Fanfic / Apex Predator (Worm)

Apex Predator is a Worm fanfic by Beastrider9 the same author of Biomass Effect.

At the moment of Taylors trigger the Queen Administrator shard is devoured by a darker than pitch black Eldritch Abomination. Said Eldritch Abomination then bonds with Taylor so she can aid it in the hunting of its prey, shards.

Found on SpaceBattles.com here.

The fanfic was completed on August 2022.

Beware, Worm Spoilers below!

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This fic provides examples of:

• Adaptational Abomination: In canon Taylor was just a parahuman, here she is essentially the avatar of a Eldritch Abomination that eats other Eldritch Abominations.
• All for Nothing:
  • Quoted word for word by Kaiser/Max Anders as he gave up in front of Apex/Erebus, who had dismantled the Empire 88's control of Brockton and depowered their powerful parahumans.
  • All of Cauldron's efforts to destroy Scion has been for nothing after Apex appeared and usurped their plans and carried the deed. After the Golden Dusk, Doctor Mother has time to reflect over Cauldron's "ends justified the means" approach and every atrocities they committed to "save" the world were ultimately unnecessary, and making her feeling genuinely guilty and awful.
• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Without the influence of his shard, Armsmaster's "remnant" powers of knowing mundane nanotechnology allows him to create practical nanomachines that can be fully understood and replicate by non-Tinker scientists. Armsmaster even hopes that his research will eventually allow humanity to create claytronics. After the Golden Dusk, Armsmaster, Dragon, Kid Win and other ex-Tinkers can make technology that can be understood and replicated.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Apex is this to the shards, having evolved on the same planet Apex filled the role of an apex predator with the shards filling the role of prey animals, the author even compares the shards to krill and Apex to a whale.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: More like better to die than be depowered, Nilbog kills himself rather than let Taylor devour his power.
• Book Dumb:
  • Bonesaw reveals that she can’t read when Jack asks if she’s ever read Frankenstein.
  • Contessa reveals that she can’t read to Doctor Mother when she calls Taylor Apex instead of her official designation Erebus.
• Brought Down to Normal: Ex-parahumans are devoid of their powers after Apex devoured their shards. However, it is later revealed that all the ex-parahumans retained little remains (or "diet versions") of their original powers. Though in a reduced form.
• But Now I Must Go: After the Golden Dusk and devouring the last shards on Earth, Apex part ways with Taylor and travel across the multiverse to continue its hunt for other entities.
• Death by Adaptation: Beyond the shards that Apex devours a few human characters who in canon never died do here.
  • In canon Weld and Flechette survived all the way to the sequel, here they are both killed by the Butcher.
    • Flechette’s death is semi-undone via cloning however, due to one of her Echidna clones escaping and reverting back to Flechette’s base personality. Said clone eventually joins the PRT/Protectorate under the name Foil.
  • Citrine is Mercy Killed by Taylor after depowering her due to what Bonesaw did to her.
    • Like Flechette, she gets semi-resurrected via a clone.
  • Kamil Armstrong is killed during the Slaughterhouse 9’s attack on Boston.
  • Teacher was killed by Glaistig Uaine.
  • Nilbog kills himself to prevent Erebus from depowering him.
  • Califa de Perro is killed by Glaistig Uaine.
  • Marquis was killed to add his power to Gaia.
  • Moord Nag was killed to add her power to Gaia.
  • Spur kills himself seemingly to prevent Gaia from getting his power.
  • Lustrum was killed to add her power to Gaia.
  • Night is killed and assimilated by Gaia.
  • Glaistig Uaine is killed by Scion.
• The Dreaded: Taylor/Erebus quickly becomes this to parahumans of all alignments due to being able to permanently remove their powers, even the shards grow to fear her.
• End of an Age:
  • Taylor/Apex are the heralds to the end of the age of parahumans. After the Golden Dusk, no newborn shards are created and Taylor/Apex have been depowering every parahuman left on Earth, leaving only "remnants", thus superpowered people will eventually be no more in the future.
  • For the group Toy Box their monopoly over tinkertech will soon end as ex-Tinkers can make advanced technology that can be fully understood by normal people and can be mass produced.
• Gentle Giant Sauropod: Downplayed. A herd of Giraffatitans are summoned to Brockton Bay by Labyrinth, and while they aren't antagonistic, their mere presence causes chaos.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Bakuda wind up becoming utterly lost in the forests of New York and eventually going further mad without human contact until she met Cherie Vasil's still living head, whom she dubs her "Wilson".
