Fanfic / Another Way

Another Way is a Worm fanfic by ack1308. Other works by the same author include Recoil, I'm HALPING, Hope Comes to Brockton Bay, Security! (Worm), and A Darker Path.

Almost ten years before the start of Worm, the Brockton Bay Brigade confronted the supervillain Marquis in his home. During that fight, Marquis's daughter was threatened, and he took a crippling blow to save her life. In due time, this led to his being sent to the Birdcage and his daughter's adoption by the Brigade. But what if things had gone another way...where Marquis revealed his daughter's presence and turned the tables on the Brigade?

Also published on SpaceBattles.com (here), Sufficient Velocity.com (here), and Questionable Questing (here).

There is a further brief spin-off, Yet Another Way, exploring a third outcome of the conflict between Marquis and the Brigade, where Amelia was killed by Brandish, and Marquis retaliates. Links: FFN, SB, SV, QQ.

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This work contains examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptational Relationship Change: Instead of the trauma of the alley, Emma and Taylor meet Sophia when they all place in a school race. Furthermore, Sophia hasn't yet triggered with a Breaker power warping her personality. Sophia is impressed with both of them as a result, and they become fast friends.
• Allohistorical Allusion: Taylor texts Emma and gets a nasty reply, cutting off their friendship and choosing Sophia instead. But it didn't really come from Emma, it was from her kidnapper.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Marquis reminds his daughter of this principle in one of their discussions. As powerful and skilled as he is, he knows that there are capes out there he wouldn't stand a chance against (i.e. the Triumvirate).
• Ascended Extra: Deputy Director/Acting Director Renick. When the first Director is killed, he's bumped into the top spot and gets quite a bit of screen time.
• Bait-and-Switch: Taylor is panicked when she realises that the flow of blood from her dad's wound has stopped — until Marchioness reassures her that it's because he's been healed.
• Batman Gambit: When the Brigade breaks into Marquis's house for the second time, they find a note informing them that he's departed, and that if they hang around his house too long a most uncomfortable fate will befall them. As Marquis predicted, the note only spurs Brandish to insist that they double and triple-search the house for a clue as to his location... which delays the Brigade long enough for the police to respond to the burglar alarms and show up to arrest the people who broke into his house. And since they don't have proof that the inhabitant was in fact the notorious parahuman criminal Marquis, had no warrant, or any connection to the police, they're quickly arrested and humiliated.
  • It becomes even more humiliating when Acting Director Renick reveals that Marquis left a clue in the first letter of each paragraph of the note.
  Brandish, my dear (she read).
  On the off-chance that you are reading this, then it means that we have flown the coop and that you have returned to my home on a fruitless errand. On the one hand, I am sorry that I was not here to greet you and show you proper respect. On the other, I am unsure as to how much respect to show you; you were, after all, willing to use my own child against me, knowingly or no.
  So that you understand this; my daughter is the most precious thing in the world to me, and it is for her sake and only for her sake that I am taking this step. I know well that should I remain in Brockton Bay, you would never cease attacking me, and I fear that where one learns my identity, others will follow. Not all of them, dear lady, would be as concerned for the well-being of a child as you are.
  Thus, I must go. My little girl and I must venture into the wide world, to seek our fortunes elsewhere. Talking about fortunes, those of my assets that you have already had frozen, after your ill-fated foray into my home? A mere fragment of my true worth. So sorry to have disappointed you.
  Off we go, dear Brandish, far from Brockton Bay and the madding crowd alike. Search as you like, you will find neither us nor any clue to our destination. We will be as ghosts in the crowd, never to be seen again.
  Now, I understand that you have a certain animosity against me, but this impulse should be tempered; I tell you now, you should not have returned to my house. If you do not leave at once, it is likely that you will undergo a most unpleasant experience. However, I do not expect you to follow my directives, so feel free to do as you wish. I remain,
  Ever yours,
  Marquis​
• Big Fancy Gun: Sherrel's hastily Tinkered weapon isn't pretty at all, given her specialization, but it makes an impression on Crusader, since it's really meant to be a vehicle mounted gun.
