. It even had four smaller rubies on either side of the main one. The nine rubies were over an inch across the long edge of the oval and would be more than sufficient for my soul for now. Looking around I spotted a necklace with seven smaller sapphires as well and I smiled. These two would be more than sufficient for my wives unless I started picking up every woman around me. Plus it wasn’t like I couldn’t get a jeweler to add more gems if I needed them in the future either. Plus having us all inside gems together into a necklace like this would be a nice symbolic way of binding our souls together.
Walking out before I did anything stupid like bursting into chuckling while still inside the store I headed down the boardwalk and ducked into another store. Best to really sell the tourist angle for now.
However, internally I was already reviewing possible waifus. The ironic part to anyone who could have been listening to my thoughts was as much as I was about to build a harem, I wasn’t actually too concerned with their current face or body. There were many ways to adjust our physical bodies. Yeah, I was going to encourage them to have a nice hourglass figure with a perky butt you could bounce a coin off of, but I wasn’t going to be demanding specific sizes.
Instead I wanted women I would enjoy being around first and foremost. My ROB instincts told me that my soul would be able to subtly nudge their soul a bit since I was literally surrounding them, but that wouldn’t extend to obedience or even loyalty. At best my instincts implied maybe I could influence them slightly. I could look into finding ways of making them more trusting and loving and maybe a little more willing for threesomes within the group, but my instincts told me that controlling actual souls was hard without magic.
Still that was probably good, I had better things to do than kill a woman’s personality so I could have her body. I could easily find another woman with a similar body in the multiverse. What I needed to discriminate on was the girl’s personality since we would be literally bound together, potentially forever.
As I went into the third store I looked around before stiffening. Of all the things to cross the multiverse divide why did it have to be bed bath and beyond. I swiveled around at the overwhelming smells and colors and nearly tripped on myself as I turned around to go right back out. I couldn’t remember my name, but I could remember waiting in these stores being forced to smell awful mixtures while the women around me shopped. Never again!
The next store was a clothing store and I finally relaxed before continuing my thought process. In reality I could probably simplify it down to three emotional aspects I wanted in any potential wives. I loved a confident and powerful woman. Ironic, I know, since I was going to be arguably enslaving them since they wouldn’t be able to leave unless I let them after the binding was done. The second aspect I wanted was a desire to generally help people around them. Again ironic since I wasn’t going to be putting my life on the line to save this world. Then again, I wasn’t even in the top 100 most powerful people in this world and yet I was still going to do what I could before I left. Finally I wanted my wives to be smart. As I had already determined, while I would enjoy their physical looks, those could be changed, it was their intelligence that I couldn’t easily increase.
As I tried to find another set of clothes I considered the women from this story. Taylor, the main character of this story, was a hard Maybe. She was definitely smart. She was definitely powerful once she figured out her tricks, but better yet she used her smarts to make her even more powerful still. You could even consider her kind in her own way. Yeah, she was the queen of escalation, but she also started her career by fighting Lung to try to save some ‘kids’, yeah those kids turned out to be the Undersiders, a gang of teenage super villains, but the thought process still counted. The problem was the window to grab her was very small. If I waited until after she fought Lung then she would gain some confidence, but she would also be on Tattletale’s radar and thus Coil’s radar. Then I would also only have a couple days to intervene before Coil pointed them at the bank and she would be somewhat committed to their team.
Additionally that brought up Dinah Allcot the powerful precog who Coil would kidnap and pseudo-brainwash while the Undersiders robbed that bank. I couldn’t let Coil get Dinah or any hope of taking him down would be gone since, you know, precog. I took a breath, no, I needed to slow down and consider my options again.
On the one hand, I was tempted to grab Dinah as a future wife since her power was incredibly powerful. I didn’t know much about her, but she was powerful and moderately smart for was probably a preteen since she ensured her parents made it out alive despite being hunted by a supervillain with virtually no morals. However… while I didn’t know her exact age, she was young, maybe even preteen young, that made me feel like a pedophile for even considering her.
