The result was immediate as the man dropped to the ground screaming in agony and Sophia took the chance to drop down to the street in her shadow form, approaching the woman who was backed up against the alleyway wall, clutching her bleeding face. Sophia sneered slightly, the bitch didn't look like she had even tried to fight back.
Sophia didn't let her disdain creep into her voice. Heroes had to sound heroic, even if they thought the people they were helping were pathetic, "Are you okay?"
As the woman started blubbering and whimpering her thanks, Sophia amended her thought.
'Especially if the people are pathetic. Get a fucking grip, he wasn't even armed.'
She decided to just push through, "Do you have a phone? You should call the police, get them to haul this fucker away." The woman nodded frantically and began digging around in her handbag while Sophia approached the downed man, unable to help but gloat, "Big man. Not so tough now, huh?"
The thug remained still and as the woman called for the police, Sophia drew closer as she felt a twinge of concern. He wasn't dead was he? Drawing closer, Sophia kicked lightly at the man's prone body, "Get up you bitch, I only hit you in the shoulder."
When the man didn't respond, Sophia sighed and carefully knelt down to check on him and use the zip-ties she had bought from the store.
Her fingertips were feeling hot again as she grasped his shoulder, ready for anything, when suddenly he span on the ground and lashed out with his free hand, a taser in his hand.
Sophia turned to shadow and jumped back, but it was too late. The taser tips brushed against the gaseous form of Sophia and instantly the girls senses became pain as she landed with a scream, re-solidifying as she rolled in agony. Tears sprang unbidden as she gritted her teeth to stifle more screams as the thug recovered.
"Heh, gonna fuck you up now, and then I'm gonna take care of you, you slut." He was slow in getting up, the arrow was still in his shoulder and he wasn't willing to try and pull it out but that didn't mean anything as Sophia sucked in desperate breaths and tried to get control over her body. The crawling sensation was back and her fingertips felt like they were on fire.
But as she writhed, Sophia's eyes were locked onto the approaching thug as more tears managed to escape. Her first night out, her one chance to prove herself as being strong, and now she was going to die. It wasn't fair!
She wanted to live! She tried to move, get her stunned body to attack, defend, anything to fight off what she knew was coming.
'Dammit! Move! I'm not going down like this!'
Sophia glared as she felt her burning-hot fingers twitch, then flex as Sophia felt something shift painfully inside her fingers but she could barely feel it on top of the pain that was already in her system. But as she glared, Sophia could feel control returning to her limbs as she managed to ball her fist and get ready for one last strike.
'If I'm going down, I'm going to make sure you remember it!'
He knelt, taser in his hand, "Gonna have some fun with you, brat, and then I'm going to make sure you and your little Halloween getup get tossed out in the trash where you be-"
Sophia's hand had launched up in a fist intending to punch the guy, but a new, alien, impulse told her to unfurl her hand and aim lower. There was a sensation of something popping in her fingers, and then Sophia's vision was covered in something dark, hot and sticky just as the woman screamed.
'What...what happened?'
Wiping at her mask, Sophia coughed as she tasted something hot and coppery in her mouth, before she scrubbed at the plastic lenses on her hockey mask to clear them of the...of the...
"What the fuck...?" Sophia stared at her hand in the moonlight shining down through the clouds as the woman's screams faded into whimpers.
More specifically Sophia stared at the long claws that had somehow burst through her gloves, stained with something dark and wet that dripped off them.
Then she smelt it and her eyes widened as she placed just what was on her hand.
Blood. There was blood on her hand...no, her hands, both of them. It was all over her mask, her suit and pool all over the ground near...
Sophia valiantly suppressed the urge to retch as she looked at the corpse of the man that had been attacking the woman behind her and then attacked her. The corpse that still had one of her arrows in his shoulder even as blood sluggishly leaked from the large, ugly slashes in his neck.
"Shit." Sophia whispered as she grabbed the arrow, turned shadow, and pulled it out. As she did, her eyes noticed the way those long claws on her other hand looked much more solid than the rest of her body as she transformed back. She was still staring at her claw when she heard the woman shift and turned.
The woman was staring at the body, eyes wide, "Is..." She swallowed, "Is he...?"