  It was big and ugly and lumpy, and he was sure he saw parts of the toaster sticking out of it.
• Boring, but Practical: The Mercia are nothing special, as capes go. Minor Mover and Brute ratings, that's all, enough to make them lift surprising weights, take a few hits without going down, and be very good at parkour. But Marchioness can give those ratings to anyone, because they're not true capes, they just have a package of biological optimisations that she's developed, improving their eyesight and bone strength and muscle mass and reaction speeds. One on one, they would go down to the gangs' heavy hitters, but when Marquis employs dozens of them, they quickly get the upper hand over regular thugs and enable a thriving protection business.
  It was as though the fight had been choreographed and the Empire thugs were playing through in slow motion, while Marquis' men were not slowed down at all. The men in black moved around their opponents in what seemed almost to be a dance, but with each swing of a baton, a limb flailed uselessly or a weapon fell to the ground. The dance only lasted for a few seconds; as a finale, four solid meaty thuds were followed by four Empire members collapsing to the ground, down and out. Their three opponents still stood, apparently unharmed. They barely even seemed to be breathing hard.
• Bribe Backfire: Marquis' approach to ensuring that Claire's bodyguards can't be bribed is to give them an open offer. If anyone offers them a bribe to betray him, they're to accept it, string the person along, then report all the details back to Marquis and be rewarded with double the payment.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: When the PRT learns that Marchioness can heal everyone in an area, even from critical injuries, and is willing to attend Endbringer battles for free, they order the Brockton Bay Brigade not to lay a finger on her, or on Marquis as long as he's with her, because there could be countless lives at stake.
  Brandish: And what if he's committing a crime? What then?
  Renick: Let me make my position abundantly clear. If they are in the process of walking out of the Brockton Bay Central Bank, carrying bags of stolen cash, then you are to open the doors for them and wish them a good day. Is that perfectly understood?
• Car Fu:
  • Jonas' opening move against Hookwolf is to ram him with a car, before jumping out to fight hand to hand.
  • Abigail rams Lung into a wall to protect Marcus from him. It damages the four wheel drive and dislocates her shoulder, but it's effective.
• Color Me Black: Marchioness decides that it's fitting to rebuild captured Empire 88 members' bodies as Jamaican, or Middle Eastern, or African. Along with a temporary Perception Filter so they don't notice the changes for several days.
• Crime of Self-Defense: After a shootout between Claire's bodyguards and some Gesellschaft thugs, Abigail is almost arrested for, in Claire's words, "being the last one standing." Marquis is able to apply pressure to have her released, though.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check:
  • Marchioness quickly makes it clear that she's not healing for free (except for Endbringer battles), she's going to make money.
  • When Marquis is suspected of robbing a bank (it was a Blasto clone), he responds by walking into the PRT, claiming that in his years away, he'd gotten rich enough that there would be no point in him doing something as petty as armed robbery, and then proves it by cutting a check for the bank to reimburse them for their loss on the spot. And a second one to cover the medical bills of the people who were wounded in the robbery.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: As soon as the threat of harming Amelia is removed from the equation, Marquis defeats the Brigade with humiliating ease, even with his self-imposed handicap of not harming women or children.
• Deadly Dodging: The nice thing about attacking a Tinker in their own lab is that any missed shots can make a start on destroying the place. Especially when fighting a Lung clone that throws fire everywhere.
• Deadman Switch: Marquis makes the Brigade yield their fight and leave, by filling Manpower's lungs with bone. If they were to kill him, Manpower would soon suffocate; only direct intervention by Marquis removing the bone can save him.
• Defiant to the End: Lung is not especially disrespectful when overpowered by Marquis, but he chooses to die rather than surrender and submit to Marquis' terms. Marquis, in turn, shows him the minor respect of execution by beheading, rather than shredding his organs from the inside.
  I will die on my feet, rather than live on my knees.
• Drives Like Crazy: Abigail's power makes her an absurdly skilled driver when she needs to be — such as racing to intercept Lung and prevent him from slaughtering people in Marquis' territory, which she accomplishes in record time.
