99The various fictional worlds, characters and elements that are written about in this fanfiction belong to their various creators, who I'm too lazy to list. This is purely a fan work and not intended to generate any sort of profit. I know that if it does a fair number of bloodthirsty lawyers are likely to make my life miserable. As always constructive criticism is welcome and flames will be ignored.
Well, here's the latest chapter and my character making his debut in the Worm verse. As things stand the next chapter will probably be about how the world in general will react to what's happened in this chapter, so any suggestions would be most welcomed.
SPOILERS.
I decided to go for fixing Japan because it struck me as the sort of thing that I'd do if I were in that situation. Several people suggested that my character could try terraforming the moon, but when I though about what I would do I decided I'd start a bit closer to home before I undertook such an ambitious course of action.
Besides, fixing up Japan means a fresh source of Manga and Anime, and that's something I'd definitely be interested in even if I was a three story tall giant with nigh godly powers. I think I might write an Omake where my character cosplays just for a laugh.
Play it My Way: Chapter Four
Anime is something I'm quite fond of. Its funny in a way, one of my earliest memories was watching an episode of Mazinger Z back when I was only two years old, that and Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends were the first cartoons I could remember seeing.
Later, when my family moved back to England, I lost touch with anime since there was so little of it to be had, it became just a distant and fond memory of a style of cartoons that I hadn't really had a name for. It hadn't been until a holiday to Mexico when I was thirteen years old that I realized that the giant robot that was one of my childhood heroes was actually part of a larger genre.
Ranma ½, Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo, my little trip introduced me to so many series that I found amusing and continued to follow when I returned to my home country. Actually, now that I think about it, if it hadn't been for anime I wouldn't currently be a twenty five foot tall inhuman engine of destruction. Since it had been following anime that had introduced me to the concept of fanfiction, and it had been fanfiction that had led me to the Worm CYOA, if I'd never gotten back into anime then I'd probably still be safe at home.
Well, whatever. The point is that anime links to some fairly significant memories in my life, enough that I would say it's somewhat important to me. As such it was hardly a surprise that I'd come to somewhat admire the culture that had given rise to such a well loved entertainment type. I'd made a few plans to take a holiday there, though it had been hampered by a lack of funds and my own rather abysmal attempts to learn Japanese. Japan was somewhere I liked.
It was . . . odd to perceive it as it was now.
When you looked at it on a computer screen the description of the Kyushu disaster didn't seem that bad, not when you went by cold unfeeling numbers. Nine and a half million victims in the initial attack, three million refuges homeless afterwards, a terrible loss, but not devastating when measured against the total one hundred and twenty seven million population of Japan.
However the description didn't convey the nuisances of the situation, the details. It was more than six years since Leviathan had attacked, and the once fertile agricultural areas were still barren from the devastation inflicted upon them and the salt water that had tainted the soil. Both of the nuclear power station on Kyushu itself had been broken open, and the radioactive contamination spread across much of the island. Further damage had been done to the two nearest nuclear stations on Honshu and Shikoku, and though they'd been able to avoid the kind of contamination their sister isle had suffered what had escaped had only made things worse. From my vantage point miles above the Psychokinetic power let me 'see' the ugly stain of radioactive material across the island as clear as a scar on a victims face.
The rest of the nation had survived, but I could guess what had happened. The loss of the island and so many upon it would have been a devastating blow to national morale. Then there would have been the sudden influx of destitute refugees which would have further taxed the reeling country. With foreign business falling off as people sought more stable suppliers the economy would already have been shaky, a fact that the in pour of destitute and penniless and thing would tank even faster. Throw in a few mad parahumans emerging in the aftermath, like Black Kaze, as a final blow and you could understand why the once prosperous nation had come to be regarded as a sinking ship.
Japan was by no means abandoned, but it was broken.
Time to see if I could do anything about it.
-()-
The eighteenth of June 2005 was a date that would be etched into history.
The first signs that anything out of the ordinary was happening came in the early morning, just after sunrise. The call, delivered to one of the few remaining settlements on the largely abandoned island, came from Iwashiro Eiichiro, and as such was largely ignored. The man in question was a somewhat deranged survivalist that had set up a camp on the southern coast of Kyushu where Shibushi Port had once been and somehow managed to survive despite the low levels of radiation, contaminated waters and barren lands. The generally accepted belief was that he was a low level parahuman, one that had triggered in the wake of the Kyushu Disaster.
