Magic Worm (Patreon)

An: Thanksgiving and hell Friday were unproductive, I blame the turkey or the relatives... so have a chapter of a worm story.

"You're nothing but a stain-" Sophia grabbed the person coming up behind her and tossed him into the wall of the abandoned shop next to their school, causing the teenager to flail forwards, slip on a banana peel like something out of a comedy skit, and slam face first into a graffiti covered wall. She was just about to kick the asshole when part of the graffiti on the wall started glowing with an eerie red light and she found herself elsewhere, along with the idiot that had been sneaking up on her.

"What the fuck?" Taylor sputtered as she found herself in a twisted forest with a collection of pulsing blue, red and green holographic squares covering half the ground. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the colors though everything fit together in a nice grid of three foot by three foot squares.

Sophia shifted her stance so she could keep the idiot on the ground and Taylor in sight. "Fucking capes."

"Are you seriously saying Greg is a cape?" Taylor asked in disbelief as she realized who Sophia had just floored.

Sophia blinked as the man that she'd thought was sneaking up on her shifted and she saw his face, realizing it was just Greg Veder. "Fuck! So much for that idea."

"Hey, I could be," Greg complained in a nasally way as he got to his feet, his lips and chin covered in blood because of his bleeding nose. "Why did you hit me?" he asked defensively, not sure what he'd done to deserve getting attacked.

"You were sneaking up on me," Sophia complained as she looked around, wondering where the damned cape was that had got the jump on her as it certainly wasn't these two idiots.

"I was just walking past," Greg complained as he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped at his bloody nose.

"Where the fuck are we?!" Sophia demanded, not sure what the fuck was going on or why there was a glowing white crystal square under where Greg was standing.

"I think we were teleported!" Greg said, his voice barely understandable thanks to the handkerchief covering his nose and his excitement.

Taylor glanced around the dark forest. "The graffiti started glowing when Greg hit the wall, some type of shaker effect?"

"Maybe," Sophia muttered as she poked at the crystal plate with her foot. "What the fuck is the deal with the glowing squares?"

"Aliens!" Greg exclaimed, his earlier annoyance at being tossed into a wall forgotten as his mind started running a mile a minute, pulling together everything he knew about the subject. "They either want to probe us or they needed a breeding pair!"

"Not very likely," Taylor muttered, figuring that if aliens were going to show up the PRT would have sounded an alarm and they weren’t likely to kidnap a couple of highschool students from some place like Brockton Bay considering the relative health of the city’s inhabitants.

Sophia tuned Greg out as she picked a direction and started walking, wanting to get away from his verbal diarrhea and figure out where they were and who she had to kill for sticking her there.

"How sad is it that this isn’t even my worst day this week?" Taylor muttered as she looked around, fairly sure following Sophia into a dark forest was a horrible idea. She glanced at Greg who was still talking about the various tests aliens would run without even noticing that Sophia was trying to leave. 'Might as well follow her; I‘d rather know where she is,' she told herself as she started following Sophia. "Let's go," she told Greg, not wanting to leave him behind.

Greg blinked a couple of times then hustled after Taylor.

Sophia frowned when they reached an old stone well that looked partially crumbled and she saw the sky, which was a weird mass of stars and nebulas, making her wonder if Greg might have a point. "Where the fuck are we?"

"Shit!" Greg blurted when a scarecrow with a jack o'lantern head stepped out from behind a tree in front of Sophia.

Sophia tossed herself out of the way, cursing when the creature slashed her shirt with its knife, "Fuck!"

Taylor reflexively swung her bookbag at the creature as it lunged at her, scoring a decent hit on its face and making it take a step to keep its balance.

"Die!" Sophia snarled as she lunged forward and slammed her fist into the creature's face, causing it to stagger backwards. She smirked as she phased her hand through the creature's hand and grabbed its knife now that Taylor and Greg were behind her. Her smugness lasted less than a second as the creature hit her with a fist, sending her flying backwards.

Taylor slammed her backpack into the creature's face again while Greg stumbled backwards in shock.