  This wasn't to say she hadn't broken a few road rules. As far as he could see, she'd broken them all; at least, the ones he was aware of. Of the few she hadn't shattered outright, the majority of those were probably severely bent and traumatised as well. Two separate police cars had made abortive attempts at giving chase, and had been left behind with equal ease.
• Drugs Are Bad: Marquis has a particular dislike for drug-runners, and especially those willing to sell to children. Needless to say, this puts him in a conflict with the Merchants.
  • A very brief conflict.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: Lung ducks under a bone projectile, internally critiquing the poor aim, and then looks around to see all his men enmeshed in a cage of bony struts that has sprung out of it.
• Forced to Watch: The Orchard gets annoyed enough by Sophia's viciousness that they take Emma away first, promising to bring her back as a slave doll just so that Sophia can see what's happened and know she's next.
• Frame-Up: Blasto creates clones of Marquis and Lung, in order to have them slaughter innocents and draw the PRT's ire to eliminate Blasto's competition.
• Friendly Enemy: Officially, Marquis is still a criminal and the PRT would like to arrest him and send him to the Birdcage. Unofficially, once they learn what Marchioness can do, and that she's willing to help with Endbringer battles for free, they order the Brigade to do absolutely nothing that could harm or upset her, and they even consider getting Marquis' permission to provide her with a protection detail.
• Going Cold Turkey: Subverted with Traction (or Squealer, as she would have been known in canon). Even after Marchioness removes all the withdrawal symptoms, she still wants drugs, despite knowing what they're going to lead to.
• Good Parents: For all his questionable morals as a citizen, Marquis is actually an excellent father (which only intensifies the cognitive dissonance for Brandish). He's kind, supportive, protective, while also encouraging Claire to reach her full potential.
  "I'm just trying to find my balance in all of this."
  He smiled down at her. "You'll find it. I have faith in you."
• Hybrid Monster: As per canon, Blasto is able to splice DNA from multiple species together to create his bio-engineered servants. And then he obtains samples of Marquis' bone and Lung's scales, mixes them with some honey badger, and produces a monster that even Marchioness' battle form isn't ready to fight. She can, however, lead it on a merry chase and then make it turn on him.
• I Resemble That Remark!: This is Taylor's reaction to being told that no one else can get a word in edgewise around her.
  Emma: Well, yeah ... what?
  Taylor: You heard me.
• Immoral Journalist: Defied by "Earl Marchant", who makes it clear to the editors of Brockton Bay's newspapers that if they try publishing photos of his 13-year-old daughter, he's wealthy enough to buy their publication and fire them all.
• Immune to Bullets: One of the standard enhancements that Marchioness likes to give her friends is subdermal armour, capable of stopping pistol shots. Her own armour serves her well when Blasto shoots her in the chest.
• In-Joke: Claire asks Mega Girl to "Tell Brandish that Marquis' little girl says hi. And that the table didn't really deserve it." Mega Girl doesn't understand the reference, but Brandish very much remembers her violent outburst of furniture destruction upon learning that Marquis had fled the coop.
• In Vino Veritas: When Deputy Director Renick expresses curiosity about what Ellisburg was like, Director Piggot tells him that he won't find out until medical science manages to repair her kidneys so that they can get very drunk together, and then she'll tell him everything.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Marchioness offers the Orchard a chance for Any Last Words? before she kills them. One threatens her, the other offers to work with her, but she's not interested in either one and cuts their throats before they can finish.
  Marchioness: I said last words, not a last speech.
• Large Ham: Marquis loves to be dramatic, which is, naturally, aggravating for his teenage daughter, but he's generally powerful enough to get away with it.
  I love you dearly, Dad, but do you really have to ham it up like this? She didn’t even need to voice the question out loud. The answer, as long as she’d known him, was ‘yes’.
• Le Parkour:
  • Abigail's power makes her an Instant Expert in physical activities, allowing her to run rooftops and swing on streetlights.
    Twisting in a way that would've been impossible before she got her powers, she caught a streetlight and swung off it, then stuck the landing on the wall of the building across the narrow roadway.
