37 37 Interlude: Sarah Livsey

The time is 16:43 on the first day of 2008 and from all across America thousands of people are opening the same website and tuning in to watch the same livestream.

As the clock ticks closer to five in the afternoon, thousands become tens of thousands as the view count continues to skyrocket on the new website known as FoolsNet.

Included among the number of people who followed the link from PHO to here is a high school freshman by the name of Sarah Livsey.

She, like many others, likes to spend some of her free time trawling through internet forums online, looking for anything interesting to happen.

That was how she came across the first and only video uploaded by 'Fool', showing a rather gory scene of a violent cape fight that had her feeling queasy for days.

Yet, she has not learned her lesson, as here she is again, waiting to see whatever it is that Fool is going to be showing this time.

Really, it's like a car crash. You don't want to watch, but you just can't look away.

For the past seventeen minutes, Sarah has been texting her friends on her phone with FoolsNet up on her computer.

This is because so far, nothing has been happening. The camera is just showing some empty, wide street that looks to be on the edge of the city with large empty and worn buildings lining the road.

The camera itself is clearly stationed on the corner of a roof, as one can still see the edge in the roof in shot, not to mention the large distance form the ground, allowing it to see a good distance.

Normally, one would just assume they are watching a traffic camera of some kind, but since this is FoolsNet, it is assumed that something like the last video will happen again.

This is proven right as something finally changes once the clock hits five.

"He~llooo! Dear viewers! It's your favourite Fool here with a special show for your viewing pleasure!~" Fool shouts with joviality as he hops into frame, standing with the camera at the edge of the roof.

He looks straight at the camera, his back to the street it's facing as he speaks again, his mask doing a poor job of hiding his exuberance.

"Now!" He shouts, pointing one of his fingers in the air in a way that reminds Sarah of her teachers about to give a lecture.

"You must be wondering what today's show is all about? Well, allow me to educate you! You see, in approximately", here he pauses to glance at his wrist, that clearly doesn't have a watch on it, "four minutes, a great show is going to play out on this here street!" He says, pointing behind him.

All of a sudden, a sinking feeling settles in Sarah's gut, like an instinctual knowledge that she is about to see something insane, something she has never seen before.

She can't decide if it's a good thing or not, yet once again, it is like a car crash.

You just can't look away.

"But first! Some backstory! Now, I am sure you are all aware of my last video where the naughty vigilante gruesomely delivered justice upon the wicked!~ Well, it seems that the villains here aren't all too happy with her, and now they're out for blood!" He shouts, palming his cheeks as he gasps in shock that even Sarah can tell is fake.

"Unfortunately for them, Tear was captured by the valiant Heroes and detained! Foiling their plans of revenge before they could even begin! But that once again brings us to this street~" He says, moving so that he is standing closer to the camera, still in shot but out of the way so that we can see down the street.

Facing the same direction as the camera, Fool brings one of his arms forward, as if presenting a gift.

"Because just over there, is Tear's prison transport, where the heroic Heroes are escorting her out of the city!~" He says with glee.

At the same time that he started speaking, a convoy of vehicles turned the corner at the end of the street and once he was done talking one could see the full extent of it.

Seeing it, all Sarah can think is.

𝘐𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦?

For Sarah, it is a perfectly reasonable conclusion to come to, as instead of simply a couple of vans, what is driving down that street is more akin to a convoy.

There are eleven vehicles total, eight of them being the SWAT trucks that the PRT troopers used that have been upgraded to be more like APC's while the other three vehicles are armoured transport vans.

They are in a simple formation of two trucks, one van, two trucks et cetera, and presumably the middle one is the one that houses Tear.

Not only that, there is also a pair of Heroes that Sarah doesn't recognise, being from another city, flying above the convoy.

"As you can see from the security present, it seems that someone must have tipped the PRT off about what is about to happen! I wonder who did that?~" Fool says, bonking his head and one can imagine that he is sticking his tongue out at the same time.

"Now! It is time for the show to begin!" He shouts, only to be even louder in what he says next.

"IN THE LEFT CORNER, WE HAVE THE PRT AND PROTECTORATE!! CAN THEY DEFENT THEIR PRISONER, OR WILL THEY SUCCUM TO EVIL!?! I CAN'T TELL YOU THAT, BUT I CAN TELL YOU THIS!! IN THE RIGHT CORNER, WE HAVE A DOUBLE TEAM OF RED BRANCH AND STREET SAINTS!!!!!" He shouts.

Then he pulls out a prop microphone and walks forward slightly, so that the camera angle shows the convoy just in front of him before leaning back and staring into the sky as he screams out his next line.

"ARE. YOU. READY. TO~ 𝙍𝙐𝙈𝘽𝙇𝙀𝙀𝙀𝙀𝙀𝙀!!!!!"

As his scream rings out, a slew of green balls, about the size of basketballs but glowing radioactive green, fly out from in front of the convoy.

The vehicles swerve to avoid them, but the first and second van as well as one of the trucks in front of it are hit directly while one of the trucks behind it is barely scratched by it.

That doesn't seem to matter however as all three vehicles rapidly dissolve into nothing, leaving the people inside of them moving forward at the same speed and rolling over the ground in a way that looks painful.

