With Lightning and Fury, a Worm/Godbound Story

[tehelgee]

With Lightning and Fury
A Worm/Godbound Story​

This was not Taylor Hebert's best day, by far, and that was counting the day her mother died. Taylor risked a glance down, at the seemingly vast distance to the pavement of the alley below and screwed her eyes shut in terror. She'd never been afraid of heights before, but she felt like she would be after today, should she live.

What a night this was. Returning home late from the library, Taylor had stumbled across some sort of Empire 88 operation that involved loading a great deal of things into the back of a panel truck. She'd tried sneaking away before she got caught, but well, here she was. Hanging hundred of feet in the night sky, dangled over an alley between two high-rise apartment buildings.

"P-Please, stop! Let me go!" Taylor attempted to stay as motionless as possible so she wouldn't fall, even as the wind plucked at her and made her long black hair whip about. The only thing that was keeping her from plunging to her doom was her shirt, bundled in the grip of a teenage cape she recognized. Rune of the Empire 88, Brockton Bay's very own band of Neo-Nazis.

"Heh, I can, if you want." Rune was pleased with her success at her charade. She certainly lacked the raw muscle to do what it looked like she was doing, holding her victim aloft with one hand. She had cheated though, using her power instead of muscles to dangle the girl by her shirt. Rune was standing on a sewer lid she also kept in the air with her own telekinetic power.

Rune allowed the girl to drop a few inches suddenly, getting a shriek and more frantic begging. Too bad for her, though. No amount of begging would save her, the boss had been clear. No witnesses. Rune sighed, not looking forward to what she was about to do. Her first kill, and someone her own age. A fellow Winslow student, even, though Rune couldn't recall the girl's name.

"...sorry."

Taylor had a split second to wonder what her tormentor had apologized for before she unceremoniously fell from Rune's open hand.

Seconds left to live, a stray thought informed Taylor as she fell. She felt terror at her death. She felt sorrow for her Dad, knowing her death would be the end of him.

Perhaps fittingly, though, Taylor mostly felt a quickly growing rage. Rage at her life of torment for the last year by her ex-best friend Emma and the one that had taken Emma away from Taylor, rage at her father for being so cowardly he ran away from her after her mother died and left her to emotionally fend for herself, even rage at ground approaching so rapidly. And most importantly, rage at the bitch that had just dropped her to her death.

The ground rushed to meet her in a flash, and Taylor thought the last thing she heard was lightning.

---

Rune didn't stay to watch the girl she'd dropped hit the ground, she turned and moved away to join back up with the operation.

Rune didn't feel all that happy now that it was over, if she was being honest with herself. Roughing up people, sure, she didn't mind that too much. Fighting other capes, she enjoyed that. Terrifying, exhilarating, and she still threw up afterwards more often than not, much to Victor's amusement. But she didn't think she had much taste for murder, ordered or not.

A flash of light that whited out the world was all the warning she got before a crack of lightning knocked her off her platform, it was so loud and powerful. It was only a second's work though before she was able to get her flying sewer cover back under her feet and steady herself.

She turned around and felt her stomach drop so hard it nearly made her vomit. The girl Rune had dropped to her death had not, in fact, died. The other girl instead hovered there, a dozen feet above the nearby apartment buildings Rune had dropped her between. She glowed, blue white, her head outlined by what appeared to be a halo or crown of tightly controlled lightning. As she started towards Rune, lightning began to arc between her and the surface of the buildings, the white bolts shrieking so loud Rune could barely hear herself think.

And she sported an expression of such pure rage that Rune immediately turned away and tried to flee. Rune was not equipped to fight what appeared to be some sort of flying artillery cape, not alone.

She never even got turned completely around before there was a crack and a terrible, agonizing pain in her left knee. She immediately flailed as her leg went out from under her and threw out her arms, barely able to catch the sewer lid before she fell past it.

Not able to stand on her platform anymore, Rune dropped from the sky, aiming for a nearby roof. Maybe she could talk the other cape down or fight back if she didn't have to worry about staying on her ride.