    Without so much as a pause, she swarmed to the roof of the new building, sprinted across the flat surface, and cleared the dividing alleyway with never a qualm. In her element now, she headed toward the location she'd been given, instinctively mapping out her path before she ever got to it. To her, a rooftop was a runway, a parapet was a springboard, and an irregularity in the brickwork was an open invitation saying, "climb here!".
  • The Mercia, with their enhanced strength and speed and balance, can do something similar, travelling along roofs (or even streets flooded with water and debris by Leviathan) faster than most people could run on flat ground.
• Living Lie Detector: Marchioness can gauge someone's attitude and sincerity from viewing their brain chemistry. She uses it to screen potential employees, deciding who is worth trusting and enhancing, and who should be shuffled aside and fed disinformation.
• Morph Weapon: With Marquis nearby when she triggers, in addition to her shadow state, Sophia gets the ability to shapeshift her hand into different weapons; a spear head, trident, sickle, etc. Plus, when she's in shadow state, the weapon hurts her target without leaving a mark.
• Mugging the Monster: When the ABB blocks the street with a dumpster and then a van pulls out behind, trapping the car inside, Marquis decides it's as good a time as any to announce his return to the city. (Since the muggers are just a handful of mundane gang members, while Marquis was able to single-handedly defeat the entire Brockton Bay Brigade while intentionally avoiding harm to the women among them, it's not really a contest.)
  Dao: You got something to say before you pay toll?
  Marquis: Toll? Why would we pay toll?
• Mundane Utility: Abigail carries a tanto blade selected not for killing potential, but for its strength and durability. She can stab people with it, and has, but she mostly uses it as a pry-bar.
• Off with His Head!:
  • Marchioness takes this trope in an entirely unexpected direction, since she can keep detached heads alive, and even directly manipulate them to make use of their powers. For her, decapitating an enemy is more than an execution, it's enslavement.
  • Played straight when Marquis decapitates Lung after thoroughly curbstomping him.
• One Hero, Hold the Weaksauce: Marchioness appears to have all of Panacea's powers, but without her three major limits (inability to affect her own body, touch-range only, and refusal to do anything to the brain (although in canon, that wasn't a limit of her powers, it was a limit of her morality. Like the Moral Event Horizon entry in the YMMV section, Canon Amy had a line of "No touching the brain" that she refused to cross until she did, and Glory Girl paid the price).
  • Marchioness does have a limitation in that her powers are much more closely linked to her emotional state; specifically, that they affect people according to how she feels about said people. If she really likes someone, her power will automatically help and heal them. If she despises someone, it's really hard for her to heal them, and easy to hurt them. With increased emotional effect also comes increased range... and conversely, it's difficult for her to fight someone she doesn't hate, eg if they're Mastered or just following orders.
  • Furthermore, for any non-standard changes to her body, she has to use her power to maintain them. The more changes she make, the harder it is to maintain them, especially if the changes are non-human.
  • And though she has a range now, touch-based usage is still much more precise and controlled. And the further away someone gets, the slower and less precise her possible actions become.
• Operation: Jealousy: Claire can tell that two of her friends like each other but Cannot Spit It Out. So she grabs the boy by the lapels and kisses him on the lips, successfully turning his crush pink and kick-starting their relationship.
  Roger: You kissed me!
  Claire: And see what Lindsey thought about that.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Claire's Affectionate Nickname is "Claire-bear", so she calls her father "Daddy bear". Marquis likes it as a term of endearment, but he also thinks it's quite appropriate because he would rend apart anyone who hurt her.
  • Abigail hears that someone was arrested after attacking Marchioness, and considers that person to have been very lucky Marquis was so lenient; "the only way she could see that moron surviving to be handed over to the PRT was if they'd been a woman."
• Plausible Deniability:
  • Part of Danny is curious about how "Earl Marchant" intimidated the mayor's office into granting him the permits he needs for starting work on the Boat Graveyard. The larger part of Danny figures it's better that he remains officially ignorant.
  • The Mercia don't actually ask Danny whether he wants them to kill whoever kidnapped Emma and Sophia, they just ask whether he wants to press charges, but he gets the message. His response similarly has double meaning: "Their safety is paramount. Everything else is secondary."
    Mercia: Understood, sir.
