Magnetic Attraction 1 (Patreon)

(Worm, Double OC Insert)

Commissioned by Kejmur

-VB-

Transition from one world to the next happened instantly, and he didn’t notice it.

He blinked, and suddenly, he was somewhere else. 

For a second, he thought he was dreaming. After all, he had just gone to bed. 

So Arthur -.

… Arthur wasn’t his name.

But it was, a corner of his mind objected. I am Arthur.

No, it’s not. His name was Albert.

Even as this mental debate raged on and yet begun to dissolve within themselves as the two arguing sides of his brain seemed to coalesce without an input from either of himselves(?), he found himself stumbling out of the bed and ran to his bathroom. He slammed the door open and ran for the toilet.

He gagged as his own mind opened up unwillingly. 

He cried as his mind was pulled in, screaming and begging.

He sobbed as the maw slammed shut. 

As his minds warped, screamed, and fused into a carelessly sewn memetic amalgamation of two terrified individuals, his body reacted to the horror, fear, and nausea such an experience produced. His vision swam, flipping as his own eyeballs moved erratically against his will. He lost the grip on the toilet, and collapsed to the floor. He struck the ground with his head and trembled with loud sobs as his head burned and throbbed with pain not from his head hitting the ground but because of the horror happening within his own head. 

Arthur-Albert watched and felt together as their minds melded with each other like conjoined twins. They screamed out loud as the two souls were butchered by unseen and malevolent hands only to be pieced together like a macabre masterpiece.

Like a man force fed human meat against his will, Arthur subsumed Albert.

Arthur gasped as the pain began to subside.

And cried for Albert, who was no longer for the world. He laid there, sobbing for a man who he had never met but whom he knew better than Albert’s own parents. 

-VB-

After that horrifying experience, Arthur called his office and called in sick, only to hear his secretary screaming at him about overdoing sex like a horn dog that he was to hold his spot on his bed until she got there.

Ha. She was a feisty woman.

She reminded Arthur of Albert’s twin sister.

He wanted to throw up. He wanted to cry. He … he …!

Arthur took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He did it again.

Then he was ready.

He ran to the bathroom and threw up in the toilet.

[Destination]. A stunningly bright crystalline worm wrapped itself around his head. [Symbiosis].

He stumbled out of the bathroom, unsure of what the fuck he just saw. He lost his sense of time as he wandered back and forth, still horrified and nauseous from whatever that had been. Was he hallucinating? He didn’t do drugs as a strict rule. Did someone spike his drink yesterday at the party? No, he knew everyone there. They were there to discuss business, not to “party” like degenerate teenagers and college students. They all drank from the same wine bottle, the same Bourbon (California farms have better stuff these days, though) and...

He heard the front door slam open and heard the stomping march of a rather irate woman shouting at him at high volume.

“I swear to God, Arthur, if you’re fucking another idiot girl again, I swear to God-!” she shouted before slamming the door open.

And paused.

Arthur looked up and saw a sexy woman with brunette hair tied up in a bun with stockings, black business skirt, a pair of D-cup boobs, a beauty mark left of her lower lip, and -.

“I swear to God, Arthur, if you are looking at my boobs again, then I will-” she growled as she lowered herself down to her knees to touch him where he lay slumped against the foot of the bed.

She touched his shoulder-.

- and collapsed.

Arthur lunged to catch her despite his own nauseous and got himself on the floor as she fell. She landed bonelessly on top of him, completely unconscious.

“Why do these things happen to me?” he grumbled out. 

As he laid there too tired and comfortable with a sexy woman on top of him, Arthur thought about himself, both Arthur Anders and Albert.

[Greetings]

‘… The fuck?’

[Symbiosis]

‘… Was that what that hallucination was about in the bathroom?’

[Confirmation. Quest. Agreement?]

So this was what his life was now. Not only did he experience something as horrifying as watching someone die within him, he was now a parahuman as well and his power talked to him. 

[Budding. Request. Agreement?]

“Fine,” he replied as he let himself just relax on the carpeted floor of his bedroom. 

-VB-

“Albert?”

The name woke him up, shocking his mind into overdrive, and he quickly sat up. He realized right there that it was Jessica, his secretary, who just called him that. She was sitting on her knees with legs spread apart behind her, staring at him with wide eyes. 

“Jessica?”

“You’re Albert,” she said with tears in her eyes. 

“... What the hell is going on?” he asked frustratingly. “How do you know that name?”

“I-It’s me, Albert. It’s Mary.”

Arthur blinked. “Mary?” Mary wasn’t a name too significant in Arthur’s life. But in Albert’s life, Mary was the name of his twin sister. “Mary?!”

Mary/Jessica laughed wetly as she glomped him in a lunging hug. He hugged her back, confused yet relieved that he had a familiar face - soul? - from Albert’s life. 

When they finally broke apart, they stared at each other.

“How did this happen?” he asked. 

“I don’t know,” she shook her head. “I just touched you, and something horrible happened…!” she choked out.

He grimaced. “You too?”

She blinked. “... Right. You don’t have Albert’s face. You’re also Arthur, Jessica’s boss.”

It was odd she was referring to Jessica as the lesser and Mary as the greater. 

“Who came out on top for you?” he asked.

“... Mary.”

He bowed his head a little. Did that mean that Jessica was dead within her own body? He never had any sexual or intimate relationship with his secretary, but at the same time, Jessica was his best employee and friend…

“Arthur came out on top.”

Jessica/Mary looked stricken. “O-Oh.”

