Mana worm ( worm fic )

AN: This fic does not read like a 'The Gamer' fic Sorry guys, I know you expect the super OP badassery of The Gamer powerset. Instead I'm writing a character that only has general OP badassery. Essentially he has Mana Manipulation - none of the gamer's windows, mind, body or super grindy stats. Even developing skills is just him feeling a way to use it, then practicing until it's second nature. That said, I hope you enjoy and I welcome feedback and ideas.

1.0

I've always had a strange sort of... I guess you would call it an extra sense. ESP sounds crazy, but I guess it's fairly accurate. I could sense people close by. At first I just assumed it's like what everyone else can do - you know, if someone's standing close you can tell they're there because of a pocket of warmth and movement of the air etc. You don't do it consciously but your instincts tell you 'there's a person there'. That's what I thought it was, until today.

My name is William R. Taylor, 15 years old and student of Winslow High School. I'm a fairly average nerdy guy, bit of a gamer and interests lie towards engineering, robotics and programming more than any sort of social life. I'm not exactly built but not scrawny either. A few years of a mixture of karate and football forced on me by my father saw to it that I didn't quite look the nerd stereotype. I did manage to get my father to let me drop the sports in favor of my own interests. I have a mop of brown hair in need of a haircut, freckles over my arms, probably due to how easily I sunburn, and bright emerald eyes (I would say green but my mother made a huge issue out of it - so apparently they're 'Emerald') behind silver rimmed glasses. I don't really -need- the glasses, but they do help and apparently they draw attention to my eyes, more family fashion advice. I'm also one of the tallest guys in school standing at 5'11" and just barely managed to weasel my way out of being forcibly signed up for the basketball team.

Today I was out at the mall looking to buy a couple of small electric motors and an external hard drive for a new project, then maybe looking through the games and books. That plan was figuratively shot to hell when literal gunfire sounded off in the adjacent store - some expensive clothing place. I dropped to the floor by the second shot, after which I was startled to make out a wave of barely visible black and dark purple mist come at me through the wall. Before it touched me something in my mind went haywire, I swear it -tasted- like fear. the cloud just washed around me but I could see it actively pushing into other people who went pale. Then a chunk of the wall jumped at me, followed closely by Glory Girl who appeared to have dislodged said chunk of wall using the head of a tall black guy in pajamas, a trench coat and a balaclava mask. He also seemed to be holding onto half of a tinkertech gun. I didn't have much of a chance to appreciate the 'hero' as I yelled "Oh SHIT!" then attempted to block a chunk of wall about the size I was.

I felt a strange internal *CRACK*, it was like popping your back but a hundred times more intense, and suddenly I felt like my body was FLOODED with energy - and FEAR as the purple-black aura of fear suddenly flooded my system like a dam broke, only for the feeling to instantly turn to utter exhaustion when a blinding bright teal tinted light exploded in the space between me and the debris. The drywall, wood and other miscellaneous debris that had once been the wall, still landed on me, but the blast of light had apparently slowed it down from 'Glory Girl Power!' to 'This chunk of wall got tired of holding up the ceiling'. I learned several things in those few seconds: I don't scream when terrified - I yell and apparently lash out violently, Glory Girl is kind of a bitch, not all tinkers are bullshit and apparently I'm a discount jedi.

The fight, if you could call it that, was over about as fast as it began. I had blinded myself for a few minutes with my random attempt at a force push so by the time I could see again the dust had settled, leaving glory girl floating over the unconscious tinker and talking on the phone - from the sounds of it she was calling in the PRT to pick the guy up. I tossed the remnants of drywall off and realized the wave of fear had rolled back into GG leaving a faint trace of something else in a wide aura around her. She seemed to be exuding a barely visible golden mist this time, no one else seemed to see it. I assume it was her inspiration aura or something, PHO says she likes to abuse that to get out of trouble.

By the time the PRT arrived the small electronics shop had gathered quite a crowd. There were five of them, Two of the PRT agents went to pack up pajama man, one tried to keep the crowd back, one was busy talking to GG and the last one, a gruff blonde guy, cut through the crowd and walked up to me with a notepad and nodded a greeting. His tone was friendly as he said, "Heya son, we're going to need your statement. I Just need your name and what you saw."

I shrugged as I continued to dust myself off "Will Taylor. Didn't see much, one minute I was browsing, then I heard gunshots. This is Brockton Bay, everyone knows if you hear gunfire you drop or you get to cover and get away. Anyway, about the time I dropped to the floor is when the wall attacked me." I pointed to the pile of debris that had landed on me at the same time I gave a small glare over to where GG was giving her statement, but there wasn't much heat behind it. Even if I knew that damn aura was affecting me I couldn't make myself get angry at her. I looked back to the agent to finish my statement "There was a flash of light and by the time I could see again Mr. Pajama Man over there was out. Not much more than that."