"It's mine!" Sophia snarled as she charged the pumpkin man with his knife and rammed it into his head, stabbing repeatedly until he fell apart into motes of light.

“The aliens have some weird robots,” Greg offered with a shrug.

“I seriously doubt there are aliens making scarecrow robots that turn into light when stabbed,” Taylor said, looking around nervously.

“Yeah… this is more like a video game,” Greg said with a frown. “Do you think someone teleported us into a video game?”

“That’s the…” Sophia’s voice trailed off and she frowned. “Fuck me, this is exactly the sort of thing I could see Uber and Leet doing.”

“Ohh treasure chest,” Greg said pointing at what looked exactly like you’d expect a treasure chest in a video game to look like. “I don’t suppose either of you have any lock picks on you?”

“Left ‘em in my other panties,” Sophia said dryly as she grabbed the handles on the sides of the chest and hefted it up to shoulder height before slamming it into a brick wall and breaking it open.

Taylor stared at the weird collection of loot in the opened chest, mostly the bow that was larger than the chest should actually be able to fit. "How…"

"Video game logic," Greg said matter of factly.

"Don't care," Sophia said as she reached in and grabbed the bow, slightly annoyed that it hadn't come with arrows. "Already chewed gum and a dried worm. What type of useless shit is this?" she asked as she grabbed the wrist band in the chest. She looked at the bright pink wristband then tossed it to Greg. "Maybe it gives you a power up," she lied.

"Thanks," Greg replied cheerfully as he put the wristband on his wrist.

Sophia opened her mouth to call him an idiot then closed it, not seeing a point. "Let's find some more things to stab, maybe we'll get lucky and find Uber, or some arrows and then find the two villains."

"I certainly have questions," Taylor admitted as they continued walking, a bit disturbed by the sky looking like something out of a sci-fi show.

Sophia frowned when she saw someone dressed in overalls walk out from behind a brick wall holding a staff. "I've got this."

Taylor frowned as she watched Sophia charge forward, slip to the side, grab his staff in a move that shouldn't have worked and stabbed him in the back with the stolen knife with a gleeful look on her face that made her a little worried for their chances of getting back safely. She winced as Sophia reached up and cut the man's throat without hesitation, causing him to turn into motes and vanish. "What the fuck?!"

"What? He was an NPC," Sophia replied as she tossed the staff to Taylor.

"Or Leet or Uber," Taylor pointed out.

"Same difference," Sophia replied, not particularly concerned as she continued walking through what looked like an abandoned park if you ignored the glowing squares.

"You can't tell me you're honestly surprised that she'd stab random people," Greg said, cocking his head to the side.

"He wasn't random, he was in front of me. None of this is real, stab anyone you like," Sophia replied then frowned. "Other than me," she added, wanting to be clear.

"Makes sense," Taylor lied, fairly sure Sophia’s willingness to stab people had nothing to do with them being stuck in some sort of weird simulation. She blinked when a jack o'lantern leapt out at Greg and he unleashed a three hit combo without even seeming to think about it, before jumping and striking out with his foot, barely making it shift back half a step as Greg fell on his ass.

“Owie!” Greg squealed.

Sophia laughed as she stepped forward and slashed open the creature's straw filled stomach, her elbow catching it in the head and cracking it to the side before it dissolved into sparks of light. “Funniest shit, I’ve seen all day.”

“Okay, I can punch, but I can’t kick. I wonder if I can throw a fireball,” Greg said aloud as he got to his feet and cupped his palms before pressing his wrists together and shoving them towards a wall. “Hadoken!”

The two girls looked from him to the untouched wall and back again.

Greg shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”

“Yeah, that is the type of shit they’d put into a game,” Sophia admitted. “Just remember not to experiment while pointing at me and we’ll be fine.”

"Agreed," Greg agreed quickly, not wanting to give her a reason to stab him.

Taylor blinked and saw red when a red haired girl dressed in a cheerleading outfit with a pair of pom poms stepped out from behind a wall and lunged at her.

