Mcu/Worm Oc Insert: Chapter 9

A rubber ball bounces off the wall in the distance, flying across the room and into my waiting hand. 

"-And after that, I've got a mechanic voice... and a basic vehicle repair tinker power. I used it to fix this one motorcycle to get into Brockton. Of course, it broke shortly after, but considering it was almost a hunk of scrap when I got it, I'd say that it has been useful!" 

Lisa has taken off her mask, lounging on the couch.  

Stephanie... is quite pretty, honestly.  

I mean, she's Lisa's elder sister, so of course they look similar. 

Her power's also kind of cracked. 

Shitty Eidolon Butcher wasn't that far off from what it is. 

But unlike one of the world's greatest heroes, she decides what she gets, and unlike a certain mass murdering parasite, her power seems to want to help her... plus there's only one voice so there's a lot less chance of going crazy. 

But really, she can just say some random talent, get a 'pro' in that, then get a power that relates to it. 

Boxing gave her that 'attribute swap' power, where she gets this like... energy throughout her entire body and can shift it around, making some limbs stronger, others weaker. 

If she weakens one arm and shifts it to the other she punches twice as hard. 

Like... uh... the reverse of that one green haired anime boy from that one hero show I watched in my past life.  

Even the attribute swap power ALONE has some crazy synergy with my own. 

Cause you'd look at her and see a relatively weak brute power. I mean, she can hit probably about... maybe ten times harder than a normal person by bottling up everything into one arm- and luckily, unlike certain green haired anime characters this doesn't break every bone in her arm- but she has to completely stop moving for that. Her legs having barely enough strength to keep holding up her body. 

But what happens if she were to become superhuman? 

What happens if I give her the black bone, pink muscle, hysterical strength, and the lung capacity power? 

You get someone who could probably flip a car with a single punch. 

That's not even taking a single look at the bullshit composite tinkering she could get up to. 

Ammo Crafting, Gunsmithing, she could probably even create some fun gun attachments. 

The girl's eyes stray to me as I let out a sigh, taking off my mask. 

The new blonde of the group gasps, face flushing slightly. 

"HEY!" Lisa snarls. "He's MINE. Stop undressing my boyfriend with your eyes!" 

 "Alright. Gonna ignore that." I deadpan. "Anyways I'll admit. She's got skills we could use. Heck. The PRT would probably fling thousands upon thousands of dollars at her just to get her to sign up. Even better our powers seem to be incredibly compatible." 

"C-Compatible?" The older blonde stutters. 

"You fucking HOMEWRECKER! If I knew you'd do this shit I never would have agreed!" Lisa continues. 

"H-How did you pull someone like him, Sarah?! He- he looks like an actor! Why is someone like him in a town this shitty?!" 

Ooh. Very nice ego inflation. 

"Stop feeding his Ego!" Lisa demands. "He knows he's pretty!" 

"I prefer handsome." I cut in. 

"God, are you." Stephanie whistles. 

"But I'm also taken. By your little sister." I smirk proudly. 

"How'd... you even start dating anyways?" Her gaze strays from me to Lisa. 

"Lisa's power makes her Asexual with superpowered too-much-information. I'm a thinker blind spot. It's either she dates me, or she tries to romance like... Eidolon." 

"I can read Eidolon." Lisa deadpans. "Can't read you, though. So it's you. Kind of helps that you're not too annoying and you're built like a fucking anime pretty boy." 

"You know... thought occurs. But your sister could totally gain like... sex powers." 

Lisa gives me a half lidded stare causing me to raise my hands in surrender. "Just pointing it out to annoy you." 

"Anyways, to truly answer your question, she got pressganged by some control freak bond villain, she realized he had a thinker power. She saw me. She realized I was a blind spot, soooo she inadvertently set me up to murder her previous boss via me pouring a bottle of water on his doorstep." 

"Not murder. Manslaughter at worst." Lisa huffs, crossing her arms. "Prick totally deserved it. He was a timeline thinker. I don't even want to imagine what he did to the me in the other timeline." 

"Shame I could only kill him once." I sigh dramatically. "Regardless. Now we kind of just exist. We've got more money than we can spend, and well... realistically we could probably just do whatever we want. Coil had tons of assets." 

"Are we... heroes?" Lisa's sister asks slowly. 

"Rogues is probably a better way to put it." My girlfriend admits as she leans back in her chair. "At the moment, we're trying to keep the peace between the Empire and ABB so they don't destroy the city." 