The other cape had a different idea, though, and another crack of light slammed into Rune's right arm and she fell with a scream. She was over the roof she'd been aiming for, though, and landed with a mighty thud.

Rune's right arm and left knee were screaming at her in agony, and she took a chance to check out her arm and went pale at what she saw. Her right arm was missing from just below the elbow. Rune stared in horror at her missing limb, then scrambled so she could raise her left leg and look at it. "Oh no," she breathed, staring at where her left leg ended.

Othala could not grow back limbs.

Rune only pulled her eyes away from her missing leg when the area around her brightened, looking up at the angry girl that had crippled her. Her eyes darted to the crown of lightning hanging above the other's head, then to the arcing lightning dancing around her. None of the dancing electricity was approaching her, though, and seemed to be quieting down.

The glowing girl hovered there, still scowling in her fury, and Rune couldn't help but compared her to Kaiser, on the rare occasion she'd seen him sitting in judgment from his throne. And she found Kaiser wanting, not all that surprised. Kaiser was a charismatic man, but he was still just a man in a metal suit. This, Rune believed, this felt like a goddess offended.

"Please don't kill me," Rune begged, knowing it was her only hope at survival. She couldn't fight a cape that hit harder than Purity.

"Don't kill you?" The other girl's voice was soft and incredulous, and Rune cringed at her tone. "Why shouldn't I, after you tried to kill me?" When she didn't get an answer, the girl Rune felt might be a goddess bellowed, "WHY?"

The sky flashed with lightning and thunder echoed her voice, and Rune believed a little bit harder that she cowered before an actual goddess.

"I didn't want to," Rune cried, her eyes starting to water in her fear and desperation. "I didn't, but I had to or I would have been hurt, punished."

When the goddess didn't reply, Rune curled up on herself, begging in a tear-choked voice. "P-please."

After a few moments of no response and no final blow, Rune risked a glance up at the goddess only to find her gone. Rune snapped upright, frantically searching for her, but she'd apparently disappeared.

Rune hurriedly dug our her cell phone and placed a call for help to her cousin, Othala. Once assured help was on the way, Rune curled back up and tried to calm down from what she was sure was a near-death experience. She didn't have much success.

As she tried, Rune made herself a vow. She was never going to cross that… goddess, again. She'd quit the E88 if she had to, or join the Wards. Never again.

---

Taylor sat on the roof of her house, her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, rocking a bit. Lost in thought and staring at the sky.

The last ten minutes of her life had been a true roller-coaster of emotions. Terror, rage, fury, and now worry.

She'd blown off two of Rune's limbs, reduced the cape(admittedly a villainous one) to tears and frantic begging, and all she'd felt at the time was righteous satisfaction. It was all she still felt, and that filled her with trepidation and worry. Shouldn't she be disgusted? Shouldn't she be horrified?

She wasn't, and Taylor felt that might be a concern.

Taylor turned her attention to her hand as she raised it in front of her. She let lightning play over and between her fingers, watching the current dance. A small smile grew on her face. She had powers, she was a cape.

But that thought didn't feel right to Taylor, it felt too small. Too mundane. Too mortal. She closed her eyes and thought on it. Why did she feel like the term cape was insufficient?

Her power felt vast, for one thing. She'd flown and thrown out bolts of lightning a foot wide, and set off a light show just because she'd been angry. Yet, it felt like that was the least of what she could do. It felt to Taylor like she'd barely even flexed her will to do those things.

Taylor grew still on the roof her house, her mind turned inward, falling intro a trance not dissimilar to meditation.

A gentle breeze blew over the still goddess, and her long curly hair never moved.


---

This is the opening of a story I started working on today, after weeks of consideration.

It's a crossover between Worm and the TTRPG Godbound. What is depicted here is Taylor's awakening as one of the divine Godbound, similar to a trigger event, and her immediate actions against the cause of it.

The story starts in the fall of the year prior to the locker, approximately 6 months before Worm canon.

Consider this a teaser as it's about half of Chapter 1.

Discussion and criticisms welcome, as it's been a long ass time since I wrote anything.​