FanFicRecs Cloudy Prospects for Tinker Taylor
A common stance in Wormfic is that Taylor can breeze into Brockton Bay's underworld and cure all ills.
A Cloud Path is not that sort of story.
There's a thread running through the story is exploring how a rookie Taylor, without the right powerset (OP!Taylors) or connections to shelter her (being a "mole"), could easily end up dying horrifically—or worse. There's also a wonderful sense of vulnerability and danger in Taylor's circumstances. Especially since she's a Tinker, the sort of cape that every gang and corporation in the city would be looking to strong arm in service. She's a factor in a way a non-Tinker isn't, and comes to the attention of various factions far earlier than in canon because of the potential boon/threat she poses.
Another intriguing aspect to this fic is how it uses The Stations of the Canon with a deft hand. The typical beats of Worm AUs are here — bullying, Lung fight, meeting Lisa — but those beats play out in a radically different manner, with ripples naturally spreading from one event into the next, affecting it. Specifics here are difficult due to spoilers, but the end result is some satisfying divergence in character evolution for various folks, in ways that make sense logically in-story while using scaffolding of The Stations of the Canon to underline how and why minor changes gradually build to major ones.
FanficRecs Probably the greatest Worm Fanfic.
An awful lot of Worm fics seem to think that just because Taylor succeeded in Canon, she must clearly be so powerful that she can succeed regardless of what happens.
This is not that kind of story, and it is all the better for it.
LacksCreativity, who most certainly does not, has an amazing grasp of the despair and stress that made Worm such a unique Superhero story. The blows come hard and fast, and Taylor comes out on top (when she does) not because she is some mythically powerful cape, but because of the work she puts in, her intelligence, and the sheer amount of boneheaded determination whilst under fire.
Another thing that is notably different from many Worm 'Fics, and is very similar to the canon, is that Brockton Bay is a vast, large city, and that the existing power structure will not fall so easily. Some 'Fics show the Merchants, Empire 88, Coil, and ABB failing and coming to their ends over a very short amount of time, and after very few actual battles. Here, that is not the case, and plenty of the wordcount is devoted to how injured, tired, and stressed the various characters are becoming as the events of canon progress. The Interludes alone are worth reading this story for, as they show exactly how various character are realistically developing as the plot moves on.
A Cloudy Path puts one tenet above all else, it seems: that there must be balance between victory and failure. That for every weapon Taylor gains as Aeon, the Independent Hero, she suffers another blow and another enemy rising up. Numerous characters, both Heroes and Villains, are capable and competent in their actions, and this establishes a fully fleshed out city of diverse characters, perhaps even more so than Worm itself did.
This is, arguably, the best Worm fanfic out there currently.