Greg stared in disbelief as Taylor went from standing there to beating the holy shit out of the cheerleader, swinging the staff like she was Joe Pesci and the girl owed her money, breaking the girl's ribs and caving in her skull with her teeth bared like Taylor was just one step short of trying to rip out the girl’s throat with them before the redhead vanished like the rest, leaving him wondering if that was just something schoolgirls did that he hadn’t noticed before.

'Huh,' Sophia thought, a bit surprised by Taylor's actions, it was like someone had flipped a switch and she went from a meek as hell waste of space to someone worth knowing.

Greg glanced at the staff Taylor was holding and wondered if the combat 'style' was a function of the weapon or if Taylor had just lost it. He blinked when he realized the pain in his nose was gone. "Huh, my nose feels better."

"You're standing on a green panel," Taylor pointed out. "I wonder what the others do?"

"No clue," Greg said as he stepped onto the blue panel. "Nothing?"

"Let's test the red ones," Sophia said as she tried to shove Greg onto the red panel, mostly because he was closer than Taylor and she had the staff. "Huh, he's not moving." She stepped forward and shoved Taylor onto the red panel and smiled as the red square pulsed and Taylor's face went pale. "What happened?"

Taylor stumbled off the red square and onto a green square, "Cure!" she chanted reflexively, sending a wave of yellow energy cascading down her form, suddenly feeling better. "Huh, that was weird…" she trailed off as the green square seemed to heal the rest of the weakness and pain she was feeling. "I think the green ones heal and the red ones hurt, it did not feel good."

"Huh, lesson learned," Sophia replied with a grin, making a mental note to avoid the red squares. "What was with the spell?"

"No clue," Taylor admitted, figuring it had something to do with the staff or at least that was the only thing she could think of.

"Personal healer," Sophia mused as she continued walking.

Greg kept glancing between the ground and his surroundings, trying to make sure he knew where the glowing squares were so he didn't step on a red square. He tossed himself towards a blue square when a body dressed like a punk stepped out of a recessed section where it had been 'hiding'.

Taylor glanced at the zombie that was slowly lurching towards Greg, figuring he had at least twenty seconds before it closed the eight feet it needed to reach him. "Cure!" she said as she pointed her staff at the zombie, curious if her 'spell' would work on enemies.

Sophia blinked when the zombie was ripped apart by a glowing light and everything changed, dropping them in the circle of a bunch of stone pedestals, with Greg standing on another crystal plate and the sound of a slot machine paying out. "What the hell, Hebert?"

"Pretty sure that killed it," Taylor pointed out, less than happy with the broken terrain and the burning sun in the sky, especially since she had a brief flash of the lid of a cooking pot and a pile of 326 silver coins when the sound of the slot machine stopped.

"We obviously advanced a level," Greg said as he picked himself up and dusted himself off as if he hadn't been panicking.

"Sure, let's go with that," Sophia muttered as she looked around, wishing she had a grappling hook or Kid Win's hoverboard because moving around was going to be annoying.

"Did anyone else get an image of a pot lid and 326 silver coins?" Greg asked, wondering if he was losing it.

Sophia stared at Greg, surprised that he knew the exact number of coins in her vision and about the pot lid. "Yes?"

"Same," Taylor admitted as she looked around, trying to figure out where they needed to go.

"Maybe we have an inventory…" Greg trailed off as a floating transparent window appeared in front of him showing sixteen slots. "We have an inventory!"

"Right…" Sophia trailed off as she thought about opening her inventory and a window appeared with sixteen slots. "I'm going to murder Leet if he stuck a datajack in my head."

"You know what a datajack is?" Greg asked in surprise.

"I have a younger brother," Sophia replied as she jumped the three foot gap and landed on a pillar so that she could get a better view of the surrounding area. "Demons? Flying girls, not sure what to call them, we're going to need some type of ranged weapon."

"I'd settle for a weapon," Greg complained as he looked around.

"As long as they don't have ranged weapons we should be fine-" Taylor dove to the ground as she caught sight of a ball of fire flying in their direction a second before everything exploded in fire and her world was consumed by pain.