"To be fair, I'm not exactly that attached to this city. I'd be willing to wander off somewhere else." I agree. "It honestly feels like this entire towns like... a massive social experiment at points." 

"What?" Lisa huffs. "Like 'what would happen if we put Nazis, Yakuza, and the Cartel in the same city'?" 

"I mean, sure." I agree. "That works." 

[Split] 

"So... wait... you just randomly gain new powers you can grant to people?" Stephany asks slowly. 

"Yeeeep. That's pretty much it." I hum, adjusting the gauntlets of my suit. 

I remembered that the Slaughterhouse Nine were a thing so I'm doing a quick pass to remove any silica from my suit. 

Kind of impossible for the mask, but I suppose if I'm ever going out to kill the nine, I'd pack a different mask. 

"What's like... the best powers you can grant?" The girl questions. 

"I'm kind of developing new ones as I go on, but the best ones are fusions of multiple powers. I can make anyone a brute two just like... casually. Which goes really nice with your boxing power I'd imagine. I also gave Lisa here the ability to ricochet bullets which is really useful as her thinker power basically lets het know where everyone around her is at a moment's notice." 

"Honestly, I prefer the hibernation, organization and multitask combination." The blonde clairvoyant admits. "Not needing to sleep is helpful. Plus I can use my power much longer now. Whenever I begin to get a thinker headache I just swap to a train of thought I wasn't using my power on and force the one with a headache to sleep it off." 

"How many trains of thought can you keep active at once?" I ask slowly. 

"I'm currently sitting at three. Two awake, one asleep." The blonde answers. 

"You know... I just had a thought but technically with those three couldn't you technically like... turn your thinker power off by shifting it to a single train of thought and forcing it to go to sleep?" 

She opens her mouth. Then closes it. Then opens it again. 

She abruptly leans forwards, grabbing my collar with a hand. 

Her lips press against my own. 

"Hey- HEY! Quit rubbing your love in my face!" Stephanie growls. 

A moment later Lisa pulls back. "First kiss... and my powers are absolutely silent." 

She stretches her arms above her head letting out a long groan before nuzzling her head against my shoulder. "Now maybe I can enjoy hot wings or other messy foods." 

"Y-eah." I whisper, quickly looking away, hiding my mild embarrassment. 

Lisa's sister can barely contain the sheer envy she is feeling. I can tell by the look on her face as my arm loosely comes to fall around Lisa's shoulder. 

"So... uh... Stephanie, do you have a voice for a Doctor?" 

"uhh..." 

"Surgeon?" Lisa suggests, her eyes cracking open, eyes filling with realization at what I'm getting at. 

"That's kind of Bonesaw adjacent. Pass on that. Go Medic instead." I wave my hand. 

"Demolitionist." Lisa smiles. 

"Gunsmith followed by Ammunition Maker and Gun attachment specialist?" 

"Wait- would that work?!" My girlfriend whispers, eyes growing wide. 

"Then combine it with gunslinger and sniper voices." I smirk. 

"Creating a bunch gives me a headache." Stephany weakly announces. "I could make like... maybe two every day? The creating part is what gives me headaches, but I'll probably get one if I keep swapping between them as well." 

"You should try and make new ones as much as possible." I nod sagely. "You've got an absurd power. You won't be beating Lung, Eidolon, or like... maybe even Hookwolf, but the sheer versatility you have is impressive." 

"Healing is something we should check and see if she has as soon as possible." Lisa adds in. "I can think of only like... ten to twenty healing capes in America." 

"True. Healing is something we don't really have access to." I nod slowly. 

We both turn to Stephany. 

"Uh... doctor... seems to give me a diagnosis power?" The blonde weakly begins. 

She winces suddenly. 

"And... medic... causes injuries I treat to heal twenty times faster." 

I blink twice. "Twenty times?"  

She rubs her temples with a sole nod as my gaze strays to Lisa. 

"That's not bad." The fox-like blonde mutters. "That's a broken arm healed in under three days." 

"That alone would probably cause the PRT to drop a fat wad of cash on her. Let alone the others things she may gain access to." I huff, glancing back to the Tv hanging on the wall. 

"Are you feeling jeaaaaalous Mr tinker-trump?" Lisa hums. I can hear a slightly smug tone to her voice. 