Yeah, I didn’t need to sleep with her to bind her to me, and a part of me absolutely rebelled at the idea of forcing any woman in any way. But by either context or her power she would realize that if she stayed with me long enough that was what would happen even if it took decades. I suspected that I could figure out how to remove people from the bond… eventually, but the idea made something in me clench in frustration.
I shook my head.
I didn’t have time for that, Plus, she was probably the one most likely to straight up ask to join me since her future was incredibly bad here on Earth Bet. I mean functional immortality in a caring harem was almost certainly better than being drugged out of your mind in a dungeon with rape and torture real possibilities in throw away timelines. Coil’s superpower was truly horrifying in that respect. Even after she got out she was still a pet oracle for whoever she was staying with at the time, often being manipulated by any number of people.
Similarly Lisa, AKA tattletale, was also a hard Maybe. She was moderately smart. Her ability was incredibly powerful out of combat and moderately useful inside of it. Being a super powered version of Sherlock Holmes was never not going to be useful. The question was if this version of her was a sociopath or not. Some of the fanfictions I had read made her out to be someone who cares about her friends. Trying to be Taylor’s friend since she saw her only slightly above suicidal. That would have hit hard since her trigger was missing her brother's suicide. On the other hand other authors had pointed out that she had pulled Taylor down with her and apparently didn’t care to look into Dinah’s situation until Taylor pushed the issue. I sighed and rubbed my eyes.
There was also the question of what she could get from me and what she would do with that information. If she saw me in a crowd and instantly knew all of my secrets and then either she or her shard decided I was too dangerous, that could be game over right there. Especially before I had my phylactery set up. Then again, she might also come to me willingly once she realized what I was offering and knowing what Coil was almost certainly doing to her in throw away timelines.
Sighing, I left that store without buying anything and headed down to the next store which had protectorate merchandise. Seeing the state sponsored superhero merch I winced. Those things were incredibly expensive. Obviously the heroes really were funded partially on merchandise if an Armsmaster shirt was $25. I looked up and down the rows. Nothing for the independent heroes like New Wave, how disappointing.
That brought up the three young girls in New Wave. Immediately, I winced as I thought of Amy, AKA Panacea. Her personality was pretty bad in most stories. Really, she was apparently a bitch, a dangerous bitch with her ability to control all biology around her except her own body. Still, I kind of wanted her for my harem since she was the perfect answer to the question of getting and fixing new bodies for us. Additionally her story in Worm was perhaps the saddest, yet most easily fixable one of the main cast. She needed to get out of what was obviously an abusive household. That wasn’t going to be easy, but it was something that needed to happen even if she didn’t come with me.
Still I really did want her with me. Without her power I would have to basically take over a body and strip out that person’s soul, essentially killing them, if I was killed or when I grew too old and needed a new body. That was to say nothing of the benefits to the harem like changing body proportions, removing gag reflexes, and increasing sensitivity.
However, I was more than happy to leave her behind if that was what she wanted. I wanted a girl like her, that tried their very best to be a hero. To do good. To have a happy ending. She could create a plague in a bathtub and adjust people’s brains like puddy. Yet she let herself be strung between her step sister unintentionally using her aura to make Amy attracted to her and her adoptive mother emotionally abusing her. Plus while her bedside manner was bitchy at best, she was still using most of her free time to heal everyone she could, slowly burning herself out. Really when you looked at it like that she had power, moderate kindness, and intelligence even if she couldn’t figure out how to get out from under her abusers. A perfect candidate for a waifu. Plus she likes women at least a little so that opened up further options for fun.
Vicky on the other hand was a little more difficult. She was reportedly hot headed and quick to judge, but she was also at least good enough of a person to try to help people with some decent power… even if she was reportedly kinda reckless with said power and not smart enough to realize what her mother was doing to Amy. So even if she was reportedly incredibly hot I was honestly tempted to exclude her outright. Still it would probably be better to play it by ear based on what Amy felt.
The biggest win in this story, however, would be Dragon. Despite being an AI, she apparently had enough of a body and soul in some stories that she could be given a physical form. If she could be bound to me then all future tech worlds would be instantly much, much easier.
If I was willing to think about women who were either partial villains or part of the PRT, then there were the seven other notable women in the series that were worth considering.