Most people that knew of his existence regarded him as a sort of hermit. He lived out in the wastes and apparently owned an inordinate amount of weaponry ranging from hand guns to portable anti-aircraft missile launchers. Though technically illegal as long as he didn't cause any kind of disturbance or trouble the local authorities were more than happy to ignore him and focus on one of their plethora of other concerns.
The thing was that Eiichiro was absolutely convinced that the Endbringers would one day return to finish Kyushu off, and he was prepared to fight them when they did. Most others that spent any time with him got the impression that he was a resourceful, dedicated and sadly deluded man who's mind had been somewhat fractured by the terrible things he been forced to see and endure after Leviathan's attack. On several occasions he'd contacted them, utterly convinced that the Simurgh was drawing close. Later investigation had shown it had only been a flock of seagulls or the like.
As such when he called in shouting about a four armed giant descending from the sky and that the Endbringers had returned it was treated with less than total seriousness.
That was until the Tinker Tech radiation sensors that the settlement had, at considerable cost, been equipped with registered that the ambient radiation for the entire region was plummeting faster than a stone dropped out of an airplane.
That had immediately drawn some panicked reactions and hurried calls. Granted, the lowering of the radiation levels was by no means a bad thing, but for it to do so at such rapid speeds was clearly unnatural. When the earth had begun to rumble in a continuous but gentle shaking they had feared that Behemoth was somehow putting in an appearance. Perhaps draining the local radiation in order to fuel some devastating attack.
Then someone looked outside, and that idea went out of the window.
-()-
It took a bit of remembering, but I finally managed to recall where the two nuclear power plants on Kyushu had been. That was a little fact I'd looked up while thinking about writing a Godzilla crossover. Knowing where all the nuclear sites were had seemed like a good bit of research to start with, and I remember being struck by the facts that all the power plants were on the coast. Later I learned the practical reasons for it, but at the time all I could think was that it was oddly convenient for an ocean going kaiju.
That's why I started by heading towards the sight of the southern plant. I figured that that would be a major centre of contamination for the area and as god a place to start as any. It wasn't hard to spot, even with my unfamiliarity with my new senses. I must have been miles from shore when I got the first hints of radioactive contamination in the water beneath me.
It was strange, like seeing ink in water when I still had eyes. I could 'see' the energy and the material itself, even though the quantities involved were minute. The Psychokinetic power let me sense them with ease while the Shaper power told me of the effects they were having on the local marine life.
That wasn't pleasant, not in the least. As I drew closer and closer to land it got worse, all the life near to me was either dead, diseased or mutated. From fish to plankton to seaweed, all of seemed to have been tainted and harmed. It was . . . sickening to perceive. I'd of course read about the results of fallout and other nuclear disasters, but to be able to observe the results of it in such clear and intimate detail, that really brought it home.
That was where I started. Reaching out along the same senses that let me perceive the nuclear energy I tugged on it. It was bizarre, like moving a limb I didn't know I had, only the limb extended directly from my mind. And had a reach that extended as far as my perception did. And seemed to reach everywhere at once.
Manipulating the energy itself wasn't as easy as I'd hoped it would be. Back when I'd moved myself, the heat in the water or the light around me it hadn't been too difficult. That energy had been cleaner, more ready to be used. If I had to describe the radiation I would have said that it was like handling spaghetti covered in oil. It could be done, but it was hard to get a decent grip, and if I pushed too hard something would break. I wasn't too sure what would happen if I handled the energies too poorly, but given that one possibility was the detonation of an atomic explosion I decided to err on the side of caution.
Slowly, ever so slowly, I began to draw the energy to myself. It was hard at first, but as I managed to get a 'flow' going it became easier. Before too long I could see the radiation draining out of the local environment and converging on me. I confess, for a moment I was somewhat panicked, afraid of what the radioactive energy would do to me. But as it turned out I needn't have concerned myself.