“But I’m still Albert, too. It’s kind of hard to forget that his twin sister seduced him into a decade of incestous relationship,” he grinned cockishly.

She blushed and slapped him, a normal reaction from an embarrassed Jessica but not Mary. “See? Already acting like Jessica. You’re both Jessica and Mary.”

She still looked uncertain before nodding. “You’re not disgusted?” 

“Why would I be?” he asked because he wasn’t. Albert and Mary’s incestous relationship was one without a child or drama. It was biologically wrong, but Albert loved Mary regardless. 

She smiled. “But you still have to come to work. We had a call from your big brother.”

Arthur grimaced.

His big brother was Max Anders, the CEO of Medhall… and secretly, he was a supervillain - that’s a thing on this world! - called Kaiser.

The leader of a white supremacy criminal gang in the city of Brockton Bay. 

But the thing was Albert and Mary were Polish.

Arthur grinned as a wicked idea came up.

“You know,” he said as he stood up. “I think I have a goal in this new life.” 

“Huh?” she looked at me quizzically. “It wasn’t fucking girls?”

Arthur opened his mouth and closed it. Then he opened it again. “Well, it is-”

Jessica looked sensually at me with half-lidded eyes and puckered lips. 

“Maybe later,” he said with a grin. “But I have to go see Maxy soon or he might be upset like the control freak that he is.”

She pouted. “Argh, he ruins things even down here in New York.” she paused. “... So what are we going to do?”

“I,” he began. “Am going to put an end to Empire Eighty-Eight. It’s a disgrace on America.”

“I hope you’re not going to charge in there like Albert often did?”

“Oh no. I’ll be taking my cues from Arthur-side of me. Subtle, corrupting, and unseen influences will be used before I overthrow Kaiser and put an end to the racists.”

She nodded. “What about me?” she asked.

“... you could come with me. I would love to have you by my side as Albert always did.”

“We’re not exactly the monogamous types, Arthur,” she replied. “If I come with you, then it’ll be a competition to see who seduces the most people to our side.”

He chuckled. “I’m fine with that.”

“Does that mean that we’re moving the headquarters to Brockton Bay?”

He thought about it for a while before smiling. “I suppose Anders Holdings is moving to Brockton Bay for cheaper rent and manpower.”

-VB-

Unlike most businesses with annual net profit income of two million dollars after taxes (and yes, they paid taxes after spending a moderate amount of profit into equity), Anders Holdings - mother company of high risk, high reward stock investing Anders Investments and server lending business AnchorServers -  was not a conglomerate with a Board of Directors. It was a private business through and through that Arthur Anders had built up since he was sixteen years old by selling off the lucrative stocks of the Medhall Pharmaceutical for his seed money. 

It was a private business with only one owner: Arthur Anders. So when he announced that he would be moving to Brockton Bay, the business media were all over the story.

“I’m surprised,” Max said to me two months after the incident. Arthur looked up from the dinner they were sharing. “I didn’t think you wanted to come back to the bay after … what happened.”

‘What happened’ was the event that led to Allfather kicking him, Arthur Anders, out of the “family business” because he didn’t develop any power unlike his two siblings. To shut him up about the family’s connection to Empire Eighty-Eight, Allfather gave him a third of the shares of then new Medhall Pharmaceuticals. 

Of course, just because he was kicked out of the true family business did not mean that he stayed out of the city. As long as he wasn’t bothersome, the previous Anders patriarch never cared. 

But before the two of them came here, Arthur told Max about his new untested ferrokinesis. He did so to make himself look like someone who wanted familial recognition. He also noted how appearing as Kaiser’s sibling would be unwise as people can make connections between Kaiser and his new ferrokinetic cape and Max and Arthur. 

Max agreed to this and got him to promise to be Empire Eighty-Eight’s “outside” help. 

Arthur agreed to do so, completely aware of Max’s need for control. If he showed up in E88, then E88 would split as gangsters and cape lieutenants seeking to expand their influence would stick to me, whether I wanted it or not. 

That was “no bueno” in Max’s book.

“Things change,” Arthur replied with a smile. “I never congratulated on your new merger. Congratulations. I’ve been hearing about your exploits for the past year.”

“It is hard work,” Max sighed. “I had to balance the needs of my workers out with the demand of the buyers.”

Arthur knew that Max meant something else other than Medhall. Probably somewhere along the lines of ‘balancing the demands of the goons of E88 and his own cape lieutenants to that of capes and cape organizations outside of his organization.’ 

“Well, you know where I have to be soon,” Max said as he wiped his lips. “What will you do?” 

“I think I’ll go back home.”

“You mean your penthouse? You never sold it and the building’s housekeeper has been cleaning it…” Max trailed off. 

Arthur nodded. “Yes. I’ll be going … home after a long time.” ‘Will we be getting down to cape business soon?’

“Hopefully, I’ll see you again soon?” ‘I may need your power.’

“Of course, I’ll call you when I’m free.” ‘Give me some time.’

“Aren’t you full of free time?” ‘Why not at my discretion?’

“Business needs to be tested.” ‘Power test.’

“Ah. Very well. Call me when you are free.”

Arthur smiled for his older - disgusting Neo-Nazi - brother. “I’ll go first. Enjoy your evening, brother.” As he walked away, he planned on how best he could usurp his brother as the leader of the biggest cape organization. 

… He would need to better research each of the capes in E88 first. He should start with the one who he was the most familiar with outside of Max.

Rune.