Armsmaster, if you will," the Director of the Brockton Bay branch of the PRT said with a barely restrained sigh. She was so over this shit.
"Of course, Director," The hero tinker Armsmaster replied and turned to his fellow heroes sitting around the table, all showing signs of tiredness, Assault not even hiding his yawns. "I am sure you all are curious as to why you were called so early in the morning. I am afraid to inform you that the following news will not be pleasant in the slightest."
That got the interest of all those present; all of the Wards were except Vista. Similarly, all of Brockton's heroes were there.
Armsmaster did not delay and quickly began the report, which he compiled in less than 27 minutes, his face grave. "As of 6 hours and 31 minutes earlier, 13 February 2011, there has been a breach at Brockton Waters Correctional Center, in other words, a prison escape. However, this was no ordinary attempt at escaping. No, a Parahuman Trigger Event likely occurred which resulted in the breach"
Many expressions changed to that.
"And that moved the responsibility of the situation to us" Assault nodded "But I don't understand why you just had to call everybody for this"
He wasn't cracking any jokes, Armsmaster noted "That is due to what transpired after the Trigger Event likely happened. We luckily have a videotape from the facility, Director?"
Armsmaster not so subtly tilted his head to the Wards.
"Let them see it; better they know what we are dealing with here than meet it out there unprepared," Director Piggot said with a stoic expression that barely concealed her unease. Even she was a bit affected by the loss of life that happened, prisoners or not.
"Very well, I would warn regardless that the following video contains violence and gore, so prepare yourself," He said seriously, his eyes roaming over the room, noticing the curiosity and wariness some had.
With a click of a button, the screen behind Armsmaster lit up to show multiple camera angles monitoring a standard prison cafeteria, various inmates in orange clothing chatting or eating, and a multitude of guards stationed at different positions. It was a surprisingly peaceful view, at least it was before 2 big white guys got up from their group and moved toward a quiet guy sitting alone.
Their allegiance was rather obvious by the large Swtsika tattoo on the neck of one of them. Further confirmed by the fact the guy they approached was brown.
"John Blackthorne and Matthew Smith, one charged with assault while the other with insurance fraud," Armsmaster said about the two white guys then continued "At 5:44 pm yesterday, the two approached one Michael James Duncan, age 29, arrested for involuntary Manslaughter, he had 3 months of jail time left before the incident occurred."
Velocity sighed at the scene, and Armsmaster found himself agreeing to it, anyone could imagine what would happen next. Quickly, the white guys exchanged some words with the brown man before one of the two lunged and shanked the poor man 6 times in succession to the stomach.
A large hysteria fell on the cafeteria once everyone around registered what just happened; the guards cut through the chaos, some apprehended the two white men, some others ordered the prisoners to lie down, while a select few moved quickly to stabilize the dying Micheal.
Just as they were taking him away thought it happened. Armsmaster zoomed at his face.
Micheal screamed; the pain in his voice could be heard even though those present could not actually hear him, his eyes teary. Suddenly, black Armor started to form around Micheal's fallen form at the same time that wicked, shadowy beasts formed out of thin air; they seemed to have no physical property as the creatures launched themselves at everything around them.
The floor,, the ceiling, the walls, the guards, The prisoners. Anything touched by the crazed shadow beasts began to rapidly decay and corrode as if hazardous acid were poured into it. The inorganic dissolved quickly, very very quickly, and the humans fared no better. Those who died instantly were lucky.
Armsmaster paused the video feed and continued his report to his horrified colleagues: "The shadows created by Michael have approximately killed 5 guards and 19 prisoners in the first 30 seconds of their creation and maimed many others. The total causality rate remains unknown. However, I estimate the number to be anywhere between 71 to 90."
"The cameras stopped operating as well as the building electricity after the shadows melted nearly the entire left section of the Facility reaping many lives in the process."
"Witness testimony from civilians near the jail led us to believe that the shadows could be nonlethal as they were confirmed to simply stick to walls while moving. Some were also seen carrying Micheal away ergo the 'prison escape'."
"Currently, we have no idea where Micheal is since the shadows disappeared Soon after. Director?"
"Thank you, Armsmaster, given that the shadow beasts created by Micheal James Duncan appear Autonomous with an extreme degree of danger, I have decided to give him the threat rating of Master 8. We are not certain if Micheal intended harm to his surroundings and those around him so our strategy for an encounter would be to talk to him first and attempt to de-escalate as much as possible." Piggot said in succession "Miss Militia will address the public soon about this incident. Furthermore,
we have decided on the Cape name Erubus."
...
I felt like waking up from a deep slumber as I raised my head in a manner all too familiar after what? 4 times already. Yes 4 times, A song of Ice and Fire, Invincible, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Shogun, and Shadow Slave. God gracious I am already over a 120 years old.