There was Squealer, a vehicle tinker with huge tits who could build incredibly tough yet invisible vehicles of nearly any shape or function. Problem was that she was currently addicted to so many drugs she probably didn’t know which way was up. So, while she would be useful, I didn’t really want to have to deal with all that unless I had a way to fix those issues.
There was Aisha, another young girl, maybe even a preteen and Brian’s younger brother. She was supposedly quite pretty. She would become an incredibly powerful stranger, able to make others forget she even existed when she wanted. She would also probably be thrilled to get out of this town being a black girl in a city filled with Nazis. However I doubted she was willing to leave her brother to join us. Her mother was also a crackhead and in some stories it causes her some minor behavior issues and might not mesh well with the other. Plus it would be another girl in the harem who would have to sit on the sidelines until she was much older. Not ideal.
There was Bad Canary, a human controlling master being transported to the max security prison, aka bird cage because in a fit of anger, she told her ex boyfriend to ‘screw himself’ and he mutilated himself. Despite being her first and only offense while other capes have multiple murders under their belt like Lung and Kaiser, she was being railroaded straight to the unescapable super max. Really, behind the scenes this was Cauldron’s fault again. In typical fashion, Cauldron was dumping her in prison where she very well might die to hold her for later instead of doing something intelligent like… well, just about anything else. So yes, saving her would be a good deed if nothing else.
I sighed. If I was going after pity cases despite the problems then there was Riley, currently Bonesaw. A brainwashed bio-tinker who was the world’s best surgeon as a preteen. She could do incredible good to the world and my harem, but she was gallivanting around with the slaughterhouse nine being literally brainwashed into torturing her way through America.
On the other side of the law there was Flechette, a cape that could hit any target with her crossbolts and while doing so, hit that same something in every possible dimension it existed. It was an incredible power able to damage even the endbringers and Scion himself. The problem was her personality. She was fairly judgemental when Taylor came to her after Leviathan hit because the PRT told her Taylor was a villain. Plus she was apparently a hard core lesbian which would make recruitment harder. Really, I didn’t mind a lesbian or two in my harem, especially to entertain each other and especially until I figured out how to control multiple bodies at once. The problem was that I would want to be able to sleep with all my wives occasionally and a pure lesbian would cause problems there. Then again, if I had Amy I suppose modifying my body to temporarily be a woman for a while was possible.
Looking at the PRT closer to home, there was Missy, AKA vista of the protectorate wards. I understood the idea behind what was the junior super hero team, especially with every shard in a parahuman wanting to encourage conflict, but the child soldier program still sickened me. Still objectively she was powerful and moderately smart. The problem was again, she was yet another preteen or around there and while she also had a terrible home life, she wasn’t actively being abused and she wanted to be a hero here.
I suppose I could also consider a few morally gray girls too. The first that came to mind was Kaiden Anders, AKA Purity. She was probably my last choice of potentially interesting women I would want around me. She was a reformed Nazi which was pretty much a nope right there, but she was powerful and smart enough to realize that being around Nazis was bad for her baby. Yeah that is a pretty low bar, but people in abusive relationships often don’t realize what is happening. The problem is she apparently wasn’t wise enough to straight up leave with her baby or at least let the protectorate know she wants to turn her life around so she is still being hunted as a Nazi cape despite trying to leave her past behind her. Additionally if I bound her to me I might eventually have to bind her daughter to me and that might get weird down the line once everyone was a lot older. Sleeping with the mother and daughter sounds kinky, but is kinda weird in reality.
My body paused as I had a crazy idea. What if I could somehow bind the damn Simurgh. A nearly unstoppable 15 foot nearly unbeatable precog and tinker. It would be basically a big fat “I WIN” button to the world. All I had to do was figure out if she had a soul, get close to her for a long period of time, maybe even multiple hours and hope she somehow can’t find my and my wives’ phylacteries either directly or via her corrupting mind attacks. I sighed and slowly wiped a hand down my face. Well, if the fanfiction idea where she is sentient enough to want to be free and can somehow break through Eidolon’s subconscious control long enough for me to bind her is true here, then I will do it. Otherwise I should just move on.
