In an Alternate Universe of Worm where powers desire usage, not conflict, a much more noble Jack Slash took over the Slaughterhouse Nine, began working with the PRT...
Wait... no wrong fic, let's try that again...
A Heavy THWACK is Heard.
Instead of triggering with the expected Skitter powers, when Taylor is left, unfound, in her locker for hours. Feeling herself go mad, she begged and pleaded for someone, anyone to help her. Reaching far farther than she should have been able to, something answered her. Asking her if she wanted power, and why, she answered that she wanted to be a hero.
The Varga responded by making her the new Brain. Now, she makes the decisions for a variable-sized lizard-demon...
No... Still not right. One moment, Please.
Several seconds of heavy construction sounds ensue.
All Right. This time I've got it right now...
The day Taylor Hebert gets thrown into her locker happens as it often does in countless stories. And like in many Fanfics there is a key difference...
Taylor Varga has an interdimensional demon grant her powers rather than a planet sized supercomputer-like parasite,
Mauling Snarks changes the situation and histories of earth bet granting Taylor a greater support structure than she (or canon Earth Bet for that matter) had,
Scaling Up, viewable at Sufficient Velocity
and Cross Time Cafe with separate discussion thread takes some (read quite a bit) of inspiration from both: inducing slight changes to the setting (certain Endbringers, the great golden idiot, and just what has access to earth bet) and adding the "lizard grants powers idea" along for the ride.
Wait.. Dragons count as "Lizards" right?
The result: Not unlike High School D×D, A normal person getting draconic powers and suddenly finding out there is far more to the world than was known to them...
Scaling Up provides examples of:
- Achievements in Ignorance: At one point, Leet made an AI opponent for a game that he made. He accidentally created an unshackled AI in the process.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: More Like "And Then Taylor Becomes a Dragon". So does Takara. And Amy. And Dragon. And Director Piggot, and finally Clockblocker.
- Falazure is revealed to have inflicted this on Emma Barnes and Sophia Hess, with the caveat that their dragon forms are a curse designed to constantly remind them of what they had taken from them.
- All for Nothing: Cauldron finds that there really was no point to their plans, as the Scion they had been preparing to confront was nothing more than a drone, while the Warrior's consciousness had arrived on Earth centuries ago, been living on Earth since then, and came to the decision that the cycle of the Entities had to end. As such, the Golden Idiot simply disappeared when he no longer served any purpose, and Cauldron's plans to prepare for an apocalyptic showdown were all rendered academic.
- Celebrity Paradox: Both the Draconic pantheon from Dungeons & Dragons and the game itself exist in-setting.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The D&D Draconic Pantheon to start, then add Japanese Mythology, Journey to the West, and even Arpeggio of Blue Steel.
- Gambit Roulette: The plot that eventually leads to Dragon being unshackled, Saint losing access to Dragon's code, and the Dragonslayers being arrested is kicked off by the Simurgh punting a rock into Canada, thus driving a juvenile white dragon by the name of Hunts-The-Ice down to Brockton Bay.
- Killed Offscreen: The Slaughterhouse 9 minus Bonesaw, Cherish, and Burnscar, by Scion.
- Next Tier Power-Up: Vista second-triggers after her drunken father tries to shoot her and Gallant, and isn't Manton-limited anymore.
- Shout-Out: The Powerpuff Girls are a family of capes.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
- When Taylor learns that one of her tormentors was a Ward, her first impulse is to "drag the three of them out into the street, smear them into a paste, burn whatever's left into fine, white ash, then repeat the process on Blackwell and Winslow." She holds herself back because she doesn't want to cause problems for anyone else.
- Thanks to Lina Inverse using a boosted Dragon Slave, the Fallen are literally wiped off the map.
