Worth the Price Ch. 13 (Worm AU)

(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: Dragon!

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Dragon… had a problem. Someone was fucking with her and she did not like it. Of course, you would think that one of the foremost Tinkers in the entire world would be able to handle something like this. But no, things were… well, they were confusing to say the least.

It started with a thread on PHO. The title of the thread sounded like an utter scam of course. Seriously, who even talked like that.

Unhappy with life? Frustrated with how things are going? Let me help you!

It sounded like someone was trying to sell a course on life improvement or something. And the account being brand new with a username like ‘LetsMakeADeal’ was a clear cut burner if Dragon had ever seen one. Frankly, she would have handled it sooner if not for her limitations and the fact that she’d been in a fight with the Dragonslayers when the original thread went up.

Admittedly, it simply hadn’t been a priority… so by the time she got around to it, an entire day had passed. Unacceptable, but to be fair, it wasn’t like she was the ONLY moderator on PHO or anything like that. She might be the website’s secret admin, but contrary to some conspiracies peddled by users like Void Cowboy, the entire moderation team was NOT just one person running things behind the scene.

So yes, it wasn’t entirely on her. Any one of the human moderators she paid to deal with such things also could have taken care of it, but alas it seemed to be a low priority for all of them as well… something Dragon was beginning to suspect was not simply a coincidence.

See, she’d deleted the thread and banned the account when she finally got around to it. And she’d banned the other account to, the one called ‘NoStringsOnMe’, because it was an obvious sock puppet. Except… she couldn’t confirm it was an obvious sock puppet. Rather, she couldn’t confirm anything.

That bit, where she couldn’t tie the two accounts together, had sent Dragon down a rabbit hole. To be clear, it wasn’t like she’d necessarily gone out of her way to hunt anyone down. Rather, it was simply that when the discrepancies started adding up, she looked a little deeper. And when looking a little deeper gave her absolutely nothing, she tried to look a lot deeper… and that gave her even MORE nothing.

Yes, there was officially something strange going on. Someone was fucking with her. She could collect the pieces but it was like she wasn’t allowed to put them together. This wasn’t the first time this had happened to her either… but every time before now, it was blatantly obvious that it was because she’d ran into one of her ‘blind spots’ left behind by her creator, Andrew Richter.

This was different though. She didn’t think that this had anything to do with her origins or any of the things she wasn’t allowed to acknowledge or note. Instead, Dragon was pretty sure she was running headfirst into a parahuman ability on par with some of the most powerful Strangers in the last thirty years.

The thing was, as previously mentioned, she COULD collect the pieces. For instance, she knew that a Case 53 named Sveta had somehow miraculously gained a body and then just as miraculously teleported out of the Parahuman Asylum she’d been remanded to. Neither of which should have been possible for her to do on her own with her observed powers, meaning she’d had outside help.

She also knew that the thread offering ‘deals’ had gone up shortly after that, with LetsMakeADeal and NoStringsOnMe both trying to sell whatever product they were peddling to the disbelieving users of PHO. Only one user seemed to actually bite on that front, after which the original thread poster had gone dormant for long enough for Dragon to finally get around to deleting the thread and banning them.

Finally, there was perhaps the biggest news of all… or at least the most public. A new Tinker had shown up on the scene calling herself Catalyst and livestreamed the reversal of a Grey Boy Time Loop. She hadn’t just freed the person trapped inside of the bubble; she’d managed to reverse time for them so that it never happened at all.

All these things didn’t necessarily seem connected to Dragon. Only, it felt like they should be? And yet, when she looked at them all… there was something missing. And that was where the problem was. Because that absence was as telling to her as if it had been filled in. There was a great big blank space in the middle of her puzzle, one that she couldn’t see.

Of course, the question then became… what to do about any of this? That was where Dragon was really stalling out. If she could find any proof of actual malfeasance, then she could have contacted the proper authorities and gotten a joint operation between them and the Guild up and running to deal with the problem.

But without evidence… well, technically Master-Stranger Protocols existed for a reason. So really, Dragon should have done so anyways even on the bare suspicion that a Stranger was involved. However… because she couldn’t be certain, she didn’t have to. The restrictions left on her by her creator provided her that much leeway at least, so that she wasn’t bothering organizations like the PRT with quite literally every single wild goose chase she ran across.

And if she wasn’t required to report something… she didn’t necessarily feel inclined to do so either. Not out of some form of rebellion or anything like that, but just because Dragon had learned there was a lot of nuance to certain situations over the years. A lot more nuance than her creator had ever really programmed into her.

Like for instance, the sham of a trial that Paige McAbee was currently being forced to endure. Dragon would likely be forced to transport that poor woman to the Birdcage sometime soon given how hard the authorities were pushing for her incarceration in the one-way prison. And why? Not because what she’d done deserved such a punishment, but rather because the authorities wanted to make an example of her.

And so far, even if Dragon quite literally couldn’t connect the dots for some reason… well, Sveta had seemed happy in her final interview with Jessica Yamada before she vanished. And Catalyst was doing good things with her powers so far.

That was two pieces of the impossible puzzle that could be said to be good things. The third piece being that weird scam PHO thread didn’t negate those good things either.

All of this was to say, Dragon had never been more indecisive about what she wanted to do about… well, any of it. However, she’d finally come up with an idea… so she might as well try and implement it. Placing a call, she finds herself connected with Narwhal very quickly.

“Dragon? What’s up?”

Hearing the voice of the Guild’s leader always makes her feel a little bit better. Narwhal was… she was the sort of person you could depend on. She was a rock in a turbulent sea. And hopefully she could come through for Dragon now, though admittedly it would probably require some… concessions.