Greg tumbled off the platform and landed on top of a chest on a lower platform, half dead from the fire and the fall.

"Cure!" Taylor chanted, healing herself as Sophia charged the person that was dressed like a lunch lady holding a staff.

Sophia tumbled and rolled to her feet, dodging another fireball by inches. She sprinted towards the woman causing the trouble, tapped her power a bit and sailed over the gap then dropped her power and stabbed the woman in the face to distract her so she could steal her staff. She tossed the staff in the open inventory window and slipped behind the woman. She took a second to look at where Taylor was hiding behind a raised pillar then quickly grabbed the woman's apron and phased it off the fat pig before slitting her throat. She stuffed the apron in her inventory then looked around for her next target. "Are you alive?"

"Yes," Taylor called out from behind the pillar.

"Is Greg alive?" Sophia asked, curious if he'd gotten himself killed and if he left a body, mostly because it would tell her how careful she had to be.

"Not sure," Taylor replied as she worked her way over to where he'd probably fallen so she could heal him.

"This hurts," Greg complained, wincing and nearly screaming when he felt a stabbing pain from broken ribs.

"He's talking," Taylor told Sophia as she jumped up to the next pillar, slightly surprised that she made the four foot vertical jump without a problem before blowing it off as part of the system. "Cure," she said as she pointed her staff at Greg, repairing the burns over his body and putting some of his ribs back in the proper position. "Cure," she tried again as he slumped off the chest and hit the ground, repairing the rest of his injuries.

"Thank you," Greg replied, relieved that the pain was gone and he could talk without hurting himself. He carefully got to his feet and poked at his ribs, wanting to make sure everything was back where it was supposed to be. He frowned when he tried to open the chest and realized the heavy looking wooden chest wasn't actually that heavy. He raised it over his head then slammed it on the ground and grinned when it popped open. "They're lighter than they look."

"What did we get?" Taylor asked, keeping an eye out for threats, fairly sure Sophia could take care of herself.

"A cape, a slingshot, gloves and a can of soda," Greg replied as he took the four items and stuck them in his inventory. "Huh, I was right! Our inventory gives us a description! The cape gives us 10 defense and 6 resistance against magic attacks, the slingshot conjures stones, the gloves lets us steal something once and drinking the soda restores twenty spell points which is probably what you're using to cast magic."

"At least you have a ranged combat option," Taylor said as she knelt down and helped Greg back up, wondering how much trouble Sophia had gotten into, at least until she noticed a fireball explode in the distance and a flying monster fall out of the air.

"Thank you," Greg replied as he put the cape on, feeling a bit more like an actual hero despite the fact that it looked a bit like a cheap Halloween cape. He pulled the slingshot out of his inventory and jumped to the next pillar, looking forward to kicking some monster ass now that he had some actual armor. "Let's kick some ass and chew bubblegum."

"Do you even have any bubblegum?" Taylor asked.

"I'm all out of bubblegum," Greg said smugly, leaving Taylor shaking her head in confusion as he jumped to the next pillar.

'Whatever,' Taylor thought as she jumped to the next pillar, fairly sure leaving Sophia alone wasn't a good idea.

Sophia had never been much of an arsonist, but she was reevaluating her stance on setting things on fire, mostly because it was fucking amazing to watch the monsters die screaming or flail around on fire like the case of the marionettes when she hit them with a fireball.

"Fire!" Sophia said, causing a fireball to fly into a strange mushroom creature and ignite it, leaving her feeling strangely empty. "Fire?" she said as she pointed her staff at another marionette on a pillar about twenty feet away, causing nothing to happen. "I need a crossbow," she muttered as she stuck her staff in her inventory with the rest of her stolen loot. She blinked and stared when she read the description on the bow and realized it didn't need arrows.

Sophia pulled the bow out of her inventory, aimed at the marionette and opened fire, creating an arrow that sunk into the marionette and caused it to start moving towards her. "Not exactly realistic but I'll take it."