By body soaked up the power like a sponge, drawing it in and storing it without any difficulty at all. I could feel a slight effort to it, but it reminded me of simply putting on some clothes. Even the lightest t-shirt has some weight to it, but when you wear it you don't really notice it. It was the same with this energy; it was drawn in and held by my core, not a trace of it able to escape, so my presence wouldn't be any danger to those about me.
As I moved forwards I drew more in, my range and reach seemingly growing with passing moment in a sort of loop. The more energy I gathered then the further I could reach, and the further I could reach the more I could gather. By the rime I reached the coast I was certain that the entire ocean within a hundred miles had been drained of any trace of radioactive material or activity.
My focus on the flow of energy slipped as something else drew my attention. As I flew over the remains of some sort of harbour city I felt . . . something, a small star blazing in a darkness I hadn't even notice.
It took me a moment of focus and study to realize what I was perceiving. Before, when I had unwittingly travelled to Brockton Bay in search of a newspaper I had kept a tight clamp on the abilities granted to me by the Emperor of Man power. I'd 'felt' the minds in the city beneath me, but I'd carefully avoided focusing on any of them, afraid that I'd do something to them by accident.
I wasn't the greatest 40K buff in the world. In all truth I had been more of a fan of the fanfiction than the original thing. It was a marvellous setting, filled with rich detail and expertly crafted characters, but the general mood had been a bit too grimdark for my taste. To be sure I was quite fond of the Ciaphas Cain books, but they were exception to the rule.
Still, that didn't mean that I was unaware of just how powerful the Emperor had been. He'd once forced the entirety of the Word Bearers, a legion of more than a hundred thousand genetically engineered super soldiers plus their demigod like Primarch, to kneel at his command. And that had only been one of his feats. I had no intention of accidentally burning out every mind in the eastern hemisphere by acting incautiously with that kind of power.
Now though it seemed to be responding better than it had before. When I'd first felt it, back when I initially gained consciousness, it had been like a star trapped in a bottle, a mass of power that strained for release. I'd been able to use the sensory aspects of it, but I hadn't dared try to use the actives abilities of the Emperor of Man for fear that I'd be unable to control it.
However no it wasn't . . . straining as much. I wasn't too sure, but it seemed that with the increased use of the Psychokinetic power the Emperor of Man was responding more smoothly. Could the powers be interlinked somehow? There'd been no mention of that in the set up, but I suppose that when you translated it to real life . . .
No, hang on a sec, there had been something about how no powers would interfere with each other. So if this wasn't interference then it was some sort of beneficial effect?
Extending my awareness as 'gently' as I could I focused on the tiny star blazing before me. I could feel anger there, lots of it. There was also sadness there, loss that ran deep. And hatred, lots and lots of hatred. I wasn't really reading his mind, but the hatred formed a shape, that was how strong it was, a roughly humanoid form with long limbs, broad shoulders and a long tail.
Leviathan.
Whoever this was they hated the second Endbringer with a passion that was almost incandescent in nature.
Any further contemplation was derailed as something hit me and exploded.
It was a strange experience to be sure. If noted the kinetic impact as the projectile impacted on the left most shoulder of my left torso. Then there was a bloom of heat, sound and more kinetic energy as the missile detonated. There was quite a bit of force there, enough energy in various forms to have demolished a small house, or so I estimated.
Whatever the case might have been it didn't do much more than inflict soot marks on the outermost layer of my 'skin'.
There was something else there too, an accompanying energy that I couldn't quite place. It was lending the weapons some extra punch, though not enough to do any significant damage. A suspicion forming in my mind I reach out towards the tiny star, but this time using the Shaper.
It was amazing really. Up until now I'd only used it on sea life. During my brief foray into Brockton Bay I'd been focused more on getting my newspaper, which had been done with only the Psychokinetic power. Consequently this was the first time that I'd used my bio-kinetic ability on a human. Everything just opened up to me, skeleton, nervous system, circulatory system, digestive system, everything right down to the DNA running about within the cellular level. I knew the man's gender, his age, how many fillings he had in his teeth, how many hairs he had on his head, how effected he was by living in amidst the radiation that had permeated the area. I could sense it all, how it was put together, how it interacted, how it could be changed at a mere whim.
And I could also see the two small growths on the brain that felt as though they were new.
Those were the Corona and the Gemma, the two points to which the Shards of Zion and Eden connected. I could see the way they were constructed, how they interacted with their host and how they patched into his neural network.