"Why are you smug?" I ask with a raised eyebrow. "It's her powers. Not yours." 

"Can't I have pride in my sister's abilities?" She replies. 

[Split] 

Brockton Bay honestly feels like it's holding its breath. 

The Empire took a massive loss last night but... 

Now comes the other shoe to drop. 

Either Lung lashes out at them to soothe his wounded pride. Or the empire does something drastic to save face. 

I'm leaning the former. The Empire more or less sent Lung running. Then it took intervention on three fronts to put a stop to their crusade. 

They by no means should complain about it taking a vigilante- one who previously took on an entire terrorist organization and FOUND Captain America- then New Wave, AND the Protectorate. 

"Lung's on the move." Lisa speaks into my mask. 

Ooooof course he is. 

I wordlessly open PHO in my mask. 

Wrench: (Verified Cape) (The Roguiest of Rogues) (Verified Millionaire) 
Private Message: June 21st, 2008.  
To User: Dragon. 
"Hey, Dragon, you're friends with Armsmaster, right? Can you message him and tell him that Lung is on the move? I'd do it myself, but I doubt the PRT would appreciate me hacking into their Brockton bay headquarters, nor do I really think they'd take me at face value. Here's my 'Lung Tracker' by the way. 
{Link}. I'll fully admit that I have nothing to nonlethally take him down. Should probably invest in some elephant tranquilizers. Anyways, it looks like he's going to try and save face after the beating he took the day before yesterday. Do with that information what you will. I might drop in to help if someone fights him but otherwise, I'll probably keep my distance." 

I continue sitting on the billboard, legs swinging slightly as I gaze out across the city, body hidden under the effects of one of my light bending shields. 

Now I just- 

I blink as I look down, a man in a red shirt and black breastplate, he has a slightly hawk-like mask on his face. 

There's a large fifty caliber sniper rifle slung over his shoulder as he climbs up the ladder of the billboard. 

I'm currently on the edge of town, I chose this spot because it's on a hill beside the main road into Brockton. It gives me a nice look of the city. I can see most of downtown from here... which is where I guessed things would be happening today. 

It appears the empire thought similar as they sent their skill thief over to watch the area. 

I doubt he thinks he can kill Lung with that thing. Maybe if it was tinker tech, and he vaporized Lung's head before he knew he was in combat, but it doesn't really look like it is. He's probably hoping he can get a pot shot off on Oni Lee.  

I watch as he makes it to the top of the billboard, then lays down with his rifle, looking out over the downtown area. 

Wrench: (Verified Cape) (The Roguiest of Rogues) (Verified Millionaire) 
Private Message: June 21st, 2008.  
To User: Dragon. 
"P.S. Victor literally sat down next to me with a 50 caliber while I was invisible. I think I may beat him senseless and handcuff/containment foam him and take him to the PRT." 

I stand up, the sound of my metal boots muted by shielding. 

I take Captain America's shield off my back, examining it briefly before holding it like someone would a large dinnerplate. 

I raise it above my head and slam it down with a loud 'CLANG' 

He's out like a light with just that singular lovetap. 

I'm going to make a meme of that. 

I handcuff the man, then pick him up like a sack of potatoes. 

It's a quick flight across the city. I land just as a large tinker-tech motorcycle is pulling away. 

The armored man's eyes snap over to me just as the shield I was using to more or less hide myself fades. 

"I got you a present." I deadpan, voice echoing out in its usual static. "Dude laid down right next to me with a sniper rifle as I was sitting up on a billboard looking out over downtown." 

I note a second bike roll out of the garage, a woman sits on it, her black hair tied back and an American flag bandanna around her face. Miss Milita. 

"Wrench." The armored man begins, a small frown on his exposed lips, he seems to be sizing me up. 

"Armsmaster." I reply with a single nod.  

"That shield..." He begins slowly. "Is stolen property." 

"Nobody complained when the soldiers took souvenirs home from war during world war two." I shrug. 

"There's a difference between a gun or pocket watch... and a shield made of a material that would be worth a not so insignificant portion of the entire Parahuman Response Team's yearly budget." 

"Fair." I shrug. "I'll probably give it back to Mr. America after I'm done researching it. Maybe. Depends. I'd rather not because tinkers would like to destroy this piece of history." 

"Waving stolen property in front of a Hero is... typically not a bright... strategy. Law would dictate that I should bring you in alongside Victor here." 