Greg raised his slingshot to use it and blinked when his wristband vanished, making him miss the shot and almost hit Sophia, thankfully the conjured stone hit the succubus that was flying in to stab her so he could just pretend that she'd been his target all along. "Look out!"

Sophia jumped back and shot the winged woman, dropping her into range so she could use her knife.

Greg squealed when something hit him from behind, sending him to the ground in pain.

Taylor dashed forward and bashed the marionette that had jumped out of the pit and hit Greg in the back over the head then continued hitting it until it fell apart and the pieces vanished. She pointed her staff at Greg. "Cure!"

Greg sighed in relief as the pain vanished. "Thanks."

"Learn to dodge," Sophia suggested. "The staffs have a limited charge, don't waste it."

"Working on it," Greg grumbled.

"It has a decent amount of energy left," Taylor told her, thinking about the well of energy she could sort of feel now that she was touching the staff.

"Cool," Greg said as Sophia jumped to the next platform, wishing Sophia wasn't such an ass because she had a nice one.

Taylor kept an eye out for stragglers as Sophia and Greg worked on killing everything from a distance, a strategy that mostly worked on the marionettes, cheerleaders, lunch ladies and janitors they ran into over the next couple of hours as they navigated the annoyingly large map filled with monsters and pillars they had to jump between. "Lookout!" she shouted when she saw a succubus pop out from behind cover and toss a fireball at Sophia.

Sophia screamed as she tried to toss herself out of the way and the blast caught her anyway, lighting her jacket on fire and burning her arm.

"Cure!" Taylor chanted as she pointed her staff at Sophia.

"Die evil doer!" Greg exclaimed as he worked on shooting the succubus that was flying around.

"Less talking!" Sophia snapped as she worked on shooting at the monster as she sprinted towards a pillar so she could use it for cover.

"Cure!" Taylor scowled as her second cure spell failed because Sophia ran out of range or at least she was fairly sure that was the reason it fizzled. "You're out of range!"

"Get over here!" Sophia snapped, trying to ignore the fact that her arm still hurt, even if it wasn't the blinding agony from a couple of seconds ago.

"Ahh!" Greg screamed as a fireball caught him as he ran towards a pillar.

Taylor ducked the fireball the demon sent her way. "Cure!" she said as she ran past where Greg was sprawled on the ground, healing the damage the fireball had caused completely. 'Maybe the stupid cloak actually helps?' she mused as she tossed herself behind a pillar as the succubus tossed another fireball her way.

Sophia scowled as she missed with another arrow as the flying demon moved unexpectedly. "Stop dodging!"

"Let me see the fire staff," Taylor told her, tired of getting shot at.

"It's out of power!" Sophia snapped as she ducked back to avoid a fireball.

"Let me try!" Taylor snapped, fairly sure the energy was internal.

"Whatever," Sophia complained as she pulled the fire staff out of her inventory and handed it to Taylor.

Taylor stuck her healing staff in her inventory and waited for the succubus to toss another spell at Greg that he barely avoided then leaned around the pillar, pointed the staff at the demon and shouted, "Fire!"

Sophia blinked and stared as the ball of flame flew from the end of the staff and exploded in the succubus' face, singing her wings and causing her to drop a couple of feet before she recovered. "What the fuck?!"

"Fire!" Taylor shouted, sending a ball of fire into the succubus that finished it off.

"That should be out of charges," Sophia complained.

"It probably uses mana!" Greg said excitedly as he hurried over, looking at the staff like it was a new car or computer and he wanted to take it for a test drive.

Sophia scowled as she realized Taylor had a larger supply of mana than she did, considering the number of times she'd healed her and Greg and the number of fireballs she'd cast already exceeded the number of fireballs she'd managed to cast before feeling drained. "You should probably save your energy for healing," she warned her then stalked off, wanting to shoot something to prove that she was better than the losers.

Taylor swapped back to the healing staff, figuring Sophia had a point, mostly because she could feel her energy decreasing every time she used a spell and she wasn't sure how long it would take to regenerate or if her energy regenerated at all.