• Point of Divergence: The failure to nab Marquis and the subsequent arrest at the hands of the Brigade prevents the New Wave movement once Acting Director Renick explains exactly how stupid the idea is. As a result, one of the Brigade's members isn't killed and the child members of the Brigade receive training with the Wards, preventing Vicky's... enthusiastic takedowns of criminals that she had in canon. All of the Brigade still have secret identities, as well.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Upon Marquis returning to Brockton Bay, he demonstrates repeatedly that he's the lesser evil than the other gangs. He doesn't care about the law, but he's not sadistic, and Even Evil Has Standards. If you do good work for him, he'll pay well; if you pay your protection fees, you're protected; if you betray him, expect death. Or, with Marchioness around, maybe something worse.
  Marquis: I find it useful to practice courtesy in my everyday dealings, while maintaining a reputation of implacability for when it is needed. Once people learn that you can be worked with, but not around, they tend to keep coming back.
• Professional Killer: When Kaiser demands to know why Krieg would accept a contract on Danny Hebert even though the Empire has no grudge, Krieg's answer is simple. "Twenty thousand, in the hand."
• Protection Racket: Defied by Marquis, who repeatedly explains that his Mercia are a legitimate security business, and when customers pay protection fees, they actually get protection. It's a rather surreal experience for Danny Hebert to have a mugging interrupted by a group of black-clad men offering to handle the situation for a hundred dollars.
  Mercia: Oh, I do apologise. I forgot; families get a twenty percent discount. Eighty dollars.
• Pummelling The Corpse: Repeatedly applying Damsel of Distress' power will result in someone being not just dead but gone, leaving only a crater.
• Ring Out: Leviathan retreats after being flung 73 miles offshore by Marchioness' giant plant creature.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Claire is most unhappy after Hookwolf decapitates Marquis, and all her opponents suffer for it.
• Scarecrow Solution: Marcus, the clone of Marquis, pretends to be Marquis in order to persuade Lung to back off. Unfortunately for him, Lung wants a fight with Marquis.
• Sex Slave: Emma and Sophia are kidnapped by The Orchard to be reshaped into customized playthings for unscrupulous customers, which causes Sophia to trigger.
• Shoot the Messenger: Since Marquis doesn't condone harming children, he has to be careful which of the captured ABB gang members he uses to send a message to Lung, knowing that Lung will almost certainly kill the unfortunate. The one who's over eighteen gets volunteered for the job. Sure enough, upon hearing the message that Marquis has returned and is claiming the city as his own, Lung furiously incinerates the young man.
• Shout-Out:
  • When the Brigade learns about Marchioness' powers and willingness to work Endbringer battles for free, Brandish worries that she might be willing to threaten to withhold her powers to keep her father out of the Birdcage. Amy did just that in another one of Ack's stories, Hostage Situation.
  • In this fic, Victoria Dallon is known as Mega Girl. This name was inspired by the character from Strong Female Protagonist.
  • When the Merchants attack him with no success, Marquis tells them, "I permitted that, as a demonstration of futility," and even mentions that he's quoting one of his favourite authors.
• Skewed Priorities: Hookwolf is more concerned about his tattoos than about having been eaten.
• Super-Empowering: Marchioness can make significant enhancements to the human body; boosted reflexes, armoured skin, sharper senses, steadier balance. They're only equivalent to a low-level Brute power, but she can give out enhancements to anyone she trusts, regardless of whether they already have a power.
• Super Prototype: Claire's bodyguard, Jonas, becomes the guinea pig for her experimental body enhancements, so at any given time, he's likely to be much stronger and tougher than the rank and file employees (to whom the enhancements trickle down later). He can bench press half a ton, and holds his own in melee against Hookwolf.
• Swapped Roles: In canon, Vicky Dallon is the confident one. However, when she meets Claire (Amy from canon) for the first time, Claire is the confident one, and gives her a pep-talk.