"Perhaps." I admit. "But you've got to ask yourself. Do you want to fight a hacker tinker in a mechanized suit? Especially while Lung is-" 

"Lung plans to hit Medhall." A voice suddenly supplies. 

"FUCKING WHAT?!" I turn to the side in which Lisa just spoke into my ear. "What the fuck do you mean 'Lung plans to hit Medhall'?!" 

I can see the exposed parts of Miss Milita's face visibly pale. 

I can see parts of Armsmaster's visor glow slightly. "Milita. He's telling the truth. The vehicle Lung is inside just turned down fifty-first avenue. We need to go. Now. I will go ahead." 

They both speed off suddenly, Armsmaster atop his tinkertech motorcycle and Milita on her own. Armsy's bike seems to have a bit more 'oomph' to it, so the gap between the two seems to grow rapidly. 

I can see numerous Prt officers begin to come out of the building, some with large backpacks that are connected to what look like flamethrowers. 

I wordlessly disappear, flying up into the air as they look around, seemingly tracking the sound of my repulsors vaguely. 

They descend on the Nazi cape, quickly securing him and ferrying him inside. 

With that, I turn and shoot off. 

"Well. We know where Lung is. Where's his bomber though, Oracle?" I ponder. 

"Likely supporting his boss." 

"Oh great." I scoff. "Keep me posted. I need to appear behind him, put a bag over his head and beat him like he owes me money. Also. Why is Lung attacking Medhall... exactly? That kind of seems like something that'd cause one of the big three to drop in and kick his ass?" 

The blonde's voice comes through a moment later. "I can't really claim to know what's going through his head right now. Something something. They hire only white people. Something something that one rogue tinker implicated them as a money laundering front for the Empire. He likely expects to be fully ramped and thinks he can take any of the big three." 

Oh yeah... I did do that.

"Wow. That's... kind of foolhardy." I mutter. 

"More like foolish." Lisa scoffs. 

I soar through the sky, making it to Medhall in about a minute. Passing Armsmaster quite a ways back. He can't exactly fly over the buildings like I am, and Tony's tech is QUITE fast when it needs to be. 

"Noooow if I were a self-cloning mass serial bomber who slowly lost his sense of self... where would I be?" I whisper. "He's not smart... so I doubt he'd already be in Medhall placing explosives... he doesn't care about his own safety... so he's likely to be... a distraction... but where? Somewhere to draw the PRT's attention? Likely to start before Lung burns down Medhall..." 

"Arcadia?" Lisa suggests. 

"Huh... I mean... it's late so school has let out, but it's still known as 'The Ward School'. You're right. That's what I would blow up as a distraction." 

With a twist I shoot off through the air, rocketing towards the school. 

I land on the large metal fence surrounding the school, crossing my arms and gazing out over the road leading up to the schoolbuilding. 

"White van to your right. It's registered to a gang member in the ABB." 

With a small boost I take off again, flying over and landing beside the van as it rolls to a halt. Reaching back behind my back and pulling out a paper bag from my backpack. 

The van's door swings open, a man in an oni mask stepping out... into my open arms as I slam a the paper bag over his head and punch him in the stomach. 

He flails briefly, but I interlock my hands and smash them down on the back of his head, collapsing him to the floor, bag still in place even as he tried reaching up to dislodge it. 

"WHAT THE HELL?!" I can hear someone within the car shout, but I wordlessly toss a containment foam grenade into it, the pin pulled. 

I take a few quick steps back as- 

PMMPH 

Yellowish foam explodes out from the open door. 

I reach down, taking the katana off the ABB cape, and removing his bandolier of grenades. 

I grab the unconscious villain after handcuffing him, then surround him in a bubble of shields. 

I then fly over to the Protectorate again. 

You know... 

This kind of feels too easy. 

Both Oni Lee and Victor... 

But I suppose I am sucker punching them... and I am a brute even if it's a minor one. 

People will start adapting to the invisible guy who can just pop up out of nowhere. They likely don't know I can do this yet. Or, if they do they aren't aware of how good I am at it. Maybe they expect a sound? 

I should probably jump the likes of Jack Slash before people get too used to my invisibility strategy. I mean, I'm already preparing for some of the other members of the nine. Bonesaw is by far the biggest threat... I've really got nothing to deal with her, honestly. 

I land in front of the Prt building again, walking forwards Oni Lee limp under my arm, paper bag over his head still like he is some sort of hobo. 