My eyes moved around the moment they open searching for any and every hidden threat possible. It seemed I am in some sort of abandoned house. I quickly got up, my Demigod body moving over without a hinge to this new reality.
I begin to inspect myself at the same time I am skimming over the memories of whomever I reincarnated into this time. I wasn't worried about taking over the body of someone as I learned in my second life that I only get to the bodies of the recently deceased, my conversation with the Ancient One further confirming this.
Only I come to a stop at what happened after this guy died and that was... troubling.
"Damn it, I was out of consciousness while my powers was not" This was not the first time this has happened but it was the first time I directly killed someone like this and from those memories, I killed a lot of someones.
"This is going to be problematic" especially considering the other information I could gleam from the memories "Worm..."
Taylor Herbert, Skitter, The Procterat, Cauldron, Slaughter House 9, Endbringers, Space Worm Scion. All and all, it was a shithole that I had no interest in being in. Too bad my power do not care about I would prefer, if it had I wouldn't have been dumbed in Invincible after all.
"There is no use to think about this immediately, first of all I need something to eat, then let's come up with something"
I prepare myself silently before my body stars to twist onto itself as my skin tone brighten, my eye color change a deep blue, nose slightly shift, my hight diminish, while I broaden with muscles. The ability to change my appearance will forever be one of my favorites.
I tear away the prison garbs on me and leave the house naked, nudity was never a concern of mine, I have been throught worse, way way way damn worse. It's not as if I will be walking around like this anyway.
With a thought I transform into a shadow and glide at the speed of a train towards a clothing store Micheal used to know. My powers were quite versatile. It appeared I was out for while this is already next day noon.
The power of a Lord of Mysteries Demigod, specificly, a Black Knight, to be short, this allows me to transform evil thoughts into shadows, become a shadow, have access to flesh and blood magic, supernatural senses, knowledge of various ritualistic magics, the ability to obliterate souls, and the power to graze souls allowing me to me to host up to 7 souls of those I killed which in turn let me use of some of their abilities.
I doubt grazing would work in Worm though, given that powers here do not directly related to souls. It doesn't really matter thought, I already have my seven souls that are sufficiently powerful.
My second power are my knowledge of the creation of perfected blood vials from blood born, essentially health potions. I also have all the powers of the number 2 upper demon from demon slayer without any of the bullshit drawbacks. Except the need to eat flesh, I don't have to do it but my regeneration would only work if I did.
I also have cursed energy and the powers of that guy Mechamaro though I haven't used that since Invincible to deal with those troublesome Viltrumites. However, it might be of use here.
Frankly speaking, I don't think I am overpowered enough especially for a setting like Worm but hey I am getting there.
Soon...soon I will be much more dangerous than a Demigod and someday in the future a God. The Hanged Man is a cool title for a Deity now that I think about it.
'That still in the future however' I think to myself as I sneak into the store as a shadow, I have gotten pretty good at sneaking around as time went bye, it was necessaty more than anything, being able to become an intaginable shadow only bolstered my sneaking skills.
I Couldn't actually see or hear at shadow state, not normally at least, everything was muted and distanced that I would only hear a whisper even if someone screen next to me. But at this point I am rather used to it.
Returning to human form and puting on some clothes went swiftly and more importantly quietly, the store was decently big enought that I only needed to hide behind a wall to dress.
Turning to shadow once again I leave the store fully clothed, I would pay the owner back eventually. Now however, food.
Finding a restaurant was again quite simple, having access to Micheal's memories I didn't take much time to arrive at a famous restaurant downtown. Granted I had no money to buy food but I would pay them back in the future I swear.
The clothe I 'Borrowed' were quite fancy, and I carried myself confidently thanks to experience more than anything, so when I saluted the receptionist, I got a good response "Hello there, I would like to have some lunch, can I come in."
What? I am not used to speak with ordinary people.
She looked at me up and down so fast I almost missed it and said "We normally require a reservation but I'll see what I can for a gentleman like yourself"
"Thank you, my lady" I smiled brightly, trying to appear friendly, and it seemed I was succeeding taken her next words into account.
"Name sir?" She asked as she typed into her outdated computer, they needed to type to allow me in? Were they always doing that? By the gods I have gotten so old I don't even remember what it was like on earth. In both Invincible and Marvel, I had been too busy to dine anywhere.
"Tristan, Tristan Cobalt" I told her my second name, the name I am most attached to "Why do you need to ask Lady... Jennifer?"
I was just messing around at this point, I wasn't that ignorant of my situation.
She raised an eyebrow at me "Just standard process, but oh my, my lady? I would think you are flirting with me Sir Tristan"
I Chuckled before replying "It's nothing, I just have a poetic soul, you wouldn't believe this but I think I used to be an Emperor in past live. That's how I picked up that time's way of speech."
I winked at her playfully. I was not a playful person in truth but then again pretending can be amusing at times.
...