Moving out of the cape merchandise store I walked while looking for somewhere where I could get an early lunch. I wanted to sit down and think through my choices again. The first location I found on the boardwalk looked nice, but as I finally saw the sign I winced. The prices on the boardwalk were nearly half again what they were in town. Sighing I grabbed a single smoothie and sat on the benches while staring into the growing crowd.
I needed to think about what I wanted moving forward. I could save these women, but they would be bound to me in my harem. I couldn’t remember any past relationships, but I could tell the idea of managing multiple women would not be easy. Plus every woman I took with me would make it harder to actually leave this set of realities. If the ROB was right and all of the realities around this one were doomed, I wanted to get as far as possible away from here. That meant keeping it to a few I really wanted and those I could get something from.
I sighed as my immediate excitement over making a harem subsided. I needed to consider my options for the long term.
If I could get over my hang ups and figure out how to bind an AI respectively, Dinah and Dragon would be good choices in any universe. Really, as long as Dinah’s power could work at least a little and we could either figure out power delivery or a flesh body for Dragon then they would be good to go. Otherwise Dragon would be stuck in her phylactery for that world and Dinah would be a normal girl. Although thinking about it now, maybe Dragon could be inserted into a virtual connection like Cortana.
I sipped at the mango smoothie and looked up at the sky. Thanks to ROB I could envision how to use my dimensional powers so my girls could keep their shard-based powers from this world, but I had no idea where we would end up so how useful any particular person would be could vary considerably.
Going down my list I realized that I kinda needed Amy. I would have to push hard to get her. I wasn’t about to take someone who could kill me with a touch against her will, but I would be pushing hard.
I also really wanted Lisa as figuring out details in the worlds we visited would be extremely useful. I just needed to make sure she didn’t cause problems among the harem with her need to tease and heckle those around her.
When put like that, Amy and Lisa had powers that would almost always be useful.
Taylor was a toss up. If her father was as absent as he seemed, she would probably come along and while her power wasn’t overly flashy, she was an incredible battlefield strategist and multitasker. Plus I do like a woman with some nice legs and she apparently has taken up jogging for the last three months. Then if I could get her and Amy, then bio engineered bugs would be a nightmare to deal with for our enemies.
Setting down with the now empty cup I continued to watch the people walking past while thinking.
The next question is which of my possible wives to approach first. I needed to wait for a day or two before stealing the gems, so I was hesitant to be within touching distance of an angry Panacea or Taylor quite yet. Dragon was useless to try to bind until after I got rid of her AI restrictions. That left Dinah and Lisa. Dinah is going to be a bit of an issue as I don’t know what middle school she goes to.
I paused for a second there as the realization crossed my mind. Damn it, I really hope she goes to a middle school, otherwise I am going to be looking through an elementary school for what might end up being a future wife. I feel disgusting even if I am not going to have any interest in touching her until she is closer to 20. I mean I was pretty sure the age of consent is 16 here and that still feels too young. Something recoiled at the thought of finding a girl so young, but I didn’t have the luxury of being picky when I was in a world about to be destroyed.
Sighing, I went through my list again. Amy, Taylor, Lisa, Dinah and possibly Dragon, Vicky, and Missy if they want it and I can manage it. That meant that the only girls I would immediately be able to bring to bed would be Amy, Vicky, Lisa, and possibly Taylor. I can’t remember exactly, but I think Taylor was around 16 here.
I guess the question was how old I was. Looking at the window again I frowned. I had already determined I looked 20 but I didn’t actually know. I didn’t remember finishing college but did have vague memories of finishing high school so that might be accurate, but I kinda doubted I would ever know for sure when even the ROB didn’t know where I came from. I guess I would just claim 20 for now.
Damn it this is complicated and is kinda ruining the good mood of trying to pick up chicks. I chuckled as I threw away my cup and stood up. That was dumb thought even as a joke.
Walking out of the cafe shop I decide my best option is to find some pictures to be able to recognize people in this world. The best way to do that is probably going to be by looking up people online. Still kinda cringe to be cyber stalking my future wives, but needs must. Plus it isn’t like I am forcing them. A part of me relaxed ever so slightly there. Plus I need to keep in mind that it isn’t like the women aren’t getting something out of it as well. Immortality and the ability to travel worlds with friends and lovers isn’t exactly torture.