There was definitely something that I could work with there, but that was something that I'd devote my attention to later. For now I am more interested in the greater response that I'm getting from the Emperor of Man power.
I didn't push with it, even if it was responding so well I had no desire to rush into what could be a disaster. Instead I tried to bring the images that the parahuman's emotions were forming. It was something of a challenge, but with careful concentration I was able to bring it into focus.
The city, his home, he missed it. He missed his position, humble though it had been. He missed his old neighbourhood, his neighbours, the shops, all that had been familiar to him. The images of what he wanted were also tainted by loss and . . . something that I could only interpret as a sort of hopeless longing. He wanted it all back, but at the same time he knew that it was impossible. It was that loss and that knowledge of that loss that fuelled his anger.
Well, I had come here to do something about it.
The Emperor of Man hadn't simply given me psycher powers; it had also imparted vast amounts of knowledge and other skills. Logistics, psychological analysis, military training, everything I needed to create and run an empire if I so wished.
However the real prize, at least as far as I was concerned, was the scientific and technological knowledge. It just sat there in my . . . well; I couldn't say 'brain' because I no longer have a brain. Rather it was in my mind, even though my mind now centred in my core. It was huge I a way I don't think words could properly explain, after all how does one go about describing the accumulated knowledge of a fifty thousand year old civilization?
There was just so much there, weapons, medicine, terraforming, cybernetics, artificial intelligences, faster than light communications, everything the Empire of Man had ever cooked up plus a whole mess of things that they'd never even thought of. And it was all so easy to understand, there was no sense of being overwhelmed or being unable to access it. I could remember how to build a sun destroying warhead just as easily as I could how to tie up my shoelaces.
However right now that wasn't what I wanted. I was more interested in something a bit more mundane.
Architecture and sewage construction.
The parahuman was no longer attacking me, mostly due to me having passed him and moved out of range of any of his weapons faster than he could catch up than anything else, so without him distracting me I once more expanded my awareness to take in the entire general area.
The city about me was a ruin. Even with the ambient levels of radiation now having fallen to slightly lower than the rest of the world the place can't b described as anything other than utterly desolate. All about me there are crumbling buildings; many of the uncollapsed ones show signs of damage, and even the unmarred ones look as though they won't last much longer. The streets are choked with debris that has never been moved and many cracked and broken streets have become short lakes of stagnant water.
But at the same time I knew how the city should be. I knew where every brick, every slate, every wire, every piece of paving should have been, it was all right there in my head. Plans of how to build villages, towns, cities, all of them complete with infrastructure and supporting utilities. I could see it all so clearly in my minds eye, a city made to house hundreds of thousands at the least, and it all came together as easily as a house made of lego blocks would to a child.
Internally, largely because I still hadn't worked out how to change my facial features, I smiled.
Time to get to work.
-()-
Iwashiro Eiichiro snarled in rage as he dashed down the ruined path that had once been a busy main street. It had been more than five years since the tragedy wrought upon Japan by Leviathan. Slightly more than half a decade since he had Triggered and gained powers. And in all that time he had dreamed of this opportunity, the chance to take revenge upon the Endbringers that had torn his world away from him.
To be sure the one time teacher would have preferred to have vented his rage upon the one that had destroyed his home, but being able to slay one of its siblings would be almost as sweet.
To bad the monster in question wasn't co-operating.
Eiichiro was a 'grab bag' cape, meaning that he had a number of minor abilities that combined to give him considerable flexibility. In his case he had low level enhanced physical abilities, that let him survive in the irradiated ruins of his one time home, as well as a Shaker power that increased the effectiveness of any weapon he employed. With a normal handgun he could produce effects more in keeping with anti-tank weaponry, so he'd been sure with the portable anti-aircraft guns he'd gotten a hold of he'd be able to bring an Endbringer down.
As it turned out, that was about as far from the case as he could have been. The strange four armed giant that had levitated past him hadn't so much as paused for an instant. Indeed, it seemed not to have even noticed the missiles that had impacted upon it with enough force to crack open an armoured tank. Instead it had flown on, dismissing the former teacher's attempts at vengeance with casual ease.