The agent nodded and a sympathetic smile showed up "Thanks son. Sorry about the little lady over there. Between you and me this sort of thing happens. A lot of times it's unavoidable." Left unsaid was this was not one of those times. He dug into an inside pocket, produced a PRT card and handed it to me "If anything comes up - you get home and realize you have a fractured rib, you just want to talk to someone about it, you remember something else or anything - just call that number". He gave me a friendly pat on the shoulder then headed off with his notepad to question a few more witnesses.

I hung around in a bit of a daze, the exhaustion from the blast gradually recovering, but I did overhear some agents talking. Apparently this guy was a recent tinker that had screwed up one of his designs and it messed up his left arm and part of his face when it exploded. Poor guy was on so much medication he actually thought kidnapping Glory Girl to blackmail Panacea into healing him was a good idea. It also turned out a couple of people saw my little lightshow but everyone assumed it was a tinkertech flashbang or something. I didn't feel the need to correct them. Once all the statements were taken we were sent on our way. Luckily most of the crowd that had gathered were focused on Glory Girl so us semi-normal people managed to get away without getting mobbed with too many questions.

I was already out of the mall and on the sidewalk headed home when my mind rebooted. I stopped walking suddenly and my eyes went wide. "Holy hell! I just-" I interrupted myself before I said anything stupid - though I did let myself have a manly moment of internal squee 'Hah! I'm a motherfuckin' jedi!'. I had a sudden jolt of paranoia, which dampened my mood like a bucket of ice water, when I felt someone behind me. I turned to face him, a tall bald guy probably a couple of years out of high school, as he passed me giving me a 'What're you lookin' at?' look. I looked down at the sidewalk when a touch of social anxiety popped up, I justified it to myself 'No need to upset the guy - and with my luck today anything could happen, hell he could be E88' I thought. After a few moments I couldn't feel him anymore. When I looked I realized he just ignored me after the first glance and kept walking. Wondering about the sense that told me he was there I looked around myself more carefully. If I looked closely I could see a ghostly white mist tinged with teal floating around me in about a five foot radius and barely visible. Seeing it like this I could feel it was a part of me, like a numb arm. I felt a tingle of excitement run through me like electricity now that the exhaustion wasn't trying to shut down my brain. I started to think of all the crazy and cool things this could mean.

With another surge of paranoia I realized that I could SEE the aura. New parahumans are often forcibly recruited... and I live on the outskirts of E88 territory. "Shit!" I eloquently summarized under my breath. I swung my head around looking to make sure no one noticed my aura and immediately mentally chastised myself 'Real subtle Will...'. Luckily no one else seemed to care. Well, nothing I can do about it right now and if it CAN be seen, sitting in plain sight is a great way for it to be noticed. I ran the rest of the way home, the 'aura' stayed with me the whole way - I was getting better at seeing it already.

Luckily I wasn't too late getting home. Even with the PRT making a show out of bringing in the rogue tinker I still got home by 8:20. Plenty of time for dinner, homework, recounting the tale to parents, then setting aside my little engineering projects to play with my aura. I grinned thinking about how to tell the story to my parents. As I stepped inside I called out "Hey mom, dad, you'll never guess who I met at the mall!" My parents knew my sarcastic tone, and if that didn't sell that this was going to be a 'story' the fact that I'm pretty antisocial would have clued them in that I didn't meet a friend there.

As I stepped into the kitchen my father groaned from where he was washing dishes, he turned his head to look me over, taking in the dust and insulation all over my clothes and a few scrapes. A little shocked at my state but satisfied I wasn't hurt, his tone was humoring "Alright kiddo I'll bite. Who'd you meet?".

With a fake grin and voice dripping with sarcastic cheer I said, "I met Glory Girl! She introduced herself by physically talking a pajama clad tinker into coercing a wall to greet me" Mom chuckled and dad just rolled his eyes. They knew if I was playing it off like this I was fine. Those years of karate and football taught them that if I thought I might be injured I'd let them know. So sue me, I don't like pain.

Mom then took on a deep tone as if playing a male part in a play, one hand on her chest the other held out cupping nothing "Dear Pajama Man, I knew him well!"

At which dad turned to face her with an eyebrow raised "Oh? you knew him 'well' did you?"

Mom immediately changed subjects. "Will, dinner's in the microwave. I'm going to go wash some of your father's white shirts with something red. It'll help train away his insecurities." She quickly jumped out of her seat and ran by me with a grin leaving my father to flounder for a moment before he grabbed a towel to dry his hands.

He chased her yelling "Damnit Erin! I can't wear pink shirts to work!" I just grinned, this sort of thing happened every couple of days, but it still made me smile.