• Talented, but Trained: Marquis' bone control is a very effective and versatile power, able to make weapons, shields, traps, concealment, even subvert the bodies of his enemies. But he also has long experience of using it effectively, taking advantage of edge cases like reusing shards of broken bone structures, controlling the battlefield with bone caltrops or anchoring himself in place to resist hostile movement powers, knowing all manner of different ways to stab or suffocate or imprison someone with it. It's no surprise, then, that in the prologue, once he persuades the Brigade to move the fight away from Amelia, he quickly has them on the ropes. Marcus, with the same power but not the experience, is able to slow Lung down and cut off reinforcements, but then has to retreat. Marquis, however, easily overpowers Lung, cutting his tendons and growing bone spikes through all his vitals.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Hookwolf cuts off Marquis' head while he's still alive and conscious. So Claire makes sure to return the favour.
• Tempting Fate: Claire asks whether being suddenly attacked out of the blue actually happens in real life, and a Lung clone climbs out of a manhole behind them.
  Palatina: Apparently, more often than you'd think.
• Tightrope Walking: Abigail's perfect coordination and balance allow her to cross a power cable between buildings.
  Below was unyielding concrete and armed guards; before her, the resolution of her curiosity.
  Pfft, she told herself. Who wants to live forever, anyway?
• Transformation Sequence: Subverted. Marchioness does look significantly different from her civilian identity, but that's because she uses her biokinesis to reshape her own body.
• Truce Trickery: Marquis respects the Endbringer truce, but he leaves half his forces and some of his allies at home just in case someone else is less honourable. Sure enough, Lung seizes the opportunity to assault his territory, and neither Abigail nor Marcus is fully up to the task of stopping a rage dragon. They are able to cut his rampage short, though, and Marquis promptly makes plans to crush Lung in retaliation.
• Truce Zone: Claire is surprised to learn that the PRT actually respects the neutrality of Somer's Rock, but her father assures her that they're primarily interested in avoiding outright war and so they do recognise the value of villains having a place to talk peacefully. Krieg, however, is an outsider to Brockton Bay, and doesn't consider the truce quite as sacred as natives do.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Part 16 has them interrogating the minions, then going straight into Blasto's base ... from Blasto's point of view. From the outside, it looks like a Missing Steps Plan (and in fact, some readers were so convinced that it was an Ass Pull that the author ended up having to subvert it by posting the plan anyway)...
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Claire is incredulous when her father suggests that she's not too old to be spanked for misbehaving, and says he must be joking.
  "Oh, Claire." He chuckled lightly. "I thought you were familiar with my earlier career. Do you know how many people used those exact words to me? And what happened to them thereafter?"

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Yet Another Way contains examples of the following tropes:

• Batman Grabs a Gun: Marquis has rules against harming women and children. However, Brandish killing Amelia has finally pushed him to break those rules. She doesn't survive.
  Marquis: Congratulations, Brandish dear. Many have tried my resolve when it came to hurting women and children. Jack Slash came the closest, but even he failed. But you … you managed it.
• Body Horror: Marquis doesn't actually kill most of the Brigade, he just twists and warps their skeletons until they're unrecognisable and helpless, to live out their lives in palliative care in an asylum. Several of them can't speak, or even look in the same direction with both eyes.
• Children Are Innocent: Marquis adopts the children of the Brigade, and doesn't hold them responsible for their parents' actions.
• Desecrating the Dead: Marquis leaves a plaque on Amelia's grave, sternly warning anyone against disturbing or moving her.^note Word of God is that the Nazis tried defacing the tomb, and Marquis crucified them all.
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: When Crystal first starts noticing boys, Marquis is tempted to track down the boy in question and give him "The sort of stern talk that has the phrase 'blast radius' attached to it."
  Dear Jimmy. This is her dad speaking. Watch it, boy. I know where you live.
• Kill the Parent, Raise the Child: When Marquis put himself at risk to protect a closet, instead of taking advantage of it to subdue and arrest him, Brandish simply attacked the closet — killing his six-year-old daughter Amelia. Marquis' fury sees him cast aside his personal rule against harming women, killing Brandish and turning all the other adults into living pieces of modern art by warping their skeletons into grotesque shapes. He then adopts all three of their children under a false name, seeking to raise them better than their own parents would have done, and not leave them to suffer for their parents' actions. Crystal eventually learns about it when she sees Amelia's photo and starts asking questions.

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