• Herbivores Are Friendly: Averted. When Labyrinth summons various extinct animals, it's the herbivores that cause all the chaos.
• Hero of Another Story: Fafnir takes responsibility in looking after Ellisburg and its inhabitants after Nilbog's suicide.
• Hope Spot: In the chapter “The Tide Turns” one of Taylor/Apex’s minions kills Gaia and for a moment things look like they’re improving then Eidolon starts screaming with many voices showing that he has inherited the mantle of the Butcher, then he is killed and the mantle claimed by Glaistig Uaine.
• Living Shadow: Taylor in her Erebus form is described as being so dark that she appears 2 dimensional.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • Othala's first name is Jenny.
  • Victor's first name is Bruce.
  • Faultline's full name is Melanie Fitts.
• No-Sell: A side effect of Taylor depowering a parahuman is that the former parahumans gain an immunity to striker and master powers.
• Predators Are Mean: Averted with Apex, as he's only interested in eating powers, not people.
  • Also averted with a Charcharodontosaurus, who is content to sit around while Brockton is panicking (especially since he apparently just ate when he first appears).
• Primal Fear: Victims of Apex are induced with monophobia, nyctophobia, paranoia, and PTSD.
• Scared of What's Behind You: Doctor Mother became aware that Legend is compromised by Apex and deliberately arranged to have Legend's shard be devoured in order to meet Apex/Taylor this way: distracting him long enough for Apex/Taylor to appear behind him.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • The author reveals that after Erebus showed up many independent capes fled Brockton Bay.
    Beastrider9: A couple of independents left the city when it became known a power eating monster roams the streets. This includes Spitfire, Circus, and Trainwreck who all GTFO'd.
  • After Erebus devoured Scion most parahumans don’t even try fighting her and just run.
• Shout-Out:
  • Velocity describes a Hadrosaur as "Ducky" before Triumph corrects him.
  • Bakuda dubs Cherie Vasil's head Wilson.
• Single Specimen Species: Apex is a one of a kind being.
  He was truly unique. As far as Apex was aware, there was only one example of his ‘species’ if such a term could apply to whatever he was at all.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After their exposure to Apex, Sophia and Emma are turned much nicer and humble, making them to feel repentant for all their awful actions. Even the latter begged on her knees to Taylor for forgiveness.
• T. Rexpy: Sophia describes the Charcharodontosaurus as "T-rex-looking, but not a T-rex".
• Twilight of the Supers: Deliberately invoked by Apex, as it feeds on the setting's main source of superpowers.
• Twinmaker: A number of Echidna clones who managed to escape Boston end up eventually reverting back to the original’s personality while Echidna’s hold over them evaporates. As a result, a small number of characters killed in Boston effectively get resurrected through their identical clones.
  • Doubly so in the case of Burnscar, who has a clone created and is given a new chance at life while the original is still alive and causing chaos with the Slaughterhouse Nine.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • After Apex/Erebus depowered the Empire's prominent parahumans, Kaiser/Max Anders had no idea on how to battle Apex/Erebus and eventually decided that there's no point in fighting the entity, willing to let it take his powers. But Anders then freaks out when Erebus tells him that she also planned on exposing his identity to the public, thus destroying his reputation and losing Medhall.
  • When Apex confronts Coil, he is reduced to a simpering wreck.
• Wham Line: Tattletale learns to her horror that Oni Lee's power was never teleportation, but Self-Duplication, which made him a blank slate due to having experienced everyone of his duplicates dying.
  "His power… it… it wasn’t teleportation. It was… copies."
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The side stories focus on what happened to other prominent characters that were not in the main story, such as Bakuda.
• What the Hell Are You?: Faultline's reaction to properly meeting Apex itself.
  Faultline: What the hell is that thing anyway?
  Apex: {[I aM]}
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Ex-parahumans retained little leftover of their original powers dubbed "remnants". Some of them are barely useful, such as Menja and Fenja being 8-9 feet tall without the health problems that usually affect people that tall, Kaiser's basically a metal detector, and Armsmaster has an encyclopedic understanding of mundane nanotechnology.
  • That said, some ex-parahumans have moderately good versions of their powers, as the author explains that the more powerful a parahuman was, the better their remnant is.
  • Armsmaster's knowledge of nanotechnology turns out to be quite useful as he can make practical nanomachines whose designs and science can now be understood by ordinary scientists.

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