As I step through the front door I can see numerous men quickly rushing into the lobby, foam sprayers in hand. 

"Here." I call out. "I got you a present. Oni Lee here was trying to blow up Arcadia, I tossed a foam grenade into a van over there which has a few gang members in it. You can take care of that. Or don't, I don't really care. 

I drop the man as they cautiously point their sprayers at me. "Keep the bag on his head. His teleportation's line-of-sight based." 

"..." 

"And... how do you know that?" The frontmost man slowly asks, parroting the question console made him ask. 

"I'm friends with the best thinker in the bay. How do you think I figured that out?" I snort as I turn and walk away. "Anyways, I'm off. I've done my good deeds for today. I'm going to bed... or maybe I could stop at Taco bell... hm. Nah. I've got leftovers from last night." 

"Steph ate it." 

"Oh that bitch. That was my burger." I comment as I step through the door. "Guess Taco bell it is, then. You want anything?" 

They don't try and stop me as I continue to talk to myself. 

"Get me a supreme burrito and a caramel apple empanada. Spoiler wants a taco salad." Lisa supplies. 

[Split] 

"I'm home bitches." I call out in my mechanized voice as I walk through the halls of my underground bunker two bags held in my offhand, one containing a plastic container of Taco Salad, and the other holding everything else I ordered. 

I reach up, unclipping my mask and sitting it aside, hanging it loosely on a hat rack as I walk past. 

Lisa stumbles out of the room with an ass load of monitors, our proverbial 'mission control'. 

She holds her hands out. "Took you long enough. Gimmie." 

"My stuff is in there too." I whine as I give her the bag filled with tacos. 

"Mine now." 

"You always bully me, Lisa." I whine. 

"Stop trying to be cute. It doesn't work for you." The girl huffs as we walk into the 'living room' where we just have a large couch, table, and a flat screen. 

Stephanie is already there. 

"Here." I offer the other bag which the girl takes. "Sorry it took a while, I got half way into the order before I remembered that the E88 destroyed our taco bell. So, like. Boom. There's another reason for Bay Nazi genocide." 

"Ah. Shit." Lisa curses. "I forgot about that. We can't have shit in Brockton Bay without druggies or literal nazis ruining it." 

"What do they even expect us to eat anyways?" I grumble under my breath. "But yeah, I had to fly over to New York, then I flew back. The people working nearly shat themselves when I walked in to collect my order. Heh. Kind of expected with so many villainous capes running around. I bet they thought I was about to rob the place."  

"So is our battle cry when fighting the empire going to be 'for taco bell' or something?" Stephanie snorts. 

"Eh, it could be." I admit after a moment. "How's the tinkering coming along, Steph?" 

"The multitask power you gave me seems to let me keep more than one 'voice' active at once... which in turn lets me have more than one power active at once. That's completely ridiculous. The only limit I've found so far is that it seems like it's only tinker and thinker powers that I can keep active. With anything else it seems like I have to use my 'original' power slot." 

"it makes sense in a way." I shrug. "An improvement to mental abilities would improve the mental power types." 

"As for my projects... I've kind of just been thinking for now. Gunsmith gives me a 'gun' tinker power with some very... mundane... effects in comparison to some of the bullshit you tinkers produce... case and point." 

She gestures to my gloves as I take them off and place them on the table. 

"I can't make anything close to that but... I think I might be able to make a gun that shoots bullets faster than normal with slightly more kinetic energy in them? I think I can also make it so they don't break the sound barrier even if the bullets are traveling faster than the speed of sound? Maybe something to bend shots around corners? Ammunition is better, though. I can make pretty much any kind of specialized bullet and have them be far more effective. So armor penetration goes through more armor, rubber bullets hurt more and are more nonlethal, tranquilizer darts that can be shot from a normal gun, that sort of thing." 

"That's actually... really cool." I mutter. 

"Geez Mr. Power envy." Lisa rolls her eyes. "Aren't you satisfied with your bullshit 'give anyone four new powers at will' thing?" 

"I can always admire a cool power. Like that one... uh... fuck... what was his name? That terrorist that could generate ammunition with special effects?" 

"Ordinance?" Lisa leads. 

"Yeah! Him. His power was neat. Same with that other guy in their group, the one with the trump power. Kind of a shame they were terrorists." I sigh before shrugging. "It is what it is."