Sighing again I started asking around for a public library. Apparently the security guards weren't willing to answer, but one of the locals pointed up a road and a 3 block walk later I was sitting down at a computer. Well that wasn’t exactly true since I detoured to buy a burner cell phone which took another $40 from my stash. Then when I arrived I had to wait for someone to forget to log off from their account when they left the library since I couldn’t exactly get a library card while being essentially homeless. Waiting for said open computer took another hour so it was the early afternoon before I was ready to get started.
The first thing I did was get myself an email address. Then I signed up for the message board Parahumans Online, or PHO… yeah it was a dumb name. I was also not sure if people pronounced it FO like ‘Foe’ or like the word ‘Pho’, aka like the Vietnamese food. Regardless, some quick poking around got me photos of all of the local capes. As it turns out Amy has a decent body even if she hides it. Then again I do like the mousy bookworm style. Her sister Glory girl, AKA, Victoria Dallon is incredibly hot, but I am not about to force the issue between Vicky and Amy if they don’t want to be together.
On the other hand I can’t believe I forgot about Miss Militia and Battery. Well no, I can understand perfectly why I didn’t initially think of them. Battery is married to Assault and as much as I prefer a hot adult woman, I am not really into the whole NTR thing. Really stealing a woman away from an established healthy relationship is both scummy and will forever breed doubts because if she can pull away from him then she can leave you as well.
Miss Militia would actually be a good choice to join me. She would even get stronger if she was able to copy sci-fi weapons we come across in our travels. The ability to instantly copy a lightsaber or disintegration lazer would be incredible. The question is how I would contact her to talk when she is extremely loyal to the PRT. The only way I can think of for her to willingly join me is if I put it in terms of helping me save the world.
That made things tricky for the villains. Even if a growing part of me was starting to care a little less while staring at another picture of Vicky in her Glory Girl costume. Well no, it was a specific part of me that was doing the growing and a dark part of me made me smirk. I was pretty sure I could please any of them and Amy could assist me if any of my girls wanted more.
I hummed to myself, next to look up was the mayor and his family. I knew this might cause some red flags if anyone was monitoring these searches so I never searched for anything other than Mayor Christner and his family and what they were doing for the city. That actually took nearly 20 minutes but eventually I found him with a photo caption that showed Dinah about two years ago. She was a cute kid, dark brown hair and freckled a bit older than I had feared. Maybe about 13. I really couldn't see her attractive yet, but her mother looked good so she would eventually grow up.
I then looked up some of the other schools. I didn’t think it would throw any red flags when I searched for “Best schools in Brockton Bay”. After some time looking through Arcadia High where I am pretty sure I found the Boys in the Wards program next to Vicky and Amy, with Amy distinctly uncomfortable in her senior pictures, I turned my sight on Winslow High School. Man, while the website made the school look ok in the official photos, the social media posts I found by the students pointed to a very different picture. The school really was a hell hole in every sense of the word. Gang tags everywhere. Heck half the actual students were in gang colors.
It took a little longer, but I soon found Taylor in the background of one of Emma’s photos. Titling it “Helping the little introvert” didn’t make it much better, but at least she realized that putting evidence of her bullying online was a stupid idea. So she wasn’t stupid… just kinda evil.
Sighing, I looked at Taylor. She was also older than I thought, with some long dark brown wavy hair, but swimming in loose baggy clothes. Yet, while I could tell she wasn’t healthy or happy she did give off an inner strength. Or maybe that was what I was projecting because I knew what she would do. Yeah her actions weren’t all good in the traditional sense, but she never stopped fighting for her friends or city. I paused and looked again. No actually I could sorta tell. I realized that I had pushed my power into my eyes instinctively and I could get a bit of sense on her soul, not much, especially as I didn’t have much experience yet. That was further complicated because it was like looking through foggy glass. Obviously a picture didn’t exactly capture whatever I was seeing via soul vision or whatever very well.
I had a thought about my options. Holding my breath I closed all of those tabs and went back to searching for heroes and villains, but immediately my hopes were crushed. Dragon did not actually have a soul in each of her suits. Or at least not enough for me to tell. That meant that binding her would be much, much more complicated and likely not possible without a lot of setup finding her servers.