By this point Sarah's phone is lying forgotten by her side as she grips her seats armrests in a white knuckled grip, watching the events with fervour, not even noticing the view count skyrocketing.

Only thanks to skilled drivers and good brakes do the vehicles behind the now completely evaporated ones not run over their own people.

Fool disappears behind the camera for a reason that becomes obvious when the screen zooms in on the people who fell out of the first van.

Or, more accurately, the Heroes who fell out of the van.

There, slowly getting to their feet are three heroes that Sarah doesn't recognise, as well as one that she does.

After all, how could she not recognise the famous 'Mother of Monsters' Tiamat?

In the short moment it takes for those on the ground to get back to their feet, the other vehicles have all formed a formation around the person who fell out of the centre van.

Troopers start pouring out of the vehicles and start taking up positions with both foam guns and what looks like real guns poised and ready.

At the same time, the back of the second van opens, letting our four more Heroes for a total of ten.

Two of them hardly even look like Heroes since they are hardly even wearing costumes. In fact, the only reason Sarah is sure that they are Heroes is the fox mask on the woman and the pink glow on the mans hands.

The other two Sarah finds vaguely familiar unlike the others, and it takes her a moment to remember the Camelot trio and how their leader's death was all over the news a couple years back.

Avalon, the unbreakable shield and Excalibur, the kings sword.

Two of the Heroes rush to the centre where lies a woman in a stereotypical prison outfit with a clown mask on her face that has a single pink tear streaking down one eye and a long black triangle above the other with a large black toothed smile finishing the face.

The Hero in the fox mask helps the prisoner into a seated position that they couldn't do themselves due to the chains binding them and restricting movement.

Before the Heroes can finish regrouping however, another round of green balls fly out for the formation, only this time they were prepared.

One of the flyers manages to shoot down some of the balls with a barrage of lasers with the fox girl helping him by sending a ring of blue fire forward.

But it's one of the Heroes with Tiamat that stops most of them using a bow to shoot rapid fire and not once missing her target.

After just a moment, the balls are all gone before they could even do anything.

The camera zooms out again to show the whole formation and a good amount of land around it and everyone hears Fools voice once more.

"Place your bets boys and girls~ because the show is about to begin."

With bated breath, Sarah tries to mentally prepare herself for whatever she is about to watch, equal parts excited and scared about what she is going to see.

...

I had to wait around in a cell for two days before anything of interest really happened.

It was honestly a pain in the ass, and I'm glad it's now come to an end.

At least Foxy was nice enough to fulfil my requests and got me the classic prison look, with striped long sleeves and pants.

She even got me a ball and chain, but it got taken away right after by the spoilsports in uniform.

To properly complete the look, I've even flatly refused to wear any shoes, showing off my black nails, courtesy of Jason.

At least Foxy got me a deck of cards, so I wasn't completely bored, just mindlessly playing solitaire over and over again.

Though, I did have to admit to my cannibalism in order to actually get transferred out of the city like I wanted to.

But I made sure to mention that I only turned vigilante because I was scared what they would do to a cannibal and that now that I've had time to think about it, that they should be able to provide me with synthesised or cloned human meat, or even just 'cure' me.

Naturally, they ate that shit up, making me think that maybe I am just too convincing an actor.

Honestly, I don't really care about the reason, all that matters is that I am here, alone in the back of a transport van and covered in chains locking me in place.

Well, I could get out at any moment thanks to my tails, but that would be counter intuitive.

But with everything finally coming into play, from my messages to the gangs, to the 'anonymous' tips I set up for the Heroes, everything is coming together.

I even had James cook up a little something special for me.

Unfortunately I can't just have him mass produce anti-power drugs, since we don't have the materials for it and he thinks that he was probably using the blood of some of his family with an anti-power power.

But that's fine, I still have one dose of it left, and that's only for insurance.

I am knocked out of my thoughts rather roughly as the vehicle I am in is assaulted by a green glow, starting from the front and moving to the back, annihilating everything it touches until the van is no more and I am sent rolling forward on the street with my momentum, along side the two troopers up front.

Tied up as I am, I can't get up from where I lay, faceplanted to the ground.

That is, until Foxie's voice makes itself known to me and a pair of hands lift me up into a sitting position.

"You ok Tear? It seems you might have been right to worry, but don't fear, we'll protect you." She says with an encouraging smile.

I match her smile with a much less child friendly one beneath my mask.

𝘈𝘩𝘩𝘩~ 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨.~

I almost squee in delight as a slew of green balls fly towards us, only to be stopped by the return fire of the Heroes.

Sitting there, eyes peeled and smile wide, one thought powers through to the forefront of my mind.

𝘋𝘰 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶?

-----------------------------

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

So, a canon character finally makes an appearance... kinda. for those unaware of worm, Sarah is going to trigger and change her name to lisa where she will work as a villain alongside worms protag

P.S, Jinx's power only works on people near him or people interacting with him in some significant way, so he made sure to be far enough away from the fight that his misfortune doesn't effect anyone.

Though, everyone watching his stream 𝘪𝘴 being affected by his power.... heh

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