He'd known this would happen; at least he had on an intellectual level. Endbringers could take on the entire Triumvirate and keep going. His own powers, while useful, weren't on the scale where he could destroy his hated foes. All of this his head knew, but his heart and his guts were somewhat less reasonable.
He'd hoped to at least hurt them, wound them, leave some sort of mark. Instead it hadn't even noticed his existence as far as he could tell.
So he'd run after it. He knew that he was being irrational; that he should be grateful it hadn't annihilated him as soon as he attacked, but his anger, his memories, would not allow for such an outcome to stand. He just wouldn't be able to live with himself if it did, not when his drive to get revenge had been all that kept him going these past years. Not when-
It was something as simple as taking a step that had interrupted his thoughts. After years spent navigating the ruined city the one time teacher had grown accustomed to travelling over uneven ground. If you were moving fast it was a constant necessity to adjust your balance and footing to avoid tripping or misstep.
He hadn't needed to do so for some time now.
The realization came as such a surprise that the red veil of anger faded from his eyes as he paused to see what was going on. The ground was smooth to walk on because the cracked ruin of the road had been replaced by smooth asphalt. For a moment he froze in place, staring at the sight that had once been so commonplace but which he hadn't seen in years.
No, it wasn't just that. All around him everything seemed to be rearranging and repairing itself. Old bricks, corroded by water and time, levitated into the air and returned to pristine condition before slotting into place on a repairing building. Wood that had broken and splintered returned to place as a road side bench reformed. Even old and dead trees flared back into crackling green life along the streets. All about him a devastated city rebuilt itself even as the three headed giant passed through it.
The one time teacher fell to his knees, so overwhelmed with emotion that he could nothing else. The city was not identical to his memories, some buildings were different and most of the shops were simply empty spots waiting to be filled, but even so . . .
He had his home back.
Iwashiro Eiichiro knelt on the newly restored asphalt and stared at the distancing form of what he'd thought to be an Endbringer.
-()-
That . . . was easier than I'd been expecting.
My original plan had been to drain the area of radiation and restore the full fertility of the land, maybe clear away rubble and set things up for a rebuilding effort. It was only once I really got going that I realized just how far I could take this. I wasn't quite sure how it was happening, maybe it was some strange combination of the Emperor of Man and the Psychokinetic power, but I could just instinctively grasp how the city fitted together. For something as simple as repairing a park bench to rebuilding a skyscraper or completely reconstructing the electricity and water mains, it all came so easily.
All the materials that he'd needed had been there, in one form or another anyway, all I'd needed to do was repair them where needed and just slot them back into place. Buildings had gone back together, the furniture within them had repaired, even complex machines like computers and microwave ovens had been easily put back together.
What really struck me had been how little I'd had to think about it. It hadn't been me doing a few thousand tasks at once; rather it had been him doing one huge task while my powers seemed to handle all the small stuff on pure automatic.
What had been even more gratifying was that as I did it I could feel my range extending. When I'd begun I'd been able to extend my powers about a kilometre in every direction, a huge amount to be sure, but even so it meant it would take me ages to cover the entire island. But as I kept working I could feel the reach growing, reaching out to cover more and more area. It wasn't a permanent growth, I could feel that instinctively, as soon as I completed the task I was working on my range would snap back to its previous limits. Still, it made things much easier for now.
As I move further inland and I can feel the radiation draining from the land I wish that I could move my face so I could smile. For the time being facial muscles weren't something this body had been equipped with, the features of my faces being as fixed and immovable as those of a statue. But in time I'd fix that, after all I did have an Unbound Form.
The question I had to ask myself was; what next?
-()-
For the world the eighteenth of June 2005 was a date that went down in the history books. It was a day when everything changed, when the paradigm that the planet had grown accustomed to shifted violently. For years the Endbringers had been regarded as living disasters, monsters that could be fought against but never truly overcome. Their relentless assault upon humanity was something that could be fought against, yet in the deep dark parts of the heart far too many thought that they could never be overcome. They would slowly grind down human civilization, through death, destruction and despair; there was simply no way it could be averted.
The eighteenth of June 2005 was the day a nation torn asunder was healed. The eighteenth of June 2005 was when hope was regained.
Too bad this wasn't a world upon which hope could thrive.