Finally, after some looking through some pictures of the villains in town I found Tattletale. She was fairly attractive with blond hair and a petite body, but I could tell immediately she was going to be a bit of a bitch until we came to an accord. I also realized that I had over estimated her age. I had thought she was closer to 19 or 20, but even in the photo I could tell she was younger, maybe 18 or 19.
Really the unwritten rules of leaving civilian personas alone was paper thin at best. I could already tell I would be able to narrow down her civilian persona to a few hundred people in town after only seeing her hair and mouth. I blinked. Yeah, apparently my previous self was familiar with software if my first thought was trying to figure out how to write some sort of program. The problem was the details were gone.
Sitting up I sighed and cracked my back. I had been here for nearly 3 hours and I could tell I would be the last one here if I stayed any longer. Best not to take that chance. Best to practice with my powers somewhere I won’t be noticed until it is time to steal the gems. Plus I would rather be on the other side of town when I stole them.
Turning away I walked up the street and bought a bus pass from a vending machine then hopped on the bus headed towards Arcadia. I didn’t know where I could set up and practice, but the obvious option was as far away from gang territory and Taylor’s bugs as possible, that meant getting closer to the school with all the heroes.
Along the way I found a McDonalds and got a double with bacon. Strange that seemed to have carried over so directly.
After a long evening of walking up and down houses I eventually found a house that was clearly abandoned. The grass was long, the paint old, and boarded up windows on the ground floor… It was perfect as a bolt hole for now.
After some testing I realized that I wasn’t good enough to make a portal wide enough for my entire body to walk into the house at once, but I could easily reach through and unlock the back door’s deadbolt and security latch. Then it was only a matter of getting my shoulder against the wood and pushing.
The interior was bad, but not actually as bad as I was expecting. Yeah, there wasn’t any water, electricity, or heat. There also weren't any sheets on the bed, but the fact there was a bed at all in the second bedroom was like heaven to my worn out body.
Now I just needed to practice my portals, get my gems, and figure out how to puppet my body. Then figure out how to get another body just in case the worst happens. Afterwards, figure out how to actually bind someone’s soul to mine. Finally figure out how to approach my future wives, get them into bed… hopefully by then it will be a better bed than this. Oh, and you know, figure out how to save the world as I left… then actually leave.
You know, just a few simple things.
Interlude Contessa:
Contessa stopped and tilted her head. That didn’t stop her from shooting three more cartel members in the head, of course.
From behind her she heard a curse. “Muerte, Puta!”
She didn’t ask her power for the translation, it didn’t matter, as she shot him and stepped to the side as he fell lifelessly to the ground in front of her.
Turning back to her path. Something in the main path to defeat Scion had changed. A new trigger, maybe? She couldn’t predict new triggers after all.
Her path was able to give her the exact steps to accomplish anything she wanted and even give her help in accomplishing those steps. Sometimes that path didn’t seem to make sense, destroying this cartel in Southern Mexico would leave a power vacuum, but it always did accomplish the goal. As she rounded the corner and shot through the door twice, hearing two bodies slump to the floor in the office beyond, she scoffed. Having their capes waiting in ambush was a stupid move when neither one of them were bulletproof.
Walking into the office, she grabbed a folder her power pointed to then called out. “Door to Cauldron.”
A door appeared in the center of the room and a part of her wondered why she needed to kill all of these men if she only needed some proof the Mexican President was getting some cartel kickbacks.
Sighing, she set herself a new path to clean herself and found herself walking towards the showers. Power assisted showers might seem excessive, but she always did feel the cleanest when she let her power handle it.
As she walked towards her shower, she considered the new trigger again. It seemed like it was contained within their warlord experiment in Brockton Bay. Well, she should probably leave that alone unless it starts affecting the path outside that city. Her power had been clear that the chaos there would be helpful for the overall plan. Good that they could continue to test what happened when regions were ruled by parahuman warlords on top of that.
Still as she stripped and stepped into the shower she sighed. Only 1316 more steps until they could kill Scion. She just had to follow the steps until there.