Worth the Price Ch. 32 (Worm AU) (Patreon)

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

A/N: Everyone learns something new~

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… That was close. Sitting there in Faultline’s office, Lucas lets out a slow, explosive breath. There’s a reason he hadn’t stood up when the cape boogeyman revealed herself. Everyone else had been ready for a fight, but Lucas already knew the solution even if he still didn’t fully understand why it seemed so effective against this particular threat.

In the end, he’d used a portion of the energy he’d just gotten from the deal with Faultline and her Crew and upgraded his original power. That same ability that had allowed him to appear invisible to the fedora-wearing woman in their first interaction, had been… expanded.

He realizes he should probably say as much before anyone panicked.

“She shouldn’t bother us again any time soon. She only came because you all were outside of my protection but I was able to hide you from her perception before she could do anything. Whatever led her here in the first place should not lead her here again.”

There’s some blinks at that, with Faultline stilling for a moment behind her desk as she regards Lucas carefully. Finally though, she inclines her head.

“You have our gratitude then, Pact. The stories I’ve heard about that woman are sparse but no less horrifying in their content.”

Lucas has to agree. Not many people live to tell the tale, so to speak… let alone survive two different encounters with the cape boogeyman. If Lucas cared about internet brownie points he would have quite the bragging rights at this point… not that anyone would be likely to believe him. He’d sound as crazy as Void Cowboy if he went around saying he managed to trick the fedora-wearing woman into leaving him and his alone twice.

“Actually… I think her name is Contessa.”

Newter’s sudden interjection causes every eye in the room to redirect to him, including Lucas’. A name for the cape boogeyman? He’s suddenly very, very interested. Squirming a bit under all of their gazes, Newter just shrugs.

“I remember everything now. Including… including being in a cage. As one of their experiments. They kidnapped me off the streets, forced a disgusting liquid down my throat, and locked me up when my powers manifested. I remember a black woman dressed like a doctor looking down at me and talking to that woman about where to drop me off. She called her Contessa. They wiped my mind soon after.”

It’s obvious that Newter is doing his best to feign a nonchalant attitude. Just as it’s obvious that remembering everything that happened to him is disturbing him greatly. Lucas suspects the monster cape is just doing his best to hold himself together until he can find a bit of privacy to breakdown later. Admirable of him.

“… I cannot confirm that woman is named Contessa. However, I can confirm the existence of the other woman you speak of, Newter. She called herself Doctor Mother.”

Gregor the Snail’s words fill the silence and draw attention to him next. The other Case 53 is looking down at his hands as he remembers, though he doesn’t seem quite as distraught as Newter was.

“… I remember being offered a choice now. I was dying… my diagnosis was terminal. So that woman, Doctor Mother, came to me on my death bed and offered me an ‘experimental procedure’. She said she was working on behalf of an organization called Cauldron.”

Grimacing, Gregor looks almost apologetic as he glances towards Newter.

“Unlike you, my friend, I was told of the risks. I was warned that things might go wrong, that it might not work out. I… I went in with both eyes wide open; I willingly drank the vial they gave me. It mutated me… but it also saved my life. I am not… I do not know how to feel, knowing everything I know now.”

An uncomfortable silence falls as Newter and Gregor both look away from each other. On the one hand you have Newter who never had a choice. Kidnapped off the streets, taken and experimented on against his will… it was fucked up. And on the other hand, you had Gregor. He’d done it all of his own free will.

Would this create a divide between the two of them? Would having their memories back and knowing what they’d each experienced ruin the shared experience that had bound them together previously? Lucas frowns, not exactly thrilled by the prospect of his new recruits almost immediately having a falling out, even if it was a peaceful one.

SMACK!

… But he needn’t have worried. Faultline slaps her desk, startling everyone and drawing Newter and Gregor’s attention. She looks to Gregor specifically, growling a bit at him.

“Did you consent to having your memories taken from you? Did you consent to having them dump you on some street as an amnesiac monster with no clue who you were or where you’d come from?”

Blinking… Gregor shakes his head.

“I… I did not, no. It was always framed as either I would still die or I would be cured. A binary pair of options. I was not informed that all of this would be done to me…”

Faultline nods, satisfied.

“Then you’re just as much a victim of this Doctor Mother and her Cauldron as Newter was. They took you in under false pretenses, preyed upon you when you were at your most vulnerable, and used your fear of death against you. Then, they stripped you of your personhood and left you out in the cold with nothing but your power and a mutated body. They have a lot to answer for here… for both of you as well as every Case Fifty-Three that they’ve created and tossed out like so much trash.”

By the end of her little tirade, both Newter and Gregor have straightened up and squared their shoulders. Saying they ‘felt better’ because of Faultline’s words would probably be a little inaccurate… but the determination in their eyes makes it clear that they have found their common cause once more… if they ever truly lost it in the first place.

“Where can Cauldron be found, you two? Surely they wouldn’t wipe your memories if they weren’t afraid of the knowledge you’d gleaned. Where exactly did they experiment on you?”

Lucas tenses up a bit at that, his lips threatening to pulls back into a thin line. Because… well, as much as it seemed like Contessa, Doctor Mother, and this Cauldron organization needed to be taken care of, he highly doubted they were local to Brockton Bay. And that… that was a problem because Lucas had just bargained for Faultline and her Crew to help him in Brockton Bay. This would be a rather large pivot, but he didn’t want to have to throw his weight around too early…

Newter though just shrugs, wincing.

“That’s uh… well, that’s the kicker, I suppose. I’m not even from this Earth. And I don’t think Cauldron is either.”

Gregor nods along with him, looking quite grim.

“Newter is right. I too am not originally from this Earth. I believe Cauldron has access to multiple Earths with that portal power we saw Contessa use to enter your office, Faultline. It would make sense that their base where they experimented on us would not be anywhere on Earth Bet. That’s why they had to wipe our memories, because otherwise we would have told people and it would have gotten out.”