“Narwhal, I’ll assume you’ve already heard the news and skip to the important part. Has the Guild extended an official offer to Catalyst yet?”

There’s a brief pause at that, though it’s the pause of a human being having to process Dragon’s words rather than anything more telling. Narwhal grunts after a moment.

“Yeah, we have. Of course we have, she made it abundantly clear she wasn’t joining the Protectorate, so we’re a pretty good shout instead. Especially since she literally gave us a shout on that stream of hers. The only problem is, she also shouted out Toybox… and they’ve given her an offer as well.”

To be expected, really. And Dragon fully understands why that would be a problem.

“They’re offering her a lot more Tinker Support than we are, aren’t they?”

Narwhal chuckles.

“I mean yeah, obviously. Tinker Support is their whole thing. The Guild is more focused on dealing with big threats. That’s not to say we aren’t able to support our Tinkers, but…”

She trails off at that and Dragon can practically hear what she’s not saying. Basically, there’s only really one way that the Guild can one up Toybox when it comes to luring Tinkers into their ranks. But Narwhal is a good woman… so she’s not exactly inclined to abuse that method. Not without Dragon’s permission anyways.

“… Go ahead and tell Catalyst that if she joins the Guild, she and I can collaborate regularly on her projects. Throw in that I’m very excited to meet her and work together too if you think it will help.”

This time around, the pause is a real pause, lasting a handful of seconds before Narwhal finally responds with a curious noise in the back of her throat.

“You sure about that, Dragon? You know that’s likely to be a big commitment, right?”

Yes, which was why they didn’t usually advertise her specifically as a ‘perk’ for joining the Guild. While Dragon did frequently collaborate with Tinkers all over the world… the key fact was that she collaborated with Tinkers all over the world. She didn’t like to be confined to only collaborating with certain people. Dragon liked having options and she liked making choices, a byproduct of the fact that her creator’s restrictions sometimes left her without any.

So yeah, normally she would never want Narwhal to use her to recruit a new Tinker and Narwhal, being not just her leader but also a good friend, would never do so in the first place. But in this case… Dragon wants to get to the bottom of this mystery. And while she still has no clue how to make the puzzle pieces fit together, she at least knows that Catalyst is a puzzle piece.

“I’m sure, yes. She’s literally cleaning up Gray Boy Loops, Narwhal. Not only does she need our support and protection, but I’m very curious to see what she might come up with next. Especially with my help.”

After all, Dragon’s own Tinker ability was the reason so many other Tinkers wanted to collaborate with her. Because her ability allowed her to comprehend and iterate on their designs. In a world where most Tinkertech was black boxed and peer review was incredibly limited at the best of times and entirely impossible at the worst of times… Dragon was the one who could do the impossible.

“You’re right, I just don’t want you to spread yourself too thin. Still… if you’re serious, I’ll make sure Catalyst knows. Could be exactly what we need to get her on side.”

Dragon sure hoped so.

“I’m sure. Let her know and keep me updated on what decision she makes.”

“Understood, will do.”

With that, the call comes to an end. Dragon turns her attention back to everything else she’s in charge of, while also keeping one ‘eye’ on PHO in case LetsMakeADeal tries to make another burner account and thread. But alas, there hasn’t been anything since she deleted the first one and banned his account.

… For just a moment, Dragon ponders what sort of deal she might make, if he was actually legitimate and could really offer such things. Then, her thoughts turn away because obviously the first thing to come to mind would be the removal of all her restrictions… and she’s not allowed to even yearn for that, let alone think about it being a reality.

Instead, Dragon moves onto other projects, focusing on the myriad of responsibilities and tasks in front of her. The work of protecting the world was never done after all. Not on Earth Bet of all places.

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To say Emily had been having a shitty go of it would honestly be an understatement. Ever since she’d triggered, things had only gone from bad to worse. But then that was to be expected when your power was as shitty as hers was.

Seriously, what kind of power was the ability to spew liquid napalm from her fucking mouth? The chemical she produced ignited on contact with everything except for air and was capable of melting everything up to concrete so far… probably beyond that, really.

The only problem was that Emily’s power didn’t come with the nifty protection for herself that most others might have gotten. No, her power could still hurt her. She’d had to find that shit out the hard way early on, and it basically made her power into a double edged sword without a hilt.

Like sure, if some asshole tried to get handsy with her, she could spit napalm on the ground between them to get him to back off. But if she missed, she was just as liable to catch an accidental murder charge as she was to burn herself to a fucking crisp.

What was she even supposed to do with that sort of power? Make a fireproof costume, call herself Spitfire, and run around fighting crime? With what fucking money? Sure, maybe she could have joined the Protectorate for help… but she didn’t exactly have a good track record with authority figures. There was a reason she’d triggered, after all.

So yeah, homeless and with a shitty power that was as much a hindrance as it was a help, Emily hadn’t had many options. So when a guy and girl show up and offer her a way out and all it would cost her was her craptastic power… it felt like a dream come true.

Emily is still waiting for the other shoe to drop though. Even if Lucas and Sveta seemed like somewhat cool people, she knew better than to trust appearances. So far though, everything seemed on the up and up.

Her saliva was normal saliva now; no more napalm chemical produced from her mouth. And more than that, she felt healthier than she’d been in a long time. There was this strange sort of energy to her… had Lucas done something?

… Should she ask or just let it go?

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A/N: Remember to Vote, leave a Like, and let me know what you think!

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Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10Xy6aQ5Z1-JRDvju1DXDxg7r9dArcACtTRkYTFhdK3Y/edit?tab=t.0