Sophia nodded, "Yeah. He's dead. Sorry."
The woman shook her head, "N-no, it's fine. More than fine. He...he was going to kill me, if you hadn't arrived. Would have killed you as well, you did what you had to do."
'Yeah...that's right. I did what I had to do, right? Strong don't grieve for the weak, he certainly wouldn't have. I turned the tables on him, and I came out the victor. I was the stronger one.'
Sophia turned back to the body, "I have to go. Did you...?"
The woman nodded, although Sophia didn't see, "Yeah, I called the cops. Listen...I'll cover for you. You saved my life, so I owe you."
Sophia didn't say a word. She merely nodded, turned to shadow, and began climbing back up onto the rooftops. As she climbed, the woman noticed the small gouges in the wall as the sound of police sirens echoed in the distance.
As the police arrived and the woman remained true to her word and spun a different story, Sophia landed on a roof near her block, solidifying as yanked off her mask and threw up behind an air-conditioning unit. As she emptied her stomach, the girl felt her new claws cutting easily through the metal of the air-conditioner and she brought up her other hand, staring at it.
"How...how the fuck did that happen?" Scrubbing away tears, Sophia looked at her other hand, "How do I have claws? Did I...did I gain more powers?"
She looked at her other hand and tried to imagine claws coming out of her fingers, intently watching to see if anything would happen. She was about give up after a few minutes when she felt something shift in her palm, running down her fingers as they began to feel hotter until Sophia had to grit her teeth as the heat turned painful.
Suddenly, with a series of wet pops and the tearing of nylon and leather, a set of long black claws punched through her gloves and Sophia jerked back with a shriek to fall on her backside.
Staring wide-eyed at the inches-long claws that had clearly come out of her fucking fingers, Sophia slowly managed to get her rapid, nearly hyper-ventilating, breathing under control as she carefully curled her fingers and watched how the moonlight shone on them. Finally, she tentatively smiled.
"Fucking cool."
A Bet On Bet
(Автор: Slayer Anderson)
Worm CYOA — A Bet on Bet.?
1.0?
I frowned at the screen.
"Do you want to play a game?" I read aloud to myself, raising an eyebrow slowly.
I looked the private message over again, contemplating what it could mean. I looked at the tag on the sender's profile and chewed my lip thoughtfully. This was about as obvious as I'd ever heard one being, but...
"Quoting WarGames or paraphrasing Saw?" I replied, buying me time to think.
Unfortunately, the reply came only a second later, far too fast for a mere human set of hands to have typed the block of text sitting in front of me. "WarGames, of course," I muttered, reading the post once again. Ah, the perks of being able to talk aloud to yourself without being overheard. It made brainstorming really easy, at least.
"I have some class," I continued, my lips quirking fractionally. "But you didn't answer my question, and I know you're stalling for time. I've always found games are more interesting with people who actually desire to play. Others have found forcing individuals to be entertaining, but having a willing participant tends to cut out a great deal of (w)angst. So, to reiterate the question, do you want to play a game?"
I leaned back, staring at the monitor for a long moment, the cursor blinking ominously.
"What system?" I eventually replied, wondering if this would contractually obligate tacit approval.
"Worm, CYOA," came the immediate reply and I rubbed thoughtfully at my chin considering the rest of the post. "You'd generate a character from the list of abilities, perks, complications, and companions. It's all the rage right now, after all. Should I take that as a 'yes'?"
Worm.
Oh boy.
The saving grace was that the proposal included the 'create your own adventure' module that had been floating around for the past few weeks. I...tended to ignore those types of things as a rule, but the Worm community, being as it is, had dragged me into it. It was the reason I'd gotten a Spacebattles account, the reason I'd opened one of Sufficient Velocity, Questionable Questing too. Even though I'd written pieces of various things for other authors in the fandom, I've yet to actually post something of pseudo-original content to one of the boards...at least, not for Worm.
Knowing me, it would probably end up being an SI, given the recent kick I'd been on.
"I blame you for this, Biigoh, I want you to know that," I sighed quietly. The tanuki had originally invited me to Spacebattles, so this was his fault right? I rolled my eyes at my thought process and refocused my dwindling attention span.