I turned on the microwave and finished up the dishes dad had left while I waited for dinner to heat. After the second dish I heard mom's screech, apparently dad caught her. I finished the dishes as I saw him carry her over his shoulder to the couch where he threw her down on the cushions. She squawked when she bounced. When they had their make-up kiss I yelled out a good natured "Ugh, get a room!" like the wonderful son I am. I got a one finger salute from my mother for my trouble only for dad to laugh. I tuned them out as they started arguing for the 'rights to the remote' and pulled out my dinner; lasagna and green beans. I zoned out as I was eating, now being able to focus a bit on my aura. It was difficult, but working with it I felt the 'numbness' had been fading very gradually since the event at the mall.

After dinner I headed upstairs to my room and locked the door behind me. I had a couple of small tables around the edges piled with parts and small tools. My mother tried to convince me to put up some posters but it just didn't look right to me. After sitting in the middle of the floor I closed my eyes and attempted a sort of meditation. I had a few ideas to try to see how this stuff worked. I started by focusing everything I could towards my aura and ignoring other inputs, relaxing my body slowly until my aura took up as much of my focus as I could manage.

It felt like hours had passed by the time I managed to get a good feel of it. When I stretched my senses to the edge I could feel the aura strain against... -something- inside me. I couldn't really tell what it was. It felt like it was behind my sternum, but at the same time it didn't seem locked in place. playing with it a little I could feel the tug in the middle of whatever I could convince myself was 'me'. That was fun but didn't feel like it was doing anything. Pushing to the edge of my aura felt like it was stretching the area, though obviously any gains would be unnoticeable... though I might just be imagining the sensation because I was 'expecting' it.

"Alright, test two" I whispered to myself. I pressed my awareness throughout as much of my aura as I could and tried to draw it in towards my 'core'. It was quite a strain, there was a constant current pressing outwards from my 'core' I was fighting against. I could feel the current compress and swirl as it pulled beyond the aura I was holding. When I got tired and felt I might lose my grip I held it in place unmoving until everything felt comfortable again. I couldn't grab more of the current, it seemed to flow off into the rest of my aura, and now that I could feel it, the current seemed to be pushing a constant flow of itself outside of my aura and was simply lost. I could feel it leave then dissipate as if I were a river and anything outside of my aura was an ocean.

Working with it for a while, it seemed I only had influence over so much of this energy at a time, and of what I had influence over I could only control a portion of that. Anything I wasn't actively controlling would spread out into an aura which limited itself to my influence range. I was also producing more of the energy from my core, and if I pushed some energy out of my influence and lost it, a portion of the new energy would fall under my influence and blend with my aura.

I grabbed as much energy as I could control and started to compress it around me. It felt like a low electric current in liquid form was running over my skin making it tingle with potential. I gradually split off my focus to spread the little I needed stretch against the edges of my influence. Once I was comfortable holding both the 'stretching' and 'flexing' at the same time I held my mind like that for a while, then eventually I opened my eyes.

I nearly lost all my concentration. Where the current of new energy got compressed and swirled around what I was controlling I could see a white glow with flickers of teal, it made me think of stories of a slightly more electric green version of blue foxfire, an ethereal light that flowed outward from the 'shell' of energy I had built. The shell itself was glowing but I could control the glow by impressing the feeling of light and dark on it. The foxfire from the buildup of current still glowed since I had no influence over it, I couldn't come up with a way to change that immediately. A solid construct would probably always be visible because of that glow.

A huge grin split my face as I plotted out the structure of how it all works, but even so I could feel a headache building from exercising the energy and I knew it was going to screw up my concentration soon. I assumed if I just suddenly let the power go it might be -slightly- explosive, like a popped balloon - probably a bad idea in my room. I slowly let it stretch outward until I was surrounded in an orb of teal light... and I felt like smacking myself. Instead of letting it out to the edge of my influence I just gradually released my hold letting it mix back into my aura.

Once I had released the aura I had built up and slid out of the meditation I could feel how stiff and exhausted I was, as well as an unwelcome pain and pressure behind my eyes. I rubbed at them knowing it wouldn't really help. "Ugh... what time is it?" I said with a yawn and turned to look with blurry eyes to see it was already two in the morning. I groaned "I need to get some sleep. Hrm... I can still feel the aura but I feel like I could do more while meditating. Then again it also felt like ten hours of work instead of four so I guess the headache makes sense." I rubbed my eyes again "Stop talking to yourself and get some sleep, idiot" I said then managed to work up motivation enough to toss the day's clothes to the corner and slide into bed.

"I think I'll call it mana" I decided, in homage to my favorite RPGs. The power itself would be mana. The aura is made of loose mana within my influence, I could sense people within my aura, and I can gather mana from my aura, like pulling from a mana pool to keep the game reference going, to do... heh, may as well go all out and call it magic. At least until some esper shows up and tells me it's some crazy complex type of telekinetic power. "Where the hell am I going to practice?... " I thought as I slipped into a dreamless sleep.