Oh. Well now. That… that changed things. That changed a lot of things. Lucas can’t help but be as shocked as everyone else in the room as Newter and Gregor’s admission. The reveal that there are more than just two Earths is… frankly, it seems almost obvious in hindsight.

And yet, all this time Lucas had never for a second thought there was more than Earth Aleph and Earth Bet. If Gregor and Newter were telling the truth (and Lucas did believe they were to be clear) then he hadn’t sacrificed a full half of humanity when he’d sold Earth Aleph down the river. That was… that was a bit of solace.

But he also couldn’t allow himself to spend too long thinking about it. He needed to focus on the here and now… the present.

“… What happens next?”

Funnily enough, Lucas isn’t the only one thinking that apparently. He slides his gaze over to Labyrinth; the young woman having pulled back the hood of her green cloak to reveal a pretty set of features. She looks much more cognizant and mentally present than she had when they initially brought her into the office.

But then to be fair, Lucas knew why that was… he had been able to feel how Labyrinth’s power messed with her mind, how it strained her mental processes in the same way Newter and Gregor’s powers fucked with their bodies. Through the deal, Lucas had been able to fix Labyrinth’s power so that it wasn’t quite so straining, leaving her able to continually string multiple thoughts together without spacing out like previously.

He gets the impression that she’s a smart girl when she’s not being addled by her own parahuman abilities. And with that little weakness taken care of, she’s going to be quite the dangerous powerhouse now. Her power was already extremely useful after all… and now she’s fully in control of it.

Of course, in the face of her question… everyone looks to Lucas, Faultline included. He is ‘in charge’ now after all. They’ve sold their service to him in exchange for all of the benefits he’s given them… including their memories back.

Fortunately, Newter and Gregor have given him a ready made excuse here and Lucas happily latches onto it, though he keeps the actual happiness from his face.

“I am not against you all continuing to investigate Cauldron down the line. In fact, I will be happy to help you pursue them further, eventually. I’ve run afoul of this ‘Contessa’ twice now and while I’ve been able to turn her away both times, I’d rather not risk a third… nor see what other secret weapons this ‘Cauldron’ can rely on.”

Lucas purposefully pauses before continuing on.

“That said… it sounds to me like they remain out of our reach for now. It will take us time, effort, and likely more energy in order to reach Cauldron, wherever it is they lie. In the meantime… I wish to continue my original plan of bringing something akin to order to the mess that is Brockton Bay.”

He can tell he gets general agreement at this, though Faultline isn’t fully willing to let sleeping dogs lie. Leaning over her desk, she looks at him closely.

“How exactly does that work? The energy? What gives you more of it? Is it just completing deals, or is there some other way you can gain more power?”

The funny thing is… Lucas gets the impression that Faultline is not probing out of maliciousness. She’s also not probing purely because she’s curious for curiosity’s sake either though. She’s intrigued for a reason… namely, because she’s realizing that getting him more power is likely to get her what she wants in turn.

Well, he’s already drawn everyone in this room to his service, so… he might as well tell the truth.

“The main way in which I gain energy and grow in power is through these deals of mine, yes. I can’t exactly explain where the energy comes from… I’m not necessarily taking from the people I make deals with as I understand it… you all certainly don’t feel weaker, do you?”

There’s a round of head shakes at that, even from Sveta and Emily. It is a bit strange, really. In cases like Emily or Alice for instance, it could be argued that Lucas is gaining power from altering or outright taking their powers. But everyone else he’s given more than he’s gotten, and yet… he still comes out ahead each and every time. Building bodies for Sveta and Dragon, making a technopathy ability for Dragon, unlocking memories, fixing Labyrinth’s power. Oh and not to mention…

“And yet, I’ve certainly held up my end of the deal, haven’t I? Newter, Gregor? Care to try out your new forms?”

Both monster capes jolt at that. Their new human bodies had been completely forgotten in the wake of everything they’d remembered. In a single moment, they both transform into perfectly normal human men. They look… slightly similar to how they did as monster capes, but only on a very basic level. This is what their subconsciouses decided they should look like, after all.

While Gregor revels in having a normal human body again, Newter swaps back and forth a few times, clearly stress testing the switch. It’s not an issue for him though, nor any sort of strain… the deal that they’d made had included it, and so it is now just something Newter can do, as easy as breathing.

Feeling rather smug, Lucas looks to Faultline… who is staring back at him with an intense feeling even though her face is still hidden by her mask.

“So in order for you to get stronger… you need to make as many deals as possible.”

“… That is correct, yes.”

“Rather than take down the gangs of Brockton Bay… would it not be better for your own personal growth to subsume them instead?”

Lucas blinks. Technically… Faultline is right. On the other hand, that’s purely on a mechanical level. From a more emotional standpoint…

“There are some groups here in Brockton Bay I have no intentions of subsuming. I do not intend to rub shoulders or make deals with slavers, neo nazis, or drug runners if I can help it.”

Indeed, the ABB, the Empire, and the Merchants were all just… too despicable for Lucas to want to involve himself with in that way. He would rather just wipe them all off the board one by one, even if it cost him potential deals in the process.

“Speaking of which, that’s where I want to start. With taking down the Merchants. What do you think?”

Faultline pauses for a moment, perhaps surprised at being asked her opinion. But after a moment of looking to her crew, she slowly nods.

“The Merchants are no threat. Frankly, you could have handled them by yourself. We’ll be overkill.”

Lucas grins wickedly.

“That’s exactly what I’m hoping for.”

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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/19lp-zTP2Uiy3qNoyvKbnzggBrN-4nhuM0KINl5vuyjQ/edit?tab=t.0