"...and this is all my choice, right? No penalties for refusing to play? No punishment games or being tossed into a hellworld, right?" I asked.
Of course, there was always the chance that this wasn't what I thought it was. But, really, there wasn't any reason not to treat it as real. If it turned out to be some trolling computer hacking, the most I'd suffer would be a few minutes' embarrassment.
"None whatsoever. Aschente?"
I wonder if that meant what it implied.
"Aschente." I agreed, grinning widely, and posted my reply.
"Excellent. Now, what level of difficulty do you desire?" He'd posted the standard settings and I swallowed. This was the largest deciding factor in the game, really. The one that could make or break my chance at 'victory.' I snorted, shaking my head. There was only one obvious choice.
"World-Breaker," I entered.
There was a few moments' pause this time between replies.
"I was afraid you'd pick that," without even hearing him actually say his reply, I could understand a defeated tone in the text. "I so had hoped you would make this interesting."
I scowled, feeling insulted.
"Games are called Games for a reason," I replied. "They're fun. If they're not fun, then you're just dealing with real life. Easy-mode doesn't mean it won't be fun, or that I can't make things interesting. Give me a chance to make my case, why don't you? Once you see my theoretical build, we can talk about any changes."
Another slight pause.
"Alright then, impress me," he challenged. I could imagine a slightly haughty undertone to his voice.
"You asked for it," I muttered, leaning over my keyboard aggressively and moving the CYOA pdf to my other screen. I licked my lips for a moment and wondered if I really had it in me to be this batshit insane. Would he go for it?
Minutes passed as I carefully typed out the remainder of my choices, then added another few hundred words on the various choices, why I'd made them, and what I intended to take as a plan of action. Of course, I also noted abilities that I hadn't picked, and why, letting my...game master, I suppose would be the best term...letting him see that I had actually applied some level of consideration to the whole thing.
There was another pause, this one the longest of the bunch.
Then I flinched as I heard laughter from my computer's speakers.
"Oh," the voice groaned, his hysterical giggles finally dying down. "Oh yes, I haven't laughed like that in ages...that's the terrible part of being the head hauncho around my neck of the woods: no one has a sense of humor. But you! I like you...and I think I'll agree to your proposal. Heck, I'll even overlook that one perk you wanted that isn't something you should be able to pick, okay?"
I swallowed, more deeply unnerved than I perhaps should have been over the entire affair. Still, though, it was another point in favor of my theory, that this was who I thought it was...and 'what' I thought it was, too, for that matter.
I cleared my throat and, took a moment to gather my words. "That's it then? You'll approve the entire list?"
"Surprising, isn't it? But, you're right to be wary. Here's the catch," the voice from my speakers explained as I listened. It was, more or less, a bet. The stakes were higher, but...it basically amounted to the fact that the more I deviated from, the more...my GM would throw complications my way.
I could immediately see how bad that could get if I just got tired of fucking around and took the bull by the horns. If I went too far...
"...okay," I nodded. "I agree."
I didn't allow myself to think about what happened if I fucked up. After all, this was Worm we were talking about. Scion's rampage would kill hundreds of billions if it got to that point.
...and that wasn't taking into account what else I'd stipulated.
"Good, excellent!" The voice had a grin in it now. "Any other questions?"
"What happens if I lose?" I couldn't stop myself from asking.
"...hmm, I think I'll keep that a secret," the reply came teasingly. "After all, you're holding so many cards already, it wouldn't do to let you have the whole deck. Are you ready?"
I sighed and looked around my room. My nice, safe room in a first-world country where I didn't really want for much. I had life, a measure of liberty, and pursuit of property with the possibility of the singularity occurring before my meat-body finally gave out and I died. Was I really so insane as to jump into something like this out of sheer boredom?
"Hit me with your best shot," I said, before I could convince myself to be a coward.
* * *
1.0(1)?
When I came to, things were...different.
It only took me a fraction of a second to assess my new 'powers.' I hesitated for a moment, then started to bring up my theoretical plan. If this was the start point I'd mentioned...hmm, how best to go about this then? Flexing my new metaphysical muscles, I focused and...
